09:15 AM - South Metro, Outskirts
The skyline started to decay as they headed south. Those shiny towers of glass and chrome faded into crumbling bricks, rusty smokestacks, and cranes that had been left to rust away. The streets twisted tighter, the air thick with something heavy. Adrian could almost sense the rot creeping through the cockpit glass.
Below, markets sagged under their own grime. Meat hung from hooks, gray at the edges, swarming with flies. The water in the gutters had that rainbow sheen, the telltale sign of chemical runoff eating its way through the pavement. This wasn't just poverty; it was decay personified.
Garrick tapped the dashboard in time with the blades, a smirk playing on his lips.
"Welcome to paradise. Don't say I never take you anywhere nice."
Adrian's gaze remained fixed on the skyline.
"I've seen dumps with better real estate."
"Guess you'll fit right in, then."
"Guess you'll keep circling while the adults handle the work."
The smirk faded, just for a heartbeat. Garrick's eyes darted back to the controls, his grin stitched back on but a bit tighter this time.
10:00 AM - Nexo Pharmaceutical Perimeter, South Metro
Adrian blended into the crowd. They pressed in too close, the stench of sweat and fried food clinging to his coat. Kids with hollow eyes darted through the stalls, hands quick in their pockets. Vendors shouted over one another, but underneath all that noise, whispers simmered.
His recorder hummed steadily at his side, capturing everything: fragmented stories of missing neighbors, of jobs at Nexo that never materialized, of screams swallowed by the night.
As Adrian climbed a scaffold, his boots crunched over glass. From up high, he could see the guards at the compound's gate, pacing with their rifles cradled like part of their bodies. Their radios hissed, static breaking into sharp bursts, as if the city itself was trying to bite through the frequency.
"Report." Elias crackled in his ear, voice dry and unhurried.
"Gate rotations are tight." Adrian muttered, narrowing his eyes.
"No obvious blind spots. You'll need an inside angle. Someone on the payroll."
"You think employees are lining up to squeal?"
"Better them than me getting shot for intel." Adrian shot back.
There was a pause, then Elias exhaled like gravel rolling downhill. "I'll see who I can shake loose. Don't get sentimental if it costs extra."
"Never do."
04:30 PM - Nexo Main Entry Gate
He pushed it too far.
A guard's gaze sliced through the crowd and locked onto him. Adrian's throat dried up before the man even shouted. Boots pounded the pavement.
Adrian took off.
The crowd split around him. Rusty fencing caught his palms as he vaulted over, scraping his skin raw. Glass crunched underfoot. A bullet ricocheted off the steel, just inches from his shoulder. Way too close. Way too loud.
"Elias," he whispered into the mic, his breath coming in quick gasps, "You catching this?"
"Oh, I'm hearing it," Elias shot back, his tone dry as a desert. "Sounds like some cardio. Didn't think you were the athletic type."
"Less chatter—" Adrian ducked behind a wall, concrete shattering under the gunfire. "—and more ideas, please."
"Simple solution: don't get caught."
Adrian pushed himself harder, heart pounding like a drum, blood mixing with rust on his palm where skin had torn. He turned another corner, gasping for air—and then, just like that, the boots behind him went quiet. Complete silence.
The alley felt too still.
He pressed against the wall, his breath shallow. Somewhere in the distance, a guard's radio crackled, the static blending with broken whispers.
Adrian clenched the wall tighter, trying to focus. But then the smoke around him twisted into the same memory from before: flames licking the walls, screams echoing as the ceiling came crashing down. His chest tightened.
No. Focus on the here and now. Always the present.
06:30 PM - South Metro Rooftop, Extraction Point
The helicopter swooped down, its rotors whipping up a whirlwind of dust and debris. Garrick leaned out, grinning like he was waiting for a big show. In the fading light, that grin looked almost eerie too sharp, too bright against the shadows.
"Quite the stroll, Agent. Trip over anything?"
Adrian pulled himself into the cabin, his palms stinging, breath steady but feeling cold. "Just your sense of humor. Still waiting for a chance to recover from that."
"C'mon, one day you're gonna crack up at my jokes. I can feel it."
Adrian shut his eyes, his voice flat. "Not likely, miracles are more Elias's specialty."
As the helicopter climbed, the city fell away beneath them. But the weight of South Metro hung on him the stench of blood and chemicals, whispers lost in static, and that eerie silence where footsteps had stopped but never really left.
The city wasn't done with him. Not yet.