"This job is much easier than I expected," I state as I begin inputting the combination we got from our little interrogation earlier.
 
    "It's been too quiet around here, Hisao. Try not to let your guard down," Emi orders me, tightening her prosthetics, and making sure her pistol is fully loaded. She peeks her head over the windowsil, getting a better view of the crowd outside.
 
    "The sun is setting," Rin says, reminding us that we're on a budget when it comes to the clock on this one. She's right, as the sky outside has turned a brilliant shade of orange, and the temperature begins to drop. Either way, it does nothing to relieve the sweat on my brow. I type in the last number and open the safe, revealing only and empty space inside.
 
    "Emi, there's nothing in-"
 
    "Shit, Hisao, it's-" she begins as pushes me away. She never finishes the sentence as the explosive booby trap goes off, thrusting us both a good deal across the room.
The wall isn't much more than a hole now, and I can't feel my left arm. The ringing in my ears soon subsides enough for me to make sense of the gunfire happening just outside the building.
 
    "Time for us to go," Rin says, beginning to run. I heave myself up and look back at Emi, red spots littering her back where the shrapnel took aim. Her body is contorted, clearly showing how broken her back was by the blast, and the fake legs she wore are in pieces. She's dead.
 
    I run through the door, leaving the corpse behind, my legs burning as I catch up to Rin on the street, providing covering fire for her. I've never seen such a sudden wall of militarization, and to be able to hide it for this long is truly a feat. Men is suits are slinging lead at us from all directions, and explosions are happening all across the town. It's full on Fallujiah out here.
 
    "Rin, we need a shortcut!" I shout, taking out another one of the men in black, his body slumping over onto his ally, who shows no emotion at the demonstration. This chick is good.
 
    "Alright," she says as she crouches down next to a manhole, gesturing for me to open it. I comply, lifting the solid hunk of steel, and we drop through to land on the roof of the building that was beside us on the street. Non-euclidean geometry never ceases to confuse me.
 
    "Let's go." We begin running through several more shortcuts, taking fire escapes that drop us multiple floors, and some where we descend but end up higher than before. We duck through a long alleyway, eventually ending up on the street again, minus our homicidal buddies. The crowd is staring at us as we run by, becoming more and more agitated.
 
    "Rin, that was too many shortcuts," I say, only to be dis-proven by the sudden melody of Beethoven permeating the air.
 
    "Or was it?" she says, running faster. We're only a hundred meters from our destination, when we feel the ground begin to shake, and the crowd begins to converge. The buildings behind us begin to fall as I overtake Rin, leaving her behind as I gun for this bitch. I hear her screams as she is overtaken by the crowd, but do nothing to stop it. This contract would be the first of many. We would finally have a stable paycheck.
 
    The dust cloud builds behind me, slowly gaining ground. I'm almost there. I can make it.
 
    But the sudden tearing feeling in my chest says otherwise, throwing me to the ground as it falls out from under me.
 
-------------------------------------
 
    As I open my eyes, I see Emi packing up the equipment, and Rin pulling herself off of the floor.
 
   "Mission failed," I inform her.
 
   "I know. Let's get out of here before Ms. Maeda here wakes up."
 
   We scoop the last evidence of our presence, and leave the hotel room. Nobody told us she would have so much defense in there, and that she would booby-trap her thoughts.
 
    Kenji was not going to be happy with this.