Friends and Enemies

I walk into the Pirate's Cove Bar and Grill, a popular haunt in Amamake. It's a full house. The dance floor is packed with people grinding to loud, trendy Minmatar music. Tobacco smoke hangs thick. The music is so loud, it shakes my body. Slave girls dance exuberantly on tables where free men and women alike toss isk at them. Pills and drinks are strewn on the bar. Glass platters with white powder cut neatly into lines are passed around. Shadows move in the side rooms, bodies moving in unison behind thin curtains.

Normally I frequent the bar during off hours, but today I need to talk with my contact in private. A massively crowded, loud Friday night in the Pirate's Cove is the perfect place to guarantee a discreet meeting. No one even glances at me. Few people in this crowd know who I am, and they are so inebriated or drugged they don't recognize anything but the haze enveloping them.

Moving to the bar, I slide onto a stool. A middle-aged woman rushes back and forth filling orders and sending out trays. I pull out a stack of isk and drop a few copper discs to get the server's attention. In a fluid motion, she scoops the isk, puts a drink in front of me and slides a platter of cut white powder toward me.

I push the platter away. Slowly, meaningfully, I place a black disc on the table. Now her attention is undivided. I point to the large bulk of a man on the far end of the bar. She nods and takes the isk to the fat man. I watch the woman hand him the isk. He glances my way and disappears into the back.

I down the drink and follow through the dark hall way into a dimly lit room. It's a broom closet converted into a small office. The sweet cannabis smoke almost masks the odor of sweat and sex. Music pounds through the wall, rattling crooked pictures indiscernible in the shadows. My eyes fall on the fat man sitting in the corner with a bottle in his hand. A wide smile spreads behind a tangle of dreadlocks hanging over his face. He motions to a second chair.

"How's yer lady? I hear you swept her off to some fancy pansy mansion on the Amarr side 'o the boarder," the fat man says.

"Mi is well," I answer curtly.

"Sure she is," the fat man laughs. "Minmatar women, they don't keep like spice wine, all bottled up."

This conversation strikes a nerve. When I told Mi I purchased her a condo fitting her station, luxurious by any standard, she wasn't enthusiastic. Mi likes her own kind, low born and uncouth. Mi and I are so very much alike...

I produce an envelope and offer it to the fat man, abruptly changing the subject.

"I require information regarding this pilots movement on the Minmatar side of the border."

The fat man eyes the envelope. Pulling the dreadlocks on the left side of his face behind his ear, he looks at me hard and offers a drink.

"Been awhile since you did wet work. Contract killin', that's not what PIE does, is it?"

I sit down and take the drink.

"No contracts. This is strictly personal."

The fat man opens the envelope and pulls out the data sheet. His face cycles through emotions as if he were a performing mime, surprise, disbelief, confusion.

"Yer fucking daft! Hiigaren is the mark, a fucking PIE Lieutenant?"

I down the drink in a single swell and place the empty glass on the table.

I look directly at the fat man, a cold, emotionless gaze, and say, "I'm going to burn him down."

The fat man answers incredulously, "And when yer done fukkin Hiigaren's corpse, what's gonna happen to you? PIE ain't no band o' rags. They ain't gonna like you killin’ yer own."

"Hiigaren is my superior officer, and he called me out in public. That means he leaves his rank in the hangar when he undocks."

"Is them the Admiral’s rules or yours? " The fat man snorts, "You ever been hung, Swatty? 'Cuz that's what PIE does to traitors."

We both know I’m breaking protocol, that these matters should be handled through the chain of command. The problem is that I really don’t care. Hiigaren threw down over open comms., in front of the entire corporation. I’m not going to run to ‘daddy Admiral’ and cry. I’m going to handle it in space like the killer I am, and one of us is going to lose a ship in the process.

I give the fat man a hard look. Nothing more needs saying.

"Fuck it then," the fat man says, filling my glass and raising his own. "Drop another black credit and I'll be yer fucking undertaker too."


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*Begin Public Comm. Log*

[23:36:47] EVE System > Channel MOTD: PIE channel for general informal banter and liasoning with close allies in the war. OOC chat is entirely acceptable.

Access requests for alts should be sent to Gaven Lok'ri.
[23:37:10] Raphael Saint > wb Jhae
[23:37:30] Hiigaren > Hey Swatyy!
[23:37:33] Hiigaren > finaly we meet
[23:37:38] Hiigaren > i heared your gonna kill me
[23:37:41] Raphael Saint > lol
[23:37:55] Hiigaren > How does Sunday evening works for you, i have a free moment then
[23:38:23] Jhaelee de'Auvrie > having network issues with my secondary computer
[23:38:58] Swatyy > Am I going to kill you Hii? I suppose Sunday works for me, if you like.
[23:39:05] Swatyy > Um... why am I killing you?
[23:39:30] Hiigaren > I dont know, i normaly dont ask for the reason
[23:40:41] Swatyy > ok. wth, never needed a reason before. I'll be looking for you in space.
[23:41:01] Hiigaren > Yeah i;m in lantron :)
[23:41:40] Swatyy > Let me write down your name so I don't forget you...
[23:41:59] Raphael Saint > That's not going to work
[23:42:04] Raphael Saint > Hiig is very forgettable
[23:42:29] Hiigaren > Dont blame me, lots of ppl wanne kill me
[23:42:39] Hiigaren > Its not like this is a special event for me
[23:43:57] Hiigaren > once a guy try to kill me in a 0.5 system, but forgot he wasnt at war with me, briljant move on his part
[23:45:10] Hiigaren > So swatty
[23:45:19] Hiigaren > how would you like the beating, medium or rare
[23:45:48] Swatyy > I don't even know what that means.
[23:46:00] Hiigaren > Oh come on
[23:46:59] Hiigaren > I got a assasion with no humour after me
[23:47:47] Swatyy > yep.
[23:50:39] Hiigaren > well i guess Assasions arnt what they used to be!
[23:51:29] Swatyy > Hii, your kind of mouthy. Don't know what your deal is, but having another person to shoot is fine by me.
[23:51:56] Hiigaren > Swatty ur the 1 started the whole' should i kill hiig thing '
[23:52:54] Swatyy > I don't even know who you are, and didn't want to kill you until a few minutes ago.
[23:53:05] Swatyy > But its cool. Whatever it is, we will sort it out in space.
[23:53:31] Hiigaren > Thats funny
[23:53:41] Hiigaren > i guess soembody esle is writing on the forums with ur name
[23:54:09] Swatyy > Can you give me the link?
[23:54:55] Hiigaren > Uhm i think its in a post from shalee ^^
[23:55:43] Swatyy > Oh... you were they guy who dressed her down, right? The whole former admeral thing.
[23:55:49] Swatyy > Sure, I'll kill you.
[23:55:56] Hiigaren > Uhm acuelty no i wasnt
[23:56:24] Merdaneth > o/
[23:56:29] Hiigaren > SPeak of the devil
[23:56:37] Hiigaren > hey merd