Gary and Mary's Restaurant…

Inside the only room of the metal building housing the restaurant, a bluish white lightbulb reduced to a dim low-power setting was on, dimly illuminating the room.

On the bed erected on a wooden bedframe, the couple of Gary and Mary were fast asleep.

Actually, both were feigning sleep.

The both of them couldn't sleep after everything that happened today but to prevent their partner from being worried, they slept on their side facing different corners of the bed, pretending that they were asleep.

Since the conversation with the woman from the Freegrid Collective, Mary had been feeling restless.

Afterall, she watched at this woman buried the reporter who wrote the article that she read in the afternoon.

In fact, at this moment, she smuggled a copy of the pamphlet to the bed where she slept. And as the night deepened, still unable to sleep, she could not help but open her eyes and gently slip out the pamphlet from underneath her pillow.

She focused on the title.

[#Justice for Emilia]

With a quiet sigh, she started reading it again.

A few minutes later, she read back to the parts of the article that hit her the most and left her truly unsettled.

["Emilia was sold into slavery, but since years of sexual assault weakened her and left her suffering from Vesicovaginal Fistula, she wasn't strong enough to endure life as a slave before being sold to a rich client."]

["Emilia died unjustly!"]

["…"]

["For five years, Emilia suffered in silence, enduring sexual abuse from her uncle, Andrew Rafael, and his son, Victor Rafael till her body gave out and she was sold into slavery."]

["A year later, her voice still echoes."]

["Her uncle walks free, her cousin is out there, the Zmer gang is out there, and I am still asking, how much longer before justice comes for Emilia?"]

["Mother, this can be your daughter. Brother, this can be your sister. Together, let's rise up to fight injustice! Let's fight the Zmer gang!"]

She didn't finish reading the article, she stopped there.

After hesitating for a few seconds, she turned on the bed, switching from lying on her side to lying on her back with her face now facing the ceiling like she was trying to decipher the architecture of the ceiling.

She stayed like this for a few seconds, then she turned her head to look at her husband who was completely still.

"Babe". She called softly.

There was no response.

"Babe, are you sleeping?" She whispered, and then an incredibly annoyed voice answered her.

"What are you still doing awake?"

"You're awake too". Mary retorted instinctively.

"Go sleep, go sleep". Gary muttered and pulled the blanket over himself, trying to drive his point home but Mary was not having it.

She snorted and directly dragged the blanket down.

Gary tried to drag it up again, but Mary pulled and dragged it down even further. She had a look on her face that said 'what can you do?'

Gary finally sighed in exasperation.

He got up on the bed and turned to face his wife, exasperated. "What is it?"

Mary didn't reply, instead, a teasing smile appeared on her lips as she looked at her husband mischievously. "We've been together for 3 decades, you think I don't know when you're sleeping? You that snores like a pig".

"Ahem," Gary blushed in embarrassment but he didn't argue as he laid back on the bed and looked at the ceiling, then he asked in a gentler tone. "What is it?"

"Do you know what Vesicovaginal fistula is?"

Gary looked at his wife and scoffed. "I'm a quack doctor who learned and worked on the battlefield, I didn't go to a university genius".

Mary briefly smiled, then she said seriously. "It's a medical condition that causes pee to leak out of the vagina instead of going through the urethra".

"It can develop after a pelvic surgery or complications during childbirth". She sighed. "That's what that little girl suffered, do you know what it means for an under-aged girl to develop a condition related to childbirth from sexual abuse?"

Gary stayed silent.

"Can you imagine the pain she was in? The discomfort, the smell, and to be sold into slavery after all that and with all that," she shook her head. "I can't even imagine it, it's a nightmare".

Mary finally turned her head to look at her husband again, Gary's eyelids twitched.

With a sigh, she asked. "What if it was our daughter?"

Gary opened his mouth, then closed it back.

"What if it was our daughter? Would you still stick to your principles and oath?"

Gary stayed silent for a long time, then he looked at the wall clock, rolled to the other side of the bed and gently cuddled his wife.

He kissed her on the neck. "Let's sleep, it's late. If we want to join them tomorrow, we have to be at our best".

Mary nodded softly, then she whispered. "I love you".

"Love you too".

…

Back in the inn…

Brick sat in front of a sustained holographic projection that Ghostwire left behind through his NetRunner powers and his computer. With it, he monitored the drones that quietly hovered above the inn religiously.

After all that happened today, Talia was wary of retaliation at night by the Zmer gang, this was why she instructed for all the drones to stay and keep surveillance around the surroundings of the inn to quickly detect any ambush.

Leon and Rex sat on the ground in the middle of a room, drawing sketches on a holographic virtual board as they perfected Rex's blueprint while Kain watched from the side.

As for Daren, he also sat on the ground but in the corner of the room. He had his back against the wall with one leg flat on the ground and the other knee-raised.

He seemed like he was deep in thought.

At that moment, Brick suddenly got a ping on the holographic projection. He read the contents and then he turned his head to face the others.

"Talia has conquered the cell tower base".

All of them perked up immediately on hearing that.

"She's given orders, all of us are to go there with the drones".

No one said a word of objection as they immediately packed up and got ready to go. Brick controlled all the drones to fly in through the window as he also packed all of them.

Within a minute, they were ready and they stealthily walked out of the inn.

As they walked, Daren's eyes became deep and pronounced; he subconsciously clenched his fists before relaxing them.

…

Cell tower base, Brad's cyber-lab…

"Do you know how to replicate the ability that hides the base?" Ghostwire asked as he stared at the newcomer.

Brad shook his head. "It's not exactly an ability, it's more of a combination of an ability and technology. You should know the ability that I'm talking of".

"Ghost Line".

"Right". Brad nodded. "An advanced application of Ghost Line".

"So, can you replicate it?"

Brad hesitated. "What actually powers the invisibility barrier is a special reactor that Parasite's sponsor provided. They didn't give me a manual on its creation, just on how to operate it, but I've been with it for months and I've experimented on it to varying degrees of success".

"From my experimentation and observations, I believe a high-ranked NetRunner and a high-ranked Mechanist worked together to create it".

"It integrates high technology plus an advanced application of Ghost Line in its creation, Ghost Line is literally embedded in its operation".

"It's why I can restore the invisibility barrier any time after you destroy its structure. This is because the barrier itself is not the technology, it's just a by-product of the reactor's application".

"So long the reactor is not damaged, I can always restore the barrier".

He looked at Ghostwire. "What exactly do you want to do?"

Ghostwire didn't hide anything. "I need to do a lot of surveillance this night to tomorrow in preparation for what is going to happen, and to do that successfully, I need to make sure that my drones are not seen".

"I'm looking to see if I can replicate the technology hiding the base on the drones to also make them invisible".

Brad rubbed his chin in thought. "That's feasible. Wow, why didn't I think of creating invisible drones before?" He slapped his head.

"You're not a Mechanist". Ghostwire reminded coldly.

"Ah, right". Brad laughed, then he said. "I think it should work. If we dedicate time to it, with the reactor here in this base, I believe we can replicate it tonight".

"So, where are the drones?"

Ghostwire looked outside. "They're here".

Brad followed his line of sight and saw them.

When Leon and the others first arrived at the coordinates that Ghostwire sent to them, they were stunned as they saw themselves in the middle of nowhere. They saw nothing, and then they remembered what Talia said about this base.

Just as they were prepared to wait, Talia walked out in front of them.

Leon almost jumped in fright.

Rex was fascinated. "Wow! I didn't even realize your presence boss, it's really invisible".

Talia nodded with a clearly relieved smile on seeing that they were unharmed. She led them back into the base.

They walked past the rows of corpses in the base without bathing an eye, and then they entered Brad's cyber-lab.

Talia introduced the new guy to them.

"I've seen this guy in the open market before". Kain immediately said.

Brad was surprised as he looked at 4 of the newcomers. "Wait, are you guys Leon and Son's mechanic?"

Kain coughed. "It's just a silly name".

Just like they accepted Leon when Talia decided to add him to the crew, they trusted Talia's judgement this time too, trusting that she did her investigation before taking him in so they easily accepted him.

Rex's eyes sparkled as he looked around the cyber-lab. "This lab is so spacious, and it's so convenient for working".

"I believe we can work with even higher efficiency on the blueprint here!" Rex turned to look at Leon excitedly who nodded in agreement.

Brad looked at them. "Actually, there are other cyber-labs like this in the base, this one is just my favorite".

"Really?" Rex's eyes widened. "Can we use them?"

"Of course," Brad chuckled. "This base essentially belongs to the Freegrid Collective now, that's if we don't die tomorrow".

Ghostwire glared at him.

"Haha, of course, we won't die". Brad awkwardly scratched his hair.

At that moment while Brick handed the drones over to Ghostwire and while Leon and Rex got excited to go to a different cyber-lab to work on their blueprint, Daren cleared his throat and said.

"Boss".

Talia responded as she turned to look at him. Hearing the tone of his voice, the others also turned to look at him.

"You said we're free to do what we want this night and prepare for tomorrow". He took a deep breath. "Tomorrow is a big day, I want to ease my nerves".

"And?" Talia looked at him.

"I want to go to J & J Pleasure Motel".

"…"

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