I'd had a sudden blast of nostalgia one day, and it wasn't too long before I was looking up at the Magna-Train pass that Markro had leapt from. The rain was somewhat refreshing, washing away the first chapter of my life Dirty Work. Things seemed to have calmed down recently. Red Rose hadn't stirred in weeks, and we learned nothing more of Villa's would-be kidnappers. Euphero had dropped off the map. The Phantasm had yet to appear. For now, everything was still.

This is why I wanted the rain.

You can never do it enough times, just stand there and work out who you are, where you've come from, where you're going. Just being you. It's a skill in these days of immediacy.

I caught the Magna-Train back to my little place in 26. Clambering up the stairs, weary but refreshed, I found Markro at my door. 'And what brings you to my humble abode?' I asked as I reached him.

He looked up and put away his Halo-Core. 'Not the accommodation,' he said. He fingered a peeling slip of wallpaper that crumbled in his hands. 'You could catch five hundred diseases in here.'

I opened the door and let him in. 'The floor below are all medical students,' I said. 'They're doing great research on our aches and pains. Drink?'

I fixed myself up a glass of something warming and fairly alcoholic. 'I've stopped drinking,' Markro said.

I spat the drink back into the glass. Headlights swept in from outside. Their prying white fingers showed his face as deadly serious. 'Since when have you stopped drinking?'

'A week or so ago,' he said. 'Keeps me in better shape, you know. Less likely to slip up and accidentally shoot someone.'

'Markro,' I said patronisingly. I putting the glass down, crossed the room and slowly lowered him into the sofa, sitting down next to him. 'Your whole job is to shoot people.'

'Not anymore,' he said, 'and neither is yours. We've got a new job from the boss.' He got his Halo-Core, swiped through some screens and showed me a job application form. 'You've already got the job.'

I frowned. 'Security guards for an art gallery?'

'Wow,' Markro said, returning the sarcasm I'd thrown a moment earlier, 'the boy can read. This is an exciting new development.'

I punched him on the arm and took another sip of Whiskey14. The boss loved art, had pinched a few things in his time, and it had been the effort to try and follow in his footsteps that I had met the strange girl, Z11. Was that her real name? I didn't know. Didn't care at that moment. What I did care about was wondering why we were doing this. What if we were working there, five regions down, when Euphero struck again? What the hell would we do then?

'I assume there's a good reason for this,' I said, putting my feet up on the coffee table, something I only did when something confused me. 'Other than trying to grab some cash for new lights.'

'We've got the lights in now.'

'Still haven't answered my question.'

Markro got up to pace the room. 'Here's how he described it to me. This place, Archers' Art and Culture Museum, is opening a new exhibit. Ordinarily this would give the boss a passing interest, he might drop by and check out the hot new artists on the scene, pick something up to stash away for later sales. However, in this case, he hears about this guy Rothbane, checking around the exhibit in advance. Waved a magic wand at the front desk, went and had a look behind the scenes.'

'This magic card wouldn't happen to be a great wad of cash, would it?' I asked. I knew the answer, but sometimes my tongue runs away with me. I think it's a symptom of living in Celestria; being a smartass with no filter between the brain and the lips.

'Right. Rothbane's a collector that's snapped up a few items at auction the boss had been after. Apparently there have been some choice words in the past, a good deal of money in court cases and the likes. Rothbane's also been known to use underhand methods to acquire a painting or two. Completely undetectable of course, but the boss knows it.

'So he's told us to get in there and keep an eye on things. Rothbane might not do anything, but there's also the chance that he might try and make a snatch.'

'So we're to grab it first?'

Markro shook his head. He peered out to Dirty Work. Workers were busy hoisting the new Holo projection into place, the design being a twenty foot tall, scantily clad woman that would lean out into the street and blow a kiss occasionally. 'We're to observe, and inform the police.'

I nodded. 'We've been doing a lot by the book recently.'

'With the club so close to returning, we're not to do anything illegal without his permission. We're above board and good little workers. When everything's back to normal, maybe, we can go underground again.'

Markro smiled. 'It's stopped raining. Let's go check out our new jobs.'