Sector 10

Chapter 15

I was atop the building that housed the gym, hidden in the dark. The plaza was mostly empty, like always. But it was 10:24pm, not 4:00am. If I was going to do this, I wasn't going to have Lila step out to see her brother's dead body. But wasn't it just as cruel to even kill him in the first place? I brushed the thought off. This is my job. I should be used to this. With the assist of my grapple, I dropped down. I straightened my back and pushed the glass door open. A few people were actually using the gym. One member of a group of four was on the bench press as the others screamed encouragement directly into his ear.

They didn't notice me walk past them to the door but the hacker at the counter did.

"Oi," he said, pulling an earphone out of his ear. "You going to the lounge?"

I nodded and he held out a hand.

"Oh, no. I just need to see someone," I said in reply.

He shook his head and motioned to his empty hand. I grudgingly dropped a coin into it, and he put the earphone back into his ear. I slid the door open and slipped inside. This place was lit the same way as the maintenance hall at the station, but it was slightly better kept. Directly in front of me were fenced off stairs heading up. To the left of me was another set of stairs, leading down. The first flight of stairs led down to a doorway. Through it was a dim passage. If you walk down it, you reach the central cave system. That is how I originally found out about the gatherings downstairs. The club was one more flight of stairs below. There was another dark open hallway, but as I continued walking, I was brought to a wide room. On one side of the room were rows of PCs. Most were occupied by people playing video games, but I could spot a few watching anime and YouTube videos. The other side of the room was covered in soft carpet and bean bags. In the corner were two vending machines: one for snacks and one for drinks. The room was dark except for the brightness of the screens and the led strips lining the walls casted a purple glow over the group.

Seated on one of the bean bags, Lila sat next to a girl her age with olive skin and brown hair. They were both watching something on her laptop, giggling and chattering. Lila affectionately lay her head on her friend's shoulder. No one seemed to notice me entering except one boy, who was probably seventeen years old. He gave me a strange look and I pointed to Lila, who wasn't very far from him. Fortunately for me, he leaned over and tapped her leg. I pulled my hood down as Lila jerked her head up from the girl's shoulder. She stood up and hopped over the legs of other bean bag occupiers.

"What are you doing here?" she hissed.

"I just need to know where Jon is," I said.

"Why can't you just text him?"

I paused. "We're... not on very good terms right now." It wasn't a lie, but I'm surprised she didn't know.

She glanced at my sniper. "He's at home right now, I think," she said.

"Where's that?"

She wrote down the address in my phone. It was an apartment building in Minato Ward. Jon took up the west side of floor thirty-six. Apparently, Lila and her father were on the east side. I thanked her and we went our separate ways.

I exited the gym and took off once more. Travelling by the roof of a monorail, I arrived at the destination within around twenty minutes, using my phone for directions. I was hit with a sense of nostalgia when I found the building I was looking for. It was the same place that I got caught in. I set up at a building that sat across his apartment block, on the other side of an expansive piazza that the apartments here surrounded. However, the place I set up had a terrible view of the west side of the structure, but it seemed no other buildings had a better location. I'd have to get closer. I estimated where floor thirty-six lay and made my way over to the apartment from atop the other constructions.

The entire time, my eyes were fixed on the story that I had guessed to be the floor I was aiming for. I finally reached the building beside Jon's and used the grapple to heave myself onto a balcony that was slightly higher than the one I had guessed.

The magnate apartments were mostly designed the same. With huge glass windows for walls because who could possibly see into a floor so high up? The view was too gorgeous to be hidden. From here, you could see the layout for the majority of their rooms. Unless they had their curtains closed. But that would only be so at this time of the day if they were a part of the day cycle. And that's not what I was looking for. With acrobatics, I dropped from balcony to balcony, evading the light. Some had curtains undrawn but no lights, some had curtains drawn.

I darted into the shadow of the balcony quicker than I ever have when I did spot him. The windows displayed the entire lounge room and kitchen. The only place I could hide behind was behind a genuine wall made of wood planks. It covered his bedroom, I assume. But the balcony continued around the corner so he would have a nice view there as well. To the side of the lounging area, Jon sat at a grand piano, his fingers dancing along the keys. I stepped away from the wall, unstrapped my sniper and aimed it at his head. My finger stroked the trigger, sure and steady. But as I started to apply pressure on the trigger, I heard a voice behind me.

"I just didn't know you would do it so willingly."

I whizzed around and saw no one. Behind me, I briefly made out the melody Jon was playing. It was the same lullaby he played for me while we were waiting for Lila. I lowered the gun. It was like I had been taken out of some trance.

What was I even thinking?

I dropped the gun onto a padded seat that sat nearby and leaned against the wall, sliding to the ground. I covered my face with my hands as the tears came rolling down. I just felt so lost. I was so sick and tired of everything. I wanted to sleep and never wake up. I wanted Mei to come back. I wanted to live with my family again. I wanted my family back.

Then I heard the glass door slide open beside me. The music had stopped.