Arron tapped on the new file he had received and a holo-vid opened up and was streamed in front of his face through his cybernetic eye’s connection.
From a quick glance, he could see that the holo-vid was security footage of one of the few random goods shops that still allowed people to enter in person and browse the goods that were for sale. They were growing rare these days. Drone delivery service shops were now the norm for almost all shops in the Mega-city.
The holo-vid was in black and white revealing that it came from one of the cheapest security cameras on the market.
With a light tap on the holo-vid, it started to play.
A young man in his twenties entered the shop and pulled up a hood over his head to try and cover his face. It was a pointless attempt as the cameras had already captured his face.
He walked up to the counter where an actual human store clerk stood. The clerk, who was slightly skinny and had glasses, was cleaning up the scanner that had a sticky drink spilled on it by another customer several minutes before.
The scanner was important to the shop as it was required to scan the items from the shop as well as allow customers to transfer credits.
“Is there an item you are looking for? Or are you looking to sell something?” asked the clerk as he looked up and pushed his glasses up his nose while inspecting the man in front of him.
The young man pulled his hand out of his hooded jacket and pointed an old modified gun in the clerk’s face before he could react.
“Put your hands up where I can see them! Don’t do anything stupid like alert anyone or I’ll kill you!”
“Sir why are you doing this?” asked the frightened clerk who held his hands up.
“Shut up! Don’t talk!” shouted the man as he jumped up onto the counter before hopping down next to the clerk and pushing the gun into his back.
“Transfer all the credits in the store’s account to this account,” said the robber as he swiped over a digital number to the clerk.
With the cold metal of the gun pushing into his back the trembling clerk had no choice but to transfer several tens of thousands of credits out of the store’s accounts under the watchful gaze of the robber.
With the transaction finished, the robber began patting down the clerk taking various valuables from him and also random things on the counter and shelves around him all while still pointing the gun at the clerk.
Now with his pockets full of loot, the robber jumped up onto the counter. “Get on your knees!”
The clerk did as he was told while still holding his hands up in the air. The robber jumped down to the opposite side of the counter and began scanning the entire shop as well as the outside of the shop to make sure the coast was clear.
Everything was quiet with no commotion inside or outside of the shop. The robber looked back at the kneeling clerk and…
BANG!
…shot him in the head, before walking out of the shop calmly.
The clerk’s body slowly slumped back as blood pooled out of the gaping wound in his head.
Arron looked up from the holo-vid with a troubled expression.
“It may not look like it, but this shop is one of our major money makers and allows us to sell off hot items easily. Your new task is to take a small group of enforcers and hunt this man down. The old man wants you to capture him alive and bring him back to the family’s HQ,” said Ox as he watched Arron’s face for any suspicious expressions.
“Where were the enforcers that were supposed to be protecting the shop?” asked Arron.
“They have gone into hiding, which means they were definitely working with the robber. If you find them there is no need to keep them alive. If not, we will find them sooner or later.”
“…”
“As I said, this is an important matter not only for the family but your future as well. This task was personally assigned to you by the old man. If you f*** up this mission or do not complete it for some reason… a simple apology will not save you and it would be better for you to disappear like the robber and wait until we find you.”
Arron shivered, partly from the threat, but also the fact that he was being given command of a small group of enforcers for the first time!
His entire time with the Ryu family had been following behind Ox or other members as he learned the tricks of the trade and was constantly being monitored by them.
“If you don’t have any questions, then the grunts are waiting for you in the next room.”
“What information can you tell me about this man?” asked Arron.
“I will not be helping you with this task nor will anyone else. You have to prove that you can handle something like this if you want to become a member of the Ryu family. You have all the data you need to begin the hunt.”
Arron was at a loss for words upon hearing this. But there was nothing he could do about it so he silently walked to the side room that Ox was pointing to.
The feeling of Ox’s sharp gaze piercing his back only disappeared when he entered the room and the door closed behind him.
Inside the room, there were five middle-aged veteran enforcers who were leaning against the wall waiting for him.
They did not move to greet Arron when he entered and only looked at him waiting for him to make the first move.
Although they were technically on the lower rung of the family structure, far below Ox and Arron’s position, they were official members while Arron was only a probationary member. So their attitudes did not bother Arron much.
“Two of you go canvas the local businesses and gather the surveillance footage of the outside during this time and at this place,” said Arron as he swiped over a text document to the enforcers.
“The rest of you need to go and talk to the local informants that normally hang out around there.”
“Can’t do that,” said one of the enforcers.
“Why?”
“Orders from the old man. Two of us have to stay with you to protect you.”
Arron sighed when he heard this. His ‘command’ of this unit seemed to be in name only. It seemed that two of the enforcers were going to babysit him and keep a close eye on him to make sure he did not fool around. With such an audience it would not be easy to contact Kix or A.S. and ask for help in finding who the robber was.
“Alright, one of you go gather the surveillance footage while the other two go talk to the informants,” said Arron.
Three of the enforcers silently pushed off from the wall and walked out of the room not saying a word.
Arron was forced to wait in the side room for over an hour while the three gathered the needed information.
When the three enforcers returned they handed over all the data they had gathered without saying a word.
Arron began scanning through the gathered data, pulling out the needed information from the surveillance footage and the tips gathered from the informants. He had to separate the plausible tips from the complete drunk nonsense that had also been gathered.
This was also a part of the test that was put in front of him to see if he could pinpoint the proper information among all the noise.
With all his work as an M1 officer, this task was not hard at all as he was used to similar situations. Most of the time Tooth and Lexa were the ones that did the heavy work like this so that he and Kix could focus on capturing the suspects.
Arron stared at the short list of information that remained. It contained the man’s name, including aliases, the names of several places he was known to hang out at, as well as any hideouts he liked to use.
“Before we head out I have to say this. Unless the business is actually harboring Kebu, we will not cause problems for them. Something like that could blow up in our faces and start a blood feud with the Ryu family,” said Arron.
The five enforcers all nodded. They did not want to lose face for the Ryu family or be the cause of a blood feud starting.
Arron left the building with the five grunts behind him as they went to their first destination, a chop shop that also offered services to jailbreak and override the AI control of the hover vehicles.
The shop was owned by another family so when they heard that a group from the Ryu family had come to ask questions the foreman of the shop personally met with Arron.
“How can I help the Ryu family? Do you need our services?” asked the puzzled foreman, not sure why they were at his small shop.
Arron pulled out a datapad and tapped on the power button allowing the captured holographic picture of Kebu’s head to float above the datapad.
“Do you know this man?” asked Arron as watched the foreman’s face for any telltale signs.
“He’s not an acquaintance of mine… but he does look a little familiar, maybe a past customer of ours? Who is he? Is the Ryu family looking for him?” asked the foreman.
“His name is Kebu. May we check your shop to see if he is hiding here?”
Upon hearing this the foreman’s forehead showed signs of sweat. “We of course would not be hiding someone that you are after. To prove our innocence I will of course not block you from looking for him.”
“We thank you for your cooperation,” said Arron as he made a hand gesture for the enforcers to spread out and sweep through the shop blocking the exits first before checking the entire shop.
They did not find Kebu so they left after thanking the foreman who was sighing in relief that no idiot worker under him had done something as stupid as hide a fugitive in his shop.
Arron and the grunts went to each of the businesses on the list one by one, but at each place, they did not find Kebu.
It was now past dinner time when they arrived at the last place that Arron thought was plausible.
[Blues gambling pit] was under the control of a small-time gang that was suspected to be a front for one of the medium families. The gang was also rumored to have questionable ties with people who were linked closely to or talked with known Office of Reason agents.
This was exactly not what he wanted to happen.
He was unable to contact Kix or A.S. to ask what he should do. His actions could have a high possibility of uncovering one of the Office of Reason’s undercover assets. He hoped that the target was not here since it would save him the trouble of facing the fallout if he was the one to expose the Office of Reason’s hidden hand.
Arron and the five enforcers entered the building and walked down the stairs to the lower floor that was sunken down like a pit.
There were over 30 tables each with a handful of people standing or sitting around them. Each table had a different type of gambling game active.
On the left wall was a long metallic counter with shelves full of alcoholic bottles and kegs.
Several service drones were busy mixing and preparing drinks for the guests that were at the counter as well as those who were spending money at the various tables.
BANG!
A loud gunshot was heard from above them. Arron looked up at the second floor that was suspended above the pit and had no walls allowing everyone to see the people above them.
From Arron’s new knowledge of how such gambling dens worked, the floor above them was where the VIPs and big spenders met. Nobody in the pit seemed to be paying much attention to the gunshot as if it was a normal thing.
Arron was able to see the man who had shot the gun since the man was standing at a table near the edge of the second floor. The only other person that had been at the table was now dead.
A woman with a hovering news drone and mic now stood next to the man and started to interview him, “Why did you kill him?”
“He was a cheating scum! He got what he deserved!”
The enforcers next to Arron all tensed when they realized who the man was. It was Kebu, their target!
But they quickly calmed down when Arron held up a hand stopping them from causing a scene.
The man was surrounded by a dozen or so thuggish guards as well as news drones that were interviewing him for several underground news portals. Arron recognized a few of the guards as those that were supposed to have been guarding the shop.
Instead of rushing over to capture the target, Arron led the group to the long metal counter and ordered the cheapest drink for the 6 of them.
The enforcers did not decline the drinks, but they also did not drink much of it either, only taking sips to make it look like they were enjoying the atmosphere as they watched the target out of the corner of their eyes.
They waited for over four hours until their drunk target, with the help of two guards, walked out of the gambling den.
Not wanting to draw attention to themselves, Arron and the enforcers waited a few seconds before placing down their drinks and also exited the building.
When they arrived on the poorly lit street, they saw their stumbling target was being shoved into a hovercar by the guards who were still having trouble getting the drunk man to stay inside the vehicle.
Arron quickly pointed to them and sliced his hand down ordering the enforcers to take action along with him. If he stood back and only allowed them to take care of this, he would be viewed as a coward trying to keep his hands clean.
So he led the charge towards the hover car. The only people armed with guns were the enforcers, Arron only had his bare hands.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gunshots rang out killing the two guards that were standing outside the car.
At the sound of gunshots, the jail-broken hover-car shot off with Kebu’s legs still hanging out of the open door.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
A hail of bullets rained down on the escaping hover-car all aimed at the area where the driver was.
A few of the bullets managed to hit the driver causing the hover-car to go out of control and swerve to the left crashing into a wall of a large building and crumpling the front of the car.
Arron ran over to the car worried that they had failed their task.
“Uuuuhhhh…,” The moan of Kebu could be heard when he reached the open back door.
Arron let out a sigh when he saw that Kebu was still alive. He was just a little banged up but that was no problem.
He pulled the dazed Kebu out of the wreck and handed him over to the enforcers.
“Let’s get out of here before reinforcements or the police arrive!” shouted Arron before running into a side street and through several winding alleys.
They continued to run for several minutes before arriving at a waiting hover-car that they had ‘borrowed’ from some random stranger earlier.
***
Ryu family’s HQ meeting room.
Arron and the 5 other enforcers silently stood behind the old man, Arron had never heard his actual name. Ox had told him once that he really had no name. It was this way so that the office of reason could not use it against him as the head of the Ryu family.
Arron watched as the old man was softly talking to a young woman who had been crying recently. Beside her was an elderly man and woman who had their hands on her shoulders to offer her comfort.
Behind the trio was Kebu, who had been gagged and cuffed to a metal chair. As an added measure of security, two muscular enforcers held him down so that he had no chance to escape.
“These 6 men are the ones that managed to hunt down and capture your husband, son’s killer,” said the old man as he pointed to Arron and the 5 proud enforcers.
“You are entitled to justice however you want it. Just let me know and it will be done.”
“Uuuu!!” shouted a muffled Kebu as he tried to cry for help.
One of the enforcers clobbered him in the back of the head, dazing him and silencing his muffled cries.
“I… I want to do it,” said the young woman who Arron guessed was the store clerk’s widowed wife.
The old man nodded and motioned for one of the enforcers beside Kebu.
The enforcer stepped forward and unholstered his gun, handing it over to the young widow. Both of the muscular enforcers stepped well out of range allowing Kebu to desperately struggle against the cuffs that chained him to the chair.
Bang!
“UUUUU!” Kebu cried out in pain as the shot missed his head and priced his shoulder.
“Calm down. Take a few deep breaths and take aim again,” said the old man in a soothing voice.
“R…Right,” said the widow as her hands shook from jitters. She took over a minute to calm down by taking deep breaths, all the while Kebu continued to cry in pain as blood leaked out of the bullet wound.
BANG!
The pained cries of Kebu went silent as his head exploded.
“With this, Justice has been served,” said the old man lightly taking the gun from the widows shaking hands.
