| Health: 100% |

| Body Equilibrium: 7% |

| DPS: 5 |

| Defense: 25 |

| Agility: 10 |

| Perception: 20 |

| Intellect: 10 |

| - - - - - - - |

| Arm Holster |

SaeSyn headquarters stood tall and dark in the neon night. Leary waited quietly, watching the surgeon, Pascal Rubonne, through his rifle scope from a darkened office across the street. He had been watching Pascal for hours, waiting for him to leave his office and head home but the man had remained sitting at his desk, listening to music and working through something on his computer.

“Any movement?” CURL asked over the earbud radio.

“Nope. Still at his desk like a chump,” Leary responded, adjusting his rifle to sit more comfortably against his shoulder.

Down in the SaeSyn parking garage, the team waited inside of an old van parked next to Pascal's car. CURL hid behind a column in the garage, ready to hit the man with a paralyzing jolt directly to his cybernetics core as soon as she saw him. After hours of waiting, her eyes were wandering, and her attention was waning.

From inside the van, Preature spoke to CURL through the radio, “Cameras still set to repeat footage?”

“Yes. They don’t see the van, or me.”

“Good. I still think it was a bad idea to bring the kid into the belly of the beast like this,” Leary responded.

“It’s a risk, but he’s safer here than alone at HQ,” Preature spoke, looking at Darius in the back of the van.

Darius looked up at Preature, trying to appear calm, but unable to hide the nervous tapping of his foot against the van floor. He’d only just begun to learn what his cybernetics could do. He wasn’t planning to get a lesson against trained SaeSyn P-Sec officers.

“Breathe, D,” Tinker placed a hand on Darius’s shoulder. “We’ve got you.”

It was a nice gesture, but Darius wasn’t comforted. He cleared his throat. “How much longer do you think he’ll be?”

“He’ll take as long as he takes,” Preature said, stretching his arms in front of himself, then placing them behind his head in a relaxing gesture.

Leary watched through the scope. Still and silent, taking long, slow breaths. It’s been a while since his last dose, and he was starting to feel antsy. “I uh… I’m gonna need my meds again soon.”

“Take them,” Preature ordered.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Leary pulled a blister pack from his pocket and popped the pills free from their containment, then into his mouth.

Pascal stood and shut his computer down. He finished the rest of his drink and headed to the office door.

Leary put the blister pack away and looks through his scope, just in time to see the surgeon closing his office door.

“I’ve got movement. He’s leaving his office now,” Leary called to the others.

“Let’s hope it’s not another bathroom break,” Darius mumbled.

Moments later, the surgeon entered the parking garage, adjusting his coat on his shoulders. He saw the van parked next to his car and halted his steps. A puzzled expression crossed his face as he took another tentative step forward. Then he took a step back, and turned toward the door.

“Hit him, CURL. Leary, head down to the meeting spot,” Preature spoke into the earbud radio.

CURL’s eyes began to glow as she remotely accessed Pascal’s cybernetics. In no time, she cracked through the security and had access to his core. “Freeze, scumbag.” His body locked up as electricity was purged from his core and into his body. He fell forward in time for Preature and Tinker to catch him and drag him into the back of the van. CURL followed.

Zip ties were secured on the surgeon’s thumbs, wrists, and ankles. Then he was gagged and Tinker injected him with a sedative. Preature moved to the driver’s seat, started the van, and tore out of the garage.

They stopped at the corner, allowing Leary into the passenger seat, and drove twenty minutes out to an abandoned warehouse near the city’s old Distillery district.

The man was further zip tied to a chair and then awoken with an injection and a slap across the face. The gag was pulled from his mouth.

He was disoriented for a moment. Pursing his eyes shut, trying to gain a sense of composure. “Who… who are you?” he mumbled.

“Friends, believe it or not.” Preature stood behind the man, as did everyone else. Pascal tried to turn his head far enough to see them, but the muscles were stiff and uncooperative.

“Some friends,” the man said, spitting fuzz out of his mouth and onto the gag. “Fine. I’ll play. What do you want with me?”

“You know something about the operation on Darius Byun. Do you not?” Preature rumbled.

“I don’t know anything about that. Everyone who did know anything is dead now. I don’t have anything I can tell you.”

“You recognize him, kid?” Preature asked Darius. Darius just shakes his head, no.

“You have him? You have the Byun boy?” The surgeon strained trying to see Darius, but could only make him out with his peripheral vision. “Ah, I see you there. Del is looking for you. He wants to send you back home. He regrets leaving you to fend for yourself. You understand, right?”

Darius paused, teeth clenched, wondering if it might just be true.

“He wants to honor your father and give you the life you should be living.”

This caught Darius, and he squinted at the back of the surgeon’s head. “He had my father killed.”

“No, I swear it. Your dad jumped to his death from the top of the building.”

Darius ejected his gun and fired it for the first time immediately next to the man’s right ear.

A loud ringing erupted in the surgeon’s mind as blood began to clog his ear. “Ah! Aaaah! Why did you…?” he spat out.

“Because you’re lying, you piece of shit,” Darius caught himself, taking a breath, and heading back to stand with Preature.

“Wait, wait, wait. I know. I know things. I know things! Just ask me!” Pascal’s eyes became frantic.

“There were cybernetics that didn’t get installed into Darius. Where did they go?” Preature asked.

The surgeon halted for a moment. He thought of Geracht, and the process of installing the pieces onto his already fully cybered-up body. “P-Sec officers. I installed them into some of Del’s P-Sec officers. I uh…I DNA encoded them to the officers and they’re out on the streets looking for you, Darius. They’re assigned to the location Geracht had left you, looking for you.“ That last part was true.

“Thanks!” Leary said, then without hesitation, put a bullet into Pascal’s head.