Volume 1 Chapter 6; Covert Exchange

The tension was thick and cold as we tried to stay calm, their gaze's on us scanning us for any suspicious activity, this whole transaction felt like walking on shattered glass giving a cut that would surely become infected. The smell of the room started to sting my senses, I wanted to get out of there, I wanted this to be over and done with.

I grit my teeth, and shut my eyes, my arms folded as I tap against one of them repeatedly, my feet tapping impatiently against the leopard-printed floors, filled with anxiety, sweat beading from my forehead until the silence was finally shattered by the words of the dealer, his words cutting through my little episode, sliding one of them our way, to check the quality.

"Go ahead, give it a test." He smiled, letting us take hold of the device, it was more of a disk, one you would attach to someone's arm, it was black with blue accents a common color for Ray Tech's cybernetics. 

"I'm assuming this is one of the detachable ones," I muttered, looking at its design then back at the guy a look on my face that made him know I didn't trust it. He laughed, his voice echoing in otherwise deadly silence, before looking at me and my sister.

"Only If you have a USB drive," He responded, pointing at his forearm where two slots resided, it's a common thing amongst people in 2099 rarely anyone doesn't have one. "They may be small but they pack quite the punch, one of those will be able to deactivate any form of cybernetic or nanotech in a five-meter radius, they can even have select targets."

"Okay, what about the others?" I said sliding the device back to his side of the table, "Surely this isn't the only thing you have,"

"Oh, tough crowd," The dealer smiles taking the device and looking me in my eyes, sliding another across the table. "Alright kid, sink your teeth into this." 

The dealer slid a package our way, covered in a suspicious brown bag, only held closed by a string wrapping around it. I looked up at the dealer, my eyebrow raised in confusion. "Magnetic cyberware skin implants, attracts foreign cybernetics and other objects at will." 

My hand reaches to cup my face as I slowly pull it down trying to dispel any sign of frustration, with a deep sigh I look at the dealer in his eyes, getting up from my chair. The sudden reaction caused the guy to stand on guard pointing the gun at us.

"If this is all you got, don't waste our time," I sighed, "We'll be going now."

I looked at my sister and she looked at me, nodding before getting up and leading the way, the dealer looking at the guard, walking in front of us to block our path.

"You aren't going anywhere without buying anything," He muttered, his glare cold against our backs, time seemed slow as we stood there, milliseconds felt like minutes as Emma pulled out her gun, pressing it against the head of the dealer within milliseconds.

His eyes widened, it all happened before he could even blink, the guard himself too scared shitless as he stood in front of me by the door, looking at the dealer with disgust. 

"If you want our business, well get us something actually goo-" I stopped myself mid-sentence, a smile breaking on my face as I realized where we got them right now, "Wait, you know what you're not getting a cent from us, give us what we want if you want to live,"

Emma smiled, pushing the gun closer to the dealer, his face contorting into a look of fear and hatred, his teeth gritted scared to move in case of the event Emma 'accidentally' pulled the trigger. I stuffed my hands in my pockets, looking at the guard in front of me.

"And tell your guard to stand down," The dealer looked at the guard, his head slowly nodding indicating for him to listen. The guard lowered his gun, backing away from us.

"You bastards," He muttered under his breath, "You had Cybernetics this whole time, what the hell was that!?"

"Just shut up and get us what we want," Emma said, her finger lingering on the trigger as she watched the guy slowly get up and go to the back, soon coming with a box, and placing it on the table.

"Here, the RefraXcore, allows the user to use light refraction, a military-level cybernetic," He sighed, his hand rubbing against his neck to get any form of exhaustion.

"Hands up," Emma ordered, shooting the gun, intentionally missing his head causing him to raise his hands high in the air showing he meant no harm.

I looked inside, smiling when I saw it's beauty, its wires reaching out of the box, but seemed in perfect condition.

"You're gonna have to attach that one to the nerves, it's a very risky operation," The dealer informed.

"That's fine," I muttered, looking up at the dealer, "I'll take this and the other two."

"H-hey! That wasn't part of th-" The guard spoke up, his gun raised and a gunshot pierced through the negotiation, the head of the guard rolling on the floor, crimson leaking onto the leopard print carpet. 

Emma turned her gun back to the dealer, his hands still up in the air, gritting his teeth in tension in hopes of staying alive.

"Any other objections?" Emma asked, 

"N-no, take whatever you need." 

With a smile I helped myself to the gadgets in the room, putting them all in the same box. The sound of sirens blared outside, and red and blue lights filled the underground club with the sound of people screaming and running echoing in our ears.

"What the hell!" The man shouted, "Did you call the cops on us?!"

I looked over at Emma and she shook her head, not knowing what was happening either as chaos spread outside it was only a matter of time until they come inside here, we didn't know how much time we had left but one thing was for sure.

We had to act fast...