Quiet Days in Loplers

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Settle in, take your time, and let's see what waits in the dark 🖤

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Morning came with a ringing phone.

Adrian eased T-Lilith off his chest and checked the caller ID.

Agor.

After a moment, he answered.

"Agor."

"What a shame," Agor said on the other end. He sounded exhausted. "You're still alive."

"The job went bad," Adrian said, cutting straight to it. "You didn't tell me the BSAA would get involved."

"I didn't know. Our sponsor told me nothing. I thought it was a simple armed escort."

"So I won't be getting the rest of my payment."

"Looks that way. Our sponsor is extremely upset right now. They think I sold the intel to the BSAA. Hell, do I look like a man with no professional ethics?" Agor complained. "If someone wants me to sell out an employer, they need to pay at least twice what the employer paid. That's industry standard. The BSAA would never give me that much."

"That's some impressive integrity."

Adrian's voice was all mockery.

A pale hand landed softly on his chest. He looked down and found T-Lilith staring up at him, still half-asleep.

"Adrian Voss. Too loud..."

"Wait," Agor said. "Voss, did I just hear a woman over there? You barely got back and you're already in bed with someone. Must be nice to be young."

"Mind your own business."

Adrian cursed him without thinking and stroked T-Lilith's head. She rested her cheek against his chest and made a contented sound.

"You should wash that mouth with soap, Mad Dog," Agor shot back. "Anyway. Your convoy's cargo was taken by the BSAA, right?"

"More like destroyed by the BSAA," Adrian said. "They were moving two trucks of B.O.W.s. I saw those things and ran. You know how it is. Stuff like that, the farther away you are, the better."

"Farther away?" T-Lilith lifted her head. "You do not want me?"

"Not you."

He rubbed her hair.

"B.O.W.s..." Agor muttered. "Good thing this happened outside the city. If Giovanna heard I let that kind of mess into Loplers, I'd be in serious trouble."

"Giorno Giovanna? That blond Italian mobster?"

"That's the one," Agor said. "Fine. Nothing else for now. I just needed the details so I can talk to our sponsor. If they were moving that kind of cargo, this gets easier for me. They won't dare make too much noise."

"If that's all, I'm hanging up. I'm busy."

Adrian ended the call.

T-Lilith nuzzled lightly against his chest.

"Adrian Voss. Breakfast."

"Eggs, bacon, bread. I'll warm some milk for you too."

He patted her head, got out of bed, and stretched until his bones cracked.

In the small room behind the bar, Agor ended the call and immediately dialed another number.

"He says the cargo was taken out by the BSAA. By the way, what the hell was your boss transporting? B.O.W.s? That wasn't part of the deal."

"That's none of your concern," a cold female voice answered. "Now give me the mercenary's location."

"What do you need his address for?"

"There are matters I need to discuss with him face-to-face. That's what the boss wants too."

"Fine. You're paying, so you call the shots. I'll send the address now. Bye."

After breakfast, Adrian sat on the couch with the laptop open, scrolling through the news. T-Lilith leaned in beside him.

The report showed an airport in the United States. Something had gone very wrong. A plane had crashed straight into the terminal, its nose buried in the building like a knife stuck into a birthday cake.

"Authorities confirmed early this morning that the airport was the target of a bioterrorist attack. Thanks to the efforts of a special response team, several survivors, including a senator, were rescued. One S.R.T. officer was killed during last night's operation..."

Adrian knew the story.

Resident Evil: Degeneration.

WilPharma was already under fire over a fatal clinical trial in India. Senator Ron Davis, one of the company's political allies, had tried to use the National Pharmaceutical Conference to divert attention from the protests. Frederic Downing, a former Umbrella researcher and WilPharma's chief researcher, had smuggled out T-virus and G-virus samples, then manipulated Curtis Miller into staging a bioterror attack so he could profit from the crisis.

Leon and the others had torn the plan apart.

By the time the morning news aired, WilPharma's facility was burning and Downing was in custody.

It was strange. While Adrian had been fighting for his life last night, one of the major events he remembered from the Resident Evil world had been unfolding in the U.S.

For the next two days, nothing happened.

No jobs came in. Agor did not recommend work. Aside from trips for groceries, Adrian spent nearly every day with T-Lilith.

He asked Agor to help him find a PS2. Agor initially assumed it was some kind of weapons system until Adrian explained that it was a game console. The man went silent for a few seconds, then said he would keep an eye out next time he traveled.

Adrian would have preferred an Xbox 360, but learning it had not been released yet left him with the strange feeling of having moved into history.

"What is a PS2?"

T-Lilith looked up from Adrian's laptop, where she was playing Call of Duty.

"A game console. A machine just for games. When I'm not working, we can use it to pass the time."

He had not originally thought about buying one. He had only downloaded a pirated copy of Call of Duty on a whim. T-Lilith seemed interested while he played, and after he explained the controls, she picked them up fast. Her reactions were sharp. Her aim was steady. She also showed a surprising interest in the game's firearms.

"They used this gun on me," she said, pointing at a weapon on the screen.

So Adrian gave her the spare AR-15 left among his old boss's things.

T-Lilith learned it quickly.

He took her to the range. She shot with frightening precision, the rifle barely moving in her hands. Then Adrian let her try the Desert Eagle his boss had kept as a showpiece. The old man had bought it because it looked impressive and then declared the recoil too heavy for serious work.

In T-Lilith's hands, it might as well have been an airsoft toy.

She fired two-handed. Then one-handed. Then in steady strings.

At twenty yards, every round punched through the target's head.

"This your new girlfriend?" the range owner asked, jaw nearly on the floor. "Voss, where the hell did you find her?"

Adrian said something vague out loud.

Inside, his thoughts were a storm.

T-Lilith could fire a Desert Eagle without her hands shaking. Maybe she had not been lying about the ten-ton arm strength after all.

She had already been impossible to ignore. Now Adrian had to admit he had seriously underestimated her. He had not fully believed her before, but he believed more now. She was strong. Even if he was not beside her, she had more than enough power to protect herself.

On the way home, she wore the Desert Eagle at her waist and the AR-15 across her back. A Call of Duty-style mask covered her face. Her bright silver hair had been pulled into a ponytail and tucked into clothes rebellious enough to suit Loplers. She walked with a bounce in her step and hummed under her breath.

Her expression hardly changed, but she looked wildly happy.

"What do you want for dinner?" Adrian asked with both hands in his pockets.

"Beer wings. Braised pork. And..."

In an excellent mood, T-Lilith began listing every dish he had cooked for her over the past few days.

"How about something simple? Beef curry?"

"Mm."

She nodded and started chanting again.

"Beef curry. Beef curry..."

"Come on. Let's buy ingredients. The fridge is looking empty."

On the street, T-Lilith noticed women working the corners and watched how they clung to customers. Then she copied them, stepping close and wrapping both arms around Adrian's.

"T-Lilith?"

He was genuinely startled.

Her masked face rubbed lightly against his shoulder.

"Being with Adrian Voss is good," she said softly. "Everything we do makes T-Lilith happy. T-Lilith wants it to stay like this."

After that, Adrian took her to buy more clothes. Then they picked up groceries nearby. It felt unnervingly like shopping with a girlfriend.

The warmth of her arm against his filled his chest until it almost hurt.

Maybe this life would not be so bad.

Maybe he could use the one talent every working stiff had and stop risking his neck. Find normal work. Go out during the day. Come home at night to T-Lilith waiting for him.

Adrian had to admit it.

He was afraid to die now.

Afraid he would walk out one day with a gun on his back and never come home, leaving T-Lilith alone in that cold little apartment.

Life would not go smoothly. He knew that.

But he believed they could face it together, for however long they had.

Carrying bags of clothes and groceries, they returned to his apartment.

Adrian's brow tightened.

His free hand moved slowly toward the Glock at his waist.

A tall woman stood in front of his office as if she had been waiting for them. She wore a plaid overcoat, large black sunglasses, and a linen-colored knit cap with a strand of brown hair slipping out beneath it.

She seemed to feel Adrian's stare. Turning, she lowered her sunglasses with one finger. Blue eyes studied him, then T-Lilith beside him.

"The mercenary," she said coldly. "Adrian Voss, correct?"

Her expression was cold enough to keep people at a distance.

"I want to talk to you about the young woman beside you."

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