“Haven’t seen Marie around?” Nicholas repeated after Toby. He was on his way to meet up with Cass and the android and was just passing by when Toby called him up. He was, as usual, standing in front of the front entrance of The Pink Spades, the only brothel within Cold Haven. Although primarily a brotherel first and foremost, it served as a general pub as well since it was well guarded. Those who just wanted drinks and simple companies flocked to The Pink Spades for their casual moments. The place saw the most traffic within the sector.

  “Yeah, I see her every day but I haven’t seen her yesterday and then today as well.”

  She was an independent prostitute and always worked around the brothel to catch customers. Her job was almost always quickies that wouldn’t take more than five minutes. She was very selective when it came to full intercourse and wouldn’t take random strangers. Her not showing up for two straight days was -

  “That is concerning, indeed.”

  He wouldn’t have noticed that she was missing simply because he didn’t care that much. Only someone like Toby, the bouncer of the Pink Spades would keep his eyes on every prostitute around Cold Haven even if they didn’t work for the brothel. Nicholas could tell easily that he wasn’t doing it for the sake of free services. The man, who looked like a real thug, did care for the women.

  “I will look into this pronto.”

  Toby beamed a satisfied smile at him. “Thanks, Nicholas.”

  This job wouldn’t pay but that didn’t matter. It was his duty as long as he lived in Cold Haven. Walking past Toby, he touched a spot below his left ear.

  “Nick? There is still some time left.” It was Cass.

  “A change of plan. Look into the latest events on the community bulletin.”

  As if understanding what he was trying to accomplish, she asked, “Who’s missing?”

  “Marie.”

  “Know the full legal name?”

  “Nope.”

  Since last names were legally demolished, everyone ended up having a unique identifier after their names. Otherwise, it would be too confusing legally for those with the same names.

  “Then give me her physical description at least.”

  And he did just that, telling her what she looked like.

  “Fair skin, light brown hair, about 170cm in height, D cup.”

  He could hear her silent scoff upon hearing “D cup”. If his eyeballing was correct, Cass was a B cup. He thought that she should be glad that she wasn’t an A cup. That would have been indeed pitiful. At least with a B cup, there would be something to grab. In his own experience, there was virtually nothing with an A cup. He would know since Jessica was an A cup.

  “Hair style?”

  “Usually a ponytail but can be straight shoulder length hair. You know what I mean.”

  “Yeah, got it.”

  Unlike men, women didn’t often have a single hair style. He knew, for a fact, that Marie with a ponytail meant that she was strictly working. If she undid her ponytail, it meant that she was becoming personal and she always undid her ponytail when working for him. Either way, he knew that it was going to be a long shot, but there were always imbeciles who liked to brag about whatever they did out loud. Natural selection should have gotten rid of them, but nothing was natural with humanity.

  “‘I’ve got something. My intuition tells me that these punks are the ones,” she said.

  “That was quick.”

  “There is a post here. A guy is inviting any one who is willing to ‘have some fun’ for free of charge. He is hosting this party in the sewers. It’s not stated exactly where, but I suppose it will be easy to track down.”

  “Indeed.”

  Follow whatever commotion there would be, and it would very likely lead to this party.

  “Nick, I say this is 50/50. The woman you are after may not be there.”

  In which case, he’d be wasting time which could be spent investigating.

  “Personally, I don’t even know where to begin. This loose lead is as good as any.”

  “Well, if you say so. Do you need me?”

  “No, stay with the android and keep your eyes on it. This is a personal matter.”

  “Ouch, I hope they aren’t the ones. Have fun, Nick.”

  Closing the communication, Nicholas entered an alley nearby and located a hatch at the end of the alley. The sewers were frequently a hideout for those who wanted “wild” things, and the place wasn’t dirty and smelly at all. In fact, it was sterile; even loose dirt on this colony was sterile. Anyone entering from a foreign source was carefully scanned and, if required, quarantined. Opening the hatch revealed a pristine aluminum ladder. It wasn’t dark, either. The sewers were brightly lit. In some ways, the sewers were another community within Cold Haven, therefore he never really cared about the sewers and never considered the place a part of the domain he had to look after.

  “Who goes there?!” A half naked man but with literally glittering leather pants with a plasma rifle aimed his gun at Nicholas who was claiming down the ladder. He had a distinctive mohawk hairstyle that was probably dyed in purple. Natural purple hair did exist, thanks to gene modifications.

  “The name’s Nicholas. I am after someone,” he replied calmly.

  “Nicholas? Oh, I do recognize the name.” He lowered his rifle. “Harm or kill?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Yes, because, if you are to kill, then I will need to prepare cleaners. Gut bacterias can easily mutate into something else if left alone.”

  “I don’t intend to kill but quite likely.”

  He nodded affirmatively. “It’s kill then. I will get cleaners ready.”

  “Thanks, pal.”

  In a lawless zone, natural selection played its role whereas highly civilized places would protect retarded folks. If one was brain dead enough to announce that they were stupid, then so be it.

  “Send me your account info, I will tip you, 5k, for your troubles.”

  The guard whistled joyfully. “So, they don’t call you Nicholas the Gentleman for no reason, I see. Gladly, sent.”

  “A tip sent.”

  “Received. Thank you. I will keep this quiet.”

  He knew that the guard wouldn’t keep this quiet. However, tipping him would at least lessen the hostility later on. He was in a gang’s turf after all. Thankfully, he knew the gang fairly well. As long as the guard told others that he was just passing by, it wouldn’t escalate. Granted, he was about to cause a scene, thus he wasn’t sure how it would go down entirely.

  “Try to keep it within half an hour,” the guard said as he dashed away. The sewers were more like a slightly neglected lab environment with pale white walls and such, and the “commotion” Cass mentioned was easy to find. All he had to do was follow the excited fellows. He could easily guess what was happening but he wouldn’t care less as long as Marie wasn’t involved. He had little interest in protecting strangers. Those around him, however, he would protect with whatever he had. It was one of his rules he set upon deciding to settle down in Cold Haven. He was not the Asperger nor was Sae the little Witch. His powers were very limited. All he could do was protect a select few around him. This also meant that he didn’t want to make many enemies, either, hence the tip. Interestingly, all these efforts weren’t something that were self-taught. His father, a mercenary, taught him. Making as few enemies as possible was apparently one of the core rules as a mercenary. It didn’t take him long to find an open door to a place. There were also several men casually looking right outside. A troubling sign was that he was hearing no woman’s moaning, which meant that whoever was being abused inside wasn’t probably conscious. She was probably drugged.

  “Sub, dude, what’s going on over there?” He asked casually as he approached. The place looked crowded, thus he wasn’t able to see what was going on.

  “No fucking clue, mate. I think they are having fun with a woman?”

  “What woman? Who?”

  “No clue. I was going to join but seeing how many dudes there are. I’d rather not. The woman is literally a human toilet at this point. Beyond my taste.”

  With narrowed eyes, he approached closer. The room was indeed packed, and he couldn’t see what was going on. Thankfully, he was just tall enough to be able to get a momentary glimpse and saw a fully naked woman laid bare on a table. A guy was on top of her, performing a sexual act. While he wasn’t able to see her face clearly, he did see brown hair. He wasn't 100% sure that it was Marie. Either way, he eyeballed the number of people in the room. There were about ten men, most of them fully naked, and none of them was carrying any sort of weapon. He calculated how many seconds it’d take to take them down. Glancing down, he checked his pistol. Briefly touching a spot activated a small screen on its back, revealing how many shots it could make before having to be recharged and reloaded. It displayed 99 shots.

  “Good, I didn’t forget to recharge it,” he whispered. A plasma gun required both electricity and suspended plasma. But it required very little dose of plasma per shot that he had forgotten when he swapped out the plasma storage the last time. Having his right hand on the pistol, he attempted to push through a wall of men to fully identify the woman.

  “Excuse me, just let me through for a sec,” he said as he pushed forward.

  “Woah, dude, get off! You haven’t even taken off your clothes!” One of them complained.

  “I just wanna see the woman. Might be someone I know.”

  “What? So what if it’s someone you know? What are you gonna do, kill us?” He said with a loud scoff.

  “That’d be right.” And that was the last thing the guy heard before something went through his head, splattering blood as he fell. Nicholas triggered the shot even before confirming the identity of the woman. Although evidence was lacking, he had a strong hunch that it was Marie. The glimpse of brown hair was enough for him in spite of the fact that it was one of the most common hair colors. He simply decided to trust his gut feelings. It never betrayed him so far.

  “THE FUCK?!” Those in the immediate vicinity exclaimed with sheer shock but they didn’t know who shot him in the head. Only when Nicholas shot another guy in the head, did they realize what was finally occurring. Alas, none of them had weapons. Well, they were either fully naked or half naked after all. Some of them had their penis fully erected. Mayhaps they could use it as a weapon of some sort. Alas, Nicholas was swift in his actions. He quickly shot down most of them in less than five seconds, leaving a few survivors in severe shock that all they could do was get down on their knees with their hands up in the air to show that they weren’t going to resist.

  “My apologies for the intrusion,” Nicolas said while pointing his gun at them. “But I just need to check something.”

  The four survivors were clearly not pleased with him. Well, he couldn’t blame them. Either way, he proceeded to check the woman on the table who was laid bare for anyone to have fun with her.

  “Marie…”

  It was indeed her with her eyes wide open and drooling.

  “Was it Delta-C?” Turning around, he asked the four, and their silence affirmed his suspicion. Delta-C was a synthetic drug, designed to be produced on the cheap and easily, allowing even a single person to be able to produce a significant amount as long as adequate lab equipment was present. The bar to be able to manufacture the drug was very low. Therefore, it was a very popular and easy to access drug to get high on the cheap. Of course, there was a catch. There was always a catch. How Delta-C worked was that its molecules would attach itself to a central nerve and dull its effectiveness, essentially making someone high. The issue was that it required a rather precise amount to get high. Anything less, all it did was give nausea and a massive headache later. Anything more, it would disintegrate the nerve. The kicker was that each individual had a different amount for the threshold. Therefore, for someone to fully be able to enjoy Delta-C, one would need to experiment from a low dose to higher until he found the right amount. The threshold was very delicate and even 10% more dose had a very severe effect on the central nerve, which was fixable with the current level of medical technology but expensive. However, going far beyond the threshold was often fatal because it would start to literally melt a brain which was full of nerves and protein. They wouldn’t have known the right threshold for her to begin with, meaning they injected her whatever amount they felt like. Her widely dilated eyes told him that she was injected far more than her threshold. The damage was probably already done at this point. She was very likely brain dead at this point, which was still curable, but her memories would be gone. She would become a brand new person.

  “You lot don’t deserve to live,” he said as he shot each of them right in their foreheads. He had shot all of them in the room in their heads in order to ensure the maximum difficulty in reviving them. Some of them might still be brought back because a damaged brain could still be repaired. Their memories, however, would be gone most likely. Carrying Marie in the princess style, he walked out of the room. A group of guards was standing outside with their rifles aimed at him. The only one who wasn’t showing any hostility was the bribed guard.

  “I’ve paid my due,” Nicholas said to them calmly.

  The guards looked around and their attention was soon fixed at the bribed guard who didn’t have his rifle up. With a brief sigh, he replied.

  “He tipped me 5k. But this is way more than that. You killed ten of our people.”

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Nicholas could take them on but only after abandoning Marie. Was there any point in taking her to safety at this point? She was almost certainly braindead. Even if her consciousness is restored, she would remember none, not even her language. She would need to restart as an infant. In fact, there was an unwritten rule regarding cases where a person would need to restart his or her entire life. A braindead person was legally considered dead. This was a universally accepted rule everywhere. If the victim had any relatives, they would make a choice of letting the victim continue on or else. If the victim had no relatives at all, which was rather common in this era, it would be down to the doctor overseeing the patient. Again, at this point, was there any point in trying to save her? In his mind, he could put up a decent fight against them - if - he used her body as a literal meat shield. Such a scenario did come to his mind.

  “Again, I’ve paid my due,” he pressed, hoping for them to let him pass without further troubles. His entry into their turf was at least legal due to the bribe. Even the guard admitted it thankfully.

  “You want more credits?” He suggested. “Do know that I am not willing to tip all of you fuckers. I won’t go down without a fight, either.”

  “Well, you made that loud and clear,” one of them said while pointing at the scene. Nicholas took them out in less than ten seconds total. They knew that he wouldn’t go down easily, hence their hesitation in how they wanted to handle the matter. Regardless, he foresaw what was going to happen. The only reason why they were hesitating was that they were trying to come up with a plan to take him down. Given the fact that they were probably communicating with each other electronically, he wasn’t going to give them too much time to come up with a concise plan. In fact, he felt that he gave them enough time. He did offer a peaceful resolution which they hesitated to give an answer to after all. Clicking his tongue, he threw Marie’s body toward them. The sudden turn of events forced them to react to catch her body, during which he pulled out his pistol from his belt and shot three of them in quick succession. He didn’t have time for headshots but did try to shoot them in their chests. Those who could react shot off their guns and rifles at him. Some heated plasma particles hit Nicholas in his chest. Thankfully, his black jacket was highly resistant to heated plasma and stopped it from reaching his skin. But it was blazingly hot nevertheless. He felt as if he was hit by a piece of red hot iron on his chest. Feeling suffocated but hanging onto his consciousness, he fired more shots, taking down two more. Knowing that none of his shots were fatal, he had to continue making his moves. Lowering himself to the floor to dodge further retaliation, he attempted to get the heated plasma bits off his jacket. Once done, he made a dash toward Marie’s body and grabbed the body with both of his hands. With only half of them down but not out, it was only going to get worse for him because they’d alert others for reinforcements. It was time to get the hell out.

  “Fuck…! GET HIM!”

  “Too late, my dude,” He whispered to himself and continued to dash. He knew the layout of the sewers very well. If it wasn’t for that advantage, it might have been quite hard to make out of there alive. The sewer had numerous exits and he chose whichever was closest that led him to section B of Cold Haven, close to Cass’ apartment unit in fact. There was a guard at the exit, but he mistook the situation as a medical emergency, so he let him go without a fuss. The fact that he wasn’t alerted of the incident meant that their structure wasn’t very organized, which worked in his favor.

  “Time to head for the clinic ASAP.”

  There was a clinic within Cold Haven. It was an unlicensed clinic, thus not many actually visited there, but he knew that the two people who worked there were reliable. The owner of the clinic was a former doctor whose license was revoked over a botched surgery. His assistant was a nurse whose name went by Miyuki. Those who needed medical attention generally went to licensed clinics in other sectors. For him, however, that was not an option because a sector elevator required verification of one’s ID, and Marie didn’t have one. Every legal and documented person on the Freedom colony had this chip embedded under their skin, usually the back of their neck. She was not an illegal migrant and did have her chip but she had it taken out because she developed a rare allergic reaction to the chip. The doctor at the unlicensed clinic was the one who performed the surgery. The ID chip, once taken out of flesh, would invalidate itself. Therefore, it was no longer useful. She would need to go to an administration building and have a new one installed, which she had yet done because the process was rather complicated. She would get into a sector elevator and an alarm would sound after a quick scan. She would be arrested as an illegal person initially. Given the fact that she was brain dead at the moment, that wasn’t really an option. They would dispose of her most likely since she would be considered dead.

  “GET THE HELL OUT!” The doctor of the clinic bellowed at him as soon as he saw him enter carrying naked Marie. It was located on section C of Cold Haven, which was the safest part of the sector.

  “Mark, I have a patient. She needs -”

  He interjected with bloodshot eyes, “GET THE FUCCCCK OUT!”

  The doctor, Mark, had a valid reason for going all out at the moment. Every single time Nicholas paid him a visit while carrying a patient, his clinic was always, without an exception, raided. The nurse, Miyuki, appeared from the back after hearing the commotion.

  “Doctor, what’s going on…” The nurse in a nurse outfit noticed Nicholas marrying a naked woman. “Nick…” She said with a long sigh. “We are gonna get raided, aren’t we.”

  Mark was a Caucasian man with short brown hair with a short beard. His only nurse, Miyuiki, was an Asian woman with black hair styled in a rachel haircut. He initially believed that those two had a relationship, but it turned out that the nurse was genuinely hired and was commuting from another sector.

  “Nevermind that. Would you please look at this woman.”

  “FUCK YOU! YOU AIN’T THE ONE WHO’S PAYING FOR THE INSURANCE!” Mark pulled his middle finger at him while Miyuki approached to take a look at Marie.

  “There is a company out there that covers your clinic?” Nicholas asked rather genuinely which missed Mark even more. Meanwhile, Miyuki had a scanner in her hand and was reading its output.

  “Brain wave zero. Brain dead. Delta-C?” She asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Another Delta-C victim? Fucking hell!” The doctor growled with his ire rapidly vanishing. “For how long? Nurse, get her into the pod.”

  “Don’t know. Hours at least, I believe.”

  “I bloody hope that it has not been more than 24 hours,” Miyuki said while taking her body from Nicholas. A hovering hospital bed was moving on its own and was approaching them.

  “God dang it, Nicholas. You cannot keep doing this to me. Not another raid…” Mark was walking around in a circle, looking like he had forgotten about Marie. Thankfully, the nurse was looking after her.

  “Well, the curse might break, you know. There might not be another raid.”

  “It’s not entirely your fault. It’s also related to my fucking luck or the lack thereof,” Mark grumbled and walked toward a wall with seemingly nothing. But he pressed on it anyway as if something was there. As soon as he did so, spots in the ceiling opened and black drones came out. They looked to be high-end with a sleek appearance.

  “You got combat drones?”

  “They wouldn’t insure this place without them. I had to pay for these. I spent fucking four million credits for these!”

  “Those look high end. Is it from the Little Army?”

  “Yeah, he cut me a deal.”

  The Little Army was Dakarai’s drone shop and the only drone shop in Cold Haven.

  “Dude, four million? You are loaded.”

  Mark’s breathing became labored as if he took a punch in the gut. “Nicholas, you fucking mofo, I had to get a loan!”

  “You know, you don’t have to run a clinic. Besides, your license is revoked.”

  Sighing, Mark turned away from Nicholas. “It’s all I know. Since we are going to get raided, I demand you stay around this time. At least, earn your keep.”

  He had to agree since he could imagine how much it was going to cost him to repair the building and whatnot. Touching a spot under his left ear, he called Cass.

  “Nick, we are on the way,” she replied promptly.

  “A change of the plan. Come to the clinic now.”

  “Was it her?”

  “Yes, it was.”

  “And you brought her to the clinic?”

  “Aye.”

  “Well, I see. We’ve got a raid to defend against.”

  He chuckled. And it was at this moment that he heard a ding in his head and a separate vision of something taking off popped in his head. It was his drone.

  “Nice, on time,” he whispered. The drone just took off from a roof and was going as high as possible before entering stealth mode. He halted the stealth mode and let it fly around to inspect the sector. The gang that was likely to raid the clinic was from the sewers, known as the Stinky Radiation. Since they were going to emerge from the sewer hatches, the drone’s vision wasn’t going to be very useful. After letting it enter its stealth mode, he visited Marie who was put in a pod filled with a green goo. It was a regeneration capsule, capable of healing and regenerating any lost limbs and organs. It was also used to heal nerves. Miyuki was standing next to it by a console and was busy with configuring it.

  “Do you think she will regain her memories?”

  “She most likely will. From how much her central nerve withered, I think she was injected with Delta-C eight hours ago. It’s not ideal but not critical, either. A few parts of her brain have been literally liquidated as a result. She will probably regain most of her memories but memories associated with the liquidated parts will be lost permanently.”

  Nicholas let out a long sigh. “Fuckers.”

  “Who were they?”

  “The Stinking Radiation.”

  “The sewer gang, huh.”

  Cass’ voice cried in his head all of a sudden. “Nick! We are here, but the clinic is already surrounded by the gang!”

  Shrugging, he said, “Sorry, Mark. You were right after all.”

  Upon hearing him, the nurse pulled out a pistol from the back of her belt and inspected it. Then he heard Mark’s scream.

  “NICHOLAS, YOU FUCKING A-HOLE!”

  Grinning, he pulled out his pistol and checked its status.

  “84 shots left. Might not be actually enough.”

  “Don’t worry. We have a supply of suspended plasma banks as well as batteries in the back,” the nurse replied.

  “Man, the doctor must have been pissed. He prepared for a war, huh.”

  “Anyone would have done the same. The doctor might just come after you one day.”

  “I want to say that you must be joking, but even I might do that if someone brought a curse over and over.”

  She grinned.

  “Why do you work here anyway? You could get a better job elsewhere, far safer also.”

  It was that moment where he noticed a tint of glimmer in her eyes.

  “And miss out on the fun?” She replied with a smirk. He understood instantly that she was an adrenaline junkie. She specifically chose a dangerous place to work so that she could have fun from time to time. Perhaps, it wasn’t the doctor’s luck. Perhaps, it was her who was bringing in the raids. That gave him some comfort that he may not be the source of the misfortune. When both of them came to the front, the raid had already started. Drones were firing shots with the doctor who had flipped a large table to act as a cover. The doctor himself wasn’t firing back and rather opted to cover his head with both of his hands and continued to curse at Nicholas. Miyuki quickly got behind the table and fired back.

  “You fucking a-hole, you fucking a-hole,” the doctor continued to curse like a possessed man. Neverminding him, Nicholas, Miyuki, and the drones fought back. For a while, it was simply firing back at each other behind covers. He felt like they were trying to keep them where they wanted.

  “There has to be a back door, right?” he asked Miyuki.

  “Actually, no. The front entrance is the only one.”

  “Really? That has to be against the building code.”

  “As if anyone inspects buildings in Cold Haven.”

  In other words, the raiders weren’t going to find other ways in unless they were going to blast walls open.

  “The structure is rated for bombardment,” she added. “They aren’t getting in.”

  He glanced at the doctor who was acting as if his whole world was crashing down on him. Contrast to his behaviors, it looked like he thought things through.

  He touched a spot under his left ear. “Cass, you there?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What’s going on out there?”

  “We are at the top of a building right now. The raiders are going around the clinic to find a way in. I don’t think it’s going well for them, though.”

  “How many are there?”

  “Twenty four out there. I don’t know how many are inside the building.”

  “Grenades!” Miyuki shouted. Fortunately, the drones were programmed to target them on priority. Therefore, none of it made it through. It looked like as long as they held onto their current position, the raiders were going to lose because a raid had to be swift and quick. A gang had enemies and they were currently exposing themselves, not to mention the fact that their base was probably low on defenders.

  “Do you want a hand?” she asked.

  “No, looks like we will be fine. Just have a drink at the Pink Spades.”

  “Too many people. I will be waiting at my apartment. Catch you later.”

  She always claimed to be an introvert, but he wondered whether it was by her own choice or due to some other issues. He believed that she was an introvert by choice. Regardless, it was time to focus on the matter right in front of him because the table that they were using as a cover was literally melting and burning which activated a fire suppression system that rained water on them.

  “Doctor, get inside,” he told him. “We will take things from here.”

  “You’ve better. That’s the least you can do,” he grumbled. At least, he seemed to have calmed down. He crawled away from the scene and went deeper inside, which made him question the layout of the clinic because it looked like the whole layout was meant to withstand raids.

  “Miyuki, we need to withdraw a bit. The table is literally disintegrating.”

  “Right.” She gestured a circle in the air which made the drones retreat slowly while continuing to fire. The raiders saw this as a sign of victory and pressed harder only to be shot in the head by Nicholas. They finally killed one of them, and this was the start. More raiders pushed forward and more were wounded. By the time they were a distance away from the disintegrating table, about five raiders were down.

  “The layout of the clinic makes it really easy to defend,” he said to himself.

  “As it should be,” the nurse replied. “All businesses operating in Cold Haven are mindful of the possibility that they might be raided. This is especially true for a clinic where they could come for drugs.”

  The layout of the clinic, at least the lobby and a bit inwards, was zigzag, allowing safe retreat while being able to find cover easily. The benefit applied to attackers as well but favored defenders much more since all they need to do is just hold position. Trying to push forward against well covered defenders was a nightmare for the attackers. The raiders lost several whenever they made a push, and it didn’t take long for them to realize that their efforts were in vain.

  “They are withdrawing,” Miyuki declared while taking quick peaks out of a corner. She gestured to the drones to chase them.

  “Well, that was easy.”

  “The insurance premium is going to go up again,” she said. “The doctor will be mad at you and rightfully so.”

  “What was I supposed to do, just let her die?”

  “He probably would have preferred that.”

  He didn’t get angry at her response. This was Cold Haven after all.

  “And given the fact that she seems to be missing her ID chip, we can’t register her as a patient, either, meaning we won’t get paid by the administration.”

  Essential medical service was free for all legal citizens in the Freedom colony. Scanning one’s ID chip was all it took.

  “She is not illegal. She had a severe allergic reaction to it all of a sudden. It was Mark who performed the surgery.”

  “Must have been before I came along then.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, I am sure that the doctor will find some way to get paid. We’ve rarely been in black.”

  “Are you paid on time?”

  “Of course. If not, why would I be here?”

  Mark said that he paid four millions for the drones. He claimed that it was a loan. Whether it was really true, he wasn’t sure. Nicholas felt that he must have been loaded to be able to afford it and then continue running the clinic especially when it was rarely in black.

  “The raiders have left the clinic. It’s time to clean up the bodies,” she said while leaving a corner which she used as a cover. “Time to extract some organs. I guess we will finally hit black for this fiscal year.”

  “Is organ trading still a thing nowadays?”

  “Some still buy them. I don’t care what they use them for. Anyway, see yourself out before the doctor sees you and enters a rage mode.”

  “Point taken. I will check on Marie later.”

  “I will send you updates. Don’t you worry.”

  As he walked out of the clinic, he counted at least eight bodies. Two were dead, and the others were still alive. Whatever was going to happen to them, it was none of his concern. For him, it was time to head to Cass’ apartment and deal with the android. Touching a spot under his left ear, he contacted Toby.

  “Nicholas, Sup,” he replied almost instantly.

  “Sup, she is going to be okay.”

  “What happened and who was it?”

  “Delta-C overdose, and the Stinking Radiation.”

  There was a short moment of silence. “I see,” Toby replied eventually.

  “Minimal memory loss expected.”

  Marie should really thank Toby, he thought. If it wasn’t for him, she would have suffered total memory loss.

  “Thank you for your service, Nicholas. I will remember this.”

  “No problem.” And the communication was over.

  Taking a deep breath and cracking his fingers, he looked around while folding his arms. No one was around at the moment because of the raid. Cold Haven was a small community but …

  “Rarely a dull day,” he said to himself.