The experience of your life flashing before your eyes was something she'd heard about, but never really experienced. Maybe because of how realistic sims were, she'd 'died' so many times; mostly as her ranger, getting in over her head, happily burying a pair of blades in some big beastie; that the gun pointed at her head didn't feel that real. That she half-expected that she'd wake up at the chosen spawn-point; for her, the tavern her party had used as a basecamp, because she'd never been in real danger before.

She closed her eyes for a moment. The sound was strange. Unusually loud... and it didn't sound like that silenced dart-gun.

Instead... it was a loud roar, almost as if it were an explosion drawn out for a few seconds. When she opened her eyes, the man was standing there, looking down at... the stump of his right hand, and a terrible gap running down into his torso, exposing masses of charred flesh and organs.

She'd seen it in games, and on the news; but never in real life. A pulse laser. Fires rapid pulses of intense non-visible light that flash-vaporize a chunk of the target; absolutely devastating against unarmored subjects.

The man collapsed to the floor... his remaining arm reaching up towards his neck...only for an armored white boot to slam down, pinning the arm to the ground, even as a second armored figure stepped out, standing between Seraph and the man; crouching down in a way that she could tell was deliberate; if the man was carrying some sort of suicide bomb, its detonation would hit him first, maybe give her a chance.

A precise, shorter, burst... severing the spine. These two figures were wearing tight white vacuum suits, with armored breastplates and helmets; standard-issue for basic troops in the Alliance... but they were acting more like Intel agents; clearly ensuring that, if the victim was implanted, they could recover him. This... they may very well be asking her to recover something from this man in the future.

The agent standing between Seraph and the corpse reached down, grabbing her... and slung her over her shoulder, charging out of the apartment... and she could see, behind her, more figures enter. Her faint grip on awareness started to slip as she was being bounced around on the man's shoulder... and the world went dark.

***

When she next woke up... there was a cold feeling of something metal against her right arm... and an unfamiliar bed. She was warm, comfortable.... but... everything was wrong. She blinked, looking around... she was in a hospital room. Alone, at the moment.

She could see a display... see the doors... this wasn't a secured room. She could just get up, open the door, and walk out... so they didn't know she was an aug... yet. She sat up, looking down at herself. A simple green shirt and pants had been put on her while she was out... and she wasn't... messy... or catheterized, so she hadn't been out for long. She inhaled for a moment.... and checked her left arm.

There was a tiny tattoo she'd had done... one made to deliberately cause sensor artifacts if someone scanned her. If they did, the eyes on the little tiger should be perfect triangles, and still look fine even if inspected visually... but no. It still looked normal. She had a handful of little cues like that, and wouldn't be a hundred percent until she'd checked all of them... but she was reasonably certain she wasn't simulated.

So. She was in a hospital. Genetic scans weren't an everyday thing; sorta like a scan for alcohol, its something they did when they had a reason to. Maybe they knew what she was now... maybe not. Nowadays, most augments were the children, grandchildren, great-great whatever of people who'd been augmented, rather than being rewritten themselves. Its why, outside the Alliance, most people were augs, despite the initial process being so expensive.

Whatever he'd put in her... it had probably been irreversible after a few minutes... and after that, it only served to accelerate the process. She'd seen old videos, of when it took months for terraforming workers to reach mars in that first giant work-tug, and the augments that had made them so incredibly resistant to the extremes of that uninhabitable world had been a quick injection; and then taken a couple of months to take hold.

No point in asking them to flush her system. They'd have needed to do it before 'Sue' had woken her up. The nanites would've started with her bone marrow, taking other targets of opportunity along the way... if flushed immediately, it might take months for them to work all the way through. She'd probably be only partial right now... in six weeks, it'd be more like ninety percent, with only parts of her brain and a few organs still normal.

Six months, and her whole body would be augmented... and thats if the nanites were gone. The pain Sue had warned her about would be them constantly working at her to accelerate that process, leaving her less than a month before....

She blinked. There... was no pain. Was she on painkillers? Did.... they already do that flush?

She stared at the device hooked onto her arm; feeding her a saline solution from a small box beside her bed... but it could also be used for all sorts of drugs, chemicals....

A knock on the door. She glanced up... and two figures entered. A nurse... a tiny, pale woman in grey scrubs with long blond hair and a mask, followed by... Ericson. Her boss, in his classic white uniform.

The nurse stepped up and set a hand on the saline pump... and gave a nod. "Ma'am. I'm Teri, and I've been your nurse for the past few hours. We removed a few small metal objects from your body, which appeared to be delivered via dart-gun, and gave you a mild anesthetic. You should be good to go whenever you'd like, and there's no trace of any other problems. Whatever your attacker put into you, its been removed. You're good to leave, though you may be a bit sore; the darts tore your muscle and skin on the way in, and your body will naturally be recovering from that. Some over the counter painkillers should be fine... if you need something more intensive, just let us know."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Seraph nodded, and let out a low sigh. No flush. Just painkillers. Those machines were still inside her, working away. She could ask, but they'd know immediately.

When she detached the device from her arm; a faint red circle that she checked to make sure wasn't bleeding; she nodded, and stepped out... leaving her alone with Ericson, who seemed... exceedingly happy.

"So. You can fill out a complete report of the incident later, but they asked me to get your first impressions. Just so you know, the attacker disabled your security systems. We've got recordings of the entry from Ben, and the last fifteen seconds from the operatives who took out your attacker... defiant in the face of death, telling an ASU operative to go fuck himself... they'd have preferred you went along, long enough to avoid risking your life, but still. You're getting a commendation and a bonus. And also one of maybe four Injured in the Line of Duty medals in the whole building."

He smiled. "You can take some time off, if you like, but... care to fill me in on your side?"

"...He broke in my door. Tranquilized me and the cat. That's all I saw, at first. Then I woke up, hurting, with him over me.... and he told me he'd put something in me that could kill me. And I had a choice between helping him, or dying. I wasn't inclined to help him to begin with.... and figured that he was gonna kill me no matter what. So... yeah."

He glanced back at the door, then down at her. "Well. My boss, and his boss, both heard that fifteen seconds of audio. Lets be honest here... I was mostly just your handler; they didn't consider you completely trustworthy, being some fresh young game developer with a handful of politically questionable posts in your social media history. You were the only true asset in the department, and I usually just did administrative work and sold the results of your labor after acting like some sort of political officer to be sure you weren't screwing with us. A bunch of nonsense, I know."

He smiled. "So. If you want it, you can be the Director of the RID department. We'll get you a secretary to handle admin, if the workload gets big enough to need it you can hire more people. I'll be getting a promotion myself, so I can still handle your budget and the sale of subjects..."

She blinked. It would mean a pay bump. And no more real boss she'd deal with day to day, just equals. And be absurd, really. "... Definitely interested. But for now..." She needed to make plans. She needed options. "I'd like to take a combat refresher. I qualified with a pistol when I started the job, but the only training since has been sims... and I doubt using a sword will carry over to personal defense. And... I'd like a license to put a combat drone in my apartment, and to carry my own weapon, just in case."

"Done and done. Technically speaking, we're all supposed to re-qualify on pistols once a month, and you've always been allowed a handgun for personal protection outside the base... but...honestly, most departments have been slacking on that. Your situation has been a wakeup call, we thought we were better than that."

"...Thanks. Any chance the department will help pay for those?"

"You realize the sale of the subjects post-interrogation is enough to cover both of our salaries and then some? I have to slow-roll them to avoid too much attention. They'll be in your office when you next get to work. And... they hold the refresher courses every morning. Nine AM sharp. Usually not many there, but after this, there'll probably be plenty of attendance."

Options. This... would give options. "Thank you. I'd.... like to go home now. I'll head into work tomorrow and be at that course, though I don't know how much actual work I'll do the next few days."

***

When she made it back home...everything was clean. Immaculate. There were no signs of her blood, or of Sue's, or of the incident at all. Everything seemed as if it had never happened... except for a single, brand-new, drone on that table; a newer version of the one Ben had used previously, which she'd last seen smacking into her attacker's head.

She frowned. Ben's drone? Was he still here despite....

She remembered the cat. Warm. Fluffy. Purring contentedly on her lap. Just a few golden moments... but she'd still miss him. She shook her head... maybe if she played with her tiger in the game for a bit she'd feel better. But first... she needed a plan.

She headed into her office, tapping a button to wake up her computer. Time for the second and third bits. The second... was a tiny hidden drawer under her desk. Invisible to scans, only she knew it was there.... and after sliding it open, she nodded. A pair of antique six-sided dice, weighted. She tossed them onto the desk.... snake-eyes. Perfect.

She tucked them away again, the drawer appearing seamless once it was closed. The sign-in process for Alterra Online was a multi-step affair; requiring her to give it her keys as well as to verify images from their end. It was possible Alliance Intelligence had access to the game's encryption, but unlikely... this version was just an instance of one used on thousands of worlds. Once she was signed in, and it was asking for an implant connection, she was as certain as she could be... she wasn't in a sim.

She sighed... and cancelled. No time for games. She needed a plan. To get out of Alliance space without attracting attention. And with something she could sell to make a new life, somewhere else, if possible.

First... the legal option. She could simply buy a ticket on a flight offworld, to an Independent system, outside of Alliance space. As an Intel agent, it would be suspicious, but allowed... and considering what just happened, they would do a more thorough inspection of her and her belongings. Make sure she didn't have some sort of arrangement with Sue. They might or might not do a genetic scan... if they did, she was screwed. Extremely risky. Riskier for every hour she waited, as more of her body became... augmented.

Next, the smuggling option. She herself had no contacts, but she had the name of someone Victor knew that had helped him get offworld; a name she hadn't passed to her superiors yet. She could use that to her advantage, probably. Risk completely unknown.

Lastly... the stupid option. She could use the chips she had, slap a few ASU agents into combat drone bodies, and steal a ship. Three of the minds she had access to were former pilots, so it was doable, but even riskier than the legal option... and she didn't really want to kill anyone.

So. First, see if there was any legal options that didn't look suspicious as all hell. Next, do some prep-work for the seizure option, since most of what she could do for that would just make sense for someone whose apartment was just broken into by an armed thug. And last, she could make a few calls. Needed a good way to do it without a trace, though. Ugh. Tomorrow did not promise to be pleasant at all.