It was dark out when we walked back on the street, and the feeling of the outside air on my face had never been so good. I was surprised that we weren’t immediately swarmed by rats. Now that I was level 6, my Data Gathering skill was adding clutter to my vision. Those familiar dot triangles were popping up everywhere. I noticed them hovering over the laser arrays and popped it open.

  Are you ready to meet death by laser? No? Then stay far, far away from the Trust Foundation or your life expectancy will shrink to seconds. Remember, lasers don’t pulverize, they polarize. And if that sounds comforting somehow, forget it. Death by laser is a bad way to go.

  We didn’t linger in front of the Trust Foundation. I trusted that if Mukari suddenly smelled a rat, they could zap us right out of existence with those lasers. I breathed a sigh of relief once we had put some distance between us and the quadrant stronghold, but I also wondered if the lack of rats so far had something to do with those lasers.

  “I’m sorry I suggested going in there,” said Trix.

  “It’s alright. I got four levels from it and tons of intel.”

  Trix turned and looked at me and then frowned. “Please tell me you’ve got some stat points left. You look like an addict on his final bender.”

  I popped up my stats page and, yeah, my portrait had strong Dorian Gray vibes. My charisma had dwindled even further after I hit level 6. I used both of my remaining stats from the level gain on charisma.

  Trix shook her head. “Better. Not great, but better.”

  I concurred, given that some of the hideousness in my internal portrait softened with the added stat points. My skin still looked somewhat drawn, but my hair got back some of its natural shine.

  I didn’t feel like bringing up the very real issue that if we wanted to get out of this quadrant, we’d likely have to pay another visit to Mukari, and by then he’d know he’d been played. There wouldn’t be an option to sit around a table in a corporate office to talk through the ins and outs of security firm takeovers.

  WILL: What was that about Unlimited Security?

  TRIX: Mostly made it up. But that security group is real. See over there?

  She pointed to a glass and steel tower not too far away, on the other side of the street, Unlimited Security written across the front with big letters glowing silver.

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  Before that, I’d only told Mukari what he already knew. It was a risk, but I had to tell him something new, give him something to mull over.

  While we walked under the glow of the city’s streetlights, I looked through my inventory to see if I’d picked up anything useful from Jagger and remembered his hunting knife. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it while we were in the Trust Foundation, but pressure has a way of making it hard to think clearly. I pulled out the knife, feeling its even balance and running my eyes over its sharp serrated edge and skewer-like tip. I read its description:

  Corporal Keel’s Hunting Knife.

  Have you ever walked around Walmart with your buddies and thought, “Hey, let’s go check out the weapons aisle!” If you have, then you know the butter knives you saw there were jokes in comparison to this pig sticker. Also, none of those knives contain the downloaded consciousness of Corporal Keel. Keel saw one too many combat operations and doesn’t have much of a soul left, but boy can he inflict pain! By the way, Keel may ask you to let him out of the weapon, which can be done by sliding the lock mechanism found on the bottom of the hilt to its unlocked position. Do so at your own peril.

  +5 strength.

  1d7 damage dice roll (increased by +0/+1 every 10 levels, +1/+1 every 50 levels)

  1% chance to Bingo any mob, if that hit is the first hit against a mark.

  I turned the weapon around to find the lock mechanism and found it at the bottom of the hilt. I planned to never touch that.

  Then I heard the weapon whisper.

  KEEL: Release me, Will. Release me and we will hunt.

  I looked at the weapon, but didn’t hear anything else and figured it was just another Z echo. I showed Trix the stats on Keel’s Knife.

  WILL: Jagger was walking around with a sick weapon, but he wasn’t using it right. It was a thief’s weapon and, what was he, some sort of warrior class?

  TRIX: He was a Postal Employee.

  WILL: That’s a class?

  TRIX: They get a rage bonus. It can be pretty scary.

  I was feeling good thinking about my knife and surviving our visit to the Trust Foundation when I heard something scurrying behind us. Trix heard it too. We spun around to find four rats running toward us. Trix screamed and grabbed my arm.

  I took a look at the rats.

  Common Rat – Level 1.

  This little rodent wants to nibble your toe. Don’t let him. In fact, please kill any of these rats you see as quickly as possible. There’s been a cholera outbreak in some of the quadrants recently. Take a wild guess whose droppings are spreading that around.

  WILL: The rats are level 1.

  TRIX: These rats, Will. There could be bigger rats.

  While the hunting knife was clearly the superior weapon, I pulled out my bat for this job. The rats were weak, but why get any closer to a rat than necessary? I connected with the jaw of a rat with my first swing and it squealed horribly. I didn’t have time to swing at a second rat on the heels of the first, so I kicked it away. Trix got herself together and set one of the rats on fire, giving me time to connect with the last running rat. I drew Keel’s hunting knife to finish the stunned rat. I cut through it and blood exploded everywhere, especially across my pants. I wiped the blade with Jagger’s shirt and then checked the corpses. They each had a single credit. I was pretty sure I could rack up credits faster by sweeping underneath soda machines. And my pants wouldn’t have looked like I’d just left Vigo the Carpathian’s throne room.