Trace checked the revolver, making sure it was fully loaded as he waited for the group of four to arrive. It wasn’t a long wait, and just minutes after Ko hid, the sound of footsteps and Cerys’ familiar voice arguing with people arrived.

  “Where are my two guards?” Cerys demanded angrily. “I came up here and have even put up with your annoying friend here manhandling me as he stuck a jammer module in my NetConnect! Now, enough of these games and show them to me already. There is no way a decent mender would be caught dead in this sort of environment.”

  “We never said the guy was decent,” One of them said with a laugh. “Now hurry up, the place is just a little farther.”

  Cerys cried out in annoyance.

  Meanwhile, Trace frowned at what he had just heard, as the steps continued to come closer. Cerys was wearing a jammer module, which meant none of the latest messages from her sisters had ever gotten through. They had confirmed that the initial ones had, but that was it.

  This wasn’t necessarily a problem, but it might create a complication depending on how she reacted.

  He sighed and readied the revolver. There was nothing he could do about it now, but his best.

  Trace held the large gun with his right hand, and took a deep breath, feeling his chest hitch in different places as it caught on the PlugDoc seals. Sitting there in the chair, he had almost forgotten how hurt he had been. Sometimes it was a little too easy to ignore what your body was telling you.

  He kept his eyes locked on the corner where the group would appear, his finger resting lightly on the trigger of the revolver. His heart pounded as he waited, knowing he'd only have a second or two max to react once they came into view. They might not recognize him, but they would still undoubtedly realize something was up when they saw some random person simply sitting in their way.

  Finally, the first two guards rounded the corner, followed closely by Cerys and the guards’ friend, who was holding tightly to her arm. Trace didn't hesitate - he squeezed the trigger twice in rapid succession, the massive rounds booming out of the barrel.

  The first guard's head exploded in a spray of gore, his entire head and neck vanishing along with a chunk of the wall behind him. The second shot caught the guard who had been standing next to him in the chest. The magnum round ignored the armor he was wearing and sheared through part of his titanium bones that had been reinforced for use with his cyberware shoulder and arm.

  Both men collapsed in a growing puddle of blood, as Cerys screamed in shock and went limp.

  Before the third man could react, a fingertip attached to a thin wire flashed out from a nearby doorway and wrapped around his neck. There was a spray of blood as his head tumbled to the floor, cleanly severed.

  Ko’s monomolecular wire whip had performed flawlessly and cut through the man’s spine like it was nothing more than air. The droplets of blood dripped cleanly from the wire as it reeled back in toward her hand. The tip of her finger slotted into place and connected with the port that would allow it to function as a fingertip once more.

  Cerys stared in momentary shock at the bloody scene around her, unable to process what had just happened. Her eyes darted between each of the bodies and then to Trace sitting in the chair with the revolver.

  “Trace? What... how...” She stammered. “Jam said you were injured.”

  “I am.” He patted an arm of the chair he was strapped to. “Sorry about the mess," Trace continued calmly. "But these guys weren't exactly giving us many options if we wanted to finish this quickly. Are you alright?"

  Cerys nodded numbly as Ko emerged from her hiding spot to the side. She quickly grabbed the weapons from the three men and placed them in Trace’s lap.

  "We should get moving before anyone else shows up," Ko said, already pushing Trace's wheeled chair forward. "Can you walk, Cerys? I don’t suppose you’d mind dragging them inside the doc’s place, would you?"

  The woman shook herself out of her daze. "Yes, I'm fine. Just... surprised. Where are Jam and Ram? Doc, what?"

  "They're safe," Trace assured her. "It’s just over here actually, and yes, there is a doctor down here, strange as that may seem. I would suggest you pull that jammer out of your NetConnect now that no one is holding your arms."

  As Ko pushed his chair toward Meduci’s apartment, Cerys grabbed a leg from two different guards and began dragging them along, choosing to let the device remain in place for a little longer. As they walked, Trace quickly explained the situation to Cerys. Starting with what had happened at the meeting, their escape down the stairs, and then how they had ended up with the healer -he was leaving the man’s identity unknown for the moment- found her sisters and waited to ambush the guards.

  Cerys listened intently as they made their way back to Meduci's apartment, her eyes widening at certain parts of Trace's explanation. As they approached the door, she paused in dragging the bodies.

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  “Wait, are you sure this man is a doctor and not just some crazy mender or slicer? Maybe something else?” She asked skeptically, staring at the door. “I’m aware you know your information, Miss Devko, but still, a proper doctor… on this floor is a little hard to believe.”

  "Trust me, I know. I reacted the same way. He is though, and oddly enough, I think you'll find him quite familiar," Ko replied with a slight smirk.

  Cerys frowned in confusion, but followed them inside. As soon as they entered and she caught sight of the man sitting at his desk, she gasped the legs falling from her stunned hands.

  "Doctor Grey?! But... how? We all thought you were dead!"

  The older man gave a weary smile. "Hello, Cerys. It's been a while."

  "A while? You disappeared without a trace years ago! What happened? Why are you here of all places?" Cerys demanded, her shock quickly turning to anger.

  Before he could respond, Jam and Ram rolled into view, each move of their arms accompanied by a wince of pain.

  "Big sis!" They exclaimed in unison, trying to wheel toward Cerys faster.

  "Oh, thank goodness. There you are," Cerys said, bending down to hug them tightly.

  Ko rolled her eyes and promptly pulled the jammer module from the woman’s NetConnect. “If you had just removed this before grabbing those legs, you could have been messaging them for the last couple of minutes.”

  Trace motioned to the doctor. “There’s one more body still just laying out there if you want to drag it inside. I’m sure there is some money inside the man’s crypto-vault, assuming someone else hasn’t already taken it in the last few minutes.”

  The man gave the gathered trio of people he was once close to a longing glance and then hurried out the door.

  “Let’s see, what kind of pistol is this?” Trace muttered, mostly to distract himself and Ko from the conversation Cerys and the twins were having. His tongue clicked in annoyance. “Ten millimeter. Perfect for your gun, but not mine. I might need to carry one of these until we get out of this place, though. I knew the round for my new pistol was less popular, but I didn’t realize it was to this extent. I’m going to have to redo all my holsters when we get back, so I can carry all the extra ammo I might ever need.”

  This entire situation was just getting ridiculous, in his opinion. Normally, he would be carrying his bag and could use that. However, he already knew from experience with his stealth suit that the bag wasn’t always an option.

  He carefully passed the gun to Ko and checked the second pistol, only to see the same thing. The pistol she had retrieved from the third man, however, was where he got lucky. That was the man who had been their friend, and not an actual guard. His gun was some fancy-looking Maritech model that he didn’t recognize. It used the right ammunition though. Of course, that was also when he remembered how gunked up his gun still was.

  So, it didn’t really matter either way since it would be staying holstered. That said, he would certainly steal the dead man’s holster and any extra magazines and ammunition he had been carrying.

  Everything else was more SMGs, which he had to admit, while not his favorite style of gun, had been especially useful to have in the stairwell.

  Meduci came back a couple of minutes later, dragging the last body, huffing loudly. “Ugh, I need to start working out again.” He stretched out his back and then tilted to one side, the weight of his heavy cyberware weighing him down.

  “Ko, can you get me his holster? It’s fitted for this gun and will probably work better for the one I’m currently using as well.” Trace asked her as she returned with the cart carrying her mother and the twins’ swords.

  With him still strapped to the chair, his ability to move around was seriously impaired.

  “Thanks,” He said, as she handed it to him. “Now, how are we going to get out of here?” This time he made sure to ask the question loud enough that it attracted Cerys’ attention along with the others. “We are going to need your help for that. I guess I’m just wondering how far are you willing to go?”

  The woman let out a bark of laughter and touched the edge of her NetConnect, ejecting a data prism. “Here you go Devko. This has all the original contract information for your mother, along with the changes that have been made to it in a timeline format. The corporation keeps very good records. You won’t have any problem burying them if they try to come after you.” She handed the prism over and then tapped the other edge of her NetConnect, ejecting a second data prism.

  “While I was down there, I collected my own form of insurance. Don’t forget, I knew what Harvey was like. I had a good idea of how things would end up, though I had expected to have a little more time to secure your exit. If you had given me another minute or two, then I would have been able to send you down in an elevator without a problem.” She pulled her sisters close, then looked over at the doctor. “Regardless, I had a feeling this was going to be our last day working for the corporation. Hence the insurance. Don’t forget, it’s been a while coming now.”

  Trace nodded, remembering the story she had told him earlier in Su-Min’s bathroom.

  “Alright. Well, then, how are we going to do this?” Ko asked, staring at the group. “We sort of stick out; in case you haven’t noticed. Trace is tied to a chair. Your sisters are in wheelchairs, and my mom is passed out in a cart.” She finished with an exasperated roll of her eyes.

  “Yeah, I had noticed that,” Cerys muttered, frowning. “Why are you tied to a chair? I know why my sisters are in wheelchairs, but they’re not tied down.”

  “Bullet fragment just barely nicked my spine and messed up the nerve,” Trace explained, twisting the story somewhat to fit around the nanites. “One of my legs is paralyzed now, but Ko thinks she can fix it when we get back. If I twist wrong and damage it further though… well, it goes from a fix to cyberware spine and legs.”

  “Oh,” Cerys nodded, suddenly unsure of what to say. “Anyway, if we can get to the elevators, I can get us to the parking garage just underneath the ground floor without a problem. I might have done a few other things while I was inside the system. I had to make sure they couldn’t just revoke my access too easily, and if they do, I now have a backup user profile.” She gave them a strained grin. “None of that is going to last forever though, so I suggest we move now.”

  The doctor walked over to the three women and knelt in front of them. “I’m sorry I had to leave. There is so much I want to tell you… that I need to tell you. Just know that it wasn’t my choice.”

  Cerys’ eyes flashed as she sent him a point-to-point message. “If you ever leave this place, come find us. Leave a message there and I’ll contact you.”

  He wiped the corners of his eyes and stood with a sniff. “Don’t worry, I won’t be long. Just give me a week to let the people here know and then I’ll be along.”

  “We’ll hold you to that,” Jam and Ram said in unison.

  Thank you to all the people who have taken the time to rate the story and to my latest Patrons! I have other stories up on my Patreon, including my current WIPs. Which are now Created G.H.O.S.T. System(My Cyberpunk story), WetWorks2, plus The Restaurateur and His Daughter and DungeonFall. :)

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