The elevator doors opened and Tenner marched out, the receptionist staggering after him, repeating a slew of pleas for him to stop, and other nonsense, containing the words “meeting”, “important” and “don’t ruin it all”.

In the middle of Galvani’s office, Tenner realized what the receptionist had meant.

A shady individual in a dark suit aimed an engraved laserpistol--with a pair of diamonds on the barrel--at the mastermind’s forehead. An eternity passed between each second. Then the pistol pointed down and Galvani grabbed its handle.

“Great job.” She weighed it then shook the man’s hand. He nodded and left, ignoring Tenner. Galvani ignored him as well, placing her new acquisition in her drawer.

“I wholeheartedly apologize!” the receptionist started. “I tried stopping him, but he barged--”

“Doesn’t matter now. Dismissed.” Galvani looked at the hologram of a clock floating in front of her window and finally acknowledged Tenner with wide eyes. “You’re back with twenty-seven minutes to spare…”

Tenner put a finger, not his by any means, on the table. “Like you said, pretty impossible, but not completely.” Blood from where it was cut stained the steel table.

Galvani took out a glass box and placed the finger inside.

A few waves of light flashed the device and a screen shone at the mastermind.

“It really is him,” she said.

“Don’t worry. In this matter, I’d never deceive you.”

“Entertain me.” She put everything atop the table in a drawer. “Take a seat and explain how you did it.”

“There’s no reason for me to reveal my secret.”

“I’ll throw you in a few hundred credits.” Galvani sat in her seat and with a leg, pushed one facing her from the table. Tenner plopped down. “What’s worse than a random person searching around a whole district for another completely random person?”

Galvani raised an eyebrow.

“The searched one dying only a few hours later.”

“And how does the searcher go past that?”

“He states his intentions clearly,” Tenner said, giddy from the thought of bloodshed. “You didn’t tell me that quite a lot of people wanted Bunny dead. Almost as many as those who wanted him alive. All I had to do was make myself clear and like-minded individuals came themselves.”

“So you got the information like that.” Galvani snapped her fingers. “Then what?”

“Wall.” Tenner grabbed her pen and placed it in front of himself. “Personal bodyguards,” he said, snatching a bunch of pins and dropping them by the pen. “And Bunny.” He folded an empty piece of paper into a square and put it in the middle of the pins. “Overall, a very tricky situation. But beatable with a simple trick I learned in the ranks of a few… shady individuals.”

Galvani watched with interest as Tenner took out the coin he’d stolen from the Castle of Hate, meant to represent him, slid it across the table and banged it into the pins. “I’m buying your money for your life!” he shouted. “Oh shit. You guys don’t look like I can rob you!” he slid the coin away, but the pins now followed. He visualised leading the henches away, to a corner behind the wall. There, the little models stopped: Tenner jumped to his feet, unsheathed his axe and chopped it into Galvani’s expensive desk.

She sprung into a straight pose, but her eyes, covered by glasses, remained unflinching.

Tenner sat back down and wiped the pins off the table. Dead. He looked Galvani straight in the eyes. “I understand,” her silent expression said. Tenner put on a hat and visualised a fake moustache, moved his coin back to the target.

“Good day, sir. I’d love to talk. No, no, I’m not selling anything, or stealing your possessions with one hand while the other shakes yours -- I’m here to talk business! Why? Well, because this is the only place I could catch you,” Tenner talked with the intonation of a hundred-year-old mastermind. “Let’s talk in this restpit!” He moved the models, representing him and the target sitting in the benches dug into the streets. “Now, I don’t have much time, so I’ll tell you this one thing: Galvani has business with you.” Tenner stood up and extended his hand to the mastermind.

Galvani confusedly took it. Tenner tapped her shoulder and returned to the models: he flung the folded piece of paper representing Bunny on the floor.

“You distracted his guards, led him to a restpit and shot him in the face?”

Tenner unsheathed a laserpistol and pointed it at Galvani’s face. “Is this stealthy?”

“Then how did you do it?” Her eyes rolled.

Tenner revealed to her his palms, both connected with wires. “One sends out electricity, the other receives it. As far as I know, humans are pretty good conductors, but we rarely remain alive after doing it.”

“But while we do it,” Galvani finished, realization flooding in, “we don’t splatter with blood, or screech like laserpistols...”

“Simple as that,” Tenner said, unlodging his axe from the table. “Well, I passed -- give me an Ultimate.”

“‘Give me an Ultimate’? Harshness works with some, but you better get yourself some etiquette -- I’m fresh out of patience. But I’ll give you one more shot.”

Tenner’s CHEK spawned a screen into his view.

He blinked a half dozen times.

Scammer? No… Liar? Absolutely!

“It wasn’t an audition.”

“The real thing, Tenshot. Why would I need you to prove yourself when the whole damn city knows your name?”

“But why risk it…”

“Any chance not to let you negotiate is a chance I’ll take. Money over dignity. Now, stop glaring at your own money.”

Tenner nodded and dismissed the screen, amazed at the size of the sum.

[Congratulations! Ultimate private bounty claimed: killed The Bunny; Reward: +3,500C$]

Standing in front of glass overlooking Centercity, Galvani pointed at the horizon. “The Harvest building. One of the unluckiest places of the Realm. It’s their own damn fault, but their idiocy has caused such a big mess that it tossed their dirt even on me. By cleaning it off, I’ll be helping them, but that’s my only choice.”

Tenner stood beside her and asked, “Idiotic because of how huge they are or how awful their defense is?”

“Both, but they don’t realize it. Scum break into that place at least once or twice a month. Whenever they go in quietly, it’s good for everyone--except for Harvest--but when those bandits blast through the walls and cause every private bounty hunter to flock to Centercity.” Galvani punched the glass and lowered her tone. “All the blame goes to me.”

“Why in the world would they blame you?” Tenner’s face started dimly glowing. He could tell where the mastermind would go and he had just the expertise for that.

“Because Harvest doesn’t realize that bandits aren’t nimrods.” The fury returned to her voice in an instant. “Bandits can steal your secrets and inventions too, not only credits! In the end, if you’re Harvest, you think I’m behind it all and that the thieves are nothing but a front.”

“So that’s what the laserpistol is for.” Tenner walked away from the glass.

“That could be said.” Galvani turned to him. “Your job is to crush them. Leave them so ravaged that no one else, during the years humanity has left, will even dare to try to intrude on that idiotic place.”

“And what if Harvest are genius? Getting protection for free.”

“I don’t care about that -- I can spare a few thousand credits to get rid of the constant harassment-- wipe that grin off your face.”

“Alright, and exactly how many thousand credits?” Tenner asked, averting his gaze. “A gang is a pretty tough task compared to one mastermind. Around 1,500C$ tougher.”

“I would say only a thousand.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. And, coincidentally, I’m the bounty hunter in this room. You can go there yourself if you wanna save the five hundred.”

“And I’m planning on going there. With you,” the mastermind said. “5,000C$ and I watch as those scum die.”

“You’re gonna distract--”

“There will be no negotiation past this point.”

Even though the Hoods of Centercity were bandit scum, they trusted him, had saved him… and deserved the utmost respect. Tenner had to remind himself countless times -- their lives would be sacrificed for a reason. When he would be the greatest in the world and could bend it to his will, he’d remember them. Make sure no one would have to resort to what they did.

Out of her drawer, Galvani took a fancy potion bottle and the engraved laserpistol. It also seemed that she had taken out the most determined look Tenner had seen and put it on her face.