Out in the Black Ch. 13

"You have to move. Now." The XO's voice in my ear made me jump. I looked over at Callaway and she gave me a thumbs up, letting me know the footage had reached the Marzi. Okay. Right. We had just broadcast our location. Within an hour, Cap's statement would be on the air and we needed to be far from Deck 184 before that happened. And we couldn't ignore the fact that we didn't exactly blend in down here. The cops were probably already on their way.

"Let's go," I barked, pleased at the steadiness of my voice. Seeing the captain in his element had affected me in ways I hadn't expected, but I pushed that away for later consideration. Right then, our priority was getting our asses under cover. The others fell in behind me as I led our little crew to the second location we'd marked, taking an indirect route through less populated corridors, sacrificing speed for the hope of secrecy. Knowing what I did about the kids of this place, I was sure there wasn't nothing that went completely unobserved. But they wouldn't rat us out to the Enforcers. No, our risk with them was more in being tagged by one of the gangs that were the true power down here.

In the chaos of the team unpacking what they needed to prepare for the next segment, I pulled the captain into a hidden alcove and proceeded to kiss him very thoroughly. It was far less than I wanted to do, but it was the best I was going to get with our limited time and privacy. We were both breathing pretty hard by the time we broke apart.

"So I was good, was I?" he whispered, clearly amused.

"You were far better than 'good'," I responded, nipping his ear lightly. The scuffling sounds in the main room had begun to quiet. I rested my forehead against his and groaned softly. "Sounds like you better get back out there."

"Sounds like," he agreed. Brushing a quick kiss across my lips, he stepped away. I stayed put until I heard him drawn into conversation with Callaway and the art director, hoping most attention would be on where he was rather than where he came from. Still, I pretended to be adjusting something on one of the cameras as I returned to the group. An hour later, we were in what served as a market for this deck. Once again, I set a couple of cameras to constantly scan the area for background footage and waited for Cap to find someone to interview. I'd warned him it wouldn't be easy: people in the Bottoms were used to a catch - hidden or not - with every seeming kindness.

As I ran diagnostics on the remaining cameras, I noticed a couple kids watching me instead of the captain. One tall and thin, his skin a few shades darker than the captain's, had a strip of hair from his forehead to the nape of his neck that curled tightly against his scalp. The rest had been shaved to the skin. The other was shorter, though just as thin, and nearly as pale as me. His hair was tucked into a Barker's cap, the few escaping strands the color of straw. Both stared at me with wide, dark eyes until they caught me looking back. They slipped away into the crowd like they'd never been, but seeing them had given me an idea. One that had to wait because it appeared the captain was ready to go.

The only person willing to speak with Cap that day claimed to be the landlord of the market. I felt bad later when I had to inform the captain that meant the guy was actually the deck's leading crime boss. That he didn't know during the interview only helped, as far as I was concerned. People watching the broadcast saw a journalist treating the man who basically ran the deck with respect but with no fear. It made him look both bad ass and serious in his claims to be willing to listen to the people of the Bottoms.