Chapter 9 - the job

Her vision slowly adjusts to the darkness and she starts to understand her surrounding. She crawls in what seems to be a small ventilation tunnel. The way opens to another corridor right behind the closed metal door. Noway to hack the lock pad from this side too.

"There must be a control somewhere to unlock it." She thinks to herself.

She silently continues along the corridor and arrives at a fork. She follows the right side of the wall for less than a minute when she reaches another metal door. She kneels and starts to examine the door.

Embedded in the door is a lock pad that seems more basic than the one on the main door. She lifts the front panel and plugs in her hacking tool. A few seconds later the lock goes green and she slowly slides the door.

She sees someone sitting at a computer desk with a sort of VR headset on. It's a square room with a circular sofa surrounding a holographic projector, the computer desk is against the back wall.

She slowly sneaks behind the sofa, as she gets closer to the computer, she scans the room. Only one person is here and he is busy using VR.

She reaches him and starts standing while making sure nobody else is here. She slowly reaches the knife from her belt. In a fast and swift movement, she slits his throat and lets him fall from his chair.

"Good night "friend"." She whispers.

She focuses her attention on the computer, she exits the VR application and starts browsing the menu. She finds the lock pads control and unlocks the front door. She quickly makes her way back to Trent and opens the door.

"That was fast, what are we looking for?" Trent asks.

"Shhh, be quiet and follow me." Pixie answers.

Trent shrugs and starts following Pixie through the corridor. At the fork, they go left this time and quickly reach a set of stairs going down. They slowly start to descend.

Dim light can be seen as they reach the entrance of a big room. The double wooden doors are laying on the ground leaving the entrance completely open.

The room is full of boxes of different sizes and shapes, it seems to be a sort of storing room. They quietly hide behind boxes as they enter the room.

Trent scans the room with his thermal vision and identifies 2 threats at the far back. He makes signs to Pixie to warn her of the threat. She starts sneaking behind the boxes and Trent tries to follow her closely.

Silently they reach the middle of the room when Trent realizes the threats are moving their way. He grabs Pixie and pushes her behind a big box as he starts rushing towards the two figures.

"What the...." Grunts Pixie as she falls behind the box.

The two figures open fire on Trent. A salve of "bangs" echoes in the room as Trent keeps running in their direction.

"Shoot him!" One of the figures shouts.

Another salve of shots resonates in the room. Trent slides on the ground and aims. Two shots from the Kalashnikov hit the first figure in the head. The body falls on the ground lifeless.

The second figure enters a panic and starts emptying his clip creating big chaos. Trent rolls on the ground and gets cover behind a crate.

"I'm gonna kill ya!" Screams the shooter.

Trent takes two random shots over the crate and the room goes quiet for a moment.

"Friends, she said!" Mumbles Trent.

He tries to peek from the side of the crate when another salve of shots sends pieces of wood fly away. He quickly moves the other way and takes cover behind another box. The silence comes again.

Trent switches to thermal vision again and checks in the direction of the shooter. He can see the silhouette but Pixie is nowhere to be found.

"Damn girl!" He mumbles as he raises from behind the box, pointing his gun at the shooter. He is ready to pull the trigger when he realizes the shooter didn't fire a single shot.

He focuses his vision and realizes the shooter dropped his gun and is holding his hands in the air. Trent keeps aiming as he gets closer, the shooter seems petrified.

"Hi, handsome!" Pixie's voice can be heard from behind the shooter.

She leans her head from the side and winks at Trent.

"How did you do that?" Trent asks puzzled.

"Come on, big boy, a magician never reveals tricks." She starts laughing.

Trent grabs the shooter's gun from the ground.

"What now?" Trent asks.

"Now, mister shooter will nicely show us where it is, right?" She asks while looking at Trent.

"Where... is... what?" says the shooter while stammering.

"Oh, come on now, are we going to play this game?" Pixie says angrily.

"I don't know what you are talking about..." He starts panicking.

She pushes the shooter to sit on a box and turns to Trent.

"OK, soldier boy, he is yours, make him talk!" She orders Trent.

Trent takes off his jacket and drops it on a box, then he faces the shooter and gives him small slaps on the face. He turns to look at Pixie who gives him a nod. Suddenly Trent lands a huge punch on the shooter's face.

The shooter falls from the box and lands face flat on the ground. Trent grabs him and sits him back on the box.

"More?" Trent asks.

"No... Please... I will talk!" The shooter says while holding his face in his hand.

"Where is it?" Pixie asks again.

"In the back, a white and purple box." The shooter says.

"Trent, keep an eye on him." She says as she goes toward the back of the room.

She disappears behind several boxes and starts shuffling around. After a moment she comes back with a small white and purple box under her arm. She puts it in front of the shooter.

"Why? Why? Why? Why do you have to steal from us?" She says as she opens the box.

Inside the box is a square device, she places her hand on top of it, it starts to blink green and a small holographic screen appears on top of it. She waves her hand and the device turns off.

"Good, but nobody steals from us!" She says as she points her gun at the shooter's head and pulls the trigger.

The body falls on the ground and Trent looks at her surprised.

"What ?" She asks Trent.

"Nothing, just now that I know how you treat your "friends", I'm not sure that I want to be your friend." He answers ironically.

"Ha ha ha. Soldier boy got jokes." She says as she closes the box.

"Come on, let's get out of here, our job is done." She continues.

They get back to Pixie's bike, she sits on it with the box and starts a call.

"Hey, sis, we got the package, where are you?" She asks.

"Pandemonium? OK, meet you there." She hangs up the call.

"Fancy a drink, big boy?" She asks Trent.

"Sure, lead the way." He answers as they both sit on the bike.

Pixie starts the bike and they hit the road. Slowly the landscape becomes more lively with more street vendors and neon signs. After about 15 minutes, Pixie pulls out in front of a big building, a big neon sign reads "Pandemonium". Armed guards are keeping the double front doors.

Pixie grabs the box and starts walking toward the doors.

"Hey, Pix!" A big bald guy says when he sees her.

"Hi, Bruce! I'm taking a "friend" in!" She says while pointing at Trent.

Bruce winks at Trent and lets them in. As soon as the doors open, the loud and heavy beats strike. DJ Pablo is controlling the crowd into a dance trance. Pixie leads the way to the upper areas, they straight go to the VIP sections.

They enter a VIP room, a woman in her early 30's is sitting on the sofa, looking at the crowd through the glass wall. She has long purple hair and she is wearing a corpo suit.

"Clarice!" Pixie says.

"Hey, sis, put the box on the table and come to sit with me." She answers.

"Is this your new bodyguard?" She continues while looking at Trent.

"Yeah! All mine! No touching!" Pixie says while winking at Trent.

"Join us." Clarice orders Trent.

They all sit and Clarice starts pouring drinks and gives one to each. She lifts her glass to cheer.

"To the success of this mission and a bright future." Clarice says.

They cheer and down their drinks. Trent looks at the box wondering what kind of tech they just recovered.

"You must have a lot of questions, bodyguard?" Clarice says while looking at Trent.

"Yeah, quite a few." He answers.

"You deserve a few answers." She says.

"Why saving me?" He asks.

"Pixie loves broken toys." She says winking at Pixie.

Pixie laughs and punches Clarice's shoulder, then she starts talking.

"Truth is, I figured that you were ex-military Corpo, discarded assets like you are gold for us. Easy to fix and a wide range of useful skillsets."

"I see, I guess I didn't have much of a choice anyway." Trent says.

"Well, either this or you can go back die in the streets like a rat, your choice." Pixie continues.

"Choice made. What's in the box?" Trent asks.

"This is a Meditech device that saves memories on shards. With this device, you can relive people's memories." Clarice says.

"I heard of such tech when I was at Tanaka, that's very classified high tech but I bet you aren't in for selling it, right?" Trent inquires.

"You are right, our father died two years ago, assassination. We found out that he was wearing a shard connected to this type of machine. It was stolen the night he died. We found it and tried to acquire it but it was a setup to get Clarice killed. The device went dark until tonight." Pixie explains.

Trent keeps silent, trying to digest the whole thing. His new life started tonight and it seems he owes it to some vengeful sisters.

"Consider your new eyes covered, you do not owe me anything anymore. But I hope you will consider working for me, I need someone with your talents by my side." Pixie says.

"Yeah, this time, it feels like a choice." Trent says smiling.

The three continue drinking till the night retires and gives the spot to the daylight. Pixie finally takes Trent to an empty apartment her family owns.

"You can sleep here tonight, but I need an answer before tomorrow night, I already have another job for you." She says as she walks toward the door.

Trent grabs her arm as she leaves.

"Pixie. Thank you." He says as he releases her arm.

"Ah. You are welcome, big boy!" She says with a smile. She leaves the apartment and closes the door behind.

Trent sits on the bed alone in the apartment. His thoughts keep racing in his mind.

"Is it a second chance? Wouldn't it be better if everything stopped tonight? Die like a rat or die guns blazing?" He questions his choices.

He lays down on the bed, staring at the ceiling. His implants aren't feeling sleepy at all but his body does. Slowly he starts falling asleep, enjoying the comfort of a bed.

Slowly drifting away, consciousness disappears and darkness takes over.