"Home yet?"
The moment he stepped back into his apartment, a message popped up.
Arthur was familiar enough with the Neural Link's communication feature, but now it felt oddly distant. Normally, Fixers used this method to pass along intel, but he rarely touched it outside of work.
"Hmm... Just got home."
The exchange ended there. Neither side followed up.
After drying off from the rain, Arthur collapsed straight into sleep.
He found himself in an unfamiliar place, sitting in the dark, his back against a wall he couldn't quite picture.
It felt... closer to the factory's exterior. Rain hammered the wall outside, sharp and clear.
People were always drawn to the rare, especially when it looked beautiful.
His body was bouncing back quickly. The earlier shock hadn't really injured him; it had just forced his nervous system into self-protection from the pain.
He tried basic comms, but nothing connected. Even the deep Link with Lucy was dead. Some kind of advanced jamming device, no doubt.
He was on his own.
First the simulated bio-signal, now this. No matter how hard he thought, he couldn't figure out when he'd made enemies like these.
His mind churned as David rose again—this time steadier.
He moved out.
It was late, deep into the night. He didn't know when dawn would break, only that this was the dead of night.
Outside was still, silence pressing in with the darkness, the unknown tightening his chest.
The mission was over. If he made it out alive, he'd have words with that damn Fixer.
If the other side had broken the rules, then they no longer had the underworld's protection.
David started feeling his way toward the edge of the factory.
He retraced the same path he'd used before—the one that had seemed the most concealed. Maybe it would still work.
Reaching the flimsy iron gate felt like he was nearly free.
All he had to do was leave this suffocating steel furnace. Once on the surface, what could stop him?
The Sandevistan on his back wasn't just for attack—it was just as effective for escape.
Staying sharp, he moved until he reached the massive iron doors he'd come through. David's brow furrowed.
The rain had grown heavier, slamming into the factory grounds. The sky was smothered in clouds, visibility far worse than when he'd arrived.
The damp chill of the storm hit his face, making him instinctively hunch his shoulders.
Then, just as he rubbed his hands for warmth, a white beam cut through the rain, pinning his shadow against the ruined wall.
"You inside. You are suspected of damaging company property. Come with us."
"I repeat..."
...
Blinded by the high-powered beam, David squinted until his eyes nearly shut.
Now it all made sense—the strange accents, the advanced gear...
But why would Arasaka care about him?
His thoughts flickered to the cyberware on his spine.
Militech's newest experimental Sandevistan. Maybe that really was enough to draw them in.
The moment that thought struck, David vanished from sight.
The beam caught his outline, but not his speed. In an instant, the searchlight lost him.
It felt like he'd slipped into another world—and his opponents weren't nearly as dangerous as he'd feared.
Compared to the Arasaka operatives he'd seen before—the death squad V once led—these men were nothing but window dressing.
On that job, V's team had all died, but they'd held a farm's entire security force for nearly three hours.
If that squad were here, with preparation, even David's Sandevistan might not have been enough to break free.
Now, though, with gunfire rattling through the storm, these men were lambs to the slaughter.
Blood mixed with the downpour, running across the ground.
With the Sandevistan burning through his body, David could see every raindrop strike his skin—sharp, cold, and bone-deep.
Even the furious rattle of submachine gun fire was swallowed by the storm, echoing only in a tight pocket of space.
Splash—
The last figure collapsed into a puddle. His black uniform soaked through, his wounds washed pale by the rain.
David fought the dizziness pounding in his skull, but the relentless downpour dulled the ache, cooling his head.
The cold gnawed into him, but it kept him awake without effort.
"No wonder Lucy likes lying in a bathtub full of ice."
The thought passed through him as his feet carried him deeper into the storm.
He soon found his car—plain, nondescript, the kind that vanished in traffic.
David slid into the driver's seat quickly.
Lucy still hadn't answered. Now that he was clear, he had to get back to her.
"Please, let nothing have happened..."
He prayed silently, then started the engine.
For a brief moment, the dashboard glowed—
And David froze.
In the rearview mirror above the console, the black barrel of a gun pressed against the seatback, aimed squarely at his skull.
The only sound was the heavy rain hammering the roof.
Cold and darkness seeped into his chest.
He fixed his gaze on the slim rearview mirror—but it showed only blackness.
"Gulp."
The faint sound of swallowing cut through the storm.
"Who's there?"
Forcing down his fear, David spoke.
No reply came from the dark behind him.
"You don't think you're faster than me, do you? The trigger's stiff... takes strength."
His tone was steady, but he was too young to sound calm.
The silence stretched on.
David kept staring into the mirror. In its shadow, something shifted, rolling in the dark.
...
(70 Chapters Ahead)
p@treon com / GhostParser