His Majesty, Lord Richard Lionheart, was not pleased by the cat carrier, or being moved, in the slightest, and made his feelings on the matter quite clear as Bryce followed Seraph up the stairs; Ben's drone tagging along, carrying a crate filled with cat food packets. They ended up waiting in the hallway as Seraph watched the Spooks move around in her apartment.. sweeping for bugs... drones... DNA samples... everything. Only after a very thorough check was she allowed into her own home; one tall, physically fit specimen of an Intel agent sitting down on her couch, and nodding at the drone, even as the other headed into her office... and started checking her computer.

She wasn't happy that the spooks had access to her computer. She had to keep them updated within the next 30 days if she changed passwords; and they'd prefer immediate. She also wasn't happy with the gene-testing; but, well. There were augs out there that could change their appearance; with a little make-up and a voice modulator, she could be someone entirely different. By verifying her every month, they made sure her badge was tuned up; and would turn black if anyone else tried to wear it.

The system wasn't perfect; but it worked about as well as anything could. As far as they knew, the ASU had yet to infiltrate anyone; but they were always paranoid someone would abduct an Intel agent, scrape all of their dead skin off, shave their head, and then just cover whatever part they knew would be tested with the victim's DNA. So... this had to be a blood sample. And if she went to any truly high-security areas? They'd take another blood sample, from a random place, before letting her in, rather than just relying on the badge.

Then there were the sonic emitters; a sort of control system she had to install, that basically made the cat uncomfortable if he came too close to the door; and in theory, could knock him out if he tried to leave without a carrier. Irritating; not something anyone who liked cats wanted; but mandatory.

To her, Richard was just an unusually large cat. Perhaps twenty or thirty pounds, which was just crazy for a housecat. Genetically augmented to be longer-lived, able to survive on a more varied diet, and more resistant to disease, a cat like him was a deadly, apex predator that could kill over ninety percent of the native life on those worlds that had non-terran fauna.

As she sat down on the couch, and the enormous ball of fluff slowly circled her apartment, beginning an inspection, the drone containing Ben performed its own, similar check.. and she watched the cat move.

Earth was an unusually high gravity world, by the standards of living things. Only two worlds with higher gravity had ever been found that had native life; the natives of Celeste were much larger than any earth creature... but also incredibly fragile, delicate. A human-sized creature native to Celeste would be easily dispatched by his Majesty... and as soon as cats realized that a Celestial tasted good, that was the end of the Celestine food-chain.

Images of the beautiful, angellic birds of Celeste, and what cats had done to them, were front and center on display boxes for feline control equipment. Which... was mildly disturbing. But when the warm mass of fluff deigned to hop onto the lap, green eyes focusing on her for a few seconds before he settled onto her lap, making a small circle before turning into a giant orb of fluff... the gentle rumble that filled her as she slowly started to pet him made it all worth it.

She'd pet cats in the sims before; she had a Ranger character who had a pet tigress that could give a convincing purr. But somehow... the sims could never compare to the real thing.

She was relaxed. Happy. Had a decent-paying job that never really asked much of her... granted, one with a certain level of moral ambiguity she wouldn't have been comfortable with as a child, but it paid the bills.

Seraph closed her eyes and lay back on the couch. This... was just about perfect. The soft buzz of Ben's drone in the background couldn't possibly ruin her mood.

***

Three drones. Three positions. A heads-up display on his left eye showed the drone currently perched over the main security system for the apartment building; he could short or disable it with ease, but wanted to get in and out undetected, so... he needed to do something different. The Alliance was better than the various independent systems, but he had United Worlds tech to draw on; and these decade-old systems had an exploit he was very familiar with.

A tiny barcode was placed in view of one of the cameras by the drone; and the primitive AI driving the cameras, deciding what to record and when to upload it to the police... scanned it... and directly injected the recorded binary string into its own code.

These systems were designed to program and ignore 'Spooks'; anyone wearing the right badge on their shoulder would be ignored and reported to a certain specific line, then deleted from the recording; only Alliance intel would know they were there. He could simply adjust it... and make it so anyone with two cybernetic eyes was deleted from the recording, and not reported to anywhere.

The other two drones would bypass the security on the elevator and on the target's door; which would just be perfect.

He slipped inside the back door of the apartment building, and opened the closet of a small maintenance room next to it... looking around for a moment... and nodding. He grabbed a bottle of scrubbing solution for the bots that kept the hallways cleaned, and poured it over himself; better to smell like soap than sewage; before rinsing off his vacuum suit with a hose.

He was wet. Dripping soapy water. But still. Better than the alternative. He headed out into the hallway, to the elevator; as one of the residents several doors down looked his way, he pretended to wave a keycard in front of the reader, as the drone operated the door... and he stepped in.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

He checked his pocket. A silenced handgun; a simple, compressed-air weapon firing tiny darts, each delivering a dose designed to knock out a 100-pound human. Caution was needed; three darts would last for too long, four darts would be possibly fatal; but just in case she wasn't alone....

And his other pocket... a syringe. Containing a substance that would ensure the cooperation of the subject. He smiled. As the elevator rose, he contemplated how a typical Alliance stooge would react, after being told what he'd just been injected with... this was going to be great.

The hallway was short. Nobody in it at present, thankfully; and the subject's door popped open even as he approached, pistol already raising.

She was sitting on a couch, a cat in her lap... that looked up at him, hissing, as he entered. As she looked up as well, he calmly took two shots; one taking the cat in the torso, the other striking the girl in the shoulder... and as the door shut behind him, his HUD flashed a warning... just before a drone smacked into the side of his head. He shook himself, and shot two darts into the drone; they weren't meant for bots, but sheer percussive force would do the job... and stomped on the drone after it fell to the floor.

That was... surprising. It wasn't too dangerous, but drones weren't supposed to be programmed for that sort of thing; automated attack bots that would just go after someone without orders were illegal in Alliance space. Well, everywhere, really, but... huh.

He studied the drone for a moment. That... was weird. He emptied the remaining darts into it, since the girl was already out... and then tossed the cat off the girl's lap, into the floor, heading over to pick her up... and lay her out flat on the floor, removing the syringe. Time for a change of heart. He chuckled, settling the point directly over the girl's heart, aiming precisely... he could lie to her. Tell her he'd given it to her, and it should work just as well. But if she had the ability to test it, then getting it confirmed would only make her even more dedicated to the cause.

The body gave an involuntary spasm as the needle rammed home; and an injection started to flood into her body, her heartbeats pulsing and spreading it... and he nodded. There we go. Now... to destroy the syringe... and let her know she'd just switched sides.

***

Everything was pain. Her head, her arms, her legs, her body.... she felt sick. Just awful. Even her bones somehow hurt, something she'd never experienced before... and Seraph blinked, looking around... she was in her bed. But she didn't remember going to bed. She was on the couch. Petting the cat. Did she...

There was a cough. "Well good morning, miss Glass! You were out for a while, which was a good thing... the worst of the pain will have already passed. It will still be significant for the next few months, but regular painkillers can handle it from here. I've been told without sedation the first few minutes are just agony, so I was nice enough to let you sleep through them... but I need to get going soon."

She blinked. "Who... who are you?"

She tried to sit up on her bed... there was someone sitting at her desk... wearing a simple dark grey skinsuit, clearly male, with a black jacket over it. A soft chuckle.

"You can call me Sue. As in A-S-U. You work for the Slavers, I work for the Anti-Slavers; we're functionally polar opposites there. Or at least, used to be, before that injection."

She looked down at herself. Her suit had been opened, and then clumsily resealed by someone else. And this pain throughout her body... "... What did you do to me?"

"Simple enough! While most Augmented humans are just the descendent of humans who were already augmented... usually to better survive some colony world... they all had to get there somehow. So.... the injection that turns people into an augment? You just got a modified version. Over a hundred years old, actually, the Mark 5 Combat Augment fielded by the United Worlds forces. They usually gave it right before basic training started, and then forced the troops to deal with the pain through training... and by the time it got done... redundant organs, sturdier bones, faster response time... combine it with a good workout routine and you get an enormous improvement over baseliners."

This... it wasn't the worst possible thing. But... it meant she had to leave. Maybe take the cat if she could, and get a flight offworld, before her badge stopped working...she... couldn't stay in the Alliance anymore, that was for certain. But.... "Wait. Modified how?"

"Well, back when the Alliance was just starting to become a big deal... a hundred years ago... the dubs wanted to put infiltrators in. So they modified it so it would be harder to detect the genetic changes, and made the physical changes less obvious. Its marginally less effective... but also not as easy to detect. Granted.... the Alliance figured that out years ago. An in-depth scan will spot it, but it will fool your badge, or any cursory scan, without a problem. So.... if your bosses see it... they'll think you've somehow managed to fool the monthly scans, all this time. And an anonymous tip to the right number...."

Wait. He was going to make her an aug against her will... and then turn her in? "...Why would you do that?"

"Intel."

She heard something. A creaking sound? Someone was walking in the hallway outside her apartment.

"You're going to help me get access to Alliance Intelligence. Their databases, their systems... and when we're done, I'll get you out of Alliance space. I've got a way to get you safely off-world... and hey... if you do a good enough job, get us enough intel, the ASU might even be able to get you a good job, helping out against your former taskmasters."

She closed her eyes, thinking. If everything he said was true, she had few options, here. The only way she could stay in the Alliance is if she died before whatever was going on got finished... her implant would be removed, and she could join everyone else who had died just... living in sims for the rest of eternity. And this guy... wasn't trustworthy at all. "...Is the cat okay?"

"Eh? The furball? Nah. Sorry, the dose for a human is way too much for a cat."

She'd always dreamed of having a kitty. And this fucker had killed him almost as soon as she'd had a chance to pet him. "..Go fuck yourself. Kill me now, or the cops will be on you before you can get offworld."

He blinked. "...Are you... serious? You'd rather die than turn on them?"

"I'd rather die than help you. Besides... you'd probably kill me before I made it offworld anyway."

"...Huh. I guess you're smarter than I thought you were. True enough. Once I'd gotten all the data I could out of you, it'd be easier to get offworld on my own. Hah."

*He slid the pistol back out, and slapped a new magazine into place, tucking the old one into a pocket. "Well. One dart will take you out... four should be fatal. We'll see what all eight does to you."

He raised the weapon. She glared at him, the tiny metal circle of the barrel meeting her gaze.

And then... a vivid flash of light.