Page 80 of Stars At Dusk

She looked at him from under heavy-lidded, desire-laden eyes, her mouth tender and swollen. ‘Really?’

‘Naam. Something I urgently need to handle.’

Her eyes shuttered, and he sighed as he saw her withdraw into herself. She stepped back and buttoned her top up.

‘Hey,’ he said, running a finger down her soft cheek. ‘I’ll be back. I’m not ending this; it’s just a pause, beautiful.’

She gave him a half smile. ‘If it’s important, you must take care of it.’

He gave her another quick concerned glance. Then she did the unexpected. She leaned forward and kissed him once more on the lips. ‘Go.’

Relieved, he shot her a quick smile, then nabbed his comm tab, jacket and bag.

‘I’ll comm you,’ he promised.

She waggled her fingers at him, smiled and walked out, her lush hips swinging.

He stared longingly after her, then shook his head, snapping back into work mode.

He exited his office seconds later, running through the complex and heading for the shuttle terminal.

Mirage, sit-rep?

Holding the shuttle for you, Kage. Your mark is also onboard, heading to the surface.

Kage sighed. He leapt up the shuttle’s gangway and eased himself into the cabin.

It was packed with TSG staff members, and he nodded to several before sinking into his chair.

The flight was soon underway, and he pretended to be absorbed in his comm tab throughout, even as they landed, and the passengers disembarked.

His keen eyes tracked his mark. Once the shuttle emptied, Kage enabled his stealth metanoids and stepped out. He moved quickly.

His quarry had chosen to use the staff lifts, so Kage stepped in, pushing himself against a wall where he remained unseen to the ground floor.

The man he followed looked around furtively when he got to the street. Then he hailed a fly-cab.

Kage summoned Void X, also in stealth. They took off after the vessel they were pursuing, which quickly darted into the sky lanes above the metro.

After a confusing number of twists and turns, it headed towards the eastern end of the metro.

Kage easily kept up. He shook his head in disbelief when the fly-cab dropped its passenger off at a familiar location.

After parking his flyer, Kage jogged to the entrance to Raha, where his mark had disappeared into. He raced through the beer hall and into the midi tunnel at the rear, descending into the underground arena. Like the last time he’d been here, the fight club was packed wall to wall.

He pushed through the masses and headed for his preferred vantage point - the centre of the highest rock bench seat. He dragged his eyes over the room and spotted his quarry almost instantly.

The young man looked around futilely, and then Kage saw his eyes lock on someone or something across the room. Kage tracked the gaze and whistled under his breath when his eyes fell on a figure lounging against a wall.

Despite the hooded jacket’s poor attempt at masking the identity of its wearer, it was a particular megawatt blonde man Kage had recently and swiftly come to loathe.

Kage tracked his eyes back to his mark and found him pushing past, headed toward Ruben.

Then he saw Ruben shaking his head, and at the same time, a third player in a face-mask tapped his quarry’s shoulder.

The heaving crowd was obscuring his view, and Kage growled, frustrated. He connected to Mirage via his node.

Are you patched into Raha’s cameras? Get an overhead shot of the fight club and show me what-the-hell is going on between my mark and his new companion.

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