I woke to a room filled with black. I tried moving my cybernetic arm, but as of last time, it was clamped to something I couldn’t see. My cybernetic eye was black too, leaving me with a sense of daze and inertia that I tried to mentally fight by blinking many times.

The uncomfortable silence of the room made my skin tingle, lightly. If it was one thing I hated, it was this unprecedented silence that I couldn’t control and the sense of being watched from all around me.

This room was unforgettable as light. The hollowness it held, truly made me feel like a needle in a haystack. A needle that wanted to puncture the bubble in which it was in, only to seek freedom.

“You have balls, I'll give you that.” The Mangol said, in a surly tone.

“Are you looking to take those first?” I countered.

“Should I?”

“You have a reputation to be upheld, don’t you?”

“I do.”

The Light pulsed on, blinding me instantly. I shuddered away from it by squinting and felt as tears poured out from my eyes as my eye, gradually assimilated to the luminescence within the room.

The Mangol appeared to my right, dressed in a dashiki with a spiral embroidery. Her bosom was extended far beyond her waist, which made me gawk mentally. She wore a Doja mask, with elongated ears and nose, hiding her face as usual and walked towards me slowly. “you’ve been busy.” She said ruefully.

"Hardly,” I answered.

“Hardly?” She scoffed, raising her voice. “you just cut the power for the entire SECTOR just to get inside, and you call that...hardly?”

I didn’t answer immediately, but I nodded to the accusation. “True...”

“Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you now!” She hissed.

“Mr Black wouldn’t like that,” I said, firmly.

“Mr Black?” The Mangol Scoffed, waving the leaves of her daishiki, placing her hands across her bosom. “He specifically told me, to tell you, that since we you aren’t one of his people, he wished you all of the best.”

Fuck...she has a way to directly contact him? I mused bitterly. I pushed my reservation from my mind and smiled curtly. “I guess I'm no good to him now, well maybe I could be of service to you then,” I said.

“You couldn’t even beat one of my Reavers, what good are you to me?” She countered.

“I can get to places, she can’t unsuspected.”

“What I can’t kill for, I can pay for Mr Cypher. I'm not Mr Black who engages in backwater deals and spit-shining to get shit done. If I want something done. I get it done!”

“You get things done, but did you expect to see me here?” I asked.

“I expect you to know your place Cypher.”

“you think infiltrating here did you any favours...we’re only speaking because I want to know why you’re here.”

“I’ve been tasked to get something from you.”

“And What was that?” She said, amused.

“I don’t know what it is…” I said softly, lying through my ass. “All I was told, something of importance to you.”

“Something of Importance?” The Mangol scoffed, stepping towards me. “Mr Cypher, EVERYTHING I have is of importance to me, so either you speak. Or I leave your fate to Veka. So speak plainly...or die choking on your blood. The choice is yours.”

I closed my eyes, trying my best to come up with a way out of this, but in the one second I had to muster up an answer, the only thing that came to mind was the damn truth.

“The serphandias.”

The weight of air got heavy and the silence within the room got louder. The Mangol walked out of my eyesight, making it hard for me to decipher where she’d gone, as her steps became muted. The lights within the room dimmed, a low hum of some sort began. The hum changed to static, then a whistle…no siren. “What do you know about the serphandias?” The Mangol asked. Talk about dramatic…I thought.

“Nothing.”

“I’ve only been tasked to get it.”

“You’re lying!” The Mangol said, voice echoing.

“Am I?” I roared, “then TELL ME, WHAT DOES LYING AGAIN FOR ME? You already have me chained up. Your Reaver defeated me, why the show? To show the power you have over me. By now, you should realise, I’m not afraid of you. So forget the charade of a show and get to the fucking point!”

The Mangol broke out into a maniacal laugh, voice shrieking back and forth as if she moved around whilst she laughed. “Mr Black did mention your tenacity. I can’t deny, I admire it. A pity though, that this will be your last day alive.”

I chuckled, shook my head and forcefully bit my bottom lip. “As ‘powerful’ as you are,” I said with a sneer. “You’re not too bright. It’s clear that the serphandias is of importance to you, but you never once asked me how I came about this information. Furthermore, you never even asked why I chose to come here to get it.”

“I don’t care about the why Cypher. It is the mere fact that you did it.”

“…and what about me, coming across the information?”

“Why ask, when you can just tell me.”

“Release me, and I’ll tell you,” I said coldly.

“YOU BREAK INTO MY CITY AND WANT TO LEAVE WITHOUT ANY REPERCUSSIONS ARE YOU…MAD?” The Mangol roared.

“I’m here…aren’t I?”

A stinging sensation throbbed from my right cheek, as the Mangol slapped me across the face. If my arms weren’t bonded, I would’ve gladly rubbed it, at least that would’ve soothed the pain away, slightly.

“Tell me…or I’ll get it out of another way.”

“How, kidnap my family? Cut off one of their fingers and mail it to you? Well…if that’s your plan. I’m afraid to tell you. It’s too late…you’re too late my family is GONE!”

The stomping clops of the Mangol’s heels drummed into my ears from the left, “then all the debts you’ve accrued were served!” She hissed into my right ear. “Then what about yours? You think because you live in this Castle of yours, that nothing happens to you?”

“They can try” She answered, giggling.

“…or die trying?”

“Just like you. See Cypher, you’re smart.”

“Smart enough to know that you’ve got a rat in your kitchen and you don’t even know whose been feeding it cheese.”

“Rat? Cheese?” The Mangol scoffed. “Mr Black truly has given you more credit than you deserve.”

“Has he? Your men have been searching the Entirety of Underwent looking for decoders, have they not?”

The Mangol went silent as if she were thinking. Gotcha. I mused ruefully. “I bet those decoders never registered in your system till the power went out. No. They were deleted from your scans, constantly. So much for knowing your rats well.” I said coldly, trailing into a laugh. “The funny thing is, the search for these decoders, was just to help me get into your server room, but alas. That didn’t work. And yes, before you ask. I didn’t plant those decoders. It was Akatani”

“The Black Chin? What does Deslin Akron laptop have to do with this?”

“Did you ever find out who hacked your surveillance drones?”

“You mean when you shot up my place?”

“I’ll take that as a no. The standard protocol for such things is, to purge all system administrators and recruit new administrators. I wouldn’t be surprised if you hired someone related to Akatani. Who no doubt, wiggled his way into your network.”

“How do you know this?”

“I don’t, but this is what I speculated when I first noted your guard dogs interrogating that old man for his decoder.”

“Funny enough, I’m sure those decoders were left by ‘staff’ as a signal booster, not for them of course, but for Akatani.”

“You know who it is, don’t you?”

“I don’t, but I know someone who does.

“…and what do I have to do, to acquire this information?”

“Release me, unharmed.”

The Mangol chuckled, then dragged her feet across the ground. “Release you? Just for that smidgen of information? I can find out who the mole is…easily. All I need to do is apply enough pressure to the pimple…and watch the information flow.” She said firmly.

My eyes trailed behind her swaying dashiki, she clasped her hands behind her back and turned back to me slowly. “Is there any way you’ll release me without cause?”

“Have you given me a reason to?”

“Yes. Stop being coy.”

“Being Coy? I’m the one with the power here Cypher. You can forfeit the information freely and get in my good graces.”

“Good graces?” I scoffed, “I’m no fo—“

“If you’re no fool, then you know you have nothing to bargain with…decide. Either you tell me…or you don’t. I’ll find them either way.”

I took a deep breath because I knew I had no leverage in truth. The plan was for me to simply infiltrate the Underwent, expose Akatani’s decoders, and use them as a distraction to make my infiltration go through without a hitch.

That has not worked out, not for my lack of planning, but the lack of solidity in it. This plan was only decided within two hours.