The sun is just peaking above the club as I get there. All the flash and expectation from the previous night is gone. It’s just a grimy building again. 

I hear voices coming from around the corner. Sure enough, Ludo and his crew are leaving after another successful alcohol-fueled night. I’m not subtle about my arrival. 

“Hey Ludo! We need to talk.” 

His men form a barrier in front of me. They look extra pissed off. They were done for the day and I’m putting them into overtime. 

They’re going to hate me a lot more in a second. 

“Let him through,” Ludo says from behind the wall of goons. “But stand-by. We have a desperate man here. Who knows what he’ll do.”

“Why, Ludo? Why are you making my life hell?” 

Ludo laughs. I lunge at him. One of his goons grabs me and uses my momentum to put me on the ground. 

Ludo gets close and speaks slowly. 

“We talked about this. I need to be able to trust you. Instead, you go around your place and rip out all the hard work we’ve put into building that trust.” 

“No. You bugged my place without telling me. That was never our deal.” 

“Oh, grow-up, Rhys. We’re all being watched whether you like it or not. You think just because you ripped out the cameras that I don’t have other ways of tracking you? You think I don’t know you took a recall of Tito? I’m too smart for your games, Rhys.” 

I spit towards Ludo and it lands on his shoe. I was aiming for his face, but even my spit doesn’t have the energy. 

Ludo loses it and starts kicking me. I try to cover up, but I’m still bruised from the beating that Tito laid on me a couple days ago. It’s agony. 

Ludo is standing over me, yelling at me now. 

“You think I need this shit, Rhys? You geeks are a dime a dozen. I don’t need to put up with this. I tried to do something nice for you and you’ve done nothing but whine and complain. If it wasn’t for Tasmin bringing you here, I never would have had to deal with you and your shitty attitude.” 

He lands a couple more kicks for emphasis. 

“I’m done. I thought maybe you’d get the message when I had your place burnt down to rubble with you in it, but no. You’re brilliant when it comes to tinkering with people’s brains, but you’re an idiot when it comes to reading a room. Aren’t you, Rhys?” 

He steps back and lets me sit up. Everything is throbbing again. This will take a while to heal from.

Ludo nods at someone behind me and I feel something hard in the back of my head. 

“We could have made this work, Rhys. You were going to make a lot of money from me,” Ludo steps back. “Thanks for your services. We won’t be needing them any longer.” 

Now or never. 

I close my eyes. I feel around in my head for the augments. I can feel Tito is the gunman behind me. I focus the best I can with a gun to my head and activate the augment. 

Tito shreaks, fortunately not squeezing the trigger when he does. Instead grabbing his ears and dropping to the ground. 

Ludo tilts his head and smiles. 

“Looks like you’re not as good as I thought. Your work is backfiring. You’re lucky you do shoddy work.” 

“No, I’m not lucky,” I tap my head. “I’m resourceful.” 

The rest of Ludo’s men join Tito, grabbing their heads and shrieking on the ground. Ludo starts clapping. 

“Look at that. Pulled out all the stops.”

“We’re done, Ludo. You back off and you won’t see me again.” 

“Oh, we agree about that,” Ludo reaches behind him and pulls out a gun, pointing it at my head. “However, I find the old ways are best.” 

“Kill me and your men suffer. I’m the only off switch.” 

Ludo shrugs. “Cost of doing business.” 

Bang!

I open my eyes and I’m still very much alive. Ludo is too, but he’s holding his side. 

It worked. Tito, from on the ground behind me, is holding a smoking pistol out. “Boss- that wasn’t- me. I sw-”

Bang!

Tito falls silent. 

It feels like a lifetime before I realize what Ludo just did. He wasn’t bluffing. I need to act quickly. I focus on Ludo’s other men. They all start pointing their guns at him. 

Bang! Bang!

Ludo pulls the trigger on two more. 

“See, Rhys? I don’t make threats. I act. I’ll kill every one of these guys. You and every single one of them is replaceable. Your girl is replaceable. Your shop is replaceable. I’m the only one who-” 

Too quick for me to realize what’s happened, Ludo is through the windshield of a car, face-first. Someone has run him over with his own car. I don’t know what’s going on. That wasn’t me. 

Vincent gets out of the car and wipes his hands clean. He points at Ludo’s men. 

“Let them go,” He grits his teeth. “It’s over.” 

I hear sirens in the distance. The men around me drop their guns. They’re disoriented enough that none decide to rush me. At least not yet. 

“Go. We’ll be in touch. This never happened. You’re going to help me make that happen,” Vincent says, looming over me. “Then I never want to see you again.”