“What’s going on here?” Anya blurted out loud enough to grab the attention of the guys she faced.

  One of the boys in front of her, a lanky boy with well-groomed dark hair who was one of four who formed a semi-circle around someone on the ground, turned and smirked. His hand waved her off dismissively.

  Anya’s eyes widened, and she repeated her earlier question, albeit louder this time.

  “I said, What is going on here?”

  The dark-haired boy again turned and closed in on her. She was tall, but he was definitely bigger. “None of your business reddie, shoo.”

  Anya’s hand flew before she realized what she was doing, a loud square slap on the boy’s cheek that elicited a shocked, high-pitched cry from him.

  “You may address me as Anastasiya.” She hissed at him haughtily.

  The boy’s hand had moved to his cheek, and his teared-up eyes indicated the sting of the slap. The cheek was now bright red, and he moved in with a hand raised toward a defiant standing Anya, whose arms were raised in a ready stance.

  His hand was suddenly held back before he could swing it forward. Another boy with ruffled brown hair held it.

  “Yoh, do you know who that is?”

  The dark haired boy looked at his friend and shook his head before he looked at Anya again. “New meat to beat up?”

  Anya scoffed; her clear grey eyes glowered at him with a laser-like glare.

  “That’s crazy silver’s younger sister.”

  The dark-haired boy immediately hesitated; his demeanor changed immediately as he regarded her cold, laser stare.

  He lowered his hand, and instead now raised it as if in defense.

  “Hey, I didn’t mean anything. I…we were just leaving, Amirite guys?” He turned to look at his friends, who had started to mill behind him.

  They replied almost as one before they melted away, no doubt to find a new victim. Anya scoffed as her eyes followed them until they turned a corner.

  She approached the person on the ground. A girl wearing the same uniform as hers and she squatted down.

  “Hey, you alright?”

  The girl brushed her generous blonde hair away, revealing a bruised cheek. She looked up at Anya and smiled as she nodded.

  “Thank you for that.”

  Anya smirked and grasped the girl’s hand before pulling her up.

  “Some people don’t have brains to use. Not their fault they’re as dumb as a lowbie squatter.”

  The blonde girl giggled while she wiped at her sniffling nose.

  “You can’t let anyone do that to you, okay? Maybe you should pick up some training? Where are you from anyway?”

  Anya’s head tilted to the side as her eyes studied the girl. Aside from her uniform, she couldn’t recognize anything distinctive on this girl, any indication or pin or piece of jewelry that would hint at where she came from.

  The blonde girl extended a hand, a wide, warm smile on her lips.

  “I’m Alison Euphrosis. But you can defo call me Ally. It's a pleasure to meet you.”

  Anya’s mind raced. She knew that name. Euphrosis, plathead family of House Xela. A High Riser, beachfront holdings.

  She returned the smile and grasped Alison’s hand before firmly shaking it.

  “Anastasiya, and you can call me Anya.” She paused for a reaction, knowing full well that wasn’t the usual diminutive for someone with her name.

  Ally took a breath as she seemed to process it, then smiled. “It's a pleasure to meet you! And thank you so much for your help!”

  Anya tittered softly, almost instantly liking this girl’s energy. “So tell me, what exactly was that?”

  They turned and headed in the same direction while Ally started recounting the events.

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

  Anya had left for her batch’s graduation party a few hours earlier, and the joint House Intel and Security services had been monitoring since then.

  Hassan massaged his chin, his mind raced through what information he had been briefed with from the relevant parties within each branch.

  His mind ran concisely through notes on points of his mental notepad.

  House diggers had uncovered a pattern and sequence of codes that was, curiously, very akin to the style and structure that every High House used. A uniquely disturbing quirk of this particular set was that it was very much akin to the style of code that the Essedar House had used half a dozen years ago.

  This discovery prompted a change in the priority and sensitivity level of what Anya had first uncovered with the blackmailing of her schoolmates from SEHIL, and tonight’s heightened level of business and security measures was a testament to that.

  The operations room was silent. The background noise from the cooling stations located just outside the entrance was the main symphony accompanying those in the room.

  Everyone assigned to their task was deeply involved, and he paced back and forth in front of the large, wall-sized screen that displayed information for him to view.

  One arm crossed his wide chest while it nestled the elbow of his other arm as he looked to his left.

  Sutton, the Security service’s top digger, was in his specialized digger chair, fondly known as a crib by the diggers.

  His eye HUDs were lit up, and illuminated wires were attached from ports on his person to the oversized chair. This allowed the implants installed within him to utilize bodily chemicals to enhance his hacking abilities as well as control his body temperature due to the same abilities. His hands moved in the air, manipulating items on his HUDs, while two more appendages attached to the crib further enhanced his capabilities.

  “Found it. Can safely confirm on our previous speculation, somewhat. Its faint, well-coded, and was routed through multiple nodes. Kerb tried to make the changes randomly, but we uncovered the pattern. Just passed the final hurdle, and I’ll pass it…” He went silent as his fingers worked with the appendages.

  “On screen… now.” Sutton didn’t move his head toward him, but it felt like he shot a look at a waiting Hassan, who stood facing the wall-sized screen.

  He replied reflexively with a curt nod. A new round marker appeared on the map displayed on the screen. It flashed lazily, and a thin dotted line joined it to other circles, now faded. A brighter, lit, thin line extended from the party venue toward the new circle.

  He smirked; this was the simplified line that diggers would display to their superiors to avoid any confusion.

  Hassan studied it. He knew the origin circle denoted the scanner Intel had installed on one of the drones their team had brought to Anya’s party.

  His heart started beating excitedly. After meetings worth days, a list of potential diggers had been narrowed down to a mere five persons. Of the five, one of them stood out to him.

  His eyes fleeted to the column of images and names for the persons identified, which centered on one in particular.

  He tapped Sutton’s shoulder, whose eyes turned up. He pulled a headphone cup aside.

  “Sir?”

  “When will we be able to confirm on person and exact location?”

  “Shouldn’t be long now, already have the soft working. And exact location is coming up soon.”

  “Good. Send insertion team the coords as soon as you get them.”

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “Roger that, sir.”

  Hassan turned back to the screen and tapped a contact on his communicator.

  A man’s voice answered it.

  “Sir?”

  “Coords inc. Team is a go.”

  He could hear the man on the other side barking orders to others before his attention returned.

  “Anything else, sir?”

  “None. Reminder. This is a sanctioned kill mission, but if capture is possible, do it. Collect any intel from the location. Standard lowbie implant procedure. Liquidate any hardware found. No cleaning necessary.”

  “Copy, sir.”

  “We have confirmed ID on digger, plus one,” Sutton announced.

  His eyes again floated to the image he had centered on, now highlighted. He shook his head slowly, and a disappointed expression washed over it momentarily.

  He raised an eyebrow.

  “Wait…plus one?”

  “Yes, sir. Digger and a person he’s using tonight as one of the nodes he’s utilizing to mask his location. Similar code as the one we found and have been working on.”

  Messages flashed up on his HUD, confirming the sending and receipt of information to the insertion team. Two locations meant that Lefevbre now had to split his stick into two teams; no matter, that wasn’t such a bad thing.

  A new image appeared on the screen, and Hassan’s fingers moved. Expanding the image to reveal more information.

  DoNA ID. Medical information. City Authority ID. Civil Authority Police ID and corresponding records.

  He smirked and added the man’s name to the others that they knew were at Anya’s party at that moment. It was a growing list. Made up of more than a few Civil Authority Police and even connected with minor delegates on the City Council. This was turning out to be a good information sweep on the City’s Civil Authorities.

  He typed a message to the team lead who was heading the team assigned to Anya and received a reply before he felt somewhat more relaxed. Everything was in play; now, it was up to the people on the ground.

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

  “First time?”

  The man looked at her; his left eye flashed something, and his face changed.

  Noa chuckled, knowing that the ID scan on her was blocked. No House employee except higher ranks was authorized to scan any family member that belonged to their employer.

  She cleared her throat and chose to ignore his reaction before she nodded.

  “First sanctioned kill mission, yes.”

  He smiled and nodded before turning to look straight ahead.

  A hand pressed on her shoulder, and she looked up.

  Lefevbre smiled at her assuringly as he sat down on the empty seat next to her and leaned close. The transpo’s engine was loud around them, and he didn’t want the conversation to be on comms.

  “Nervous?”

  She shrugged slightly; her expression showed that she was honestly unsure how to answer. She could feel the fear, yet it was mixed with the adrenaline pumping into her system. Her left hand rose off her thigh, tilting left and right in a quick motion.

  “That’s good. I don’t have to remind you what Hassan has taught you about fear and courage and why we train so hard. He’s the best there is in this region, dare I say it, the whole Dominion or even continent.”

  Noa’s somewhat amused response on her face made him chuckle as he shook his head slowly.

  “Not trying to win brownie points with the big man. But it's true, that damn old kerb is a living legend. If only I had teachers like that when I was younger.”

  He paused.

  “I know you’ve trained on motion debarks. And I want you to know it's exactly how you’ve been trained, minus the potential of getting shot at, of course. Its the whole point of it being a motion debark, less chances of hitting a moving target, implants or not.”

  Noa nodded and recalled the settings she had found on Anya’s soft that she had tweaked to her own custom settings. The techniques, gear, and implants available now to those who were in the business of violence meant that every additional assistance they could utilize from the tools available to them could be the difference between success or failure.

  A message seemed to come in on his comms as he nodded. He then returned his attention to her, patted her armored shoulder, and stood up, raising three fingers on his raised hand.

  “Three minutes!”

  Everyone on the team did a check on their gear, with the person next to them assisting and verifying, reciprocated by their partnered pair.

  Each pair called out one by one after final verification before Lefevbre moved toward the ramp lever on the side of the cabin.

  “Alpha at Loc One, Sawyer has team lead. Bravo is with me, Loc Two.” He announced what he had already briefed the squad as the transpo slowed down.

  The ramp dropped open, and the low skyline in that part of Lowbie Town greeted Noa’s eyes. The high-pitched cry of the blowing wind entered the cabin, whipping up her hair under the helmet she had on. She studied the skyline, the lights of buildings zipped by as the transpo pitched slightly sideways, the members from the first team jumping off of the transpo onto the rooftop as it hovered past.

  Her eyes continued to fleet over the rooftops as they passed them, trying to discern which part of Adina City they were in. Her mind raced, remembering lessons that told of distinctive features for each of the Four Cities that made up Adina City and the recognizable features each would have.

  Her nose twitched, and her mind immediately concluded where they were. The smell was distinct, and there was nothing about it that one could properly learn or appreciate in any theoretical classroom.

  The transpo picked up speed again as the ramp closed up, flying past the rooftops in a set route. Noa closed her eyes, and her training took control of her breathing as her heart pounded.

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

  The party had been in full swing for a couple of hours now. Anya leaned against the wooden railing of the balcony as she sipped a drink. She had always preferred loitering away from the crowd at events. This was how she grew up, loitering on the side with Noa, always eyeing everyone and coming up with their own tales about the more interesting persons that would catch their eyes.

  The temporary eye HUD on her left eye fed her relevant information. She scanned it as she nonchalantly surveyed the throng of partygoers within the house's structure.

  Her eyes landed on one of the security members in her detail, who was more focused on looking around the environment than anyone else in the party. Her mind raced as she tried to recall her name, and she finally concluded that it was Anna.

  Ally had objected to this, of course. The usual custom was any security personnel would be outside the structure. But when Anya used her father’s name, her friend backed down immediately, not wanting to offend her friend any more than how much she already knew she did.

  Her communicator thrilled, and she picked it up.

  “Yes, Hassan?”

  “Perps confirmed on-premises. Stay safe, Anya.”

  The side of her lip bent as she nodded. A rush of excitement slowly built up within her, and she wondered if this was how it felt for Noa on her missions.

  Anna suddenly seemed more animated as she started actively scanning the crowd.

  She could see Ally now. Whose recently done-up blonde crown bopped and swished as she animatedly conversed with some older guy. She’d not remembered this man before, but he seemed somewhat familiar; maybe it was one of the images Hassan had shown them before she left for the event.

  An involuntary scoff slipped past her lips as she started heading toward her friend, whose now more animated arm movement seemed to indicate that the heat was being turned up in whatever conversation she was having with the decidedly creepy - in her mind; older man.

  Her tall stature and deep red hair acted like beacons under the strobing light as she negotiated her way to her friend. More than once, she had to shove someone who was blocking the way, only to be met with what would start as an angry glare but immediately tone down when they saw who it was.

  The man talking to Ally was about to say something when he saw Anya closing in on them, and he immediately stopped talking, squeezed Ally’s shoulder, and walked away.

  Ally stood there as if dumbfounded at the sudden cut in conversation before Anya tapped her shoulder.

  She about-faced almost immediately, and Anya’s raised eyebrow indicated her acknowledgment of how immediately she noticed the dilation in Ally’s pupils.

  “Trouble in paradise?” Anya smiled, although that smile seemed to make Ally wince.

  Her blonde friend shook her head hurriedly, then proceeded to grab Anya’s hand, leading her to a side corridor that led a stair, away from the moving partygoers who moved to a new song that started blaring.

  “He…” Ally started and cut herself off when she saw Anya cross her arms, an expectant glint in her eyes.

  She leaned in closer to Anya and whispered. “He’s selling stuff to the peeps.”

  Anya had suspected as much. From her scan of him, what official information from the briefs attached to his image had shown this man was too clean for someone who had been with the City’s Civil Authority Police for the amount of time he was in and still stuck in that position.

  She leaned away slightly and looked at Ally, “Using your own product?” she glowered at Ally, who seemed to retreat in size.

  She giggled in reply, then cleared her throat, affixing a more serious look, or at least tried to before she continued.

  “No, no, I wanted to make sure it was safe. You know, never know what kind of shit Lowbie people use.” She smiled at Anya, trying to appeal to what she knew her friend’s opinion of some people was.

  Anya’s hand grasped at her upper arm and gently shook her.

  “Ally, I think you’ve had enough for now. Let’s get you some water, okay? Hydrate a bit, perhaps?”

  Ally nodded enthusiastically and grasped Anya’s upper arm, leaning her head on her shoulder as her friend led her through the crowd toward the oversized and overdone kitchen.

  A group of other students milled about, loitering with cups and bottles in their hands, gossiping about what was and what would happen. Almost in unison, they quietened down when they saw who entered the kitchen.

  Anya glared at each of them as she gently stroked Ally’s blonde locks, gently leading her to the water dispenser installed against one of the walls.

  “I’d like the place to myself, please. You guys can continue outside… alright?” She uttered aloud, keeping her voice clear and crisp.

  They straightened up as they regarded her, then nodded, as if in understanding, and without a word, milled out of the large kitchen, leaving the two of them behind.

  Anya sat Ally down and handed her a glass of water before she sat opposite her.

  “I know I don’t usually do this, but tonight, the safest place here is with me. Okay?”

  She studied her blonde friend as she watched her sip the drink. Noa’s words echoed in her mind, juxtaposing with the memories they had shared growing up, and her demeanor softened somewhat.

  She calmly waited as the music changed in the main hall again. This time, the bass was heavier, and the volume was turned up so much that it actively shook some of the looser items hanging in the kitchen.

  “Was there anything you wanted to tell me? Ally?” Anya hooked a finger under her friend’s chin and raised it.

  Ally’s eyes welled up with tears as she looked back at her. A weak smile formed on her pristine painted lips. She nodded slowly, releasing the welled tears to slide down her cheeks as she started sniffling.

  Anya’s eyebrow rose and she inhaled deeply, taking her friend’s hand onto hers before her other hand rested on top of it, patting it.

  “Promise you won’t get mad?” Ally regarded her friend, who only looked at her back with a straight face yet who was now nodding slowly as if waiting for something she already knew.

  “You know I don’t make promises like that, Ally,” she chuckled as she wiped a tear from her friend’s cheek before the hand returned to where it was.

  “But you can tell me nonetheless.”

  Ally looked around, then at Anya, before she started spilling whatever that had been eating at her.