Oracle

 My foot was pressed into the accelerator so hard that it felt like the soles of my shoes were fusing into the pedal. The dark car whirred through the black streets, my headlights illuminating the tiny reflectors as they were mowed down underneath us. No other cars were driving, so I allowed myself to weave between lanes to pull of high speed turns. I wasn't sure whether Echo had already sent her entourage after us, but the farther away I got, the better.

I twisted through the small streets leading away from the hotel, then hit a highway running parallel to a deserted stretch of beach. The sand and surf were both stained black from the night, but the crests of the waves glowed with moonlight as they tumbled around in the silent sea. Out of immediate danger, I clicked the headlights off. The car slid forward in stealth and relative safety.

"You're not tied up."

Cal was sitting directly behind Icarus, his gun resting in his lap. Despite that, his eyes were slicing into Icarus's skull like lasers.

"Yeah, I'm not." Icarus replied as he watched the peaceful scenery through a window webbed with cracks.

"Are we trusting him then?" Cal turned his voice towards me.

"Yeah," I replied, "For now. If he shoots either of us, no holds barred."

"He still hasn't told us everything." Cal directed the words back towards Icarus. "You want to explain what the hell that just was?"

"Echo hired help. She probably hid a GPS on her somewhere, and they found and extracted her." Icarus twisted in his seat to face him. "She'll start hunting you guys down again."

"Why didn't they help you?" Cal asked. "There were plenty of them."

"She bought them herself, probably with money she'll get from killing you." Icarus explained, "Mercenaries don't care about anything but what they're paid for."

"But why didn't she get you too? You're working together."

"No we're not."

"You're not?" Cal's voice stayed even, but I could sense the suspicion.

"No. We both work for the same people, and had the same target, but only one of us could collect the bounty. It's supposed to incentivize the kill."

"That's stupid. If you'd worked together when we kidnapped you, we'd both be dead."

"Yeah. I don't make the rules."

"Who does?"

A second of silence. I kept driving, trusting Cal to keep up the talking. Icarus opened his mouth, then closed it almost instantly.

"Alright." Cal said, "Here's what I've deduced: Echo isn't just not helping you, she's actively trying to stop you. From her disposition, I'm assuming that she won't hesitate to kill you if she gets the chance."

"It's against the rules, but so is hiring mercenaries from outside the group. If she's planning a way to bend records and call in favors to clean up the evidence of her cheating that way, she could also hide my death."

"So, we're in the same boat. Enemy of an enemy is my friend." Cal continued. "She's a badass, and she's got friends. Neither me and Lena or you alone could kill her, so we're going to have to work together."

Icarus paused for a moment. The air was thick with silence and tension.

"How many people have you killed?" I interjected.

Icarus turned to me in surprise, Cal imitating him.

"You heard me." My eyes were fixed on the road ahead. "How many?"