Almost a week had passed before Hassan was satisfied with the information he could gain from his personal contacts in the quad-cities and Essedar House Intel.

  He cut the day’s training short and led the sisters to his office to share what he had learned.

  They entered his sparsely furnished office. Screens showing both live locations within the compound and tables dotted one side of the wall while another looked out over a tarmacked area that led to green fields.

  He motioned the sisters to sit down as he sat on one of the tables inside, taking a deep breath before he cleared his throat.

  “You’re not gonna like what I’ve dug up.”

  Both of the sisters cocked their eyebrows. Anya leaned back in her seat while Noa leaned forward, Hassan had definitely piqued their interest with an opener like that.

  He looked at Anya first, who responded by crossing her arms over her chest and raising her right eyebrow.

  “How well do you know your friend, Allison?”

  She cocked her head, her brows furrowing. “Well enough, why?”

  “What do you mean, well enough? Be precise, Anya.”

  She shrugged. “What she likes, what she doesn’t like. What she fears.”

  “Do you know of her frequent trips to Adina city? Specifically New Tuman district.”

  Anya sat up and leaned forward, intrigue written on her face.

  “The Bowels? Why would she go down to such a vile area?”

  Noa cringed when her sister spouted out what they both often thought about that part of the quad-city area.

  New Tuman, also known as The Bowels by the citizens of the High Rises and the quad-cities, was home to the city's largest industrial complexes. However, due to decades of continuous industrialization and a low civil government budget for other amenities, it didn’t fare as well as the other districts in the city.

  Hassan leaned back, “That’s why I’m asking you how well you know her.”

  Anya scoffed, “Not well enough, apparently. I’ll need to ask her some questions.”

  Hassan shook his head. “No, let her continue.”

  He looked at Noa. “Can you do a scouting mission? Solo.”

  Noa’s eyes widened as she sat up straight. “Me? Why me?”

  “Because you need to do more recon work. It’s not all about fighting.”

  She looked at Anya, who shrugged at her, showing no sign that she cared either way.

  “I guess so. Do I need to come up with a mission plan?”

  He shook his head. “No need for that. I have one; it's just a standard recon task. More like tailing the target. No contact. Henderson or someone else from Intel will be assigned to you to assist.”

  Noa’s lips drew to the side before she shrugged. “Guess so.”

  “What about me? Do I limit interaction with her?”

  Hassan nodded slowly. “Absolutely, yes. I’ll up your training time during this period.”

  Anya couldn’t help but respond with a wide smile as she nodded. “Oh, I can definitely do that.”

  “When?” Noa spoke up.

  “We start tomorrow. We have reliable intel that she hitches rides with some of the cargo deliveries between her patron family’s compound and New Tuman.”

  “What about my implants? I’ve graduated now, and Medical has already approved implants for me.”

  Hassan looked at her as she pulled back an unruly silver strand behind an ear.

  “Will have to hold it off. I understand you’re going for full INSIL, mil coms suite, and full overlay eye implants?”

  Noa nodded slowly. “Yes, yes. With full combat suit port options.”

  “Yep, you’d need at least a fortnight to recover from that.”

  Noa inhaled and then exhaled deeply before she nodded. “Okay, fine. Temp HUD then, I suppose?”

  He nodded before he turned his attention to Anya, who was now leaning back again in her seat.

  “Anything to add? Maybe quirks or habits of Allison that we may have missed?”

  Anya smirked while she shook her head. “She gets anxious in small spaces. Has a high tolerance to bad smells. Gets frightened easily by loud banging. Need more?”

  Hassan smiled. “Not yet, but we will forward you any questions if and when needed.”

  Anya nodded curtly at him.

  He got up. “Ok, that’s all for today. Do your weapon maintenance, and we can call it a day. No post-training session today.”

  —----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Noa sat cross-legged on her chair as she continued adding rounds to her pistol’s magazine when Hassan entered the room.

  “Gear check?” she asked without raising her head.

  “Not yet. Just thought I’d drop in.”

  Noa smirked at herself.

  Hassan looked around the sizeable room. This was one of many armories located throughout the Security Complex. For some reason, Noa had always liked using this room for any mission prep.

  “You know there’s an equally equipped room nearer to the house, right?”

  “Mhm, but I like the walk here,” Noa replied nonchalantly, her focus still on the task she was on, as she placed the filled magazine on the table next to her before taking another.

  He leaned against the frame of the door and chuckled. “Still prefer doing that yourself?”

  Noa just tittered in reply and nodded slowly.

  “Any questions on your tasks?”

  “I forgot to ask, why does this need to be a manual recon mission? Don’t they have cams in the district? I mean, as bad as it is. And why can’t we use drones?”

  Hassan smiled, having wondered about Noa's lack of questions when she was given the detailed breakdown of the mission she was assigned. He grabbed a chair and placed it opposite Noa; the noise he made as he dragged the chair closer made her look up from her concentration.

  “The administrators of Adina City don’t give The Bowels much budget. Most of what that area gets is for security, and I mean robots - parts and maintenance. So that those who accompany the human patrols in the area are well-maintained. Every one of the robots has built-in cameras that can easily be accessed either remotely or manually from its drive, in addition to the cams already on CP personnel.”

  Noa nodded. “Continue, I’m listening.” She replied curtly as she continued loading yet another magazine.

  “I know you guys don’t really study about the area unless your area of specialization was governance, which I know yours isn’t…” He paused as he studied for any reaction from Noa and found none.

  “So, each manufacturing facility within the area has its own jamming frequency that oscillates between different waves. And some of them have ranges farther than regulated. As you asked, we’ve tried testing drones in the area for remote recon. But the cost of using a drone that could automatically switch between different frequencies was too high to make regular drone recon a… hmmm… good practice.”

  Noa looked up, her brows frowning. “So human recon is less wasteful?”

  Hassan smirked. “It’s not, but I saw this as a good opportunity to have you put what you’ve learned to the field. We do carry out human recon. It has its advantages; not everything can be solved with tech, unfortunately.”

  He paused as he studied her. “You can do this, Noa; you are more prepared than anyone I know, and you seem to have a natural propensity to these things anyway.”

  She responded with a smirk. Her eyes glared at Hassan as if she were trying to say something snarky, but then she shook her head and grinned.

  “Builds character, right?”

  He laughed at her retort, then smiled and nodded slowly at the countless times he had used that phrase toward her when she had started training with him all those years ago.

  She piled all ten magazines she had loaded into three columns, slipped one into her pistol, and leaned back in her seat.

  “So, what’s the usual practice of recon in that area?”

  “We hack into the manufacturing facilities and take control of their cameras. If the priority were higher, we’d hack into the civil authority CP robots and use their cameras as well.”

  Noa nodded slowly, her right lip bent upwards as she understood, “Ah, so you don’t want to involve Intel in this.”

  Hassan gave out a hard chortle, “Can’t get things past you, I suppose. No, Intel knows about this, and we have afforded them some favors. But I don’t want to use too many House resources; it is a personal affair, after all.”

  She shrugged, smirking at him.

  “The frequencies used by the CA are reserved for their usage. And any breach into those will be reported to the Council of Houses. That’s why everyone plays ball. The risk of getting caught is not worth the repercussions. No one wants to be singled out as disturbing the peace between the High Houses.”

  Noa chuckled. “Nice preempt.”

  “I trained you, didn’t I?”

  She exhaled and nodded. Standing up and gathering the gear she had picked out for the task.

  “So, no equipment check?” She asked again, still too used to having her gear checked before every task.

  Hassan shook his head. “Not this time. Intel will do the checking this time.”

  Noa’s brows frowned as she looked at him. “Huh? Why?”

  “Don’t tell anyone this. But usually, they would embed a thing or two into your gear when they do that. Just play along. Intel won’t compromise you, that’s for sure. And they have valid reasons, but I don’t know much about their inner operations to say anything relevant.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  She shrugged; this was something she never experienced. “So… what now?”

  “Now, you have a few hours before designated transpo takes you to the drop-off point. You selected a motorbike to be brought along, yes?”

  She grinned and nodded.

  “I’ll make sure that the parts that can take on any plating will get it. You have some time on your own now. By the way, I’d like to remind you that this isn’t a textbook recon; it's more of a tailing with some recon mixed into it.”

  She dipped her chin. “Yep, you did mention that.”

  “We will drop you earlier than her usual spot times. On the off chance that she doesn’t come today, then do a tour of the area. Sus out anything that you may think could be of interest later. IF she does come today, then the tailing is a go.”

  Noa nodded curtly and was about to step out of the room when Hassan addressed her again.

  “Oh, and Noa.”

  “Hmm?”

  “Stay safe, and good hunting.”

  She smiled. “Always.”

  —---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  “Figured I’d find you here.” Noa’s voice suddenly broke the relative silence of the night.

  Anya looked up behind her to see her silver-haired sister approaching; she patted the space next to her.

  “I’m still perplexed at what the fuck that blud is doing going down there, alone, all this time.” Anya sighed as she chewed her lip.

  “Maybe she found some kerb who is giving her the time of her life?” Noa chuckled.

  Anya laughed and nudged her sister.

  “Can’t be THAT good.”

  “No idea; some people are just too easily swayed.”

  Anya sighed again. “Yea, I thought better of her… oh well. Guess that’s what happens when your family has been stuck at plathead level since forever.”

  Noa huffed in amusement. “Personally, I don’t have a good feeling about this. Not many reasons I can think of when someone who is already in High Rise likes to go down to lowbie town.”

  “I really wanna know. Was there any mission parameter that said you can’t talk to her?”

  Noa chuckled. “Any contact means failure of mission. She’s not supposed to know we know.”

  Anya groaned. “How can she be so stupid? What part of SEHIL education told her that none of the districts are being monitored.”

  “Maybe she thought she was clever enough. Power and privilege do make one lax when you let it.”

  Anya shot her sister a look, her brows furrowing before Noa started laughing at her.

  “Got you!”

  Anya laughed and punched her sister’s arm.

  “In all seriousness, though. I can see why SEHIL is so strict and why Father made us train as hard as the others in Security… more even. I dunno what the other High Houses do, but I’m glad we are doing what we are doing.”

  Anya nodded slowly. “Keeps our House at the top.”

  “Mhm.”

  “At least she stopped complaining about having to pay.”

  “Ah, so that’s the latest update?”

  Anya dipped her head. “Mhm, and more gossip among the so-called A group…”

  She shrugged before she raised a finger, remembering something she wanted to share

  “...Ah, yea; found out that three other people have been ‘approached’.”

  “Do we know them?”

  “We don’t, I do.”

  “Huh, so these are all students in your batch?”

  Anya chuckled this time, a sideways grin on her lips. “Those three others. They are all wanna-be’s. Like, Eye eye Ar See, all of them tried to compete with me.”

  Noa shook her head, “Don’t they know better than to try to beat the great Anastasiya??”

  Anya laughed out loud this time. “I know, right?”

  “So, when are you heading out? I wish I could follow. Sem and year is ending, and I’m on the committee for the graduation batch.”

  “Yea, I heard. I don’t envy you.” Noa giggled before continuing,

  “An hour before sunrise. She is usually there around 0730 and onwards.”

  “Huh, wow, rising early for a visit to The Bowels, this REALLY is getting more odd by the minute.”

  “Right? I really wanna know what the fuck is going on with that Augaow friend of yours.”

  Anya tittered as she nodded. “I can’t wait to smack some sense into her.”

  “You might get the chance, too. I’ll update you when I’m back.”

  “Gonna catch some Zees before going?”

  “Nah, I’ll chill here with you ‘til you have to go to bed.”

  “It's the weekend, babe; I don’t HAVE to go to bed.”

  —------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  The transpo had left the Essedar High Rise on schedule and made a wide detour to throw off any attempt at calculating its destination path.

  It landed more than a few kilometers from the district lines of New Tuman, in the neighboring district of Jaycrest, the largest urbanized agricultural hub for the quad-cities.

  Noa sat on her bike and waved at the transport as it lifted up and headed toward the northeast, deeper into New Tuman itself.

  She took a deep breath and leaned her arms on the full-face helmet that rested on the bike’s wide and rounded tank. The clock on her HUD showed she had more than enough time to reach her destination well ahead of time, and she sat there as she studied the area.

  She was parked in a field that the city’s secondary thoroughfare ran through. It formed a wide oval-like circle alongside, or more accurately underneath, the main thoroughfare, which snaked around the quad city area, the urban built-up area of which easily exceeded tens of thousands of square kilometers.

  The main thoroughfare consisted of a wholly elevated multiple-lane piezo roadway lined by barriers topped with solar paneling. The secondary thoroughfare she was near had a similar design, only it wasn’t elevated and did not have solar paneling on top of the barriers separating the different directions it would take its users.

  She started stretching. Slow, deliberate movements as her eyes continued to scan the area.

  Her mind ran through what little she knew of the area.

  Jaycrest was formally named Jake’s Crest after an immense development project that consisted of hundreds of large multi-level complexes, each combining community living on its lower floors with farms on its upper floors. Of the four main urban areas that made up the quad-cities, she remembered the notes on how Jaycrest had the most open spaces compared to the others.

  Her eyes zoomed into some of those, and she imagined how the information would appear as she scanned them when she would finally have her full implants and corresponding software installed. She could make out the different, distinctly designed, and colored complexes all around the area from where she was sitting.

  She scoffed softly. To her, they seemed to be the initial ideas behind the current high-density resident towers, which were now built almost everywhere within the quad-city area, especially Adina City itself.

  Hassan’s cover name appeared on her HUD as her communicator thrilled.

  “Noa here.”

  “How’s everything? How’s the view?”

  The last question came with a hint of sarcasm.

  “Heh. View looks fine. I suppose it's nice to see where the organic greens are grown in the region.”

  Hassan chuckled before he continued.

  “Update. Target is a confirmed go for the day.”

  Noa’s right lip bent up as she nodded.

  “Copy.”

  “I have an additional update. Intel has been receiving reports from reliable sources that the CP has a hold of the area. Rumor has been going on for some time, apparently. Intel just needed time to vet the information. We haven’t had the chance to verify with our own direct assets, though, so just keep an extra eye out.”

  “Now, you tell me this?” Noa frowned.

  “House Intel and Security work on different sets of rules, Noa. I don’t question them; our House has some of the best Intel people I’ve worked with. So yes, pin that info. It will affect the mission if it pans out.”

  “Fine, note on potential higher CP presence then.”

  “Yes. Contact me if this is true.”

  “Will do.”

  “Oh, and Noa?”

  “Yes?”

  “Good Hunting.”

  She slid her helmet on and guided her bike onto the road, immediately bursting into speed as the bike found its tires on the thoroughfare. Destination guides appeared on the visor of her full-faced helmet, counting down the distance to a destination she had picked earlier.

  Structures and vehicles zipped by as she weaved her way through the light traffic. It was still early, and being on the secondary route made it less likely to have too much traffic using the roads.

  Her nose wrinkled almost automatically as she found herself deeper in New Tuman. Low-rise buildings that lined the main roads that she used gave way to larger buildings, some with high-reaching smoke stakes, some low, but every one of them had one thing in common: tall parameter fences, some weaponized with large warning signs. More than a few spotted two or three different rows of fences of various ilk, with brief spaces between each fencing line.

  The sidewalks in the area were surprisingly wider than Noa remembered. She had studied images of them from the area's archives.

  She paused by the roadside and entered a code to locate the nearest secure parking complex. She found only one that was farther than she anticipated.

  “Hmm.” This wouldn’t do; Ally was spotted several times in the area she was in, and she wasn’t comfortable with having her best means of transport too far away from where she would be walking.

  She looked around and noted the street names. The map of the area was still displayed on the visor of her helmet. There were a few blocks of shophouses within short walking distance. And she recalled the notes she had gone through.

  ‘Subject seen multiple times near the corner of Bullion Six and Scandum streets. No direct knowledge of which establishment she frequents. Too early to surmise. Need more info.’

  She smirked; she was the one that had to provide this info, no doubt.

  She looked again at the shophouses, this time more attentively.

  Bars, restaurants, groceries, hardware, and clothes—that last one made her smile as Anya’s mockery of what she termed ‘lowbie fashion’ replayed in her mind.

  Her mind raced. One side suggested calling Hassan back, and the other was determined to handle this independently, which she chose.

  She slid off her bike and guided it to a guardhouse near the entrance of one of the area's manufacturing facilities.

  One of the three guards that stood there saw her approaching and walked up to her.

  “Halt. This is a restricted area. Only workers and management are allowed in.” He announced curtly.

  Noa slipped her helmet off, and her mid-back-length silver hair cascaded freely down her shoulders. She looked at him with a steely look and nodded.

  “I am aware of that. Is there a facility here where I can park my bike?”

  She patted the curved top of the bike’s tank as she asked.

  The guard frowned and shook his head, seeming to look annoyed. He opened his mouth to reply before Noa interrupted him

  “I know of the secure parking facility, but it’s too far away. Can we arrange something?”

  The guard eyed her, his face in deep thought before he looked back at his colleagues, who were now looking their way.

  “If you make it worthwhile, we could probably help with keeping your bike safe.”

  Noa smiled. “That can be done. How much?”

  The guard thought for a while and called his colleagues. Soon, they were in a deep and somewhat heated argument about how much to charge the girl for the bike.

  Noa looked around her again. The streets were still relatively empty. From her reading of the area, this time, almost everyone from the graveyard shift would still be in their respective manufacturing facilities, and she had just under an hour to go before that shift ended, and then too many would see her.

  A movement in the corner of her eye pulled her out of her thoughts, and she turned toward it. The guard from earlier smiled wide as he stepped closer.

  He quoted what seemed like an erroneous amount to charge for watching over a bike, and Noa responded with a scowl. Her clear green eyes glowed in the morning sun as she looked at the smirking guard.

  “Really? Nothing lower?” She replied, acting as if it was too high for her pockets when, in her mind, she was laughing, ‘kerbs should have charged more.’

  He shrugged with a smug smile on his face. “It comes with our guarantee that not only will no one touch it while you are gone, we won’t even let them see it.”

  “Huh, really now, and how do you propose to do that, I wonder?”

  He smiled again. Something about the way he smiled inwardly made Noa want to smack him and just say what he wanted.

  “Either that, or you can go to the secure parkplex, quite far too.”

  Noa sighed heavily and nodded, her hand beckoning for him to come closer, which he did.

  She pulled out two small fingernail-sized sticks with lines etched across them and placed them in his outstretched hand.

  “Bonus points later if you guys keep your promise.”

  He chuckled smugly. “You got it, b… lady.”

  She smirked and alighted from her bike, pausing by the bike’s rear box as she checked herself. Her hand moved into her jacket to produce a cap, which she slid onto her head to cover her distinctive silver locks.

  The guard must have been checking her out while she did that; as Noa turned her head to thank him, he had a different expression. She surmised that he probably saw the holster and pistol under her jacket.

  His eyes seemed more alert, and his lips were tensed as he hurried away from the bike. Only two types of people aside from working security guards would carry a concealed weapon in this area: CP and gang members, and neither bode well for him if he wronged her.

  “Hey, what's your name again?” Noa suddenly broke the sudden tension.

  “Ja…Jackson, Lewis Jackson.”

  She nodded. “I’m banking on your word, Lewis Jackson. I’ll be sure to see you guys later?”

  He nodded hurriedly as he watched her back away and then turn, heading toward the location on her notes.