Heph pulls off his shades.
"They're...dead? All of them? This can't be happening..." Heph rests his head against the van wall, then throws his glasses at Medea in anger.
"This is all your damn faults! If you had never listened to your goddamn captain and if your goddamn captain wasn't such a nut, we'd never had lost them!"
Ok then, you get to the hardline a short while later, and restock (though I am not interested in what you stock with until the next Loadut bit).
Medea has to go.
"I'm sorry," she says. "I really am... I'm just sorry." She turns and leaves, blending into the crowd.
----
Five minutes earlier, on the Shehazarard
Dallas speaks to Rade.
"Tell Fire he is in command now. I'm sorry Rade. Mors and the others didn't make it," says Dallas, into the headset. His right hand shoots out, and clamps over Ariadne's mouth, who was about to speak.
"They didn't have a chance," says Dallas. "At the end there they were up against half the SWAT force and all 3 Agents. We can count ourselves lucky that the Agents weren't interested in prisoners.
"I know you must be feeling... unhappy but we have to stay professional about this whilst the mission is on. Shut down the links between your phones and theirs- the Agents have them now and they will try to locate you through them."
He finishes his glum conversation with his men soon afterwards, and hangs up the connection, letting his hand go as he does so.
"What the HELL was that?" asks Ariadne.
"What was what?" asked Dallas, trying to feign innocence. Araidne can barely control herself. She walks across the room and over to where the crew of the Shez are plugged into the Matrix. She goes to Mors, and points aggressively at his vital signs still beating.
"They're not dead! Look! They're fine!"
"So they are," says Dallas. Ariadne comes running back to the screens.
"AND the ones from the Percy are fine as well. Look, see, they are all trapped in the basement, but they're fine!"
"I know that, I'm not blind," says Dallas.
"But... I mean... why... GAH! Why in the name of ALL that is sane did you just tell Fire and the others they are all dead!"
"You're a big girl now, Ariadne," says Dallas. "People lie sometimes, get used to it."
"But... WHY?"
Dallas sits down on a metal swivel chair and sighs.
"You don't like me sometimes, do you?" he asks.
"I'm not feeling too hot on you right now, no!"
"You don't want to win?"
"Win?" asked Ariadne, perplexed.
"Listen, Ariadne," says Dallas, leaning forwards. "It may have escaped your notice, but we're getting our ASSES kicked in there."
"It was hard not to notice..."
"Yeah, and how long do you want us to go on like that? We're playing someone else's game, just going from A to B to C to meet the next guy who tries to wipe us out on HIS terms, and I'll tell you for nothing, Ariadne, I am getting pretty damn sick of it! And I doubt those poor bastards in there feel any better either."
"And this helps how?"
"I'll tell you how it helps. For a start, I don't trust that treacherous b itch Medea. And now when she goes back to Jericho and tells him that half my crew is dead, he'll believe her, because she believes them, because THEY believe me. And likewise, when they go to see Melitus and blame him for organising it all, he'll believe them as well. It's THEIR game we've been playing, Ariadne. Jericho and Melitus. They think they're so smart. Well, now they are going to play MY game. And in my game, they don't know that Mors and the others are still alive. And that gives US an Ace in the Hole. Let me tell you, Ariadne... Jericho and Melitus are going to get a VERY nasty surprise. Soon."
Dallas sits back on his chair, adjusting his hat slightly, and turning a monitor to face him. He continues to keep watch on the monitors, and for a moment as he watches you can see, in his eyes, something that perhaps have not noticed before; behind all the bluster and his careless manner, lies a keen and quick intelligence- of a Captain who has never failed to complete his orders.