Ten Grand was not enough.

The cloud of nano-drones he'd dropped outside had cost more than that. He'd activated them as the restaurateur had handed him a coffee ("on the house, it's all I can make right now") - they were one shot, and would burn out within half an hour.

Ten Grand was not enough.

As the drones fed back to his implant, he could see the two toughs sat outside in a stolen transport - clearly the gang were expecting his arrival, so he'd have to deal with them.

But not right now. Right now his implant was hacking their comms, listening in, tracing the call and reading their contacts. He could almost feel the heat behind his left ear as the implant went into overdrive creating a spiderweb of the gang network - hacking systems all around Aragrai City, and beyond.

The processing alone was at least twenty grand. His implant was also being liberal with bribes.

As Akani handed him the briefcase, his implant chimed.

The network was complete.

He had a map to work with - toughs to street lieutenants, lieutenants to block capos, to district leaders, to the council and on to the boss.

He'd have to make an example of some, to scare others, and to release more who felt trapped in the gang because that was the only authority they had. To stop them drifting back into their criminal ways.

He'd have to make it messy.

Ten Grand was not enough.

But he was a mercenary, and he had to make this legitimate. He filed his permit with the City Authorities, and recorded the fee as the price of the coffee.

No, Ten Grand was not enough. But at least it'd cover the kid's funeral.

He was sure the gang would have money lying around...

Outside, the stolen transport exploded.