The datapad is initialized with the green line ascending and descending. I placed the hand on the scanner and once the approval chime came on, the second form of security flashed in.

Elhisia eyed me quizzically, but when I pulled the two eyeballs from a small canister from my bag. The girl screamed in surprise. “What the hell are those!” She said, squirming the words from her lips whilst covering her mouth. “Eyeballs.” I answered, “The datapad has a Retina scanner. I have no other way to bypass it.” As I’d lost Nova in battle.

A negative chime went off and two rings with double space between each went from white to red. What the hell? I shifted the eyes from out of the two rings, then put them back. The negative chime went off, which left me even confused further.

“Switch the eyes.” The heiress said, squirming from the sinew that dangled from my hands. I did as she recommended. The approval ding went off and the map I had transcribed to my own Operating System pulsed into existence. “Do you know what this is?” I asked.

Elhisia took the tablet with two fingers as if she’d been scorned. She then scanned the map studiously and questioned it with her eyes after thirty seconds. “What, you know the coordinates?” I asked.

“Yes…A8-416 this is the designated area for the supply drop.”

“Supply drop?”

“Yes, I had to organise supply drops for my people, they need food, water, antibiotics…anything to help them survive out here.”

“When was the last supply drop?”

“Yesterday.”

“Humph…why would someone need to head there, if the supply drop was yesterday?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you trust Rikor?”

“No…”

“How many people have access to the radio?”

“Rikor and his men.”

“You don’t know what could’ve happened during the period you weren’t here.”

“I have a backtrace on everything in, nothing gets in…or out without my knowing.”

“…that’s all novel Princess, but if someone wants to get a secondary comms network set up without your knowledge, it’s quite easy.”

“Fine!” The heiress said, flustered. “I’ll bring Rikor here to ask a few questions!”

“You sure that’s smart, the negotiation is supposed to be in a half-hour.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The negotiations aren’t till noon!”

“That’s not what I heard. My team has been tasked to escort your father here whilst I exfiltrate the cube and yourself.”

“That’s bullshit, I specifically instructed Rikor for noon!”

“Princess…you’ve been crossed. You have one choice right now. Leave your people here, bow to your father and ask for clemency.”

“With a bullet to the brain? I think not.” Elhisia snared.

“You don’t have many options here.”

“If only I could crack this damn lineagecube!”

“You were trying to crack it?”

“Yes!”

“Why haven’t you?”

“My father has ensured that my DNA hasn’t been given access. I was trying to bypass the security by trying to trick it with my DNA sequence, but you came in before that could be finalised!”

“What the hell is the lineagecube and why does DNA matter so much with it?”

Elhisia puffed her cheeks and slammed her hands into the desk, shaking both the laptop and lineagecube from its spot. I took a closer look at the lineagecube, noting its gravely exterior. Each side had vector lines stitched around it with small rivet-like circles at small intervals. The vectored lines pulsed blue then white after two seconds.

It looked alien as hell but was also amusing if I had to be honest with myself.

Elhisia stood there, ruminating over her laptop, trying her best to form the best idea on how to proceed. Enemies were all around her, including me. Damn…I wouldn’t want to be in here situation I thought wryly.

The woman went up against her father for the people she said. She even told the Union President of the Labour Force about the contract agreement. That led to a mass strike, which then went on to be a protest which eventually led to a protest which left eight factories burnt to the ground.

Eight factories burnt by Colvolt Weitson, it all made sign. The insurance he’d get from the destruction would allow him to build better and much-improved factories for his Automaton Contract for the Landfill Withdrawal Contingency Act.

But why was this lineagecube so DAMN important?

“The lineagecube is a micro-supercomputer which analyzes every fibre of The Antillean Federation socio-economic structure from class, consumable food, waste and birthrate. The level of detail the lineagecube can go into is frightening. It predicted the Federation’s need to start the landfill removal bill. The lineagecube predicted the length of the product, which would take us twenty years to completely remove the hundreds of tons of trash around The Antillean Federation. After removing all the landfill trash, The Federation will conduct a massive sewage clean up, then proceed to build new homes, terraces…anything. It’ll be the new housing boom for the next twenty years. Millions of credits would flow, not just to us…but to the people.”

“…basically, the lineagecube suggests what to invest in, and what to dump stock.”

“Yes…pump and dump.”

I shook my head and suppressed a laugh. The rich get richer, whilst the poor get poorer…nothing ever changes in the federation. “You think you can get it cracked?” I asked.

“Of course, I can! I just need a DNA sample from my father, if I knew he’d overwritten my sequence from the lineagecube I would’ve taken a strand of his hair!”

“You just need a piece of his DNA?”

“YES!”

“Ok…if this micro-supercomputer is so important, how does it affect you…and the people out there Princess.”

“The lineagecube is the linchpin that guarantees my seat as Chairman of the Board of Directors for Phrazeon Dynamics.”

“it’ll help you become chairman?”

“Yes. Once I’m chairman, I can take these people out of here, and fix everything my father hopes to destroy…which is the economy of The Antillean Federation.”

“That’s what you believe would happen if he proceeds with his plan?”

“Yes…I’m trying to stop mass riots. Haven’t you realised how on edge the city has been?”

“The city’s always been on edge,” I said.

I tapped my bicep with my cybernetic and pondered if I should make the play I had in mind. If I remember correctly, Weitson is one of few trillionaires in the Federation, he may not have the power and credits of the Romacellins…but he’s up there. “Three Hundred Million Dollars,” I said.

“What?!” Elhisia said as if she’d been spit in the face. “Three Hundred Million Credits, and I’ll make you Chairman or whatever it is you want,” I replied.

Elhisia broke into a maniacal chuckle. Stopped, then stared at me with, showing flushed cheeks. “OK…if you can get me my father’s DNA, I’ll gladly give you three million dollars, can you repeat that? I want to record it.”

“If you can acquire the DNA sequence of my father,” Elhisia said firmly. “I will pay you Three Hundred Million Credits.”

I rounded the table, hearing the newspaper crunch beneath my feet. I passed Elhisia feeling her nervous eyes trail me as I approached the lineagecube. I unclipped one of my pouches, from my flak-jacket and unzipped it, pulling the cylinder free.

The cylinder began to glow white in my hands, then turned blue with small back splotches sprinkled in between. “What the hell is that?” She said aghast.

I unscrewed the cylinder, ignoring her and the scent of burnt alcohol solvent floundered into my nose, making my eyes water. I picked up the lineage cube, and tossed it into the DNA nanites, to Elhisia’s horror. I ignored her screams, watching the nanites began to devour the cylinder as my lips curled into a smile..

The lineagecube twirled and swirled within the cylinder. The white vectored lines, began to turn green slowly and after three minutes, turned white again. I fished it out of the nanites and placed it back into the holder.

“DNA Incubator, apparently your father’s DNA composite is there.” I finally said. “Your father had his ‘personal’ bodyguard attached to the thing the entire trip. Not firing a bullet I might add.”

“Bodyguard? My father doesn’t have a personal bodyguard.”

“…right, Zanton the bodyguard or personal assistant. He seemed more of an assistant than anything.”

“…ZANTON’S HERE?!?!?!” Elhisia screamed as if I just told her mother died.

“Yes…he’s been tagging along with your father.”

Elhisia dropped the cube on the table, approaching me with a balled fist and a dazed expression you’d normally see when a bear protected its own. “Please,” she whimpered. “Tell me your lying…tell me you’re LYING!”

I was lost for words. This…was something I didn’t expect. The only thing I could do was ask. “I don’t lie princess, but tell me…who is Zanton to you, and why did your father bring him?”

“He’s my Paramour.” The girl whispered.