The lobby to my apartment complex was devoid of anyone, I liked that. If I were to go up the elevator id probably have another panic attack.

The seats felt comfortable, each second I sat within the couch, I sank further into it. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing because most furniture wasn’t custom made for the cybernetically enhanced, and with my left side, spine and arm being fully cybernetic, my weight was well over the recommended limit.

The door slashed open to my right and I saw Zade walking through in a brown trench coat. The combat boots he wore, were black and laced right up. The black shirt he wore was plain, just like his denim.

The old watchdog was getting old I noted, but despite that, his eyes still had that warmth when he smiled.

“You look like shit,” Gonzada said firmly. “I feel worst than how I look.” He outstretched his hand, handing me the crystalline cellular phone. I took it from him and held it in my hands, rolling it in my palms as I tried to calm myself.

Zade stood above me, watching me as I contemplate my next move, then released a long sigh. “I’m gonna see how the bastard got in.”

“How did he get in…surely not the front door?”

“I don’t know.”

“Feedback loop?”

“Possibly…I never checked.”

“I’ll check, get some rest. I’ll see what I can find, alright?”

“I don’t have time to rest!” I snarled.

“You may not have time to rest Cypher, but you need it. At least take a shower, get refreshed. Stop worrying, I’ll look into what’s going on here and get back to you…cool?”

I cut my eye at Zade, watching as he shook his head at me. He approached the lobby desk and began talking to the guard, then flashed his badge.

Zade was smooth, he never tried to bulldoze anyone for information. He picks you apart, eyes you down, looking for habits, traits, likes, dislikes. I hated that about him, but I knew he was good at finding water in the sand.

During that time doe, I called the only number on the phone fifty times, but to no answer. As the frustration crept in on me, so did my fatigue, and before I knew I was out cold…tired as hell from this hell I’d been living for the past two hours.

Fifteen minutes had passed, and I hadn’t even noticed that I’d drop sleep. I groggily forced myself up, walking over the security desk, but saw the guard had his “Stepped out for Five minutes, be right back” sign up.

I pursed my lips, and curled around the corner, tapping the elevator door and finding my way to my room, not the room Shin-Lee and Hannah-Lee stayed. I couldn’t stomach it.

In the bathroom, I plunked on the floor, Furtiven suit on and let the water hit me. I sipped every millimetre of water that caressed my lips and felt what little reprieve I could get.

Once I was satisfied, I finally pulled the Furtiven suit off of me, stood up and cleaned myself up.

As the water trickled down head and onto neck and back. I could smell Shin-Lee floral’s scent wafting around. I inhaled a bead of water then turned to my left. An array of bottles littered across the wall sparkled.

I hit the wall in frustration as I heard Hannah's laugh in the background, of my mind. It was sweet....innocent, so beautiful my little girl looked. All the memories of us being together...just rushed to my hand like a surge of electricity, filling me with melancholy.

I hate this...I hate myself!

◆◆◆

“79 calls, you’re a passionate man, aren’t you Mr Cypher,” Akatani said coldly.

The bastard returned the call after making me wait five hours.

I didn’t answer him, because his snivelling tone crawled my skin I wanted to send a knife right into his chest, then split his rib cage into five pieces. “Let me talk to my wife and child,” I whispered, trying my best to withhold my fury.

“that’s more like it.” Akatani said, manically. “OIIII…GET THE LITTLE GIRL. BRING HER HERE NOW!”

“aye...” Someone said in the background.

The line went quiet and after two minutes, whimpers began to come through the line. “Hannah?” I asked.

“Daddy?” Hannah whispered.

“Oh, baby...I’m sorry.” I cried out. “I’m so sorry.

The line went dead.

My knees gave out and I hit the tiles, dropping the phone and my soul. The cold embrace of the ground was like a pool of water, trying its best the swallow me whole.

I felt that way.

My head began to spin, whilst my surroundings began to slowly turn to ash. The kitchen counter, holo-table, the Television the fridge, coffee table...everything.

Everything flaked away in a blink of an eye. It was as if the wind took hold of them with one grasp of a branch, then crumbled to the wind.

I reached out to the coffee table, which was closest to me, but the moment I touched its leg it designated even faster.

My heart thumped in my chest, with each thump my lungs grew tighter, as if the oxygen within the room was slowly dissipating…then there was nothing there for me to breathe.

I gasped…screamed and cried, trying my hardest to breathe, but with no oxygen to breathe, my body grew weightless and the void around me began to spin. Hannah…Shin-Lee…I’m sorry.

The void was exactly that, bleak darkness that smothered me whole. I was in the centre but felt as though I was at the bottom of the ocean.

My lungs screamed for air, but after struggling for an hour or more. I consciously tried my best to keep my wits, until the sound of a bell chimed off to my right.

The void slowly stopped churning and eventually stopped. Once it did, the sound of the bell grew louder. I turned left, right, up and down…hunting for the sound.

The bell rang again, but louder, leaving a hypnotic cognizant sound, that drew me in. It came from below, so I looked down. Nothing was there.

A bright white light, in the form of a sphere, opened up from my chest and the bell rang so hard, I heard my ear drum s quivering as they absorbed the sound.

Then I woke.

It wasn’t a bell, but the phone that Akatani left for me. I scooped it off my chest and answered groggily. “Cypher.”

“Took you long enough. I’ve sent you new coordinates.” Akatani said, then hung up.

As the line went dead, another message popped up on the screen from the only app on the phone, GPS Placement. I clicked on the app and the location drew a line. I zoomed in and tapped the coordinates options on the app to get a better gist of where I was heading. The best part was there was no timer this time.

I made my way out of my apartment, wearing denim jeans and my black bomber jacket. The combat boots I wore, wear relatively new, which made each step I made towards the elevator stilted, and annoying.

Once I got in the elevator I punched the key for the bottom floor, and only remembered that I had left my car at the Nicklaus Abbey Train station. Shit, I have no transportation… I grumbled to myself.

The subtle sounds of the waterfall splashes were pleasant to hear as I made my way out of the building and through the front garden area of my building.

Hailing a cab was a lot harder than I expected, but it was midday, which meant that things should’ve been a little slower.

Oh…how wrong I was.

It took me a little over twenty minutes to catch a cab, and that was after battling at least five people for the afternoon for one.

Thankfully, I reached my destination within thirty minutes, and by destination, I meant to trap.

The GPS led to what seemed to be an abandoned district. As the cab rolled on through the potholes and broken roads, they were dozens of abandoned buildings on either side.

A few of them had chimneys, broken walls and windows. It was like visiting Old Bridge City, the only difference was this was on the North-East side of Bridge City compared to the South-West side.

As I finally reached my intended destination, I pushed the door open and the cabbie throttled his way out of here, obviously spooked by my predicament.

The damp scent of molasses and sugar was evident in the air. It left a sweet and sour-like taste on my tongue after I took a whiff of air.

I wasn’t sure if I liked it, but it left me feeling jaded, despite it not tasting stale…but how could an abandoned factory still have a taste too strong compared to the dust and grime that waft back and forth.

I ducked on a rusted fence that had a few dry strands of vines attached to it. After inputting the coordinates into my HUD, a green line pulsed into existence within my cybernetic eye and watched as the line zipped through the abandoned factory.

The abandoned factory complex had seven buildings. Two of these buildings were to my left and looked like congested boxes which were once coloured white based on the flaking paint.

On my right, was a large building, rectangular and shape, but painted black, and had multiple signs of graffiti.

I zoomed in on one of the artwork noticing a phrase that felt familiar to me.

NEBULA IS WATCHING…

Whatever that meant, I mused.

The main factory was in front of me and it had two spire-like chimneys sitting at the back of the building. My HUD placed the height of them at around 80 meters.

The overall colour of the factory was brown, signifying its decay. It looked like a crumpled box that had been set out in rain too long, only to crumble after years of wear and tear.

To the left of the factory, the building was a set of heavy-duty machines. A loud gust of wind swept across the yard, sending an abundance of rust-air towards me.

I bit my tongue, providing some form of water to relieve my mouth of its metallic taste. Then, charged towards the building, following the Green GPS line.

The GPS line fed into the building, and by the looks of up, my destination was upstairs. I shattered a piece of plywood that was blocking my way, then shredding further to leave an open for me.

The inside of the building was gloomy and dusty. The archaic machines in front of me were all analogue with signs of a few gauge next to large cylinders.

I stepped into a pile of rat shit, that made my food slide across, racking up it up at the sides. The foul acidic stench of the shit was like smelling rotted flesh and eggs in a cesspool.

After forcing my way through the rat shit, begrudgingly. I went up the stairs that were on the right, barely. I had tried my best, keeping my weight off my feet, by leaning on the wall, but twenty steps of stairs gave way as I ascended.

The railing and metal floors of the second floor were rusted and moulted, making it difficult to manoeuvre the second floor.

The bleached greyness of the walls had smoke stains, which no doubt came from the five large cylinders that sat in the room.

The deeper I went into the factory, the more unsettled I felt. It just wasn’t the foul scent of sour sugar resonating into my mouth and nose, but the general feeling of uneasiness I couldn’t explain.

Why am I here? I asked myself, climbing to the third floor. He said he wants me dead…but to send me here? It just doesn’t make sense…he already has my wife and daughter for christ sake!

It didn’t help either, with the sound of water dripping, and bush swaying in the wind. It was like I was entering a crypt…specially made for me.

I finally made it to the top floor, which overlooked the entire factory complex and below me, were my cylinders and I could see inside them, a rat fest. Ugh…

The GPS line led to a door, which was at the far end of the corridor, which was barely hanging by the hinges.

I pushed through the door and it gave to a loud boom after dropping the ground.

Dust…grime and shit waft in the air, filling it with its foul stench. I held my breath, waving it away as best as I could.

The room was a conference room with a circular table sitting in the middle of it. At the back, on the wall, the Logo of the company was barely there, whereas I could only see three letters U.K and Y.

The conference table was big enough for twenty tables, but only had twelve, whilst the remainder disintegrated to the ground.

In the middle of the table was a box, brown and of carboard make. I took three steps towards it and the GPS Line went dead. Arrived at Location it read.

I picked up the box, noticing its lightness. Once I opened it my heart dropped into my stomach and I fell to the ground.

“The bastard cut Shin-Lee’s finger off…I’ll kill him” I whispered, feeling as agony took hold of my body.

My chest began to ache as anguish and anger burned throughout it like a furnace. “No…” I whispered, hitting the ground. “NO!”

I hadn’t realised how long I’d relieved my frustration on the concrete ground, when I realised, the ground beneath my fist was nothing but white powder.

“If you’re gonna just wallow on the ground, you could as well tell us the location of the Lineagecube” Someone barked behind me.

I wiped the tears from my eyes, breathing a long deep sigh, then pushed myself up to my feet and turned around to see who it was.

Three men stood back at the conference table. They all wore black combat fatigues with matching boots. They had no pistols at their waist, but what seemed to be shock-batons.

“Where is the Lineagecube Kaiden Cypher.” The leader said as the two other men began to circle the conference table trying to cut off my path to the exit.

Little did they know…I needed someone to vent my anger on. “Before we get started, I need to understand one thing.”

“…and that is?” The leader said with a rueful smile.

“Elhisia or Darlina Weitson…which one sent you?”

The Leader’s lips curled into a smile as he yanked his baton from his waist, igniting it the tip sparking it alive. “Come quietly and you’ll know who sent me.”

“…not a chance in hell.”