He'd stopped drinking not long after Dave issued the challenge. This had left him the only relatively sober one in their group. The world is still tilting around at its own leisurely pace, but Gabe has since found his sea-legs. Dave is a warm, cuddly mess at his side, breathing heavily against Gabe's neck. It makes Gabe shift in his seat, feeling uncomfortable.
"Are you sure you don't want to talk about you and Tim?" he asks, pointedly looking out of the window. New York is still teeming with life, even at this hour.
"Couple stuff," Dave murmurs. His lips brush Gabe's neck when they move, and Gabe feels his face heat up.
God, he needs a boyfriend. Gabe squeezes his eyes shut, trying not to think about affectionate drunks who can bench three hundred pounds. Dave is his best friend, his partner, the man who is supposed to take a bullet for him.
He's also been with Tim for six years.
The cab pulls up to Dave's apartment, alighting softly against the pavement. "I'll just be a second," Gabe says to the cabbie.
He proceeds to wrestle Dave out of the backseat and up the stairs. Dave and Tim live in a spacious townhouse near the edge of the sector. Gabe's been inside often—he even has the extra key—but he doesn't feel like going in now. Tim is probably asleep.
Gabe stops at the red door, balancing Dave with one arm and fishing for his keys with the other. Dave mutters something incoherent, his head lolling on Gabe's shoulder. Gabe gets the key jiggled into the lock, ignoring the strong arm wrapped tight around his waist.
The key turns with a click. "Home sweet home," Gabe manages. "Can you manage from here?" Dave looks at him, thinking of an answer to a question Gabe hadn't really asked. "Tim's probably waiting," he adds.
"Yeah," Dave slurs, slipping away from Gabe into his house. "Right, thanks. See you Monday."
"Yeah," Gabe says after the door's shut in his face. "Monday."
*~*~*
By Monday afternoon, the whole station is buzzing about the robberies. There had been more over the weekend, and word was that Williams had people on it around the clock. The chief doesn't mention it during the weekly meeting, though, which just makes everyone jaws flap harder.
Gabe and Dave are assigned as Jed's mentors for the remainder of the week. They don't see any serious action until Thursday, when Gabe and Dave let Jed talk down a hysterical couple being verbally abusive in the middle of 35 Street. Jed does a commendable job, actually, considering the women call him every name in the book—and some they make up on the spot.
When they get called into the chief's office on Friday morning, all they can think of is that the women had lodged a complaint about Jed sticking his nose into their business. Detective Williams comes as a surprise.
"Cortez, Dumas, Tansen." Chief Anna Burns nods to each of them in turn. When Jed closes the door behind himself, she gets right down to business. "You're all acquainted with Detective Williams, I assume?" When they nod, she tosses an open datapad onto her desk so they can see it.
It's a map of the businesses that were hit over the past week. The pattern is erratic; the movements don't make any sense. Gabe says as much.
"Correct, Dumas." Chief Burns leans over and swipes to the next page. It's a list of the modus operandi. "What do you make of this?"
Gabe reads the reports. The method is as erratic as the crimes themselves. "Uh, it looks like amateur hour, ma'am," Dave says, echoing Gabe's thoughts.
"How so?" Burns asks, and Gabe notices Williams perk up.
Dave is shaking his head. "The plan here seems to have been just to knock down doors and grab what wasn't nailed down. All the crimes happened in the middle of the afternoon. They all involved some kind of illegal Enforcer mech."
"It doesn't make sense," Gabe reiterates. "If they do have an Enforcer, why these audacious crimes?"
"Exactly," Burns says, folding her arms. "So what do you make of it?"
Gabe considers it for a moment. Why would someone steal an Enforcer mech and proceed to wreak as much public havoc as possible without getting caught? "They're covering for someone," he says. "It's a distraction."
Burns nods. "One of Williams's people got tipped off that the Diamondbacks are smuggling illegal mech parts and shells into the megacity on the eastern docks. They didn't want anyone catching wind of the plan, so they sold a couple of rogue Enforcers to some petty crooks and set them loose on the town." Her lip curls in distaste. "We've been wasting time and resources chasing these troublemakers, and the real problem has been under our noses."
"So why are we here?" Dave asks, eyeing Williams. "No offense, Detective, but you've got a team."
Williams nods. "And everyone knows who's on that team. The deal—the big one—goes down tonight at the docks. I need people whose faces the Diamondbacks won't know. If they have eyes or ears around the station, I don't want to give my people away."
Burns says, "I picked you because you were the best choice. You've both tangled with Diamondbacks before. We're going to stage a raid in a warehouse on the northern industrial sector. In the meantime, we'll also have a unit crawling Sector Twelve for the mysterious Enforcer. To the Diamondbacks, it will look like we haven't a clue what they're up to."
"Meanwhile," Gabe says, "Dave and I make the arrest at the real drop site."
"With no backup?" Jed asks, sounding uneasy.
"Once you move in, we'll converge all MED units on your location." Burns sits back down, locking her long fingers together across her belly. "You would just have to make visual contact and keep them from retreating. Help would be on the way." She nods to Jed. "Tansen will also provide cover fire for you."
Gabe glances over at him. "Jed? Are you ready for that?" He's barely out of training. If Jed hadn't come from the Marines, Gabe would have advised against it. It doesn't even sit well with him now.
Jed stares at his shoes, considering it. After a moment, he looks at Chief Burns and nods once. "There's no time like the present."
"You're just a distraction," Burns reminds him. "Don't bite off more than you can chew. Let Dumas and Cortez handle the heavy lifting."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Williams, get these men briefed and prepped for the raid." She stands up again to nod at them each in turn. "Gentlemen, good luck."
*~*~*
The eastern dock is a maze of holding warehouses. Nowadays, the docks are used by various companies to store surplus merchandise or old equipment. Some civilians store extra cruisers if they don't use them all year long. Many of them are empty, older buildings. It's a clear night, and the moon's soft illumination makes the docks look like a ghost town.
"It's really the ideal place for a deal like this to go down," Dave says, inching Stonewall down one of the long rows. "I don't know why the city council doesn't just demolish the entire thing. That would solve the problem."
Gabe ignores him; Dave's just talking to fill the silence. He follows Stonewall, watching the GPS marker on his dash. It's glowing only faintly; the lights in his mech are dimmed so he won't look like a beacon in the night. Jed's Enforcer is a few feet behind him, keeping his distance. "Remember," he tells them, "this time of night, they'll hear our mechs coming a mile away. Once we're close enough to storm the warehouse, we have to move."
Dave hums in agreement. "Get in, burn the place down, get out before they can shoot back. I like it."
Gabe can feel his fingers sweating in his hardsuit's gloves. His helmet feels sweltering, too. It's not his first raid, but it's the first one where he's gone in with only Dave at his back—and a rookie bringing up the rear. He shakes his head to clear it.
"Gabe, you okay?" Dave sounds concerned. "You're breathing kind of heavily."
Gabe sucks in a deep breath and tries to calm down. "Yeah. Sorry, got a bit stuffy in here for a second. I think it's the air."
Just like any other job,
he tells himself. Any other job that involves catching Diamondbacks, unequivocally, in the act. No pressure.
"There it is," Dave says after they round a corner. "Jed, stay back."
Across the expanse lies their target: the warehouse right on the edge of the river, closed up and locked tight. From where they stand, it looks quiet and unassuming.
Gabe opens a channel to Dispatch and the station. "Are we clear to move? Doesn't look like there's any activity in the warehouse."
"Our intel was sound,"
Williams replies.
"They're keeping their heads down, but my informant was insistent. Get in and get it done."
"Okay." Gabe leaves the channel open. "We're clear to go in one … two … three!"
Archangel's jets are loud. Gabe lifts his Gatling arm and fires, peppering the door with holes so he can sail through it with ease. He turns on his headlights once he's inside, landing Archangel in a defensive stance.
The warehouse is empty.
"What the hell?" Dave demands, landing Stonewall next to him. "Williams, there isn't a damn thing going—"
Archangel's right shoulder explodes, rocking Gabe forward with its force. His harness digs into his hardsuit. His dash blinks red, a readout of damage already scrolling along the monitor. He turns Archangel around, headlights shining on—nothing.
Before he can say anything, he's blinded by a laser beam blanketing his canopy. He can't tell what kind it is, only that it hurts his eyes and the force is pushing Archangel back. He can hear the crystalline protest against the punishment.
"What the
fuck—?"
Gabe doesn't hear the rest of Dave's cursing over the sound of his warning alarms. He jerks frantically at his controls. He has to get Archangel out of the line of fire. His canopy can't take much more punishment. He manages to pivot, cursing when his dash immediately gives him a heat sink warning. "Dave!"
"Where is it?!" Dave is shouting. Gabe can see him now, firing indiscriminately. "Come out, you son of a bitch!"
Through his cracked canopy, Gabe spies a blink of light—the only warning he gets. "Laser!" He leaps aside, lifting his Gatling arm and praying it still works. It still fires, connecting with the thing on the other side of the laser beam. Gabe pumps it full of holes, and eventually the black Enforcer shimmers into view.
"Some kind of cloaking device," Dave says. "They've got Enforcers of their own."
"Get out of there,"
Williams orders.
"It's a trap!"
"Yeah, no shit," Dave snaps, tackling the rogue Enforcer and shoving it back through the warehouse door.
When Gabe gets Archangel through the door, he sees three things: Stonewall pushing an Enforcer into another warehouse, Jed's mech pushing itself up, and the mech behind Jed's. He's moving before he realizes it. He thinks of Isabel, six months pregnant. He thinks of Jed leaving the army so he could be around for his child. He thinks of what a fucked-up assignment this is and that Jed shouldn't be on it. He thinks of all these things when he takes the hit for Jed.
He hears his canopy shatter. His cockpit crumbles around him. Archangel's alarms are blaring, hurting his ears. Pain rips along his leg, making him scream. Warm wetness spreads out from the wound, and then the pain goes away.
*~*~*
Two things happen while Dave wrestles with the black Enforcer. One: the cavalry arrives, MEDs spilling onto the scene like it's the last ten minutes of an action film. Two: Gabe screams—a broken, horrible sound that tears right through Dave's comm into his heart.
"Gabe!" he cries, leaving the Enforcer on the ground. He gets Stonewall up and turned around, scanning the battlefield for—
No. No, no, no.
Archangel is blown to hell, lying on its side. The canopy is gone, and the cockpit is a mess. Dave hits his jets and flies. He crashes Stonewall onto the pavement, startling Jed, who is trying to unbuckle himself. Dave ignores him, scrambling to get his harness off as his canopy opens. He nearly falls out of Stonewall, tripping over his own feet in his haste to reach Archangel.
Gabe is still buckled in. The harness is all that's keeping him inside. He hangs, limp and lifeless, covered in chunks of crystalline glass. Some of the shards are piercing his hardsuit. The side of his helmet that Dave can see is cracked.
Behind him, Jed sounds frantic. "Ambulance, we need an ambulance! Dumas is down. Repeat: Dumas is down. It looks bad."
Dave can't go get him. He can't. What if he makes it worse by moving Gabe? What if Dave jostles him and gives him brain damage? Dave can't go get him, but he wants to. He wants to climb up there, cut the harness, take Gabe in his arms, and never let anyone else touch him again.
"Dave," Jed says, out of breath.
"What happened?" Dave asks, eerily calm. "I want to know what happened."
"Dave." Jed reaches for him, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Later."
Dave shakes him off, only to turn around and grab his shoulders. "Tell me what happened!"
The ambulance arrives on scene, though, so Dave lets Jed go. He gets out of the way and tries not to hover. His heart clenches tight when the EMTs maneuver Gabe onto a stretcher. He watches intently while they clean out the wounds they can and stabilize him. They strap him in and start moving, pushing the gurney away, away from Dave.
"Wait," he calls, following. "Can I—I mean, I'm his partner."
One EMT turns to give him a sympathetic look. "It's better you follow us. We'll take good care of him until you get there, I promise."
She has a job to do, so she leaves Dave there. He stares at the doors to the ambulance cruiser while they shut. It speeds away, sirens blaring. Dave watches it leave. He stands there for a long time.
"Dave," Jed says. He sounds wretched. "I'm so sorry. I didn't—"
Dave spins around. The eastern docks are crawling with MEDs now, but he doesn't see the rogue Enforcers they had been tangling with. The entire raid was bullshit—a trap, and Gabe had paid for it.
"I'm going to the hospital."
"Okay," Jed says. "Okay."
Act II
Dave waits at the hospital for hours. He spends the first one curled in an uncomfortable plastic chair, his fingers laced together incredibly tight. Orderlies and other staff bustle around him, but he doesn't pay them any mind. The waiting room for the intensive care unit is fairly empty, and no one tries to make small talk.