The Final Lead

Walking back onto the rocky shore, I ran my fingers through my long black hair.

The hot sun's rays beat down on me, even though from the look of it, it was starting to become late evening.

Walking to the worn out rust bucket car I now called my own, setting the binder on the hood, along with the pistol.

But in my hand, I kept the small flash drive.

Turning to lean on the car, I looked it over.

"So, how do you get the nanobots into the flash drive?" I asked.

"Easy." Ares said with a chuckle.

"All you have to do is put the metallic connector on your tongue."

I looked down at the flash drive.

"That's it?" I asked.

"Yup. All the nanobots have to do is access the small motherboard in the hard drive, which will allow them to access the stored information on the memory chip inside. They will do so through your saliva."

I couldn't help but gulp with that information in mind.

But I needed some answers. so, slowly, I brought it up and pressed the connector to my tongue.

I stayed as still as I possibly could, waiting for Ares to tell me when he was done.

It took about thirty seconds before I got the all clear.

Setting the Flash drive next to the binder, I asked him.

"Anything that can lead me to them?"

"There sure is." Ares said, renewing my hope to find my family.

"Really?" I asked, my heart skipping a beat in my chest.

"That's what I just said, isn't it?" Ares asked sarcastically.

"Stop with the sarcasm and spill the beans." I chided, starting to get annoyed.

Letting out a sigh, Ares began.

"The flash drive seemed to be where your mother kept most of her important digital documents stored. The last added documentation was of a down payment for an apartment in night city's Watson district.'

"Watson." I said thoughtfully.

"That's where both of you went." I said to myself, the rush of coming near to finding them excited me.

"It's strange she would leave this behind though." Ares said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, this flash drive also contained bank account passwords, and other important documents. Stuff you wouldn't leave behind."

"Maybe she had a copy?" I said with a shrug.

"She's a careful woman. I doubt she would leave something like that behind without a copy." I added.

"And besides, it doesn't matter now does it?" I asked the AI.

"We now have a good lead which might bring us straight to my family." I said, grabbing the binder, gun, and flash drive from the car's hood.

Sitting in the driver's seat, I set the binder in the passenger seat while putting the gun and extra magazine in the glove compartment, while putting the flash drive in the center console.

"Right. How the hell do I get there?" I asked, ready for this long day to finally be over.

"We Turn back the way we came." Ares said.

So without hesitation, I put the car in drive and started to drive back through the city.

By the time I drove to the edge of the city, the sun had just gone over the horizon.

The night seemed to send Night city into a neon wonderscape.

The crowds of people who prowled the streets now didn't look human with their dress and hairdos.

And the criminal undertone to the streets I had driven through before had come to the surface.

Groups or people in each district I passed seemed to be representing one gang or another.

Hell, what I'm sure we're hookers even walked brazenly through some streets in their skimpy clothes.

All of that making me wonder if the police even existed in this damned city.

An hour of driving later, I pulled into a small apartment building's parking lot, where I let a long sigh escape my lips.

It had been a long and tenuous day, all I wanted was to finally be back with my family, but at every turn something seemed to get in the way.

Putting the car in park, I rested my head back on the head rest.

"This is the place, right?" I asked Ares.

"Yup, this is the place." Ares said, also sounding tired.

As I looked at the blue apartment building, lit with only a few poor lamp posts, I couldn't help but think about how much of a dump this place was.

Looking around, I couldn't help but feel uneasy.

Deciding caution was best, I turned and found a worn button up flannel in the back seat, but unfortunately. Still no shoes.

Putting it on, I buttoned it up before leaning over and pulling the pistol from the glove compartment.

I wasn't sure if the gun could or would actually work with the condition it was in, but if anything, I could use it to scare anyone who got in my way.

Stepping out of the car, I made sure not to step on anything that might cut me on the ground.

Quickly making it to the entrance, I asked Ares which floor the apartment was on.

"Third floor. First one on your right."

Walking past a fat man sitting behind a run down desk, who seemed to not even see me, I made my way to a stairway.

I took the steps two at a time as excitement filled me with the needed energy.

Even still, a part of me was hesitant.

Reaching the third floor, I saw the door which was supposed to be my family's home.

That is if they hadn't already left to live somewhere new, making me start my search again.

Stopping in front of the door, I hesitated as thoughts ran through my mind at the speed of light.

'Would they recognize me? Do they still live here? Will they have forgotten about me?'

"Would you knock on the damn door already!' Ares chided me, kicking me from my thoughts Long enough to knock on the door before my thoughts overwhelmed me again.

My heart pounded away as I waited…but nothing happened.

I waited another minute before trying again, but still, nothing happened.

"I guess they aren't home." Ares said.

"I guess not. But where could they be at such a late hour?"

"Maybe they have jobs?" Ares said.

"Or, they don't live here." I added.

"That is a possibility." Ares agreed.

I took a step away from the door.

"Check with the front desk guy, maybe he would know?" Ares said.

I nodded my head.

"Yeah. Let's hope." I responded as I turned to head back down the steps.

Reaching the front desk, I walked to stand in front of the greasy looking guy, who was currently glued to a screen playing some show.

"Hey!" I said, annoyed at him ignoring me.

He grimaced, turning to look at me.

The man was maybe 5 '8 with a large gut and a weird haircut where the crown of his head was bald while everywhere else had long greasy strands of brown hair.

The smell of the man alone made me want to barf.

I grimaced back.

"Third floor, first apartment on the right. Who lives there?" I asked, my voice starting to go cold.

The guy smirked.

"Sorry kid. That's proprietary information." He said with a gap tooth grin, before turning back to the screen.

I couldn't say what came over me when he did that.

Maybe it was the accumulated stress of everything that has happened to me in what felt to me like a day, but in reality, was over fifty years. or, maybe, it was the desperation that had slowly been seeping into my thoughts throughout all of this.

Either way, I reached over the desk quicker then I thought possible, grabbed the greasy haired fuck-tards ears in both hands, dragging him over the desk, by said ears.

The man squealed like a pig as he came crashing down onto the floor.

Lifting him up from the floor by his ears, I leaned down and spoke angrily to his face.

"Listen here you slimy piece of shit." I said through clenched teeth.

"I've had a really rough day, and would love nothing more than to punch your face into a red past right now!" I said, twisting his ears all the while.

"O-Okay! OKAY!" He shouted out in pain.

"it's some bitch! She lives alone!" he gasped out.

"where is she!" I asked, not letting go of him yet.

"I-I don't know, man! I just make sure this place doesn't burn down or something, not baby sit the tenets!"

I twisted a little harder.

"Ahhgg! She works at some strip joint! Lizzie's bar or some shit like that!" He yelled, slobber flying from his mouth.

"That's all I know!" He blabbered out.

Shoving him to the side, I let go of his red and nearly bleeding ears, letting him fall flat on his back.

"Take a bath you pig!" I spat as I walked out.

"Anger issues much?" Ares asked with a chuckle.

"Shut it!" I thought angrily, as I stepped into the parking lot.

Opening the car door, I sat down inside.

"So where to now?" Ares asked.

"To find this chick who lives in that apartment. Maybe she knows something." I said, running my fingers through my hair.

"And if she doesn't know anything?" Ares asked seriously.

I didn't say anything. The thought of not finding them was something I didn't want to think about.

"I don't know." I said simply.

"Why not check that binder you pulled out of your old house?" Ares asked.

"Maybe there's something in there that might tell you something."

My eyes opened wide in surprise as I turned to look at the binder.

"Shit! I forgot about this thing." I said, picking it up from the passenger seat.

Setting it on my lap, I sent a silent prayer out to any being that might be listening, before I opened it.

My heart skipped a beat as I saw the handful of pictures that filled the first page.

Two were me and my younger sister Lucia. While the others were of us and our mother.

Flipping through the water damaged pages, I watched as each picture showed us slowly aging until I reached the last picture I took with my mother and sister before I was sent to training for militech.

Flipping the page again my heart nearly came to a complete stop as I looked at the pictures.

The first one was of my sister, Lucia, pregnant.

The other three were of her holding a pink bundle which must be the baby.

A girl

My hands slowly shook as I flipped to the next page.

The girl looked just like her.

With her light brown hair and dark eyes.

The smile that came to my face couldn't have been removed for all the money in this world.

Flipping the page again, my smile slightly dimmed.

All the pictures before had either my sister, her daughter, or my mother.

But the farther I went, the realization That my sister seemed to have disappeared completely from the photos.

Continuing on, I confirmed that she really had disappeared from the pictures entirely.

Turning to the last page, I looked at the last picture there.

It was of a pretty girl, maybe 18 or 19 years old with a devilish smirk on her lips.

Underneath the picture was something written but was too damaged and smeared for me to make out what it said.

"Ares. Can you read what this says?" I asked as I looked the smeared unintelligible words over.

He didn't say anything for a moment.

"It says 'Judy. 18th birthday. Laguna Bend'."

"Judy." I said with a small chuckle.

"Maybe she's the girl that lives in that apartment?" Ares said.

I closed the binder, the smile still plastered on my lips.

"I guess we're going to find out." I said, turning on the car and screeching out of the parking lot.

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Last chapter where he is looking for his family.

Also, please leave a comment and let me know what you think of this so far and things that could be changed or improved.