Ally views from her side of the kart. Zooming across workers inside of their small, caged sections. even seeing an old, tired female employee stare back at her as the

elevator closes. “What are these departments for?” she asks.

Kevin, keeping his focus towards driving, answers. “We are driving through an aisle where workers are

building together a nade launcher. One part gets added in each floor through a long assembly line that expands up to the fifth floor where the complete sets are placed

in large crates for drones to carry off to the truck loads.”.

Steve looks at the back of Kevin’s head with a mix of confusion before asking. “These people don’t just pack

nades in them, right?”.

Kevin laughs at such a claim. “No, that’ll be reckless. Be seeing more of your suits banging down the door.” He turns the kart to the right at the end of the current aisle. “Besides, we got a whole aisle section of ammo built and packed only exclusive to machinery.”.

James turns looking questionably towards Kevin asking. “Why, when there are actual people making guns?”.

Kevin sighs as he drives the kart near the office section of the warehouse. “The area manager and I don’t call the shots around here. Only following the procedures of the main Eden warehouse quarters back in London. People striking against this be damned.”.

Ally widened with interest. “As someone who grew up in Wakefield. I’m aware of their presence all over the UK. But never knew they’ll be that strict with such a process globally.”.

The kart comes to a full stop in front of the indoor office structure. Kevin takes out the keys and looks dreadfully left at the door.

“Bet right now, the CEO from London is scolding him for learning of the news of a rogue employee.” Kevin said. “If we’re lucky. We might get some time to chat. Come all!”

The group exits the kart and enters inside a small room filled with workers all simultaneously typing down on their transparent computers. Ally, James, and Steve all took back at how jarring the environment is compared to the noisy, busy nature of the outer warehouse department. Beyond the end of the out cramped office corridor contains a see through glass room of one middle aged man sitting around his desk.

“That's the manager, Dave Thompson, who seems to be on a call.” Kevin said, leading the group towards the door. He taps on the door. The white collared balding man makes an inviting hand jester as Kevin opens the door.

“Law enforcement is here, Mrs. Fellen.” Dave says over the call. “I’ll inform you later.” Dave's gray eyes stop glowing as he ends the call. Having the group be his primary focus. “I’m sure Kevin told you who I'm so let's get to the point.”.

Steve speaks up as he takes out the bag weapons. “Your company may be in hot water due to an employer stealing weapons from this

facility.”.

Dave shakes his head. “I can see that.” He says with such a tiring voice. “Reading up about a gunned down worker in uniform was right when I had the CEO

coming for my throat.” Dave glances at Kevin. “It's good timing you came here. I need every Black wolf security member checked around the start of the first break

time.” Kevin nodded.

“Got ya , boss.” Kevin turns toward the group. “Due to the sheer number of guards being up to twelve. I think this is a good opportunity if you

three want to memory link up with some of them to inspect.” He begins to look concerned. “Though, some of the co-workers don’t have any cybernetics. Which can

complicate things.”

“We can handle it.” Ally says confidently. “Just need to round them up and ask about the very last thing they saw the night before. Though linking

up with them would speed up the process greatly.”

Dave views the bag of weapons Steve is holding delicately. “Detective, mind if I see the bag?”. Steve briefly looks at the weapons and nods. The bag weapons are placed on the glass table. “P450 and a flash-smoke nade. How in the world did they get out?”

Ally looks down at Kevin’s holster that's also strapped with what looks to be different nade types. “Say Kevin?” She asks. “Mind if you can take out your pistol and put it on the table?”

Kevin looks at Ally completely confused. “Uh, sure.” He takes out his pistol and gently places it next to the bagged weaponry.

Ally walks up close for better inspection. She gazes at both the bagged and Kevin’s pistol. “These two tend to be the same model.” Ally admits with a sense of overwhelming concern. She turns her head half facing Kevin and askes. “What nades do you and your troops hold on to?”.

“Nothing but flashnades.” Kevin responds. “Wait, you bet on my crew helping the suspect?”.

James intervenes. “The claims are only a hypothesis. We don't truly know until we start searching across the warehouse.”

Kevin looks down to the ground shamefully shaking his head. “Good god.” Kevin said with the utmost level of exhaustion. Despite it being the start of the shift.

“It's almost break time, Mr. Hammer.” Dave commands with great impatience.

Kevin slowly looks up even though he still feels like crap. “I got ya, boss.” He sadly says. “I’ll send out a call for a meet up at the

front gate.” Kevin’s cyberlens are glowing red as he communicates.

As the break starts, a large row of security guards stands across the exit of the warehouse. Kevin, Ally, Steve, and James stand in front of the black armored group.

Ally takes a glance around all of the guardsmen’s utility belts.

“All of the guards seem to have their gear in order.” Ally says to Kevin while still looking at the guards.

“Though you said there might be twelve guards. But we only see eleven currently.”

“One of them reported being sick.” Kevin responded while also keeping his bearings

on his men. “We can try to make arrangements on a different date with the guard when it's appropriate.”

“This crap better be quick!” one of the guards yelled out. “

It’ll be as quick or long as you all make it!” Kevin snaps back at the grunts. “A dead man was among us and none of you cared. So, these fine folks and I are going to take extra care of getting down to the most goddamn detail of this slipup!”

Steve walks to the first guard left of the row. He glares at James talking to the second, Kevin with the third, and Ally with the fourth.

Steve shifts his focus back to the guard and goes. "Good day. name?”

The guard replies “Its Zack and Christ this is dumb!”

Steve flips down his right wrist. “If you’re smart enough then work with me. Have any implants?”.

“Of course!” Zack responded feeling so annoyed. “Watching a boxing match with my lens!”.

“Well, shut it off.” Steve commanded. “Going to have full access to your brain nerves and it's important to have a stable connection for a full memory read.”

Zack sighed as he closed the boxing broadcast and said. “Let's get this over with.”

he takes off his black gloves and flips down his right wrist with the suspected port cable tucked in place in case for usage. Opening the port within his arm ready for memory link reading.

Steve extends his port cable from the augmentation of his left arm over to Zack’s. “Connection made!” Steve shouts. “Let's see what you guys are hiding.” Both Steve and Zack’s vision of the world suddenly shifts. As the environment around them turns into blue code. The link has started.

What looks like a realm of endless code. Steve opens an interface with the flick of his right hand. Looking for the snapshot of the closest date to the crime scene.

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Selecting the date, the two are suddenly transported into what looks to be a messy apartment.

“My place from yesterday!” Zack shouts, staring down at the bed. “Swear, cops sure do love being damn noisy.”

“We sync up well together.” Steve informs the angry young guard while bringing up an interface showcasing several

dates. Steve has his attention on two. Wednesday, February, fourteen, twenty-one fourteen and Thursday, February, fifteen, twenty-one fourteen. He taps on the

recording of Wednesday. “I’m sure you know how the memory link works.” Steve informs. “But for a brief reminder, My Metx cybernetics is made with specialized

military features. Since I'm investigating, I'll be the one that’ll be controlling the viewing of the last eight hours. This should be a perfect virtual recreation of your whole

day.”.

Zack sighs. “Got that when you cops pulled me for driving under the influence.”

Steve begins to lightly tap around the time bar. The speed up recording causes Zack to see his virtual self get out of bed at double the speed. His former self, wearing nothing but boxers, walks though Zack’s dark steel armor. heading towards the single restroom getting ready for work. Steve, skimming through the bar, says, “For the sake of time, we are going to cover your past activities as fast as we can. What time do you normally show up to work?”

“Four in the morning.” Zack says rather mildly.

Steve taps on the bar and fast forwards the recording towards that exact time. The virtual area dawns in white before changing to the front security gates of the warehouse. The two follow Zack’s virtual double walk past the security system and into the changing room. Steve takes notice of all of the men putting on their steel suits and helmets hanging up from a display and says “I’m counting, and I see All Twelve of the guards who work here. To the best of your ability. Can you inform me who they all are?”. Steve brings up his len's interface and pauses the room. The right time before most of the workers would put on their helmets.

Zack points out two of the three sitting on the bench. “Those three are Vinny, Thomas, and Ben. all three have been here for a few months. The two near the right of them are Kenny and Cole. The two down the room changing next to me are Ray and Josh. The last three on the left side of me is, Sheen, Tim, and Hector.”.

Steve looks at Zack firmly asking. “One of you guardsmen doesn't have augments. Can you point out the person

who may not?”.

Zack giggles. “Yeah, it's Tim. Don’t know why he would have just worked as a warehouse worker. But told everyone he had marine military experience

without doing augmentation. Kevin just had him watch security.”.

“Thanks for the info.” Steve commented. “Let's keep the record going!”

Fourteen minutes after Steve and the GBOP members would free Zack and the other nine due to lack of suspicion. Ally would land right in front of the last member of

the group. She would make her introduction “Greetings, I’m a GBOP agent and I’m asking for your full cooperation.”.

“Hi, Ms. I'm Tim Combs.” He greets.

“I can’t seem to find any identity of augments on you.” She informs him with a hint of suspicion.

Tim, despite wearing a helmet, says with a hint of shame. “I just don’t have the comfort for it. Plus, it gets expensive with maintenance.”

Ally lightly nods. “Before I joined as an agent, I was actually pretty against it myself.”.

“How did you grow accustomed to it?”. Tim askes.

Ally looked at Steve, Kevin, and James linking up with the remaining few guards. She turned back to Tim, expressing a mood as mild

as one could be. “Can’t really explain but having the network installed on you. Just living this way clicked for me. Any who, what is it that you do here?”

Tim turns around and points towards the office area near the gate. “The security station.” He speaks. “The best they can do for a guy like me.”

Ally asks as she looks at the pointed direction. “Can you take me there? Maybe we might get some footage of the thief.”.

Tim nods and guides her towards the room.

Once entered, Ally sees the small dark space is filled with only the light of multiple screens. All casting footage of the warehouse currently.

“I got yesterday’s footage on the computer here.” Tim said as he rushed towards the device built within the security setup. Nothing but a small wide screen and bright but transparent keyboards for night and day usage.

Ally notices a similar setup next to his workstation. “Does someone else besides Kevin work alongside you?” she asks rather suddenly.

Tim answers sharply in response. “Yeah, that's Hector and he isn't here.”. Tim activates the password and unlocks his computer. Already open to an application that the security runs under. “I’ll show you the full date yesterday.” Tim clicks on a thumbnail that has the company’s coworkers walking through the scanner. It's titled the date of February, fourteen, twenty-one fourteen. The two begin to watch the footage.

“You pick this up, Mertez ?” Ally communicates through her cyber lens.

“Every single bit so far.” Celi explains in a rather bored manner. “You guys are still scraping for traces?”.

“It's a large warehouse.” Ally sighs, having to even explain this mess. “We could search and ask all around but

could still miss a corner. How's Urgo doing?”.

“Checking on the pods for any repairs, thanks for asking!” Darick sneaks into the conversation. “Since this is a fresh

truck, we got from HQ prior to our trip to New Haven City. We should be looking at doing field work for a week's worth.”

“I guess that can work.” Ally says. “I’ll inform you two on the mission later.” “Got ya, Chicka!” Celi says before leaving Ally to concentrate.

“Huh?!” Tim was confused at what he and Ally saw. “The recording before

the lunch period ended just blacked out!?” he said with raised suspension. Tim scrambled around the operating system for any viruses, but nothing seemed to turn up

for him. “Checked to see if there were any viruses but it's all fine.” Tim explained.

Celi called in to Ally. “Ask him to check up on his crash history. Should give data on

the exact time the computer may have shut down.”

Ally asked “Sir, try looking at any crash reports.”.

The guard opens a menu showcasing the data of the computer’s operation. The guard gives the rundown. “Looking at statistics. The computer and security system are bug free, but it's been shut down mid shift for some reason.”

Ally looks towards the empty station where presumably the other missing guard should be. “Where were you and Hector when that happened?”.

Tim turned away from the computer and told his story. “He sent me some credits by scanning the company’s ID bank card I've owned since working here. so, he and I can get an energy drink from the break room. Unlike some of the employees here. We are required to operate at both shifts. But the pay rate is higher than some of the actual employees, so I feel it's worth it. Got into the breakroom and scanned my employee ID card on the machine. came back and found my computer account locked out but everything was up and running.”

Ally faced the guard once more. “Tim, can you show me where the guards get their gear?”.

Tim agrees and escorts her over to the changing room.

When they arrive in the area. It's quiet and some parts of the room have backpacks scattered across benches.

“This is where the armory sits.” Tim explained. “Like that setup hung in that stand over in the back of the room.”

The two walk over towards the single black steel armor parts displayed in slots. Ally scans through the suit and locates the belt slot.

“No pistol and the nade.” Ally said.

“What!?” Tim notices. “What happened to the gear? Every single employee is required to return its

gear or its sudden job termination.”

Ally calls Steve through her cyberlens.

“What's up?” He answers.

"It's Ally." She responds. "And you and James may want to come check this out!”

Moments later, Steve, the two agents, Tim and Kevin group around the displayed armor set.

“So, you truly don’t know about the security system blacking out?” Kevin interrogates Tim with mild aggression.

“I would've known about the computers bugging out.” Tim defends with dread creeping within his voice. “Looked into virus

reports and nothing came up besides my station restarting. Yet, Hector told me his setup was running along with security.”.

Steve scratches his chin as he stares heavily towards the suit. “Something isn’t adding up.” Steve said. “You told one of my group members about how the system has no errors. But yet it was still shut down. I’m beginning to assume it may have been done manually.”

Ally stares into James, looking at Kevin's pistol. “You ok, James?” She asked.

“It just hit me.” The man's blue eyes widened with a realization. “Kevin, our first meet up wasn’t the best but I felt quite the insight about your security system.” Kevin looked lost towards James. “You and your men walked through the sensors with ease while the sensors had to be shut down for us.” James begins to have Kevin’s undivided attention.

Kevin responds. “You mean to tell me that even without the shutdown. the security system would just allow a non-guard member to walk free with weapons?!”.

“More like the suspect buying time by shutting down the cameras and sensors.” Steve inputs “The scanner only checks for non-security weapons. Seems like a big company like Eden should have gone with better systems.” The detective taps Kevin's shoulder. “We’re going to need Hector’s address. All of the information my crew picked up is lining together that Hector may be involved.”

Kevin looks down with total silence.

“Mr. Hammer.” Ally says with an urgent tone. “Now, it's not the time to be uncooperative.”

Kevin is quiet for a bit before saying. “You fuckers don’t understand how much I’m losing! So hard to find any line of work after getting out of the force.”.

Steve walks in front of the paranoid man and says “You are going to lose a lot more than just a job if we feel like you're hiding something. Are you going to call, or do I have to myself?”

Ally, for as much as she feels the man has a bloated ego, couldn’t help but to look at the man with pity and express something to him. “I used to be an ex-

squad leader. the difficulty of making the hard choices. One of them being as to why i quitted.”

Kevin, overwhelmed with fear yet craves the yearns of the female agent, askes “What is the reason?”.

Ally responds with a tone more lowered. “The same feeling you have right now. Fear. Being too afraid to be the decider of one’s

life again. I’ve moved on to become a peace agent instead to have more freedom to help people in my own way. It's never too late to do the right thing, Kevin.”

Kevin clints his fist. “Shit!” He shouts. “I'll do it. Calling the boss and I'll inform him as much information we currently have.”.

Ally slightly smiles at him. “Your cooperation is deeply valued.” she says.

Kevin responds in such defeat. “For the value I'm worth to Eden and Black Wolf. I’m shit compared to who might be coming next after this is

over with.” The call is answered.