“That’s right, one million,” Del spoke smoothly into his cell. “You find Darius Byun, and it’s yours.”

Preature listened on the other end of the call. It wasn’t unusual for him to get jobs such as this one. However, it was unusual for him to feel conflicted about them, as he did now. He thought about Del’s offer, knowing how much good that money could do, and paused at the thought of Darius. The kid that fell from the lap of luxury. This payday could be more than anything he’d get from Darius by any other means. Who is this Del? What’s his angle?

He bit his lower lip, then sighed, “What do you want with the kid?”

Del grimaced, looking out of his office window. “Based on your reputation, I’d expected a more professional attitude. What does it matter? You’d be getting paid for an easy find and deliver job.”

“I’m not in the business of getting kids killed. What do you want with him?”

“Simply looking for the heir of the SaeSyn. His father recently died. We want him back here, so he can be safe,” Del spoke with little deception in his voice. Preature walked down the hall, looking to the table where Darius had been operated on.

“How many other Vens have you contacted?”

“Only the best Vens will be offered such a job.”

“Only the best,” Preature rumbled, noting the matter of fact tone that Del had used. The same one that he’d heard through this whole conversation. “I’ll look for him. I can’t make any promises, but you’ll be the first to know if I find him.”

“Of course, nice doing business with a professio...” The line goes dead. Preature had already hung up. Del’s lip curled in annoyance. Then he dialed a new number.

Preature pocketed the phone and stared ponderously at Darius’s bloody clothes in the trash. He thought about the money, and of Del’s tone. He seemed to be genuinely concerned, but Preature’s gut told him otherwise. A small glint of predation had trickled into Del’s speech, enough to give Preature pause.

He walked down the hall to see if anyone was still around, but saw nobody. He then tuned his shades to the security feed and rewound it to see that the team had left with Darius.

Del hung up a call and slid his cell back into his pocket, just as a knock rapped from his office door.

“Come in,” he said, voice shadowed.

A woman with blue-blonde hair strolled in. Her cats-eye makeup drew full attention to her bright green cybernetic eyes. She wore a sharp business suit, crisp and imposing. Del squinted at her in annoyance.

“I don’t have any appointments booked. Who are you?” Del strode thunderously towards her.

“The NAU doesn’t need an appointment,” she said as she leveled her eyes to his.

Del’s expression shifted to one of appeasement. “Yes, so true. What brings you to my office, in person?”

“I believe you already know that Mr. Peck. We were promised a way to improve our storage problems with new compression tech. CellarDoor, is the name, is it not? We haven’t received an update in a number of days. Now we hear that your business partner has met an… unfortunate end. We want to ensure that everything is still on track.” She took a seat in Del’s chair and said, “We want to know that you haven’t let it fall through the cracks.”

Del’s eyes became slits, “I see. Well, intimidation doesn’t make the work happen any faster.”

“Oh no? Experience has taught me otherwise. You made us a promise Mr. Peck. One that you’ve come dangerously close to breaking. The war still rages beneath the smiles and promises of our corporate politicians. NeuroCybertec still stands against the Eurasian Consortium’s attempts to take our nation. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

“It does,” Del pursed his lips and swallowed hard.

“Good,” She stood and walked to the door before turning around one last time. “See that CellarDoor finds its way into our hands sooner than later. Remember, you stand to make a lot of money from this deal,” and with that she left.

Del let out a breath that he’d been holding. His mind was on the missing data. How could Gradius have done this? Deleting the entirety of CellarDoor? That traitorous wretch… and now the NAU was paying personal visits.

Del rested a fist on the window glass of his office, looking over the city. That kid was out there somewhere. If the CellarDoor deal with the NAU falls through, at least he could salvage and reverse-engineer some of the prototype tech on the boy. Maybe it would be enough to keep the company afloat.

“Damnit!” He shouted, breath fogging the glass. Through that fog, the neon lights of the city sparkled. The cars became distant satellites of red and white. The advertising blurred into mottled puddles of shifting color. Del breathed on the glass more, expanding the blur even further.

This is where Gradius made his descent. The damned fool.

Del drew cracks in the fog of his breath. Something still bothered him about Darius’s surgery. “Something doesn’t add up,” He thought and licked his lips while pulling his phone from his pocket.

“Gene. Send the head surgeon to my office.”

A moment later the man arrived, dressed in a clean lab coat and holding a tablet, “You wanted to speak with me, sir?”

“Yes. Remind me of everything we found in that operating room.”

“Of course. We’d found the standard tools for cybernetics installation. Plus the parts that hadn’t been installed, and a high-speed data cable.”

“Hmm,” Del rubbed his chin with a thumb and forefinger. “High-speed data cable.” He waved the back of his hand to the surgeon. “Thank you, you may go.”

He stepped out to the reception desk, “Gene. Find me Geracht.”