“MMHMMM…WHERE YOU GOING WITH ALL THAT MEAT” A woman shouted from across the road. I ignored her, unsure if she meant me. “YEAH…I MEAN YOU…ONE IN THE TIGHT SUIT SHOWING ALL THAT GIRTH,” she continued.

“Tell ‘em, girl! We hungry” a compatriot cheered on.

I shyly turned to the left and saw who they were and guessed correctly. Whores. Two of them wore translucent overall, which showed their multicolour undergarments ‘discretely’.

The third woman, with her nose pinned to the sky, was fully clothed, but I knew she was the leader, based on the way her heels clopped in front of the duo, as she ignored me. “It’s not that big!” She shouted, “that’s a damn balls guard…like the one they use in cricket!”

“Ahh…” The girls said in unison.

That made me smile…cause I knew better.

Despite that everyone ogled at me whilst I made my way down the street, passing vendors and food stalls alike.

The shearing sound of meat sliding across pans and splashing in bubbling hot oil was like a treat for my ears. For the past six hours, all I heard was my heartbeat climb into my mouth, with the help of adrenaline.

Still though. I could say one thing when I stopped in the middle of the street with people swarming around me like bees in a hive.

I love this city.

As hard as I tried to ignore everyone, my damn Furtiven suit caught everyone’s attention. Each gaze was different, but I knew when someone spoke with their eyes. “Idiot…Freak…Sexy”

Well, that’s what I assumed when they gawked, ran, squirmed and rolled their eyes at me.

The white GPS line I trailed finally took me to my destination. A three-story cinder block building with golding trimming around the edges. The doors were steel with divets chiselled all around them. It may have only taken me five minutes to find it but I was damned happy to see it.

Archion Security Depot, that’s what the wall read, painted in black and white. No form of lighting. It was done that way to send a message. Don’t fuck with me.

I was surprised though, cause I never thought to find an A-Class security sight on the Eastern half of Bridge City.

The Lawless Zone.

It wasn’t a Lawless Zone, but it is synonymous known that BLED did a poor job of patrolling this area. The more I mused on it, I guess this building was more a statement to anyone surrounding because finding Archion Security Depots…here was like finding a decrypted datapad with a million cryptocurrencies, readily available.

Archion Security Depot was the best Security Deposit site within the Federation. They advertised a success rate of 99%, whilst the 100% retrieval upon a break-in, and that was some 40 years ago. Now? It’s 100%, especially with the Automatons and Turrets they bragged about.

I walked up to the door and a yellow pulse flashed, dulling my sight for a second. The doors split open with a dragging groan that sounded like a camel’s moan on a Sunday afternoon after brunch.

Inside though, were pristine, white tiles with a sitting area and a coffee machine to the right a welcome desk on the left, with a sitting behind it.

I made one step inside and the ambient sound of waterfalls and light bells cancelled out the ruckus that was made from outside.

The door shut with a slight thud and the girl at the welcoming desk raised her head. Her lip curled into a smile. The black pants suit she wore, matched her black lipstick and eye shadow. The name tag though, which read Pernella, looked weird.

“Welcome to Archion Deposit, where your deposit is our life,” Pernella said, in a soothing tone. I approached the desk and she kept her gaze on me, smiling without. It was creepy as hell…

“Yes I’m here to make a deposit, and something that would fit this,” I said, plunking the DNA Cylinder on the desk.

“7 Inches Wide and 12 Inches long, the diameter of 4 inches.”

“Good guess,” I said.

The girl turned to me and I saw a red flash flicker in her left eye. Ahh…cybernetic eyes. I mused. “To deposit this size, I would like to recommend the Silver Class, it has a starter fee of Twenty-Five thousand credits.”

I gave a loud whistle and shook my head. “Pricey…but don’t worry about that,” I said wistfully, I swiped the creditstrip across the machine. “Welcome Mr Kaiden Cypher, it’s been a while…would be you be making a withdrawal, or deposit?” The machine asked.

“Deposit.”

The girl’s eyes looked as if they were about to pop open up, the ever-growing smile she had, changed from creepy to panic. “I’m sorry sir. I didn’t know you were part of our Gold Members.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “I’m sure you never get Gold Members in this side of town anyway.

The panic slowly drifted from her lips, crawling up to her eyes. She stepped outside of her cubicle, keys in hand, ushered me to follow her.

Pernella passed the coffee machine, then slid her key into the wall. The opposing wall opened up and the sound of shutters falling around echoed through the walls. “High-security mode engaged Mr Cypher, you can conduct your business privately…this way please.”

She led me down a short flight of stairs, then made a hard left and short right, carrying me along a well-lit hallway. On either side were safety deposit boxes of varying sizes with motion sensors placed evenly throughout the glassed off section.

“Would you like your item bundled with your other items?”

“No…I would like this separate with specific rules set for release. Understood?”

“Yes sir.

We made our way to the Gold Member section, which was nothing special, in my opinion, it was just like the rest, just it had more security, and security I meant two Automatons stationed inside with three turret guns pointing at the entrance.

“Please,” Pernella said, turning the key into a wall socket. A tile rose from the ground in the middle of the room. Pernella didn’t move, and I felt her eyes on me as I walked up to the newly formed table.

I placed the cylinder on the tile and the surface shifted down by two centimetres. A keyboard appeared on the right side. I typed in the security features I wanted, then turned to Pernalla, who then turned the key once more.

“Your security has been activated Mr Cypher.”

“Good.”

As I made my way out of the building, waiting for the shutters to finally rise. The thought of finally hearing Shin-Lee and Hannah-Lee’s voices was all I think of. “Finally…” I said, watching the door crack open.

I dialled the house phone and Hannah-Lee’s direct number eight times, but no one answered. I called Zade too, and his phone was dead.

An uneasy feeling crept into my stomach, making me jittery and quite nervous. This doesn’t feel right I said. No…I’m just paranoid I thought. …just paranoid

When I finally caught a cab, I spent the first fifteen minutes reaching both Hannah-Lee and Gonzade, but still no answers.

The longer I heard nothing the more that gut-wrenching feeling churned within my stomach. “Watch it bud!” The cabbie complained. “Don’t kick a hole in my cab!”

“What?” I answered confused. “His eyes drifted to my feet and noticed I was tapping the floor profusely. Shit…I gave the cabbie a resigned smile. “Sorry…” I said, but the scoff he had in his eyes, said it all. He couldn’t give a shit.

After wrestling with the thought of checking the surveillance within the home. I finally checked, starting from when I left home.

I sifted through the footage, watching as Shin-Lee came back home and went back to bed after escorting me to the cab. Nothing changed, for about six hours, then I saw her move from the bed. I checked Hannah-Lee’s footage, but she was still out cold.

My heart leapt with each step she made towards the door. Don’t answer it…don’t answer it.

She answered it.

The door was kicked open and Shin-Lee scampered back, two men in black and brown hoodies came through the door with cybernetic arms with steam hissing from their lips, they both wielded guns, pistols to be precise, which were now trained at Shin-Lee.

The brown hooded bastard fired a shot at Shin-Lee, hitting her full in the chest. A huge pain resonated into my chest in the form of a sledgehammer pounding my heart. My body began to ache…shutting down from all the adrenaline I just used for the past six hours.

I fell to the floor and couldn’t hear anything the cab spat at me. The only thought that came to mind…was Hannah-Lee and Shin-Lee.

“…no” I croaked. Then, I felt my eyes close, which could be for the last time.

The End of Translucent Requisition

Book 2 of The Encrypted Data of Kaiden Cypher