Another one of Hexan’s vehicles picked us up. The journey back to Law Manor was cramped and hot. Despite it all though, we were all alive and so was Elhisia, which was the most important thing.

I don’t know how I got through it all without her being hit, but I was thankful for that. Darlina seemed like a bitch, and one that’ll seek revenge soon. But she started this by sending Valeon’s men after me!

Now that Valeon was dead though, things could move a little smoother. Unless Darlina was scrupulous enough to ensure that Hexan’s days as Commissioner was coming to an end.

“You’re not bad Commish,” Stelig said. Hexan, as expected, rolled her eyes, then turned to me. “I served.” She added.

“I can tell, what Unit?”

“Classified.”

“Ahh…a spy.” He scoffed.

“She wasn’t a spy” I added, “Non-Commissioned Officer.”

“You read my file,” Hexan said with smiling.

“You’re not the only one with contacts,” I grunted.

“But my contacts aren’t as secretive as yours.” She said.

I sneered at them whilst she did her best ignoring the act. “What’s your plan to deal with Darlina,” I asked furrowing my brow at her.

“No plan as of now, but don’t worry. I have something in the works.”

“Not scared of retaliation?”

“This isn’t my first raid Cypher, nor will it be my last!”

“Humph…if that’s the case. Tryzer put me at the gates.”

Tryzer turned to Naedon, who then confirmed my request with a nod. “You’re not staying?” Hexan asked disapproving.

“You said you have a plan to deal with Darlina, which means I’m not needed.”

“I see.”

The ride to the gate was quiet, with sombre moments of grumpiness on my part. Sleep deprivation was a thing and I am certainly living through it.

The guards gave me no trouble whatsoever, hell they called me a cab, which took me back to the North West side of Bridge City, where I gratefully got some rest and a hot meal, thanks to the old lady.

She didn’t ask a question, despite me smelling of gunpowder and looking as haggard as ever. She simply made a hot meal for me and sent me off to bed, where I finally got some rest. Rest I needed to help me concentrate on what’ll happen next.

◆◆◆

“Cypher, wake up!” Rex called out over the line, waking me. I was thankful for it though, He was satisfied, which meant one thing. He’d found something, something good.

“I’m here,” I grunted.

“Good, I found something.” He said.

Bingo

“I’m listening.”

“So I checked out your place and it was you suspected. A backward loop was installed onto the system, with a self-erasing program. It’s quite genius. So what—

“Rex…” I said cutting him off. “Not now, I don’t care about the details.”

He released a long sigh, then sucked his teeth in annoyance. “I understand, ok. The self-erasing program is custom made, so I never saw it before so I outsourced it to a few friends because the code looked familiar.” He said, pausing dramatically.

“…and?” I asked.

“Well, it was his code, but he never used it, furthermore he forgot about the code.”

“Someone found his code and highly customised it into their own. The problem was, the baselines have his signature, so he knows it’s his.”

“Which means?

“The code used to self-erase is the same stratagem used for the Vending Machine case you and Gonzada worked.”

“Gonzada? Ahhh…he did warn me about Akatani. He probably found out who the kids I caught were working for.”

“Right…so that’s probably how he found about Akatani’s little operation.”

“Makes sense…”

“But listen. I found Recycle tech on the rooftop…”

“Recycled Tech?”

“Yeah…the tech he used…”

“It’s untraceable.”

“Exactly”

“Did you find anything else?” I asked bitterly.

“Of course! Cypher, you think I’ve been sitting around all day whilst you slept night and day?”

“Sleep? I wish I slept, but whatever, what did you find out?”

“Akatani is not just a piece of shit, he’s the cream of the crop. He used to work with Deslin Arkon.”

“The Deslin Arkon?”

“The one and only,” Rex said coldly.

“The man who blew up the National Insurance Scheme building.”

“Wait a minute, if he used to work with Deslin Arkon, wouldn’t that mean his name would be in the system?”

“It would…but the bastard found a way to erase it all.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Is it?”

“Do you think the Datamind Core is perfect? I assure you…it isn’t.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Think Cypher, within the Datamind Core, who runs the Datamind Core?”

“The Federation?”

“…and who runs the Federation?”

“The government.”

“People Cypher…people! He paid or threatened someone to get his name out of the system!”

“Rex… it’s five AM in the fucking morning, my brain is not up. Give me a fucking break!”

“Fine…”

“Other than the Deslin Arkon link, what have you found about him?” I asked.

“He was Deslin’s main Cyberweaver.”

“What? Was he an S-Class?

“No. A-Class, but that’s beside the point. He knows how to get things done. The vending machine scam was just a way for him to get credits for his Haze plant, which you destroyed.”

“Thanks for reminding me…anything on Serphandias?

“Nothing at all. No one knows about a special device The Mangol has”

“Which means, it’s on her all the time.”

“Hmmm…I never thought of that.” Rex said.

Silence sat between Rex and me for a few seconds and I groan a mumbled yawn, turning over in the bed.

“I’ll see if I can dig around some more and get back to Cypher,” Rex said.

“Thanks, bud.”

The line went dead, and I went back to sleep. I tossed and turned for a few minutes, which eventually went up to an hour. In between my moments of restlessness, I looked at the phone that Akatani gave me, and still no call to me.

The urge to call him was there, but with the strict instructions, he gave me. I was forced to comply or possibly watch my family get hurt. That was not something I could let happen.

Incoming Call…

“Cypher,” I answered.

“I found where that monster sleeps!” Zade said

“The monster? What are you talking about?”

“Eclain…I found out where he lives.”

“…where?”

“Paxcron Development, East-West Development.”

“Is he there right now?”

“Yeah…”

“I should be there in an hour or two, depending on traffic.”

“I’ll keep an out for him, in case his location changes.”

“Thanks, Zade.”

“Don’t mention it Cyph.”

The call went dead and I jumped out of bed and took a quick cowboy. It took me three minutes to get my clothes on and I was out of the house and on my way to Paxcron Development.

As I expected, the traffic was thick and the lines were hardly moving. And this was the skylanes. No matter patience I said to myself.

The traffic finally dissipated, and we made it out to the East-North Section of Bridge City. This side of the city had a depressing feeling to it, as it was close to one of the dumping sights within the city.

The horrid scent of the dumping sight penetrated the window, making my eyes squeal from its foul scent. Imagine how it feels to live in the thick of it. And yes, when I say, live, I do mean Live. People lived within these dumping sights because that’s all they could afford to do, as said as that sounded.

I peered out of the window, pinching my nose seeing the heaps of garbage stretching out on a small scale. It look like someone had taken a bag of pebbles and just dumped it on an open field.

They were hundreds of garbage trucks entering and exiting as well, meaning, the stacks of trash would forever grow. If everything goes well with Elhisia…we could see an end to these garbages. I thought, but with Colvolt dead, who knew if the contract for the Landfill Removal Act would fall into her hands now. Or maybe the lineagecube could help with that.

Incoming Call…

“Cypher.”

“Yeah, bud change of location. I’m following Eclain now, seems he’s left his place.”

“Shit…fine…follow him, I’ll still head to Paxcron. Forward me the info once he’s stopped.”

“Will do.”