Roman Jack- Chapter I/Part B

              Roman Jack, cut off and out numbered, leveled the giant barrel of his gun at the floor crawling with enemy troops.  With a squeeze of the trigger the monster fired a blast of light and fire engulfing the ground with flame. Roman Jack spun the gun in his hand and shoved it back into its holster.  Seth laughed coldly and cocked the barrel of his machine gun.  The trump of boots rolled up the stairs.
         Seth leaned on the wall corner taking cover from the men coming up the stairs.  Marshall and Kat ran up with the Captain.  The men from the roof were quick approaching the floor they were on. Jack drew a pistol and ran across the doorway firing a few shots at the soldiers. They took cover right as Kat rolled in.  The first to stick his head out had a shotgun round meet him. The second turned to fire at Kat as Marshall turned the corner and with a flick of his wrist a ball of fire shot through the man's chest.  The others all knew what that was.  It was what made the Watchmen so feared.  They could take the heat and bioelectricity of their bodies and form into an array of weapons. By the time the soldiers grew the courage to looked out both Kat and Marshall were gone.
         Roman Jack waited by the wall as two soldiers exited the stairs and enter the floor. The Captain leveled the barrel of his pistol at one and shot him dead at point blank before he saw what was happening. The other turned before taking a shot in his face also.  Jack picked up one of their assault rifles.  Jumping high he got a hand on the railing on the floor above him.  With a quick pull he brought himself up to the edge of the rail with a column of soldiers marching by.  Within a second he let out a spray of bullets before letting go of the railing and dropping back  with a parting gift of his middle finger being the last thing they saw. 
         Seth waited till the enemy unit was within spiting distance of him before he turned the corner leveled his machine gun and released hell.  A fury of gun fire and laughter rang down the torn bodies of dozen of unsuspecting men.  Jack landed near Seth with a bang and quick roll to soften the blow. The new comer surprised Seth enough to make his finger release the trigger and his head turn to see what had just landed behind him.  Jack stumbled up muttering 'that was stupid' right as Seth took a round in the side of the head.  The cybrog was knocked to the floor from the blow.  Jack pulled him out of the fire and snapped his finger over Seth's face.
         "Seth?" The Captain said. "You alright?"  Seth's eyes blinked.
         "Did it hit flesh?" He asked. The Captain turned Seth's head with his hand to look at the wound.  A smashed bullet sat smoking against solid steel.
         "Nope." The Captain said. "Just a dent. Now come on." He ordered as the troops made their way up the stairs. Jack shot dead the first to show himself as Seth got to his feet. 
         "This way." Seth yelled as he ran up a flight of stairs.  Jack ran up behind him as Seth reached the top, spun on his heals and cried 'not the way'. Jack slid to a stop as a dozen soldiers open fired at them from above.  Bullets clicked and bounced as Jack jumped  half the stair well to the bottom.  Right as Roman Jack's feet hit the ground a round struck him in the leg knocking it from under him.  This time Seth pulled the Captain to safety as Jack got back on his feet.  Jack turned back to the stairs right as two men leveled to fire.  Jack hit one in the chest as the other let out a small spray that hit the wall next to them.  Seth spun around as his robot arm clicked and rolled into a barrel.  With a plum of smoke he shot the other in the head.  Jack kept running/ limping to the other stairwell. It looked clear.
         "Marshall. Kat." He yelled. "Where are you?"
         "Above you." Marshall yelled as Kat smashed a man in the groin with the shotgun butt then blew his face off with a round. She dropped the gun and drew two handguns from her sides letting a blast of fire down the hall at their attackers.  Marshall lit up a trooper that got past her as Jack and Seth caught up to them.  They all withdrew behind the walls by the doorway as the enemy returned fire.
         "We need to get out of here." Jack said bandaging his leg.
         "I'll take care of it." Marshall said as he formed a static charge around him.  Once the hum of a magnet rolled off of him he stepped out into the enemy line of fire. The soldiers opened fire upon him only to see their bullets be caught by the magnetic field he was creating with his own body.  With a smile Roman Jack stepped behind Marshall and shot two of the surprised soldiers. Seth was quick behind as was Kat to lay the rest of them out. Once it was clear Jack smashed open a window and crawled out onto the building's fire escape. Jack ran down a section or two with his crew behind him when the soldiers on the ground noticed the fugitive coming down and started firing up.  That is also when the fugitive noticed the soldiers on the ground and started running up to the roof instead. 
         "Kat." The Captain yelled holding out his hands in a cup. Kat ran at him and used his hands as a platform to jump up to the roof rolling to a stop and leveling her guns on the men up there. Seth was quick to follow via his cyborg strength and landed on the roof with a crater in his wake.
         "All clear Captain." Seth called back. Roman Jack crawled on to the roof with Marshall behind him.  The two helows were fast approaching.
         "Spread out!" The Captain yelled as they all began to run. "We will meet three buildings from here on the ground."
         "Understood."
         "Understood."
         "Understood."  The two helows moved to the sides as the group quickly fanned out.  One helow fired a missile straight at Roman Jack.  Hearing the buzz he dove to the side as the entrance to the roof exploded into a ball of fire. Jack got back on his feet with a gash on his head and cuts along his arms.
         "Not my day." He muttered looking at his bloodied self.  Kat rolled under a pile of wood as it was turned to kindling by the helows' bullets. With a single pouch she leapt across the alley way and landed on the next building as Marshall jumped the same alley, landing on the edge and pulled him self up.  Jack knocked a beam of wood over the gap and ran across it before the helow had time to come back and shoot him in the act. Of course it was only about five seconds late because once the Captain had his foot to concrete again the beam was ripped apart by cannon rounds. 
         They all reached the destination close to alive and hard for breathing. The Captain pulled his zip line and hooked it to a pole.  The other three simply jumped from the five story building.  Kat land on her feet like a feline. Marshall waited until he was a dozen feet from the ground or so before super heating the air around him thus creating a bubble that slowed his fall and let him float to the ground.  Seth landed on his cyborg leg and let his robotic part take the blunt of the fall as the Captain's zip line broke six feet from the ground thus dropping him on his back with a thump and a muttered ouch.

         Thomas rolled his cat over on its back scratched its stomach the way it liked it. The little brown cat played back with its claws and paw. Jig sat at the helm tapping his fingers on the consul. They were late.  His eyes were heavy and his body tiered. It had been a heck of a day already.  But he couldn't go to sleep till the Captain was back.  Ash walked onto the bridge quietly and sat down in the Captain's chair.  She rubbed her hands along the arm rests feeling the worn leather.
         "Can't sleep?" Jig asked politely. Ash shook her head.
         "I would assume that they will be returning soon." Ash said.
         "Yeah, well. They are already late." Jig stated. Ash faced him a little concern. "But you know the Captain." He added with a chuckle.  She smiled slightly and nodded. Jig opened his month to talk but decided against it.  So instead he turned back to his consul and looked out. It was a little cold in the cabin and Ash shivered.  "You want a blanket?" Jig asked.
         "No thank you." She said as she stood to leave. Jig bite his lip wondering what it was he did this time but choose not to say anything.  Best to leave it alone.  Ash is like all women.  Completely insane.  If you're mean, they don't like you. If you're nice, they still don't like you. Jig whistled softly as he leaned under the chair and pulled up a bottle of scotch.  The Captain would be mad if he knew he had that there which is why he didn't tell him. Two head lights came into view and stopped outside the docking area.  Jig quickly hid the bottle and ran out of the bridge. "They're back." He yelled through the ship as he lowered the boarding platform.  Ash was right behind Jig as the Kat and Marshall dragged the Captain out of an obviously stolen car.
         "What happened?" Ash yelled.
         "It was a trap." Marshall said.
         "It was more than a trap." Kat exclaimed. "It was a full out ambush. Half the military jumped us."
         "Alright." Ash said semi calmly. "Just take him to the inferior. How about you Marshall? Are you hurt?" She asked.
         "Take care of him first." Marshall commanded. "Jig."
         "Yes sir." Jig said.
         "We are leaving." He ordered.
         "Yes sir." Jig said as he hopped on the platform with everyone else. Ash looked over the Captain's injuries and shook her head.
         "That dumbass." She muttered. "He can't go a day without nearly killing himself."

         "My goodness." Coritus To' loc laughed glazing over the killing field that once was an old building. "The military certainly did not hold back."
         "Nor did that State Watchman, Marshall." Razor Migan commented picking up one of the numerous bullets dropped to the floor undamaged by Marshall's display of power. Coritus To' loc ran his hand along a smear of blood on the wall and sniffed it.
         "Yep." He said. "Dear old Jack got hurt."
         "So it would seem." Razor Migan agreed. "But sir, this does not seem to have anything to do with the key." Coritus To' loc laughed.
         "Ah, Migan." He said with a smile. "Can't you see. This has everything to do with the key. Old Roman Jack cane do something they can't and that means he is their only hope.  This is just a stage in that."
         "It seems like quite a loss." Migan commented.
         "You know better than anyone the lengths the military is willing to go to reach their objectives." To' loc said. "Allowing this little massacre is nothing but a step forward to them. Why do you think they let them get away."
         "So where do go know?" Migan asked.
         "No where." To' loc answered. "Now we wait. You see, the military is as predictable as they are stupid. They have no ability to be subtle.  Have all ships on standby.  When the time comes we will have to attack quickly and it might be against a formidable foe."
         "Do you mean to start open conflict so soon?" Migan asked.
         "Oh of course not." To 'loc assured. "Which is why we will not be able to let anyone live. We are close, Migan. So close I can taste it. We can't afford any mistakes."
         "And we will have none, my lord. I assure you." Migan said bowing.
         "Good."

         Marshall slid off his coat clenching his teeth the whole way.  Blood dripped from several spots of on his arms. Ash wet a cloth and began to clean the wounds.  Small scars of numinous wounds like them dotted his body.  Ash shook her head in annoyance.
         "You should have let me do this sooner." She said.
         "The Captain was in worse shape than me." Marshall remarked.
         "At least stop pushing yourself so hard." Ash said. "You're going to kill yourself at this rate." Marshall smiled.
         "This is nothing compared to back in the war." Marshall replied.
         "You're not as young as you were back in the war."  Ash shot back. Marshall laughed then clenched as Ash continued her work.  Marshall turned to the door slightly and smiled.
         "Can I help you, Kat?" He asked aloud. Kat turned the corner of the door and looked in at Marshall. 
         "I didn't think you got badly hurt." Kat said pointing to the blood. Marshall nodded humorously. 
         "It's called a burn out." He stated.
         "It happens when a Watchman over does it." Ash jumped in.  "He blows out his cells with all the heat he is pushing through his tissue."
         "It is a small price to pay." Marshall said.
         "Maybe during the war it was." Ash commented. Marshall pulled his arm away angry.
         "What the fuck do you know about 'during the war'?" Marshall snapped. "The Narrie could fly harder than us, fight longer, and were ruthless to boot. They damn near wiped us out.  Before the Sate Watchman program we hadn't won a single battle.  Not one. And even after the Watchmen hit the fronts it was one slaughter house after another. The Narrie Casters could out perform even the best of the Watchman without having any side effects let alone burn outs.  I once saw a Narrie Caster kill three Watchman, destroy four Armor Suits and throw a tank without breaking a sweat."
         "Than how did you win?" Kat asked. Marshall's anger left him as he faced Kat again. The heat of his rage was replaced with a blank stare almost as if he too had once asked that question.
         "Force of will." Seth said from the hallway. "Captain wants you on the bridge." He said to Marshall. Marshall nodded and followed. The Captain sat in his chair with a rapping on his leg.
         "You alright sir?" Marshall asked when he saw the Captain's leg.
         "I'll be fine."  Roman Jack said. "So Marshall, what is your opinion on what just happen?"
         "A military sting operation, sir. No doubt of it." Marshall said.
         "That is a bit far fetched." Jig commented.
         "Not terribly." Jack said. 
         "How do we know the client just wasn't pegged?" Jig asked.
         "If he was pegged." Marshall said. "Then they wouldn't have known that we changed the meet time."
         "Couldn't they have made him answer the call." Jig asked.
         "Well." The Captain said. "You have seen what the Reclaimer do to people just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I doubt they would keep an actual criminal alive for more than a day."
         "More over."  Marshall said. "The person I talked to was the same that gave us the job.  It seems that we were set up from the beginning."
         "So then the chip is a fake?" Jig asked.
         "No." Marshall asserted. "I checked the coordinates on that chip personally. They are real."
         "They wouldn't want us to say at trial that we never technically did anything wrong." The Captain said.
         "Or realize it was a trap before the meet." Marshall added.
         "So what now?" Jig asked.
         "We have to find a way out of this, of course." Jack said.
         "Why don't we just dump the stupid thing?" Jig asked. "If we don't have the chip there is no reason to keep after us right?"
         "Yeah that's smart." Marshall smirked.
         "Yep." The Captain said. "Because they really care about that chip now. The fact is that they have almost certainly changed the flight plan of the tanker anyway. So why would they charge us with thief when they could nail us on … of let me think. Resisting arrest."
         "Breaking and entering." Marshall added.
         "Grand thief auto." Seth said as he walked by.
         "Plus." The Captain said. "The dozen or so murder counts each of us have."
         "Not to mention." Marshall said. "If even one of them was an officer. That is an automatic death penalty."
         "So in other words." The Captain said. "It doesn't matter if we let the chip out the air lock.  They will come and kill us and that is if we are lucky. So shut up and help me find a place to hide."  He order clicking the map screen on.
         "How about Leo Space Colony?" Jig asked pointing. "That place is about as safe as it gets."
         "Too far." The Captain said.
         "We could get to Mars before tomorrow." Marshall stated.
         "Mars?" Jig laughed. "They would peg us in a minute."
         "Hmmm." The Captain thought. "What about Deimos? That is close."
         "No." Marshall said. "Deimos was taken over as a training base for Armor Suit divisions." 
         "Than I guess, that will not work." The Captain stated.
         "Afraid not." Marshall agreed. The three looked at the map and thought in silence. The gentle glow of the screen reflecting from their faces. The creaks of the ship became a soft ballad in the background.  The tap of Kat's boots came closer as she entered the bridge.
         "Why do we have to go anywhere?" Kat asked. They looked at her with disgust before turning back to the map.  She waited for a second for them to answer.  They didn't. "I'm serious." She said.
         "About what?" The Captain asked.
         "Why do we have to go anywhere?" She asked again.
         "Because." The Captain said. "We are on the run and when you are on the run you run.  Hopefully to a place they will not follow."
         "Well why don't we make them think we are running." Kat said. The Captain cocked his head.
         "I'm listening." He said.
         "Ok." Kat said sitting down despites Jig's protests. "We buzz by one of the places you mentioned, like Mars or something. Then we scatter out some decoys then high tail it back to New Corinth."
         "Then what?" Jig asked.
         "We could probably sit it out." Marshall said. "If a Watchman is truly after us, than all we really need to do is wait it out. Watchman are in high demand.  They will not keep him on the case forever."          
         "And once the Watchman is out of the picture." Jig began.
         "Things should calm down a go bit." Kat said.
         "One would only hope." Marshall said.
         "No." The Captain said. "That is not good enough. I am not going to risk this crew on a maybe. What we need is leverage. We need to get our hands on something they want more than us.  Something they want so bad that they would forget about us to get it. Anyone know about anything like that?"
          "How about we kidnap someone important?" Jig said.
         "Or how about we line ourselves up for their firing squad." Marshall offered.
         "What then?" Kat asked.
         "Blackmail data?" Jig offered. Everyone shook no.
         "I think we might be going about this the wrong way." The Captain said as a light came on in his head. " Maybe we don't need to steal anything.  What we really need is to get them to stop coming after us."
         "Where are you going with this?" Marshall asked.
         "Why blackmail the military to stop looking for us when we could simply trick them into it?" The Captain said with a smile. "Ok." He started as his plan became clearer in his head. "We just go into New Corinth Interspace Library. All information from the Solar System goes through that tower, right? We go in, find our own police reports and alter them to say we switch ships or something.  That way the military goes after that ship and we are scot free."
         "The Library is a public place." Marshall commented as the Captain's plan became clear to him also. "We could just walk through the front door. Than all we would have to do is find the secure line and hack into it."
         "You say that as if it would be easy." Jig said. "The secure line never goes anywhere near the public areas so people can't do exactly what we are talking about.  You would have to sneak into the resisted zone, which is not easy." 
         "No we wouldn't." The Captain said. "There has to be a line running from the receiver into the resisted area.  All we would have to do is tap into that. Then we can do a remote hack from here."
         "That line would be one in a cluster of hundreds in a pipe no more than a foot wide." Jig said. "No human could get to it, let alone unnoticed."
         "What this about no human?"  Thomas asked holding his cat.  The Captain smiled and shrugged.

         The tower was painted white and hung high over the Reclaimed area.  People of all sorts walked in and out along the grassy groves and bushes. Marshall walked in front with a lovely pair of glasses and a formal suit on.  The Captain walked next to him with the uniform of a sergeant upon his back.  Behind them walked Jig, Kat, and Ash wearing the uniforms of wonderfully spoiled college students.  Of course, Ash had to work on covering Kat's tattoos with make up and Kat had to wear a pair of sunglasses to hide her eyes, but all in all they looked the part. Even Kat holding and petting Thomas' cat did not look too out of place.
         "You ready, Thomas?"  The Captain asked out the corner of his month into the mic on his collar.
         "Yes sir."  Thomas responded from the bridge of the ship.  He held a little remote and a monitor clearly showing all that was occurring.  Seth also stood in the bridge watching.
         "You sure your cat can do this?" Seth asked.
         "Oh yeah." Thomas said. "Dag is trained for it. I use her to find burnt wires in the ship all the time. You see I have a chip in her eye so I can see what she sees and I have a little device on her collar that will give her a little shock on either her left or right shoulder so I can director her."
         "So how are you going to hack the wires once you find them?" Seth asked.
         "I put a extra device on her collar that should be able to attach itself to the wire and allow me to hack the system."
         "Sounds fun." Seth said.
         "Yeah." Thomas said. "Of course if they caught wind of what we are doing they will lock the whole building down and more than likely kill everyone." Seth looked at him before Thomas laughed. "Just messing. There would be torture first."
         "We are entering the building." The Captain said over the transmitter. The Library was quite an impressive thing to see. It rows of computers and high selves of books all swirled around a central jet stream of data tied together in a giant pillar standing in the middle.
         "Ice." Jig muttered.
         "Alright students." Marshall announced loudly. "Keep close and take notes. This will be on this Friday's test and I do not want to hear any complaints later about how you don't remember that part.  That is why note taking was invented. So you don't have to remember everything. This is the central pillar.  It connects everything to everything.  The receiver at the very top of the building is sent information from all the Solar System."
         "Even Fulton territory?" Jig asked. Marshall looked at him with disgust. Jig just shrugged.
         "I think you know the answer to that." Marshall said. "Now everyone come along."  Kat wondered but a few steps to the side and let the cat in her hands drop to the floor before returning to the group.  The Captain had already side stepped to the wall and quickly unscrewed the vent.  The brown cat hopped in the air duct without thought.
         "You're in." The Captain muttered to Thomas.  Jack replaced the vent cover and stood to have a rather large librarian standing by him tapping his foot.
         "What are you doing?" He asked curious and annoyed.
         "Who me?" The Captain asked dumb.
         "No." The librarian said. "The other guy playing with the vent screen."
         "Oh." The Captain said calmly. "Well as long as it wasn't me." He said with a chuckle as he turned to walk away. The librarian said hey before the Captain suddenly stopped and shot his elbow into the man's stomach.  With a little buff of air the man fell to the ground and  Jack was quickly off back to the group now entering the hallway. "We need to hurry." The Captain whispered to Marshall.
         "Why?" He asked. "You in trouble already? Come students, we have much to see."
         Thomas lead his cat through the air ducts into the wiring.  The complex mess of it would have dazed most but Thomas had seen much worse.
         "Are we close?" Seth asked.
         "Not really." Thomas said. "Give me that map." He added pointing.
         "This one?" Seth asked.
         "Yeah. Ok, I think we need to go up a level."  He hit both buttons and watched the cat jump to the next set of pipes and wires.  "A little further, and there." Thomas said. A small wire ran out of the collar and dug into the wires in front of the cat.  In a moment the monitors were filled with data. "I'm in." Thomas said almost surprised at the ease of it. "You're up, Seth." He said standing up. Seth sat in the chair and pulled a line from his head and plugged into the consul. 
         "Altering data now." Seth said aloud.
         "We almost have it, sir." Thomas told the Captain over the comm.
         "Good." The Captain said back.  "We should start making our way back out." He whispered to Marshall.
         "Agreed." Marshall said.
         "Got it." Seth announced. "Mission complete."
         "Good." Thomas said pulling the cat back. "Now to get Miss Dag out of there." The cat turn to leave when the floor gave out from under her and the kitty dropped into a strange room. "Kitty!" Thomas yelled at his monitor.  "Captain." He yelled in his comm. "You have to go back."
         "Why?" The Captain asked.
         "Dag fell. I don't know what room she is in." Thomas said franticly. The Captain stopped and clenched his teeth.
         "Ok." He coughed. "Come on everyone." He said. "We have to go back."
         "Why?" Jig asked.
         "The cat got lost and we have to find it." The Captain informed.
         "Did we change the data?" Jig asked.
         "Yes, but we need…" The Captain began.
         "Then let's go." Jig said. "Forget the cat."
         "Do you want to tell Thomas that he has to spend the next three years training a new cat?" Jack asked. "Not to mention hear him whine for the next ten about how it isn't his Dag?"
         "Oh for the love of Pluto." Jig cursed walking by the Captain.
         "What does the room look like?" The Captain asked Thomas.
         "I'm not sure." Thomas said back. "Dag's kinda scared. She be in a corner and I can't see the rest of the room. White tile though."
         "Yeah that narrows it down." The Captain said. "Try and get her to look around the room."
         "Yes sir." Thomas said sniffing back his concern.
         "We are going to get pegged for a cat." Jig muttered as he glanced into a room.
         "Just look." Marshall said as he turned around to face a man in his fifties wearing a suit and glasses looking very confused. The Captain turned puzzled to face a military sergeant as Jig and the girls turned to see three college students behind them.  They all looked at each other bewildered. 
         "Who are you?" The sergeant asked. The Captain began to speak before muttering fuck it and smashed the guy in the face.  The other jumped in shock as Jack's crew all knocked them out too.  The Captain grabbed the sergeant by the arms and began to drag him to a nearby bathroom door.
         "Come on." He told the others. "Bathroom, bathroom." They too took hold of their doubles and dragged them in.  Jack opened up a stall and sat the unconscious guy on the seat and began to leave when a meow of a cat stopped him. "There you are." The Captain said as he picked up Miss Dag. "We're out of here." The Captain announced.
         "Good." Jig said as he walked out. 
         "We found Dag." Jack told the worried Thomas.
         "Oh thank God." Thomas said.
         "It wasn't God." Roman laughed. "It was violence."  They all hurried towards the entrance when that sergeant came running out after Jack yelling for him to stop.  Jack flipped him off when the hurt librarian pointed at the sergeant yelling that it was him that hit him.  Jack laughed as the sergeant was tackled by security and Jack walked out the front door clean.

         "In system news the military are redoubling their efforts to bring the fugitives responsible for last week's attack on Mars and later the fire fight on New Corinth to justice. The military has just released that is believed that they have changed vessels in order to trick them.  This, says the officer in charge, will obviously not work.  It is, however, a mystery as to how the fugitives were able to travel from New Corinth to Saturn in only two days.  But the military assures that they are hot on the trail of these dangerous mercenaries. In more local news, the crack down on the biker gangs continues…"
         Jack smiled and walked past the news billboard. Kat walked next to him with her makeup and sunglasses still on.  She figured it may be her only chance to walk in public for awhile so she should enjoy it. Jack sighed as he looked to the sky.
         "Well." He said. "That was a disaster."
         "We didn't get caught." Kat reminded.
         "No, but we also didn't get paid for a job that cost us nearly fifty thousand quills either." Jack informed. "That is a bit of hit in the pocket you know."
         "We will make it up with something else." Kat assured.
         "Ah, don't be so cheery." Jack ordered. "It makes me look bad." He said looking over to the young girl that for a moment looked like a normal person. So much so that Jack almost forgot what she was. "You do look nice." He commented."You really do." Kat stopped surprised.
         "Thank you." She said embarrassed. "Even though I know you are just taking me along so much lately because Seth asked you too."
         "Hmm?" Jack asked.
         "Seth." Kat stated again. "I asked him to talk you into letting me come along."
         "Seth never talked to me." Jack said.
         "What?" Kat said. "But… Then why did you let me come along?"
         "I figured you were tiered of my Doors album." Jack said.
         "Ah but Morrison is the nich." Kat said.
         "I'm glad you like it." Jack laughed. "It is a beautiful day." He said looking up. "Wouldn't you agree, Kat?" He said as he turned into the barrel of a gun.  Kat was already surrounded.  Jack glanced around with his eyes to see men coming from all corridors and alleyways completely engulfing them.  Jack slowly lifted his hands in surrender.
         "That was pretty clever." The unmistakable voice of a State Watchman said. It was unmistakable due to the pride ringing in it. "Changing your own arrest warrant." The Watchman said facing Jack.
         "I'm glad you liked it." Jack said with a spit of venom.
         "Yes, indeed I did." The Watchman muttered. "I must say I'm impressed.  You see I have done a few of these strings now and you are the only one to give us a real chase. It was slightly enjoyable even."
         "Please tell me you are going to shot me soon." Jack spat.
         "Kill you?" The Watchman said horrified. "My heavens no. You are the answer to my prays. You see Captain, there is something the Watchman need done that we can't do.  But I think you might be able to."
         "What hell are you talking about?" The Captain asked. The Watchman smiled brightly.
         "I'm offering you a job, Captain."