Canned Coffee: 03

Finally back home I was exhausted.

The day before was really shitty, frustrating, physically exhausting and traumatizing at the very least.

Officer Abrom staying around postponed all my rituals of relaxation I had planned.

At least during her sleep I had time to get on top of the police surprise operation. I tried to get a sense of what the hell they were doing there but even the Force didn't know.

After kicking the door behind me my body moved on its own and I dropped dead until sundown.

In my dreams, in the depths of my subconscious, I started to hear a buzz. A very distant noise.

I tried to ignore it but it started to get closer, and closer until I laid my hand on top of it.

My wristband was vibrating.

With one eye half opened I tried to see what time it was just when my security alarm went off, sinking the room in bloody red lights.

A security breach! My door was being hacked. As quick as a husband caught cheating, I jumped off and grabbed a pistol I had under my bed.

Armed, I laid eyes on the intruder's face that was being projected from my cuff. Instantly the blood in my veins boiled and I marched to the door.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" The creature standing in front of me couldn't look more pitiful.

Seeing everything red, I hid the gun on my waist.

"Yo, St, great update, huh!"

Jake was smiling happily. I couldn't detain myself and hit him in the guts with my fist.

"I've told you not to do this, you little shit! I was sleeping for fuck's sake."

Writhing in pain, the skinny boy fell to his metal knees dramatically, or not—I didn't hold back on the strength.

In my chest, my startled heart wanted me to run back to bed, even though my head begged for more revenge against the one who woke me up. In the end, the heart always wins and I crawled to my sheets, turned my face to the wall and covered my eyes with the blanket.

"Fuck!" He growled. "No one told you to upgrade your lock." I heard the door closing and paused steps going directly to the kitchen.

"Don't touch my food, Jake, or I swear I'll throw you out that window."

"You know I can't fit."

"I'll make you fit…"

Jake talking off my ears was the last thing I wanted.

Under the covers I closed my eyes begging to go back to sleep by focusing on my breath. In and out. I had to ignore him.

Breathe in and a new smell was detected on my pillow, a sweet shampoo smell. Officer Sun.

She left her scent on my pillow after only one night. How could I have not smelled that while she was here? It was so soothing, like a bedtime song carrying me all the way up to cloud 9.

"Hey, were you here last night during the shooting?" Jake's voice stabbed me in the ear from up close. His mouth was full of my food. "I couldn't get inside. Had to sleep on the train." His chewing was loud as a crusher. "Fuck, my neck hurts!"

Feeling my blood bubble once again, I roared, scaring him away.

"Goddamn it, you're not gonna let me sleep, are you?" I threw the covers away.

"What's gotten into you today I thought you'd be all over this operation." said Jake after retreating to the kitchen in a hurry.

"Well, I'm not." By that time I was half sitting on the bed, watching Jake go over the fridge again. "Step away from the fridge!"

On my wrist, my cuff began to vibrate, projecting the profile pic of a Trinity guy with a mechanic neck and his face half covered by a brass skull mask. His message said to stop by the store later.

Gigs for the boys normally involved obtaining information on new buyers, clients who didn't pay their debts, background checks, easy stuff for me. Normally people don't protect their information very well and I was very good at finding their dirty secrets.

Not many hackers can do what I do as fast as I do it. When others would take a week, I could do it in one night. The Trinity gangs were very familiar with my work. They came to me first because they appreciated efficiency and agility.

With last night's events I had an idea of what they would ask me.

It was already dark when I left the building to meet my contact.

The wind was strong, bringing down a heavy smell of rain.

On the streets people were out throwing some kind of party in the central yard. Certainly it was the closest thing to a square we would ever get, which made it very popular among the kids and teens.

Going deeper after crossing the yard, it took me a few turns to get to the meeting point, a liquor store used as a Pharmacy hideout.

At the door two big men with prosthetic arms the size of a gorilla's were smoking and chatting under a bright neon sign that said "Licor".

"The Manager texted me."

"What's up, St?" One of them extended his metal fist as a greeting. "He's at the back."

Most of the people that knew me I didn't know, just like this guy. He probably saw me when I came to talk to the Manager about some other job. I didn't remember his name or his face. My memory was shit when it came to retaining simple information.

Inside, the place was genuinely a liquor store, selling all kinds of poisonous drinks. However, at the back there was one out of thousands of drug labs responsible for all the worst chemicals humanity had ever produced to get intoxicated and forget about the crushing hopeless reality. Places like that one were scattered all over the slums and the city to facilitate logistics and distribution.

This guy I was about to meet was one of the three managers of this operation.

When I entered the small door hidden inside a supply room, the first thing that got to me was a cloud of blue smoke that filled the windowless room.

My nose got itchy, making me wanna sneeze but I held back to not sound disrespectful.

"St my man!"

A skinny man with a synthetic brass neck—extending up to his nose in a mask that imitated a human skull—stepped up to me offering a rough fist bump.

"How're you doing, boss?" I reciprocated the greeting.

"You tell me. What the fuck happened last night?"