Hm… Looks like it’ll rain. Might help us make our escape under the cover of darkness should the lead start flying. Jackie slipped his iron into his pockets and unmuted the earpiece. “V, ears!” he said, urging me to put my own back in.

  “I’m here, Bug,” I returned the earpiece to my ear, “Talk to me.”

  “V, for fuck’s sake!” she shouted, “Yorinobu’s left the penthouse!”

  “What?”

  “Alright, so this is our chance!” Jackie shouted as we both headed out the door. I left my jacket in my room, fuck – well, too late now. Timer's started.

  I could tell something was intensely bothering him. He walked with purpose, but his face was long and more drained than the one he wore on his way in. Did I lay it on too heavy with the whole T-Bug and Dex thing…? The last thing I needed was him having second thoughts now. Not in the middle of a job. I’m used to changing gears, but Jackie? He’s never done this before… I suppose there’s nothing to be done, though. I just had to hope that his head was in the game.

  “Ehhh, sorry ‘bout hangin’ up on ya,” he said, “Won’t happen again.”

  “Uh-huh,” T-Bug replied condescendingly.

  “Oh, I hurt your feelings or som’n?” Yeah, that sounds more like Jackie.

  “Mmhmm, now’s your chance to make it up to me.”

  We walked down the hallway as casually as one might expect, Jackie lumbering on like a two-legged tank and myself hidden in his massive shadow. “This is goin’ pretty smooth, no?” Jackie said to me with a hint of doubt. I didn’t reply to him, but his tilting head showed me that he got the message. Yeah, too well.

  “Hey, you ever gonna get rid of that dark cloud hangin’ over your head?” he continued, “We’re here, it’s cool.”

  “Not until we’re out of here, I won’t. You know that.”

  “Tellin’ ya, it’s downhill from here on.”

  “Don’t get complacent, stay focused.”

  We entered the executive elevator, immediately met with a stuffy, heavy air hanging in the room. I hit the button for floor 100 and felt a cold sweat creeping down my neck, making me instinctively tug at my collar to let some air in. Stay cool, Jackie. Please.

  “Man, this awkward silence is killin’ me,” he finally said about halfway up, “Hey, wanna hear a joke?”

  “Jackie, really? Now?– You know what, fine, what is it?”

  “What does a nomad chick and a manatee have in common? They both got sand in their pussies! Haaah!”

  "Jeeeesus Christ…" T-Bug let out a terrible sigh.

  Pfff, what? “Jackie, do you even know what a manatee is?–” And just like that, the elevator dinged and Jackie walked into the room with a massive grin painted on his face. Glad to see it worked.

  Fuck me, this place is heavy. Not in a literal sense. More… metaphysical. It felt heavy. Like an angry spirit watched over us at all times. Every nerve in my body tensed up all at once. It was way too quiet for my liking. We had to do this – fast.

  “Shiiit, must be nice bein’ the heir to the ‘Saka empire if you get to live like this.”

  “No, Jack,” I spoke bluntly, “I don’t like this.”

  “C’mon, chica, you haven’t liked anything all day.”

  “Jackie, please…”

  “Fine, fine. Here, let’s have a look around. Where was that safe?”

  “Southwest corner.”

  “T-Bug, any word on Yorinobu?”

  “Still got nothin’,” she replied, “Wait, yeah. Looks like he’s in the bar right now.”

  “Alright, we may have a few minutes,” I muttered, having a look around– Fuck me. Is that…? “Jackie! Here, get over here!” I ushered my friend beside me.

  “Oh fuck, is that real?!” Jackie exclaimed, “Fucking hell, a real iguana. A – uh, Lesser Antillean, I think.”

  “Lesser antil–what?”

  “Yeah, watched a thing about ‘em on TV a while back. Said they went extinct like 30 years ago, they’re from the Lesser Antilles… You come a loooong way, my scaly friend.”

  “Man, fuck the Relic, let’s just adopt him!” I laughed, “Wait, hang on, it’s a she!”

  “Huh? How can you tell?” Jackie asked before I replied by simply picking up an egg and showing him. “Fuuuck… Yeah, here, go grab a, uh, some sponges or som’n, let’s pack this up.”

  “Shit, yeah,” I smiled. Lesser Antillean Iguana… You are full of surprises, Jackie…

  “Shit,” T-Bug exclaimed over the radio, “Yorinobu’s sig’s gone dark!”

  “What?” I froze and instinctively looked to the elevator, “How?”

  “Yeah, what is this guy, a fuckin’ sorcerer?” Jackie continued.

  “I–I dunno, prolly a dead spot or somethin’, guys gotta hurry it up.”

  “Right, we’re on it,” I replied earnestly, heading over to the safe. Seems there’s no way to open it… Fuck. Alright, hang on, back up. Where would Yorinobu keep an activation switch… Bedposts? No… Is it one of the lamp cables – obviously nothing there. Hm… Oh, what’s this?

  “Jackie?”

  “Hm?”

  “What the Hell is this?” I called him over as I pulled this… erm, weapon, out from a compartment on the end of his bed. “Yorinobu – For a true Patriot. Your good friend, Hideyoshi Oshima.” …Who?

  “Fuck is that?” Jackie scratched his head.

  “Looks like an, uh… old AR or something. Even has Colt markings… man, this thing is ancient. But there’s no stock on it, no front sight… even the front handguard is just metal so it’d conduct heat like a motherfucker. Who the Hell designed this? How would you even shoot it?”

  “I dunno, maybe it’s just decorative?”

  “Hang on, let me see…” I hit the magazine catch and – sure enough, the drum magazine fell free of the weapon. “No, it’s definitely loaded.”

  “Huh… Well fuck it, no point in leavin’ it behind, eh?” he patted me on the shoulder and looked around some more as I stared at this… monstrosity.

  Okay, well, Jackie’s right. It’s a gun, I assume it shoots, it looks like it uses just regular old .223, same as any other rifle… Beggars can't be choosers.

  What else is around here… Ah, the documentation for the Relic… Eh, nothing we don’t already know. Oh! Found it. Switch below the right-side table lamp, that must be it.

  “Bingo! Got somethin’ ejectin’ over here! C’mon, V!” Jackie shouted to me from across the penthouse. I could barely hear him, even with the acoustics; this place was massive, though undeniably beautiful in its own minimalist way.

  I headed over to where Jackie was to see the safe pop out of the floor with an unceremonious hissing noise; it looked more like a refrigerator than anything. “What now?” I asked T-Bug.

  “Now, plug in your personal and make us rich!”

  “Alright,” I complied, jacking in to the port on the side of the safe.

  “Good, now just wait a couple for me to break into it…” Wait… What’s that? Is– is that an AV? Well whomever is pulling up now sure as Hell has impeccable timing, it must be said. I felt the roar of that thing’s engines in my lungs as it shook the glass around me, causing me to tremble and Jackie to immediately turn around. Its engines were so powerful that it cleaned the glass of the pouring rain with the jetwash.

  “Uh… Bug?” Jackie asked, “You gettin’ this?”

  “Yeah, an AV,” she noted, “Don’t see it listed on the schedule, but the whole damn tower’s suddenly buzzin’. Every single staff member’s been mobilized.”

  “What?!” I asked incredulously, “No no… Come on, we gotta hurry. Whomever’s in that AV just gave us a serious timer.” Who the fuck are these people? Shit… Come on, there’s no time! “T-Bug, status!” I shot over to her.

  “I don’t like this…” Jackie muttered to me, “C’mon, T-Bug!”

  “Shit, Yorinobu’s penthouse-bound!” T-Bug suddenly shouted, “Fuck, fuck, fuck… Okay, got it!” The safe suddenly opened, revealing the unholy grail – a specialized, cooled briefcase housed within. “There it is!” T-Bug exclaimed, “Check it, is it intact?”

  “Yeah,” Jackie replied with a deep breath, “Says it’s stable, biochip one hundred percent… Fuck me, this thing is heavy.”

  “Alright, Jack, let’s get the Hell outta here!” I ushered him as he heaved the case out of the box and we bolted straight for the elevator doors, not looking back for one second.

  “Fuck! Get outta there! Yorinobu’s headed up to the penthouse NOW!” T-Bug yelled at us.

  “What?!”

  “Hide! Anything!” Fuck, fuck!! “Back pillar, try that!”

  “Is she serious?!” Jackie spoke with a heavy panic in his voice.

  “No choice,” I replied hurriedly, “Get inside!” We instantly turned around and headed around the back of the huge pillar dominating the center of the room. Seems like there’s just barely enough room for one, but we had no choice but to make two work. “Jackie, go!”

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  He somehow gyrated his huge frame to fit inside of this server room, pressing himself right up against the glass to try and keep enough room for the Relic to stay inside with us. Thankfully it looked like the safe closed automatically…

  FUCK! Just klep it, it’s easy money, he said. Mixed drinks, he said. Quiet life or blaze of glory, he said… Fucking… shit… This was all going fucking tits-up. And where the Hell is this guy?!

  All the lights came on in an instant as Yorinobu’s elevator reached its final destination, revealing not just the prodigal son himself, but Adam Smasher. Shit…

  “Fuck me, is that Adam Smasher?!” Jackie exclaimed under his breath.

  “Yes, now shut up, he has augmented hearing…”

  “Fucking–…” I couldn’t believe it. Only a thin glass partition separated us from certain death. Just our fucking luck. Let’s see… No vents, no hatches… shit. Trapped. I guess we just have to bide our time here, wait and see what Yorinobu’s up to… pray that he doesn’t check the safe. And hope to whatever spirits watched over us that Smasher didn’t bother scanning the room. It looked as if he was staring directly at us… yet he did not engage. Fuck… Fuck, why… Why with Jackie… Me, alone, sure, but not with him… He has a family, girlfriend, hopes and dreams… I did this for him…

  “Are they here yet?” Yorinobu said to the building’s AI as Smasher paused, his red eyes still peering directly at us, as if to taunt us, toy with us… Shit.

  “They approach from the landing pad,” the AI replied in its characteristic mellow, effeminate voice common to all executive-level Arasaka limited-use AI. I looked over at Jackie to see him staring right back at me incredulously, as if to say, “Who the fuck are they talking about? Who’s incoming?!” I instinctively clutched at my gimmicky sidearm, knowing that it’s likely the only weapon I’ll have to fight back should we have to unleash Hell and make a beeline for the roof. Fuck… If only T-Bug was ten minutes quicker, we could’ve been sipping champagne in the fucking Delamain by now. Instead–

  Wait… No… no fucking way… This… this isn’t happening…

  Saburo Arasaka?!

  I… I couldn’t believe what I was seeing… Saburo Arasaka. The Emperor himself. An individual many argued is more god than man. The 158-year-old figurehead behind Arasaka’s success – a success which granted him the privileges of being the most powerful man to ever exist on this planet – was walking down the stairs of his son’s penthouse, with his personal bodyguard before him. What sort of divine interventions caused this?! His black yukata trailed silently in his wake. It was as if he glided down on a dense shadow, peering directly into his son’s eyes from behind his rounded spectacles. His very presence made me feel weak, as if my whole body desired to prostrate itself before him. I simply could not register what was unfolding before me… I… This can’t be real…

  No no no… his bodyguard was looking straight at the glass… Jackie started shaking, causing me to slowly extend my hand out and rest it against his arm to help calm him down. If we so much as breathed, we’d both be dead, absolutely no question whatsoever… Fuck… Fucking… Shit, he’s scanning!

  “I thought I told you not to meddle in my affairs?” Yorinobu said with an annoyed tone at his father as the bodyguard continued the search. I frantically looked around for any sort of exit – a cooling vent, some sort of wiring ducts, anything big enough for Jackie, but no… Something big enough for me, sure, but I would never leave him… Fuck… Why… just, why…

  This man appeared to be utterly bristling with implants, with cybereyes unlike any model I’d ever seen before… Shit. Jackie doesn’t have thermal protection… Can he see him?

  “Leave us,” Arasaka-Sama said with a gravelly, deep, resonant voice that filled the room effortlessly. His speech put a lump in my throat and caused his bodyguard’s head to snap back to his charge. Fuck… too close…

  “But… I haven’t done a full sweep, Arasaka-Sama–”

  “This is my son.” The Emperor’s arms remained fixed behind him as he slowly and deliberately spoke to his guard.

  “Of course,” the man replied with a gentle nod, “Should I retrieve what we came here for?” The Relic… Fuck!

  “I will handle it… You may go.”

  The bodyguard silently bowed and headed towards the elevator, collecting Adam Smasher with him. Alright… Hard part’s over. Now we just have to wait it out…

  The pair waited until the elevator closed its doors, Yorinobu looking like a petulant, spoiled child underneath his father’s unspoken iron will. “Did you think I would not know it was taken from me?” Arasaka-Sama spoke, not even looking at Yorinobu directly.

  “Actually, I don’t think of you at all. Ever.” Spoken like a child as well. “You see, that’s your problem. You think the whole world revolves around you. Arrogant.” In a way, the whole world effectively does revolve around him. Jackie was not being dramatic when he said that this man could snap his fingers and glass half the planet in nuclear fire. Though I fought in his name for years, I never once believed I would actually have the honor of seeing him in the flesh… I would be in awe, if my body wasn’t already filled with pure, utter dread. Our sweat threatened to drown the servers we shared the space with, thanks to the uncontrolled sweltering heat. Yet, as uncomfortable as I was, I far preferred being on this side of the glass.

  “Yorinobu,” Arasaka-Sama deeply sighed.

  “What? Why is it you have come, father? To humiliate me? To personally see to it that your son knows his place?!” Yorinobu roused himself from the bench and stood up to stare Arasaka-Sama down.

  “The nail that protrudes from the wall gets hammered–”

  “Ugh,” Yorinobu groaned, “Couldn’t think of anything original to say?” He paced around the room with a fierce look in his eyes. He dropped the honorifics, referring to Arasaka-Sama as if his father was his underling.

  “And do you think it’s ‘original’ to sell our greatest achievement to Westerners – these… barbarians? Our future?!” He never once raised his voice, yet I knew a silent scream when I heard it. My mother performed this very same tactic on me for many years.

  “Heheh…” he casually laughed at his father, “Hmph. ‘Our future.’ ‘Our?!’ You’ve only ever cared about yourself… and your sick schemes.” Yorinobu placed his hands on his hips and looked straight into his father’s eyes, finally pausing his constant pacing-around.

  “I knew this day would come…” Arasaka-Sama coldly replied, “That sooner or later, your impudence would cross the line… There is so much I could have forgiven you for… but treason… no.” Yorinobu was shaking like a leaf. I could tell this man had nothing but adrenaline coursing through his veins. “I’m glad your mother didn’t have to see this… A heart can only break but once…” The tension filled the room as Yorinobu absorbed his father’s cruel remarks. I could see his lips trembling as he shook his head and formulated his next sentence– Wait… Oh! OH MY GOD!!

  Yorinobu suddenly leapt out and pounced on his father, pressing Arasaka-Sama into the glass with a death-grip around his neck. Jackie and I instinctively jumped back as we both watched helplessly – Fuck!! What should I do?! Spirits, no! YOU'RE KILLING HIM!!

  He finally let go just long enough to speak his final sentence. “You shall never have to forgive me for anything ever again,” Yorinobu said with conviction as Arasaka-Sama reached out to caress his son’s cheek, barely able to breathe – a final, desperate act, perhaps. Or maybe his way of looking at the man his son truly was… Instead, Yorinobu simply brushed his father's hand away and launched his own upon the Emperor’s neck again, crushing his windpipe and sending him reeling to the floor. Fuck… he’s… dead?! The Emperor is dead!!

  “What now?!” Jackie whispered as Yorinobu paced around, realizing at once the absolutely monumental act he’s just committed. Saburo Arasaka – his father, the most powerful man on Earth, drew his last breath.

  “I… I don’t…” I simply watched, utterly stunned and horrified beyond anything I've felt before. I… I couldn’t believe what just happened… His body was less than one meter away from me… laying there, dead… “I don’t know… Jackie…” I emanated the softest of whispers out of my mouth as Yorinobu came back to check on his father. Sure enough – he was dead. I didn’t want to believe it, but… What… What just happened here… What have I seen…

  “I wish…” Yorinobu finally cracked the deathly silence, “I wish… to put the hotel on lockdown…”

  “May I ask why?” the AI replied in its automated voice. Yorinobu simply sat there, his hand on his father’s neck, for a brief moment as he contemplated his actions.

  “Saburo Arasaka… has been murdered.”

  “Code Red initiated,” the AI spoke, shutting off the lights and activating all emergency systems at once. Fuck, we need to get out of here before they return– Too late…

  Adam Smasher and Arasaka-Sama’s bodyguard came rushing out from the elevator to find out what had happened, witnessing Yorinobu standing above his father, still trembling with adrenaline. “What happened?!” the bodyguard shouted, running over at once to check on Arasaka-Sama himself.

  “Someone… someone poisoned my father,” Yorinobu replied shakily as he blocked the bodyguard from directly viewing Arasaka-Sama’s corpse.

  “Poisoned?!”

  “It seems so…” Yorinobu tried desperately to cover up, but kept pacing around and violently shaking his hands… No way the bodyguard bought it. I know I wouldn’t.

  “Yorinobu-San, I doubt–”

  “Takemura, what is your job?”

  “I don’t follow,” the bodyguard – Takemura, stammered.

  “It’s a simple question – answer it,” Yorinobu insisted. Takemura swallowed deeply and glanced over to the strangled corpse.

  “To… protect the head of the Arasaka family.”

  “I do hope you’ll do a better job of executing your duties from now on!” he lashed out, forcing Takemura to bow his head with his words alone.

  “Forgive me, Arasaka-Sama, I shall not disappoint,” he replied with determination. Suddenly, the three of them all… went to the elevator?! Fucking hell… Fuck… FUCK… What in the… I don’t… What the fuck just happened? I can’t process it…

  “What the fuck just happened in there?” T-Bug said, apparently just as confused.

  “Yorinobu… just strangled his father…”

  “WHAT?!” she shouted as we backed out of the server room, “Know what this means? Security’s gonna be here any second! You gotta move!!”

  Didn’t have to tell me twice… Fuck! FUCK!!

  I… I know we were pressed for time. But I had to pay my respects. I knelt down beside Arasaka-Sama, my hand trembling fiercely as I reached for his dogtags. A custom from the military… We would secure the dogtags of the fallen as a way that their souls may continue to walk with us and guide us on the path… Rest well, Arasaka-Sama… I hope you find a fitting place in the life beyond our own…

  Oh? His tanto…? Oh… Oh my… No, it was engraved to Yorinobu. A gift, perhaps? Regardless, that’s a beautiful weapon if I’d ever seen one… I didn't want to remove it from his person, but we needed every advantage we could get.

  “V!” Jackie shouted, snapping me out of it, “V, come on!!”

  “Back door, hurry!” T-Bug yelled.

  “What? Fuck– where’s Yorinobu?!” I shouted back at her.

  “I– I don’t know! Oh my God, we are so fucked!!”

  “Hang on, he got here on an AV, might be our ticket out!” My brain suddenly started firing on all cylinders as I tucked Arasaka-Sama’s weapon in my belt and readied the sidearm I procured from his son, running up the stairs and exiting onto a rain-drenched rooftop with Jackie in hot pursuit.

  “I still can’t believe it… Saburo Arasaka dead…”

  “Shut up, Jack,” I insisted as I snuck onto the main rooftop structure, filled with industrial equipment and a couple guards along with – sure enough, Arasaka-Sama’s personal AV. Nothing I could scale, though… Or, at least, nothing Jackie could scale with the Relic in-hand…

  “Alright, be careful,” T-Bug instructed, “If this doesn’t work, head back down… should see a ladder outside… ladder… Right, AV… Oh. Oh FUCK!”

  “T-Bug?!” Jackie shouted from down below me as I snuck up to the first guard.

  “Shit, I’ve been made!! AAAAGH!!–” she gasped before the comm link was suddenly and unceremoniously cut. FUCK!

  T-Bug… They must’ve found her on the subnet, sent a daemon… She's… she's gone. Right, focus. Jackie’s my priority…

  I slammed the buffer tube of the AR-like sidearm into the backs of each guard’s skulls, knocking them both out cleanly and quietly before popping open the AV.

  “Oh – Oh…” I paused, salivating at the utterly gorgeous sword greeting me from its very own seat. A truly immaculate example of ancient swordsmithing, likely one of the best ever made, by my eye… Hm, where's its saya… saya… saya. Right, got it.

  I sheathed the sword in its saya and threw its sash over my shoulder when the AV’s on-board AI sprung to life. “Warning: Unauthorized user detected. Security–” I’m not about to wait around and find out the end of that sentence. I removed Arasaka-Sama’s computer and ripped out the datashard from its banks, thinking we might need that later, then headed back downstairs. Fuck… there’s gotta be another way… Fuck, what did T-Bug… Dammit… T-Bug…

  “Fucking hell, Jackie. Fucking major-leagues!” I lashed out at him as I stormed back inside, “You happy now?!”

  “Oh yeah, like anyone could’ve guessed that the fuckin’ Emperor would’ve just randomly dropped in for a fuckin’ chat!”

  “God – FUCK!” I screamed out-loud, “What the FUCK!!”

  “I DON’T FUCKING KNOW!” he shouted back at me, “Fuckin’ elevator’s not workin’! We need an alt!”

  “Shit, okay… okay…” I slowed my breathing down a little, “Right, she said something about a ladder… Wait, look there! Outside!”

  “I see it, let’s go!” Jackie exclaimed as we moved to the door – Fucking hell. Yup, no railings… And here we were, 100 stories in the air on a cold, windy, rainy night… Marvelous. I had no idea how Jackie was going to lug that heavy-ass briefcase down the ladder, but we'll deal with that issue when we get there. First thing we have to do is get there.

  “Shit… Okay, Jack… We’re just gonna have to take this one step at a time…” I swallowed as I shoved the massive pistol between the katana and my body to at least somewhat secure it.

  “You go first! I’ll… uh… keep a lookout.”

  “Ugh, Fine!” I groaned and took my first step on the ledge, gently coaxing Jackie to come with while he held that case like his life depended on it.

  “Fucking – Don’t look down, Jackie, just… keep walking…” he muttered to himself as he whimpered and shuffled across the ledge. “Shit! Is that Trauma?!” he suddenly shouted as an AV flew overhead.

  “Well if they’re here for Saburo then they’re a bit late to the party,” I laughed with overwhelming levels of anxiety… Keep going… It’s right there… OH FUCK!!

  “You are in violation of security protocols!” the drone’s loudspeaker chanted at us. Fuck – I couldn’t block anything with this katana, it’d fold in half! Shit, what do we do?!

  “Time to bail!” Jackie screamed and pulled me over the ledge with him as the drone unloaded on us.

  “JACKIE!!”