Trace wanted to help Deckard with his project, but he was leery of rushing a job this complex. He didn’t feel ready to go up against one of the top corporations with such minimal preparation. If he needed to go up against a corporation, then he wanted weeks, months of preparation. Not whatever Deckard was suggesting.

  Rushing into something like this just felt like he was asking for death.

  The stealth suit was nowhere near being completed, or even fully functional. He also needed to work on the helmet, and those were just the basics. After all of that, then he also needed to come up with a plan on how to silently break into the place.

  It was a real wraith type of job. Not a tier-four or five edger job, but one that was meant for a true specialist.

  Those were tiers that Trace was not even near in the first place. He needed to prepare, and then prepare some more. Surprise and Deckard’s ability to wipe out all electronic opposition would be the only things that even gave them a remote chance of seeing this through.

  Even then, he felt as though the odds were rather low.

  Ugh, if only he hadn’t needed to give Sevorah such a heavy discount on all the medical supplies. Speaking of which, he might as well go deliver those crates to her before he got distracted again. The amount he would make from the deal would be small, but it would still be enough to allow him to buy the paint without emptying his account completely.

  Getting the three crates into the back of his truck was a real struggle, but he managed after tossing some rope over a rafter above.

  Monroe and all the other edgers who had been evacuated with him had already been released from the care of emergency services. They weren’t completely healed, but that also wasn’t the job of emergency services. As soon as the people they rescued reached a viable, stable state, they were released to the care of doctors, menders, or even family members if no other care provider had been specified beforehand.

  He found Monroe lying on a bed at the clinic when he arrived, though he had already known the man was there. The two had occasionally exchanged messages during the day.

  Anna brought out a crate lift to empty the back of the truck, while he went inside to talk to Ko and Monroe.

  “You’re looking better,” Trace said as he stood beside the bed that Monroe was lying on. The large man barely fit on the bed, and the last few inches of his legs and feet were hanging over the edge. “How come you’re still in bed? I thought they were able to clear out the poisons before there was too much damage.”

  Monroe chuckled. “They did, but Sevorah doesn’t trust their work, apparently. She has taken samples of everything and is running every test known to man, and probably several that aren’t.” He looked at Trace. “What happened to you-” He shook his head. “No, never mind about that. I heard about everything from Revlock. It seems that this job really screwed us over. Thanks for saving me, but you do realize I’m even more in debt now than before, right?”

  Trace nodded. “It was a total fragged-up affair, and we didn’t even walk away with any loot.” He sighed. “A lot of edgers died down there as well. The corpos truly pushed the line on this one. As for the money issue… Well, Sevorah is about to pay us for the medical supplies, so you’ll get a nice chunk from that. There is also the money from the rebreather mask sale.”

  “Yeah, the rebreather mask sale did help a fair bit, and the sale of the medical supplies will help even more. Once I’m out of here, we need to hit the ground running and do as many jobs as possible.”

  “Actually,” A smile slowly came over Trace’s face. “I have an idea that might work. No promises or anything, but it could really make use of the trailer.”

  He spent a few more minutes talking to him before excusing himself and going to find Ko.

  She was sitting in Sevorah’s office, reviewing Trace’s brain scan information on an ink-sheet with her mentor.

  “This scan is incredibly detailed, Trace,” Sevorah told him when he stopped by the door. “I’m still reviewing all the information, but there are quite a few oddities here. Oh, also here,” She sent a message to him with the deposit for the medical supplies. “I also sent Monroe his portion.”

  “Thanks, I appreciate it.”

  “No, thank you. Those supplies will do a lot of good.”

  Ko put her ink-sheet on the desk, and waved him down the hallway, so they could talk in private. “What’s wrong? You seem tense?”

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  “It’s Deckard. He found something,” Trace began in a quiet voice before quickly telling her everything.

  The girl cursed and began to pace around the area. “Does he think this is some sort of game? I know you have done a few infiltration-type jobs along with your other smash-and-dash ones, but this is on a whole different level of complexity!”

  “You think I don’t know that?” He hissed back. “I have only barely begun to put some decent equipment together, and by that, I mean decent for someone in the first few tiers as an edger. I know he is desperate for a body, but I’ve got to be honest with you Ko, I don’t exactly want to die helping him get one.”

  She ran a hand through her hair, frazzling it as she paced. “We’ll come up with something, together. Go get your supplies and get back to work on your equipment. I’ll stop by the store after I’m done here and pick up some food and sodas and talk with Deckard and help wherever I can.”

  “Forget the sodas. I installed a water filtration system at the warehouse, that actually works. If you wouldn’t mind buying some jugs or something to store clean water in instead though, I would appreciate it.”

  She nodded, and they separated. He needed to get to the black market and buy a few things.

  The special paint was only one of the items he needed to get. There were also the microdot cameras, wire, gloves, along with a new pair of climbing suction cups, and then everything he would need for the helmet.

  It was going to be another expensive trip, and by the time he was finished, he was left with only a thousand credits.

  Back at the warehouse, Trace spread everything out on the tables outside his apartment. He made sure to separate them into different boxes according to the project they were for. That way, he wouldn’t accidentally use an item that was meant for something else.

  From inside the apartment, Trace retrieved two helmets and placed them on the table for later. Only a few of the agents in squads that Vinna-Kwoi had sent had been wearing helmets. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been paying close enough attention to them at the time to understand what the difference between them and the others was. He didn’t know if these had belonged to the leaders, the scouts, or something else entirely.

  Either way, it didn’t matter now. What did is that he only had a few of them and couldn’t afford to mess them up. Despite knowing that, he still needed to take them apart, remove any unneeded items, like trackers that would turn on at inopportune times, and then change their shape some as well.

  He had his work cut out for him.

  Going back inside the apartment with a box of supplies, Trace went back to work on the suit. He added a cloth bonding agent all around the edges of the armor sections to the suit. The bonding agent was how all clothes were made those days. Traditional seamstresses and the need for sewing anything had vanished with the introduction of the cloth bonding agent. Now, you would only see seams on certain high-quality products that paid extra for the look.

  The bonding agent was stronger and more durable than a needle and thread, so there was never a need to worry about the quality of the job being done. All you had to do was apply it, press the two pieces of cloth together, and then wait for it to dry.

  After he had done all the armor sections on the front, he began wiring up the microdot cameras while he waited for everything to dry. As soon as they were, he flipped it over and attached the armor to the back as well. As a stealth suit, it was meant to be light and maneuverable, which meant keeping it slim. However, he would be remiss if he completely ignored protecting his back.

  Once both were done, he began putting the cameras in place, carefully running wires underneath the suit as needed. If he had thought a little further ahead, he could have put them underneath the armor plates before bonding them. That was life, and while annoying, it was easily worked around as well.

  Cameras went into each of the joints, on the front and the back, and then in five places along the chest area. It was overkill for most situations, but if he was standing in front of a mural, he would need the extra cameras. Actually, he would probably need more, but he would test things out and discover for himself just how well this even worked. They might not even be able to control the paint to that degree. He knew the paint would be able to handle basic changes, but something complex was another thing entirely.

  Ko arrived as he installed the last camera and put everything to the side. In the morning, he would design and print the covers for all the gaps. Then it would be a matter of fitting and going through any changes that needed to be made before he painted it, at which point it would be done. At least on the outside. He still needed to make the control board for the cameras, and the one for the paint as well, which was going to be infinitely more difficult.

  She stopped by the filter setup, looking at each of the clear bowls that held the filter cartridges in turn. “That is disgusting. Can you believe we drink that stuff?”

  He rubbed the back of his neck, a crick from leaning over for the last couple of hours having developed. “I’m more curious as to what they did in the past to get it to this point in the first place. Simple World Wars wouldn’t have contaminated the world’s water supply to this degree. Someone must have done this on purpose.”

  Ko reached out and touched the first filter bowl, the inside of which had turned a sickly green color. “It only takes one area if the effects are bad enough. I’ve seen that on people’s bodies enough times. The bloodstream, or in this case rain clouds, could have taken part of the originally poisoned water into the air, and slowly deposited it elsewhere. If people had done something about it in time, they might have fixed it back then. Instead, we are left with a poisoned body and our new normal.”

  “Come on, let’s fill up these jugs you brought and stick them in the fridge. If you’ve never had pure water before, you are going to love it. I know I did. After that, I’m going to get some studying in and head to bed. I’m absolutely beat. You’re free to stay here if you want. The bed is large, or there is also one out in the semi you can use.” He yawned and shook his head. “Sorry, it’s been a long day, and I’m sure it’s probably been just as long or more so for you.”

  She yawned back, covering her mouth with the back of her hand. “Let’s see how I feel after I talk with Deckard. I would feel better knowing that we at least have some framework of a plan on which to operate around.”

  “We, huh?”

  “Yeah, we,” She affirmed, poking him in the chest with a soft smile.

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