Goro and Devin were making their way across the facility’s oddly empty lounge towards the backdoor. One would have thought there’d be at least a few employees lingering here, but evidently everyone had taken Josh’s word and deserted it as soon as the announcement had echoed. Which was a good sign, thought Devin. He hadn’t seen Maria so far, but he hoped she was safe.

Was it professional to be concerned over the wellbeing of a single individual as opposed to everyone in the building? Why was Devin so concerned over her wellbeing? What was happening to him?

“Do you think we can trust Josh?” he aired a thought to Goro, snapping himself out of his whirlwind of obsession.

“What do you mean?” sounded Goro’s counterinquiry.

“I mean who was the informant? Has to have been someone in the gang, right? I can’t imagine an outsider would have enough intel for us to be here before the goons.”

Goro nodded contemplatively. “That is a good point. But how does that weigh into whether we can trust Josh or not?”

“Well, he did cancel team meetings indefinitely. Then there was the night the main elevator broke down… What if he was contacted by someone in the gang that night? Think about it, Goro. The evidence lines up a little too well if you ask me.”

Goro’s brow furrowed. He had to admit Devin was onto something. “That makes more sense than I care to admit.” Then he turned an intent gaze to Devin and said: “Even so, we’re pre-venting a bigger crime here. I’m less concerned with how Josh got the intel and more with actually saving lives.”

“Of course you would be,” Devin commented. “All I’m saying is we can’t be sure whose side the informant is ultimate-ly on. And the more I think about it, the more this whole oper-ation feels like a trap.”

Goro stopped in his tracks. “Fuck. Now that you men-tion it…”

Devin followed suit and turned on his heels to Goro’s direction. “Now you’re starting to have doubts too?”

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of a gunshot and the breeze of a bullet flying between the two of them.

Devin and Goro unholstered their pistols and turned to the direction the bullet had come from. A figure, clad in an all-black suit and a skull-like mask, greeted them. It pressed a fin-ger against the side of its head and spoke in a robotic voice: “The cops are here.” No doubt a radio call warning the rest of the infiltrators.

Then it shot again. Devin dove in one direction to dodge, Goro in the other. The two fired their guns simultaneously, a bullet from each connecting with the bastard’s kneecaps. The figure dropped to its knees, screaming in pain, trying and failing to get back to its feet.

Devin dialed in Josh’s number on his wrist comm. Josh picked up within the second, and Devin hollered to him: “We’ve got contact with the infiltrators.”

“Shit,” Josh muttered. “They must’ve taken the back entrance. How many of them?”

“One that we’ve run into so far. No knowing how many more there are.”

Josh’s hologram nodded. “Alright, change of plans. Everyone into hunting mode. Shoot to kill. If you run into any civilians, guide them to the rendezvous point. Shinji and I will be there shortly.”

“Roger,” Devin replied and hit the End Call button. Then he turned his attention to Goro and asked him: “Wanna draw first blood?”

“Don’t mind if I do,” Goro replied enthusiastically, rais-ing his gun and firing a bullet into the goon’s chest. He fell backward from the impact.

Another robotic voice echoed from behind in the same moment, shouting something in Japanese that Devin figured translated roughly to “Die, motherfuckers”, punctuated by a bullet that missed his head by an inch. Devin spun around as quickly as he could and fired at the attacker’s chest. The figure staggered and fell forward, rolling down the stairs it happened to be climbing down.

“Some criminals,” Goro commented. “Didn’t even in-vest in bulletproof vests.”

“Safe to assume the masks are armored, though,” Devin replied in a tone that was the total opposite of Goro’s sarcasm. “So don’t aim for the head.”

“Yeah. I figured as much.”

“Your informant didn’t tell you they’d be taking the back en-trance?” Shinji aired a surprised-sounding inquiry to Josh as the two of them got out of their car and started running towards the building’s main entrance.

“Nope,” Josh replied, unholstering his gun. He was quite impressed with himself over how swift and coordinated he’d managed to stay without any cybernetic enhancements at his age. “Not sure how it didn’t occur to me to ask either.”

Shinji produced an expression that Josh figured to mean something between understanding and disappointment. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I think you need a vacation.”

“What could possibly make you think that?”

“Where do you want me to start?”

From that question, Josh understood immediately what Shinji meant. The list of code violations he had made over the past few years was long, but he wasn’t sure if he bought the idea that they could simply be chalked up to lack of rest. Then again, he’d always been a bit of a workaholic – a trait that had been the root cause of the bulk of the arguments between him and Momoko. And he also realized that he had been neglecting his wife lately. Maybe taking some time off wouldn’t be the worst idea.

“Point taken,” Josh mumbled in response. “I’ll think about it. After we wrap up this case.”

“Don’t just think about it,” Shinji pleaded. “You deserve to live a life outside the force. And besides, it won’t make just me happy.”

“Fine, I’ll take the vacation.”

In response, Shinji produced a nod of trust. In that same moment, he and Josh ran through the double doors that consti-tuted the main entrance of the DanariTek facility, the barrels of their guns acting as their eyes. No one in the reception area.

Josh’s wrist comm chirped. It was Devin. Josh picked up, muttering a “Yeah?” as a greeting.

“Forgot to mention,” Devin began, “they’re wearing masks. Probably armored. So don’t try to shoot them in the head.”

“Understood. What’s your status?”

“We’re scanning the production wing on the first floor. Ran into a couple more goons and took ‘em down.”

“Keep going through the first floor. We’ll take the se-cond.”

“Roger.” And with that, the holographic projection of Devin disappeared. Josh grabbed his gun with both hands, aim-ing it at nothing in particular through the open doorway that led into the lounge and walking through with Shinji right behind him. He looked straight ahead. He looked to his left. He looked to his right. No immediate threats anywhere, but he did notice two bodies in black suits and masks – one at the foot of the staircase to the left, the other at the doorway ahead. Infiltrators that Devin and Goro had already taken out, no doubt.

He looked to Shinji and issued an order: “Stairs to the left. Let’s go.”

The two wasted no time ascending the stairs to the se-cond floor, the one with all of the offices. Josh kept his gun pointed ahead, ready to shoot at the first sign of movement. He almost did shoot as soon as he turned a corner and noticed a figure right up in his face, but he managed to hold his fire when he realized it was a civilian.

“Don’t shoot!” the poor man shouted in panic, throwing his hands in the air. Josh spent a moment taking in his facial features and attire. He certainly looked like someone who’d be employed at the facility.

Then he looked at his nametag. Martin Stokes. The boss. The kidnap target.

Despite who he was looking at, Josh didn’t lower his gun. He kept it pointed at Stokes, though only to reinforce the command he issued to the man: “Back to your office. You’ll be safer there. We’ll escort you.”

Stokes looked like he wanted to respond for a moment, but his train of thought was interrupted by a jingle emanating from his pocket. His phone. He dug it out, glanced at the screen, raised a finger so as to say “hold on” to Josh and picked up. To his dismay, Josh only heard Stokes’s side of the conversation, but the nature of it told him whoever was on the other end was merely an employee trying to warn him. Stokes spun around a fair amount as he spoke, agitation clearly growing by the se-cond. “Yeah? You think I’m not fucking aware?! What do you mean where am I? I’m headed for the main entrance. I know that’s not… Okay, look, I’m not expendable. The fuckers are sure to be where they’re likely to score the most casualties. I’m not about to—”

A sudden gunshot startled Stokes enough to interrupt him and cause him to hang up. Josh had caught one of the at-tackers rounding a corner, evidently alerted to Stokes’s location by his shouting, and eliminated the threat. When he was sure no one else was coming, he turned his attention back to Stokes and muttered to him: “Listen here, you corporate asshat. These goons aren’t interested in how many innocent lives they can take. You alone are their target. And if you care about staying alive, you’ll start moving towards your office now. Quietly.”

If fear was a measurable unit, the expression on Stokes’s face said that his fear levels had doubled upon Josh setting the record straight. He threw his hands up and half-whispered: “Okay. You’re the professionals. This way.”

With that, Stokes turned on his heels and started guiding the officers towards their destination. “You watch our six,” Josh muttered an order to Shinji as they started moving, and Shinji obeyed wordlessly. He did a swift 180 and pointed the barrel of his gun to what equated to the group’s flank, ready to shoot any-one that might try to attack them from behind.

To Josh’s surprise, they made it to Stokes’s office with-out running into a single other attacker. Had they already run out of people? Had his crew already eliminated all of them? Had his estimate about the size of the kidnapping crew been correct?

Not quite, turned out to be the answer to all of those questions as Stokes fumbled with the keycard scanner of his office door. One more gunshot echoed from the far end of the hallway, startling the poor bastard and making him drop his keycard. While he crouched down to pick it back up, Josh took down the attacker with a well-placed shot to the chest.

He was surprised but oddly pleased to find out that the criminals hadn’t realized to invest in protective gear beyond the masks. For such a highly coordinated operation, you’d think the bastards wouldn’t be this willing to die.

With a beep and a whirr, the door to Stokes’s office slid open, and the three of them entered it without making any more noise. The sound of gunfire was sure to attract the remaining goons here, provided any were still alive.

“What do these bastards want with me?” Stokes inquired while seating himself at his desk, the subtle whine of the hyd-raulic suspension in his chair giving in under his weight acting as a replacement for the sigh of relief he didn’t produce.

“They were gonna kidnap you,” Josh replied. “For what purpose, I don’t know.”

“Kidnap me?!” The tone of Stokes’s exclamation con-veyed concern over his own ability to coordinate employees over anything else, should the operation have been successful.

“Be glad we got to you before they did. Your fate could have been a lot worse.”

“Yeah. Of course. I appreciate you for saving me.” Then Stokes became a lot more contemplative. “Factory’s gonna have to be closed for some time, though. Can’t have my employees walking around in here as long as there are bodies lying around.”

“Then you should know what to do. We’ll call in our morgue team and start the cleanup ASAP.”

“Sure. Thanks again.”

Josh nodded in response, then started fiddling with his wrist comm in order to call Devin and Goro. He decided to call the latter, if only for a slight change of pace. Goro was as quick to pick up as he’d expected him to be. “Status?” Josh inquired.

“We’ve just about cleared the entire first floor,” Goro replied. “No notable encounters. Looks like most of the crew has already been taken out.”

“Alright. Great work. Head to the rendezvous point to make sure all the civilians are safe. We’ll wait for you back at the main entrance.”

“Roger. See you.” And Josh hit the End Call button.

“Shouldn’t we go see if they parked any vehicles in the back?” Shinji inquired. Josh’s breathing hitched for a moment. How had he not considered the possibility that the attackers didn’t come by foot? He was starting to lose his grip. Shinji was right to be concerned about his professional ability. The more Josh thought about it, the more he had to admit to himself that he needed a vacation.

“Yeah. We should,” he muttered.

Then his phone rang. Not his wrist comm, his phone.