“Alright…let’s start,” I said aloud, tapping the table, watching as the advertisement squared and shifted to the corner of the table. The table flashed, and multiple rows of television shows, sporting events, newsfeeds and video clips popped up in rows of four.

I tapped the top-right corner of the advertising table, watching the welcome screen for the Bridge City Law Enforcement Department taking up the entire table-screen. I typed in my Badge Number 26-10-01003 and placed my hand on the table, awaiting verification.

The table was smooth but cold, and luckily I didn’t have to wait long for the scan to complete. Advertising Tables were tricky and full of bloatware. It wasn’t recommended to use such flimsy devices to log in, but what was I supposed to do? I was hungry as hell and just wanted to verify if any cases had been assigned to me.

The cold exterior of the table shot up my wrist from my palm, leaving my fingertips feeling like ice tips. Once the scan was successful, I returned warmth to my hand waited for the loading screen to finish.

“Warning: Location not recommended -Public Area, Creative Foods Restaurant Owned by Tomorrow Group Inc.” I swiped the warning away and began browsing through the multiple tabs that “real” constables needed.

The Bridge City Law Enforcement Department main screen was a back shot of Bridge City, over a hundred skyscrapers with bridges interconnected together, with the skylines moving through the sky. Below the skyscrapers were the normal streets, showing a busy city, pristinely clean. A complete contrast to what Bridge City looked like, but hey. It was the main page, so propaganda was expected, and above it was the BLED shield splashed in the centre with a hibiscus flower in its mouth. “We Protect, by Serving” is their motto.

Complete whore-shit if you were to ask me, but whatever. They paid me credits, so who the hell was I to call it that anyway.

Multiple rows popped up in one, showing the login of each department, Traffic, Patrol, K9, Cyber Division, SWAT…everything. However, my department wasn’t that fancy, which meant I had to scroll to the end.

I finally navigated myself to my department’s portfolio, EXiCON and looked at my outstanding cases. Three solved two pending judgments and no new cases were assigned.

“Damn it, still nothing,” I whispered, clenching my right hand. It’d been two months since my last job, and the funds from those were still pending judgment. Whatever…. Need to find work…the tax rate might not be worth it if I don’t have an income.

“…Or maybe I shouldn’t have ripped off Lieutenant Eclain's arm,” I said aloud. I let that thought ruminate for a second. ”Nah…” I said, feeling my lips curl into a smile. “Eclain’s an asshole. He deserved it. What is done is done.”

I minimised the BLED screen, pulled up the universal browser, and logged into COMNET.

COMNET wasn’t your typical social platform; it was a community job posting site. It wasn’t flashy nor pretty compared to the BLED login system. Still, to even log into COMNET, I needed to pay an annual subscription fee. People would scoff at that amount, but it was worth the price. EVERYONE used it; hell, that’s how I got my job as an EXiCON. BLED had its own page on the site.

Recruitment was heavy here. Law Enforcement, PMC, Couriers, Maids…anything job related was on COMNET. However, as great as the site was, it was bogged down with hundreds of ads. The only way to avoid them was for you to fork a minimum of 100 credits monthly, and that was for Level 1 membership. Level 1 jobs weren’t even that lucrative compared to the Level 10 access I had, which by the way, cost me 20K annually, it was worth it, plus I got a 10% discount.

I browsed through the site looking for jobs finding nothing that’d excite me. I’d take a courier job, but I’d need a temporary license, and that required an annual fee of 100K in credits. An amount I definitely didn’t want to pay. Not. Worth. It.

After I battled with myself on whether it was worth it to take up another PMC duty, I found myself selecting the drop-down for it. The PMC section was littered with ads from various companies such as Velcro United, Teflon Union and Celaron Security Services.

The PMC Triumvirate of the Antillean Federation.

“…getting a job would’ve been easier if I took up hacking,” I said aloud. But hackers, who were great at what they did, were hired easily. That wasn’t me—an ex-infiltration specialist with a shoddy army career. PMC work was all I could afford to do, and I was pretty much done with that life.

I closed off the PMC tab, browsed a bit more, and eventually exited COMNET. Nothing, absolutely nothing. I thought bitterly. I allowed the dejection I felt to spiral within my gut. It’d been a while since I last felt like this…awhile being two months, but when your life is missing the people you value most, that’s what’s to be expected.

Rhea came walking down the aisle, barely visible in the corner of my cybernetic eye. If it’s one thing I could say, it’s that the Creative Food’s uniform did its best to show her assets perfectly. The redshirt she wore had LED lights woven into the stem, which blinked white intermittently. The pleated white skirt she wore had black LED lights sown between the pleats, easily drawing my eyes to the unique design. Smart…but that’s marketing, I thought. The high length socks were a nice touch, I’d say, but it definitely ’wasn’t my place.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“You didn’t have to bring it…I would’ve gladly picked it up from the counter,” I told the girl.

Her lips curled into a smile that pushed her freckles upward. “That’s alright. If I stay in one place for too long, I’ll get bored.” The girl placed the tray in front of me. The aroma from the butter smeared vegetables hit my nose instantly, making my stomach growl as if it were a volcano about to erupt.

The lightly spiced chicken didn’t help either as I eyed the small bowl of honey that came with it. Not wanting to waste time, I waved Rhea off, picked up the nearest wing, dipped it twice into the honey and wolfed it down.

My tongue was hit with a combination of honey and spices, salt, paprika and some curry. Different, but good enough. I took a sip from my half-warm cup of green tea and dipped a few vegetables into the honey. I even made myself a carrot chicken sandwich, beautiful, right? Right.

After I finished my meal, I sat back for a moment and enjoyed the bliss of my snack, not caring for the worries I had.

That lasted all of five minutes. “I could as well head home…” I told myself.

I tapped the lower side of the advertising table and brought it back up to the BLED screen. As I was about to hit the log out button, a call rang into my ear, startling the ba-Jesus outta me.

Once I gathered my bearings after the second ring, I recognised the caller through my cybernetic eye. My lips curled into a smile unexpectedly. EXiCON DEPARTMENT.

YES!

“Kaiden,” I answered, trying my best to hide my elation.

“Is this EXiCON 26-10-01003, Cypher…Kaiden Cypher?” The dispatch officer asked over the line with a strangely familiar voice.

“Yea…this is he.”

“EXiCON Cypher, you’ve been activated for duty.”

“I see…What type of case?” I asked, licking my lips.

“Homicide.”

What? Homicide? No, no, no, no. I thought bitterly, That doesn’t make any sense. “Doesn’t that fall under the Major Crimes Division purview?” I asked, verifying the situation.

“It does, but Protocol B5-10 has been enacted, so you’ve been conscripted to follow up in another detective’s absence.”

“Wait a minute…I know this voice…Gonzada, is that you?”

“Yeah…it’s me, Cypher,” Gonzada said, trailing into a laugh.

“What in the Imbibe are you doing at dispatch? I thought you were suspended.”

“I am…well I was, but now I’m back, as of today frankly.”

“I see…if that’s the case, then why are you making dispatch calls? Shouldn’t you be out there investigating Major Crimes, patrolling the streets, protecting the small citizens from organized crimes?”

“Funny…” He said, laughing. “But no. I’ve been assigned to the EXiCON dispatch, for now.”

“For now? Zade…something’s up. This doesn’t sound right. Who did you piss off?”

“Who did I piss off? Cypher, you ripped off Eclain’s cybernetic arm. Your damned case officer, I might add. I didn’t do shit compared to you.”

“He had it coming. You know this…I just got to him ‘fore anyone else did.”

“I can’t lie on that. The man’s a giant asshole.” Gonzada laughed.

“Bigger than that, trust me.”

“I hear you, bud. I hear you.”

“So…” I said, trying to force Gonzada to spill the beans on the shit he’d pull at work.

“No. Not telling, but I’ll say this. Some shit’s going down in the Weitson District, hence why Protocol B5-10 has been activated.”

“Weitson District? The Industrial District?”

“Yeah.”

“What the hell would be happening over there?”

“Sorry, bud… I can’t say.”

“Humph…alright. I won’t stress since you ain’t wanna budge.”

“Good…Cypher, I haven’t forgotten what you’ve done for me. That 10K really helped me these past few months. I…”

“There’s no need to mention it, Zade. You looked out for me when I first started this EXiCON thing. I was just returning the favour.”

“That’s No prob at all.”

“Alright, good…I have a question, though before you go, can you check on Casefiles 98-8523-58 and 98-8524-47?”

“98? Larceny designated cases.”

“Yeah…those were the last two cases I worked on. I just checked their statuses and noticed they were still pending after three months.”

“Three months?”

“Yes. Did the AI Judge system get corrupted again?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Then what’s the hold-up?”

“I’ll look into it for you.”

“Great.”

“Now, about this Homicide? I don’t have any training.”

“That’s no problem; you have an Artificial Assistant, yes?”

“I do.”

“What type, maintenance, right?”

“Yea…maintenance.”

“OK, great, I’ll send you a patch. Once you’ve installed her, she’ll be updated with Homicide case parameters. She won’t investigate, but she’ll provide you with suggestions…etc.”

“Wow…thanks…” I said sarcastically. “…BTW, I’m not too sure about this protocol; you mentioned B5-10, was it? Does my EXiCON contract have this protocol? I’m not sure I read this.

“It’s there, Cypher. You probably just signed the dotted line like everyone else, without reading it all.”

“Eighty-five pages? Why would I?”

“Exactly.”

“Whatever. I don’t like this, Zade…I don’t like this at all.”

“You don’t have to like it. Would you like me to pass on the job to someone else, then?”

I was pissed. Yes. I wanted the work, but a homicide? I didn’t lose half my upper body to be investigating dead bodies! But I couldn’t say no to it. I needed to hit my quarterly case completion stat or lose my contract.

“No. I’ll do it.”

“Good.”

“Are you sure my contract has this protocol B5-10 in it?”

“Yes…We have protocols for everything. That’s what the EXiCON department was made for. Whichever department is short, we fill in the gaps with you freelancers.”

“I know the logic behind it.”

“Then don’t complain. You said you didn’t want any SWAT duties, so you’ve been expunged from that.”

“I should’ve expunged myself from Homicide as well.”

“EXiCON’s are only allowed one expungement.”

“I know that, Zade.”

“Fine. Fine. Sure.”

“Where’s the cadaver before I change my mind?”

“Pelston’s Street, alley next to the Bus Terminal.”

“Got it. You sent the patch?”

“Yep, it should be in your inbox.”

“Thanks.”

“…and, Cypher.”

“Yeah…?”

“Godspeed,” Zade said in a mocking tone, followed by the lightest of chuckles.

“Whatever, Zade…what…ever.”