The stink of the sewer hung thick as fog, mingling with the smell of blood and the musky sweat pouring off Snitch9's half-furred body. His tail, thick and pink like a dead snake, was still clamped firmly in the jaws of Cass's custom rat trap. Blood pulsed slowly from the crushed meat, pooling into the slime-covered concrete.
"Fuuuck, yo, come on!" Snitch9 whined, writhing in place. "This shit hurts! I gave you what you wanted! You got your fuckin' info!"
Cass didn't even blink. She just stared down at him, squatted like a gunslinger at a campfire. Her revolver hung loose in one hand, the barrel caked in grime, still warm from the last job. With her other hand, she dug a crushed pack of smokes from her belt and flicked one into her mouth.
Wang stood behind her, arms crossed, watching silently.
"You gonna let me go or what?" Snitch9 squawked. "I got rights! I'm a fuckin' source, bitch! You need me!"
Cass struck a match against the wall, lighting the cig with a hiss. She took a long drag and let the smoke curl out her nose like some demon from an old Western. Then, without a word, she reached out slowly… and snubbed the lit end directly onto his already bleeding tail.
Snitch9 screamed like a banshee, his whole body convulsing against the trap. "AAAAAAGHH! YOU CRAZY CUNT!"
Cass exhaled calmly, smoke drifting into his twitching face. "Talk."
"I DID! SHIT! FUCK!" Snitch9 was near tears, his voice a high-pitched squeal. "Red Beard ain't alone, alright? He's got a crew now. Real nasty fuckers. Some are ex-Peacekeepers, some are just freaks like me. Cyborgs, mutants, even one chick with fuckin' blades for arms, I swear to God!"
Wang raised an eyebrow. "Blades?"
"Yeah, man, fuckin' chrome outta her elbows. She don't talk. Just cuts."
Cass tapped the barrel of her revolver against Snitch9's greasy forehead. The metal was cool, steady. "Fascinating," she said dryly. "Now give me something that's actually useful—or I'll paint the walls with your tiny rat brain."
Snitch9 flinched, teeth bared. "Okay, okay! Don't shoot, shit! You wanna get to Red? He's got a hidden way into the mine. An old water runoff tunnel, buried under scrap behind a busted tractor near the east rim. You won't see it unless you're lookin'. That's how his freaks get in and out without alerting drones."
Cass grinned. "There we go. That's more like it."
"I gave you the good stuff, right? Come on—just lemme out!" he begged, tail twitching feebly in the trap. "You break a rat's tail, he can't balance. That's like, fuckin' disability levels of cruel."
Cass stood up, cracked her neck, and looked at Wang.
"Alright," she said, "loosen the trap. Slow. If he twitches wrong, I put a hole in him big enough to crawl through."
Wang nodded and stepped forward. The trap's metal jaws were slick with blood and gunk, and it took a second to pry them apart without tearing Snitch9's tail clean off. The rat-man hissed and shook violently as the pressure eased.
"Easy," Wang muttered. "Don't fuckin' move."
The moment the tail slipped free, Snitch9 let out a sharp chirp and—
WHOOSH.
With shocking speed, he twisted mid-air, tail whipping around like a whipcord to snatch the moldy cheese right off the trap. His clawed limbs slapped against the slime-slick floor as he bolted on all fours, scuttling with rodent speed into the tunnel's gloom.
"LATER, BITCHES!" his voice echoed like a screeching banshee down the sewer. "SUCK MY RAT DIIIIICK!"
Cass had her revolver up and aimed, eyes calm and unblinking.
Wang tensed. "You got the shot—"
But Cass didn't pull the trigger.
She tracked him as he vanished into the dark… then slowly lowered the revolver and clicked the hammer back down.
Wang glanced at her, confused. "Why the hell didn't you shoot him?"
Cass lit another cigarette, casually now, like it was just another Tuesday. She took a drag and said, "Snitch9's a little cockroach. You kill him now, you lose him forever."
She exhaled smoke toward the murky ceiling. "But let him think he got away? Let him feel like a smug little shit? He'll be back. Rats always come back for more cheese. And when he does, we'll trap him again. Maybe twice as hard."
Wang let out a low whistle. "Shit… that's actually pretty smart."
Cass gave him a sly look. "What, thought I was just a pair of tits with a badge?"
"I mean—" Wang lifted his hands. "Didn't not think that."
Cass snorted and flicked ash into the sewer water. "Keep talkin', smartass, I'll stuff you in the next rat trap."
Wang smirked. "With how that thing looked, it might be an upgrade from this place."
Cass holstered her gun and started walking back toward the ladder. "Come on. We've got a tunnel to check. And a mutant warlord to put down."
Wang followed behind, boots squelching through muck, eyes still on the shadows ahead where Snitch9 had vanished.
"Y'know," he said, "you scare the hell out of me sometimes."
Cass didn't turn back. "Good."
Q: What would you do if someone snitched on you?