The Client
“Are you Lira Vance?” a trembling voice echoed in the darkness of the alley where Lira waited. The speaker was a young woman cloaked in a tattered grey shawl, her face hidden beneath the shadow of a hood. She clutched a small data cube as if it were her last tether to hope.
“Not many ask for me by that name anymore,” Lira replied coldly, her gloved fingers resting lightly on her weapon. “Who sent you?”
“I… I did.” The woman’s voice cracked. “They took my sister. The Symmetrix gangs — they said there’s no way out, but I’ve heard rumors. Stories about you. They say you can break into anywhere, outthink anyone. Please… you have to help me.”
Lira eyed the woman for a moment, her instincts weighing the situation. Something about this felt… off. But desperation was a currency she understood. “Fine. But my help doesn’t come cheap.”
The young woman nodded fervently. “Anything. I’ll pay anything.”
An Unlikely Ally
“This is suicide,” hissed a voice over Lira’s comm implant as she scaled the exterior of the Symmetrix Tower. Her partner in crime — a reclusive hacker named Jax who preferred shadows to the real world — was feeding her schematics of the building from a remote terminal.
“No, this is Tuesday,” Lira shot back, her tone clipped. The magnetic grips on her gloves latched onto the building’s ferrofluid-enhanced surface, her body twisting with practiced ease. “Do you have their security mainframe in sight yet?”
“Nearly… just don’t get yourself killed doing some rooftop acrobatics, alright?” Jax’s voice dropped into a mutter, a mixture of admiration and irritation. Lira always had a flair for the dramatic. “Something doesn’t sit right about this client, by the way. The data cube she gave you — it’s blank. Think she’s baiting you?”
Lira froze, the wind howling past her ears as she dangled precariously hundreds of stories above the chaos. “Let’s finish this job before we start unraveling conspiracies.” But inside, unease churned through her. Could this really be a setup?
Twists and Turns
Breaching the tower’s upper floors was almost too easy. Too few guards, minimal resistance. Lira advanced with deadly precision, using stealth and speed to eliminate obstacles. When she finally found the holding cells, her suspicions solidified. The girl’s supposed “sister” was nowhere to be found, but a symphony of distant footsteps warned her she wasn’t alone anymore.
She reached for her plasma pistol just as the glaring overhead lights flickered on, illuminating the room. Standing opposite her was the young woman, no longer cloaked in tattered grey. She wore a sleek white uniform with the emblem of the Symmetrix syndicate etched in gold, her expression a mixture of guilt and defiance.
“I told them you’d come,” the woman said softly, raising her own weapon. “I warned them you were dangerous.”
“You set me up.” Lira’s voice dropped into a venomous growl.
The woman nodded. “They promised me my sister if I delivered you. You’re the only one who’s ever gotten close enough to hurt them. I had no choice.”
Even as betrayal scorched through her veins, Lira couldn’t help but see the pain in the woman’s green eyes. This wasn’t revenge. This was desperation. And for Lira, that was far more dangerous.
The Breakout
Four explosions later, chaos consumed the upper floors of the Symmetrix Tower. Lira moved like a tempest, dispatching syndicate enforcers with surgical precision. Drones swarmed around her, but Jax’s voice shouted through her comms, guiding her every move. “Left hallway — blast the panel to disable the drones! Now run, Cipher!”
The young woman, whose name Lira finally learned was Kali, now followed close behind, clutching the silver data cube. Guilt had forced her to change sides — but the price of betrayal was still unknown. Together, they fought their way through corridors until they reached the extraction point where Jax’s hovercraft hissed to a landing.
As they climbed aboard, Kali turned to Lira, tears streaking her soot-stained face. “My sister is still in there. I lied to you… but I didn’t lie about that.”
Lira didn’t answer, her emerald eyes narrowing as she stared out at the tower. The Syndicate wouldn’t rest until they reclaimed Kali. For better or worse, the girl was now her responsibility. She had no choice but to finish what she’d started.
Epilogue
As the hovercraft vanished into the polluted horizon, NeoHarmony’s skyline seemed colder, darker. Lira sat silently, her mind already devising the next move to infiltrate the Syndicate and free Kali’s sister. Beside her, Kali clutched the data cube, which Jax had decrypted mid-flight.
“What’s on it?” Lira finally asked, breaking the tense silence.
Jax’s voice was grim as it crackled through the ship’s comm. “Blueprints for something called ‘Project Nexus.’ Let’s just say… whatever this is? The Syndicate isn’t just running a gang. They’re building the future — and not the kind we’ll want to live in.”
Lira closed her eyes, exhaustion settling into her bones. The fight wasn’t over. It was barely beginning.
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