We quickly walk through the hallway towards his apartment. Once we get there, we knock a few times on his door.

“Go away. I already called the cops. They will be here any minute.” He shouts back through the door.

“Correction, you called the automated police helpline, and they have put your case on low priority since you have not paid your police insurance in a while.” I say, studying the locks on the door.

“Ha, like I believe any of that. If any up-and-coming street thug could hack into police data, this city would be full of criminals.”

“I mean, that is the case, but most of them are at the top rather than the bottom. Anyway, are you going to open the door, or do we need to kick it in, and trust me, as someone who recently had to buy a new door, that those things aren’t cheap.”

I hear some grunting on the other side, but eventually, he does decide to open the door. He is in a disheveled state, wearing some kind of chamber robe, and the little that is left of his hair goes in every direction. He looks rather annoyed, though. Good, didn’t want him to think that this was going to be fun. He then motions us to get inside, and we follow him inside. He brings us to a little cramped office and sits down behind his desk.

“So, what can I do for the two of you that is so important you had to wake me up at the ass crack of dawn?” He says.

We look at each other, and Anika motions for me to speak. “Well, mister Schulz, we came here out of concern”, I say, while taking out the pictures. “You know anything about these?”

“Those are some pictures of kids, but nothing special there. Are the two of you looking to adopt them or something?”

“What did he just say?” Anika asks.

“I think he just said that we are a couple.” I say, while hearing Cierra’s laughter in my ears.

Anika just has this look of disgust, which honestly stings just a bit. I have never been interested in her, but that does not mean it won’t hurt if you look at me like that.

“What a disturbing thought.” She finally says.

“You tell me. I am not that much of a masochist.” I say, “And he should know that since he has been spying on you, he knows that you have a loving husband.”

“I did not. Why would I follow the life of such a benign person?”

“I don’t know why, but you do have a file of them on your augs, so I wonder what we will find if we turn on your computer.”

“You are just making baseless accusations.”

Suddenly, Anika slams the desk hard enough to leave a dent. “We know that you took the pictures, so you better tell me why.“

“Miss, you should understand that there is such a thing as client confidentiality. If I told you, I would lose all of my clients' trust in me. So it is just good business sense to keep such things hidden.”

“I will admit I know nothing about doing business. What I do know is that you just admitted you did take the pictures and that somebody paid you to do so.” I say, leaning over his desk so I can press the power button of his PC, turning it on.

“What do you think you are doing? This is my property. I must ask you to leave.”

“Is that so? Well, If you think that, then I am done with you. Anika, he is all yours.”

As soon as I finish my sentence, Anika walks up to him, picking him up and throwing him against the nearest wall. As for me, I am extracting everything from his computer, and honestly, he has the best defense you want against a hacker: a lack of organization. I mean, for some reason, half of the documents are kept in the picture folder. This is worse than that one time I was sent to investigate the laptop of a rival company manager. At least sifting through gigabytes of porn was somewhat entertaining.

“Are you not going to stop her? She might kill him.” Cierra asks, when I start sorting the files, almost entirely blocking out my view of the commotion.

“Nah, I want to see what good business sense looks like when you threaten the kids of a mother who has a license to kill. In my opinion, you cannot do much business from the grave, but then again, I am no expert.” I say, trying to find any payment data.

“Wait, what?” The man shouts, before receiving another gut punch.

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“And this does not disturb you?” Cierra asks.

“Not really. I have seen worse. Usually, they start by ripping out the fingernails followed by slowly cutting them off one knuckle at a time,” I say, while finding his payment data, but not that of his clients. They really should teach organization at school.

“Good idea.” Anika says, “You have a knife?”

“No, but there is probably one in the kitchen.” I say.

“Wait, hold up, you are not really going to do this, right?” The man asks, almost crying.

“When we gave you a chance to come clean, that was a privilege we granted you out of the kindness of our heart, not a right.”

He visibly becomes paler. “Wait, don’t hurt me. I'll tell you everything.”

Anika looks at me. “What do we need from this guy?” she asks.

“First off, payment details, then when did you make contact, how did you get the job, when did you meet them, et cetera. I need to know everything.”

“Of what case exactly? I have many clients, you see, so I need to know more specific details.”

“Well, officially, it was the case where you took pictures of her children.”

“And what do her children look like exactly? What age are they? I need to know these details if I want to find the correct case.”

I stand up for this situation, which is frustrating, and I am going to deal with it one way or the other. I get out of the small office and head into the living room. It has one of those built-in kitchens, so I quickly check some drawers and find a sharp knife.

“What are you doing?” Cierra asks.

“He is stalling, and I don’t care for it, so I am going to motivate him a bit.”

I walk back into the room and hand the knife to Anika. “Start cutting off fingers until he actually starts talking “, I tell her, while scanning the room.

He must be stalling for a reason, but his augs don’t log any recent messages or calls besides the one to the police. So there must be something else, and after some searching, I find a panic button underneath the left side drawer. It's like one of those old banks used to have. But instead of calling the bank, what this one does; I actually have no idea. This thing is entirely analogue, so there is no signal for me to hijack onto. That leaves following the cable.

“Anika, do me a favour, and kick over this desk, please.” I say, while grabbing the PC and putting it next to the desk. I can’t have that breaking on me.

She shrugs and walks away from the man who is now cowering in the corner, one finger lighter. And gives the desk a mighty kick, and the entire thing topples over. Making a loud but satisfying boom when it hits the ground. It also reveals that the wire goes all the way from the desk into the ground and disappears.

‘Well, that sucks. Lyssa, any ideas.’

Two armed men left an apartment 3 floors below this one a few minutes ago and are heading this way.

I instantly jump up, grabbing access to the cameras. I should have done this from the start. Rookie mistakes, fuck! When I get the image, I see two men dressed in baggy clothing coming towards us, carrying some kind of gun.

“Anika, give me a weapon,” I say, while reaching out my arm in a give-me motion.

She looks at me and then gives me a pistol, not what I was expecting. I was going for the knife, but a pistol will work. I hope.

“Okay, just keep shouting at him. I don’t even care what you say. Just be loud for a bit.”

She shrugs and starts cursing at him. I, for my part, head out of the office, making sure that I close the door. Then I go to the front door and hide behind it. It only takes about half a minute for the men to reach the door. Apparently, they have a key as well, and the door opens without issue. As the door opens, I try to squeeze myself closer to the wall, trying not to block the door's opening too much.

As the two men creep inside, I hold my breath. They both instantly lock on the office, where Anika is still screaming profanity. I am honestly impressed. She usually does not say all that much, but now there is no stopping her.

Anyway, when the last guy has fully entered, I slowly start to move, leveling the gun at his head. I then squeeze the trigger, and a loud bang resounds, reverberating through my hand. While his brains splatter his partner, I readjust and empty the rest of the clip into the other guy. When it goes silent, I drop the gun, and grab my hand.

“Fuck, why does that hurt so much?”

Scans show that your wrist shows early signs of carpal tunnel. Adding the space the launcher needs reduced the space for your nerves, as well as the recoil pressure on your wrist. Lyssa would estimate that your wrist is decaying at an increased rate. Muscle relaxers, enhancers and regenerators are recommended for purchase whenever you get the points.

“Fuck. Well, I guess it could be worse.”

“Uhm, Evelin, you just killed two people.” Cierra says. I can hear the shock in her voice.

“Correct." I say, while walking towards the front door and closing it again.

“And you don’t feel bad about it, killing people?”

“Not anymore. You have to get used to it, or you will drown in despair.”

“I see. I am sorry you have to do this kind of stuff. Guess it makes sense for you to have a therapy AI.”

“Thanks, I guess. Now, where is Anika?”

It has gone completely quiet in the office, so I slowly open the door and go inside. Once inside, I notice that Anika is no longer looming over the guy and instead is standing next to the door, knife ready.

“Well, now is your chance. I am unarmed. Go for it.” I say, a smirk on my face.

She lowers her stands. “I'd rather not. You are one of the few people I can trust to keep my children safe.”

“Neat, so I won’t be getting stabbed today.”

“Yeah, lucky you. Anyway, what happened? I heard gunshots.”

“Well, someone pushed a panic button, and two guys with guns showed up, so I took care of them.”

“I sometimes forget that they made you do basic combat training and interrogation techniques.”

“Honestly, I wish I could forget it too.”

“That is fair, so what do we do now.”

“Honestly, this guy,” I say, while pointing at him, “Is kind of unnecessary. He would only speed up the process, but if he is going to pull shit like this, I think it might be better to just get rid of him instead.”

He looks up at us. “Wait, you can’t be serious.”

I look at Anika. “Should I do it, or do you want to?”

“Okay, okay, I'll talk. The guy who came in never gave his name, but the payment was made using a weird account. It was called the Global Entertainment Risk Advisory.”