“I can’t see anything. Move over.”

“Would you please shut up.”

Remy practiced the breathing techniques he’d learned in the Federation Guard. They were supposed to give him discipline and patience. Instead, he just honed a sharp focus on his irritations.

“We’ve been here for nearly five hours. We should move. JD’s not doing anything tonight.” She whispered from her hiding place under a corrugated steel trash lid. Remy had laughed when she had chosen her hiding spot but stopped when he realized the only close place was under several bags of refuse from the pan-Asian restaurant next door. It didn’t smell bad on its own, but five hours under any variety of fried rice was enough to break even the strongest men.

“We’re observing today. We move tomorrow, remember?”

The Sapphire Lounge was bustling tonight. It was a Friday night so they hosted a live band playing pre-war dance music from the turn of the century. Academy students arrived in packs to wait in line for entrance. It was getting late in the evening and the line was starting to wrap around the corner. A girl wearing baggy jean shorts and two pony-tails shivered in the cold. Her boyfriend wore ragged blue jeans and a t-shirt with the letters “Korn” written across the front in big, exaggerated letters. Remy shivered too and wondered where they found shirts that old. Pre-war clothing fetched a fine price with the right buyer. Probably had daddy replicate it from some picture.

During their stake out, the goal was to watch for JD’s own comings and goings, as well as any repeat individuals who might be persons of interest. Frank’s plan called for infiltration as near to the lounge as possible, but a frontal assault hadn’t been completely ruled out.

A pair of academy age girls lifted their shirts to the bouncer and were admitted into the lounge. Remy pretended to wipe something from his eye at the time. Josie shot him a look letting him know that she wasn’t fooled. Damned woman.

“Maybe we could do both. Observe and move, you know?” she said. “Let me go in the front door and you can find another way around.”

“What’ll you do once inside? You don’t even know what you’re looking for.”

“Only because you won’t tell me. We’re partners, remember?” She said for the fourteenth time in the past day. He had never regretted a commitment more in his life. Not only would he have to split Stefanie’s purse with her at the end - which, truth be told, was a cheaper bargain than paying for a Shusher -, but he would have to reveal his closest companion was a woman whom he used to have a thing with. Stefanie didn’t have time to mess with a guy who had that sort of complication. Colin wasn’t really a concern - Remy was sure he was long dead - but Josie would be an entire cargo container full of complications.

But Josie did have a point. No one had much use for a partner who didn’t know her ass from a hole in the ground on a stake out. He reached into his inner pocket and pulled the folded honeymoon picture out.

“Here,” he said. “This is Colin. We’re trying to find him, and I think something in there will lead us to whatever’s left of him.”

Josie looked the picture over for a few moments and sucked her teeth.

“She’s pretty.”

No shit, Josie. Remy snatched the picture back from her and shoved it into his pocket again.

“She’s the client, so let’s just try to be professional and finish this off before we piss someone else off. I’d like to et paid before I’m killed, yeah?”

Josie stepped out from under the garbage can and shook off the refuse. She ran fingers through her hair and down her clothes, wiping away anything remaining. Remy couldn’t help but watch. It wasn’t fair how quickly she could make herself presentable.

“I’m going in to have a look.” She tossed her hair and threw him a wink. “You going to be my date tonight?”

Remy never really had a choice. Once Josie made up her mind, she made up her mind. Going along was the only way to maintain any semblance of control, no matter how small. He stepped out and flicked a handful of stray grains of rice from his arm. He’d smell like that dumpster for a week.

“Fine. Let’s go.”

They tucked their scanners away and approached the Lounge like any of the other dozen topsiders walking that way. Remy ran a hand over his face and regretted not shaving. He knew his face was brown going gray if the light caught it right. He hoped the dim light made it more the former than the latter today. They reached the line and he shoved his hands in his pockets and hunched his shoulders.

Two girls in front of them glanced back like he was their dad’s leering friend who comes over with a six-pack of court-ordered non-alcoholic beer. They shifted closer to the guys in front of them in line. He gritted his teeth. What I wouldn’t give for a glass of gin, he thought.

“This’ll be fun, loosen up. Just some friends out for a drink like anyone else, you know?” Josie was the only person he’d ever met who could crawl out of a literal garbage can and be ready for a night on the town. Remy didn’t know if that was a compliment or not. She smiled widely and gripped his elbow tight. God, he could almost believe she was his date if he didn’t know any better.

“What if they recognize me though? Cute girl at the bar and I chatted quite a bit last time before the manager had me tossed. I’m wearing the same coat, too. Could be a short trip.”

Josie checked her hair in a window as they shuffled forward in line but didn’t respond. Well, I don’t have the same hat, I guess. There was a different man working the door that night, for which Remy said a silent prayer.

Paying bribes was just part of a day’s work, but bribes to some toothless wonder at the door felt like tossing credit chips into a toilet.

The girls ahead of them entered the Lounge, and Remy and Josie were up next. The bouncer tonight was a meat head with a mohawk, a big golden nose ring, and an unmistakable lump behind his lip that quivered with each word. He looked like a villain from some old cartoon. Meat-head looked them up and down and spat brown juice on the cracked sidewalk.

“Student night. Go on up to Dave’s if you want a drink.” He shook his head. What an ugly face. Meat-head only needed some a pair of outdated sunglasses to really sell the image.

“Well, yeah. We’re grad students.” Josie didn’t miss a beat. If there was anything more pathetic than lying your way into a student night at the Sapphire Lounge, it was pretending to be aging graduate students to do so.

“Getting one of them fake doctor degrees, eh?” Meat-head huffed an approximation of a laugh and held out a hand for credit chips.

“Something like that.” Remy handed him a pair of chips he hoped was enough. He tried to think of what course he could plausibly teach. Breaking and Entering for Beginners.

Meat-head pocketed the chips and nodded them on.

“Go on in, then. Two for ones and Mad-juice pitchers.”

Remy and Josie entered the Sapphire Lounge and the smell of old fried rice was carried away by the smell of sweaty co-eds and spilled drinks. He remembered them wearing shirts that covered far more skin when he was at academy. Josie cuffed him on the ear as he looked over the crowd.

“They could be your daughter, stop leering.”

“I didn’t do anything.” He hated when Josie did that. She always knew what he thought, especially around women. Probably hadn’t helped their relationship the last time either.

“You thought it loud enough. You going to buy a girl a drink or not?” She grabbed his hand and pulled him through the crowd. The blue dancers still gyrated on tables throughout the bar, and Remy didn’t recognize any from his previous visit. They squeezed between a man - a boy, more like - passed out on the bar next to a steel pillar. Remy scanned the bartenders and didn’t see Haely. So far so good.

Josie ordered them something that had far too much sugar in it and took all the cherry garnishes from Remy’s drink before handing it to him. She leaned against the pillar and looked at the dance floor herself.

“How come you never took me to places like this?”

“I tried to leave places like this in the academy where they belong. You don’t feel like you’re someone’s mom walking around here?”

She shook her head, “Nah, everyone likes to drink, why should it change when you’re no longer sucking off a teaching assistant for your grades?”

“You know, we’re supposed to be teaching assistants ourselves, right now.” She was the crudest woman, he’d ever met. Stefanie was a lady, proper and respectful. Nothing like Josie.

“Oh, are we?” Josie winked at him and bopped her way out toward the dance floor.

“Damn it, Josie.” He muttered.

They were here on business. Business for Stefanie. Stefanie was the client and her needs came first. Lingering on her needs proved as distracting as Josie, though.

There were many dance floors in the Sapphire Lounge but the main bar’s was the biggest. Of course, Josie found her place directly in the center, underneath a strobe drone pulsating colors to the music’s. Remy stayed next to the pillar, sucking down his too-sweet cocktail.

Remy didn’t like this many people on the best day. Add in them all grinding their legs, asses, and assorted limbs on him combined with a thick leather trench coat and Remy was having a miserable time. Josie swung back out of the dance floor and smiled at him.

“Check it!” Josie said.

“What?”

“Your coat, go check it. Get me another one of these while you’re at it.” She shook her lowball and ice clinked against the sides. Remy shook his head. He couldn’t leave this coat in some room. There was about two centuries of hard time in his pockets and he had no intention of letting those Vascs out of his sight. She sighed and took his drink.

“Well, get something to cool yourself off then, I’ll be here.” She winked again and pushed him back to the bar. Service at the bar was far slower for Remy than Josie. He tried not to take offense. Some guy in a tank top with a terrible tattoo running around his bicep finally noticed him and brought over another too-fruity drink and a glass of gin. Better the piss you know than the piss you don’t.

The Sapphire Lounge was doing good business tonight. JD must be happy. He looked toward the back door where he’d met the manager before and two large men who could’ve been brothers with the doorman stood in front. Nothing said “shady shit” like fat men with shaved heads standing with arms crossed in front of a door. Remy looked out over the dance floor and saw Josie winding up and down a man a decade her junior.

“Good for you, Jose.” He said into his gin. He meant it too. Maybe she’d forget about their deal and leave with the guy. It would make his night a lot easier. Instead of going directly back onto the dance floor with its heat lamps and thirsty boys, Remy skirted the edge of the Sapphire Lounge and tried to scope the security situation.

He noticed the cameras first. There were large ones with that retro pivoting look in each corner and he was sure there were a dozen more he couldn’t see. Burly men bussed tables and tossed patrons who’d had too much.

Each carried a stun baton on their hip. Remy was confident at least one was carrying something more felonious and deadly too.

He finished casing the last public room when it happened. A girl, she certainly wasn’t a woman yet, had jumped onto a table with a blue dancer and decided to steal the show. She’d had the talent, that was for sure.

Unfortunately, Remy took that moment to run smack dab into the back of one of those burly men, spilling his fruity drink down the man’s chest. Meat-head Two looked down at his stained shirt and back up at Remy. Meat-head Two’s eyes lit in recognition.

“Fuck.”

“Wrong team, buddy.”

Remy couldn’t argue his case before the man had grabbed Remy’s collar and dragged him from the room. He pushed past two other over-sized men and tossed him through an industrial door rusted down at its edges.

“Wait here, the boss will be with you in a minute.”

Meat-head Two shut the door and Remy heard a click as it locked. They must have recognized him.

“Fuck.” He kicked the wall. He ran his hands over his face and rubbed his eyes roughly. “Alright, Rem, think.”

He flicked through the Vascs in his pocket. He’d loaded a Force and carried cards for Volt, Fire, Quant, Aqua. Just the common ones. Nothing even above a second version. No sense losing something valuable on a scouting mission. Remy looked about the room for an exit. It was all steel, square and spartan. Guess it would be a run and gun kind of night.

Meat-head Two opened the door again and Remy recognized JD standing behind him. Remy didn’t waste any time. He thrust his left hand forward and Meat-head Two’s eyes went wide as he was blown back into his boss.

Remy pressed forward, stepping over the fallen bodies and onto the dance floor. The co-eds danced on through the commotion. There was no stopping someone who thought sex might be just a song away.

"Stop him!” he heard JD yell from beneath Meat-head Two but Remy was already ducking under arms and through conversations toward the door. He glanced at Josie, intertwined with her boy, and was thankful that she hadn’t been snatched yet either. Maybe she could get out without notice.

Remy burst through the door and over a poor woman who was half his size.

“Sorry!” he apologized as he stepped over her into the street. He ran deeper into the undercity.

So fucking stupid.