NEEDLE - RUNNING STITCH - A RETURN TO RETRIEVAL

Mouse hugged herself absent-mindedly, walking up and down the station, shivering slightly. She was wearing a red cami top with a black lace shirt over the top, transparent and leaving nothing to the imagination, showing off her slender body, narrow waist and elegant limbs. Her long legs were emphasised by the fishnet tights and the short black skirt, ruffling around mid-thigh and gothic boots, stiletto heels clicking on the pavement. Besides her carefully ruffled black hair around her heart-shaped face, she was unornamented, only a black lace choker wrapped around her long neck, red glass beads hanging off the bottom, one rolling in the hollow of her neck between her collarbones as she rubbed her face hard with a yawn.

She’d been at a party the night before, and therefore was not exactly at her best, although from the looks she was getting from the early morning commuters, she obviously still looked it. She preened as the train rolled into the station.

“You know, you really remind me at times of a peacock.”

Mouse whipped around, and saw the familiar nonchalant shape leaning against the brick wall behind her, a long, lean, indolent shape.

“How the hell do you do that?!” Mouse demanded indignantly.

Needle shrugged one shoulder and straightened up, walking towards her. Needle should not be able to sneak up on people; she was 6 foot in her stocking feet, with long conker-coloured hair, plaited up then pinned into a bun on the back of her head, revealing her ears, tucked quite close to her head, one with a bronze earcuff in the shape of a dragon clipped around it. With that exception, she was looking surprisingly normal, a pair of blue jeans over black boots and a black sleeveless t-shirt, a chocolate brown leather jacket over the one arm and a studded leather messenger bag next to her free arm. It was cold on the platform this early in the morning, but Needle’s arms weren’t showing the slightest trace of goosepimples.

Mouse shivered again, getting the strangest feeling that Needle was surveying her. She was wearing a pair of wrap-around sunglasses, the kind that professional cyclists wore, a mirrored sheen, not dissimilar to the rainbow visor she wore when she meant business, concealing her eyes. Arching red-brown brows were visible over the top, and a high forehead, a sharp nose and a mouth that nearly always looked severe.

A mouth that tilted up at the corner.

“You always look like I’m about to eat you,” Needle remarked. “It’s adorable. Come on.”

Mouse pulled a face at the woman’s back as she strode for the train, then pattered after her.

“Aren’t you cold?” She burst out, unable to contain herself.

Needle glanced back at her amused, stepping onto the train, then holding a hand back to help her on.

“Darling, I’m half-Russian, cold is relative,” she remarked. “Remind me to introduce you to my niece, well, half niece, she’ll show you what cold really is.”

Mouse raised an eyebrow.

“Is she anything like you?” She demanded.

“No,” Needle said, then hesitated. “Well... she does have a penchant for vodka and kickboxing and... she shares our tastes for a helpless pretty boy, but she’s actually shorter than you. I’m guessing that that’s a novelty for you.”

Mouse shot her dagger eyes and threw herself down into one of the seats with a table, Needle sitting down the opposite side of the table with her usual fluid grace.

“Did you just invite me out to insult me?” Mouse demanded. “You called me late last night when I was just getting frisky with a guy and then...”

“Did you show him the pictures on your camera? Or did he become one?”

Mouse’s eyes narrowed dangerously, her hand sliding unconsciously to the little bag at her hip. She always had her handbag with her; phone, keys, duct-tape, camera... Needle sighed and sat back, rubbing her forehead.

“Sorry,” Needle said after a moment. “I actually am sorry, that was uncalled for. You’re not the only one who’s had a long night.”

Mouse frowned.

“Something wrong Needle?”

She didn’t know why she asked. Normally she would not have cared less, but Needle, the woman who had an uncanny knack of sneaking up on her, always unflappable... actually looked tired. And that worried her slightly. Needle reached up and took her sunglasses off, meeting Mouse’s eyes for the first time since they’d met. Even at their first meeting she’d been wearing her visor... and Mouse’s big blue eyes widened in response.

One of Needle’s eyes was whited over, a twisted scar across the eyelid, the other was a fiery brown, shot with gold. A lionness’ eye. Needle shrugged, and caught the glance.

“Guy betrayed me, this was collateral damage,” Needle stated matter-of-factly.

“What happened to the guy?” Mouse asked, then realised that she didn’t want to know.

Needle met her gaze levelly with that one proud eye.

“What do you think?” She asked.

Mouse shuddered. Needle glanced out of the window.

“Now you know why I keep my eyes covered, it’s too much of a tell,” Needle remarked. “You would think that the 6 foot thing would be the give-away, but no, it’s the blind eye.” She set the glasses down on the table, then leant forwards, resting her chin on her fist, elbow on the table, eyes locked on Mouse’s. “I have a job for you again, if you’re interested.”

Mouse rolled her eyes.

“Would I be here if I wasn’t?” she pointed out.

Needle’s lip twitched up in a humourless smile.

“I have the feeling that you’re not sure of me,” Needle announced, surprisingly close to the mark. “And that you’d come just to stop me breaking into your house again. Relax hun, I won’t.”

That was a pleasant relief, Mouse thought. She actually thought that Needle meant it too. For all Needle was a confessed criminal, and good at it, she had a weirdly strong moral standing, something that she’d picked on here and there. It seemed alien to Mouse, which was probably why she’d noticed it so much.

“So what’s the job?”

Needle settled back in her seat, then reached into her bag and withdrew a tablet computer, switching it on.

“Last night, I was set up for my own job,” She began, then glanced up. “Have you ever played Endorian leap?”

Mouse shook her head, frowning, not sure what had caused the sudden tangent off. Slowly it floated up to her...

“That nerdy space-ship game with the unbeatable ending?” she asked after a moment. “How the hell is that relevant?”

“Well the main designer for that game is a guy by the name of Joseph Harper,” She gave Mouse the tablet. “He’s contributed to other games, built up a company, made a few games himself... he’s a bit of a gamer, a lot of a nerd, and a whole heap of wealthy, and as he’s unattached with no close family, makes him quite a catch.”

Not bad, Mouse thought, looking at the picture, but not her type. Tall, white blonde, pale blue eyes... Needle reached over and tapped the screen, and Mouse’s mouth fell open at his stats.

“He collected all that?” she demanded. “And then posted it on Facebook?”

“Clever people can be such idiots,” Needle remarked wryly, taking the tablet back and swiping through the pictures. “It would have been rude not to pay him a visit.”

Mouse raised an eyebrow.

“I’m still not sure where this is going,” she remarked, then quickly clarified.  “Sorry, no, I know where this is going, you were going to rob him, but I still don’t see where I come into it.”

“Patience is a virtue,” Needly chastised, if only playfully, then continued. “Well, when I got there, I found that some-one else had already paid him a visit a day or so previously,” Needle remarked, and ice seemed to rim everything as she spoke, her tone a biting blizzard of liquid nitrogen wroth. “That by itself wouldn’t bother me. But the state they left him in really did.”

She handed the tablet back and Mouse froze. In the middle of the floor, shattered glass all around him was the man. And in such a state. Feeling sick, Mouse shoved the tablet back across the table at Needle, hand over her mouth.

“There are things you do,” Needle remarked, a tone of approval detectable in her voice at Mouse’s horror. “And things you do not do. He lived alone for Christ’s sake. He was single, one glance at his facebook would have told you that, and the buggers ballsed it up so that he was there when they nicked the stuff, and then left him to fucking die. I found him in a pool of his own shit. Can you imagine a worse bloody way to die?!”

Mouse saw the blazing ferocity in the woman’s face, and almost felt like she was standing too close to a bonfire, her skin burning. Needle forced herself to sit back, putting the tablet away. She closed her eyes for a long moment, pinching the bridge of her nose, and sucking in several deep breaths. When she looked up again, she was a woman back in rigid control, sliding her sunglasses back into place on her nose, shutting herself firmly off from the world.

“So...?” Mouse asked quietly.

Needle gave a wry smile.

“I suddenly find myself back in the line of retrieval,” She remarked brightly. “Retrieval combined with payback, and I thought that I knew some-one who had a fondness for that.”

Mouse smiled despite herself, a slow, wicked smile as gears finally clicked into place.

“Yoink.”

Needle’s smile flourished into a grin, and she tilted her head.

“The gang that hit Joseph’s place is called the Quartet. They’ve been a minor annoyance for me, and now they’ve really left a bullet hole in my radar,” Needle observed, voice suddenly very emotionless, practical, almost aloof. “There’s, unsurprisingly, four of them. Ms. Laura Raymond, not as clever as she thinks, is going to meet a fall very soon. Mr Alexander Bones, French, and also no-where near as clever as he thinks, is next on my list. The problem comes down to the last two. Mr Lawrence Trevelyan, and Mr Jonas Trevelyan.”

Mouse leant forwards on the table, eyes slitted like a cat’s watching it’s prey.

“I know those two,” She stated, smelling blood. “There’s all sorts of... fun stuff in their safe.”

“I thought you might like it,” Needle stated, tilting her head to one side. “While I’m busy with the first two, they’re your assignment. Find a way for us to get in, get the info to me, and I’ll get us the goods and a way out. And...” Needle pulled out the tablet again, and tilted it so that Mouse could see the twins. “Don’t they make an attractive prospect?”

Mouse’s evil grin was reflected on Needle’s face. The woman glanced up at the automated voice, then rose lightly, tucking the tablet away.

“This is my stop,” She pulled a pair of tickets out of her pocket and put them on the table in front of Mouse. “I got you a return, just in case you wanted to get back to that boy.”

Mouse gave her another feline look, curling up on the seat, eyes sparkling delightedly.

“Oh, I’m sure that I can find plenty other boys to entertain myself with,” She purred. “Just remember the riding crop, and you’ve got a deal.”

Needle just laughed, getting off the train, and Mouse gave a beatific smile, thinking off all the lovely things with even lovelier bounties residing in the Trevelyan vault.

“Yoink yoink yoink.”