"I, for one, would like an explanation," Lilith said, crossing her arms and looking at the two with the same expression an angry teacher would give a student dragged there for the first time. "You," she said, pointing to the bound man. "Is anyone following you?"
"Nothing is ever simple." She said with a sigh as she puts away her phone and looked to the large white wolf who had helped her carry the case as they start making their way towards the coordinates.
@Zeitgeist Blue @Hoshino Yumemi @Kensai @Kyldin_____One of Father Valeria's stalkers stood close by with his Kalash cradled in his arms, an eye on the back of the bandit's head. "Him? That slumbitch Serbian ditched some of our boys while hunting for artefacts. Had the only detector. A lot of us would kill to have a 'face to face' talk with him."
Pig Pen
_____Serbian blinked. He now shared much in common with a smashed tomato, after repetitive beatings had gotten his face swollen up until it was nearly unrecognizeable. The hurried ride lashed to a bike hadn't helped either, and his eyes took a moment to focus on the girl talking to him. "Follow? No no no no. You don't understand, I'm part of the bandits. We should really be called loners, not the stalkers, bandits are all about independence." He held a damp rag to his swollen eye and sighed. "In fact, if they see me again... they'll probably put a bullet in me for the trouble."
_____"Stalkers, bandits, you can't win, can you?" The heavyset bandit flinched as Sera patted him. "Pay? Pay back? Stashes, information, what do you want?"
_____Teijo's serene look faded into a slight frown. "Is he worth the trouble? If we keep this 'Serbian,' we make ourselves the enemy of those whom hate him by default. And protection is a thing paid in blood. I don't have strong feelings either way. If we keep this stranger in our company, he must treat us dearly and understand that everything he does furthers us, not him."
_____"Okay! Okay!" He squealed, squirming away from the towering bodyguard. "Shit, why do all of you look like the mob? Listen, I've got nothing except what's in my pockets, just this," he panted, tapping a finger against his temple. "If you see the Duty boys, tell them Serbian owes you favor. You'll see just how important I am, I promise you that much."
_____Teijo's brow creased as he looked to 'Tanto' and the gathered crew. "I don't see a point in wasting more time. We can leave him with the stalkers here until we find a permanent shelter to work out of. Those men lady Tanto hired can keep an eye on him. The farther away we are from this moving target, the better. Our 'Talon' friend had additional transportation, correct?"
_____Para-Medic passed by the Belgian merc with a slight frown. "The boss wants you. His name's Valerian... he means well, but be careful around him, okay? Your group seems okay. Don't let him take advantage of you." She pressed a handful of leftover medical supplies into Talon's hand and moved back to the infirmary, disappearing up the steps. That left Talon with the sight of a small crew of stalkers, lead by a man who seemed wrest from the heart an eighties sitcom. Brown / brown, and of average height, he would have looked unspectacular if not for a face hewed from marble, and a rockstar presence he carried that seemed to make his mustache seem less outdated than it was. He didn't even carry a weapon, for the men in armored suits at his sides more than made up for his protection.
_____As they approached, the other stalkers seemed to evaporate into thin air, leaving Talon alone with a stalker that looked like a rain-weathered painting. She was older than the bushy-tailed and bright-eyed twenty-somethings that ran around the place, a vintage not yet grey, but easily as old as the battered Kalash that hung on her shoulder with decades of wear.
_____"Talon, Steel," he said with musical clarify. "I am Father Valerian. I created the first safe haven in this zone for the lost and downtrodden, and these stalkers look to me for guidance. So you're looking for work. Both newly arrived, but only to this Zone, not this world. I couldn't ask an old hand of this favor, since they've all grown attached with time. Quite simply, my right-hand man ran in the middle of the night. His name is 'Preacher.' We think he has run to the bandits. He left late in the night, so he could not have gotten far, he's probably hiding out at the Flea Market. Convince him to return, for this settlement needs his calming presence. If not, then let the zone have him. I'll furnish you with ammunition and a direct line to aides for the trouble."
_____"Yeah," Talon said, taking in Valerian with a critical eye. "I'll take Freddy Mercury on his job, but it better be some good stuff he's giving us."
_____Valerian tilted his head at the reference, but didn't deem it fit to respond to. "The best materials, naturally. For what slips through the fingers of the military, Duty, and Freedom can be treasure untold." He bowed his head, and a brawny stalker with what must have been his entire weight in body armor stomped over to the duo. Valerian nodded his thanks and parted ways, while his muscle handed each stalker a small bag filled with slender grenades shoved into what looked like hardened toilet-paper tubes. They were oblong and silver, topped with the typical Russian pin-and-spoon fuze.
_____"Hatabka. Chechen favorite. Take VOG-17M from a 30mm launcher, put fuze UZRGM on top. Boom. Extremely boom, don't look at the fucking thing when you throw it." He then handed some cardboard boxes of 9mm ammo to Talon. "Good ammo, for burp guns." Steel received a stamped "spam can" of 5.45 that had been mostly eaten up already, a precious few boxes of military ammo remaining. "Armor-piercing, also good stuff. Makes people extra dead."
_____"Yeah, I noticed that," Talon grumbled. "Thanks. We'll be going now." Taking a job of this kind didn't sit well with her, and she was eyeballing the list of other jobs with more attention than the weapons or her new partner. She pushed the grenades into her rig with the kind of care a person gave century eggs, putting the leftovers in her pack and waving for the stalker to follow. When her phone buzzed, the Belgian merc took one glance at the message before turning slightly on her heel. "I was gonna introduce myself, but one of my new friends needs some help. Why don't you meet some of my other new friends and say hi to them while I'm gone, 'Steel?'"
_____Without particularly waiting for reply, the merc marched onward. Talon and Steel arrived at the circle of stalkers— and prisoner hovering by the infirmary. She introduced the Russian with a tip of the hand. "So, 'Steel' is new to this place too, and supposed to be helping me with some work. Exchange greetings for a bit while I run off, kay?" she said cheerfully, tossing a bag of equipment into the Merc. "Because Dexter hasn't responded for the last ten minutes and Valkyrie has been sending S.O.S. texts like there's no tomorrow."
_____"Cool? Cool," The Belgian said, gunning the Mercedes as she went to chase down a pain-in-the-ass researcher and a paranoid woman with an assault rifle.
"Greetings, and you men are?" She asked him along with the Japanese man standing by one of the corners of the infirmary, Steel also took a look at the fellow that the man that greeted her was sitting right next too.
_____Dear Felix would have to wait. There was banditry to uncover. With the other stalkers lazily watching their flank, the two military-inclined women got to work on Sid's cache. It was a small dugout, deep enough to shield them from the blast if things went... less than ideally. Between Valkyrie and Rachel's combined knowledge, they dismantled the lid for the case and found two trip-wires hastily tucked along the things within.
_____There was a neat boquet of grenades in the center of the case, equidistant from lead-lined cases for glowing artifacts. The red spoons and black bodies marked them as practice grenades, possibly the Russian URG-N. The bottoms had been welded over where ventillation holes existed on training grenades, and unscrewing the fuzes showed some quantity of plastic explosive crammed within the casing. The pins had been uncrimped, but it was still unlikely the little explosives would have gone off unless someone had forcefully opened the case.
_____In other words, it was probably a bandit bluff. The grenades sat in a rounded, canteloupe-sized hollow, still warm to the touch and lined with lead like the other compartments. One of Sid's goods was evidently missing.
