Flashback

An hour or so earlier

“Yeah, except for the world’s crappiest getaway car,” Tyr responded to Simon’s question, looking suitably scornful as he thought back to the vehicle in which they’d escaped.

“We faced a whole bunch of angry orks looking for Brackhaven employees to kill,” Dove filled in the bits which Tyr had left out, “but managed to get out in the end.”

The four new arrivals gave the others a quick recount of their escape and then joined in the general sense of shock and dread at what had happened down in Washington FDC, with Jake in particular appearing devastated by Dunkelzahn’s ****.

“Right, so we still got to get the information to Chaple,” Tyr struggled to draw everyone’s attention away from the trideo and back to him, “although it seems as though that has turned out to be a bit trickier than previously thought.”

“Ironic how a general breakdown of law and order can make our job harder.” Dove remarked.

A terse “Frag irony,” was how Mr. Clean chose to express his philosophical ponderings regarding irony and their current situation.

“Yes, quite…” Jake agreed with the previous speaker.

“Anyway, he contacted me on our way back, as some of you already know, and let me know that the original drop-off tonight has been cancelled. I’m not thrilled by this.”

“You’re thinking that there might be an ambush coming up?” Simon asked.

“I doubt it, Chaple has known us for too long to stab us in the back for something this insignificant,” Tyr responded, leaving the hint that Chaple might very well betray them if the stakes were higher, “but it never hurts to be prepared.”

“Where and when’s the new meet?” Simon asked, the trideo now having been put on mute, the anchorman almost looking comical as he sat there muted with a facial expression like he was constipated.

“Tomorrow morning at seven, out south beyond Quincy in the Blue Hills Reservation, so everyone should go home and try to get as much sleep as possible.”

“And me?” Mr. Clean asked, looking as though he wouldn’t like going along to the meet very much.

“You don’t need to go,” Tyr told him, thinking that things were really messy if Mr. Clean would volunteer himself for something like that.

“And as for the rest of us?” Now it was Fire Fox who was asking.

“Same as last time, but Jake comes with me and Peregrine to the meet, and the rest of you stay at a distance.”

“What’s the location like?” Peregrine asked, finding this discussion to be a good way of putting her mind off the president’s ****.

“It’s the top of a hill, with plenty of curves on the road down and with an old observatory building still in place.” Tyr told her, the fact that the road was a bit tricky meaning that they were at an advantage in case they needed to get out of there with someone else hot on their tail.

“Right, we meet here at six am tomorrow, so everyone should head home and get as much sleep as they can.”
With those words from Tyr, the brief meeting seemed to be over.