“The number appeared to belong to Yvora Blue, the pop singer. We scanned her phone records, texts, and emails, and she mentioned and spoke to a man named Caiden quite often. We decided to go forward on that lead. We zeroed in on the times, dates, and locations they planned to meet up. We accessed the city-state surveillance networks to extract surveillance data from security HSDs and security cameras. We managed to snag an image of Yvora and Caiden together. Despite him somehow being able to mask his face from almost every surveillance camera, we were still got a decent shot of him, and it matches our composite. We strongly believe this is our guy. We extracted a contact number for him from Yvora’s phone records,” Agent Bloodfall said.
“Excellent! Good work, agent! You’ve done well. Stand by for further instructions,” Cain said excitedly.
“Yes, sir!” Agent Bloodfall said.
“It would appear that we are on to something, yes?” Stein asked for confirmation.
“Yes, indeed. Lieutenant, contact those Chimera boys, Franki and Neo, and tell them that I have a job for them,” Cain commanded.
“I think I already know where this is going. Things are about to get interesting,” Daav replied as he called the hitmen up.
“Oh, hey there, handsome. How’s it goin’?” Daav teased as Neo picked up the holo vid-call.
“Fuck off! What do you want now? I thought we already did our part,” Neo Said.
“Funny. I have another job for you and Franki. Will your master let you off the leash again?” Daav mocked.
“Yeah, only when he says to sic ‘em. What the hell do you want, Daav?” Neo replied.
“Human extraction, hostage holding, and maybe even getting to swing that dangerous sword of yours! Sounds like fun, right?” Daav said in a patronizing tone.
“Money. How much money? The boss, Dragon, is upping his fees for off-the-books government job requests. No more of that six-figure bullshit. We’re talkin’ millions now, dickface,” Neo said confidently.
“Ooh, dickface, that’s a good one,” Daav replied as he looked to General Cain for approval of the new payment rates. General Cain shook his head no.
“Well, then, we may have to renego—”
“How much are you gentlemen looking to receive?” Stein interrupted Daav, before he could finish.
“Great question, doc. One point two million Creds,” Neo replied.
“Done. Give me your preferred routing access for your Cred codec. I will deliver half now, half when the job is done,” Stein said.
“Oh, wow, okay! I like how you do business, doc! Lieutenant Dickface knows the coordinates. He’ll give them to you,” Neo replied. Stein uploaded half of the money from his personal account into the Hitmen’s designated Cred codec.
“Great. Everything has been received. Who, what, where, and when?” Neo asked.
“We need you two to pay someone named Yvora Blue a visit. She’s important. I’ll send her address to you now. You will need to get her tonight and bring her to the new construction site near the Nova Central and BlackLight border, ten blocks down from The LoveMaars,” Dr. Stein ordered.
“Money talks,” Neo replied, before ending the call.
“Well, that was easy. What’s next, boss?” Daav said.
“Gather the available members of TEAR. We’ll provide backup. Stein, you will take lead from that point on,” Cain said.
“This is marvelous! Simply marvelous!” Stein cackled as he rubbed his hands together.
***
“Yeah, yeah, I know, girl! Oh my god, it’s just been so amazing! He’s unlike any other guy I’ve met. Yeah. Oh, yeah, you already know it. Hold on my Mom’s calling, let me call you back okay? Bye!” Yvora said to her friend on the phone before transferring to the next call. She put it on loudspeaker.
“Hey baby, girl! Just calling to remind you to not forget about tour rehearsals tomorrow night, okay?” Yvora’s mom said.
“I know, Mom. I’ll give you a call right before I leave tomorrow, okay? Love you.”
“I love you too, baby.”
Yvora smiled to herself. She was set to embark on an international tour and she was scheduled to be on the road for two weeks. She floated about in her apartment in East Andromeda, feeling light as a feather, not having felt a happiness like this in quite some time. It was close to ten p.m. Just as she was about to relax, drink some tea, and go over some over her new music, she heard a knock at the door. I wasn’t expecting anyone to come by tonight. It must be Caide, tryna be all Mr. Mysterious on me, she thought to herself. She opened the door.
“Hey, good evening, good lookin’. Ooh, you look so damn good,” Neo said, getting sidetracked by her striking beauty. As he stepped inside, Yvora lept back.
Franki, being so big, had to duck under the doorway to enter. “I’m sorry miss, but you’re coming with us,” Franki stated, before Neo rushed her, covering her nose and mouth with a chloroform soaked cloth. Before Yvora could scream, everything went black.
CHAPTER 34
---usr/systems/server-x/THE STEIN GAMES---
[10:45PM, BlackLight, Vantz’s place]
Caiden’s room was dark. The only light in the room was emitting from his NOVO Lenses. He was searching for answers anywhere he could find them. He was numb. Why me? They’ve ruined the lives of millions through their greed and brutality. And now they are targeting me! But why now? Could it be the clone farm? Was there a camera there that I didn’t see? Shit! There’s nothing in
