The murmurs went dead once more, and Colonel Levisay walked to the centre of the ballroom, the design in the middle was compass-like with a mixture of spikes and circles outstretching to the ends of the floor, something I didn’t notice.

The marble was shaded in black, brown and yellow, not the prettiest of choices, but I guess it served its purpose to make the room seem smaller.

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.” Colonel Levisay said, voicing booming like a microphone. “APOLOGIES FOR THE MISUNDERSTANDING. THESE THINGS HAPPEN, BUT I ASSURE YOU. CELARON SECURITY SERVICES…IS HERE TO ENSURE NOTHING GOES WRONG FOR YOU, OR YOUR LOVED ONES.” He shouted, his voice echoing throughout the room perfectly. He trailed to his right, walking towards the bar that was on the right side, picking up a glass with a shot of what seemed to be whiskey. “I TOAST TO YOU.” He continued, raising his hand in the air. “…AND THE CHEQUES YOU CUT TO ENSURE YOUR SAFETY.”

The Ballroom went from hollow silence to light laughter, small pompous claps. The once dreary ire feeling that plagued the Ballroom, was lifted like the mist on a sunny day. “You’re in queue Cypher. You’re not the only agent talking with it. So cool it with the attitude!”

“Aye aye,” I said with a laugh.

I finally made it to the vicinity in which the brown beard man disappeared. I looked left and right, allowing my Cybernetic Eye to zoom in and out, past patrons. The radical hairstyles and simple dresses blurred my vision as I felt my SMB clutching my brain from the overuse. Damn, I thought bitterly. When I had Nova…the feedback wasn’t this strong…was it?

I turned left, and sprung up a short staircase, leading myself down up to one of the small balconies. Small Palm trees and Pillars were littered from left to right with a few bins stationed to keep the trash from being littered around the corridor.

Despite that, someone still cleaned up after these rich bastards. A few broken glasses and tattered plates were found in the plant pots that were on either side.

“None of my agents saw anyone with a Brown Beard, Cypher,” Stelyne confirmed.

“I see…verify with the waiter if he was tripped, shoved, or bumped by someone.”

“What are you getting at Cypher?” Stelyne asked.

“The brown beard bastard weaved through the crowd like me, avoiding everyone perfectly. If he isn’t one of us, then why would he leave the fracas…if not causing it”

“Diversion?”

“Possibly…permission to roam freely,” I said, more than asked.

“Permission Denied, stay within twenty meters within the Romacellins Cypher, you’re already then—.”

“Stelyne.” A sharp tone interjected. “Allow Cypher to roam, replace him with another Shadow and have that Shadow replaced by one of the waiters.”

“But Colonel.”

“No buts Stelyne…we don’t need any trouble tonight, you understand?” Colonel Levisay commanded.

“Yes Sir.”

“Permission Granted; Cypher.”

“Acknowledged.”

I turned right, following the path of the balcony, passing a couple, arms locked with each and felt the glimmer of the Shard-like Chandelier pulsing its heat onto my face to my right. Nothing here… either I said to myself, browsing the empty area.

I was trying to gauge the best way to leave without causing a ruckus and found nothing but a dead end.

The Broken Sphere was a conundrum of corridors, pillars rooms, and dead ends. It still felt as though, the interior wasn’t completed, but only in specific areas, such as the Ballroom…outside of that, not so much.

As I walked back in the other direction, something fuzzy appeared in one of the plant pots, to the left. I slowly approached it, getting a better gauge on its colour and knelt. I plucked the brown hair out of the pot and recognised it immediately.

I stimulated my SMB, loading up the previous video of the partial shot of the man. I barely caught a brown beard and scar, which annoyed the living shit out of me. However, I didn’t let them stop me. I paused the video and did a comparison video.

“They’re the same,” I said, feeling like my stomach churned. I didn’t know what to expect, but with half of Bridge City’s elite here, this was one of the places where anyone would try something…but who? “Priority 1 Stelyne, found a prosthetic beard, the same one the man with the scar had,” I said, confirming the emergency.

“What, send it to me!”

“Already done, the man was wearing a fake beard,” I said, sending her the feed from my cybernetic eye, overlapping the video of the man disappearing into the crowd.

“Shit.”

“Attention Attention Attention: Protocol Zero has been enacted. All CSS agents are to be on the lookout for a man with caramel toned skin a scar running down the left side of his lip. I repeat, be on the lookout for a man with caramel toned skin with a scar running down the left of his lip.”

“Report Cypher.” Colonel Levisay interjected.

“Found a fake beard Sir” I answered.

“Any theories?” He asked.

“None at this time, but I do believe the fracas with the waiters were a diversion. Stelyne, did you get any feedback from the waiter as yet?.”

“Not yet…but I’m waiting for him to be debriefed.”

“Stelyne, has anything obscure taken place during the timeframe of this possible diversion?”

“Nothing really, the most we had was a delay in food in drinks for the bar at the west side and a woman falling ill.”

“Falling ill?”

“Yes, one of the waiters found a woman collapsed in the bathroom. They took her to the makeshift medical bay.”

“Stelyne, contact Dr Weithen for details. Cypher!”

“On it.”

I darted down the corridor, making a sharp right, running into the kitchen. The scent of fried meat and fresh fish trailed into my nose as I passed chefs and sous-chefs assorting their plates. The light within the kitchen was as bright as the chandelier, if not bright.

The heat from the room struck me like an exhaust fume from a burst pipe, but as I stealthily pivoted left, right and jumped over a chopping board to one of the chef’s dismay, I spun off him and turned left leaving him to his meat and superlatives.

“I can’t reach Dr Weithen,” Stelyne said.

“Shit. How close are you Cypher?” The Colonel asked.

“Heading towards the emergency exit now.”

“Alert everyone in the area Stelyne”

“Already did that. Their comms are registering but I’m not getting any feedback.”

“No static…nothing?”

“Nothing sir.”

“Shit. You’re gonna have to double up Cypher.”

I sprung up the emergency exit, skipping three steps at a time, feeling my legs strain from the energy that coursed through me.

If I remembered the schematics correctly, the makeshift med bay was on the third floor, meaning it wouldn't take me long to get there.

“Sir…just confirmed. The waiter felt as if he were shoved.” Stelyne said.

“I see…Arm Up Cypher. Seems we’re about to get busy. Recall Cobra Squad from the Romacellins, have the Shadows form a secondary unit replacing Cobra Squad.”

“Yes Sir,” Stelyne said.

I spilt onto the third floor, chandelier to my left and loose wire cabling trickling across the floor, making me skip about so I wouldn’t fall. I yanked my pistol free from my holster and held it steady as I crept past the service elevator.

The light on this floor was dimmer than on the Ballroom floor, which made me very wary. As I walked down the empty corridor, my fingertips grew cold. It wasn’t from the ire feeling that had pooled in the middle of my stomach, but the light that trickled through the make-shift med bay that stood a mere ten meters away from me.

I slowly crept up to the open doors of the medical and tried to peep in. My eyes were met with white flaps. I pushed one aside with the tip of my pistol and the red scrawling I saw on the ground immediately caught my attention. Blood.

A pool of blood was splattered across the floor, seeping from the brains of three doctors. They were all hunched backwards, shot in the head, execution-style. Their eyes were still open, leaving the sight even more harrowing. Shit…”Crimson Alert Crimson Alert” I whispered again, but yet again Stelyne didn’t respond.

I raised my pistol, spawning the dead doctors, peeped around the corners, gun first and caught an eye full of medical equipment. The room was devoid of life, On my right three beds sat in rows in the corner, whilst a gurney was propped on the wall adjacent to it.

On the left side, was another doctor, sitting in his chair with his head rocked back with brain matter spilling onto the floor. I zoomed in on his name tag and read his name aloud. “Dr Han Weithen”

I ran over to Dr Weithen’s carcass, knocking some papers on the ground in the process. I touched his neck and gauged his temperature and nodded when done. Still warm…that means he wasn’t killed before they brought whoever it was. “Stelyne, Weithen’s is dead. Stelyne! do you copy?!”

No response.

I turned, pulling Dr Weithen’s eyes shut and sauntered over to the remaining doctors. I stimulated and headed back to the entrance of the medical bay. I felt my SMB clutch my brain like a vice-grip and felt my body go numb for three seconds before I felt relief wash over it.

The crimson colour of the blood turned to twinkling yellow. As I gazed at the blood on the ground, my brain cell fought against the SMB stimulation and I felt as my body began to drain. At a time like this, is when I truly missed Nova, she managed the feedback from my SMB and monitored my slethe.

In the three months since I’d lost Nova, I’d gone through eight slethe injections in one month. Double my natural intake When Nova was still here. I truly didn’t know what I had when she was still here and it annoyed the shit outta me. However, based on how this night was looking I felt as though I’d need three more slethe shots before the night was over.

Miniature yellow sparkles throbbed in front of me, in the form of a boot heel, barely visible, but enough to follow. I made my way through the medbay flaps and charged down the corridor following them as fast as I could.

“STELYNE!” I shouted once more, but no feedback. “DAMN IT…they must have a scrambler around here somewhere.” I huffed. I turned right, after dodging a few loose wires and came across an elevator shaft.

The throbbing yellow sparks of blood stopped here. The shaft itself wasn’t suspicious, but the line that was attached to a hook on the right of the inner layer of it made it inconspicuous. I looked down the elevator shaft, zooming in with night shift vision and saw a gurney down below.

I wrapped my cybernetic arm around the line and allowed my body to flow with the line down the bottom of the shaft. I landed with an audible thud and felt the stones try to penetrate my shows.

Steam flowed from my lips as I breathed out heavily. I felt like a cold draft rush down the elevator shaft, stiffening my grip around my pistol. I heaved some hot on my hand and pushed myself onto the wall of the shaft.

“This’ easier than I expected Rikor!” Someone said elated, voice trailing down the corridor. I peeped around the corner and saw three men pushing a gurney with two men walking at the front and one man at the back. “Easy?” The man at the front said, “We’re not done yet, keep your wits about you…I saw that rat bastard Levisay here.”

“Who?”

“Colonel Levisay, War Hero.”

“Never heard.”

I shifted my foot to the right and a loud snap followed. “What was that?” one of the men said. I’d pulled myself back in, and stimulated my SMB to change the custom made settings to Echo-Sight into my contact lenses.

Footsteps fluttered in the form of soundwaves, as one of the men began to approach me. I was guarded enough to make a small stand, but with their numbers at five and my limited ammunition. I would’ve been easily overrun.

“Stelyne” I whispered. “I need back up!”

Nothing.

As the soundwaves fluttered, I snapped the safety off my pistol and made myself small. A shotgun barrel crept around the corner, and I stuck my pistol into the wielder's chest, completely out of the shotgun wielder's range of fire.

His eyes opened wide and were filled with shock and fright. His lips quivered as he closed his eyes for what I was about to do.

I buried two shots into his stomach, yanking his shotgun from his hand as fell to his knees. I stood up, and fired another shot into his head, watching as brain matter splashed across the wall to my right.

“MENOTH'S DOWN MENOTH'S DOWN.”