Lynx sat hunched over the small, cluttered desk in the corner of Jack's dimly lit safehouse as the faint glow of a nearby holo-screen cast sharp shadows on her gaunt face. Her fingers shook slightly as she sifted through the freshly deciphered files she'd stolen from Isaac Korrin's mansion. But with the blistering pangs of withdrawal still gnawing at her insides, her body currently felt like it was being pulled in two directions. However, the woman was somehow able to maintain her focus. There was no time for weakness right now. Not when she was so close to her freedom.
Beside her, Jack was still working on deciphering the last few pages of the folder.
It had only been an hour since the man started working on them, and he was already just about finished. The resident hacker was truly a wizard when it came to these kinds of things, and Lynx was grateful for having someone like him on call. Still, despite Jack's skills, the clock was ticking. According to the latest update from the net, Isaac Korrin's hired goons were already spreading out into the city. And the rumor of an Angel lurking somewhere on the outskirts of the colony's resort district was enough to send a chill down anyone's spine.
'Focus, Lynx!' The woman quickly told herself. 'You made a clean getaway. No matter how good they might be, it'll be a while before they pick up any decent leads.'
She didn't have time for pointless distractions right now. Not when the payout from this job could finally get her off this miserable colony.
With nothing else to do for the time being, Lynx took a moment to actually read the words on the freshly printed pages in front of her. The few couple of pages were just excerpts from standard business documents: contracts, financial statements, and blurbs of corporate memos. Nothing particularly too alarming, but she already knew that much from earlier. Then again, this stuff might have more importance than what she can tell. Why else would Korrin have put them in the file?
Lynx then sighed as she felt the tension in her shoulders ease slightly. Now was her chance to get into the nitty-gritty of what these papers were really about. Any and all information that she could gather would probably help her later on when she tried to sell it off to Korrin's enemies.
However, the more she read, the more the documents began to paint a much different picture than what the raven-haired mercenary had originally thought.
"Jack!" Lynx said quietly, her voice low but laced with growing unease. "W-what...what the hell is this?!"
"Give me a second... I'm almost done."
The digital copy of the file Jack was looking at on his screen briefly flickered, and his custom cipher software quickly bypassed the code and deciphered the remaining pages.
'...expendable child laborers...transportation initiated from Earth...illegal trafficking...indentured servitude...sex workers...'
Lynx's stomach dropped.
These words reminded her so much of what her father had gone through and the stories he used to tell her about his past. After all, he too had once been one of them. One of the many unwilling people who had been taken into space against their will.
When he was just a young man in his late teens living on the streets of New York, he had been taken from Earth and forced into a life he never chose. Utopia, a luxury haven for the elite, thrived on exploiting the most vulnerable. And Lynx's father had been one of those caught in its grip. He rarely spoke of his past, and she never pressed him on it. But Lynx knew it was a burden he could never truly escape. And there were times when she couldn't bring herself to even look at him without seeing the pain it had caused. And now, the woman found herself facing the very legacy of his suffering, the past that had always been buried, suddenly looming over her present.
"Is this some kind of twisted joke?" Lynx muttered softly, her voice barely audible.
Jack's expression was serious as his fingers paused over the keyboard. "I don't think so. According to these papers, Korrin's partners have been operating a human trafficking ring for years. These documents... it's all right here. Granted, it's not the full scope of the operation. But the fact that he was willing to put the names of the people he's directly working with is nothing short of astounding."
Lynx felt her stomach churn as a sickening weight pressed down on her. She'd always known dark dealings were happening in Utopia. Hell, it wasn't exactly a secret since practically everyone knew that much. After all, this place thrived on them. However, this was something else entirely. This wasn't just another illicit transaction; this was human lives being traded like commodities. And Korrin wasn't just a bystander; he was a major factor in all of it, a key player in an even more expansive system of exploitation.
The weight of the discovery hit Lynx like a physical blow. It wasn't just her father's face she saw in her mind, it was the faces of all the downtrodden people she had run across while living on her own. Suddenly, a soft, regretful whisper filled with years of pain filled her ears.
'How could you have lived with this?' She imagined him asking. 'How could you stand by while this was happening?'
"Take a look at this." Jack said, his voice quickly bringing Lynx out of her thoughts. He pushed a newly printed page forward on the table, one bearing Korrin's personal signature. It was another list of names. Each with a price, a destination, and a date next to it. In the corner was a note: Residuals, guaranteed returns...
"It's not just sex work that they're using these people for. Some of them vanish completely. Korrin's not just in trafficking; he's involved in a whole network. Lynx, this is a whole system built on human suffering."
Lynx's pulse quickened, her chest tightening with each new revelation. The sense of disgust building up inside of her burned deeper than she could handle. This wasn't just another rich, corrupt businessman profiting off others' misery. This was personal.
But as the enormity of it all settled in, so did the harsh reality. Exposing this, making it public, wouldn't just ruin Korrin. It would tear down the whole system. It would bring down Utopia itself. And everyone in it. Or at least, that's what she hoped....
'Hope, huh?' A slight chuckle escaped her lips.
The woman's hands gripped the edge of the desk as the tremors from her withdrawal made it hard to stay focused. She still needed that money. She needed to disappear from Utopia, to leave it all behind. That had been the plan from the start: take the files, get the money, and start over somewhere far away from this nightmare of the colony. It was her shot at freedom.
But now? Now the choice wasn't as clear-cut as she wanted it to be.
Lynx knew exactly how powerful this information was. She understood that the truth was much bigger than Korrin and his mansion. This wasn't just about her anymore, it was about everything wrong with the system. The lies, the exploitation, the countless lives that had been ruined while the powerful profited from it all. The people like her father, the ones whose names were on the page in front of her, were the ones who would never be free so long as people like Korrin and his horde of degenerates still existed.
Her mind began to race, and there was one thing she was sure of: exposing the truth would come at a price. Korrin's enforcers would come for her, then again, he was already after her. But the Angel, the mercenary he'd hired, was a different level of threat. The Angels were spoken about in hushed tones across the solar system. They were killers without mercy who could make even the hardest of criminals shiver. If she exposed Korrin, she would put herself and the few people she cared about in the crossfire.
"Lynx?" Jack's voice broke through her thoughts. His face was pale, filled with concern. "What are you going to do?"
Lynx closed her eyes, and her fingers began trembling over the newly printed copy of the folder. The money. The mission. The hope for something better. All of that passed through her mind in that moment. But then the faces of the victims filled her mind as well. And the cold reality of her situation sank in deeper.
And the question she didn't want to face crept in, one for which she had no answer. Should she take the money and run? Or risk everything to expose the truth?
She didn't know. And for the first time in her life, Lynx wasn't sure where she stood.
The decision hung in the air. And time was running out.