Shadow Cipher

2. Nova

"Of course I can explain. You see, Bolton is a piece of shit." I say with a cocky smirk.

I can tell she is trying not to laugh at my audacity, but she keeps her frown in place. "Well, unfortunately for you, that piece of s**t doesn't like people prying into things they shouldn't be prying into. For that, you have to die."

I can feel my hands sweating, but I've been trained for these situations. The Shadow Ciphers don't send people out without training them first. I shove her gun to the side and make a grab for it. She's quick, but I'm faster. I flip her over my back and successfully gain control of the gun. Then I run. Once I'm out of her eyeline, I toss the gun into a dumpster and I use some parkour skills to get up a building and leap from building to building, avoiding streets and alleys. Once I'm a few miles away from the office building, I perch on a roof and contact the Ciphers. I shoot the message to the person who posted the job and said I got what they need. They message back within minutes saying they want to meet up to obtain it, not trusting the secure Shadow Cipher server. I don't blame them. After all, I got into the Shadow Ciphers because I hacked their server years ago. I believe they've increased the security of it since then though. Oh well. Guess I'm not heading home for the night yet. Out of curiosity, I make a quick duplicate of the information I'm giving to this person on my data pad, then head to the place they indicated to meet them.

I make it to a park near a bridge that goes over a little stream that runs through the park. I stand by the bridge and wait. and wait. aaaaaaand wait. I check my data pad again and there's no new messages from the individual and it's getting late. My adrenaline from running away from the office building is starting to crash too, so I'm getting tired.

Finally a man walks towards me. "Chaos Sprinkles?" he asks in a husky voice.

"At your service. I'll hand over the drive as soon as I see the money in my account," I say, trying to keep my frustration for his lateness out of my voice.

"Of course." He opens up his own data pad and presses some buttons. "You should see it now."

I check my data pad and try not to show my shock. To be honest, I didn't really pay attention to the posting in terms of how much it paid, because I was more interested in the fact that the mark was Governor Bolton. Seeing the transfer of 800 thousand credits was a surprise. A very, very, VERY nice one. "Perfect. Here's your data chip. It was a pleasure doing business with you," I say as I hand over the chip and start to walk away.

Feeling a little paranoid, I walk a while before I open up my data pad again and call up my brother.

"Go for Cygnus," he says as he picks up. I can tell he's working on his bike. It sounds like he is in the garage and I hear his tools.

"Hey Cyg. Any chance you could pick me up? I'm tired and the idea of walking home right now is killing my soul." I try to sound as pathetic as possible.

I hear him chuckle then say, "Sure sis. Just send me your location and I'll be there soon. We can try out my bike's new mods!"

"I can't wait! Thanks bro." I hang up, send him my location. It doesn't take him long before I hear the roar of his bike.

I must look more haggard than I thought because he says, "Hey Nova. You okay?"

Cygnus doesn't know about the Shadow Cyphers and the jobs I take for them. He would hate that I put myself in danger. He feels responsible for me. He's the best brother, but he can be a bit overprotective at times. He would flip his s**t if he found out about what I did tonight.

"Yeah, just a long night," I say as I let out a big yawn.

"Okay. Have you eaten? I forgot to eat while I was working on my bike. I was thinking of grabbing burgers on the way back home. That sounds good?"

I smile as my stomach growls loudly. "Sounds perfect. I haven't eaten either." To be honest, all the running and jumping up and across buildings and crawling through ventilation ducts takes a lot of energy.

I put on the helmet that Cygnus hands me. He had it custom-made for me with a pink Mohawk to match my hair. I hop on behind him and hear him say, "Hold on tight, I got this baby to go even faster than before!" It makes me smile because he always wants things to be as fast as possible. Even outside actual races, his motto is "It's not illegal if they can't catch you," and nobody would be able to catch my brother if he didn't want them to.

We swing through a drive-through, the person at the window asks for his autograph, then we head home. When we get home, I let out a sigh. I can't believe I got away with everything tonight. It was the closest call I've ever had. Usually I just do some basic hacking from the comfort of my own home. It was the first time I've had a gun pulled on me. Now that I'm safe at home, I start to feel fear that I pushed aside earlier.

"Hey, Cyg?"

"Yeah Nova?"

"How much money do you owe to people?" I try to ask as tactfully as I can, but I can tell he already suspects something is up with me.

"Don't you worry about that. That's for me to deal with." I sigh, this is his usual response when I worry about something like this.

"Please Cyg. I got some money from a computer job. Good money. I think it might help get you out from under at least a few of your debtors."

I know it's coming before he says, "Oh? What kind of computer job? If you really want to know, I'll make you a list."

I cringe internally. A list of debtors. Why does my brother have to be so stupid when it comes to money? "Oh you know, data retrieval type stuff."

He looks at me suspiciously and nods as he hands me my food. "Why would data retrieval leave you all dusty and scratched up?"

I look down at myself to realize, yup. He's right. My hands are scratched to s**t. I have a bruise on my shoulder from landing wrong on one of the buildings, and I have a cut on the knee of my pants that went into my knee from smacking it on some glass during my rush to get away from the lady with a gun. I just mumble incoherently around a big bite of my burger.

He squints at me. "Did you do something stupid tonight?"

I roll my eyes. I love my brother, but we still argue from time to time. Especially when it comes to my safety. "No. I did a job. I got paid good money for it." I grab the rest of my food and a drink out of the fridge and head to my room. I flop into my computer chair and open up the Shadow Cypher page. The person I did the job for gave me a perfect rating. I flip through some other job listings when I come across a hit posted on a person called Red Shadow. There's a picture and god damn! Why are all the hot ones dangerous? I guess he's someone that has been hired to take out several of the Shadow Cyphers in the past few months, so the person posted wanting someone to take him out. The pay is absolutely ridiculous, 10 billion credits. Usually the higher the pay, the more dangerous the job. This man must be incredibly dangerous. It makes me glad I'm a hacker and not a hit man. I shut down my computer again and flop on my bed, ready to get some much-earned rest now that the adrenaline has left me.