I remember looking through the window of this very street and feeling my stomach churn from the hunger. As tasty as Wingtastic chicken wings looked, it wasn’t worth it. Pardono, a kid I used to run with last a leg because that bastard tossed acid at him for trying to steal a batch that he’d now put on the fryer.

Pardono was never the smartest, but hunger would make you do things. I got revenge for Pardono though, broke that very glass the following night and three nights after when he got it repaired.

The crowd was the thickest at the Center of Food Market where it was hardest to pass through. Fishcakes, Doubles, Pudding and Souse, Salt Fish and Ackees, Callaloo Soup…everything that was here was of divine taste of the hypnotic nature.

The varying scents of these different dishes weren’t just a symbol of the food market, but a reminder of a past that could never be forgotten. God, I missed this scent. I grumbled to myself, rubbing my stomach.

My stomach growled, reminding me that despite me being partly cybernetic I still needed sustenance. Fine I muttered to myself, I’ll fix this…maybe it’ll help with solving this problem.

I nestled into a small stall, which didn’t have anyone there. It was run by an old woman, who barely moved. The stall didn’t have a name, but the food she cooked smelt fantastic.

In the stall, she had served the basics rice and peas, macaroni pie, and various pieces of chicken and fish. The gravies were separated and coloured to match. The dark brown was chicken, whilst the orange coloured one was fish The sides dishes were a mixture of vegetables, green salads and everyone’s favourite coleslaw.

“Rice, Pie and Coleslaw,” I ordered. The old lady pushed herself up from her chair and partitioned out my food in a styrofoam crate. She gave me a half portion of rice and pie, and the biggest chicken leg available. She dashed a bit of gravy on both the rice and pie, whilst leaving the gravy bare. Perfection.

She handed me the crate and gave me a bottle of brown liquid, that read ‘Mauby’. Whatever that is. I placed myself in the nearest chair, which was free, despite how crowded this place was.

I took a bite out of the rice and peas, feeling as if the lightly salted gravy marinated the thick brown rice. My taste buds screamed from the euphoria as my body tingled from the taste and provided me with a smidgen of vitality.

I wolfed down half the chicken leg, and taste the various spices and seasoning melding together. They left my tongue pulsing from the flavoured peppered, which I ‘cooled’ off with a gulp of Mauby.

As the mauby hit my tongue, the sweet and dandy taste hit my tongue subtly, giving me enough room to feel the aroma waft towards my nose. I took two more gulps, mesmerised by the drink and looked at the old woman, who just sat in her chair, nonchalant as ever. This is amazing! I thought, whilst taking a bite out of the macaroni.

The macaroni pie was cheesy, which confused the hell out of me. My tongue tasted two different kinds of cheese, cheddar and powdered cheese? The combination made no sense but melded well together with finely chopped onions I stumbled across, rarely. Whoever this woman was. Her food was divine and I loved every bite of it.

After I finished the meal, sat there for a good few minutes, watching as the crowd passed me by, living their lives in obscurity and mundanity.

The majority of them ordered their food to go, explaining why no one stayed. A few more people bought food from the old lady, but not much.

I finally pushed myself up from the chair and began wandering around and eventually found myself back at Underwent Perimeter, scoping once again.

“I can’t enter from the top…nor the bottom. “I said out loud. “The schematics show multiple ways to get in. Ventilation shafts, service doors and elevators.”

Taking the risk of walking through the front door was one I wasn’t willing to take. The Mangol had warned me that I’d been barred from the Market…forever, which meant a kill order had been issued for me.

I had considered getting a synthetic mask for my face, but getting a real one would’ve been expensive and unnecessarily a long wait, two days when I only had approximately two days and some left.

The problem too, I don’t know what the serphandias looked like, but was tasked with getting it. Is Akatani lying to me I thought for a second? Is he toying with me? Just because he wants to watch me grovel?

I won’t lie. I was halfway there…just to get my family back.

Incoming Call…

“Cypher.”

“Cypher, Naedon here, you saw the press conference?” Naedon asked.

“I did.”

“We’re in the clear!”

“Not yet, we still have to deal with Elhisia and this lineagecube.”

“Right.” He said.

“How’s the Colonel and Stelyne holding up?”

“They’re ecstatic!”

“What…why?”

“He’s been in meetings all morning. All the contracts Valeon Epin had are up for grabs, he’s trying to get all of them. The Commissioner’s line ‘joint operation’ sent the phones off the hook I heard.”

“Good…this cements our position,” I said ruefully. “The ties that bind. The Colonel will get those contracts and no one will want to fuck with CSS.”

Naedon released a long sigh, which had me speechless. The man never showed a bit of hesitation, but I heard it in his voice. It made me think that he looked up to me for advice. I might have known him for days, but I guess the complexity of the corporate world would make a guy hesitant.

Pointing a fun at a designated target was easy. Having to deal with corporation machinations and their ever-changing snake-skin, was not.

I envied Naedon’s innocence a bit. I knew he was an honest guy, who probably never manipulated a field report in his life. Well, not till recently anyway.

Credits talk and have the loudest voice. If you had an opportunity to make some extra credits, you’re gonna do it. I don’t care who you are and what you do…feeding your family comes first, but you must always bear the consequences…or end up like me.

“I’ll follow your lead,” Naedon said.

“Don’t."” I told him. “Follow you’re own lead. If you don’t trust Hexan, keep that in your gut, and hold it. Wait till Elhisia comes to, once she does, that’s when you do what you have to for you and your men, got it?”

“Got it.”

“Aite good, is everything well with Elhisia?”

“Yeah…she’s fine, she’s still out cold, but the doc said she’ll come too soon, hopefully, no more issues.

“Hopefully. Listen, I’m doing something so we’ll talk alright?”

“Aye aye.”

“Wait!” I shouted.

“…yeah?”

“Something now crossed my mind, when you were hacking into the panic room, what happened, you said something just worked, what happened?”

“I don’t know. Tryzer was trying to trick the code out of the system with Utix Coder. It didn’t work, but after a few seconds, it worked.”

“Weird…”

“Quite. Why you asked though?”

“Nothing, I just found it weird, I wonder if the Commissioner had something to do with it.”

“You weren’t with her at the time?”

I was but, but my fucking Cybernetics switched off, I thought bitterly, then answered. “No. I was in the bathroom.”

“Ahh…understood. That’s a possibility though, that she did something and doesn’t want us to know.”

“Possibility…”I scoffed. “If that’s a possibility, what else is she capable of, that we don’t know?”

“Humph…you’re right. I’ll keep an eye out for.”

“Please do, but stay close to Elhisia, we need her protected at all cost this time.”

“Will do,” Naedon said.

The line went dead, and the stress of my situation returned.

After a few more minutes of silence and I found myself back downstairs once again. Then it finally hit me, the basement I could try to enter from there.

I found the nearest manhole and slipped my cybernetic finger into the space. I yanked it a few times, feeling as if the struts that were stapled to my left side strained from trying to pull it free.

“Fuck is he doing?” someone muttered passing me. I felt their eyes wash over me, judging me as some crazy guy trying to get in the sewers. In a different world, I’d probably do the same, but right now, I’d gladly look crazy to anyone if I could just get my wife and daughter back within my grasp.

My X-Ray Sight showed the ladder leading to the sewer network blow. Nothing was out of place or seemed booby-trapped when I zoomed in. This doesn’t make any sense. I tried with two more manholes, before giving up. Why are all these covered sealed? I asked myself, shouldn’t they be accessible?

I scowered the BLACKNET, hunting for information regarding the manholes within The Gallows, close to Underwent Market and found nothing, which meant. This was done purposefully, but why?

I turned into an alley, hoping to find a manhole, but I was met with a dozen or so parrows lying on the ground, sleeping. The pungent scent that emanated from them made my eyes water and my throat scratch.

Covering my did little, but after I sithed through the morbid alley, I finally found another man, right now to a skip, which rotted food seeping out from the bottom of it.

I ignored the rotted food, positioned myself above the manhole, and began pulling. Unlike the rest, this one snapped open like a tin can, startling me for a second.

A hiss of dry air rushed from the whole, pouring out like water. The stench from it was even worst than in the alley. My eyes burnt as if they were on fire, making me want to vomit instead of heading down there.

I dropped the manhole cover and luckily it slotted back in place with a groan snap. “You tryna kill us back here?” A man said in a drunken slur. I ignored him, stomping my way out of the alley.

If I wanted to find out what the hell was below, I’d need to be prepared, because if I needed to get in that building it had to be soon. After all, the clock was ticking and my family needs to be saved.