Title: Bargaining in Blood
"I am not waiting for an execution," Gerald replied, his voice chillingly calm as his fingers closed around the handle of the combat knife on his desk. "I am waiting for you to tell me who gave you the blueprints to my home."
The shadowy figure standing before him in the pitch-black study did not falter, though the red glow of Gerald’s cybernetic eyes reflected off the assassin’s polished monomolecular blade.
Deep beneath the city, miles away from the quiet sanctuary of the Sovereign Estate, a completely different transaction was taking place in the suffocating grime of the Shadow Bazaar.
The air in the subterranean bazaar was thick with toxic fumes, burnt grease, and the metallic stench of unwashed cybernetics. Steam hissed from exposed pipes lining the drip
