Sideman Henchkick

BANG!

The gym wall crumbled as I threw myself against it, holding down both buttons on my comms unit to broadcast the sound. The impact reverberated around the empty hall. I held down the blue button on my comms, careful to make sure that the red button remained inactive.

“GEE WIZZ!” I exclaimed.

I had been conducting this self-flagellation for around ten minutes. A few more minutes would be enough. I held down the red button and was about to growl the second worst swear word I know when the door to the gym opened and a very familiar silhouette.

I like helping people. That’s what got me into this mess. Well, that and needing money without possessing marketable skills. I was delighted when two great jobs came up at once, one for day shifts and the other for a few hours at night. At first the work had been easy, mostly deliveries around the city. Then I decided to get into shape and both my employers were really supportive and started to talk about promotions, career paths, and uniforms. Cameron taught me strength exercises during the day and Lauren had me learning to be fast and nimble in the night.

I had always known who they really were, of course. Even the largest glasses would not have disguised the fact that Cameron Carr was the famous City Calmer, with his bulging muscles, baby blue outfit, and philosophical rhetoric. Likewise, Lauren never tried to hide the Umbra logos on the various shipments coming in and out of the city. She had no need to, the important people knew where the power really lay. And so I continued in this equilibrium, knowing that I would have to choose a side at some point.

And then they got sick. It felt like everyone did. I’d had the same flu a couple of weeks before and was just getting back to full strength from the temperature, shakes, and mucus. Lauren had called with a simple mission to take some diamonds to a broker and return with the money. I didn’t ask any questions.

When Cameron called, his usual booming voice was hoarse and he had to keep stopping to cough and wheeze.

“Mayor’s diamonds have been stolen.” cough “Umbra strikes again. Need you to – “ cough “- intercept deal.“ cough “Sending you location. Keep comms unit on.”

“Righto,” I said, sounding more confident than I felt. I looked around wildly, trying to figure a way out of this one and then I spotted the gym, empty during the summer holidays, and came up with my cunning plan. Or at least it had seemed cunning until my boss had appeared in the doorway. The question was, how much had she seen?

“Alex,” Lauren said quietly. I hobbled over, noting from the pain that I had done more damage to myself than intended. As I got closer, I could see a sheen on her pale skin, and a flush in her cheeks. I didn’t need to check her head to know she still was in the ravages of the flu.

“They got away,” I said, deciding to throw the dice and see if she bought it. She did.

“Are you alright?” she asked, eyes lingering on a bruise that was starting to form on my leg.

“Yeah. Nothing a bath won’t fix,” I grinned but my smile faded when she shivered. “You’re still sick! You need to go rest.”

“It sounded like a bad one. I couldn’t just leave you here,” she said but I could tell the effort she was making to speak.

Cameron did, I thought, bitterly. I had clearly overdone the fight noises and yet the blue channel on my comms unit remained silent.

“I still have these,” I said, holding out the bag of diamonds proudly. Lauren managed a small smile.

I had chosen my side.