Chapter I

It was a quiet, still evening. Quiet even for those who had seen a small figure perched on the roof of a building, who they merely dismissed as 'jumper' and hurried on with their business. Really, the person – the woman - was anything but. As she stood and continued with her journey across the rooftops, she gave a wild laugh, which echoed downwards and caused normal citizens and battle-hardened mercenaries alike to look around furtively. Word spread quickly along the streets:

'Bass is on the hunt again'

Valuables were swiftly locked up, and weapons of all kind were displayed obviously as they watched their surroundings for any sign for the notorious woman. Nobody was ever sure (apart from Bass and her Boss) what she was after until she had it. She could be after a treasure, a piece of information or even a person. Very few even knew what Bass herself looked like, and even fewer believed that the girl was actually human, and not a soul out for revenge for the destruction of the 9th District of H'ress, or even a mythical vampire, draining her victims after she had what she wanted. Human or not, Bass was very alive, and very fast in getting what she wanted.

Bass knew what she was looking for, though. She slid down the wall and into the window with the ease of experience, and perched on the windowsill, head tilted as she listened for anybody approaching. Hearing nothing, she stepped inside the tiny office, pulling a key out from its poor hiding place on a shelf. She flicked the light on, sat behind the desk and inserted the key in a drawer, flicking through the papers in search of the information she wanted.

"Yelena, are you alright?" A voice called from down the hall. Almost nonchalantly, she recalled the information Lark had given her about Yelena Danoe, a Tainje-born woman of 27, with a reportedly high-pitched, grate-on-the-nerves voice.

"I'm fine, thank you" She mimicked the clipped accent perfectly, to the man anyway, as she listened as he turned and walked away, obviously satisfied.

She reached deep into the drawer, pulling out a bulging file full of information on various people, places and arms. A smile pulled at a pale mouth as she walked past the wary bodyguards and high-tech security systems as if she was just setting out on an ordinary Sunday stroll. Smiling innocently and clutching a bunch of papers to her, she seemed nothing more than an honest secretary. Nobody thought twice about the pale young woman sauntering out of the building with a smile like the cat that got the canary. They never did.

Bass walked through the near-silent streets and alleys with the papers tucked carefully into one of the many pockets of her long coat. While the perpetually smiling mouth and appealing face may have attracted attention, the sharp, pale blue eyes and the 'touch me and die' expression in them warned even the most foolish of people to keep away. She rounded a corner, pulling the sleeve of her coat and long sleeved shirt away from her arm when she froze, eyes focusing on the lanky figure of a person – a man by the frame, she assessed - facing the door to the building she was planning to enter, frowning down at something in his hand. The person turned to face her, and she relaxed slightly, sizing the boyish-looking man up and knowing she would be able to take him in a fight, should he get any ideas.

"You after something?" She asked sharply, breaking the silence as she tugged her mahogany-coloured braid of hair over her shoulder.

"I'm looking for the songbird" He commented, in the tone of voice used by someone talking to themselves, but Bass tilted her head as she frowned, recognising the keywords for guest entry to the building.

"Whether you see her or not depends on what you want" She replied, arms folded.

"Who're you?" he replied angrily. She smiled patronisingly in return.

"You first" He sighed and produced a card out of his pocket, handing it to her. She turned it over in her hands, checking it.

'Data card' her mind informed her. She placed it on her arm, and a message scrolled across the screen, in one of the rarer H'ress street dialects. After a moment, she removed it and handed it back to him, approaching the door. She placed her forearm along a panel by the door, which ticked and bleeped, sliding open. She turned and gestured for him to follow, waving her arm in explanation.

"Chip" She explained, pulling him through the door.

"Isn't that-"

"Illegal?" She smirked knowingly "Show me one bit of official paper saying that and I'll dig it out with my teeth" She shook her head at his still perplexed expression "Rich and powerful like to kid themselves that we can't get our hands on high tech stuff, and even if we did, we wouldn't have the balls to use it. Idiots"

"Bass!" A short, balding man behind a desk at the back on the small entrance room was glowering in their direction "You're late!"

"And you're ugly" She replied, smiling angelically the whole time "But what can you do about it?" She shrugged in a mock-helpless gesture and continued towards the desk, still pulling the young man behind her.

"You're to see the Boss" he grumbled, obviously wanting to say something else but knowing he would never get the last word in if he tried "She wants to see you"

"Oh good" She smiled, though an annoyed edge was clear in her voice, and she walked away, the young man being tugged along. She nodded to the few people standing around the small office-like area, a tall, imposing dark man with bluish black dreadlocks and an almost Fay-like woman with almost opaque skin, white blonde hair and mother-of-pearl eyes being among them

"Bass!" She turned back to the short man; an eyebrow raised "You're not taking him with you, are you?"

"The kid's with me" She replied, turning to indicate the conversation was over, and then glanced at the guy to had been dragging with her "And before you say anything – you're younger and less experienced than me – so therefore, kid"

He stared after her until she leaned back and grabbed his coat lapels, hauling him along with her.

She pulled him into a small room, which, to his surprise, turned out to be an elevator. She released him finally, leaning against the glass wall which showed H'ress District 4 in the evening. She stared at the wall of the elevator, obviously unimpressed by the view, while he looked down in almost childlike fascination at the tiny lights.

"Isn't this a bit..." He looked at her for help with wording; she stared for a moment, before clearing her throat and offering a word.

"Obvious?" He nodded "I suppose it is a bit. But it's a pretty view, don't you think?" She smiled disarmingly and looked down onto the quietening city and they went up away from it.

The man – or kid, as Bass had named him – looked at the woman standing next to him, appraising her without being too critical or lenient. Her wavy reddish brown hair was pulled back in a braid that fell to the middle of her back, while her pale face with a faint dusting of freckles was angled away from him to look down onto the city. Her eyes seemed to be her most powerful asset, while as people might consider her slight frame and pale skin as an advantage to them, the cool blue held an unspoken threat which most people's danger senses noted before even they consciously did. Otherwise, there was nothing to differentiate her from any other H'ress woman, she had a bit more muscle, and looked a bit worn, but who didn't in this city nowadays?

As he drew back from examining her, he saw with a shock that the blue eyes were staring straight at him from between the loose waves of hair, seeming to pick apart his personality just by looking at him. She saw a boy barely out of his teens, with short spikes of blonde hair and wide hazel eyes, taller than her (though at 5'5'' quite a few people were taller than her) and lanky, built more for agility and speed, he would never be particularly strong.

'Green' she decided with a derisive snort.

She broke off glaring at him when the elevator clicked, ending his uncomfortable shifting. She walked out into the corridor, deciding to leave off pulling the poor boy around. She approached the old oriental-style door at the end of the corridor with confidence, aware of the kid following her warily. She knocked, and at the soft command of 'come in' pushed back the door ad stepped inside.

"Evenin' Boss" She greeted the other female behind the desk. 'Boss' Lark looked up from the various papers on her desk and smiled, faint creases appearing at the corners of deep brown eyes. She was dressed in a neat navy suit with a white blouse underneath, giving the perfect impression of a business woman while the chain gun on a rest on the adjacent wall spoke otherwise. Nico began to wonder if anybody in this city was what they seemed, or if everybody wore a clever masquerade every day to deceive the watching world.

"Do you have them?" The question was voiced without the usually compulsory questioning tone.

"Of course" She produced the papers with a flourish and passed them over the desk to Lark, who glanced through them, nodded and reached under the desk, handing Bass an engraved thin silver stick with copper discs on it. Bass glanced at it before it disappeared into one of her many pockets.

"I have another job for you, you-" A pause "brought company" Yet again, it wasn't a question, but a statement of fact. Bass nodded and moved out of the way, revealing the 'kid' she had brought with her. Lark smiled upon sight of him, though Bass noted the decidedly wicked edge to the smile and pondered on whether she should be worried or not.

"Oh good, you found each other. I can kill two birds with one stone now, so to speak" Bass began to wonder whether she should panic or not when the smile directed at her held a cunning note in the eyes "Bass, meet Nicolai, since I doubt you've bothered to learn his name"

"Why is his name important to me" Bass demanded, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Simple" Lark's smile grew downright wicked "Bass, meet your new charge"

The following scream could have woken the dead.