The search eventually led them to a pond, which then fed into a large sewer-pipe. It was in the mud around the pond that they got their first distinctive paw-print of what they were chasing. It had the shape and characteristics of an extremely large black bear. However, that couldn’t have been right. Black bears could certainly stand on two legs, but they weren’t exactly known for running in that state.

Nor were they known for anything else this particular creature had done, for that matter.

Revlock tapped Trace on the arm as they stared into the dark abyss of the sewer pipe. “Just received a message. We’re done. The job has been marked as completed.”

“I’m going to take your advice on this and not pursue the matter further,” Trace said after a moment. “I think something else is going on here though. Whatever this thing was, it wasn’t an aberration, or at least it wasn’t a normal one.”

The job broker gave him a hard stare. “Like I said before, knowing too much is dangerous. We’re edgers Trace, nothing more. I want you to think about something, and then keep it to yourself. If this wasn’t a traditional aberration, then what was it, and where did it come from?”

Trace felt his mind blank as a possibility he hadn’t considered before that moment crawled its way into his brain. At least one of the corporations was conducting experiments on the aberrations, and if one of them was doing such a thing, then more of them likely were.

He blinked, as a new thought followed the first. If this was a corporation-created aberration and there was no radiation coming off it, then that meant the radiation wasn’t the source of their mutations. That was what they had been taught growing up. However, it was apparently wrong.

“I have so many questions,” He muttered as they went back to his truck.

“And if you are very lucky, they will never be answered,” Revlock replied softly. “Trust me, playing with those sorts of enemies is only asking for a quick death.”

A transfer of credits came through a few minutes later.

Using the chemical residue scan wasn’t quite as intensive on him as the S&R was, but it had still started to heat up his neck something fierce by the time they finished. He was glad they paid so quickly. It was nowhere near enough to buy the metal he needed for the upgrades, but it was one step closer.

“Didn’t you have something to tell me about the leak?” Trace said as they reached the spot where Revlock’s car had been left.

“Yeah, you know how that woman said she took care of the leak for you?”

He nodded. That meeting was a little hard to forget.

“It seems as though she meant Jonas the Slick. He was found iced the other day and we’re thinking it was her.”

“Really?” He laughed. “That scuzzy bottom feeder had the balls to leak information on an edger to someone? It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy then.” The truck-cab fell into an awkward silence. “Sorry, that was a little rude.”

“Nah, he deserved it, but at the same time, he was a job broker and there is a code there. All of us are a little conflicted on the matter. He broke our code, but we should have been the ones to ice him and mete out justice, not some unknown third-party.” He slipped out. “Anyway, I’ll keep my eyes open for jobs that suit you. We’ll talk later.”

Trace decided to take a more round-about way than normal to reach his warehouse. The gang was starting to become increasingly annoying to him, and he would really rather they not hurt Ko when she came to visit later.

He had been eliminating a few of their members here and a few there, and still, they kept causing him problems. That meant they either had a lot of members, or this little feud of theirs had become personal. Most gangs, from what he understood anyway, would typically leave someone like him alone in this situation. He wasn’t a rival gang, but simply someone living in the area who had shown how high the cost would be to drive him away.

It made more sense for them to leave him alone, and yet, that wasn’t what they had been doing.

So, now it was his turn to go on the offensive. During his time on the rooftops, he had been able to partially map out certain parts of the area. It wasn’t enough to say for certain where their base was, but he knew the general areas it wasn’t.

More specifically, Trace also knew that it had to be somewhat close to his warehouse. There was no reason to cause him this much trouble if he was simply on the periphery of some imaginary territory line that they had claimed.

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As had become his custom, recently, all his guns were in the backseat of the truck. He was as ready as he could be, as he never left the apartment without his body armor vest on. At some point, he really needed to buy some more body armor, but this is what he had for now.

Reaching behind him, he grabbed his scout rifle and placed it on the passenger seat. Next was the assault rifle, though this time it was a different model than the one had used with the last scav den. Last up was the smg he hadn’t really gotten to play around with much yet.

The revolver was still inside his courier bag, which had been twisted around to his front.

As soon as he found the place, he would be ready. Most of those guns were only coming in as backups. He was doing this as a proper wraith, and not as the crappy one he had done the scav den as.

This time he would be patient, and moving, unseen, and unheard.

The other guns were for when something went wrong outside his control. He wouldn’t be causing the problem like he had last time. The problem with his neck had been such a small problem and yet it had such a larger effect than he had been willing to give it credit for at the time. Losing control of yourself really was terrifying.

Trace parked his truck in an alley and climbed up the nearby ladder to the roof. He wanted to get a better view of this area instead of simply driving around in circles. Three streets over, he saw a bar. A few gang members were hanging out in front of it. A street further over, he spotted what appeared to be a mechanic's garage. Though one that had been updated significantly compared to the outdated model he had been forced to use for cover in the scarpo town. There were a few more gangsters loitering out in front of it as well.

The prime location, however, at least in his opinion, was an office building that looked as though they were in the process of taking over. They weren’t near the center of Denver, where the large corporations were. Still, the fact that no security or police patrols had even made a token effort told you just how useless they really were if you didn’t live in the right areas.

Since he had found his target, he made his way back down to the truck and drove close to the building in question.

He didn’t park right next to it, but stayed a street away where his truck would be out of sight. The office building had a fire escape built up the side that went all the way to the roof, and he intended to make full use of it. He was going to attack them from the top down, and even if he was wrong about this being their base, at least he was still clearing out some filth.

He’d grab any money they had in their crypto-vaults as well, so it wouldn’t be a complete loss in any case.

Trace strapped the scout rifle to his courier bag and then inspected the smg and the assault rifle. He couldn’t bring both of them. There wasn’t enough room on the courier bag for that. He placed the assault rifle onto the back seat and strapped the smg to his bag. It was smaller, lighter, and faster. Not to mention he hadn’t gotten to really play with it yet.

As silently as he could, he ran up the old fire escape, wincing every time it creaked, or made any sort of noise. He was half convinced there would be people waiting for him on the roof simply because they had heard all the noise he was making.

There wasn’t though, and he was simply psyching himself out.

The roof was empty, save for the remains of what appeared to be an absolute bender of a party. There were over a dozen kegs spread about the place, with pools of what smelled like piss, but could have just as easily been beer. The smell alone was enough to turn Trace off from alcohol, and he couldn’t imagine that the taste was any better.

Keeping low, he scanned the nearby rooftops for any watchers. There was no one. They had people watching his roof, but none watching their own, sloppy. He headed for the door in front of the stairs leading down. Once again, he took a moment to inspect it for traps. There was nothing that he could see, even when he cycled through the scans on his eyes.

None of this meant all that much. While Trace was being more careful than he had in the past, in the end, all he was doing was making things up as he went. He hadn’t been trained as a wraith. No one had accepted him as their apprentice and taught him what they knew.

He had stories, a couple of enhanced teaching modules for knives and guns, and a bunch of half-baked ideas. That was all. Stick-Point was allowed to offer him certain materials in that regard, however, that was only after he raised his tier to four first. Until then, he was on his own.

The same as he always had been.

Inching the door open, he slipped inside the building and quietly closed the door behind him.

The suppressed CD-10 was soundlessly pulled from its holster as he crept down the stairs, careful to avoid any of the detritus strewn about. His eyes automatically adjusted for the low-light inside, allowing him to place each step with care.

The top floor was an absolute mess. In the short time since the gang had taken over the building, they had ruined the interior. Chairs had been slashed, glass had been broken, and random bits of graffiti were now spray-painted all along the walls.

Walking through the trails of glass certainly made his job more difficult, but it was still doable.

The first room he came to was filled with lumpy mattresses, that were stained in ways he wished he could unsee. The smell of the room itself was revolting, and he had no idea how anyone could stand to sleep in such a place.

Before moving any farther, Trace ran an S&R scan, spotting six people spread out across the range of the scan. There might be more on the floor, but there were at least six people for sure and none in the next two rooms.

His eyes automatically highlighted the cameras strewn about the place. They also told him the network was down. The gang had taken over the building but had either not bothered with the network and shut it down or had accidentally ruined it. Either was fine with him, as it was one less thing he needed to worry about.

Even knowing there was no one inside the next couple of rooms didn’t stop him from peeking into each of them. He needed to make sure there were no other surprises lying in wait at his back due to carelessness.

All he found were more disgusting rooms that should be burned and anyone that had ever slept inside them de-liced.

Trace fell into a crouch and approached the room that the earlier scan had shown someone inside.