Final Encryption - Part 6

Ricky tries, and fails, to grasp the situation...

Ricky followed the surviving members of the “intervention” team down the stairs and into the convent’s strange HQ-Basement. He’d spent the ride back from Montreal trying to sort out what had happened to Eddie, while the others alternated between distraught and furious. Only Marie-Ange was quiet. She had started murmuring a prayer a couple of times but then closed her mouth into a grim line before she finished.

She’d gone to the chapel  to properly pray, Ricky guessed. The rest were gathering in the basement, explaining the loss to the team.

“I should have realized that SBO would attack us,” said Nina softly, “given that we were getting close, it fits the profile...” She trailed off as Raven turned away and kicked one of the stone pillars.
One of the men took off the earpiece he’d been using to listen to a telegraph, “What do we do now? There’s been no word from Oldie.”

“Just wait Miguel,” said Gaston, “we’ll talk it over with Marie-Ange.” The others grumbled assent and then went back to pretending to be busy. But Ricky knew they were all thinking along the same lines as him.

He hadn’t ever been a survivor of anything before. He liked to think of himself as a bit of a renegade, sure. A man that lived on the edge – anyone that had seem him drive could agree to that. But Crowbar Eddie, a guy that looked like he could chew iron and spit nails, had been taken out by some digital ghost-monster and now Ricky was on its shit-list.

He considered telling everyone that this was more than he signed up for, but he saw a few red, puffy eyes in the group and thought better of it.

After poking around and looking at the array of working antiques they collected, he resigned himself to the fact that there wasn’t going to be any cold beer and sat down.

Just then, Marie-Ange threw open the door at the top of the stairs. Still in her nun’s habit, she had a ragged fierceness in her eyes that drilled holes into Ricky. He nearly stood up out of fear alone.

“Alright. This thing is dark, and dangerous, and its sniffing at our door. It took Eddie from us...but I won’t sit by waiting for it to take someone else. What I’m asking for isn’t easy, but you know in your hearts what’s right. We need to hit StormBrainOne, and I know how.”

Ricky was jostled as Marie-Ange came down from the stairs and began making plans with her team. “Hey,” he said as they began discussing a map and where he should drive them to get at SBO, “you guys can’t just assume I’m going in for this plan”.

This was how he ended up driving Marie-Ange and part of her team to Club Stereo the next night. As they approached on the street, they could hear the thrumming of the bass inside the enormous club.
Ricky sighed at the musical trauma he’s experienced since meeting Marie-Ange and her cohorts. “So, if this thing is all digital, isn’t going into a dance club that only plays electronic music kind of suicide?”

“Only kind of,” said Marie-Ange humourlessly.