"Paramour…as in lover?” I asked, dumbfounded by the news. “Yes! He’s my lover!” The heiress squealed. Holy shit....this makes it even worst. Her father has all the cards in his deck! I thought bitterly.

“Your husband knows about your paramour?” I asked.

“Of course! The bastard has six mistresses!” She hissed.

The heiress pushed herself up from her knees, weak as they were and pushed herself through the door. “RIIKKOORRR!!!!”Elhisia roared. I darted behind her, smothering her mouth and dragging her back into the cabin. “ARE YOU TRYING TO GET YOURSELF KILLED?” I growled, forcing the heiress onto the ground.

She yanked my pistol from its holster, and I grabbed her wrist in retaliation. I squeezed her arm slightly with my cybernetic arm, making her drop it.

“Calm down Elhisia!” I snapped, then felt her elbow in my jaw. She tugged herself out of my grasp, escaping my fingertips as tried to grab her foot. “STOP! IF YOU DO THIS YOU WON’T SAVE YOUR PEOPLE.”

Elhisia stopped, turning to me with tears flowing from her eyes. “Some people have to die at times.” She said coldly. “Then what about the right thing? You said you wanted to SAVE EVERYONE!”

“How can I save PEOPLE when I can’t even protect the one I love?!” She snarled at me. She’s right I thought to myself, how could a hopeless romantic such as this girl save the man she loved? I understood her feelings as if they were my own.

Being in The Waste always left me melancholic, not from the loss of my body, that was the tip of the iceberg. The majority of it came from missing Hannah-Lee and Shin-Lee. I felt naked and fully exposed without them being close. I knew Akatani was still on the loose, but not being close to them truly made me feel like I’d fail them.

“WE DON’T KNOW WHAT YOUR FATHER HAS PLANNED” I shouted, watching as she ran down the dark pathway. I pushed myself up, feeling my left side tingle my spine from the weight.

I sprung down the pathway, following, listening to her footsteps. I sped down the corridor as fast as I can, sailing over debris, and watched as she hit walls trying to turn.

A loud thud echoed through the abandoned building, forcing me to increase my pace, I rounded a corner, noticing her footsteps with my Night-Vision.

Elhisia was lying on the ground, crouched up against a wall, feet pressed against her chest and tears flowing down her flushed cheeks. Her once immaculate hairstyle was now haggard and laced in dirt and grime.

I knelt next to her, trying my best to console the heiress. Everything she had planned, in her mind, was for nought. Her Father, Colvolt Weitson had her lover, a man she didn’t want to lose.

“You have to make a choice,” I said gently. “I understand what your people mean to you and what your goals are. I do also understand what Zanton means to you, but once you’ve made a decision. Your world will change.”

I pushed myself back up and walked past her. “Where are you going?” She asked, sobbing uncontrollably. “To make your decision easier. I’m gonna try to find out what’s going to happen with the supply drop. But I need you to head back to the cabin. I’ll sift through the camp and see if I can find anything.” I said, fishing into one of my pouches.

I tossed a comm to the heiress and she eyed it with a question mark placed within her eyeballs. “It’s a backup comm I have, take it and use it when you need me.“

“Like some type of secret word?”

“Not really, but we can have a secret word.”

“Canari.”

“…for danger?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Lock the cabin and see if you can get the lineagecube hacked so that by the time your father arrives I can at least exfiltrate you before something bad happens.”

Elhisia nodded and slowly pushed herself up. She wiped the tears from her eyes and clenched her face and forcedly made her way back to her cabin.

“This just turned into some bullshit,” I whispered to myself, looking down the corridor. “Ugh…”

◆◆◆

I found myself on the eastern side of the camp, creeping through the ruined stands of the Stadium. The moonlight’s crept through the shattered roof, leaving traces of light for me to pass through. It was as if I had my guide.

I tip-toed through the rubble, ensuring not to make a noise. As little cybernetics these men had, it was custom to have cybernetic ears for any man taking guard duty and based on the minimalist set-up of this camp, I was certain that was the path Rikor took.

A subtle shriek groaned beneath my feet, forcing me to backpedal before me. My eyes drifted down and I saw what I’d stepped on. Pieces of shattered galvanise.

I rounded the galvanise because, with each attempt I made to weasel my way through, sound waves rippled from my Echo-Sight, making it clear this wasn’t the path for me and how noisy I was.

Once I’d cleared the splintered galvanise, I turned right, climbing up two stairs of rubble and planted myself next to a window overseeing the camp. This side of the Camp, left me to back the moon, which meant I was in the open if someone spotted me from the right angle.

I stuck to the shadow of the windowsill, keeping an eye out and watched as the guards frantically hustled through the opposing ruined buildings, with some, even entering my own. Shit…they found the two bodies I planted upstairs, fuck!

“FIND THOSE RAT BASTARDS NOW!” A loud ravenous voice bellowed across the campsite. I peeped out, only leaving my cybernetic eye in the open.

Down below, right in front of the communications tent, were two bodies, filled with holes. Holes I’d made. The man walked back and forth, eyeing them pissed as if he’d now see his best friend die in battle.

“ANYTHING?” He growled through his walkie talkie. “I DON’T CARE IF THOSE PIECES OF SHIT ARE SLEEPING CHECK EVERYWHERE AND FIND OUT HOW THEY GOT A GUN FROM THE ARMORY!” He roared.

I wonder how he’d feel after I killed his man that was meeting whoever he was to meet I thought wryly. Whatever.

I turned my wrist to face me, and tapped the digital inlay, setting my suit to black. If I’m going to manoeuvre through here, with the sun soon rising, I should at least be hard to spot.

“Princess,” I whispered, heading back down the hallway and the rubble of steps. “I think they found the two bodies I left.”

“What? You killed two men?”

“No. I killed one that murdered two of your people and killed two on my way to you. It was unforeseeable. I couldn’t survey the area to decipher the best for my infiltration.”

“Fuck! You’re sloppy”

“Hardly” I growled softly.

I let the heiress continue her work, then questioned her. “How far have you gotten?” I asked, planting my back against the wall, noticing men flooding the second floor of the opposing building. “30%”

“That was fast.”

“Yes, with a direct sample of my father’s DNA the lineagecube recognises that he’s here. I just need to set the parameters up, whereas I can change the DNA coders to mine. Once that’s done. I can take control of the company.”

“…that’s all good and dandy, but I need your help.”

“With?”

“Whose the leader amongst your workers?”

“Unar Nillon”

“The Vice-President of the Welkey’s Labour Union is here?”

“Of course, someone had to come to show them we were committed to the plan!”

“I see. Do you know where he is?”

“His tent is located on the northern side of the tent. Closest to a large tarpaulin, next to a lamppost with two guards on the right.”

“Guards?”

“Yes…they’re guarding something.”

“The Armory…” I said calmly but felt goosebumps run up my arm. “I’m gonna try to approach Unar, using your name, anything I should know?”

“He likes Whiskey and fishcakes with pepper sauce.”

“How the hell is that gonna help me?”

“I don’t know, I’m not a spy, just tell the old man that you’re here to help.”

“…if it were that easy.”

A subtle crunch echoed behind me, a few yards off. Then, dozens of crunches followed, like dead leaves being squashed from the weight of a tractor.

I stimulated my SMB, switching from Night-Vision then back to Echo Sight. The sound waves fluttered all around me as if I were a beacon in the night. Eight behind me, six below to the south and my left in the other building.

Fuck…I’m trapped. The sudden sound of the footsteps followed the galloping beats of my heart as I awaited their arrival. A smidgen of moonlight hit my forearm, dragging my eyes to it. There was a small crack in the wall, enough for me to make it outside.

I sprung up forcing myself up and struggled to squeeze through the wall. My flak jacket and its compartmental pouches were too big. Damn it!

“I want EVERY inch of this place SEARCHED.” The commander called out to his troops. I unclipped two of my pouches at the front and back of me and tried once more. Nothing. SHIT!

I begrudgingly unstrapped my submachine gun and began assembling it as quiet as I possibly could. Once I screwed on the nozzle along with the suppressor. I pressed myself up against the wall and trained my gun on the opening, hoping no one could.

A bristle of a nose scraped against the ground as someone stepped into my sight. I began to squeeze the trigger. “Lefa...Nomin, head to the camps there seems to be trouble!” The commander called out. “Fuck the camps! I ain wanna deal wid no shelter...wanna put a bullet in this maggot’s head. He killed Sharva and Yarna!” One of them complained.

“....get in line Yarna, or I'll report you to the Sarge.”

“Fuck Sarge! We all know that he’s only in charge of this operation because Rikor’s on the comms with Valeon!” Yarna spat. Valeon? Why does that name sound so familiar? I mused.

“That may be true,” the commander said, feet scraping against the ground like a knife sharpening against a whetstone. “but you’ll do as you commanded, or the Sarge will have your head...the choice is yours.” The commander finished coldly.

“Come on Sharva.” Yarna said, “let’s get these rioters in check before they believe they have power here.”

Yarna squandered off, not noticing me in the corner, but that was thanks to my Furtiven Suit’s camo. As little as the reprieve, I just got. I still had to sit tight, waiting for the remaining men to sweep through the building floor before coming toward me.

Ok, I thought, let’s try this one more time. I tried one more to squeeze the small crack in the hole. My left hand felt the cold wind steal its’ warmness and sent a frozen tingle up my arm. Something I wasn’t a fan of. I held my breath, feeling my heart thump and inhaled my stomach and barely moved an inch. SHIT…THIS ISN’T WORKING, I thought, feeling the heat from my breath slowly surge through my teeth.