Ricky is inside his office with both Steve, and Kyle Allaire who are sitting across from his desk.

“The appreciation for doing this so early.” The rich man does a seat bow.

“Oh, we got a lot of sleep for the occasion.” Steve smugs as he takes a sip of his coffee from a plastic cup. Allaire claps together his hands and says.

“ Ok! To cut to the chase here. I want to negotiate a deal.”

Ricky and Steve both look puzzled.

“ Hear me out.” Allare presses his hands lightly. “Ever since that incident around that smoke shop. You can say that the public reaction to my consumer augmented products have caused a financial decrease.”

“not too shocking.” Steve says as he sips more of his coffee.

“That's not the end of it, Steven.” Allaire shakes his head. “Apparently, after the somewhat foolish announcement of my threats of a lawsuit. Eden Industries of all companies decided that in a recent interview they are looking to expand out into providing more specialized technology for global government support. With droid support only having a production rate of thirty percent with their firefighter drones. Not to forget they also have a subsidiary industry named Med-Tec.”

“Didn't know they own the med bots across every hospital too.” Steve said, putting his cup on the table.

“They do.” Allaire nods “ Now, they’re starting to make combat droids for military usage as a new starting ground. ”. “Running scared you might be out of the market.” Steve replied smugly. “Of course not!” Allare expressed with such annoyance. “My augmentations are still widely available to various hospitals from around the world.My services would still be up and running. However, the support I get from the U.S to fund the androids is a huge benefit for my goal of pushing society forward. Hence why I feel the need to make a six billion credit offer.”

Steve and the chief eyes are more open and aware than the room’s coffee machine can pump out.

“You're shitting us, right?” Steve asks while tilting his head slightly.

“Six million to put it fair.” Allaire offered as he looked towards Ricky. “Should be enough to help cover whatever damages and issues that have struck your base. I only ask for the sake that we put an end to this case with the shop incident.”

“This is one hell of an offer!” Ricky is lost for thought. “Steve, Are you hearing this? With the amount of money we can repair this station in just a few days compared to a month.”

“ It's nice actually.” Steve comments with a nod. “Solid really. But that’ll mean you're getting away with murder.”

“Must you continue that claim? "Kyle sighs. “How about this? Talk it over with all of the stations and call me within the next thirty hours. If there is no deal or time to discuss. I will bring my all to the city meeting and court.”

“Noted!” Ricky put out his hand in front of the rich acquaintance.

“ Suspect to hear from you soon instead of later.” Kyle replies as he stands and completes the handshake. Allaire walks out the room silently.

“Damn it!” Ricky shouts. “ Get what you're doing but another part of me feels like that maybe we should just set up with the press. Say it's on our call and take the fall.”

“What do you think my response will be?” Steve leaned back in his chair, focused.

"Millions of Credits that can speed up the repairs and even cover some of the hospital visits for any officer still kicking!” Ricky explained leaning forward on his chair. “ I mean do you have any clue of what company we’re facing with that kind of wealth. The case for Eden is wrapped! The current is some fucking hacking group that one up us!”

“You don’t think I’m NOT looking into that!” Steve argued. “Working with these government agents and even they are getting duped by this group. I’m invested in catching who is responsible for creating this madness.”

“How long will this play out for?” The chief asked, looking directly at Steve. “ May I have to remind you this isn’t the first time I had to kiss up to the press while burying one of your fuck ups.” Steve stood in silence, clinging his fist.

There was a knock on the door.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Come in!” Chief ordered. a heavy armor officer came and shut the door behind.

“Morning, chief!” She said, “We were able to extract the suspect from the hospital. All reports came back to her being healthy with a few minor bruises to the upper knee of the right leg. All that has been patched.”

“She is in the integration room?” Steve asked, still looking at an upset chief.

“Quite, Detective.” she responds. Steve got up and walked out of the room. “Was there something going on?”

“Since you're here.” Ricky stood up from his chair. “I want you to issue a meeting, besides Steve, to everyone present in the hall.”

The green lit room was filled with only two. Steve and the would be female assassin.

“Shoes on the other foot.” Steve laughs as he looks down to see both of her legs chained. “Couldn't help the pun. Knowing your condition.”

“You're here to harass me, right?” She replied shockingly mildly to Steve.

“Your medical records left on the table here indicate that your identity is Kate Young.” Steve informs her as he flips through the medical folder . “ My line of duty is to keep parts of the city stable. You ask for no harassment while attempting murder with a fire”.

“It wasn’t me!” she shouted at him abruptly.

Steve put his index finger up and said. “I and a few lasting members of our forensics were unable to identify any prints. During my investigation. The southern police patrol raided your home for anything deemed suspicious . I joined them and found pictures of you in an army uniform hanging around your bedroom dresser.” Kate started to look a little more sorrowful. Staring at the subtle reflection of the steel table. “Pretty quiet so far. But I bet it's uncool to talk about how great being a soldier was too huh?”

“It's not that!” She spoke finally.

“Then admit” Steve orders as he sits forward, “Why with so much accomplished in your life did you go so low? You were in the ranks some time in your life to protect people like that family you wanted to murder!”

“They were going to kill me if I didn't do it.” Kate says with the sounds of chains ringing as her body quivers. “I went on social media, eyetell, being the only one on the block telling about the police showing up. Was looking for clout and sure enough I got it after I saw that cop get gang banged.”

“You lied!” Steve says rubbing his eyes.

Kate continued with an ache in her heart . “ The fear was overwhelming when you and those two people in armor all came up to me. ”

“Explain everything.” Steve ordered crossing his arms firmly.

Kate explained as such . “ Ended up getting a private message from a username with a random batch of numbers I can't remember. But they did mention something I'll never forget. “showcase the address of the snitch or we burn down the block”. ”

Steve was perplexed with what he heard. He looked at the bag that was holding her smartwatch. Taking out his fresh pair of no trace gloves from his jacket and putting them on. He then extracts the gadget from the bag and says. “An officer was given this to by a robot nurse while you were recovering in the hospital.” He taps the watch and sees a lock screen. “Locked.”

“Put it close to me.” She requested. “It unlocks by my voice.” He stands up and negates over to her. Holds up the watch close to her. “Rank petty officer second class”. The watch interface opens up with a small hologram interface. Showing a drop of icons with the time and image still displayed below it.

“Wait a second.” Steve said as he looked at the photo more closely. “ Those two agents helped inspect the burned remains of the home. They sent me a shot of a family photo.” He puts up the photo collection on his lens's interface. “Even wearing the same army uniform.”

“ His name was Antonio Sanchez.” Kate spoke as she gazed at the detective. “He was my squad leader and a very solid friend. He carried me with my foot shot off after our squad was fighting a cyber enhanced Chinese army ambush. china’s army had a special kind of tech suits that made being visible rather hard to see."

“Hard to see like a ghost?” He asked. “Sneaky bastards.”

Kate carried on. "The nurses did everything they could to save it by wrapping it while waiting for the helicopters to come and rescue me.” Kate sighs while looking away from Steve. “Of course, with it being the world at war with China. The wait was so long that by the time I was flown out to a hospital in California five hours later. my patched foot had to be amputated.” Steve remains silent but looking rather regretful. “ Around the time after the surgery, I was found in a hospital bed with not only a robot nurse cheering for a successful surgery but Antonio as well. The mission to defend parts of India’s country border from any threats was a success. More Indian troops arrived at its borders. So Antonio dismissed the squad back to the United States. He made his own way to California just to see me. We are both from the back ends of New Haven. So we talked and discussed various topics. He gave me the idea to move around his area. During the time of any war, the economy is a mess and one can’t help but to be frugal. He cited a location next to him being open to buy after the original owner was caught with a prison charge for drug smuggling.”

“You know” Steve says while closing out the family photo on his interface. “ That picture in front of the house is starting to make a lot more sense.”

“ I was the one who took it with my old smartwatch decades back .” Her voice cracks. “The last time I ever saw him as he was shipped back to the final stages of the war.”.

“If he were to see you now.” Steve looks down on the weeping woman. “How do you think he’ll feel about you currently?”

“Backstabbed.” She finally looks back up to Steve with eyeliner running down her cheeks.

Steve clicks on the globe icon for the web browser. “ Scanning through for the media site you said. Viewing your past messages I can see the message with numbers. Five, twenty-eight,twenty-ninety-one. Sending a snapshot to the agents.” Taking his attention away from the device he looks at Kate. “Consider this to be the steps towards the right path. The truth is ugly and sometimes irredeemable. But we grow strong by not ignoring it. Thank you for your cooperation.” Kate sighs once again as she lays her head on the table.