Flick was really beginning to tender his resignation in the form of a questionable hack and a few bullets, as he spent the eigth hour sitting outside Neut's. He had read the newspaper he was holding five times already and he felt like his eyes were going to pop out of his head at any minute.

Ms. Phare had given them all the slip. It was hard to believe, but it must be true. There were plenty of reasons for her to visit Newland City, the cleaner air, her friends, the new clothing store that opened up. The bio also said she could be a heavy drinker, so he waited at a bar. Still nothing.

He had no choice. He needed a break. Bad. Flick activated his comm. "Boss?"

"What Flick?"
"Id's been eight hours. She's nod here."
"You're sure?"
"Absoludely."
"Alright. Wait there. I'll send Ganlit to relieve you."
"Dank ya, sir."
"You better be right about this."

Flick deactivated his comm. A few more minutes and he'd be relaxing with a martini and that new cutie that started frequenting their casino. "Hope she likes a man wid sdyle!"

----

"Conserve and repair units report unrepairable damage to limbs and torso. Running Diagnostic."

The hum of machinery filled the small underground room.

"Unknown hardware interface established. Testing..."

"Testing..."

"Hardware interface indicates Omni origin. Activating False ID...."

"False ID failed. Activating Secondary False ID..."

"False ID failed. Testing software."

"Software modified. MainUser unknown. Cracking..."

"User A L P H A identified. Incorrect password entered."

"Password accepted. Please command."

"Rewrite access to RAGE 2.0"

...

"Rewrite complete."

"Commence repairs."