The seedy tavern was filled with the choking stench of recycled air, stale sweat, and cheap intoxicants. Two men sat hunched together in a shadowy corner, faces half-hidden by the flickering light of a malfunctioning holo-display. One had a patch over his left eye and the ghost of a smile permanently etched on his scarred face. The other, younger and cautiously wide-eyed, absently scratched at the chip embedded in his forearm. That little piece of tech was their ticket to a payday bigger than either had ever dared to dream.
"Look at them," muttered the one-eyed man, his voice low and gravelly, "puppets on tangled strings, every one of them."
"And us?" the younger man asked, glancing nervously around the room as if he expected someone to be watching. "What does that make us?"
The one-eyed man chuckled, revealing a set of twisted and stained teeth. "We, my friend, are something more. Something the rest of them can't see."
The younger man swallowed hard. "Are you certain it's here, Gavin? The Chrysalis?"
Gavin leaned even closer, and for a moment, the two men were almost nose-to-nose. "Oh, it's here, all right. And we're going to find it before anyone else catches wind of its true potential."
"But what if we're caught?" the younger man whispered, the words trembling on his lips.
"Then we'll meet death together, won't we?" Gavin replied with a grin, clapping the boy firmly on the shoulder, pushing him to take the first step into their desperate hunt.