“If you’re going to kill me, just kill me.” I growled as I felt the gun against my head.

“Oh?” Jacques blinked. “Is this girl so important to you?”

“If you don’t pull the trigger, then I will take her back, but not before I make sure you’re dead. I swear!”

I didn’t know what brought it all on. Perhaps it had come from getting so close only to have it all snatched away. I had just reached the end of my rope. I knew I wasn’t being smart, merchantable, or clever, but I couldn’t bring myself to pretend any longer.

At my words, Jacques’ expression darkened considerably. “I see… then if that is what you want…”

I closed my eyes as he pulled the trigger. Click.

My eyes opened once again as I felt the gun pull away from my head and some laughter. “You’re far too serious, Daniel!”

“Y-you!” I spun around, but rather than threaten me, Jacques held up his hands playfully, even with the unloaded gun in one hand.

“You can keep the girl! I don’t want her.”

His words struck me like a brick in the face. It took me several moments before my thoughts started to move once again. In the end, I could only get out one word.

“What?”

“It’s not that complicated.” Jacques shrugged. “I bought the girl so that I could get your help. I’m glad that you want her back so much. I’ve never gone so far for a woman I slept with, but who am I to judge? Your desires make this all much easier.”

“Y-you’re blackmailing me?” I sputtered.

“Blackmail is such an ugly word. It’s a trade, Daniel. It’s a trade.”

“I won’t do anything for you!” I spat.

He pointed a finger at me. “Oui, that’s the answer I expected, and that’s why I made sure to have the proper thing to trade. I said it already. Not everything has the same value, and not everyone can be bought with money. For your services, this was the cost.”

He gestured to the girl, holding out his arms wide. I still was having trouble following along. I had been ready to do or die a moment before, and yet his casual words only left me more flustered.

“I won’t do it!”

“Weren’t you just saying she was worth a billion large crystals?” Jacques asked. “Are you telling me she’s worth a billion crystals, but helping me with une petite faveur is too much?”

My mouth opened, and then closed, and then opened again. “Even if this was so, I’m not willing to let you take her and hold her hostage!”

“Of course not! I wouldn’t dream of it!” He declared, finally putting up his gun. “You can have her now. You just have to agree to help me next.”

I blinked. “I-I can have her?”

“Of course! What kind of business partner would I be if I held such a thing over your head?”

“I-I could take her… and run,” I responded, still trying to figure out the catch.

“I don’t think you’re that kind of man, Daniel.” He shrugged. “I think you’ll help me. Rather, I think you’ll want to help me. Do you want to know why?”

“I want to know how he removed that slave collar so fast.” It was Sovereign Gunner who interrupted suddenly. “You didn’t give him a slave codec too, did you?”

“How could that be the case?” Jacques laughed. “Although, it’s exactly because of his extremely fast hacking skills that I want his assistance. He can get into places and unlock things no one else can. You forget, Daniel. I once offered you a position on my team. You refused. I knew that if I was going to catch your interest again, I was going to need to do something bigger. I already had a passing interest in this sleeping beauty, but once I saw you bid on her, I saw my chance to enlist your help and I took it. I suppose I miscalculated just how badly you wanted her. Had I known you’d act so rashly, I would have explained myself first.”

“Even if you explain yourself, that doesn’t explain how he was able to remove the restrictions of a slave collar in moments.” Sovereign Gunner frowned. “This is something that affects the guild and all slavers.”

I was just about to open my mouth when another voice spoke. “It’s me.”

Their eyes immediately fell to my hand where the voice came, and I couldn’t help but sigh as I lifted it and pulled my sleeve open to reveal the Perco. When Sovereign Gunner saw it, she let out a small whistle.

“That’s a custom Perco? I’ve never seen one like that before.”

“Then, you haven’t seen something like me!” A voice came from the speaker.

“Cecelia…”

“Is that… an artificial intelligence?” Sovereign Gunner seemed rather interested.

“I am!” Cecelia responded proudly.

I had quickly realized that Cecelia was acting as a decoy to hide the existence of the master code. I would have preferred to tell them nothing, but I wasn’t sure if I could have gotten out of the conversation safely that way. If Sovereign Gunner believed I had a slave codex, given how much she valued such a thing, it’d be inconvenient.

“When I found this Perco, it was lucky enough to be loaded with this AI,” I explained. “It came from a military installation, and seems to be able to instantly hack into most devices.”

I said most to imply it wasn’t everything. I still wanted some wiggle room in the future if push came to shove.

“You didn’t get your Perco from a colony, did you?” Jacques frowned.

“I didn’t,” I responded coldly. “She does all the hacking though. I just plug her in and she works out things.”

Sovereign Gunner stared for another moment and then sighed. “I see. There aren’t many skilled hackers in Argos city, but I’ve heard of those able to break into Slave collars and the like. I had never seen it done so quickly and easily, but with such an interesting program, I can see how it happens.”

Sovereign Gunner seemed to accept the lie, allowing me to breathe easier. I wasn’t that bad of a liar, despite what some people said. Even if she coveted the AI, if it was attached to the Perco, there was no helping it. It only was useable as long as I existed.

“I wonder what you were intending to do with the Perco you slapped on her,” Jacques asked, still suspicious.

I hadn’t been ready for such a question. I wasn’t going to tell him about other worlds or a mirror. I still didn’t even trust him, let alone forgive him. He did say I could have her back, but then again, he had been the reason it had been so difficult to get her in the first place!

Thankfully, Cecelia spoke up. “The Perco Master just bought was military-grade. It contained sorcery codex on it.”

“Seriously!” Sovereign Gunner nearly grew an inch she jumped so suddenly. “I thought sorcery was a myth!”

“I can vouch that it is not,” Jacques responded. “I’ve seen someone use sorcery once. It was … well, that’s a longer story than I care to tell right now. What codex does it have?”

“Psychokinesis and Pyrokinesis,” she said, and at that point, I started to feel irritated she was giving away so much.

However, I was just as much surprised to learn that this was what the Perco contained. It wasn’t some military map, but essentially spells? Well, the spells were the only things she mentioned under their scrutiny. Maybe she was holding something back. I immediately wanted to try them, but that would have to wait for another time.

“Daniel! You were going to set us on fire?” Jacques looked offended.

Just as I opened my mouth, there was a distant boom, and the entire room shook slightly. The three of us looked at each other, not sure what to say.

“What in hell is going on?” Sovereign Gunner asked no one in particular as she immediately stepped out from the small room and touched a button on a desk intercom. “What is going on down there?”

As she was speaking, we started to hear the sounds of distant gunfire. There was another boom as the entire place shook once again. The other line didn’t respond. It was completely dead. With a hiss, she spun around and grabbed the curtains, ripping them down and filling the room with the grey light of the outdoors. The window overlooked the top of the mall, and the elevated, broken highway could be seen in the distance.

There was dark smoke rising from various places, and there appeared to be a lot of activity going on. Sovereign Gunner grabbed binoculars from her desk and then began to scan the terrain. After a few more moments, she stepped back, hissing again.

“The entire reason I wanted to leave so quickly was to avoid this! Damn those impatient bastards!”

Jacques casually walked up to the window and looked with his binoculars, although I had no clue where he had found them. That’s when I remembered that I also had binoculars stashed in my digitizer. I quickly materialized them and glanced as well. Crossing over the highway, I could see several of this world’s helicopters, as well as large things that sort of looked like hovering tanks moving across the ground. They occasionally fired out a bolt, causing small eruptions.

“What the hell is this?” I muttered.

“Remember when I said I had no clue what the Syndicate was up to?” Jacques sounded a bit strangled a bit. “Planning an attack on this place… that’s what they were up to.”