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A Job Well Done

There was no immediate reward for a job well done for Abel. The moment he stepped foot back into the brothel, he had the documents confiscated, rushed to his room and locked in, alone. He was not permitted to take a shower and had to sleep that night reeking of Lalth's scent, which grew only more putrid the more he smelt it.

Abel's mind was rushing a mile a minute, filled with worry about his situation. Was the success of last night's mission enough to earn their trust?

Hours went by before Abel suddenly fell asleep and he did not wake until a heavy hand shook him awake.

“Are you okay, Abel?" Ruhan asked as the human sprang up. “You smell like dried Regulian cum."

Abel pressed his face up against the bare chest of the Equuleian, who held him tight, running his hand through the human's hair.

“It gets easier, Abel," Ruhan whispered.

I wish I could tell you the truth.

The door creaked open, followed by something rattling on the floor like a tin can.

“Oh no," Ruhan whispered, breaking away from Abel's embrace. A metal cannister was on the ground and a faint white gas was hissing out. “We're being transferred."

Abel could not break his eyes away from the cannister. Thoughts regarding the recent gas attacks invaded his mind and all he could think of is that he might be its latest victim.

“It's just like taking a nap, okay?" Ruhan hugged Abel. “You wake up in a new brothel and you continue like you did before. Just breathe it in, you'll be fine."

“No, Ruh-"

“Trust me, you'll be fine! We might be separated but you'll be strong, Abel. You can handle anything, jus..."

Ruhan nodded off before shaking his head and nickering. Abel could barely keep his eyes open at this point.

“...Just know that you're strong..."

That last word echoed in Abel's mind as the light faded from his vision.

“So, this is Munich? It's incredible!"

Leon all but had his nose pressed up against the window as they rolled past the entrance to the historic old town. His butt seemed to wiggle slightly with excitement, a feast for Brolath's eyes when he leered back at the human.

“My lion," Leon reached around the front passenger seat and hugged Brolath from behind, ringing his finger in the hairs of Brolath's mane, “perhaps you would be so generous as to take me out to a beer garden this evening?"

“We're on an important mission right now, you know that," Rorgh grumbled as he turned the wheel right.

Leon snorted and flicked Rorgh on the tip of his ear, “You're so serious! I thought my lion was the serious one in this partnership!"

“I'm serious when we have the Grand Regent of the Regulian Empire only two days away from making an example of Brolath."

“Rorgh," Brolath closed his eyes, “if anything happens, I'll take full responsibility."

“That's not how it works!" Rorgh objected. “Your Adjunct is responsible for the accuracy and honesty of all reports. Besides, who makes a better patsy, the rising star of the Captains or his filthy Lupiad Adjunct?"

“Proclath..." Brolath took a sip of coffee and felt his chest ache. The filter pills were starting to cause some discomfort, “...I'm not sure what he's up to."

“Whatever it is, I don't want to be dragged into it! He can go on about picking the Emperor of his choice just leave me out of it!"

“You..." Leon kissed Rorgh on the cheek, “...are not filthy! You are a very handsome Lupiad!"

Brolath growled slightly and Leon flashed him a smile, which lowered the Captain's hackles. It was hard to stay mad at his favorite human even if it galled him to see him flirt with another.

He is mine, why is he doing that?

He was just trying to cheer Rorgh up, calm down!

But...he did not ask me first!

Just when another surge of jealousy was about to come to his heart, Brolath was interrupted by the ringing of his datapad. Without missing a beat, the Regulian answered the call and a black Vulpeculan materialized on the screen.

“We've got a reading on Frontus," Atay announced.

When Brolath had talked to Leon about the case, the human had mentioned rumors that a brothel in Munich was connected to a rebel group that was operating in the Autonomous Zone. Bringing that information got Atay to spit out that Frontus' last known location on his tracker just happened to be in Munich, on a street corner that happened to house one such brothel.

It was the only lead they had on Abel, a flimsy one but the only hope they had. The Claw had received no official reason for Frontus going there and it would be quite unusual for him to go that far out of the way to get laid.

“Where?"

“Exact destination is uncertain..." Atay darted his nose to the right as he examined a screen, “...but would be safe to say the Munich Hauptbahnhof."

“That's five minutes away, Captain," Rorgh whispered and turned sharply.

“Keep us updated and transfer the tracking to my datapad," Brolath ordered.

“As you wish, Captain," Atay nodded and disconnected.

A map suddenly appeared on Brolath's datapad showing a blue dot traveling east along the city roads, almost going completely straight towards the city's central railway station.

“Brazen location for whatever they're doing..." Brolath grumbled.

“Not necessarily," Rorgh gritted his teeth as his the accelerator. “Countless rumors of the rail workers, most of whom are old humans from the old unions before the invasion, being one of the biggest collections of passive collaborators around. They'd certainly turn a blind eye to this or hell, even actively take part."

Brolath turned and faced Leon, “Do you know anything about this?"

“I couldn't possibly comment, my lion!" the human said, smirking.

Rorgh's haste was brought to a sudden end when a roadblock suddenly came into view, taking up the entire street. The Lupiad peered back, seeing a wall of cars behind them on the one-way road, as a member of the Ducal Guard tapped on their window.

“Road's closed," the Guard, a young Regulian with yellow fur announced and spat. “Some rich Sirians threatening to blow his brains out after he lost all his money on Union Biotech stock."

“Are you kidding me?" Rorgh snapped.

“Nope. Their stock crashed today, Claw's investigating their new Smart Antibiotic model, claiming it's AI and-"

“Excuse me," Brolath interrupted and flashed his badge. “Regulian Guard on important business, we need to get through."

“You'll have to take that up with the Ducal Guard, I'm sorry. I'd be happy to-"

“Nevermind!" Brolath roared. “Adjunct, get us out of here!"

The Guard drew his pistol, expecting Rorgh to burst through the roadblock, but the Lupiad slowly and carefully performed a u-turn, weaving cautiously through the cars lined up behind them as a chorus of angry honks assaulted them.

“Fuck!" Brolath punched the dashboard and the glove compartment sprang open, spilling old tourism brochures onto Brolath's lap. The Regulian roared again. “They're going to beat us there!"

“Easy, easy..." Leon whispered, scratching Brolath behind the ear. “It'll all work out."

Brolath licked his lips, inhaling deeply in an effort to calm himself down.

Just as Rorgh was near the end of the maze of cars and about to make a right turn into an alleyway, a black SUV suddenly jumped forward, slamming into the engine of the car. It was not a hard hit but it was enough to make the engine start hissing and releasing steam.

“Fuck!" Rorgh kicked the accelerator and the car did not respond.

“Come on!" Brolath snarled, opening the door and stepping out on the streets.

“What kind of a fucking moron are you!?" a white Vulpeculan with gold studs with gemstones lining his tail ears yelled out from the car as his driver, a human slave wearing a black suit with a metal collar, bowed on the streets towards Brolath. “You're going to get someone killed!"

“Regulian Guard," Brolath flashed his badge from his yellow coat. “Guard business."

The Vulpeculan's pale, blue eyes flashed and he immediately got out of his car and redirected his wrath at his slave.

“Stupid slave!" he slapped the human atop the head hard enough to knock him to the ground. “How could you hit a Guard's vehicle! I ought to have you killed!"

Brolath looked over to the side. Leon was still sitting in the car, staring at the scene before him and reeking of what Brolath knew now as fear.

Could have easily been him in that same position.

“Enough!" Brolath roared, instantly causing the Vulpeculan to cease beating his slave. “Murdering a slave is against the law. Adjunct, write this prick up with a warning and clean up this mess! I'm going after the suspect!"

Leaning down, Brolath gave Leon a quick rub against the cheek. Leon saw his lion off with a smile as Brolath sprinted down the streets, datapad in hand, alone.

With his eyes shifting from the datapad to the crowded streets, Brolath sped towards the station, occasionally catching the shoulder of another alien who was too slow to get out of the way. The dot on the screen kept getting closer, but it seemed to be running into traffic on the other side of town, having stopped several times.

The smell of roasted meat greeted Brolath as he passed a food truck selling cooked sausages in buns, just outside of the train station. Brolath clamored up the steps and into the concrete tiled station, passing the smashed remains of a surveillance drone on the ground with the words, “Big Brother is blind," spray-painted onto the concrete. He made it, beating them with a mere minute to spare.

Panting, Brolath sat down on a bench facing the numerous platforms. A brown Lupiad and his slave, a female with quite large, barely concealed breasts; stared at Brolath, cheese dripping from their pizza slices.

I seem to have made a bit of a scene, Brolath stared down at the datapad. But it will be worth it. For all they know I'm just late for a train.

Most of the trains were rather primitive by Brolath's standards. Old electric engines resting atop metal rail, a far-cry from the mag-levs back home on Regulus Prime, which were in service in some of the newer, Regulian-made cities in Africa. Most of the trains here were from before the liberation and only had some minor modifications made to them, namely scanners mounted atop all doors that check passengers for any contriband.

Even if they get aboard a train, we'll catch them.

Laying in front of a white, electric engine moored at a platform across from Brolath was another surveillance drone, its camera having been smashed in with some kind of blunt object.

No drones at the station. I'm not sure what's more concerning, that people are vandalizing Ducal property or that no one's cleaning them up and replacing them.

Leaning back against the bench, Brolath closed his eyes for a bit.

A beer garden...sounds nice. I wonder if Abel and Leon would get along. Perhaps I could have both of them one day for myself…

Whatever moment of blissful Regulian polygamy Brolath had contentedly envisioned was shattered the moment he opened his eyes and saw the dot on the datapad had moved in an unexpected direction.

“It's on the tracks!?"

Brolath immediately sprang to his feet and bounded towards the platform on the far end of the station as the blue dot grew closer. It was not moving now, but it was not at a platform.

Darting past the last occupied platform, the truth became clear. Off in the distance, resting on isolated section of rail, was a modest, white, five car train and the blue dot was exactly on top of it on the datapad. The train had bright red paint on it, designating it was R-31 and unlike the others resting at the platforms, it did not seem to be attached to the power lines hanging above the tracks and its doors lacked any sort of scanner.

Humans were carrying boxes into the train. This was more than suspicious enough for the Guard to stick their snouts into it.

Rushing into the platform, Brolath made a beeline for the edge.

“HEY!"

A fat, old human tackled Brolath to the ground.

“No fucking running! You want to get squashed by a train, kitty-cat!?" the man barked as he rolled off Brolath and took out a handkerchief, wiping his bald, sweaty head. “The Union'd have my head on a pike if I let you jump down there!"

“Guard business!" Brolath growled.

“What!?"

As soon as Brolath got to his feet again, the human tackled his legs and Brolath fell face-first to the ground.

“I don't care if you're the fucking Regent himself, no one jumps off my platform!" the man was heavy enough to pin Brolath down, quite an impressive feat from such a smaller species. Even while clearly obese, the human weighed less than a Regulian but was still able to pin one down.

Brolath used his free, left hand to whip out his pistol and fire off an electric dart into the man's neck. That was enough of a jolt to make the man release his grip and Brolath crawled away just before the dart's high-powered battery unleashed its charge and the man fell to the ground twitching.

“HEY! STOP HIM!" another human shouted.

Jumping down onto the rails, Brolath ignored the clamors behind him. Instantly, Brolath realized just why they were so insistent on making him stay on the platform as a high-speed electric train was rolling straight towards the platform. Jumping and rolling to the side, Brolath avoided it just in time as it screeched to a halt at its destination.

“What the fuck do you think you're doing!?" the conductor shouted as he opened up a door and leaned out. He was an old, tired man but spoke with great strength.

“Guard business!" Brolath growled again.

“Oh no, I don't fucking think so! The Union said nothing about a Guard visit, get the fuck out of here!"

The conductor jumped off of the train. Despite his age, he had massive muscles underneath his Union outfit and if that weren't enough, he was wielding a lead pipe.

Firing off a dart, which deflected off of the edge of the pipe, Brolath retreated towards the other train, which had just begun to slowly move.

“GET BACK HERE, CAT! COME AND FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN!"

Huffing, Brolath ran as fast as he could while the train began to accelerate and its engine gave off a puff of black smoke. It felt like his lungs were going to burst by the time he caught up and he leaped forward, grabbing the metal rail on the back car and pulling himself up to the door.

Through the window, Brolath saw him, Abel. He was sitting in a seat, fast asleep, with two other humans around him. One of them, a bald man, looked straight at Brolath.

Something hard banged against the back of Brolath's head and he fell off the car, down onto the rails. A lead pipe rolled on the gravel next to him as he groggily got up from the ground.

“No one messes with the railroad, cat!" the conductor barked as he walked towards Brolath, cracking his knuckles. “No one!"

Brolath fired off another dart, catching the human in the chest and he fell to the ground, subdued by the dart's electric current.

Rolling over, Brolath saw the train roll off into the distance. It was too far to catch up with now but the mission was far from over.

Dialing in Rorgh's number on the datapad, Brolath spoke, “Adjunct, get a fix done on train R-31, leaving Munich now, some kind of fossil-fuel engine. Abel's on there."

“Hey! I know you're awake!"

Abel was, in fact, not awake. Not until Stein's rude voice finally roused him from a gas-induced slumber. It was not a pleasant awakening either, Abel's head ached and his arms felt slightly numb.

As Abel's vision cleared, he saw Stein sitting across from him. There was, however, a far more interesting sight on the ground: Frontus. The Sirian was lying there with ropes tied around him and his formerly silky fur had become matted with blood.

“A Regulian was just out on the back an hour ago," Stein sucked on a cigarette and exhaled acrid smoke. “He was screaming he was a Guard, according to our friends in the Rail Union, and if it weren't for them stopping him he'd have gotten on here. Don't suppose you'd know anything about that, would you?"

Brolath?

Abel shook his head.

Frontus yelped as Stein kicked him in the ribs.

“This fucking dog says that you're a snitch, that you led him here."

“It's true!" Frontus yelped. “He's a spy for the Guard! He's going to get you all kill-"

Stein kicked Frontus again, forcing out another yelp.

“Shut the fuck up, dog!" Stein spat onto Frontus before turning to Abel. “Well? You a fucking snitch?"

“Fuck no," Abel spat at Frontus. “Sounds like this little shit is trying to save his hide."

“Be that as it may," Stein rolled his eyes. “I don't fucking trust you either. I think you're a soft little pussy who'd turn traitor in exchange for a fuck up the ass. Should have expected from an alien-lover's crew like Arnold, but Hada just had to fucking vouch for you..."

Stein reached down and stubbed out his cigarette on the tip of Frontus' nose and the Sirian screamed in pain.

“Do you know this dog?" Stein asked.

“No."

“Why'd he try to kill you?"

“I dunno," Abel spat once again on Frontus. “Because he's a sick fuck?"

“First you get all those slaves killed and now this..." Stein rubbed his temples, “...trouble seems to follow you and I don't fucking like it. Feel like I should have shot you even when your scan was clean."

“Scan?"

Of course, for tracking…

“Yeah, to see if you had a wire on the outside or the inside."

Play it cool. Keep it natural.

Abel's eyes drifted towards Frontus, “What about him? Did you scan him?"

Stein smiled.

“As a matter of fact we did."

Frontus's eyes went wide and he started to struggle in his ropes.

“I can explain!" Frontus bellowed.

“Just wanted to test you, Abel," Stein stood up. “I still think you'd take it up the ass from an alien but for now, you pass."

Stein took out a metal cylinder from the pocket of his jacket and placed it in Abel's palm. A round, metal loop was sticking out of it. A grenade.

“Now the next test. This grenade contains...lets call it a gas...that will only effect Sirians. Pull the pin."

“NO! DON'T!" Frontus screamed. “I'LL DO ANYTHING! I'LL BE YOUR SLAVE!"

“A slave with a Claw tracker in him isn't much fucking good!" Stein kicked Frontus again and this time the Sirian was too panicked to even yelp. “I hope whoever is tracking you also has a video feed because this is going to be a fucking fine show! Abel, pull the pin!"

Abel rolled the grenade around in his palm and looked down at Frontus. The Sirian looked almost pitiable, thrashing around like a panicked child.

“What's it going to do?"

“To us? Jack shit!" Stein smiled. “To him...well, this is an experimental grenade so...we'll just have to find out. All I know is that its going to hurt, a lot."

“ABEL!" Frontus cried out. “DON'T! PLEASE!"

Torture was never something Abel condoned. Hell, even execution was something he'd have always wanted to avoid, even if Hada would have disagreed with him. If it came down to it, Abel would have preferred they just kill Frontus and be done with it.

Despite what Frontus had done to him: all the sexual humiliation and the attempted murder, Abel didn't want to see him suffer, he only wanted him to be gone, whether it was in a bodybag or shipped across the galaxy never to return.

A desire to make him hurt? Make him suffer?

What would that accomplish?

But there was more at play here. He was given an order by the resistance to make this wretched Sirian suffer and that meant something more than any sense of inner morality.

He couldn't have pulled the pin if it was his adopted Father or Yin.

Rorgh neither, especially after that one moment of confidence they shared.

As for Brolath?

I don't think I could make him suffer like this, not even him.

Frontus had been nothing but cruel to him ever since Abel met him. Not even Atay had been as bad and if there was one order like this that Abel could carry out, it would be for Frontus.

“Hey..." Abel whispered.

“Abel?" Frontus whispered back.

“Who's the Big Dog now?"

Abel flicked the pin off and tossed the canister at Frontus, who looked on with horror as pale gas seeped out of it. Abel breathed in freely, smelling mint.

Frontus tried to hold his breath and roll away from the canister, but Stein kicked him straight in the solar plexus, forcing the Sirian to exhale and immediately breathe in.

Immediately after, blood began to pool in Frontus' eyes before crimson tears seeped out into his fur. His body was attacked by powerful spasms as his scream rose until Abel heard no more when it rose higher than the human hearing range.

Blood sprayed out of Frontus' mouth and the Sirian began banging his head on the floor in a desperate attempt to make the pain stop.

The smell of shit filled the room and Abel covered his mouth with his shirt.

“Put him out of his misery," Abel choked out.

“No."

Frontus continued banging his head on the ground, hitting the tip of his snout at one point and causing it to break sharply to the right. Whatever pain he got from that, it was nothing compared to the gas.

Eventually that wretched moment came to an end and the Sirian laid still with his eyes wide open. He was dead.

“Here," Stein passed Abel a brown paper bag and Abel stuck his head in, puking. “Happens to everyone the first time they see one of Glass' experiments. Pretty fucking cool, huh?"

Abel said nothing, continuing to puke. Stein took the opportunity to pick up Frontus' remains and carry him to the back door, opening it before tossing the Sirian overboard.

“This gas," Abel coughed, “this is the same one on the news?"

“Those were just tests," Stein laughed as he kicked the empty canister away. “We're getting closer to the final product of our liberation though."

“What is it?"

“I'm not fucking telling you," Stein took out a bag from under his seat and tossed it at Abel. “Personally, if it were up to me, I'd have tossed you out of the train with that Sirian. Glass, on the other fucking hand..."

Stein slipped a cigarette out and lit it up while Abel opened up the bag. His datapad was there and Abel powered it on, witnessing the comforting glow of WhiteStarOs boot up.

“...Glass ordered you to be taken to our base in Siberia unharmed after he personally had a look through your datapad."

“Why..." Abel paused as his desktop appeared, “...why would he do that?"

“I don't fucking know but if Glass is showing mercy then you'd better fucking take it. Not for me to question."

Stein sighed and stood up, stumbling a bit as the train rattled, “Feel free to walk around. WiFi code is posted around the train, it's secure so good luck accessing your degenerate alien porn sites on it. I've seen your history, have some fucking pride in your humanity."

Swinging open the door leading to the next car, Stein turned his head around, “Welcome to the real fucking resistance."