“So… thank you,” I muttered quietly once we were outside of the black market and heading away from the alley that concealed its entrance. “Really. I don’t know how I would have managed on my own. I’ll put in a good word with Catill,”

  My guide sneered. “You better. Jelly still owes me, don’t think I blew my whole debt on you, but it’s worth it if it gets Catill off my back. Now, get. I’m gonna guess you can find your own way home.”

  Without waiting for an answer, she began to power-walk into the teeming crowds of the middle districts.

  Funny, that. A wealthier, safer district, and yet there were way more people out on the streets than you’d ever see in the outer district and the slums.

  It made a twisted sort of sense, I suppose. Outside the cushy comfort of the middle district, people learned quickly not to loiter. Not if they didn’t want to end up a pile of meat on the pavement somewhere.

  It wasn’t as bad in the outer district, obviously. Plenty of people walking around there. The slums, though? Even though they were chock-full of people slowly wasting away, you’d think they were a ghost town most of the time.

  It was only during the daily work commute that you’d see the press of bodies. Even then, people tried to wrap up their business in the streets as quickly as possible so they could retreat into whatever ‘home’ they had, be it an actual apartment they were struggling to pay for month by month, or a well-concealed and very literal hole in a wall.

  My thoughts once more drifted to the dumpster that hid my stolen collection of cyberware behind its considerable bulk. I’d need to check on it soon, once I knew for sure that trouble had passed.

  I felt a sudden urge to ring up Mela right then and there and ask what was going on back at the HQ. I’d be stopping by for dinner, sure, but I wasn’t sure I’d catch her then. Besides, the appeal of finding out now was considerable.

  What stopped me was the ruse I was trying to maintain. My eye color was still set to be as natural-looking as possible. Having my eyes glow to signify I was on a call would be a dead giveaway.

  At least that reminded me to fiddle with the settings a bit. By the time I reached the checkpoint between districts, I’d managed to dig those settings up and alter them so that none of that nonsense would make my eyes glow.

  Really, who thought it would be a good idea to make ‘glowy eyes’ the default whenever you were trying to contact someone? Whatever happened to subtlety?

  I did, however, fiddle with the setting so I had an ‘on/off’ option for the glow easily accessible on my UI. If I ever needed to pull off an intimidating presence, suddenly glowing eyes would go a long way towards selling the impression. Especially with my otherwise underwhelming appearance.

  Somewhat predictably, the checkpoint rigmarole was way less exhaustive when I was on my way out. The guards barely paused long enough to do a token questioning. They even left my citizenship scanning entirely to the built-in machines, rather than bother with their handheld scanners.

  It made sense, sure. But it still rankled that I was afforded so much more trust on the mere assumption that I came from the middle districts.

  Shaking off my frustration, I finally had my eyes send out a call and then waited for Mela to answer. It took a while, like it did whenever I tried to call her, and not just because she’d broken two scrolls in the short timeframe since we met. She was a menace to society who didn’t let trivial things like her scroll or attempted communication slow her down.

  “Well, look who it is!” Mela crowed the moment the call connected, treating me to the sight of her wide grin. “Whatcha up to, boyo?”

  “Just some shopping. Managed to get my hands on a couple shards I think will be useful. Maybe I’ll even be able to contribute properly from now on, rather than just letting you kick my ass all over the place,” I joked.

  I knew it would take a while before I managed to get the runner shards to give up their secrets. Still, a little bravado never hurt with Mela.

  “Oh, them’s fighting words!” She laughed in a slightly unhinged way that made me cringe. “Imma expect more from ya the next time I see ya now! Maybe ye could actually take more than a few shots before crumbling, hmmm?”

  “The shards are not exactly useful for that,” I hurried to explain, then sighed when I realized from her bloodthirsty grin that it wouldn’t matter. Apparently, I was getting my face beaten in at her earliest convenience. “Anyway, I actually called hoping you’d have some good news for me. What’s the situation right now on the streets? Everything calming down, I hope?”

  “Ahhh, well…” Mela trailed off, and my nerves jittered. She looked like she’d just found out someone broke into her room and scratched up those shooters she loved so much. “Not all’s fine and dandy, ‘fraid to say.”

  “What’s going on, exactly?”

  “Someone’s still stirring up shit. We have no fucking clue who it is, but some asshole’s taken out a couple important gang leaders and their lieutenants. Plus, two more minor gangs just up and disappeared. Not good for business, yanno? S’got everyone on edge.”

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  I worried away at my lower lip as I walked, struggling to stay aware of my surroundings while my brain churned.

  So, whoever was after the stolen cyberware hadn’t finished their crusade yet. They did seem to be slowing down, though. From what Mela had told me during our training sessions, the whole reason the slums had nearly erupted into all-out war in the first place was the mysterious elimination of several major gangs overnight.

  If my mystery pursuer was toning it down to minor gangs now, with just a couple deaths in the ranks of the major players…

  I let hope warm me a little, trying to convince myself this was a sign that everything would be okay. So long as I could ride out the death throes of this initial burst of anger, then I’d be safe.

  Whoever was behind it all, they had to have realized by now that none of the slum gangs had the cybernetics. Other than the Kittens and two or three other gangs at best, the slum gangs didn’t have what I could describe as even remotely intelligent leadership. If a boss of one of those gangs managed to get their hands on top-of-the-line cybernetics, experimental or not, they’d be screaming it to the world just to prove they had the best shit around.

  So if the Reaper’s patron knew anything about the slums at all, then once they’d rattled the major players to shake out any secrets, they’d hopefully assume it was a business rival of theirs that had done the disappearing act. I mean, if they could produce cyberware like that, then they had to be a corpo, right? Nothing else made sense.

  Maybe, just maybe, I was almost in the clear.

  That didn’t do much for the guilt eating away at me, or the continual urge to confess everything to the Kittens.

  But it would do no good. Even if I took the cyberware straight to Garren, it would do little other than paint a target on his back.

  Besides, whoever made the stuff clearly wanted it all back, and that wasn’t going to happen. I was not about to let someone rip the eyes out of my skull. Even if I did, the fact remained that I had stolen them. I somehow didn’t think a ‘thank you and please forgive me’ note was going to make the shady corpo agree to put things behind us without further retribution.

  “Ya okay, kiddo? Ya suddenly went all silent on me. Not getting scared, are ya? Is my itty bitty kitten terrified of the slums now? Want me to help ya find a place to stay in the outer district? Ye’ve gotcha the pass already, now ya just need some credits.”

  For all the teasing in Mela’s voice, I could sense an iron undercurrent of sincerity. She knew exactly where I worked, obviously. If I said yes, she would do whatever it took to help me huddle up in the outer district for a while. However…

  “Nah. Thanks for the offer. Really. But it’s not that. I’m just wondering why all of this happened and how long we’re gonna need to wait for it to go away, you know?”

  “Ahhh, I gotcha. Nasty business, yeah. From start to finish. Can’t wait for it all to go away, and then we can really kick the asses of everyone who thought it would be a good idea to try and catch us out while the mess was going down.”

  The smile on Mela’s face was downright chilling. I felt kind of bad for the people she was going to come after.

  Then again, if they’d decided to mess with the Kittens in the middle of all the chaos… Well. Natural selection was still running like a well-oiled machine, even if we were no longer on Terra.

  “Sounds like something you’d approve of, yes,” I snarked, unable to stop a twitching smile from surfacing on my lips. “You know, Garren says this is why you’re still single. You’ve scared everyone away. Now no one wants to risk your wrath, or your brother’s.”

  “Oh, is that what he’s been telling ya, hmm?” Mela’s amusement drained out of her in seconds, replaced by a calculating viciousness. “Imma have to have a little chat with our badass boss about what’s appropriate for the ears of kiddos like you. Maybe even let my brother do it instead of me.”

  I shuddered, but I wasn’t about to volunteer to take Garren’s place. Instead, I just quietly sent the guy some good vibes and a silent plea to forgive me. I hadn’t met Mela’s brother yet, since he was still away on whatever errand Garren had sent him on before the whole mess started, but the things I did hear were more than mildly terrifying.

  “Uhhhh, right. Right. Well, I gotta go, Mels. Am I gonna catch you when I stop by the HQ for dinner?”

  “Nah. Got some stuff to take care of. Some knees to bust, some fingers to smash. Ya know how it is! Can’t let these assholes inch in on our turf, chaos or not.”

  “Right. Checks out. Well, tomorrow then?”

  “Tomorrow.” Somehow, the scary woman made that sound like the most ominous threat I’d heard in a while.

  Then the call cut out, and I let out a tense breath.

  I loved having Mela as one of my friends. I really did. I just also fervently hoped I never accidentally crossed her, or she would make me regret it.

  Bitterly.

  With that cheery thought, and the shards burning a hole in my pocket, I began to speed-walk through the outer district. I found another deserted alley to change clothes in. Only once my ‘fancy’ new outfit was safely hidden in my backpack did I make my way to my usual slums checkpoint.

  My brief visit to HQ wasn’t all that notable. I showed up. Feyo fed me like I was a starving, neglected orphan who deserved all his compassion and fussing, just like he did to everyone else. Then I was off to my own slice of peace and quiet.

  Sort of.

  My apartment used to be my refuge. The one place I believed was safe, no matter what. The Zerx had ruthlessly shattered that illusion. Now I was left with an odd sense of anxiety when I didn’t keep myself busy. I found myself listening intently to any sound coming from beyond my newly replaced and reinforced door, trying to pick up the chatter of potential intruders so I could prepare for them.

  I really wished I could kill the Zerx all over again, just for that. But they were gone. I needed to claw back some measure of normalcy if I was going to be okay in the long-term.

  And I would be. That was a promise to myself I would absolutely keep.

  Thankfully, I had something to keep me preoccupied on that particular evening: two whole sets of shards that promised to teach me everything I needed to know about netrunner basics.

  Once I was settled on my bed, I pulled out the two black, oval shard-cases, each about the size of my hand. I decided to start with the corpo-recommended course. SHAD03 was, according to Jelly, a program meant to get runners up to speed on infiltration, hacking, and even scrubbing your presence from the net. In other words, everything you needed to become a good corpo spy and steal the secrets of their rivals in the name of glorious profit.

  That’s what I wanted for myself, too. The ability to slip into systems, rob them blind, and then disappear like a wraith.

  Now, the SHAD03 basic set of shards wasn’t going to get me there. This was, as Jelly said, an intro course. The basic proficiency rundown. Still, everyone had to start somewhere.

  I ran the first shard through my scroll, just in case. Then I prepared to slot it into my port, resolving to learn everything I could.