“So this deal that’s going down,” Damien said as he swept his katana through the air, practicing various swinging and thrusting motions. “What exactly is it?”

“It’s some kind of transaction between the Skulls and an unconfirmed third party.” Kat said. “They’re trying to keep it a secret, so there won’t be many people guarding the hideout.”

“If that’s the case, why don’t we just burst through the entrance with a bang and take them all out?”

Kat shook her head. “That’s not my style. Besides, it’s not that simple.” She reached inside her jacket and pulled out a tiny, rectangular device. “Here, have a look for yourself.”

Damien dropped his sword by his side and examined the accessory. It was barely the width of his index finger, and half the length. The see-through metal casing revealed blue and green lines running all along it, giving it the look of an unfamiliar circuit board. “What am I looking at?”

“Its a Mind Chip.” Kat said. “Pop it in.”

“In where?”

She pointed to her temple. “Your neural slot. Everyone has one, including you.”

Somewhat doubtful, Damien slid his finger along the side of his head until he felt a thin slot opening near his temple. The idea of slipping something to connect directly to his brain freaked him out a little, but he moved past the hesitation and slowly inserted the chip. It fit snuggly into the slot, and once it clicked in, a glowing 3D projection popped up in his vision.

“A neural slot allows Mind Chips to connect directly to your neural circuit.” Kat said. “They’re useful for all sorts of things. The chip I just gave you contains a simple projection of their hideout. You should be able to resize and move it around fairly easily. Go ahead and study the layout.”

Damien mentally played with the projection, reshaping and rotating it with his will. From the various angles, he could see that the building had three floors. The top two were comprised of what looked like offices, while the entirety of the first floor was dedicated to the auto shop. A second-floor railing covered the perimeter of the shop floor, granting access to the upper floors. Laid out along this railing were three strange miniature towers. Zooming in on them clarified their physical form and revealed that some kind of heavy machine guns stood mounted on top of them.

“I get it now,” Damien said. “They have turrets guarding the shop floor. It looks like a lot of firepower.”

“Ehh,” Kat said with an unimpressed shrug. “They’re some of the lower-end models on the market. The problem is that they’re programmed to shoot at anyone who isn’t connected to their local network. The guns mounted on those turrets shoot basic rounds, but they have such a high rate of fire that they’ll quickly chew through weaker sub-dermal armor. We won’t stand a chance if they catch us in their sights.”

“Sounds like a pain in the ass.”

“Damn right. But that’s where you come in.” She reached inside her jacket once again and pulled out another small device which looked like a USB stick. “This chip contains a virus that’ll cause the automatic firing system of the turrets to malfunction. We just gotta get it into one of their computers.”

“You mean I have to get it into one of their computers, right?” Damien said as she handed the stick over to him.

“That’s right. Take a look at the room in the northwest corner of the third floor. That’s their control room.”

Damien played with the 3D projection until he got a good view of the room she mentioned.

“Sneak in there and plug that bad boy into one of their computers. It’ll do the rest on its own. While you do that, I’ll move into position on the shop floor where the deal will likely go down. Once the turrets are disabled, I’ll move in and finish the job. Got it?”

Doesn’t seem too difficult, Damien thought. Fairly standard for a first mission. “Got it.”

“Alright, let’s head out.”

Damien followed behind as Kat lead the way around a ravaged intersection. From inside the car, he hadn’t noticed just how dirty the streets were. A combination of used soda cans and old advertisement flyers littered a good portion of the ground, even going so far as to pile up knee-high against some of the buildings. It was an absolute mess of a neighborhood, and it was clear to see why it remained so desolate.

Perhaps the emptiness was a good thing. After all, they were about to break into a gang hideout, and the fewer people around, the better.

Two blocks down they reached what was the back side of the hideout. A chain link fence separated the sidewalk they were on from a gravel lot filled with rows of salvaged cars. Like everything else here, the lot was in dismal condition, and half the windows of the hideout were broken.

This isn’t the kind of place I’d bring my car, Damien thought.

Kat scanned the area to see if anyone was looking, then pulled out a small blade. With a flick of her thumb, the blade quickly reddened as it heated up, and she began cutting through the fence with the ease of a hot knife through butter.

Beside her, a large sign in bold font read: Private Property. Trespassers will gladly be shot repeatedly.

Damien felt a hint of nervousness creep into his stomach. He was carrying a katana while they broke into private property in peak daylight. It wasn’t exactly the smartest plan in the world.

Kat finished with the cutter and pushed a piece of the fence inward, dropping it to the other side and creating an opening for them to enter through. She put the blade away, replacing it with a gun, and signaled for him to enter. “Once you’re done your job, get out the same way we enter through and wait at the car. It goes without saying, but try not to get caught in there. If anyone spots you and alerts the others, my job becomes a whole lot harder.”

Damien nodded then hunched down to enter through the opening. The moment he stepped on the other side, three bars appeared abruptly in the corner of his vision: HP, Stamina, Focus. The butterflies in his stomach tightened. Oh, man. It’s really happening…

Kat entered after him and stepped forward to take the lead. “This way.” She kept her gun at the ready as she slipped through the cars, inching closer to the building. Damien kept his eyes peeled as he trailed closely along.

They reached the back wall of the shop where a broken-down, rusted truck stood. Kat nodded toward the shattered window directly above the truck. “In through there. You go first.”

With careful motions so as to not make too much noise, Damien gently climbed on top of the truck bed. He shuffled slowly around the tools on the bed and climbed on top of the cabin. Kat followed his motions one step behind.

From here, he kept his sword clenched in one hand and reached out for the window sill with the other, but it was just out of reach.

“Hell of an ass you got there.” Kat said in a hushed and sarcastic tone. “Get it out of my face and up on that second floor.”

Damien squatted down and pushed off the roof of the truck, leaping upwards and barely grabbing the window sill with one hand. To his surprise, he found himself able to pull his body weight with one arm quite easily, and he managed to crawl through the window to the other side where shards of broken glass and piles of dust greeted him.

He quickly got up and watched as Kat made the jump with ease, bringing herself into the hallway with much more grace and finesse than he could ever pull off.

She brushed some dust off her jacket. “Take a look at the Mind Chip now. You should be able to use it as a map and follow it along to your destination. Does it show your current location?”

Damien nodded. A bright red dot had appeared on the projection the second he landed inside the building.

“Good. I’m gonna move into position on the lower floor. You get to that control room and plant that virus. Don’t let anyone or anything stop you.”