While standing outside Sergeant Lee's apartment building, I watched the raindrops fall into the purple neon lights of an ad for a new company bot. The giant hologram that was walking in the air up and down the street kept switching form, showing off all the options the buyers could choose from.
Other luminous letterings drowned the streets from the ground until the skies, where holographic ads for penile prosthetics hid the stars. How shitty must be the view from the 10th floor.
Little Sergeant Lee was probably very proud of his residency in the city, his window turned to a popping metal penis.
Idiots paid hundreds of thousands of coins to get a room in these buildings with a one-square-meter window with a view to the concrete wall next door. No matter how high you got, there was always someone above you.
Real powerful people, such as the Mayor, lived at the top of skyscrapers with over 120 floors, with nothing to block their view of the sea. They want to stay as far off the ground as possible, isolated at the top where the sun shines.
Meanwhile, petty people who got a job at the leadership thought they'd made it by getting to live in the city. Only one thing separated the city from the slums—hypocrisy.
Judging police pigs was very helpful to pass time. Before I knew it, the Sergeant was leaving a car a few meters away, running to the entrance.
I pulled my hoodie, grabbed the delivery bag, and crossed the street, heading towards him.
He held an umbrella in one hand, his gaze fixed on the void, likely watching some video in private mode, completely oblivious to his surroundings.
I didn't have to do much besides standing still and letting him bump into me hard. I put my foot behind him to make him trip but held him by his cuff, pulling it off.
"Oh my gosh, sir, I'm so sorry!" I said, sounding very worried.
"What the fuck?!" he shouted as his eyes focused on me instead of the projections over his eyes.
Off the wrist of its owner, a screen shuts down. It could only be unlocked by biometric reading.
"Wait!" Dressed in a secondhand suit, Sergeant Toni grabbed his own wrist. "Where's my cuff?" Life vanished from his eyes. It was like he had been stripped naked in the middle of the street.
"I'm really sorry, I was in a hurry and I didn't see you, sir."
I continued to blab as he went off the curb to look for his cuff, which looked like a simple metallic wristband. What he didn't know was that I had it in my pocket.
By pairing it with mine, I could invade the system and transfer a spy software to his device, allowing me to access it remotely. All I needed was a little bit of time for my bot to pass through the security system.
"Oh, I'm such an idiot! I'll pay for it, sir. I didn't mean to!" We were both walking around, looking at the ground and under the parked cars.
"Shut up, there's important stuff on that cuff. You'll pay for this. Police!"
Mister Lee was very irritated, apparently. Which made me laugh, of course, because who doesn't enjoy seeing a short, half-bald man in his thirties, all wet, squatting to look under a car. I sure did.
As he shouted insults and called the police, I noticed a drone had stopped above us. Looking closely, activating my scanner, my smile faded on my lips.
[Attention! Force drone detected]
Shit! Agents were already on their way.
[68% transferred]
I had to stall until it was complete. I wouldn't miss that window.
A few meters ahead, a couple AI Force units entered the street. Those fucking robots would take me to the station no matter what I said.
[75% transferred]
To ease the tension and trick the drone, I grabbed Sergeant Lee's hands. Looking deeply into his eyes, I turned his back to the drone.
"I'm sorry, sir. I was distracted by your looks. I always wanted to be like you!" Appealing to his ego was my best shot. "Don't worry, I'll find your cuff. Just have mercy on me!"
[88% transferred]
The bots were getting closer.
Desperate, I kneeled on the wet floor and kissed his hands, completely humiliating myself.
"Enough!" He pulled away. Even on the ground I was about the same height as him. "Shut up, you dirty low-life."
Swallowing the lump of hatred in my throat, I avoided beating that little shit up. He turned back again to the drone and I pretended to pick something up from the floor.
"Here, sir! I found it!" Finally, the transfer was done—just in time. I was getting bored of his lack of creativity for insults.
"Fucking moron." He pulled the cuff from my fingers. "Stupid boy, I'm all wet!"
Standing up, I watched him insult me all the way over to his apartment.
The bots had just arrived when I lowered my head and crossed the street, trying not to call for more attention.
Watching him struggle to put the cuff back on almost made everything worth it. Sergeant Toni Lee was everything I thought he would be, a pretentious little bitch.
As I began to happily walk away, I glanced at the corner of my screen to check if everything went smoothly. He'd already activated it—my little software flickered to life, and just like that, I was in. A world of possibilities had just become available to me.
Still in the middle tier, I decided to treat myself to some fine dinner instead of just getting something to go. Had been a while since I had the time and money to give myself a treat. This job for the Trinity was a huge jackpot, and I didn't even break a sweat—on the contrary, it was very amusing to mess with that stupid cop.
Little Sergeant Lee gave me eyes inside the police department I could use to pick up more high-priced jobs while watching the pigs closely.
To reinforce my luck wave, the rain broke down completely, making my walk to the restaurant more pleasant.
My destination was the best pasta place in the middle tier. They had this spaghetti with meatballs prepared with homemade tomato sauce that just threw me off the roof. Instantly, my mouth filled up with water as I remembered the smell.
Given the late hours, I had plenty of time to enjoy my meal. I was almost at the restaurant when I passed through the major, completely illuminated with red and yellow lights, Torii gates. Made of metal, they marked the entrance to the restaurant section.
Food advertisements filled every available space in view—even on the floor there were screens showing different dishes, inviting whoever saw it to enter the restaurant.
Analyzing a particular ad that was passing at the bottom of a bridge that covered the entire street, a warning popped up at the corner of my vision.
Someone was at my apartment's door. The security protocol was programmed to send me an alert when I wasn't home.
Within a second, a clear live image of the entrance loaded before my eyes.
"What the fuck?!" I stopped immediately, unable to believe who was at my door.