“Mrs Cypher.” Mr Black said nodding towards my wife as he stood outside our door.

“You’re earlier than expected,” I said grimly.

“Things change Cypher, you know that, especially in our line of work.”

“I do—“

“Save it Cypher, once you’re in, you’re never out.”

Hannah ran up beside me, holding my leg, then tugging my shit for my attention. “Go back and play your game hun, daddy’s talking”

“Hellow my dear,” Mr Black said with a grim smile.

My little girl nodded, without an answer. Good I thought, Mr Black may have saved her, but she didn’t have to speak to him.

I spun Hannah around, sending her back to her game. The moment she sat down in her chair, Shin-Lee picked her up and eyed me.

“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” Mr Black asked

“It’s your house,” I said. “I’m sure you have a second key to the place.”

“Heh…I do, but respect goes both ways Cypher. There’s nothing to gain from being a disrespectful landlord. I respect people’s privacy and affairs, so I expect them to respect mine as well.”

“I see, will my wife and daughter be fine whilst I’m gone?”

“Like a bee finding honey.”

I didn’t smile, nor did I say anything. I looked at him grimly because I knew exactly what he meant. As long as you do your job, the queen will be fine.

“Right…” I grunted.

I pushed the door open, and Mr Black strolled in as if he own the place. Unsurprising, I thought bitterly.

He walked through the living room, heading towards the balcony on the east side of the apartment.

The door slashed open and the wind brushed through the apartment opening Mr Black’s tiger-skinned coat, which for the life of me, still hung from his shoulders.

The patio had a table and chair, something I didn’t realise as it was tinted and had no need to use, especially with Hannah being here.

Twelve skyscrapers sat in the distance, with eight skylanes snaking through them.

On the far right, were three being built. The steel beams of each pierced the sky as if the three of them were competing to see who would be the highest building in Castrian.

“Interested?” Mr Black said pulling a Cigar from his breast pocket.

“I don’t smoke.”

“Good. More for me.”

Mr Black snapped the top off the cigar with one of his golden rings, and fire sparked free from another ring. He dipped the severed cigar in the flame and it slowly came alive.

The sweet leathery aroma from the cigar flooded into my nose, stinging my tongue in the process.

“Interesting scent,” I said.

“The best kind.” He answered.

Mr Black and I stood on the balcony watching as the sun retreated from the evening sky. The blue skyline filled with clouds shifted from grey to white in colour. It was beautiful to see, knowing how jaded a skyline could be.

It was natural, soothing and most of all harsh because of the blackness that lay behind what could possibly be a hurricane.

That, for sure was something I didn’t need, not right now anyway. I wanted to stay with my family, but with Mr Black letting me know my peace was at an end, was as frustrating as it could get.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Mr Black said, killing the silence between us. “It is…but I’ve seen better,” I said, thinking of my wife and daughter’s eyes.

“We all have…but we all can’t have what you have Cypher.”

“You can, you simply choose not to.”

“…to avoid the shit you just swam through with Akatani? Then yes. I choose not to let such ‘beauty’ be tarnished by my existence.”

“I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to talk some sense into me. I made my choice, and I’m happy with it. You’ve made your choice…live with it.”

“I shall, and let’s thank the Imbibe for me, not I having your life.”

Silence nestled between Mr Black and me as he finished his first cigar. He fired up the second one, smothering the patio in that sweet leathery aroma.

Mr Black pulled the cigar from his lips and looked at it as though it meant something to him. ”You’re free to ask any question you want, just remember it’s in my right to answer or not, as I see fit, understood.”

I nodded slowly whilst balling my fist. Mr Black’s eyes drifted to my fist and he smile ruefully as if he were satisfied with himself.

“Did you orchestrate for me to take on the Adrianna Smiths case?”

“I did not.”

“Did you send that black squad to tidy up what Vizare Stepson did?”

“That was not me, nor do I know or care, who did it.”

“So you do know.”

Mr Black turned to me, smiling knowingly, then blow smoke in my face, adding insult to injury.

“If you mean specifically, I don’t but yes, if you’re asking if the Federation did it then you’re right.”

“You work for the Federation?!”

“You haven’t figured that out?” He said laughing dryly as he shook his head. “I overestimated you Cypher. I really have.”

Fuck! I didn’t see that, I thought someone had him under his finger, doing their dirty work.

“How else would I know about Hortort Calisum?”

“I thought you acquired it through financial means.”

He smiled and didn’t do anything. “Tell me Cypher, how did you kill Hortort?”

I ground my teeth in annoyance, as I knew the question was coming. It wasn’t anything major to know, unless you had Black Level access, if Mr Black knew I’d killed him, it meant he had Orange Level clearance, which meant you could only read the redacted version of Black Level missions.”

“Stop wasting time and tell me Cypher, I need to know!”

“Fine,” I sighed. “When I was holed up in Estaleva, I found out something that was a state-level secret.”

“Something?”

“Yeah…I tried to infiltrate his Fort Garza, but there was no way in. It was minimalist in design, which made it difficult for me to infiltrate especially with the guard towers only being ten meters apart and 24/7 duty. The only way in was by helicopter, the front door or the sewers.”

“You couldn’t get through the sewers?”

“Five Tier laser system with auto-turrets. Taking out the electricity didn’t mean much as they had five generators around the fortress.”

“Five backups?”

“Yeah.”

“No chance to kill him through his motorcades?”

“None…”

“No wonder you spent three years in deep cover.”

“Right…”

As Mr Black nodded, he puffed smoke into the air in the form of O’s. He tapped his cigar, and the ash dropped to the ground.

A loud vacuum noise spooled, and the ash disappeared from beneath Mr Black’s feet.

“Don’t get distracted.”

“I’m not!” I growled.

“Never said you were” He chided.

I sighed and rolled my neck and continued my story, not motivated. It wasn’t that my assassination of Hortort was something spectacular, but it was in the method in how I did it.

“Since I couldn’t gun the bastard down with certainty, I did the next best thing I could do. I found out what he ate, and luckily for me, that information was public, as people would gift them food, hoping he would treat them well.”

“Narcissist.”

“Takes one to know one.”

“Exactly.” Mr Black said with a smile.

Ignoring Mr Black’s arrogance, I got back to my story fanning away the smoke that waft around me.

“I’d spent at least six months finding out what the bastard liked to eat. It was straight hell finding out, because there was no way in hell I was believing things so easily, and I was right.”

“Right about what?”

“Something.”

“It’s nothing too spectacular, I’m just warning you so we can skip th—“

“I need to know Cypher!”

I sighed once again, not because I was frustrated, but because I was annoyed I was revealing Black Level classified information to an Orange Level operative. “Can you guarantee you won’t leak this to your superiors?”

“You don’t have to worry. I don’t report to Regrin Levoin.”

My heart skipped a beat, as I turned to him, startled by Mr Black’s words. He curled his lips into a smile, showing his golden tooth canine and blowing smoke from his lips. “What? You thought I didn’t know you’re still in contact with your old handler? Even if he’s Director of Dawn Light now?”

“You’re not an Orange Level Operative?”

“The same way you aren’t an N7.”

“Bastard.”

“Wrong, my parents were married, so I’m a legitimate child.” He answered.

“Whatever.”

Mr Black bellowed a hearty laugh that came from the chest. It was as if he’d heard a personal joke that made him smile from ear to ear, which left me confused. Bastard.

“Fine…it took me three months of tailing every truck that went in. I found out details about the guards, but the most important thing was where his food came from, but I lucked out. One of the trucks that provided livestock was owned by one of the chefs and when I bugged him, I found what Hortort was allergic to.”

“The Great Empire of Latrina, Hortort Hel Calisum, was allergic to something?

“Barely,” I said rolling my eyes. “but anyway, I contacted my handler and had him make a nano bomb catered specifically for Enterocolitis Syndrome.”

“The bastard is Allergic to milk!?”

“Yes.” I laughed

“That was anticlimactic” Mr Black huffed.

“Told you.”

“Don’t care, I still want to hear. How did you deliver it to him?”

“How else, The nano bombs had his DNA, god knows how they had it.”

“That’s easy, they took it from him the moment he sat down for peace talks.”

“He came personally for the peace-talks, I thought he’d sent his son for those?” I asked

“No…Hortort’s old school, hence why I was curious about how he died, not to hear he died because of a nano bomb that specifically made for his DNA…that’s fucked up.” Mr Black said.

“Everything is fucked up. In this line of work.”

“It is,” Mr Black said, finishing dragging a line from his cigar.

Alright…enough. “How long’s this mission for?”

“Straight to business, fine by me. A few weeks, it’s really down to you.”

“Is that why you had me put in hundreds of hours in VR training?”

“Yes, the VR training is to outline the possibilities of something happening on the mission, it’ll make things easier.”

“Do I have to kill people?”

“It’s a skin job Cypher if you have sure, but the most important thing is to infiltrate and exfiltrate, just like you did with Elhisia..”

“Am I the only asset in play?

“No. I won’t let you go in blind. I need this job to go down smoothly.”

“I see…after I take this job…am I free from you?”

“Till I require your assistance again…”

“I see…Understood.”

Mr Black finished his cigar, turning to me once more, then puffed a final cloud of smoke into the air.

The cigar smoke covered his face, and then caressed it, making him seem like Hannya Boy. He curled his lips into a smile, golden tooth canine sparkling.

He walked up to me, clapping my shoulder with his right hand, then squeezed it tightly. “Is that all you want to know?”

“No. I asked you who you are, but you didn’t answer.”

“I did, I’m a facilitator.”

“Stop bullshitting me, Black. Facilitators are people who work for their own game, ensuring the lines aren’t smudged in the process. Who do you work for and what’s your real goal? I don’t feel comfortable with this.”

“Were you comfortable when you killed Velus Quantrin or is it Belavro Pekrin?”

“Quite…Velus Quantrin was a psychopath who killed his own brother to marry his sister-in-law and take over a Settlement in the QK-6 Sector. Belavro Pekrin hunted orphans and used their organs to sell on the black market back within the Federation.”

“Like how Elhisia Weitson killed her own father?” Mr Black said glumly.

“How do you know that?” I snarled.

“You have your ways. I have mine, but that’s beside the point. It’s interesting to hear you speak of them both. I know your upbringing hasn’t allowed you to care for the Federation in the way you’ve acted. Especially after they dumped you when you brought that wife of yours from Latrina Empire. I won’t lie Cypher, I probably wouldn’t care if I were you. However, Belavro Perkin was selling military hardware to the Doasa Nation, whilst Velus Quantrin was releasing Federation secrets to the Latrina Empire. You know this…hence why you were sanctioned to kill them both, nothing to do with what you mentioned. You may have discovered those things and used them as motivation, but regardless…you know how the Federation operates..”

He’s right, I thought, the bastard is right. Those two were traitors to the Federation. I knew what they’d done underneath the table, but when I killed them both, I told them their death was related to their sick hobbies, a form of payback in my mind…it wasn’t professional, but I didn’t care, especially when it came to Velus Quantrin, the bastard killed orphans. HELL, I was a damn orphan myself!

“Doesn’t matter,” I said firmly.

“Exactly.”

Mr Black flicked his wrist and then tapped a button around his gold bangle. A message popped up across my HUD. ‘Briefing Coordinates’. At the bottom of the message, was a timer.

72 hrs 00 mins left.

“Three days?”

“The coordinates will show up in three days. Enjoy the little time you have with your family Cypher. This isn’t some walk in the park.”

“This isn’t my first rodeo.”

He turned to me clapping me on the shoulder, then squeezed it tightly again. I felt the calluses of his palms rub through my shirt. “I’ll be seeing you. No need to see me out”

Asshole.

I watched as Mr Black left the balcony, and walked through the living room, then headed to the door.

I stood outside the balcony, contemplating whether my life got harder the second I joined the AFA, but when I think of my family. None of that.