I hated everything about these reactionary plans. They truly made me feel like a thumb was being pressed against my temple and slowly burrowing into my skull, making a point that I had no choice in the matter of how my life.

“Remove the EMP Shackles and I’ll find out who Akatani is working with.”

The Mangol, stalked up to me, tilting her head on the side. She shook her head, laughed ruefully through her mask and walked away. “Bring an EC, that should keep him in check.” She said.

After waiting fifteen minutes, one of the Mangol’s mute bodyguards walked past me, carrying some type of collar in his head. He placed it on a table that rose from the ground, then turned to me.

The red, green and gold lights of his exposed SMB, gave me that urge to rip them off. These bastards were simply creepy as they come. They didn’t speak but used whatever fringe science format of communication.

The Mangol picked up the collar, typed in a sequence, based on the various buttons that were encompassed around it.

She ringed the collar around my neck, the typed in a sequence once more. The green lights of the colour began to circle my neck, then changed to amber after ten seconds, then red. ‘Armed.’ The collar said.

EC…explosive collar.

Great work Cypher, you’ve truly outdone yourself…now you have no way to save your family.

A bout of melancholy hit me as I closed my eyes. Shin-Lee’s appeared to my left, eyes dazed and confused. I felt like my heart sunk as they drifted to her white nightgown which was stained in blood. I looked at her right hand, noticed the severed finger.

She turned to me, getting up from the ground and mouthed the words that were like daggers to my heart. “Please save me!”

The voice began to echo in my mind, then it slowly became hollow, then solidified into a child’s voice. Hannah’s voice. “Please Save Me, Daddy.” I outstretched my hand trying to reach out for the voice, but only grasped the illusion that was appeared for one second.

The illusion wailed a child-like scream, deafening my ears, and filling me with sorrow, showing how much I failed as a father and husband, to save both my wife and daughter.

A hissing groan bellowed across the room, and I felt my cybernetic loosen itself from the EMP Clamp. My cybernetic systems pulsed on instantly, with a white dot circling within the pupil of my eye, then expanded into a line and expanded.

The feedback from my SMB left my brain tingling from the feedback, it was sudden, sharp and hot, but thankfully my brain ignored the stress and assimilated back to normal.

I hit the ground with a whimper of a thud and felt the coldness from the floor, shock itself through my system, numbing my palms and knees for a few seconds.

A dozen men surrounded me, then trained their pistols at me. The Mangol took a step back, then folded her arms, and tilted her head at me. “Make the call.” She said firmly, and I complied.

“Rex,” I said. “What the hell happened Cypher? You went through that door and our communication was cut.”

The Mangol pointed to the desk with her head, and I saw code on a digital display. I stimulated my SMB and the call switched from my internal phone to the external one sitting on the desk.

“Cypher…are you there.”

“I’m here, but we’re on speaker.”

“What? What the hell are you talking about.”

“I’ve been captured by The Mangol and she wants to know how you penetrated her defence.”

“Cypher you motherfucker, you sold me out.”

“Unlikely, she’ll probably higher you because of what you did.”

“I’m not for sale.”

“Come on Rex, play ball, and I’m in a bind here and I need your help.”

“You always need my help ya cheap bastard”

I laughed, feeling the pain in my side stab in betrayal, reminding me that I wasn’t fully healed. The pain felt like someone took a stone and burrowed it into my skin, without stopping, making me wince. “I’ve always paid you,” I said, gritting my teeth. “I’m far from cheap, you’re just expensive as they come.”

“Enough!” The Mangol roared.

“Interesting. A verdant-quasi voice changer. Old. But not so unique.” Rex said glumly.

“Rex…”I said sternly. “Help me out here.”

“I am!”

“You are not. I have ten men with guns on me. I don’t need a bullet right now. So whatever you’re doing. Stop it.”

“Fine.” He finally said.

If the Mangol wanted to cleave me up into small pieces, I sure I pressed that button a long time ago, and certainly with Rex’s help.

“Alright, what do you need Cypher.”

“Explain what we did to the Mangol.”

“Oh…we didn’t do anything special. I set up a malware trap on everyone that exited the Underwent Market. They would receive a text message, once they clicked on it, it would piggyback onto the network and I’d backtrace right into your system. You see. Getting past your firewalls would’ve been impossible if a hole wasn’t set up already. The hole was set up, to relay information back to someone on the outside.”

“Akatani?” The Mangol said, more than asked.

“…ahh…you’re up to date good. So anyway. Upon discovery of this Firewall hole, I realised that decoders were planted around Underwent and their existence was being sheltered. So, to expose them, once we cut the power…waluh!”

“That’s quite a tale You just spun”

“Spin tales? I’m sure you don’t have the slightest clue on who Akatani is working with.”

A thought came to me. How could I leverage this situation? I asked myself. If I could find out.

“I can find that out easily.”

“No, you can’t,” Rex said with a sigh. “If we didn’t stall the power for the entire sector, you wouldn't have been able to do shit. You think I can’t do anything to you right?”

The Mangol released a scoff a laugh, that was surprisingly normal. More normal than usual, then it hit me. Rex…you bastard you turned off her voice changer.

“You know, you’re voice sounds better this way,” Rex said cooly. “Using a voice changer doesn’t suit you.”

“Rex…” I growled.

“Fine. I’ll turn it back on.”

I turned to The Mangol, who walked to the left. Her bodyguards followed me like a guided system, perfectly. “I’ve faced worst odds” some asshole would see, but I was right in the middle of the shit pile and nowhere to go.

“Rex gives you the name, I walk,” I said firmly. The Mangol scoffed. “Not in the slightest. You broke into my fucking City. There are consequences for that.”

“I didn’t break-in. I showed you how vulnerable you were.” I said, looking at her from the corner of my eye.

“I’d also like to add, that with a new Cyber Security team at your disposal, you won’t be left naked like that.”

“New cyb—“ The Mangol said. “You black out an entire SECTOR…so you could get a job?”

“Not me specifically. But I know a few people interested in taking over.”

What the fuck Rex? I thought confused.

“It seems your man Cypher is unaware of this.”

“Of course, he isn’t, he’s here for other reasons. My people just wanted to show their skills.”

“…what makes you think I’d give a shit?”

“…because once Akatani’s mole is gone. Not only would you be able to save face, as I said, but your tenants won’t be talking about how you’ve lost yourself. I’ve heard the whispers.”

“You could hear a dog bark, I could care less.”

“When you should care more. What if news got out that the Black Out was used to break into Underwent?”

“No one ever gets in Underwent Market.”

“…and I just did,” I said firmly.

“Did you? Sounds like your man…Rex is it? Got you in you” She said, turning to the device.

She should’ve killed me by now. I pondered, why hasn’t she…does Mr Black stop her again? No…I need to be out of his grasp. I won’t rely on him here.

“Fine then,” I said, “how many credits did you lose in those thirty seconds?”

“You don’t have the BANKING power to ask such a thing.” The Mangol hissed. “Try me,” I answered, but I had already calculated an amount in my head. If there was one thing I knew about The Mangol, credits spoke to her, so this was my way out, and with a wad of credits coming my way, this would be but nothing but a pebble in the road.

The only challenge left was to deal with Akatani, but right now, staying alive to get to him was my only option.

“Eighty Million Credits,” The Mangol said firmly, lips curling into a smile.

“Done,” I answered.

“I’m not finished” she hissed!”

“…times three.

I ground my teeth in frustration and felt as though I’d just been baited. Two hundred and forty million credits? Fuck! I don’t even know if Elhisia will give me the damn credits after what I’d just pulled. DAMN IT.

A few bodyguards charged towards. I felt my side scream with intense pain, it felt like fire was burning inside of me and there was no way to quell it.

I dropped to one knee, trying to hold my side, the pain flared up, even more, making me bite my bottom lip.

A bodyguard pressed the nozzle against the back of my head and forced me onto both knees.

I eyed the Mangol from the ground up and watched as she marched towards me, daishiki wafting around the ground. “For a man that boldly comes in my CITY, you’re one arrogant bastard Cypher.”

The bodyguard pushed the nozzle of his pistol into the side of my head, like a drill, but I didn’t move. I pushed myself up, side flaring intensely. “Fine…” I growled. “I’ll get you your two hundred and forty million credits!”