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Lawrence's fingerpads tingled where they touched the gun, but he didn't know if it was from the adrenaline or if that was just how a freshly-fired gun feels. Dana slid a hand with long, delicate fingers into a pocket. The panther focused on the fox but one ear twitched in the mouse's direction. His tail was unnaturally still, Lawrence noticed. Either this was just another day at the office for him, or he was a sociopath.

Or both, the fox supposed.

A pigeon on a nearby ledge took off with a sudden flutter of wings.

Lawrence's hand twitched as he jerked his arm up, frantically flexing his finger. He put at least one round into the floor before getting the barrel high enough that a frantic shot might hit the panther. He heard glass breaking as he staggered back. The only reason the shots didn't deafen him was because his ears were already tilted low and back.

Later he would reflect on what happened and pretend that some sort of survival instinct, fueled by adrenaline, carried him faster than normal reflexes would follow. Or that he keenly anticipated the panther's shot; something like that. But no matter what he told himself, he knew deep down he just staggered back because he panicked and the kick of the pistol took him the rest of the way.

He fell back, frantically shooting the gun and taking chunks out of the ceiling and the cars behind the panther. The panther simultaneously squeezed the trigger of his shotgun, firing a plastic cylinder with trailing wires through the air. It moved slower than a bullet, little fins on the projectile unfolding to guide its flight as it spiraled over Lawrence's falling form. Metal probes stuck out of the front, the cartridge serving as a single-use self-contained stun gun.

Lawrence was sure he hit his attacker -- the shockwave of at least one impact rippled the panther's fur -- but it didn't seem to faze him. The panther racked the slide as the first shot hit the wall and broke apart into two plastic pieces giving off electric sparks. He raised it again to fire. Lawrence was vaguely aware of a clicking noise.

From the fox's perspective on the floor between two cars, Dana appeared from nowhere as she rushed in and buried a switchblade in the panther's side. He took it with a wince, backhanding her with a snarl. She crashed onto the floor and he pointed at her.

"No," he said to her with that same growl before he lowered the shotgun and grabbed Lawrence's leg to drag him out.

The fox realized he was still trying to shoot the panther, but the trigger wouldn't move and the slide was all the way back. The panther smacked the gun out of his hand.

"Would you fucking stop?" the panther growled some more. Lawrence realized by now that it was either his natural tone, or something he did by habit to disguise his voice. "It'd fuck up the job if I have to kill you, but I'll at least still get my expenses back."

He dragged Lawrence into the middle of the floor and put a bare foot on his chest before aiming the shotgun at Dana. Lawrence grabbed at a leg that felt like it was made of warm marble and tried to pull it off his chest to no avail. The panther's fur felt strange, thicker than normal, with something noticeably artificial about the texture.

"Killing you and your girlfriend are not worth my time and trouble," he told the mouse. "Torturing you to the point of begging for death and dropping you off at a hospital, however, would make me feel a hell of a lot better. This is not about you."

His voice was even despite the growl, like he was begrudgingly ordering a pizza. He turned his full attention back to Lawrence, raising the shotgun again.

Tires squealed and headlights shined on them. He glanced up to see what was going on, and two gunshots rang out. One hit him in the shoulder and one in the chest, but he barely noticed. He quickly aimed the gun at Lawrence and blasted him with one of the plastic cylinders, which felt like taking a paintball to the chest, but at least it was too close for the cylinder to activate and trigger the electrodes.

The panther swung the shotgun up and stepped off of the fox, racking the slide and taking aim, but the car accelerated forward and hit him hard enough to knock him off-balance. Dana pulled Lawrence out of the way and the car surged forward again, shoving the panther against the back of another car and pinning him to it.

The car door opened and Melody got out, tossing the two-shot derringer into the backseat. "Are you okay?" she yelled at Lawrence.

"Just fucking peachy," he groaned in pain, his heartbeat pounding in his ears.

"Okay, fuck this," the panther snarled, producing a handgun and firing a few shots at Melody to get her away from the car.

He wriggled out from between the two bumpers and slipped between two vehicles behind him. They could hear him moving between the cars but knew following was pointless. At some point, his shotgun had vanished.

"We have to get out of here," Lawrence muttered. He sat up and pocketed the inactive plastic cylinder that had hit him in the side before he grabbed the empty pistol off the ground. "Dana, get Linda, we put her in Mel's car and get out of here. Cops'll be on their way."

Dana was already halfway to dragging Linda out and Lawrence moved to help her carry the human to the back of Melody's car. The fox's ear swiveled; he could hear Melody muttering "this is going to suck" over and over under her breath as they all piled into the car and peeled out as quickly as the garage layout would let them.

"How are we not going to get recorded on the security cameras at the exit leaving immediately after a shooting of some sort?" Dana asked. "Should we steal another car, or...?"

Melody's response was to peel out into traffic, almost getting them hit, provoking a startled squeak from Dana.

"Melody, what happened?" Lawrence asked. "Why did you suddenly come in like that? Did we miss something?"

"I was monitoring you guys through the... one sec." She took a sharp turn into an alley without signaling, setting off a symphony of honks behind them. "I was listening to the phone-link when the signal went dead. Wasn't just a signal jammer, it was a network block. Extremely illegal, even for cops. Shuts down any phone data and any cameras that upload to the cloud. Which, these days, is all of them."

"The panther," Lawrence said. "He must have triggered it before he got out of the trunk."

"A single-use blocker is really easy to get if you know where to ask," Melody continued, focusing on the road, trying to keep the tension out of her voice. "They call it a 'High C,' and I'm pretty sure possession of one is technically considered an act of terrorism."

Lawrence opened his mouth to ask something, but then stopped himself when he realized he already knew the answer.

"How do you know about this?" Dana asked, unable to see Lawrence's face.

Melody shot Lawrence a look before glancing in the rearview mirror to meet Dana's gaze.

"Let's just say I know someone who's technically a terrorist," the raccoon said.

"Oh." Then it clicked and Dana's eyes widened. "Oh."

"Wha's gon on?" came a slurred mumbling from Dana's lap, where Linda's head rested as she stretched out across the backseat.

"Just take a few deep breaths, hon, someone drugged you and then used you as bait to lure us into a trap," Dana whispered to Linda in her most soothing voice, stroking her hair. "But it's going to be okay, just rest a moment while we figure out what we're doing next."

"What are we doing next?" Lawrence asked, looking between the back seat and Melody.

"First, you're all coming to work with me. Well, not coming to work with me, but I mean we're going to go someplace public and be pretty visible for a while."

"Mel works at the airport," the fox explained to the pair in the back.

"Isn't 'public' dangerous?" Dana asked.

"It'll harder for anyone to get to us unnoticed at the airport, whether it's some black bag team or official dudes in uniforms," Melody said. "Hoping that's a deterrent."

"That's the first thing, what's the second?" Lawrence asked.

"The second thing is that you're going to tell them exactly what's going on."

"Wait, everything?"

"Start with the Earth cooling and the dinosaurs turning into oil, I don't care," Melody growled with frustration. "But we've got time on the drive to the airport, so you're going to tell them what you found out. They're already danger-adjacent and they deserve to know why."

Lawrence huffed a 'no point in arguing about it' sigh before gathering his thoughts.

"Well, as you know, my father started degenerating with they're apparently calling the Reversion..."

About the time they reached the airport, Lawrence had just wrapped up the story of his visit to Dr. Landau's home and what they'd discovered since he fled to Tom's place.

"That is incredibly fucked up," Linda said after a few moments of silence once Lawrence finished. Dana quietly, wearily fumed at the revelation of the Reversion's origin. She seemed upset, but not terribly surprised.

"Yeah. To put it mildly. So we're trying to figure out some way to get the assassins like that panther off my back."

"That guy got shot a few times, and I stabbed him, and it barely slowed him down," Dana said, just above a whisper.

"He's heavily augmented. My guess is dermal armor implants. Very hard to get a doctor willing and able to do the work, and the upkeep is very expensive. There was something weird about his fur, too, though I couldn't tell you what off-hand. Maybe some sort of skin graft, maybe fur that doesn't shed. I dunno."

"What's that about expensive upkeep?" Linda asked.

Lawrence glanced back. "I design cybernetic implants and prostheses for a living. I know what sort of drug regimen you'd need to keep dermal armor from killing you. Trust me, you'd have to be a high-priced triggerman to afford it."

Melody parked the car in the employee section of the lot.

"Alright, here's the situation," she said, immediately commanding the other three's attention. "We're going to get on the parking shuttle and you ride it around to the main entrance. Dick around in the food court and I'll do my best to keep an eye on you. If there's any time left on the disposable phone, see if there's anything Tom can do to help us out at this point. Capice?"

They all nodded assent, with varying levels of fatigue and worry.

---

When Melody finally got the chance to check on them at the food court a couple of hours later, she walked past seated travelers conversing in various languages or surfing the net on tablets or portable Hub-goggles. She arrived just as Lawrence hung up the disposable cardboard phone Tom had given him earlier. She set down a tray of food and drinks for the trio of weary loiterers. Linda and Dana wasted no time grabbing burgers and cheese fries; everyone was too afraid to use their cards to buy food and like most people none of them carried cash.

"Any news?" she asked.

"That hacker Steve thinks he has something useful. His girlfriend is going to meet us out here, share what he's got." Lawrence's whiskers twitched as he smelled the food, picking the scent of grilled chicken out among the pile of beef.

"When?"

He rummaged through the wrapped sandwiches. "She was apparently already on the road heading to Tom's when we got in touch with him, so it won't be too long."

"Why is Elizabeth bringing us this instead of Steve?"

"Paranoia? Not wanting to be seen in public with people who've just had a run-in with a mercenary?" He shrugged. "Maybe she's already out running errands? I honestly dunno." Lawrence unwrapped a chicken sandwich and started in on it. Sure, it was airport fast food, but from the way his tail wagged Melody would think she'd treated him to a gourmet restaurant.

Melody nodded and processed that, picking at the cheese fries. Linda was trying to vape without being noticed, ducking her head to blow the 'smoke' into her jacket.

"How are you two feeling?" Melody asked Linda.

"My head's pretty much clear now, after everything," Linda said. "I only vaguely remember getting jumped in the first place. But otherwise, I think I'm good."

"Little freaked," the mouse said as she finished her burger, taking a deep breath and staring at the wrapper. "I mean, we got attacked, I stabbed a guy... and I just found out that my existence was engineered to collapse into bullshit once I'm old enough." She looked up into Melody's eyes, the emotional strain obvious in the tilt of her ears, the look in her eyes, the ragged edge of her voice.

"Right. So." Melody glanced away, suddenly awkward. "I've got a couple more hours left on my shift. I mean, if you need to head back into town in the near future, I could loan one of you my keys, take the bus back..."

"Oh, shit!" Lawrence stood up and left some stress-shed fur on the seat. "Gimme a minute. I'll be right back." He took off like a shot.

Melody made awkward small talk with Dana and Linda ("Have you two been together long?" "About three years, four if you count the couple of breaks we took" and so forth) for about twenty minutes until Lawrence came back, panting and wheezing like he was about to have a heart attack.

"What the hell was that?" Melody hissed. "You could have gotten attacked while you were away."

"No, no, it's..." He took another couple of breaths and then a sip of his drink. "My motorcycle is still here. I can take one of us back if need be." He had a tired smile like an idea had occurred to him. "You two borrow Melody's car, head back and maybe even go get Linda's car, and I'll take Melody back."

"I'm not cool with this plan," Melody immediately said.

Lawrence's ears laid back a bit. "You'd rather take the bus?"

"Not even remotely what I meant," she snapped back, eyes narrowing, the mask of fur around them emphasizing the expression.

"Hey, guys, guys!" Linda said, waving a hand between them -- and in the process making them realize they were leaning in across the table at each other. "Incoming."

She pointed to the arctic vixen making a beeline for them as she weaved through the food court crowd. Elizabeth wore a paper mask over her muzzle, something to help drown out the scents of the crowded food court. An eyepiece clung to the side of her head, something custom-made like the jewelry she was selling when he first saw her, the tinted screen seeming to hover in front of her right eye. She had a messenger bag slung over one shoulder, and set it on the table as she approached.

"Good afternoon, folks," she said with a pleasant smile. "Steve called, right?" Everyone nodded. "Great."

Elizabeth pulled a laptop out of the bag, opened it up, and turned it on. The screen immediately came on and she began work opening a series of networking tools. She set up her phone and used it to look up the local wireless networks. She selected one, typed something in on the laptop, and ran a series of scripts to commandeer someone's private hotspot, upload a worm into the device, and open a video chat. She'd clearly done it before, and not just by rote.

She took hold of the screen and swiveled it around to face them while the keyboard still pointed to her. Steve was on the screen. He was shirtless and sitting in front of a bookcase filled with computer hardware and tools. He had that modified skin-conduction interface sitting on his shoulders. The glow of his own screen on his pale skin made him look like a vampire.

"Hey there, Larry. Ladies. I wanted to share what I've found so far. First off, it doesn't look like RothPharm planted that tracker I found at your Alley espionage deal."

"Yeah, say 'espionage' a little louder, I don't think they heard you out on the tarmac," Lawrence growled.

"Oh, it's fine, these speakers aren't that loud. But I really did trace it back to a third party that's been doing business with RothPharm."

"Okay, so let's hear it," the fox said with a frown.

"Shaw Design Consulting, heard of them?" He brought up a company logo featuring a chisel jabbing into a circuit board.

"Nope."

"They work with your company but you don't know who they are?" Linda asked.

"I don't know the name of the company that cleans the carpets, either," Lawrence said with a shrug. "I haven't had to work with them, so they just haven't been relevant to my job."

"In theory, they sort of should be," Steve said from the screen. "I did a little digging. You know from personal experience that if R&D designs something that winds up not working out, they still hang onto any patents and lock up any trade secrets. Nobody throws anything away, just in case they need it later and also out of a terrible fear that someone else could profit off the same idea. Best case scenario, someone unwittingly copies it and they get to file a patent suit."

"I'm with you so far," Lawrence said with a nod. He did indeed know all too well how it works.

"Shaw reaches out to companies and talks to them about their orphaned projects and designs. And they and their engineers take a look at it, and they see if they can license or purchase it to apply it elsewhere.

"Say, for instance, a car company builds a new transmission for SUVs that in theory gives them better ability to change gears on rough roads. They test it and discover that unless you're going under 15 miles an hour, it's a nightmare on fuel efficiency. Shaw comes along, takes a look, and discovers that if you swap out a material and scale up the size, it's perfect for certain types of construction equipment. So they either license or purchase the design, modify it, and license it back out to a company that makes said construction equipment. Or they broker a deal directly between Car Company and Bulldozer Company and take a cut."

"Okay, that explains why they'd be interested in what I traded to NUBio," Lawrence said with a nod. "Long story short, I gave them designs for a system for using bodyswap tanks to install certain implants. Putting it to use might involve revisiting some legislation of the technology, and it's really inefficient in most cases. It'd be like removing your arm to put a chip in your shoulder and then reattaching the arm, instead of just implanting the chip directly."

"That's... clunky," Dana agreed.

"Hey, I didn't design it. But that's why I thought I could get away with selling the designs to NUBio. It's damn near worthless at best the way it is now. I figured that, worse-case scenario, they find something to do with it. I didn't realize there was a company that specializes in finding uses for that crap." Lawrence rubbed his face, whiskers springing free between his fingers. "So Shaw are the ones after me?"

"I think so," Steve said.

"Do they have any ties with Charles Landau?" The specific timing of that strike team's intervention really bothered him.

"I'd have to do some more digging, to be sure. But literally 90% of what they do is networking. I'd be willing to bet money they know somebody who knows him." The video got a little fuzzy and Elizabeth did some typing on the keyboard without swiveling the screen back around. "Maybe you just hit a designated number of red flags. 'If somebody does three things off this list, send someone after them.'" Steve shrugged, jostling the interface on his shoulders. The video feed cleared up.

"That's kind of what I was thinking, too, to be honest. Maybe... Maybe I can still go into work and do some searching on my end. If Shaw is doing this, then I might still have a job."

"In which case I expect to hear from HR in the near future," Steve said with a smirk and a wink.

Lawrence paused. "Ah, right, the job thing. Hey, I'll put in a good word for you, first chance I get. I swear."

"Just give them Liz's contact info. I do everything through her." The vixen dug a small plastic gadget about the size of a thumb or a domino and plugged it into the laptop, and hit a few buttons. "But anyhow, it looks like my dodges of airport security are starting to wear thin, so we should wrap this up. Liz will give you a data stick with everything I've found so far. Password is your dad's birth date. Enter the wrong one five times, the stick erases itself. If you don't access it at least once within the next 24 hours, it erases itself. And if someone tries to force you to unlock it, putting in your own birth date will seem to unlock it at first, but then it will infect the computer with a bunch of crap. And then it will erase itself."

She unplugged the portable drive and handed it over to the red fox. He delicately held it between his blunt claws, ears perked as he processed Steve's instructions.

"That's... thorough," Lawrence said after a moment.

"This all started with someone sending a kill team after you and a defenseless old man. And from what Tom tells me, you just had a run-in with a guy with dermal armor implants. So fuck yeah I'm gonna be thorough."

Lawrence opened his muzzle to reply, but just closed it and nodded in understanding. The video screen went blank and Elizabeth started typing on the keyboard again as she swiveled the screen back around. All of the various video screens around them and even some of the lights flickered. People started fiddling with assorted devices, and some of the folks with Hub-goggles pulled them off to look around.

"Tracks are cleared," the vixen said as she snapped the laptop shut and tucked it back into the bag. "Nice doing business with you." Without another word, she stood and seemed to vanish into the crowd despite her bright white fur and dyed green streaks.

"Speaking of which, I should probably go too," Melody said, glancing at a clock. "Break's about up."

"Hey, Mel," Lawrence said with an uneasy flick of the ear. "One sec."

"Yeah?"

He turned to Dana and Linda. "Can either of you drive a motorcycle?"

"I can, sure," Linda said.

"Great. Mel, think you could give me a ride back later?" Lawrence asked as he fished out his keys and set them on the table.

"You're loaning us your bike?" Dana asked before the raccoon could answer.

"Yeah. It should be in long-term parking since I didn't know how long I'd have to leave it. Section 3. Just leave it parked at Tom's whenever you get your own vehicle back. I'll ride back with Mel."

"Hey now," Melody said with an annoyed frown. "What was all that earlier about with the whole 'volunteering people for things' crap? And then you do this to me twice?"

Lawrence's ears flicked back to hide the embarrassed blush creeping up the inside of them. "Please, it's the easiest and safest thing. These people can't track my bike and I've unintentionally deprived Dana and Linda of their vehicle for a while."

"Also, you shot out one of my windows."

"Also that. For which I will pay you back. I swear."

"Okay, okay, just..." Mel waved a hand dismissively. "Take his bike. Use up all the gas. Get it muddy, whatever. I'll give him a lift back."

"You're a peach, Melody," Lawrence said as he got up to give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"Yes, yes, so you tell me," she said, trying to sound more annoyed than she was.

Dana and Linda got up and Linda grabbed the keys like she was afraid the fox would change his mind.

"We'll meet up with you two later, okay?" Dana said.

The mouse gave Lawrence and Melody a hug, riding a sudden burst of excitement at the thought of not being trapped at the airport for the rest of the day. Linda just offered a curt wave before the two of them went to leave.

"So now you're stuck at the airport," Melody said to Lawrence.

"Ah, but am I stuck here at the airport, or is it stuck here with me?" He offered a goofy smile.

"I'm pretty sure it's the former."

"Come on, we had a rough morning but I've got some solid leads and I'm feeling good about all this. My motorcycle hasn't been taken away by a shadowy agency. I might still have a job. Hell, that alone..."

"Yes, and a high-priced mercenary tried to kidnap you with a gun that shoots taser bullets. The other day a kill team hacked into your ability to check in on your father and came after you. And speaking of which, they're probably still watching his apartment."

Lawrence winced. "Okay. Okay."

"I'll have more time and energy for jokes when I have a better idea that you're safe and I haven't had to go work at my crappy service job like this morning didn't happen with nobody to talk to about it." Her frustration showed in the twitch of her whiskers.

"You win, I'll give it a rest," Lawrence said, his tail drooping. "I'm just gonna go find a bench to take a nap on until you're off work, okay? Can I at least relax a little bit now that the heat seems to be off me?"

"Yeah, that's... fine. Just fine." She shook her head. "Sorry, just..."

"Just get back to work; the sooner you do that the sooner this day will be over, okay?" He offered what he hoped was a forgiving smile.

"Okay. Here, in case you need something." She handed him a cash card.

He pulled her close and without warning gave her a kiss on the cheek, provoking a startled squeak from her. He shuffled off without another word, whilst she gave his departing back a warm smile for just a moment before returning to work. Halfway to a bench, Lawrence spotted a home electronics vending machine and got an idea.

Maybe he could pass the time doing something a little more productive than napping.