It’s a couple hours after breakfast before Vince starts his story once again.

  It was only a couple minutes before the door opened again. Those few minutes were awfully awkward though. Zero just stared at the two of us, and Mara didn’t care to pretend to be friendly. One and Two had a quiet conversation, but I wasn’t even at the table. I was still against the wall, rifle in hand, on the lookout.

  We knew the name of course. Silver was like us, someone who did their job, and did it well. Although they worked in a separate group, and we'd never personally met.

  Eventually Silver came in. They had platinum blonde hair in those days. It darkened both as they aged, and as a side effect of an implant.

  Silver and Mara silently sized each other up. Both of them had heavy armor on, armed to the teeth. Both of them were deciding the best way to kill each other, and they both knew it.

  Silver strode forward silently, learning their rifle against the table and placing their pistol in front of them.

  “You needed me?” They asked.

  “Our plans are changing.” Zero said. “Mara is going to assassinate Scoville to implement Two, and frame Wess for it. Two will use that as a reason to retaliate, ending in Wess’ death and the implementation of Five.”

  “I thought AI were supposed to be smart. That won’t work.” Silver said. “Wess will be seen as a martyr. His men will want blood, taking from Five if needed. No. Frame him and let me work. They’ve got an alliance, breaking that is reason enough to banish him.”

  “I admit, my simulations of humans are, at the moment, rudimentary.” Zero said. “Rest assured, that will be fixed in time. However, I do not believe Wess is the type of man to see banishment as permanent.”

  “I’ll take him out.” Mara offered. “I’m an honest employee. Nobody will bat an eye at a revenge killing.”

  “I assume you demand payment?”

  “No. I keep my loose ends tidy.”

  “What's the plan for the assassination?” Silver asked.

  “Plant a bomb and arrange a meeting. After he leaves, pull the trigger.”

  “I'll convince him to bring a gift large enough to be seen on the cameras.” Silver said. “Are we done here?”

  “I suppose we are.” Zero said. “Thank you, all of you. You're a vital tool in turning Vegas into something special.”

  “Just keep the chips flowing and we'll do whatever dirty work you've got.” Mara didn't even look back at me, just grabbed her rifle and walked out. I covered her back, and we returned home.

  Our armory at that point would make smaller scrapping gangs blush. C-4 wasn't in massive supply, but we had so few uses for the stuff. We stripped off our armor, grabbed a brick, and headed upstairs.

  There was still one person we had to rope into this operation. Cameras were spread throughout the whole building, all feeding into a single server room.

  Of course, then you've got the question: Who watches the server room? The answer is Scoville himself. Nothing was getting done while he was watching.

  Wordlessly Mara headed for Scoville’s room, bottle of wine in hand, and I headed for the server.

  I hung around in the hallway, casually relaxing. Mara and I had these little radios hidden in our cuffs, just a single button that clicked the other. I felt mine go off, fired back an acknowledgement, and got to work.

  We had the keys to the place, and let ourselves in. The guy working the station didn't even turn around, he was already watching me through one of the screens.

  “Vincent. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

  I walked straight past him and to his console. A few buttons later, the camera in the camera room flicked off, along with the one in Scoville’s.

  “I'm calling in that IOU.” We’d done some work in the past for him. His daughter was falling in with the wrong crowd, and we scared her straight. “Your system needs an update, an update that brings the whole thing down for the next thirty minutes.”

  “The hell are you planning?”

  “I'm doing what needs done to keep this gang together.” I said. “Keep your head down and things will be smooth for you and your family.”

  My threat didn’t go over his head. He glared at me, but I could see in his eyes he would go through with it.

  “I suppose it’s possible a CPU could burn out.” He glared at me while he said it, hit a few buttons, and the whole room went dark.

  “Good man.” I pat him hard on the shoulder as I passed.

  I hit the button on my wrist the moment I was out, and got one back in return. I sent back ‘thirty minutes’ in morse, and got a single click back in affirmation.

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  It was a short walk to Scoville’s office, and I let myself in once again.

  “Vincent!” He called out, glass of wine in his hand. He was already wasted. I had no doubt his glass was spiked. That became a favorite of hers. “Come over here! Raise a glass!”

  I glanced at Mara, silently asking if it was safe. She just smiled in amusement. She knew I didn’t really have a choice, and holding that over me was one of her favorite things.

  “Well, I can’t say no.” I grabbed a glass, poured myself a glass, and joined in whatever celebration she made up.

  “To victory!” He held up his glass, I clinked it, and nearly choked on the wine trying not to laugh.

  I stayed quiet while Mara kept his attention, no more than a fly on the wall. I watched Scoville carefully, waiting for my moment. I knew we were on the clock, and I watched our time tick down carefully.

  I saw my opening when Mara got him sharing a story. He swept his arms wide, knocking over a mostly empty cup of wine. It spilled across his desk, and I shot up.

  “Here, let me get that for you.” I offered, reaching into my satchel and pulling out an old shirt.

  He complained, but I did my job. Soaked up the wine on the table, and crouched down next to him to work on the floor.

  Mara got his attention. Not that it was hard, not in his intoxicated state. He forgot my existence.

  I pulled out the explosive, cut a small slit in the fabric at the bottom of his chair, and slipped it in. Slipped in a bug with it, thought I might as well. Nobody would notice. Of course, I had to make sure I got the stain out of the carpet first. If he called in cleaning, and they happened to see the slit? That was a risk we weren’t willing to take.

  I didn’t stick around after I got the bomb situated. I left Mara there to continue her work, sweet talking him.

  On the way back to our room, I stopped by the server room. The guy running it had a server rack pulled out and the cover off. His head was in his hands.

  “I’m just- the server broke-” He stammered the moment the door opened. He looked up and quickly wiped away his tears. “Oh, it’s you.”

  “You did good.” I said.

  “Whose death did I co-sign?” He asked.

  “Nothing more than a rat.” I shrugged. I saw an opportunity to cover my tracks. This guy wouldn’t squeal, not while his family was within arms reach, but I’d rarely been led astray by being too careful. I stepped forward, crouching close in front of him and let slip a few carefully chosen words. I slurred my words a touch and made sure he could catch a whiff of the alcohol on my breath. “Sorry, Scoville wants this to be quiet.”

  He nodded. Hearing this was an official op? That calmed him down a little.

  “Am I good to finish my upgrades?” He asked.

  “Golden.” I pat him on the shoulder before heading out.

  I made it back to our room, and I fell onto my bed. I fished around in my satchel and pulled out the detonator, held it up above my head, and just stared at it. Pressing it right then crossed my mind. Mara was up there. She wouldn’t survive a blast like that. I should have done it. Instead, I got mad at myself for even daring to think that. Guess I still had a little bit of a conscience I hadn’t managed to get rid of yet.

  Mara returned a few hours after that, and we celebrated. Finished the bottle Scoville started. Acted like we were heroes, like we did it for anything more than just the money.

  We laid low for a few days after that, just waiting, listening. We took shifts, not a single word in that office got past us. He had a lot of plans, but nothing against us. He trusted us completely.

  Mara was asleep when I heard him. I had a moment of thought, sanity if you will. A moment to bail, to let this pass, to run away, to not betray the man who treated us so well for so long. I buried my shame, my guilt, as deep as it would go.

  I woke Mara up. We listened in, it was a whole bunch of nothing. They reaffirmed some deals they had in place, and Wess dropped off a fine vase by the sound of things.

  An hour after he left? We could still hear Scoville shifting around. He had a habit of humming to himself. Always this same song. I can still almost hear it during my worst nights.

  Mara hit the switch.

  The entire building shuddered. We probably shouldn’t have been in it, but I guess it ended up fine. We got a little sloppy after being on top of the world for so long.

  “Come on,” Mara stood up lazily and slung her rifle over her shoulder. “Let's get acting.”

  The moment she opened the door, her mask swapped. From vaguely amused one moment, to deadly serious the next.

  The two of us ran upstairs, alongside half the gang. The other half was running out, trying to get away.

  We forced our way into Scoville’s office. A few people had fire extinguishers, trying to save the room. The only bright side was that the windows broke. All the smoke billowed out instead of filling up the floor.

  “The fuck happened here?” Mara roared. She ripped one of the fire extinguishers out of someone’s hand and waded into the room.

  As you can imagine, the place was a disaster. The only good part is that I can’t imagine anyone surviving that. It was instant. Not a peaceful death, but he didn’t exist long enough to realize it was happening. He deserved that if nothing else.

  “I- I don’t know!” Scoville’s assistant was shell-shocked. Her office was just outside of his. Fragments tore her apart, blood was seeping into her clothes. People were trying to help her, but she just kept on trying to look for Scoville. “Wess came by, and then...”

  Mara turned to me. We locked eyes, the perfect cover.

  “Check the cameras.” She ordered.

  I turned and marched downstairs, into the server room. The guy in there was already waiting for me, pistol in his lap.

  “The fuck did you do?” He asked.

  “I didn’t do anything.” I stepped past him and up to the console. “Scoville’s assistant said Wess just came by.”

  “What did you do while the cameras were off?” I glanced back to find a pistol in my face.

  I moved quick, moving to the side and bringing one hand to slap away the gun. My other hand connected with his face, sending him sprawling across the ground. Pretty sure I broke his nose.

  I crouched down overtop of him, one foot digging into his knee, and lifted the gun out of his hand.

  “We were checking for a rat. Scoville thought someone had a backdoor into your system.” I was awfully good at lying in those days. Turns out it’s easy to do when you bury all your emotions, leaving behind just an angry husk.

  I took his chair and got to work. I knew exactly when to check, but I couldn’t just jump straight to it. I watched every moment that Wess was visible. From him entering through the undersand tunnels and up to Scoville’s office.

  I grabbed a small radio I had in my satchel.

  “Mara? Wess brought in a vase, orange with gold inlay.”

  “I see the remnants of it all over the room. Get back up here, we’re going hunting.”

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