I found a good position and opened the coupler in the gloves. Then, I concentrated every kilogram of dissatisfaction from the day into my fist and smashed it hard.

The carbon fiber honeycomb wall had been around for years, and I had made a hole with two punches, enough for three people to walk through side by side. I patted the debris off my body and walked into the dimly lit building.

I'm out of luck. This is a storeroom. Aftermarket bulk prosthetics are piled up from the floor to the ceiling. None of them looked clean. But then again, the people who can afford to buy the upgraded parts that have just left the factory are on the top of the heads of many, many urban areas away from here.

I pushed open a few plastic curtains, revealing a larger room with a faint blue light and purple fluorescence. The low bass of the music resonated with my breastplate. I gestured to the seat on the high floor.

"Is that him?" Wayne hacked into my internal communication channel and picked up her own so I could hear her clearly in my head. It's still low, but it's not as effective as a voice processor. She raised her chin at a stocky back. The man sat alone on a dimly lit table.

"Hacking into the private communicator of the agents at the center is a felony enough to go to jail." I replied. "I'm not going to ask where you learned the craft."

Wayne smiled. The soft light in front of the man reflected a pair of large, round eyes, it was Moseley. I nodded.

"That's right, it's him."

I pushed the energy of my gloves up a bit, casting a cloud of orange light on the tattered ground. The people of the scrap heap understood the meaning of the light, and without saying a word, they moved out of the way.

I dragged a chair and placed it in front of Moseley's desk. The light on the table flickered slightly. I noticed that this place had recently been used as a makeshift operating table for nerve surgery. Proof of this was the small keg next to Moseley's cup, which contained a number of teeth. Data ports that are not certified by the center are usually chosen for the most convenient neural access – under the molars is the easiest to handle.

Moseley saw Wayne, "You didn't say you'd bring your friends, Vi." ”

"Upgraded." Wayne said.

I leaned forward and placed both gloves on the table, nearly knocking over the keg. I opened my eyepiece and took a good look at Moseley's real, fragile eyes.

"I should have brought more people to this place. If it weren't for the search for something, you wouldn't have come to the scrap. So, what are you looking for, Moseley? ”

The joints of the gloves were itched by the surging energy.

"He doesn't want my stuff...... So I told him you had upgrades. Moseley's eyes were moist and his words flickered. I thought if he was interested, I could convince you to sell it to me. He said, he said if I could call you down......"

"Where's your buyer?" Wayne asked, glancing at the roaming villains.

A thin red light pointed at the very center of Moseley's chest.

An unusually calm voice came from the old public communication channel in the building: "Here, dear. ”

I saw Vayne's face change suddenly. She growled, "Ash." "Every downtown magistrate can tell what that tone means.

"Secret Service Lieutenant Wayne, what a wonderful surprise. You look much better. Sad, your squad, but you're putting their stuff to good use. Especially the upgrade of that crossbow. ”

"Ember? Moseley, your buyer is Kada Ash? I stared at my new partner's still giggling face. He nodded without resistance. Ember is a notorious augmenter hacker and is especially fond of high-level upgrades. It is said that he used to be a technician in the black market, but once he did not do a clean job, but almost wiped himself clean. The result is a severe split personality. In a recent bulletin I downloaded, I mentioned that he had been robbing people of good things since then. Even if he wasn't crazy at first, he inserted so many other people's parts into himself, and he probably didn't have many normal parts of his brain.

And it sounds, Wayne and he have fought before.

"It's getting more and more interesting." I said in a suppressed voice.

Ember burst out laughing. The distorted laughter sent a chill down my spine.

"I'm going to tear you to pieces, you virus." Wayne said to the unseen voice. She's stretched to the limit.

"Later, my dear. Let's solve what I want first. Ember's voice turned into a chilling whisper. What about upgrades. ”

"It's not hers anymore." Wayne pulled out the data block and held it high in front of him.

"It's a pity." Ember sighed. "How I wish you had installed the subprogram. Hey, then- I'm going to have to rewrite the third act. ”

There was a shrill whistling of extremely high pitches, accompanied by a red cluster of ions flying between me and Moseley. I didn't wear blinds, and the blazing light made my eyes black. The cacophony of background sounds suddenly stopped, and immediately turned into panic shouts. I smelled fear, and the smell of burnt silicon chips. Tears welled up in my eyes, and I kept blinking trying to erase the light spots left by the neon ions.

Through the afterimages, I could see that the joints of the gloves were scorched, and Moseley had a piercing hole in his chest. Even without the center's forensic kit, I could have concluded that this was the same weapon that killed the Medic on the bridge.

"The rat is here." Wayne said to me on the communicator. "I'm going to kill him. That's what he wants. "She threw the data block at me." Be careful not to get shot. ”

As soon as I grabbed the block, Wayne vanished. The waste heap is largely empty. When it comes to the effect of dispersing the crowd, a shot of deionized plasma is obviously the best. My gloves were recharged, and the amber glow lit up the darkness.

Mechanized laughter echoed through the room. There was a simmering sound of static electricity in the public channel.

"Ahhh A gloved cat can't catch a mouse. He said, purring like a cat.

"Kada Ash." I said it out loud. "You are wanted for multiple murders." I looked at the high attic, looking for red points of light. "And you just killed my partner."

"You don't like him anyway. What did you say? "There was a click on the radio, followed by a sizzle when retrieving the voice file." Ah, yes, this is the ......"

As soon as the sizzling stopped, I heard my own voice. "I don't trust escalation."

"Good craftsmanship." I bypassed piles of discarded electronic devices and continued my hunt. "I have what you want."

"Does your new friend not like your gift?" Louder laughter reflected back and forth around me. The broken glass in the corner of the wall intertwined into a large broken reflection, and something swept by. "She doesn't like to level up, either. Did she tell you about her old partner? Her squad? ”

I didn't answer, and continued to move closer to where he had last appeared.