Enhance 2: Chapter 4

Phase and Feint made their way across the city getting closer to the river. A bridge hung over the water, old weathered and seen Chicago when it was a much younger city. The dockyard was lined with shipping crates. Folding his arms Phase shivered as he kept his gaze toward the dockyard.

This side of things looked almost entirely abandoned. Most of the shops were boarded up and abandoned or looked on their way out.  No cars, barely any people that weren’t homeless around, and a few small barren trees that had gone to sleep during the winter.

“Are we in the right place?” Phase asked. “Seems kinda poor for anyone Royal related.”

“This is where I was able to guess work the location,” Darren sent a picture of the map with red Xs crossed through and a big circle linking them together. Overlaying with his own map Phase saw that they were just outside the center of it.

“Maybe it was a bad tip?” Phase suggested.

“Wait Phase. Look,” Feint crouched down and pointed at a car coming down the street. It was black, the windows tinted darkly, and no head or rearview lights. If it weren’t for the flickering streetlights and the fact that she was on the lookout for it, she’d have missed it. “I could be wrong but that cars a bit too German for this neighborhood.”

“I wouldn’t call you wrong at all,” Phase followed the road it was taking as it got to the intersection and then turned onto the bridge going straight over to the port. “Looks like the tip was right. Let’s see what’s going down.”

Taking a step forward he dropped off falling a couple dozen feet and rolled upon hitting the ground. Feint caught up to him and the pair of them crossed the bridge without too many issues. The road was crap, all the way through, with uneven ground and splotches of potholes.

The other side wasn’t much better. The ground was rough concrete and the smell of the lake was aggressive in their noses. Not quite like that of a fish but something equally as oily and barnacle ridden. Rather than following the established route that the assorted construction vehicles would take they climbed the crates.

Stacked three crates high but with no real cover at the top the pair slinked forward trying to be as quiet as the cold metal would allow. There were about four lights around, one of them swinging from the top of a crane. The pair eased their way forward and got a good look at what they were working with.

There were cranes and fork lifts along with a small shed for when work was actually getting done. A few oil drums and canisters were around along with piles of iron bars and wooden planks. The area did open up to the opposite side where ships could float right over and dock for offloading. There weren’t any major ships nearby but there was a small white yacht with a bridge connecting it to the dock and a rope tethering it.

The black car slowed and idled next to another car, black but local American make and had seen better days. Four guys stood around it, wearing jeans, beanies and jackets. But from how they stood and just experience with it he knew they were armed. With what he had no idea but they were on his radar. They were spread out keeping watch of their business partners but also for anyone else. Not a pale face among them.

The doors to the black car opened and a trio of men got out. The two in front seat were just like the others but the one from the back seat caught their attention. Cargo pants, a dark vest, and braids ducked in behind a durag under a cap. His face was clean shaven but something about the set of his eyes and mouth added some decades to what Phase would have originally guessed.

“That’s the Vanguard if I’ve ever seen them,” Phase said glancing back at Feint.

She nodded but her eyes were on the yacht, “They’ve been making noise the past few months. Getting strong and bold again. Looks like killing Rook only slowed them down.”

The door of the yacht opened and a half dozen men walked out. The first four were tall blondes and brunettes with skin that looked like it couldn’t take the early morning sun let alone get a tan. They were wearing perfectly fit dark blue and purple suits with black ties. At their ears she could see black earpieces and wondered who they were reporting to.

Behind them was a slightly shorter man wearing a vest over his button up and had his jacket over one arm. His face was young, baby faced. Probably just graduated from whatever ivy league school his father paid for. His blonde hair was well combed and immaculately done. The sharpness of his nose, couple with how his eyes appraised the gathering just oozed arrogance. Finally, behind him was another of the similar suits but they were carrying a thick aluminum brief case.

Feint touched her mask lightly and rotated her fingers staring at one of the guards ear pieces. “Mask latch onto that signal,” she whispere. “Phase jump into channel four. We should be able to hear everything.”

“Got it Fei.”

The suits stood in a solid line at the edge of the water and their young leader came forward spreading his arms. He wasn’t far from them at all but there was a healthy amount of distance. They were doing a deal but they weren’t friends, “Welcome my friends. I’m glad to see you all here. I take it that you are Dusk. I trust it wasn’t too difficult to get here.”

“No problems of the trip over here,” Dusk said shrugging his shoulders. “They say you been calling yourself G. You going on a midnight cruise or something?”

“Not quite,” he replied chuckling. “It’s just always easier to conduct business via the water ways. Less chance of meeting unsavory people.”

“Unsavory. Yeah that’s a word for it. But let’s not waste time talking. I know you folks like to talk nice to each other for way too long but that’s not how we do things. Do you have it or not?”

“Getting to the point. I can respect that from a man of business,” he said and snapped his fingers. The suit with the briefcase came forward. Balancing it against his arm they popped both of the clasps and opened the top. In the velvet container were four vials next to four syringes. Beside that were sixteen more vials. “As promised. Twenty doses of Neo Enhance.”

Dusk whistled looking at the brief case and finally laughed, “Neo Enhance. That what you lab boys have been calling it? On the streets we’re calling it Aug. But that’s not all of it.”

“Believe me, this is much more than what has been sampled and put together before But this is a proof of concept. We have more to trade and deliver. But I’ve shown you mine. So as the saying goes, show me yours.”

Dusk jerked his head back and glanced at one of the others. They walked over to the truck popping open the trunk. Pulling out a duffle bag they tossed it forward as it slid forward along the ground. G looked at the bag and his smile didn’t change but a look crossed his eyes but Dusk just kept his arms folded as he looked at him.

One of the suits walked to the bag slowly, grabbing one of the zippers and sliding it open. There were thick bundles of folded bills. G stood over the bag his mouth moving slowly as he did mental calculations. From their angle above they couldn’t see the entire contents but they were sure that the thing was full of money. “That should cover our order.”

“That it does,” G replied clapping his hands together. Raising his index finger he spun his hand around slowly and the door to the boat opened as a trio of women came off the boat each having a brief case in both hands. “I hope that this is the beginning of a long and healthy partnership.”

“That’s a lot of product,” Phase mumbled. “Way more than some small setup. This is big.”

“Very big,” Feint agreed and tapped her mask slowly. “Mask pull up anything involving Aug or Augment.”

Her lens opened up a quick search engine and a few articles. ‘Powerful new drug making the rounds on the streets’, ‘In police raid more of the new street drug called ‘Augment’ found’, ‘Augment shows to have many similarities with the drug Enhance’. More and more articles like this showed up but when she looked at the location she saw that they were scattered. Not just Chicago but the across the Midwest and east coast.

“I thought Enhance was our biggest worry,” Feint said softly. “But there’s always something new and something bigger coming around the corner.”

“People always make their own flavors of Enhance. Is this that much different?” Phase asked.

“Trust me it Is,” Darren said jumping into their conversation. “I’ve heard rumors of the so called Neo Enhance. Thought it was just nomenclature to hype up some randoms brand.”

“So it’s that serious,” Phase folded his arms. “Darren who’s this G guy that’s peddling this stuff?”

They typed up slowly trying to dig through information on their end, “Gs just a code name. Real name is Daniel Guy. Son of Harold Guy, media manager of Harris LLC.”

Feint frowned hard, “I remember Harris. They’re old friends of the Royals aren’t they?”

“They used to. There was a lot of commotion about it after a few of their clients were exposed to be a part of the organization. To save face they distanced themselves from anything to do with it. My guess is they got disavowed by the Royals in the process.”

“So what’s that gotta do with wannabe mobster here?” Phase asked.

One of the suits walked over to G and said something in his ear. His face went through a few different shades of color but settled on an angry red. He mouthed something that Phase wasn’t able to figure out in time.

He started to ask if Feint had caught it but before she could respond there was a sharp shock of feedback in both his ears. Grinding his teeth together he fell to his side sharply and kept his hand to his head.

Rolling to his side he looked at Feint and she wasn’t doing any better right now, her forehead pressed hard against the crate. “Mask cut communications!” he barked out and the feedback stopped as quickly as it had started. Gasping he started to get up slowly and looked at Feint.

Feint shook slightly trying to get back her bearings. Hitting her hand down against the crate lightly she looked at her mask and for the time being it was just a hunk of plastic. But then the lights came back on and the systems within the mask rebooted.

Once it was back online she got to her feet and looked back toward the meeting. She barely got to the edge when a gunshot went off and her instincts let it pass harmlessly through her in an instant. She ducked back away from the edge of the crate. Phase rolled backwards looking over the side and he could see the Vanguard working their way behind them guns out.

Phase looked through his mask the mask and it took a few seconds before everything booted up properly and he was immediately back into the communications channel. “Fei. Darren. You there?”

“Yes,” Feint said sounding aggravated. “It seems like they figured out we were spying on them.”

“They’re surrounding us now,” Phase said. “Mask swap to X-ray.”

Rotating through the vision spectrums before settling on the black and white gaze. He stared down and watched the half dozen or so spread out and started shouting back to one another to try and figure out how to get on top of the crates. Feint was doing the same but looked toward the boat.

G and his group were backing off quickly to get back on the yacht. The three women with the Neo Enhance were the first to get on the boat and she could see that the engine was starting. The other suits had their guns drawn and made their allegiances known. “Looks like the friendship is breaking down already.”

“Let’s not stay around and see the aftermath of it,” Phase said grasping around for his pouch. Rotating it around he grabbed a couple capsules. They were the size of an Easter egg you’d buy in Target except painted black and felt about the same weight of a rock.  Feint did the same and they both threw them over the top of the crates.

The make shift bombs popped and exploded like fire crackers. There were sparkles of red and orange light but then massive clouds of smoke filled the ground with thick white smoke. Phase ran back the path they took hopping down until they were on the ground level. The moment they went into the smoke their masks shifted over into heat based coloring.

The light purple of the area wasn’t easy to navigate but they had a general idea of the way back to the bridge. At least they would have if nature hadn’t decided to lend a cruel hand with a strong gust of wind. It tore the smoke away except from the few grenades that were still fizzling and streaming smoke just not actually covering their location.

“Shit.”

The gunshots started and both of them dove back behind the crates for protection as the bullets bounced off the metal sides of the crates. Pressed flat against them Phase looked toward the bridge and wondered if they could make a solid sprint toward it. That idea went away quickly as the truck darted forward and skid around to block the road of the bridge.

“Surround and light them up!”

“Ideas Fei?”

The wind caught again and she nodded her head slowly and checked her pouch pulling free a red egg and nodded again. “I’ve got an idea. But once it goes off we need to get down to the river.”

Taking out another red egg she rolled them between her fingers and took a slow breath looking over at Phase. She could hear them coming now, their boots and shoes clapping against the ground. Squeezing both she threw them over her shoulder and caught sight of them as they crested their arc. “What the fuck was that?” she heard one of them say and then it went off. One exploded hard enough to shake the ground and another bounced and went off seconds later.

If the first explosion was like throwing a rock into a pond this was like tossing a boulder. The air rippled hard enough that the crates shook and bounced backwards, dislodging the stack and sending one cascading down across the ground. Someone screamed but it was cut short under the thunder of it.

Phase didn’t have to think twice as he sprinted toward the river with Feint hot on his heels. The concrete ground ran out suddenly turning into grass and slopped down hard.  Both of them crashed into the grass and almost stumbled rolling down the hill. Stumbling forward the ground evened out finally onto the bank.

The river water sloshed at their feet having been shaken by the explosions behind them. Phase glanced at Feint and then back up at the dockyard. The wind wasn’t helping with the thick plumes of black smoke that were emanating into the sky. He opened his mouth and he was ready to say something else when another explosion went off, not quite as big as the last one but definitely bigger than the first one.

“What the hell did you do?” he asked trying not to laugh.

“I didn’t do that,” throwing her hand back behind her she sighed. “At least I didn’t mean to. Whatever it doesn’t matter. We need to get across.”

Phase looked across the river and it was wide. They weren’t going to be able to jump it in one go. Looking toward the bridge though he saw the legs and as the water moved he could see some stone supports. They were at least ten feet away from the banks and almost twenty feet between them both. He looked at Feint but she was already going across the bank. She took a few steps back and jumped landing squarely on the stone support.

Phase followed suit taking each jump in stride. They landed on the other side of the bank and took a minute to catch their breath. Looking back over their shoulders to the mess they left behind he whistled. “You think anyone survived all of that?” Phase asked.

“I’ve heard trash floats,” Feint replied. “You see anything Darren?”

They were quiet on the response for a minute before finally saying, “No. Nothing. They’re either being silent or they got wiped out. Hoping for the former so we can see what’s really going on with them. You should come back home. That definitely attracted a lot of attention.”

“Yeah no shit.”