Taking a breath, was what I needed. But it was also something I couldn’t afford to do. Laying on my laurels would put me in a bad spot, and with such limited time, there was no way in hell I was just gonna lie on my ass and hope for the best.

I retreated from the sewers, because that was a dud, partially. I could get in through the sewers as the security was far less populated, but a tab bit lethal.

As I lay in the cab, feeling the weight of the vehicle wafting back and forth, my stomach rose to my chin and fell to my knees, almost giving me nausea.

“I don’t know where you’ve been, but you smell like shit.” The cabbie growled. I swiped my credit strip, tipping him an additional 200 Credits, and the scoffing grin of a face he gave me, finally dissipated for me to enjoy my city circle ride. I wonder how he’d feel if he knew I just walked through shit indeed. I thought, bitterly.

The sun beamed in the sky, heading west, leaving perfectly orange and purple hue-like clouds painted across the horizon, as the sun began its descent into dawn.

A thousand cars that roamed in the sky alongside me, were moaning and spluttering as they passed the cab. I peeked out the window, looking down, watching the city from above and felt like I was doing absolutely nothing.

But when you have no plan, this tends to be the case.

I don’t know how I’d cut the power to those conductors I thought. Three days isn’t enough time for me to infiltrate Underwent, with no support might I add but I had to get it done.

Fuck it.

“Take me down, nearest offshoot port,” I told the cabbie.

“…right.”

The cab swooped downward, sending my chest into my back, and made a sharp right, following the flow of traffic. He made a sharp left, then right, and made a gradual ascent.

He took me to the nearest offshoot port, which was a rundown rooftop bar, with dozens of cabs parked, no doubt their cabbies drinking way their lives.

I hopped out of the car, bag shouldered across my shoulder. The clipping sound of glass crunching beneath my feet drew my attention. I looked down, noticing the ground was littered with green and mauve coloured shattered glass. I wasn’t sure if it was a design, but when I rounded the corner, leading to the bar.

The two Royal Palm trees had broken bottles, placed around the roots of the tree-like knives, a warning of some sort I assumed. The colour of the bottles matched the bottle, and I simply nodded, ignoring why the hell you’d put broken glass there walking through the Royal Palms.

The rooftop bar was empty. It had four tables, with a couple occupying a table in the corner on the right. The bartender sat with his feet up, watching a reply of the Commissioner’s earlier announcement regarding Darlina’s “coupe-d'etat” for the Phrazeon Group.

“Commissioner Hexan, do you have proof to back up allegations?” The reporter asked her. “All questions will be asked in due time,” Hexan answered shrewdly, eyeing the camera pointing at her stiffly.

The bartender caught me in the corner of his eyes and jumped, jogging towards me as I pulled up a chair. “How may— what the fuck is the smell? Shit?” he hissed, covering his nose. I tapped my bag, gave him a curt nod and painted my best gentleman smile across my face. “Another’s trash is another man’s gold,” I said.

“Sir…please leave.”

“I’ll pay triple just for you to just shut up and serve me!” I growled.

The bartender gawked. I raised my hand and pressed my finger into the glass sheet, cracking it slightly. “I guess I’ll pay for that as well,” I said, eyeing him from the corner of my eye. His lips drew the line, and he howled a hissing sigh. “How can I help?” he said through gritted teeth.

“Peace. I won’t belong.”

“As you wish.”

The bartender stormed off, heading in the direction of the couple, ensuring if they needed anything. I amplified the microphone in my left ear, just to make sure I could hear what he was saying. “Hi, I apologise in advance for the inconvenience.”

“Such inconvenience,” The man said.

“The stench, riff-raff comes in occasionally and I can’t run them out.”

“I don’t smell anything.”

Of course, you wouldn’t I’m sitting downwind, I made sure of that. I thought, shaking my head. “Well, the next two drinks on the house, and yet again I apologise.” The bartender said, before scuttling. The man and woman eyed each other confused by the bartender’s words, which brought a smile to my face.

“Rex…we have a problem,” I said.

“What now?” Rex answered.

“Underwent has a DECS”

“A Defensive Electrical Coil System? Just shoot the damn thing.”

“Come on Rex, you know it’s booby-trapped, hell. I have some concerns with the dam wall that’s blocking direct access to the DECS”

“You have a point. What do you need me for.”

“I need to find a way to cut the power for Underwent along with the backup generators.”

“Sounds easy to me. Pay someone to flip the switch and pay someone to damage the backup generator” He scoffed.

“Funny…” I scoffed in return. “Having enough Creds just won’t simply do for the power plant, Rex. It’s the time frame.”

“Timeframe?”

“Yes. I have to find the weakest links amongst the worker, befriend them, offer him money when he’s down, then ask him for a favour to cancel the debt with me.”

“Shrewd…aren’t you”

“Barely.” I lied.

“I get it, the only option you would have is rerouting power from the Substation from Underwent Momentarily, then use the downtime to flood their systems with a malware attack that halts their backup generator.”

“Aren’t those hardlined to kick once the power is gone?”

“They are, but if I trick the system into believing power’s being received, then you won’t have to worry about that…right?”

I groaned a sigh and sucked my teeth in annoyance. “Can you even get that done?” I asked. “What the fuck do you mean if I can get that done Cypher. OF COURSE!”

“How?”

“The same way your man Akatani did it. Install some malware on some smuck, feed into the system and boom that’s it.”

“It doesn’t work that way.”

“It does, you’d be surprised by the number of back doors these ‘PMC’ Groups have open because they aren’t smart enough.”

“How long would it take for you to re-route the substation for Underwent.”

“A few minutes.”

“What? What do you mean, a few minutes, what bullshit are on?”

“I’m serious, I can get this done in a few minutes.”

Is Rex fucking with me? I thought callously. He just uttered a solution to my plan, stating he can get it done in mean. A solution, that would require him to infiltrate and install what the hell he needs to, at each Electrical Substation, setting up a relay system, that’d allow him to re-route power from Underwent momentarily, leaving him enough time, to then apply a malware attack, that would not only stall, but trick the backup system into thinking that power is still working?

What kinda bullshit is this…the only way this could be done is if…“You motherfucker!” I growled, drawing the eyes of the couple and bartender. “You already had plans to hack into The Mangol’s system…didn’t you?”

“Maybe…” Rex said, smiling through his teeth. I couldn’t see the smile, but I know the bastard well enough or believed I did. “Fine…maybe, what do I have to do?”

“Well…first, I’m gonna need credits, because I’m gonna need a time of people for the job.”

“I don’t have that type of credit.”

“Relax Cypher. I only need a million credits. A job like this is like a job interview. If you can hack into their database, not only will we be hunted down, we’d likely be brought in to patch it up, to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

“I thought you freelance mainly.”

“I do…a job like this is bragging rights for me…if it succeeds.”

“What do you mean…if it succeeds?”

“Honestly. We’re not sure if it’ll work. We haven’t tested it before, on this scale.”

“What does the scale have to do with it.”

“A lot. All of told you is just a theory on how we planned to break down and infiltrate their systems. However, cutting their power is the best option.”

“Are you sure you can get this done?”

“Quite…”

“How many credits do you need.”

“Two million Credits.”

“…that’s a lot of fucking credits,” I said calmly.

“It is.”

After a minute of silence, I finally relented on the idea of not draining my bank account, because I truly needed the help to get this done. It didn’t help that I was out of options as well.

I pulled up my account and looked at the two million credits I’d saved over the past couple of years after taking High-Risk jobs in the Carib Waste. The credits were saved, specifically for Hannah’s Myelofribosis, which for Christ’s sake she was missing at this time! FUCK!

“Let me get back to you Rex…I have to do something.”

“Aye…” He answered.

It took me an entirety of thirty minutes before I finally pulled the crystalline phone from my bag. He didn’t give me a warning about contacting him, but after debating myself. It had to be done. I need time and so does Hannah.

“I’m not seeing any bounty’s on your head Cypher,” Akatani answered. “So this better be good.”

“I need a favour…”

“Is this related to the task?”

“Yes.”

“Go on. I found a way into Underwent Market, but I need more time. I can’t just charge in.”

“I anticipated this. You’re smart though Cypher, what do you think I’ll say?”

“You’ll say no, but you want this serphandias more than you want to say…so give me more time, to get this done.”

“No.” He said firmly. Damn it.

“I see…then can I make a request?”

“Request?” Akatani asked incredulously. I could hear the surprise in his voice, so I buried my frustration into my stomach, leaving it there, hoping I wouldn’t have to beg…which I was still willing to do.

“My daughter Hannah… suffers from Myelofribosis. I need—“

“You NEED to get inside Underwent Market and get me the fucking serphandias. I already spoke with your wife, she begged me to get the Nanites for the girl. She’s fine. Get me THE FUCKING SERPHANDIAS!”

The line went dead and so did my heart.