ZIP!

  A black carbon cord flies through the nighttime sky, it’s three pronged fangs biting into the sleek windows of the mammoth skyscraper that is Troan Tower, named after Raife Chau’s illustrious captain of industry, his Father, Troan Tove. Chau was his wife’s side. Diana Chau. Sometimes it sounds like Raife was the only one who respected her.

  Everyone knew the name Troan Tove. He was a founding council member of the city we stood on. The building stood as a monument to him and his accomplishments, along with the blood, sweat, and tears of the workers whose backs he stood upon to create it. The affordable, malleable, yet incredibly strong, metal, Ira, was first found and harvested in the mines of Aurelius 6. Troan Tove discovered it first, or so it's claimed, and has been bleeding it dry ever since. A good portion of the city has been built using it. Not much of old city though, which stood before Troan arrived and gave it new life, reaching for the stars and that.

  I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into all that he accumulated. In salivated over the thought, as I latched the carbon clip to my harness, the fact that I was sent to claim the first piece of Ira that had been uncovered by Troan Tove. A monumental piece of history. To think Troan’s old friend and fellow council member Caleaya Rothmartin, the real estate mogul, had enlisted my services to take it from him, made it all the better. Maybe that old rumored fling between her and him wasn’t just hearsay. Still, I didn’t care to ask. The only thing I wanted was the fee. And it was a large one.

  Instantaneously, I hoped off the rooftop and zipped towards the window in a swinging arc, smashing a button at my waist just before impact and halting me right at the glass itself.

  Phew. I breathed a sigh of relief. Will never get used to that. Slipping a small disc out of the narrow pack on my back, I slapped it on the window. At that, a small 6 legged robotic spider, mechanical legs, tapped to life. A Trascis.

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  A mini laser saw opened from its head and sliced through the glass with ease. I clicked a button atop it, deactivating the mechanical creature, after a big enough hole was drawn and pushed the glass in, it falling to the floor with a thick thud, as I climbed in, detaching my line, and pocketed the trascis.

  Too easy so far. So far...

  I had already been given the layout by Caleaya’s team, and danced through the floors after employing my image jammer, which distorted me into a ghostly blur across most cameras.

  Suddenly, I stopped. Two guards wandered down the sleek halls, filled with future pop artwork and pieces from long lost dynasties.

  Treading lightly, I jogged around them, dipping and hiding when necessary, before finding the nearest elevator.

  Pressing the button, I waited for it to arrive, empty, luckily, and took my way up to the floor 300, where the I couldn’t reach from the outside.

  I was expecting more company, but didn’t mind. I waved playfully at the cameras that could see nothing but a distorted blue imaged and passed on as the doors opened.

  Something was wrong though.

  Two bodies lay crippled on the floor as I entered. Guards. I bent down to inspect them. Still breathing, but incapacitated.

  Rushing down the long hall, I encountered a few more stray bodies before turning into the mega chamber that sealed in the historic piece of Ira. I huddled up to a wall and peaked into the chamber.

  A shadowed figure was inside. Bearing a dark green hood and jet black mask, that looked like the imprint of a white skull on it, as the figure was draped in free flowing green tattered fabric that lightly floated around him and black tights underneath.

  The figure had removed the glass entrapment and negated all other security measures. A professional, no less. His gloved hands reached in and grabbed ahold of the palm sized piece of Ira.

  “You gonna pay for that?” I sauntered in, snapping.

  “It does not belong to you,” the figure’s voice changer garbled into a menacingly robotic tone, as the skull mask looked over to acknowledge me.

  “That’s where you’re wrong,” I said, reaching into my pack and pulling out a baton. Pressing a button in the middle, it separated into two pieces, one poised in each hand, as I readied my stance for combat.

  “After tonight, everything is mine!”