“You! That’s him! That’s the fucker that did this to me! Kill his ass! Kill him now!” he cried out.
The other gangsters drew their weapons, but before they could do anything, Rez already had the barrel of his gunblade pointing at Marx displaying his superhuman reflexes.
“You shoot at me, this guy dies. It’s that simple. I wasn’t kidding when I said I did not come here to fight” Rez firmly stated.
“We searched you, man! How did you do that?” a gangster asked.
“Put your fucking guns down. Now,” Rez said slowly and menacingly.
“Guys, do what he says, man! Jesus!” Marx commanded. His men stood down cautiously. Rez’s eyes were glowing again; he was more intimidating than ever.
“Oh, yeah. I remember you. You wanna know why I didn’t kill you? Because I ran out of regular bullets,” he said to the injured gang member. The injured thug shrunk, turning his head away out of sheer terror.
“Look, man. We’re cool, okay? Now, can we get back to business please?” Marx asked.
“Of course,” Rez said as he retracted his gun back into the skin of his forearm. The others around him were completely befuddled, amazed, and downright appalled by what they just witnessed.
“What the hell are you, man?” Marx asked.
“A man on a mission,” Rez simply replied.
“Now, as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, I was hoping to borrow ten of your Gunners to go to these particular power grids at a specific time tonight,” Rez said as he summoned a holographic map from his bare wrist. Unbeknownst to the others, this was his holo-watch operating from just below the surface of his skin on his left wrist. He enlarged the diagram for Marx to see. Marx was stunned by Rez’s unique abilities, but withheld his initial excitement to keep the focus on the proposition.
“Wait! All these power grids are associated with Zonos Tower. That wasn’t the case last week when I had my guys do their siphoning runs!” Marx exclaimed. “What’s the meaning of this?”
“Good question. You're street savvy. I'm sure you're aware of all the current events. Hell, you’re from Darkside, you must know what’s going on. The recent wave of violence in the main city from last night wasn’t a coincidence. Someone made that happen,” Rez said.
“What? How?” Marx asked.
“High level frequency transmissions coming from Zonos Tower. The people who became violent last night were all wearing the new Zonos issued datashades,” Rez explained.
“One of my Gunners was injured from one of those attacks. No wonder. That explains a whole lot. So, what is this idea of yours?” he asked.
“Disable the power for the entire building, and destroy the machine sending those signals. If someone doesn’t do something, it will only get worse. This’ll send a nice big ‘fuck you’ to Zonos. Something those assholes have had coming for a long time,” Rez said.
“I dunno, mystery guy. This shit sounds a little too ambitious. I mean, based off what you just demonstrated, I believe you’re crazy and capable enough to do it, but, this is dangerous. I got money to make. Can't lose my men,” Marx said.
“Since when was there not a risk involved in what you guys do already? Look at Darkside. Darkside only happened because of Zonos. You’re already stealing from the government with your energy siphoning. What’s so different from what I’m proposing? And I’m already offering you a twenty-five thousand Cred advance. Sounds like a win-win situation for you,” Rez said convincingly.
Marx gave it some serious thought before he gave his answer. “Look here, whatever your name is. I’ll agree to this, but tell me something, what the hell is your intent with all of this? You just gonna go and start a one-man war with Zonos over this and then quit? Or is there something more? You tryna start a coup?” Marx asked.
“The coup is already beginning,” Rez said. “I already have your phone number and email address. I’ll send you the specs for everything. Have your guys ready by ten thirty tonight,” Rez said as he left the briefcase full of cash.
“Hey, man! How did you know all those things? Never mind. What about the rest of the money?” Marx said.
“You get the other twenty-five thousand Creds when the job is over,” Rez said.
“Okay. One more thing! What’s your name man?” Marx asked.
“Rez,” he said, before exiting the basement, then the house. The gang members cleared a path, due to their newfound fear and admiration of Rez. His NOVO Lenses were active; every single one of their heart rates rose.
Rez walked out of the bungalow. He was going to hole up in a hotel near Zonos Tower and plan for the final move. He applied some preprogrammed holo-straps and a fake ID to make it easier to move about in public unnoticed. He hopped on his bike, put on his helmet and took off to Nova Central.
CHAPTER 38
---usr/systems/server-x/TWINS ON THE RUN---
The girls made their exit from Home-base a few nights prior. Their decision did not come easy. But they decided they wanted freedom over their love for their friend. Having pooled every Cred they had made from their Neuro-Voyeurism exploits at The LoveMaars, they had enough money to get by for a little while. They purposely chose the Cardale Inn in West Andromeda as it was the closest hotel to the lot where the Psi-Corp hover sanders were kept. They devised an elaborate plan to steal one and make their way back toward home in Rune Village.
It was a risky mission, especially without Caiden’s help. Getting to the Cardale Inn wasn’t easy either. They failed to reprogram their holo-straps before leaving Home-base, so they had to go about without a disguise. Starting out on foot and eventually catching a cab, they made it safely to West
