A momentary ring was all it took for Syna to jump on the reply button. “ Everything alright?”, she blurted out in a quick succession of words; a blush and a cough later, she reworded her speech. “ I mean, everything is alright here. You're still running around like a headless chicken?”

  Melina- “...Of course you’d know what a chicken is.”

  Syna- “ Semi-adopted by a CEO over here, hello? And, hi pot, I was also a teen with a bottomless account, of course I tried the secret dishes as well.” She shared glances with Priya, who tried really hard to lock a hearty laugh.

  A steam-like gas started to blow out of Melina’s prosthetic air vents- “ Sure, I agree with everything you just said. Now, moving past it, I got some info from some of these…ugh… schmucks. Most of their foot soldiers are former gang members, unemployed etc. While I think they have some solid grievances, I can see some issues with their movement. Important now is that neither knows who the boss is. Only the captains apparently know.”

  Syna- “ So we should interrogate these captains?”

  The bodyguard turned to the unconscious giant, and a nod started to form in her throat - “ I can’t. Knocked out mine.”

  Syna was already feeling a simmer rushing to her head, but before Sovereign and Priya could advise her to calm down, she already took a deep breath. “ Understood. It tends to happen when you run a solo mission”. A giant, self satisfied grin grew on her face, while a cringe, pain pinning frow pushed on Melina’s forehead.

  Syna- “ We’re also done here. This leader is probably either an agent of the Commune or bought by them. And they are in contact with someone from that spire village we checked out yesterday. Both were…well, let’s just say not conservative with the amount of messages exchanged. Spicy also.”

  Melina- “Co…what…Copy that. I’ll try to-”, she replied before noticing that the door to the next chamber had no handle. Only a reader of some sorts. Which was punctured by two bullet holes. “ Hey, so question. Would you say I am able to punch or kick down a titanium door?”

  Priya- “ No dear, not even Billy or Angie have that kind of strength. It would be faster, like two days faster, to tunnel around or under the door.” The former CEO then realized the purpose of the question was fastly on the search for any schematics stored locally.

  Melina- “ Of course you’d know that. What about-”

  Priya- “ No explosives, you might collapse the tunnel.”

  Melina- “ Well then-”

  Priya- “ Can’t laser it either. Actuallyyyy”, she said reading the material list-” I mean maybe Vivar could, but he’s on border duty.”

  A slap from a closing laptop let them know that Syna was packing her gear. “ I know that you won’t want it, but I can open it in a minute for you. Doesn’t matter if you want my help or not.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  …

  Syna noticed the side eyes the cuffed soldiers gave to her, but thought it was because of their current conflict and ignored it as the destroyed panel was more interesting to her anyway.

  Scratching the back of head, and thinking of how to find an excuse for it, Melina bumbled a few sentences out; mostly focusing on how this will waste precious time.

  Syna- “ No it won’t. I’m already done; and before you say anything, you should really attend Vivar engineering lessons. He’s really good with resetting electronics to their initial settings.”

  Melina- “ Huh. Savan’s been complaining that it kinda boring and I thought-”

  Syna- “ Yeah, I kinda noticed it too. They’re the kind of person that only likes the aspect of technology, but not exactly that keen on how it works. You have no idea how easily Savan gets lost with any new UI’s.”

  The bodyguard chuckled; she has liked listening to Savan’s gushings about models and intricacies about how a device functions but only now realized that they never mentioned how it’s built. At most only from what.

  Syna- “ C’mon, let’s move then”, added the hacker in passing, before a grab on her shirt stopped her midwalk. “What?”

  Melina- “ No? Told ya, I’m doing this-”

  Syna-” ‘Bla bla, alone, bla bla, I’m going to waste Syna’s time by getting stuck behind another panel further down the tunnel’. Am I right?”

  A passing wind whistled between the two mute, non blinking women; the captives could feel a discharge in the air and crawled a few steps backward.

  Melina- “ Huh, fuck, ok, you’re right…this time.” She then started to wave her hands as if she was shaking a dusty rug to sway away the smugness from Syna’s face.

  ….

  Both teams ventured further down the tunnels, with Priya and Sovereign finding more terminals and, to their confusion, a tunnel in progress. Shattered stones whitened the brown ground and grains of sand were still tripping from the surface.

  Priya- “ Are we beyond the Playground?”, she thought, unsure of the usage of the cavern; until she took a look at Sovereign. “ Reign, can you stand up straight and extend your limbs?”

  Sovereign- “ I don’t…oh. Let me scan the circumference as well then.” A few stretches later, it was just as the two feared. “...Should we collapse it? But what if it’s-”

  Priya- “ No, they’ll dig another. I’m more inclined to surveil it and booby trap it in case it gets out of hand.”

  Sovereign- “ Agreed. Fortunately since they siphoned access to the network, we can install some hidden cameras quickly. As for booby traps-”, both then turned around to glance at the boxes of dangerous powders and other materials meant to blow up a skyscraper. And so, a very greased up plan was set in motion.

  …

  Besides a few water droppings and scuffles from critters, no other sounds bothered the other group. Which in turn, started to bother Syna, who felt the weird wall between being partly her fault. “ Ok, a lot of it’s my fault as well”, she thought.

  Syna- “ Soooo…has anyone ever apologized to you?”

  Melina- “ Yes, my docmech out of fear while growing up. And the managers from multiple offices; and factory teamleads. And-”

  Syna- “ Not like that, you d-. Not like that. I mean, like wronging you for something personal. Or saying something they didn’t mean.”

  Melina- “ I have no concept of what any of that means.”

  Syna- “ Oh cool. You and your brother really were just programmed from birth, huh?”

  Melina- “ You tell me, hacker ‘bitch with a bottomless wallet’”. To her surprise, that reddened Syna’s cheeks.

  Syna- “ Shut up, I caught in a moment…embarrassing moment. Still, what I wanted to say was…that I’m sorry for how hostile I’ve been to you all this entire mission. “

  Melina- “ Oh”, she paused, thinking about the last few days. “ You did manage to piss me off, but back at ya. I’ve also been a bit…too personal with some comebacks.”

  Syna- “ True, we both were-”

  Melina- “ But you were worse.”

  Syna- “ Oh, c’mon…but true. I accept that. And I want to pay you back somehow; my treat at any bar you want?”

  Melina- “ I don’t…”, but then the hacker brought out her ace in the sleeve.

  Syna- “ I’ll convince Savan to come as well.”

  Melina- “ Fine then. One night though, don’t wanna feel like you’re bribing me with hangouts or such…Wait, why did you think mentioning Savan would convince me?”

  Syna- “...Ah, wow, we definitely have a topic to go over drinks. Memorized and archived.”