A week went by...
The bruises hadn't faded yet.
Mercer, The fall, etc.... But Jessy had held in just to stay standing.
He walked with a slight limp, ribs still wrapped beneath a shirt two days unwashed, blood-crusted collar stiff against his neck. His boots made that quiet, sticky sound with every step, squelch-squelch like the ground didn't want to let go of him.
The van rocked as it slid off the cracked highway into broken sprawl. The kind of place that made the rest of the city seem holy by comparison.
Beside him, Goro chewed gum like it was a tranquilizer. His legs were kicked up on an ammo crate, butterfly knife dancing between his knuckles in slow, fluid arcs. Eyes half-lidded. Relaxed. Almost lazy.
Jessy sat still. Watching.
Always watching.
When the van doors opened, the smell hit first, smog, blood-rot, old rain, and something sweeter beneath it. Something is trying too hard to cover up the decay.
Goro stepped out first, eyes squinting into the fog.
"They call this district Quiet Dog," he said. "You know why?"
Jessy shook his head once.
"Because by the time you hear the bark, you're already bleeding."
They moved through crumbling back alleys, past cracked billboards and shattered neon. Graffiti dripped down concrete walls like bruises made of ink. Most of the old stores were locked, their windows eaten out from the inside. Vents coughed steam in weak, dying pulses.
It was still dark. That grey-black hour before sunrise when the world feels half-dead.
Goro led them through a side door into a building that smelled like boiled rust and old wires. They climbed two flights and stepped into a hollowed-out maintenance shed tucked between buildings the drop point.
Inside: a single flickering bulb swinging from a bent steel pipe, and a boy.
The Courier.
No older than Jessy. Skinny. Wide-eyed. The hoodie is two sizes too big. One hand clutched a bag like it were chained to his wrist.
He flinched as they entered, but didn't run.
Jessy saw it instantly the fear in the way the boy's jaw tightened, the way his eyes avoided the corners, how his foot angled toward the exit.
Flight response. Controlled.
Goro stepped forward. "Password?"
The boy nodded quickly. "Dust to shadow."
"Return?"
"From rot to bloom."
Goro smiled.
"Cute."
He took the bag, unzipped it an inch enough to see the payload. Slugs. Paper codes. Old data chips in foam packs. Probably worth more than all their lives combined.
"Can I go now?" the boy asked.
Jessy watched Goro's shoulders shift.
Felt the moment everything changed.
Goro moved.
Bang.
The gunshot rang out flat and cold no echo, just a punch of noise. The boy dropped, screaming, clutching his leg, blood slicking across the concrete.
Jessy jolted. "What the hell?"
Goro holstered the pistol like it was nothing.
"He was stalling," he said calmly. "Watched. Probably tagged. Can't risk it."
"You don't know that."
Goro crouched beside the courier, running his fingers along the boy's pockets, then checking the back of his neck. "I do now."
The boy sobbed. "I didn't say anything ...I didn't...I just wanted..."
Goro raised an eyebrow. "They always want something."
Then he reached for his knife.
Jessy stepped forward. "Wait."
Goro paused.
One eyebrow lifted, just slightly.
"You want to handle it?" he asked.
Jessy nodded.
"…Alone."
Goro smiled like someone watching a puppy grow fangs.
"Your mess," he said. "Be done in five."
He left.
The door shut behind him with a sigh of rusty hinges.
Jessy crouched.
The boy stared at him, eyes glassy.
Blood pooled under his thigh, still warm, still pulsing.
"You gonna kill me?" the boy rasped.
Jessy looked at him for a long time. Then reached into his coat and pulled out a pressure dressing. He wrapped the knee tightly.
"No," he said.
The boy blinked. "Why?"
Jessy held up a hand.
"You tell me everything. Now."
"I didn't give them anything," the courier said quickly. "They caught me near the wall. I just said when the pickup was. I swear, nothing else. They offered meds, but I didn't take anything, just… I needed something for my sister. Her lungs are..."
Jessy closed his eyes.
A sister.
Of course.
Minutes passed.
Then Jessy stood.
He left the bag beside the boy.
Reached into his pocket. Pulled a burner chip. Slid it into the courier's palm.
"North exit tunnel. Twenty minutes before the grid reboots. If anyone asks, you never met us. You slipped. The bag was stolen."
The boy blinked. "Why… why are you letting me go?"
Jessy didn't answer right away.
He looked at the door.
Then back to the boy.
"Because sometimes it's not about the package. It's about what you carry home after."
Then he turned and walked out.
Outside, Goro leaned against the wall, still flipping his knife.
"You kill him?"
Jessy nodded once. "Done."
Goro looked at him for a beat too long. Then smiled.
"Guess you are Julian now."
Jessy didn't respond.
Jessy stood in the debriefing room, shoulders squared, blood still crusted under his nails.
Akula stood behind the glass.
Tessa was beside him.
"Courier eliminated," Jessy said.
Akula blinked. "Define eliminated."
Jessy looked up, voice cold.
"Permanent solution. No complications."
Akula studied him for several long seconds.
Tessa said nothing.Her arms were crossed.But her eyes hadn't left Jessy since he walked in.
Akula pressed a key on the desk.The screen lit up.
[MISSION RATING: ACCEPTABL]
[EREMARKS: OPERATIVE GREY — BEHAVIORAL DEVIATION FLAGGED OBSERVE FOR NONCOMPLIANCE DRIFT]
That night, Jessy lay in his cot, eyes open, staring at the ceiling like it might fall.
The metal tag sat on his chest.
JULIAN.
He didn't wear it.
Not yet.
But he held it now, the same way he held every decision he'd made that day:
Tightly.
Quietly.
Like it might tear open if he let go.