[center] [color=silver][b]- 3 days earlier -[/b][/color][/center]

[i][code]Attention. We have arrived at District21 Zone Station H . Please depart in an orderly fashion.[/code][/i] 

[color=silver]Three successive beeps and the doors glided open as the train came to a full halt, packed to the brim as always, Yuri had made sure to stay standing near the door. Walking through the station he brought up the display on his phone, credits from last weeks business had come through, he sighed, swiping up to his finance application. He pressed down on the screen and the device bleeped a message popped up confirming he had moved 750 credits successfully to his landlord’s account. He began to ponder on whether his roommate had paid up his half this month. [i]Bleep[/i]. A message,[/color] [code]‘Other half?’[/code]

[color=gray]“Fuck.”[/color] [color=silver]Yuri murmured under his breath, [i]‘Fucking junkie.’[/i] He slid the phone back into his pocket and secured his bag, reassuring himself with it’s weight. Weapons weren’t approved of in the zone, he had the ‘documents’ needed to get him where he needed to go, if he was stopped no authorities would ask too many questions – was the idea. He approached the station house, TPA, the travel branch of the policing agency, were checking passports and conducting spot checks on suspicious characters. It wasn’t anything new, this was pretty standard, considering the reputation of the place security was relatively low-key here, not that it couldn’t be summoned quickly enough.
The line moved along steadily until a male deemed suspicious was stopped, officers had drawn weapons and the guy was standing there hands up, gear-bag flung over being retrieved by another officer. It was the same eerie quietness that always fell among a crowd when something like this happened. They watched but didn’t really react, who was this guy? Why would they risk their skin for his? Yuri peaked through the fencing that lined the queue, examining the guy, mildly augmented, relatively normal looking kind of guy. He got thinking, there must have been something in that bag. The crowd looked on as the suspect was hauled away, it was light depending on what he was being detained for, in some places you’d just be shot on sight, at least in areas where the fuss it caused wasn’t public knowledge.[/color]

[color=gray]“Passport?”[/color] [color=silver]A female inspector, a little shorter than Yuri, plain expression on her face it was hard to gauge someone like that. Her voice monotonous probably from droning on the same things all day, every day.[/color]

[color=gray]“Yeah, here.”[/color][color=silver] Yuri replied, reaching into his back pocket, arousing the suspicions of the inspector which quickly subsided as he pulled out what was indeed a passport. She took it from him, and glanced between the photo, details and Yuri’s face, she took a device from her side and scanned the document, a momentary glance and she handed him back his papers. [/color]

[color=gray]“You can go ahead.”[/color] [color=silver]She gestured through the partition in the fence that lead to the rest of the station-house and the zone, catching a glimpse at his bag as he walked past and eyeing him with an interested look about her. Past the line, Yuri re-opened the display on his phone, going into contacts and calling ‘Greg’. No answer, he put away the phone once more as he exited the station-house, it was late, after midnight. Neon lights flashed and the noise of the hustle and bustle was incredible even at this time, from the elevated position of the station you could see vehicles making their way across vast streets lined with shops all lit up and flashing, the pedestrianized zones that ran alongside the roads littered in stalls people all trying to sell their produce and products.. As he made his way over to the taxi ranks he examined the people coming to the zone, he wondered how many out of the tens of thousands flocking here from other districts were here for the self-dubbed ‘Engineer’.[/color]

[i][code]"Where am I taking you, tonight, sir?”[/code][/i] [color=silver]A robotic voice asked as Yuri slipped into the passenger seat, he glanced seeing the droid driver and laughed a little, a grin crossing his face.[/color] 
[color=gray]“The Lucky Sevens.”[/color] [color=silver]He got himself belted in, dropping his bag onto the floor space between his legs. [i]Vest. Rifle, Ammo, Knife.[/i] Some of the items being carried around in the gear-bag along with his HUD helmet. His fatigues while military in style could pass for fashion of the era, and did not match the colour code and lacked the markings of Koporat18 due to the nature of his ‘contract’. It would have been a different story if he’d been entirely geared up, ready for action. The handgun that was tucked at the back of his trousers left him feeling uncomfortable, he took a quick glance around the cab to pinpoint the position of the cameras and eyed the droid, unsure whether it also could see and report. He shifted the firearm from the back taking it in his hand, and tucking it back in around the front, pulling his jacket down over it.[/color]
[i][code]“Here for the, nightlife?”[/code][/i][color=silver] The computerized voice spoke, the robots head pivoting to look at Yuri in the seat beside him. He was leaned against the door, glancing back at the robotic face, comfortable up until now.[/color] 

[color=gray]“Yeah, you could say that.”[/color] [color=silver]He replied, sitting up straight in his seat, no longer feeling at ease relaxing.[/color]

---

[color=silver]Yuri woke up, the room was small like most around here unless you paid out mega credits, at least it was a single room, he wouldn’t trust sharing with five strangers. He checked his phone it was already after 6, he’d slept all day. Standing by the blinded windows he stretched before putting on a light bulletproof vest he had procured from a salesman the night before. He didn’t want to walk the city kitted out, it was too obvious, too suspicious, he slipped his handgun into the waistband of his trousers and kept his knife in one of his jacket pockets, slipping into his boots and leaving the room, a message alerting Yuri to meet with a local Korporat handler in the area decided his course of action.

More and more he was beginning to feel like one of Korporat’s drones, he didn’t like this arrangement one bit, espionage in the name of K18 without anyone to fall back on if caught, just a terrorist or whatever way the controlled media wanted to paint it. Still, it was better than imprisonment.

Yuri wandered the streets,with  the noise and life of this place experienced in the last couple of days He was beginning to understand why they called it the city that never sleeps. He took in how tall everything was here, advertising taking up just about every bit of wall space fitting some form or description. Scantily dressed human and cyborg women flirted with passerby drawing them into casinos, Yuri gave a wink to a girl enticing him to come and spend his credits as he passed on by.
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