Werman Street turned out to have the same layout that was shown on the Neopolis map within the GPI. It was a long road interrupted by six intersections, and one end trailed off in an arc alongside an overpass, before merging with King Street— one of the main arteries going north to south.

At the half-way point along the street stood the target location; the parking hub housing the U.T.S. terminal. Damien presumed that it originally served as the vehicle pickup and drop-off point for customers who wanted to visit the surrounding shopping centers. Unfortunately, most of the stores he’d seen within this commercial area were either in crude shape, or outright closed, their signs barely working and half the doors and windows closed off with wooden planks.

As he walked through the lightly-polluted street, Damien could sense the presence of a fledgling gang, but it wasn’t quite what he had expected. There were a few rough-looking characters, and he’d overheard some talk about drugs and violence among the locals, but there wasn’t a sense that this neighborhood definitively belonged to a specific gang. Unlike the tattooed heads of the Skulls, it appeared that the Rascals didn’t have a unifying fashion choice that could easily identify them.

Anyone here can turn into an enemy in a moment’s notice, Damien thought to himself as he considered the best way to approach the job. I guess I’ll focus on not getting caught.

Despite the sword clipped at his side, he tried his best to keep a low-profile, maintaining a neutral stride that was confident yet unassuming. Every now and then he’d catch a suspicious eye from some of the others strolling the sidewalk, but he’d yet to be called out for trespassing on anyone’s turf; something that would end the mission before it even began.

Stepping on to the same block as the parking space, Damien noticed a young man and woman standing a few meters ahead of the target entrance. They appeared to be engaged in a casual conversation, and the man held a baseball bat loosely in one hand, while the woman puffed on a cigarette. They both stopped to give a hand signal to one of the passing cars, before resuming their conversation, their backs to the entrance.

Damien slowed his stride a bit as he approached from their blind spot, hoping to listen in on their conversation.

“…so I killed them and took it,” the woman said with a coarse voice. “It’s simple. When I put my knife to your throat, you better give me all your shit or you die.”

“Don’t lie,” the man said as he twisted the tip of his baseball bat into the concrete ground. “You would’ve killed them even if they’d listened and given up their loot.”

The woman let out a harsh cackle. “You know me too well. It’s just like the boss said: stealing and killing, that’s what it all comes down to.”

“Damn right. And we’ll do it better than everyone else in this town.”

Damien took one last look around before slipping past the distracted duo and into the parking space. Unsurprisingly, the inside appeared to be long abandoned, and only a handful of the parking spots were taken—probably all Rascal vehicles. A dingy musk lingered in the air, and the paint barely stood on the chipped walls and pillars that held the structure upright.

Pressed against one of the pillars at the center was the familiar glowing red tube and interface panel of the U.T.S. terminal. As he eyed it, a notification popped up in the corner of his vision, stating that he’d received a new message from Kat. He stepped toward the terminal and opened the message.

Almost there.

When do you want me to pull up?

Damien selected the Reply function, and he muttered a response underneath his breath.

Drive through in five minutes.

The GPI spelled out his spoken words and returned the new message, allowing Damien to close the chat log so that he could focus on the task at hand.

He started a new call with Valerie before pulling out the wire that she’d given him and sliding it into the corresponding slot underneath the interface. She answered the call a moment later, skipping the pleasantries entirely. “Is it in?”

“Yeah,” Damien said in a hushed tone as he looked back toward the entrance. This was not a good position to get caught in.

“Alright,” Valerie said, “here’s what you’re gonna do…”

Damien followed along with her voice, tapping away at the interface just as she instructed. He wasn’t quite sure what he was doing--the process of hacking was filled with a bunch of technical jargon that he didn’t understand-- but he managed to follow through to the end.

After completing all the steps, Damien ended the call and waited for the final progress bar to fill up. As it neared 100%, a creaking sound abruptly echoed through the mostly-empty chamber, jolting him into alertness. He quickly swerved toward the source and found a previously unseen door wide open, and a short, stocky woman walking through.

The woman paused in her tracks upon seeing the pirate, and before Damien could decide what to do, her eyes pulsed with a blue shimmer and she began to speak out loud. “We’ve got an unknown person in the parking lot.”

Another message came in from Kat.

Rolling up now.