It was 11:02. Dion crossed his arms and glared at the maître d' blocking their path. The squat, round man was not convinced they belonged here, regardless of how much work they put into looking ‘presentable’. It was hard to blame him; even Dion thought he looked like a thug.

Dion’s brown undercut was slicked back with gel, but his bruised face was still an eyesore. His shoulders had been too broad to fit into Pippa’s old clothes, so the tight green shirt couldn’t be buttoned up the whole way. They ran out of time to find other alternatives.

Thankfully, Pippa had a similar frame to Atty, so at least one of them looked somewhat presentable. The combination of his blue hair and a teal suit made it hard not to notice the pale blue of his eyes. He almost looked like one of those singing idols that were plastered all over the city advertising holodisplays.

“Non, non, non. Not here,” the little man tutted at them as he tried to ‘shoo’ them away with his hands. “Reservation only.”

“We have a client waiting for us inside,” Atticus insisted for what seemed like the hundredth time since they’d arrived. The interaction had been repeating the same pattern for the last five minutes.

“Non.” The maître d' shook his head.

“Excuse me, Teddy,” a young woman interrupted. “These people are my guests today.” She was a short girl, in her mid-twenties. Her most notable feature was her pastel pink hair, which was so long that the tips fell past the hem of her white miniskirt. High heels elongated her legs, adding just a fraction more height; enough to make her taller than ‘Teddy’.

The woman placed a manicured hand gently on the irritating man’s shoulder and gave him a sweet smile, “Please show them to my table. I don’t enjoy waiting.” Her pleasant demeanour fell as soon as her eyes flicked to her guests. “I’ll return shortly.” Her gaze ran up and down Dion and Atty with an obvious distaste. An exaggerated sigh left her pretty pink lips before she turned away and headed for the restrooms.

‘Teddy’ clicked his fingers at one of the wait staff to call them over. He whispered something in the other man’s ear as the wait staff’s face twisted with confusion. 

The new staff member cleared his throat and gestured for the brothers to follow him. “This way, please.” Instead of leading them through the front door, he held a side door open for them. 

Atticus was the one to ask the question. “Why that way?”

The staff member cleared his throat again and shifted uncomfortably. “Monsieur Theodore does not wish for you to draw attention from the other guests. He has requested that I show you an alternative route to your table. Please, if you will follow me this way.”

To be honest, it was more than Dion had expected. A way in was a way in. He suspected that the woman was genuinely desperate if she was still considering hiring them after such an egregious reaction. That thought instilled a nervous seed of doubt in his mind. What could she possibly want?

It felt like the waiter had given them a tour of every back room in the complex by the time they had reached the table. The walk had taken so long that the pink-haired woman was already seated at the table again, waiting for them. She didn’t look up from her Cuff when they took their seats across from her. 

The woman indicated to their guide-waiter, who pulled out a small holodisplay notepad.

“I’ll have the—” she stopped and looked at both of the brothers again, “the three of us will have the degustation menu.”

“We won’t,” Dion objected, putting a hand on the table to get the waiter's attention, “We don’t plan to stay that long.”

“Three for the degustation menu.” The waiter confirmed, deliberately ignoring Dion before he walked away. It was like they were invisible to these people. 

“You look like you’ve seen better days,” the pink-haired woman commented, only briefly flicking her eyes to Dion’s face before returning to her Cuff. 

“You look like you’ve never had a hard day in your life,” Dion retorted, leaning back in his chair to cross his arms again. He could see her jaw tighten while she glared quietly at him from under her long eyelashes.

Someone came over to fill their wine glasses, but her gaze didn’t shift from Dion. She folded her hands under her chin, examining them with more visible scrutiny. Dion shifted slightly when it seemed like her eyes lingered a little longer on his chest than anywhere else. He probably would have looked more reasonable in his own clothes, but Pippa had insisted. It had been her idea to leave the shirt partially unbuttoned.

He took a swig of the wine to distract himself. It was sweeter than he anticipated, but he didn’t understand what the fuss was about; it tasted the same as cheap alcohol to him. It had probably cost this woman more money than Dion could make in a day’s work. Still, a free drink was a free drink.

“E.Mortal tells me you come as a set,” she finally said, taking a sip of the white wine in her glass as well. Dion caught himself watching her soft lips as she drank. 

“I need the backup,“ Atticus confirmed with a friendly smile, “I don’t want distractions while I work.”

“I only need one of you. If you come as a set, I will consider you both as one person. I am not paying extra for someone I don’t need.” Her tone made it sound like they would try to extort her. Dion was offended, even if the thought had crossed his mind before they arrived.

“Then I don’t work for you, I work for him,” said Dion, nodding to his brother, “You don’t tell me what to do and I won’t get in the way.”

“Deal,” the woman said, holding her hand out to Atticus.

“So, what do you need from me?”

“I need to break into the Oryxs NexTech HQ Branch and find encrypted information in Director Zellon’s personal files,” the woman stated like it was nothing.

“Sure. Get me his employee ID and I can find what you need in a few hours.”

“No, I need to break into the Oryxs NexTech HQ Branch.”

The brothers both stared at her with open mouths. “Did you just say break into NexTech? As in physically being inside?” Atticus asked, leaning forward to speak in a hushed tone.

“The data I am looking for isn’t accessible from the outside. There is an eight-layer biometric wall in an isolated internal network that I need to bypass. No passwords, no backdoors, wrong genetics. E.Mortal tells me you’re the only person in the Galaxy who has ever successfully hacked NexTech systems.” She continued to speak in a way that made it sound like she was asking for a simple task. There was an attitude to her that screamed ‘entitled’ the longer she spoke.

Dion’s mind was swimming. He knew a big job would be dangerous, but this wasn’t what he had in mind. This was pretty much treason. Breaking into a secure facility was one thing, but stealing heavily encrypted data once inside… That was treason.

“Mother Earth! What are you looking for?” There was no tact or attempt from Atticus to hide how appalled he was by the idea. “Do you have any idea what they would do if you got caught?”

“That’s for me to know. I just need you to get into the system. In and out. I have a plan, I just need to know if you can do it.” Her hard stare pinned Atty to his place while he frowned. She was dead serious.

Atticus slumped back in his chair and looked away for a moment. He seemed to pick at his teeth with his tongue while he thought, his hand absently scratching at his implant again. Dion didn’t know much about what Atticus did once he was jacked in. The jargon was more technical than he understood, but it seemed like Atticus knew exactly what she was asking for. Worse, he looked like he was formulating a plan himself. Dion knew that look. The kid was excited.

Food Dion had never seen before was spread out on the table. Bread topped with a colourful mush, it was hard to tell how many things were in it. He didn’t recognise the ingredients at all. He’d certainly never seen something colourful. That was well beyond their means.

“It's tomato,” the woman offered, apparently noticing the boys’ fascination with the dish. She raised her knife and fork in a way that encouraged them to do the same. Shame and embarrassment soured Dion’s features when he realised she was trying to teach them how to eat.

Atticus didn’t seem to mind. He followed the woman’s example with no complaints. “Woah!” he cried out when the tomato hit his tongue. “This is amazing! Dion, you have to try it!”

“It’s a plant from Earth. It came on the arc that brought humanity. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to grow on most planets, so it’s not readily available,” she told him between bites. “We still have three more courses left, so eat fast.”

Dion glared at her. Nothing in this restaurant was ‘readily available’. The colourless, bland food available on the ground would probably put her into a coma from shock. How dare she patronise them?

“I’m paying for it. Relax. You look like you haven’t eaten a meal in weeks,” she insisted, ignoring Dion’s contempt.

The blow struck Dion, hard. The one meal probably cost enough to feed Atty for a month. 

“If you can get me what I want, I will give you anything in return.” The girl took a sip of the wine, encouraging Atticus to do the same with a small hand gesture.

She was stroking her ego, Dion decided. A bleeding-heart that prided herself on using her privilege to help the ‘needy’. Atticus and Dion were her new pet project. Something festered in Dion’s stomach. He’d done nothing but shed blood, sweat and tears to provide everything he could for his brother, and then this woman had the gall to metaphorically spit in his face. 

He was poised to give her a piece of his mind when Atty interrupted. 

“But how do we get in? They would be kitted up to the teeth in surveillance and defence technology. We would be filled with laser punctures the moment we set foot inside the building.”

“A distraction. One big enough that all their attention is on it and not us.” 

“And that is?” Dion asked.

“You’re not the only people I am in contact with. There are two more. I was going to go collect them if you agreed. There was no point in hiring them if you won’t take the job.” 

“Who would be stupid enough to break into a NexTech building?” Dion scoffed, taking a sip of the wine.

“Us, for a start,” Atticus replied. There was a look in his eyes that told Dion not to argue. 

Dion set the glass back on the table a little too roughly, looking away. He was right. Just like E.Mortal was right. They needed the money. What choice did they have?

Atticus turned all his attention back to the pink-haired woman. “If you can get us in, I can get what you want,” he confirmed.

“My name is Hyejin.” She extended her hand over the table with a friendly smile. Her whole demeanour changed in an instant.

“Atticus. This is Dion,” Atticus replied, taking her hand and practically engulfing it. Her hands were so small. 

The smile on Hyejin’s face was enough to light the room. In an instant, all of Dion’s hostility seemed to melt away like magic. “Perfect!” she squealed, fidgeting in her seat. “Finish eating. I’ll send you the flight details. We’ll pick up the others together.”