Chapter 11: 11

'Good morning Chase fans and welcome to day two of the Convict Chase with me Terry St. Vincent and Naoko Harada Walker! Thanks to Paul for covering the night shift and letting us get some rest so we can be with you for what we hope is another exciting day!'

Terry St. Vincent was an alarmingly happy and cheerful man today especially as he was fronting the Chase show for a change and wasn't in the shadow of Paul Adams. Naoko even got more screen time too which she relished in. Out of the three hosts, Naoko was an actual journalist and hosted many informative documentaries over the years as well as the New Edo ten o'clock news three nights a week. She enjoyed doing something different once in a while to give herself a break from the seriousness and the Chase was the perfect occasion to do so.

'We're coming up for the first twenty four hour mark, meaning we will have thirty hours, twenty three minutes and fifty seven seconds left of this years Chase. If you haven't been watching, here's a recap of the Chase so far.'

Naoko led the way in to a round up segment showing key moments that had happened. Krieger's first kill mere seconds after the Chase had begun, Daisuke Akiyama's disqualification by killing one of his contracts and not one of the cons, followed by Frank's harbour front shooting and then finishing off with Krieger's second kill of convict Andrea Toles by beheading her with her sword, Inazuma.

'So Captain Krieger is currently in the lead with two kills followed by Frank Da Costa with one. Freddie Wilson is yet to get on the scoreboard and Daisuke Akiyama has been disqualified.'

Michael had the right idea and cooked breakfast for everyone as and when they arrived on the Osiris instead of making everything beforehand. They weren't too late though which wasn't that bad. Instead of preparing the weird greasy breakfasts he was made to make at the café place he worked at before he joined the crew he made a wide array of easy dishes. Eggs benedict with fresh muffins from the bakery up the road, lean bacon and homemade hollandaise sauce, fluffy blueberry pancakes, BLT sandwiches on malted toasted bread and even some options for the body building Justin; of scrambled eggs and avocado on whole-wheat toast and protein pancakes made with bananas. Justin was impressed with Michael's cooking and made it clear that he was quite possibly his most favourite person in the galaxy as he knew what to make and make it well.

'Favourite person in the galaxy next to my wife and kids I should say. She'd kill me, if I didn't say that.' Justin cringed a little bit as he corrected himself.

The crew watched the Chase coverage on a small holoscreen mounted in the ships galley as they ate their breakfast. Funnily enough they were watching the Chase Hunters having breakfast. Freddie was in a typical American diner tucking in to what was essentially desert for breakfast; waffles and pancakes. Frank was in some very fancy French Bistro having coffee from a cafetiere with some very intricate pastries and a selection of fresh fruit and yoghurt.

Krieger however was in fact like she had planned, sat in the West End Breakfast Emporium. The English greasy spoon café owned by Ernie and Cindy Carter from good old London, was big enough to hold a fairly small proportion of the British residents of New Edo and coincidentally was the only place on the whole planet that knew what a full English breakfast was. So it got a lot of business; not only from its British regulars but from people who had heard from said Brits that a full English breakfast was the best thing for curing a hangover. And New Edo was the spiritual home of hangovers.

'What can I get you Cas? The usual?' Cindy asked as she wandered up to the table Krieger was just about to sit down at.

'Better make it a large pot of coffee Cindy I got a long day today ahead of me.' She smiled extra hard at Cindy as she saw she was wearing a Team Krieger badge on her apron.

'Sure thing. ERNIE! KRIEGER'S USUAL!' She screamed in the direction of the kitchen at her husband as she walked back behind the counter to fix a pot of coffee for Krieger. Ernie had briefly popped his head out but soon went back in as his wife was advancing.

Krieger's usual wasn't exactly a full English breakfast but it was what she could handle. She went for the standard breakfast but with a few things taken away and a few additions. She never had black pudding or baked beans but supplemented their removal with extra fried mushrooms and an extra hash brown. So on the serving platter sized plate that was eventually presented to her were two fried eggs, three rashers of back bacon, a few plum tomatoes, three hash browns, two pork sausages and a mound of fried button mushrooms with a side of buttered white bread and a huge pot of coffee to wash it all down.

The coffee was the first thing to go. Krieger downed it with an ample amount of milk and sugar that she dumped in to her mug. Cindy graciously brought her out another pot knowing that she would want another. Krieger delved in to her breakfast; shovelling everything in her mouth looking like she barely chewed anything on its way down. Ernie always cooked breakfasts to perfection and this was exactly what she needed right now. She ate everything that was on her plate, mopping up the residual yolky egg with the last piece of bread. Saving Cindy a trip back to her table, Krieger picked up her plate and took it up to the serving counter.

'As always, perfect breakfast.' Krieger said as she handed over her plate to Cindy. Ernie had finally come out of the kitchen in the back, wiping his hands on a blue and white striped tea towel. Krieger noticed Ernie was also wearing a Team Krieger badge on his apron. She approved. Krieger then placed her finger on the scanner on the counter to pay for her breakfast as Ernie began talking.

'Think you're gonna get another today?' Ernie asked while his wife tended to the plate Krieger had given her.

'I hope so, it's up in the air though there's only two cons left and three hunters.'

'Well we're cheering for you anyway Krieger.'

She grinned.

'How much you put down on me winning this year?'

'Five thousand creds.' Ernie chuckled.

'Well I'll do my best and make sure you score big. I better dash, I'll be winning fuck all if I don't get hunting.'

'Stay safe sweetheart.' Cindy called over as Krieger turned to leave. She smiled and waved as she made her way through the door, instantly getting on neural comms to Ronson as her feet hit the pavement.

'Morning babes, you got owt for me?'

'Nothing yet. New Edo's barely woken up and had its first ciggy yet I bet everybody's still hungover from last night, or they're at work already.'

Krieger sighed. She hated slow Chases. It meant a lot of waiting around for nothing to happen and the only time you'd ever really find a con was if you got lucky on your search or if they made the mistake of being pinged on one of the many CCTV cameras dotted around.

'Right.' Krieger squinted her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose as if it would help her think better. 'Um, lets try some profiling see if that gets us anywhere. Get me some info on the cons we have left send it to my ocular.'

'Okay... two secs... There.'

Krieger's left eye HUD lit up with photos of one of the cons and some text showing some statistics; height, ages, weight and so on.

'Okay so this is Jax. Real name unknown but it was changed by deed poll years ago. Six foot two, two hundred and five pounds of what seems to be pure muscle, mixed race black and white. Associated with the Outer World Liberation Front as a mere foot soldier. That's all I got on him, seems like the OWLF are pretty good at getting rid of or fabricating information.'

'You don't think he could be one of their suicide bombers?

'Possibly, they tend to leave that up to the brainwashed underlings. They usually get them to assassinate difficult to reach targets without any regards to the consequences.'

'And is Jax one of them? You got his arrest record?' Krieger questioned. Knowing what some of the OLWF minions were like from previous attacks; if Jax was a disposable soldier then he was most likely going after somebody important or he was planning on bombing somewhere or a whole bunch of people during his time out of jail. Krieger was thinking the latter. The mission was never quite over for them and prison wouldn't stop them from finishing it.

'Ookay.' Ronson started. 'He was arrested a few times back on Earth when he was a member of an Animal Rights Group. Cut to the new galaxy and he's only had two arrests, one for punching a police officer during a supposedly peaceful protest and the second arrest is what landed him in prison. Bombed the trade docks on Moralis. They caught him shortly after about to set a bomb off on the Boston Swing Bridge from the mainland to the dock island.'

'He's not coming out any time soon. You get any breakfast yet?' Krieger asked.

'In a mo, they're replenishing to buffet table soon. Erik can't half put it away.'

Krieger smiled a little imagining Erik towering over the buffet table loading up on whatever he could fit on a plate. She brought herself back round to the real world and lit a cigarette as she walked through the streets. New Edo was wide awake by now and people were going about their business as normal. Of course a bunch of the pubs were already teaming with people watching the Chase on their holoscreens with a cheeky morning pint.

'So what about the last guy, Clements?'

'Sending info now.'

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Krieger received the information again on her left eye HUD with more blurb about Clement and a few more pictures that cycled through on a slideshow. They were only shown a few photos of each con before the Chase started. Either way, none of them were good photos.

'Jesus Christ he looks like he fuck a warm muffin.'

Krieger could hear Ronson choking slightly at the comment she made. She could hear him giggle a bit then heard him drinking something, followed by a small cough as if he were trying to compose himself.

'Never mind fucking warm muffins, this sick bastard had a penchant for drunk women and little girls.'

'Oh this guys getting torn to pieces. I'd even let the others do it so long as he suffers.'

'Well nobody has seen him at all. I've had a look at some of his psyche reports and this guy is evil. Nine counts of rape on adult women, five of which were murdered and four counts of sexual abuse on minors; one he molested and raped on and off over 3 years and two of which he also killed. The last one committed suicide several years later when she was only thirteen.'

'He has a compulsion by the sound of it. How long has he been locked up for?'

'Three years and seven months.'

'And he's on the nonce wing?'

'Yep, far away from Gen Pop.'

Krieger's skin was crawling just thinking about this awful excuse for a human being. She figured Ronson was lousy at the thought of this guy too.

'So he's been in all that time, away from everybody else. Yeah he's either gonna keep his head down or he's out to get his jollies one last time before he gets slotted.'

'That's what I think he'd do.' Ronson sighed deeply.

'Ugh I hate when they send pedos for the Chase. I mean this is a fucked up planet but we have barely any of those sick fucks.' Krieger shook her head.

'Even New Edo resident pedos don't last five minutes when they get outed, the locals go after them.'

'Well one of us better get to him before they do. It's still a competition.'

'You better get cracking then. Last proper full day and night to search for these arseholes.'

Krieger could hear a slight sense of urgency in Ronson's voice, meaning he wanted her to wrap this up as soon as possible and get those final kills in. She knew damn well he had a shopping list with expensive things on it waiting to be checked off during a spree and the Chase win money Krieger would give him would pay for it all. He had the money to begin with but he never wanted to dip in to that. Krieger thought it was funny but to be honest, she was exactly the same. The pair of them came from backgrounds that never allowed treating themselves or excessive spending thanks to a disposable income. But now after amassing a huge amount of money they learned how to budget for their treats and daily living expenses; spend money coming to you, not what you already have saved. Krieger knew Ronson was eying up some designer clothing and a brand new kitchen for his apartment. Bespoke as well.

The crew of the Osiris were now busy milling about the ship after the fabulous breakfast Michael had prepared. While they were all enjoying the Chase so far, they were looking forward to the trades holiday that came directly after. The trades holiday happened every year directly after the Chase; three days of all factories on New Edo closing to allow all their staff time for rest and to allow deep cleaning crews and engineers to come in and make everything ship shape and Bristol fashion. But of course with this being New Edo, it meant that those three days would be spent drunk. The crew of the Osiris however like a lot of the people off during this time would spend most of the holiday down at the beach. Sometimes without Krieger if she had been seriously injured during the Chase and had to spend time in a tank of MediGel down at the local clinic. She tried to make sure that didn't happen though, she'd rather spend time with her crew at the beach than stark bollock naked in a tank of some mad perfluorocarbon-esq goop that felt and smelt like wallpaper paste.

'I don't think the boss is gonna get the next one.' Jess spoke up.

'I don't think she will either.' Faye added.

The other's looked at them both, wondering if this sudden outburst was some kind of psychic twin moment. Jess was already placing a bet on who she thought was get the next kill. Faye was doing the same on another betting site. Michael was wondering if they were all in on it, as if Krieger was not getting certain kills on purpose to benefit the crew who were betting on her. He thought against it, she did seem pretty pissed off when she didn't get to Frank's kill on time to steal it from him.

Michael then thought he'd stick a bet on his Boss to win. He had a few hundred credits going spare saved over from his last pay check so he decided to stick a hundred credits down on Krieger to win overall. He'd get a pretty decent return on that bet if she won so he'd have a bit more to stick in his savings pot.

The crew watched their Boss on screen as she walked through the streets of New Edo, stopping occasionally to chat to a few people and sign a few autographs. Eventually the cameras following her were lead to Hideki's bar. The footage then cut from Krieger to Freddie and Frank who were both still having an elongated breakfast. Freddie could be seen from outside Joe's Twenty Four Hour Diner which did an awesome burger and amazing fried chicken but served anything that could be considered dessert as breakfast. Frank however was doing the usual of sitting outside one of the nicer bistros enjoying a leisurely breakfast of pastries, fruit and coffee. And of course it being Frank, several good looking women were sat at his table flirting away with him.

Daytime was usually slow on the Chase. Most of the programme during the daytime and afternoon was filled with segments about greatest kills or spectacular fails from previous years; Krieger appearing many times in both and sometimes with Frank as their competition with each other sometimes came to a head. Frank and Krieger were kill stealers, especially with each other. Frank's most remembered steal from Krieger was when he got some of his big American Football/Rugby playing sports mates to literally tackle and carry her away from her target she was just about to shoot. Krieger's most remembered steal was when Frank was about to shoot his target, but she threw an egg and cress sandwich at his head and it smacked him straight in the face; the egg concoction clung to his face and slid down right on to his designer suede jacket. Frank lost his shit. Krieger lost her sandwich.

'What's the Boss doing at Hideki's' Michael asked his crew mates bar Zach who were all back in the rec room of the Osiris, watching the Chase day two on the big holoscreen. 'They got information for her?'

'Yep.' Devin answered. 'She has a bit of a network who relay info to the guys at Hideki's and Bab's at her bar.'

'Hunters are only allowed to communicate with their handlers via the neuromod, but they are allowed to collect info by other means.' Tony added as he sipped at a hot mug of coffee.

It dawned on Michael that he knew bugger all about the Chase. In fact he knew bugger all about what was going on in the rest of the galaxy. If it wasn't for his workmates he'd still be in the dark about everything.

'She's probably having a mid-morning pint too.' Tony chuckled.

Krieger was absolutely going to have a mid-morning pint. Hideki's bar was quite busy for this early time in the morning but it was also quiet due to some specific customers. There were a small group of Voxon males sat around one of the big tables, all looking at a pitcher of beer with empty glasses in front of them.

'Oh shit.' Krieger said over neurocomms to Ronson as she walked in to the bar. 'There's a bunch of Voxon in Hideki's.'

'Ooof, good luck with that.' Ronson replied.

Krieger sailed past the group and leant on the bar, looking up at Hideki who had been wiping down the counters with a pleading look in her eyes saying "pint now, I beg of you!" He complied instantly without saying a word.

'Oh! Look! That's Captain Cassandra Krieger of the Osiris! Hello Captain. Please come and join us in the drinking of alcoholic beverages.'

Hideki slid the fresh pint over to Krieger with a touch of a grin on his face at what one of the Voxon group who recognised her.

'Here's your alcoholic beverage Captain.' He said through his grin. Krieger picked up the glass and gave Hideki a look consisting of annoyance with a touch of venom. Time to be nice in the face of perfection.

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