“Do you even have a plan?” Manya snapped, her hands on her hips.

“Yeah, it involves you going home to your mother and me going in there to get the android that might hold the key to my dead sister.”

“Oh wow, so not a strategy guy huh?” Manya huffed, shaking her head. “I just lost my job for you, there is no way you can just send me home now.”

“Are you fucking kidding?” Cedar snorted, “you worked nights for some dodgy tech dealer, it’s not a big d-“

“What the fuck do you think pays for my mother’s medical insurance?” Manya hissed. “What funds my college classes so I can actually try to get a real job one day and off of this floating shithole?”

“I,” Cedar felt the pounding amplified in his frontal lobes, the numbing effect of the triple vodka had worn off. “I’m sorry, kid.”

“Don’t call me that,” Manya laughed grimly, “I’ve got twice your IQ and I’m the only reason you even have an android that’s still alive.”

“Yeah,” Cedar frowned, “sorry.”

Manya let out a low sigh. “Look, truth be told I have exactly zero interest in running into your little gun fight with you. I just figured you might need someone versed in AI tech for when you recover Vaki. They may have messed with him and that EMP will certainly have interrupted the memory retrieval process.”

“Fuck,” Cedar spat grimly, he hadn’t even thought about that. Vaki being shut down and stopping the programme was exactly what he had been so desperately trying to avoid.

“Exactly,” Manya replied, “and we’ll only get one more shot to run that retrieval programme before the data eats itself.”

“Okay, just stay out of sight,” Cedar told her before pulling his badge from his belt and chucking it across to Manya.

“Is this like your fucked up version of a friendship bracelet?” Manya frowned down at the shiny metal shield.

“It’s in case I don’t come out,” Cedar grunted, take that badge to the central station and ask for Detective Saorise Lin, she’ll help.”

“Right,” Manya laughed bitterly, “because if I find myself with a cop’s corpse, an unregistered android that’s wanted for murder and my ex boss who’s a notorious criminal, the police station is sure to be my first port of call.”

“Manya,” Cedar groaned. “Please just trust me on this one. Lin will help you.”

“Whatever,” Manya rolled her eyes and tucked the badge in her back pocket before disappearing into the shadows. “I’m giving you an hour before I check out, Tanaka.”

Cedar took a deep, steeling breath before walking up to the side door of the abandoned warehouse.

The building unit wasn’t too large, as space was scarce on a colony ship like the Umbudu. It was, however, dangerously derelict, with cables hanging all over the place, some still sparking which let Cedar know there was an active power supply to the building.

It was the perfect place for android smugglers to be holed up for a while until they could either get their goods off ship or merged into the local markets.

Cedar paused as he skirted around the far wall, he could hear voices coming from down the end of a hallway. He cursed that the floor was mostly strewn with debris and broken glass, it made attempting a silent approach tricky.

Eventually, however, he was able to edge up to a small room at the end of the hallway. He peered inside, it looked like it had used to be some kind of break room for the warehouse workers. There was a cramped kitchen area with a still working coffee machine and a set of faded red couches currently occupied by a man and a woman. Though Zachariah was nowhere to be seen.

“In,” hissed a hard voice as Cedar felt the cold barrel of a gun pushed up against the back of his neck. He cursed himself before raising his hands and taking a step into the harsh electric light of the break room.

“What the hell?” a man snapped, jumping up from the couch and staring at Cedar.

“Found him lurking in the hallway,” Zachariah announced before prowling into view, sliding around Cedar and snatching his gun away from him. “He would have got the jump on you idiots if I hadn’t come back when I did.”

Cedar looked around the room before freezing. There, in one corner, chained to the wall was Vaki. The android’s eyes were wide and frightened as he recognised Cedar. There was a thick filthy smudge of grime across his pale face. Cedar frowned as he noticed streaks of synth blood across Vaki’s neck.

“You wanted him back that badly huh?” Zachariah laughed as he nudged Cedar over to sit on a plastic chair. “How did you find us? Creon squeal?”

Zachariah looked genuinely curious as he handed Cedar’s gun to a nearby woman, keeping his own trained on Cedar.

“Yeah,” Cedar replied, desperately trying to think of a way out of this mess.

“We can handle Creon later,” Zachariah told his men with a roll of his eyes that suggested he wasn’t all too surprised at the other man’s betrayal.

A moment later a loud whine rang out through the room, causing Cedar’s hair to stand on end.

“Been doing that all night,” the woman huffed, striding over to where Vaki was huddled on the floor and landing a vicious kick in his stomach. Vaki let out a cry of pained surprised before drawing his knees up to his chest and shivering.

Cedar swore under his breath. An android like Vaki was physically strong, hell, Cedar had seen footage of him rip a man’s head off with his bare hands. But there was no way experienced smugglers would have allowed his programming to permit use of such strength against them.

In fact, all AIs were produced with the same embedded code that didn’t allow them to hurt bio-bodies. It was only through some serious modification that androids could be turned into weapons.

“What have you done to him?” Cedar asked as Vaki let out another small whine.

“He’s adapting to new code,” Zachariah smiled nastily, “we’re on a time limit before the auctions so we needed to get it pushed through. Of course, it hurts like a bitch, but at least we know his pain receptors are functioning – often gets a better price you see?”

Cedar ignored the man to stare at Vaki. He hadn’t realised you could push code through any faster than the normal rate. He wondered why Manya hadn’t told him? Cedar figured she probably hadn’t wanted to risk him insisting on it and causing Vaki the same kind of agony he seemed to be in now.

“You idiots don’t know what you’re mixed up in,” Cedar laughed grimly, shaking his head round at the smugglers. He was rewarded with the sharp, stinging ‘thwack’ of the gun against his jaw bone. Cedar gasped in pain, his eyes stinging as he blinked them back into focus.

“Enlighten me,” Zachariah drawled before the room was suddenly plunged into darkness.

“What the fuck?” a voice yelled out.

Cedar could hear movement all around him until one of the overhead cables sparked and dimly illuminated the scene.

Cedar locked eyes with Manya, the girl was creeping along the side of the wall towards Vaki. Only, Zachariah had spotted her at the same time.

“Fuck,” Cedar bit out as the room went black again and he charged forwards into the blue haired man, tackling him round the chest and sending them both careening to the floor. The sound of the gun skidding somewhere across the rough concrete momentarily distracting as the other man clipped Cedar across the cheek.

“Get the lights back on!” the woman yelled as footsteps and heavy boots pounded across the floor in different directions.

Cedar wrestled with Zachariah, his limbs painfully bashing against various objects and furniture. Eventually, however, he managed to land a solid punch sending the other man flying backwards to crunch against the wall.

The lights came on a second later as Cedar’s fingers managed to locate the other man’s gun from underneath the couch. Before he could turn around, however, a shot rang out deafeningly and a burning pain seared at his shoulder.

Cedar screamed hoarsely as he pulled himself up on the arm of the couch and turned to fire his gun at the woman who was brandishing his own issued weapon.

He could see Manya and Vaki out of the corner of his eye before he fired off another shot into the leg of the remaining man who toppled to the floor in an angry shout.

“Go!” Cedar yelled at Manya. “I’m coming.”

He wrenched himself up before limping over to the other side of the room and swiping his own gun back before turning to follow Manya and Vaki.

“Oh my god, you’re shot,” Manya hissed as all three of them emerged into the alley.

“Not now,” Cedar shook his head and grit his teeth hard enough to hurt.

“What do you mean not now?” Manya shrieked angrily. “You’re going to bleed out!”

“He’s a Mercy,” Cedar grunted, gesturing at Vaki, “get me back to the apartment and let him fix me.”

“Oh my god,” Manya repeated weakly, before seemingly making up her mind and pulling out a thin syringe before stabbing it in Vaki’s neck. “So you can function,” she snapped, “now help me carry Tanaka,”

The two of them rushed forwards to support Cedar’s weight, carrying him quickly through the dark streets.