Marcus’ eyes bounced between the boy Risky nicknamed Cautious, and Risky herself. On their way to the safe house, I, or rather, Cautious, was attacked. We were arguing about why a bounty hunter tried to kill me, and Risky acted like there was only one obvious answer – because I had a bounty on his head.

Well, Marcus heard enough about Alkell City to know that the average Joe had a bounty on his head. That city was ruthless. But now they argued about something else. Marcus sighed, folded his arms, and leaned back onto the wall of a small, old warehouse infested with rats. The creaking, squeaking, mould, cobwebs, and all that stuff irked him. But what fettered him even more was the fact that Risky and Cautious’ topic of argument was now ZT.

Marcus explained to us that he was lined up to be bought by Zilarch Technologies (ZT), a very powerful company with its head office in an actual lawful – somewhat – city called Sapientes. ZT was known for their engineering, technology, and development of a wide range of vehicles, and they had a stranglehold monopoly on that industry. He thought back to the times he worked ZT, and remembered the night of his promotion to lead software developer. What were the odds that the company he committed corporate espionage against wanted to buy him as a slave?

He knew ZT’s shady underbelly despite appearing as a pristine and law-abiding company. When he realised what they were about, he left them only after securing all the information he could about them, then joined the calamity pilots in the Alkell region.

That’s how he got to know Risky, before she was nicknamed Risky. He grabbed one of her cigarettes and exhaled some smoke, intending to reminisce about the past some more, but Risky almost made him swallow the damn thing when she slapped him on the stomach. “What the fuck, Tamara?!”

“Tell Cautious here why going after ZT is more important than finding his brother!” she pointed at me.

Her name’s Tamara? I thought, but didn’t dwell on it too long because I was infuriated that Risky opted to change their course just because she found Marcus.

After catching his breath, Marcus brushed his hair back with his hand and looked at me, “Cautious, right? Say, are you Adrian’s brother?”

Time paused. Marcus and I just stared at each other. Risky’s eyes now switched between the two of us.

“Yeah…” I said rather softly.

“Huh?!” Risky grabbed my cheeks and turned my face to her.

Marcus chuckled.

“Adrian?! You mean our friend, Adrian?” Risky asked Marcus whilst carefully inspecting my features.

Marcus rolled his eyes. “How do you not see the resemblance? Geez, you never change,” he laughed.

“Yeah, yeah,” I pushed her hand away, “that’s not important. What’s important is finding him, which you fucking said you’ll do. Now you meet some rando and want to jump ship?” I stormed off, truly wondering if I should somehow try to find another calamity pilot.

Marcus had another puff, “You didn’t tell him the truth?”

“I, don’t know how to…” Risky replied.

They must’ve thought I was out of earshot. There’s something she’s keeping from me? I thought, and began to get suspicious about who this Marcus T’lano really was, and what Risky was keeping from me.

I sat outside and wondered what my options were. Something cold touched my cheek so I jumped a bit.

Marcus held out a beer, “Tamara’s an idiot who doesn’t know how to deal with other people, but that doesn’t mean she made the wrong decision.”

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I held the can, and went back to sulking a bit. “Who are you?”

“Name’s Marcus. Used to work for Zilarch until I realised they were fucked up. Left them and became a semi-calamity pilot after.” My eyes widened and I looked around at him. He sat on the backrest of the bench and gulped his beer. “Yeah, there are some things she didn’t tell you, buddy.”

Later that night, I walked in on Risky watching some movie, grabbed her by the vest, and drove a headbutt into her, “You little fuck!”

“W-what the, fuck?!” she held her nose as it bled a little. Her eyes then turned to Marcus, “What did you tell him?!”

“The truth?” he shrugged.

“Oh…” she rolled her eyes and wiped her nose, “Okay, guess I deserved that one.” After she grabbed some tissue, there was a passionate look in her eyes, “But if you know, then you know why we gotta hit ZT.”

I sighed. Just a bit longer, bro. “Yeah, I know.”

“Good. And prepare that dick for me. I need exercise,” she blurted out.

Marcus’ eyes popped, and he made himself scarce.

The next day, we were tasked with getting a little information from ZT. “So, what’s our plan?” I asked.

“Bust in and take it,” Risky suggested. Fitting.

Marcus rued, “Yeah, sure, if you want your balls blown off. One – the place is guarded. Two – we can’t let them know we were there and we stole data.” He poked Risky on the forehead, “Understood?”

“Ugh, now I remember why I hated you,” she complained.

“Alright, well, how we do get you inside there?” I asked Marcus.

A devilish smirk adorned his mischievous face, “I think you meant, how do we get you inside?”

I groaned mentally as I looked at the sheer security of the place. Marcus couldn’t be the one sneaking in, because there was always the chance someone would recognise him. And Risky is, well, risky. So, by process of elimination, that only left one person best suited – me.

“Alright, Cautious, go kick some ass or whatever,” Risky dully cheered on. She wasn’t very happy about actionless stakeouts or missions.

I stepped out the passenger seat of our panel van and made my way to the back. The poor ZT employee tried calling for help, but his mouth was tapped shut and his arms and legs bound. Risky spared no expense with the taping. After I hijacked his clothing and ID, it was time to enter the building. I walked confidently, but covertly. Attracting attention wasn’t needed.

A bit of static came through my earpiece. “You hearing me good, buddy?” Marcus asked.

“Yeah. Which way?” I asked. After a couple wrong turns, I finally came across the server room. And of course, I needed a pass to go in. “What now?”

“Relax, getting into their system is just like piloting their vehicles. Did you forget I’m a part-time calamity pilot? Just use the access card you have, it’s all good,” he reassured.

Hmm, I forgot to ask him about that. There’s still a lot I don’t know, huh? I grimaced at the multitudinous rows and columns of blinking lights and whirring hard drives. After scouring the lanes like a grocery store, I found a little monitor and keyboard. Marcus quickly told me the password. I panicked when I realised that I needed a password, but he was pretty calm about it.

I followed his instructions and quickly had all the data I needed on a USB stick. Satisfied, I returned the computer to how I found it and was about to exit the room. But just as I tried to open the door, a couple guys with a box of doughnuts opened it first. We looked at each other for a hot second, then nodded and bypassed each other.

I walked out into the hallway, and the minute I closed the door, my gait became brisk. “I think my cover’s blo–”

A blaring alarm echoed through the building. Fuck! Instead of the main entrance, I started for the stairs in hopes of escaping through the roof, but a wave of security flocked into the building. Damn, this must be pretty important stuff! I tapped the flash drive lightly through my pocket.

In a jiffy, the security gathered up everyone who basically looked like a nerd or anyone who dressed like they would have access to the server room into the conference room. We all sat around a lengthy table whilst a couple guards stood watch over us. I made sure to angle myself so that the camera in the room wouldn’t be able to pick up my face.

Copying some others, I slouched a little and leaned back, put a thumb under my chin to support my head, and inconspicuously passed my index over my lips at the two guys who triggered the alarm in the first place. They sat opposite of me. After that, I passed my index carefully under my throat. Maybe they got the message, or maybe not. But if they did, then the doughnut-connoisseur with crumbs on his shirt had more balls than I imagined.

He suddenly stood up and pointed at me, “He’s the intr–”

His prattling ended with a bullet to the head. The couple of guards who were in the room didn’t have a chance to shoot either. Headshots also made them die instantly.

A few geeks sitting in the room couldn’t help themselves anymore, and decided to flee out into the hallway. Gunfire ensued and footsteps encroached the room were we in. Damn, they killed them? Hmm, security is contracted then?

A bloodbath was coming.