Trace hurried to the front door and stopped to listen. He doubted it had been long enough for the target to make it back to the apartment. That said, it would have been easy enough for him to call someone and notify them of the break-in.

Leaning his head against the door, he activated the search and rescue(S&R) sensor. The original version, not the one he had modified. By pressing his eyes right against the door, he was hoping that whatever signal it used would go through it.

Which it did. Then he noticed it also went through the closed doors of the rooms in the apartment behind him and felt like an idiot. Of course, the signal would travel through solid objects, to a limited degree at least. He should have realized that before. How else would it have been able to see the inside of objects at the junkyard? Not all of them had openings for a signal or wavelength or whatever it was using to enter through.

Of more immediate concern, he noted that there were four armed people who had taken up positions outside the door.

As quietly as he could, he flipped the deadbolt into position and then jammed a chair against the handle. He wouldn’t be getting out that way, but they also wouldn’t be getting in, at least not quickly.

Backing away from the door, he spun around and hurried to the large, floor-length window he had seen in the main room earlier. He vaguely remembered seeing a small balcony connected to it. Nearly all apartments above the fifth floor had a balcony of some kind for emergency services to use. However, just because it was there didn’t mean it was open to the inhabitant's use. Some places locked them down to only emergency services, while others would include it as an add-on fee.

Anything for more money.

It was time to find out what sort of place this was. Locked down, free use, or potential addon, to the existing apartment package.

Trace hit the button beside the glass window, and a moment later, they silently rolled open. Either they were free to use, or the target had previously paid to upgrade his apartment package. He was really hoping it was the first option, otherwise, this would turn bad really quickly.

He carried the duffel bag onto the balcony with him and hit the button to close the window behind him. Before he could think twice, he tossed the bag over onto the balcony closest to him and jumped over onto it. That worked to get him out of one apartment, but now he was in someone else’s.

Trace activated the S&R sensor scan while he lay motionless on the balcony. He didn’t really want to bust into someone else’s apartment while they were still in it, not that he truly had a choice in the matter. The next balcony was too far to jump to. The way they had designed them was that every two balconies would be close together. It created a staggered layout, so the floor below could then use the extra airspace it provided for their two balconies.

It wasn’t perfect, but it was what they had come up with and was the widely adopted format everywhere.

It also meant that as soon as they realized that the apartment was empty, they would know where Trace had gone. So, he needed to keep moving.

The scan came back negative, and he rolled to his knees and hit the button by the window, only for it to flash red at him. Well, that answered that question for certain, then. They were a paid addon, and the neighbor hadn’t wanted to pay.

That left Trace with two, well, three options, but he didn’t like the last option. He could go back to the target’s apartment; he could jump down to one of the small balconies on the floor below. Or he could try to break the very thick glass on the window.

Actually, never mind, he didn’t like any of those options. They all sucked!

He wasn’t going back, that was for sure, and trying to break the glass was also out. They were built to resist that sort of thing. There was no access port that he could see either for if he wanted to try his hand at jacking in and breaching the door’s security. A skill he didn’t normally have. However, he did have the system breaching module still plugged into his neck. It would have been worth a try if he could have found a port.

That really left him with only one option, and it was one that made his stomach tremble and knees weak just thinking about it. He needed to jump down to the next tiny balcony. Each balcony only stuck out a couple of feet. Meaning it would be easier for him to miss than it would be to actually hit it properly.

Not to mention the drop involved.

He couldn’t simply hang from the edge of his current balcony and swing over to it while dropping. No, he would need to jump for it, as it was at least six feet away, and a floor down. No matter how he looked at it. What he was about to do next was stupid, foolhardy, dangerous, and unfortunately, necessary. It was also going to hurt.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

His hands shook as he tossed the duffel bag down to the balcony below. The bag jumped and skittered across the surface, getting uncomfortably close to the edge before stopping.

Trace breathed out and wiped the cold sweat that had formed on his brow as he went for it. If he waited too long, then he would talk himself out of doing what needed to be done, and he didn’t have that sort of time. Someone would be entering the target's apartment at any moment if they hadn’t already.

His legs trembled as he jumped out into the space above the next balcony and then dropped with a bone-numbing crunch. He had tried to roll, but the small size of the balcony had made that almost impossible. All it had resulted in was him bleeding off the speed and force of the fall as he thrust his face into the many sharp edges of the duffel bag.

Neither of his ankles liked him at the moment, as his feet had hit first. The effort of pushing his momentum into pseudo-roll had not been kind to them. Nothing was broken, he thought, but plenty was hurting, especially his face.

Getting to his knees, he hit the button and almost cried with relief when the glass opened. Grabbing the duffel bag, he shuffled inside and closed the window behind him.

Trace kept shuffling, until he was out of view, and could relax. His nails bit into the flesh of his hands as he fisted them and banged his head against the wall while biting his lip. He still didn’t think anything was broken, but holy-frack did it all hurt!

In the corner of his vision, the nanite notification popped up with a new message.

- Multiple injuries registered across all active bones undergoing the repair process

Trace would have reacted to that if he’d been able to. For some reason, he thought the nanites were only working on him while he was asleep.

- All non-active nanites deployed for updated scan procedure of user’s health

- User is advised to relax

What happened next could only be described as having ants underneath his skin. They were walking everywhere, massaging his muscles, tickling his nerves, poking at every spot that was sore, endlessly. Thousands, millions of microscopic little grabbers or feet marched their way through his body over the next thirty minutes.

It was a terrible time to be immobile, but at least it gave him something to focus on instead of the possible search going on for him.

It was torture, plain and simple, and he was so glad that the last time this had happened he had been asleep. He resolved right then and there that one of the next things he was getting was some sort of medical upgrade. Something that could scan him with greater efficiency than these little buggers could manage on their own.

The feeling of invasive bugs underneath his skin only lasted for thirty minutes, but it took another fifteen minutes for him to get a report.

- No broken bones or fractures detected

- Six major ligaments have been damaged

- Two minor ligaments have been torn

- Deep bruising reaching to the skeletal network registered in several places

- Repairs are unable to be performed at this time due to lack of required materials

- An exponential increase in nutritious matter will be needed to perform the repairs in a timely manner

- Non-standard nanites needed for additional repairs

- Construction of nanite production facility required, provide required materials

He finally released the breath he had been holding and unclenched his trembling hand. What did it mean by a timely? Was that five minutes, or ten days? Either would be faster than normal, but there was a big difference between the two.

And what was it talking about when it mentioned constructing a facility inside him? He wasn’t sure he wanted something like that, taking up space in his body. Asking it questions could wait until later. Right now, he just wanted to rest some more.

No matter what though, that medical sensor what going to be absolutely necessary. It was all he could do to not claw off and tear at his own skin. The feeling of the nanites moving about had been completely alien in nature. For a while there, he really had been almost convinced that bugs had somehow gotten in underneath his skin.

It was not something he wanted to do again, at least not while he was conscious. He didn’t care what the reason was, going through that again simply wouldn’t be worth it.

It took him another minute to regain control of himself and to do a few basic scans of the apartment. There were no cameras anywhere in the place. In fact, the odds that someone was actively living there were somewhat low.

A thin layer of dust coated everything that he could see. If he had to judge, then no one had been inside the apartment for at least a few weeks. The bills were still being paid, considering that the sliding door had let him in, and the lights all worked. That meant the person who lived here was either away on a business trip, which was possible. Or had died somewhat recently, and no one had reported it, a far more likely outcome in Trace's opinion.

The apartment was nice, but not as nice as the one he had just jumped from. He doubted someone who couldn’t even afford a nicer place would be sent on a business trip. But what did he know? He wasn’t part of that world.

Despite how it had felt at the time, his body felt strangely relaxed as he pulled himself toward the fridge. He had never had a massage, but his body had just gone through what amounted to the world’s most invasive massage ever. If he could get past the urge to tear his skin off, it was actually rather nice. He might need to see if the nanites could do just his muscles in the future. It would still feel weird in the moment, but afterward…

The fridge turned out to be half-full of food-in-a-can drinks, and vacuum-packed sandwiches and burritos. He tore into a burrito and grabbed one of the drinks to go as he scooted about the apartment. Despite his general dislike for them, they did supposedly have a lot of nutrients, which his body and the nanites desperately needed at the moment.

Trace stayed on his rear end as he made his way to the front door. He wanted to ensure it was locked, which it was. From there, he went to the bedroom and retrieved the data cable from his bag. It was time to jack into the apartment’s user interface and learn what he could about the person who lived there.