The helicopter dropped us off on top of the apartment we originally planned the heist from before flying off into the distance. Thankfully, Obsidio somewhat recovered on the helicopter ride over. It would seriously suck to have to carry him down the stairs to the apartment. That, and I didn’t have a key.

  Obsidio staggered in front of me, rubbing at his back. “That's weird. Why does my back hurt so much?”

  ”…” I looked the other way.

  The boss shook his head and cheerfully clapped his hands together. “Oh! The tome! You grabbed it, right?!”

  “Here.” I pulled the book out of my hoodie pocket and passed it over to him. It didn't feel particularly powerful. Definitely not a Skill Tome, at least. Maybe it had some kind of mystical knowledge in it? There were ways of casting magic outside of the OS.

  “Yes!” Obsidio grabbed it, cheerfully flicking through the tome. It was in some language I couldn’t read. Although All-Speech worked for all languages, it was only spoken ones. I was just as clueless as everyone else.

  ”Others?” I asked the ecstatic Anarch and stuffed my hands into my hoodie pocket. The apartment building was freezing.

  ”Oh, Havoc and Mayhem? They’ll be fine. Been through this more than enough. They’ll probably be brought down to the Bureau for questioning. They’re mundane, though, so they won’t be charged nearly as hard. They’ll plead that I forced them into it.” He laughed happily. “With my connections? Out by tomorrow, though with a hefty fine.”

  Impressive… add in that gold Cathedral card? He gave some great benefits. Maybe I should look into a henchman position? It was close enough to a Knight, anyway. I could probably take care of my little problem if I had a boss who cared enough… Hmm… I needed to remember to ask Pursius about it.

  ”…?” I pointed toward the book.

  ”No clue. What language is this anyway?” He shrugged and slid it into his pocket.

  “…” Why the hell did we steal it if he didn’t even know what it was for? What was the point? Was that ‘unlimited power’ thing all just blowing hot air?

  Obsidio unlocked the door to our staging apartment. “Teresa, we’re back!”

  A new voice, cool and collected, called out from the living room. “We’ve been expecting you.”

  I closed in behind Obsidio, my guard raising exponentially. That was a new voice. Someone showing up at the end of the gig was never a good sign. I turned the corner, spotting not just one person, but three strangers waiting for us in the apartment.

  A woman was the centerpiece, casually leaning against the planning table while sipping on what looked like boba tea. She wore a high-end suit with a golden tie. All of her clothes were sharply ironed, and she had a certain rich vibe to her.

  Golden chrome implants were visible along the contours of her face, looking to be more for aesthetic than function. The gold contrasted sharply against her bronze skin. Add in the rest of her vibe? Even at a glance, she practically screamed merchant- corpa. Right, it was corpa here.

  Two brutes stood on either side of her. Not too close, but close enough to react to any threat. Both goons were heavily chromed. They gave off more threat than even twenty Bowmen combined would. No telling what machines they had under the hood either.

  Where was Teresa? The Cipher was supposed to stay here until the job was over. I silently dredged up globs of Ebonshroud just in case, hiding the flowing tar-like substance within my hoodie’s sleeves.

  ”Miss Thariya! It’s good to see you again!” Obsidio didn’t seem to be wary of the trio in the slightest. He approached the group like a puppy greeting its master. So they were friendly?

  “Indeed. I see you were successful this time, Obsidio. Congratulations.” Miss Thariya smiled politely. That wasn’t enough to fully hide the calculating look in her eyes. Said eyes shifted to me. “And who is this?”

  Obsidio glanced back toward me, nodding his head as if to encourage me to introduce myself. I glanced around the room, some tension fading away when I heard the faucet in the bathroom turn on. A moment later, Teresa leaned against the door and cheerfully waved at me.

  My guard dropped slightly, though not competely. “Nyx.”

  Miss Thariya eyed me like she expected me to say more. After a few seconds, she slurped at her straw and plastered on a fake smile. “Nyx, then… this is the contractor, Obsidio? Replacing... Jaguar John, is it?”

  "Jaguar Joe." Obsidio tilted his head to me. “She doesn’t speak much.”

  “I can see that.” Her eyes gleamed in interest. Rousing her interest felt like it could be quite troublesome.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  "Welcome back, victors!” Teresa smiled at us. She darted to her terminal on the side of the room and started packing everything up to go.

  Miss Thariya slurped on her boba tea loudly before pushing off the table. “Now that we’re all here, let's move. Only a matter of time before the Bureau's hounds come barking down the helicopter's trail. My Hova will be here at any minute.”

  Getting into a Hova with a corpa… This wasn’t exactly what I signed up for. I shook my head and backed up to the door. My part of the job was done anyway. “Bye.”

  ”Going back to Pursius?” Obsidio asked me.

  “Yep.” Sure beats sticking around here.

  “Then we can drop you off, at least.” Miss Thariya smoothly passed us by, walking to the stairs seemingly without a care in the world. “And you need to collect your pay, right? I think you earned a hefty bonus. Oh, leave the cleanup to the boys. They’ll take care of it.”

  The two guards started gathering the scattered objects and papers around the apartment, grouping them in front of the incinerator. Teresa and Obsidio had no objections. They followed Miss Thariya out of the apartment like it was the most natural thing in the world. I hesitated for a moment before following as well. A bonus wouldn’t hurt. Every little bit helped, yep?

  I followed the group to the staircase, ignoring most of the chatter from Obsidio excitedly filling Miss Thariya in on the heist. His chatter and skipping stride created a great visual contrast with the drug den surrounding us. Thariya's poise didn't drop for a moment. She calmly pulled information out of the Anarch.

  Eventually, my attention snapped back to the group when Obsidio said my name. “… Nyx carried me out! And we got the book!”

  ”I watched it all on Bowman’s stream.” Her smile twitched slightly. "Impressive."

  I stared at the woman. Watching on Bowman’s stream? I thought his Mascot was just recording. Was it live-streaming all of that? Hmm… How'd she manage to tune into the heist so quickly?

  “You’re as talented as ever, Obsidio.” Miss Thariya said with feigned enthusiasm. “The book?”

  ”Right. I looked through it, but it felt mundane to me. No idea why you wanted it…” Obsidio dug the book we stole out of his pocket and passed it to her. His cheer died down significantly and he twisted his hands. “Um- and about Havoc and Mayhem-“

  The woman casually waved her hand and took the book. ”Already working on their release. My employer was particularly pleased with the way this went. They’ll be out by tonight at the latest.”

  “Primo!” Teresa smiled happily. “Drinks on you, boss?”

  ”After tonight? Definitely!” Obsidio laughed and pushed open the door to the apartment’s roof. A cold, wet draft hit me. The storm had intensified severely while we were inside. Hope the pilot landed safely.

  Up above, a black hova steadily descended through the sky, rain splattering off it. It was a rather large one with a sleek, aerodynamic design. Four ‘limbs’ stuck out of it, granting the vehicle its flying capabilities.

  The luxury vehicle was entirely unmarked, which was impressive in this age of corporate branding. My guard rose a few more notches. If Miss Thariya could get an unmarked vehicle? She likely wasn’t simple. Or, at least, her employers weren't.

  The Hova landed, its thrusters settling on the ground like landing gear. The main door on its side slid up. Miss Thariya took the lead and she stepped up into the cabin. This kind of Hova was a top-of-the-line Limo, with a separate space for the pilots and a main cabin in the back for the passengers.

  Obsidio and Teresa followed after her. The ‘boys’ followed right after me after I got into the Hova. I chose the seat beside Obsidio on a plush chair. On the other side of the cabin, the guards sat on either side of the corpa woman.

  ”Tlacuali in Quetzl, right?” At my nod, Miss Thariya tapped on the window dividing the cabin from the pilots and informed them. She turned back to us and finished off the last of her tea. “That’s Pursius's place? I never had the pleasure of meeting the Miix myself, but I’ve heard of him.”

  “Bonus?” That was the only reason I was still here.

  The woman casually waved her hand to her guards. ”Right. Obsidio, the original deal was for three thousand Nytes, yes?”

  Obsidio—who’d been staring out the window while the Hova lifted off—flinched. “Um- yes. I believe so. On a shard.”

  ”Naturally.” One of the bruisers passed her a shard; the other a fresh boba tea from a mini fridge built into the hova’s side. It was packed full of the stuff.

  Miss Thariya grabbed the shard lightly and held it palm up. A moment later, a silver array of runes and magical scripts appeared, hovering just over her skin. It was a structure with multiple layers, interconnected scripts, and constantly shifting mechanisms that were almost impossible to read. Even with all its sophistication, it was incredibly beautiful.

  The array was a SIGIL, or a System Integrated Global Identification Ledger. They were an extremely complex bit of magitech that almost everyone in Bastion had implanted into their body from birth. It simultaneously acted as a personal record keeper, bank, and ID, among a variety of other things.

  Citizens had a black one. Having a silver one indicated her status. She wasn’t just anyone. Although silver ones didn’t have as many permissions as a Warden's white SIGIL, they were close. And silver was the highest a normal citizen could get with a hefty ‘donation’ to Throne. The ‘merchant-class’ of Bastion, if I were to put it into terminology from my homeland.

  A moment later, the SIGIL faded away and she held out the shard to me. “There. Transferred two thousand bonus Nytes just for you. The other three thousand should be with Pursius, right, Obsidio?”

  Obsidio rubbed at his hair, causing even more of the terrible hair dye to fall out. Seriously, why’d he buy such cheap hair dye? He definitely had the Nytes to get something better. ”Should be.”

  I stared at the shard for a moment. I’d learned from the past not to just accept more money for a job then was agreed on. “…?”

  Miss Thariya’s eyes gleamed and she waved the shard. “This is the first time our Obsidio found success. Take it. No strings attached.”

  I finally grabbed the offered shard after a few more moments of hesitation. I’d be able to splurge a bit and get Purius high-end catnip with this, at least. Oh, and more coffee! It'd already been so long since I had some last... since before I was kicked out of the apartment, at least

  Hmm… I’d have to get Pursius to move the bulk of the Nytes to a different shard just to be safe once I got back. Probably all kinds of trackers on this thing. Most of the Grid stuff went over my head, but I knew enough to be wary.

  Miss Thariya smiled brightly and she continued to ask me questions. I answered a few of them with one-word replies, though I mostly kept silent as the Hova flew me back to Quetzl. I couldn't wait to get out of here. Merchants always rubbed me the wrong way.