"Well...we thought we would find....somebody else. We are searching for a man named Lennox. We are mercenaries and here to get him. We were called to bring him back to Liberty and if he refuses then...well I think you know what I mean..."
"Hmm...Lennox, huh? Never heard about him before. Do you have a picture of him?
"Not really...there was never a visualisation taken of him. He somehow always managed it to prevent that..."
"Hmm...seems like you cannot do much here then, hm?"
"Alright...we are moving out. Get back to your ships and prepare them for undocking. Oh...and we found the ship of Lennox in the hangar bay...the Kingfisher. Better you stay away from it...it seems to be more than suspicious." With these words the leader moved out of the room where he came from, the others behind him.
After the door closed Lennox sighed and looked over to the woman who was leaning against a wall, looking offended. He stared at her shortly and then went away to the other direction of the floor, instead of going back into the bar. The young woman ran behind him to catch up and tried to get in eye contact with Lennox.
"What is it? Hey..come on...you have to hurry? *she said and tried to keep up with him* You lied, huh? You didn't tell the mercenary the truth."
"How does that matter? He stinks like a pig that washed himself with red colored money. There is no need for them to say the truth." Lennox stopped and finally looked into the eyes of the curious girl. "I hope you know that curiosity can lead to death sometimes? You shouldn't follow me....but if you do it's not my fault if you suffer from anything."
With a cold voice he finished his last sentence and continued walking. He typed something on his mobile computer around his arm when the girl tried to catch up with him again after thinking a while.
"Uhh...wait...I like dangerous situations...they make me feel excited. Also I wouldn't care about me...I can watch for myself. So...what do you say?"
Lennox released a sigh and stopped walking again. He pulled her into the next dark corner to speak low to her.
"If you want to waste your life...it's not my business. Just try to keep alive...normally I am not very happy about others are following my way..and I hope you will see soon why it should be better for you not to come with me..."
"Uhoh...you are going to worry about me? Heh...first step taken, huh? And so fast..."
Johan shook his head and placed a finger on her lips to sign her she should shut up. "I am not doing this for fun....neither for any person...even I don't know what I am searching for so try not to show me you think that I am interested in you..."
A bit surprised by the words of him she looked away and sighed. "Fine...so..when do we start? Can't expect to see your little dirty secret."
Lennox shook his head again and released his hands of her. He then headed through the next door, the girl followed him with quick steps. Lennox undid a bag of his suit after he locked the door with a code and pulled out something that looks like a laptop, like these from earth centuries ago. But this thing looked quite different. It was equipped with the most modern communication technology and with a neural interface he never used before. He connected the bigger device with his arm-computer over a cable and started to type something in.
"What are you doing? What is all that? Tools that helps you doing your job, heh?" Natasha wasn't able to suppress a giggle but then cleared her throat to switch to a serious face. "So...what is this?"
"Devices for accessing the neural net without being noticed. Excellent for...'covert operations'...ahh..there is something interesting..."
Natasha looked over Lennox' shoulder on his mobile computer but only realized numbers and words in it. "Huh? But there are only some letters and numbers...how can you even see something inside this mess?"
Lennox didn't answer. He was way too busy with analyzing the matter he just found. It was something about the Newcastle system. He stood up not realizing his new 'partner' stood behind him. He hit her chin with his shoulder hardly and turned around, frightened because he didn't expect her behind himself so close.
Natasha took some steps back and felt dizzy of the impact on of the uppercut Johan gave her. She held her chin in pain. "Ow..that hurts...watch out next time!"
"Sorry about this...didn't see you." He walked to Natasha to support her after her giddiness got visible stronger. He laid one arm of her around his neck and his arm around her back. "It's your fault, not mine if you stay directly behind me when I am working deeply on something.." He said wryly with a ver short smile that ran over his face.
"Heh...you smiled? Do it again! That looked nice..." She sat down somewhere with the help of Lennox and and smiled at him.
He didn't answer and got is stuff back together to put it back into his bag. He placed the bag back on his suit and gestured Natasha to come with him. She stood up, her giddiness was gone, and walked to Lennox.
"Do you have an own ship?
"Sure..I've got an Eagle. Pretty nice ship inde..."
"Good." Johan interupted her. "At least I do not have to play the babysitter for you..." He said wryly and headed for the hangar.
Some of the mercenaries were still there. They hadn't left the station yet. Lennox was sure it was some kind of trap. If he would take out the guards inside then the guards outside in space wouldn't be far away from the station. He gestured to Natasha to walk to her ship to distract the guards a bit. Meanwhile he should be able to get in his ship.
"You go first...try to move the guards away from my ship...I will try to do some magic with these folks."
Natasha stared at him after he said "my" ship. She wasn't aware it's Lennox on her side, a person she heard about in the news. He was put under arrest by some kind of data abuse but then made it to escape. She looked a bit scared at him because she also heard about the lost LSF patrol near Curacao via the Neural Net.
"Uhm...sure. Will do my best..." She walked to her ship and waved to the guards to greet them again. "Hey there...can you help me with something here please? I noticed after I landed my ship that there is something stuck on my ship...but I cannot find it."
She suceeded and distracted the guards away from his 'Fisher'. Without a sound he opened the cockpit and pressed the button to close it after he got in quietly. The guards didn't notice anything and tried to help Natasha with her problems. In his cockpit Lennox activated all his devices and sent the same matter like he used for the LSF patrol somehow via the communication channels into the Mercenary ships. This time the ion particles just deactivated the scanners, shields, weapons, comm systems and the lights. The engines were still working but without a navigation system it would be suicide especially without a protecting shield around the ship. He took his comm device and spoke into the hangar.
"Get in your ship! It starts now."
With these words he sent an electrical beam, caused by an intended overheating of his Debilitators, from his ship to the the two guards. They fell down immediately and a stenght of burned leather was spreading around. The girl stood there, frightened by the seemingly dead bodies, and stared up to the cockpit of Lennox with fear, bewilderment and some kind of sadness in her eyes. But then she mobilisated her muscles and jumped into her cockpit after she opened it. Johan knew the guards were alive. They were just knocked out by the beam. But obviously Natasha didn't know it. She closed her cockpit and activated her engines. Lennox did the same with his and requested a permission for both ships to undock with using a false designation of his vessel and a different name. All he was able to hear was "Granted" so he let the Eagle move out first and then followed. Outside in space Natasha was frozen with her gaze on the drifting ships. It looked like a nightmare for her and again she thought they all would be dead. After she initialized a comm channel with Lennox she wasn't able to look at him.
"So...Newcastle, hm? And...will you kill there people, too?"
Lennox sighed but realized it's not the best moment for such conversations. "I will tell you all later. You wanted to hear my story, did you? But first...let's move away from here."
Natasha just nodded and went in formation with the Kingfisher. She leant back into her seat and watched the space while the autopilot was initiated to follow Lennox. After both ships engaged cruise speed they headed for Tau 31, the Newcaslte jumphole Lennox was able to gain information about.
