Lifting my head off the desk, I wake up to the lights of my home office still on, and my head pounding. I must've been up late working again. Slowly, squinting at the light, I lean back in my chair and look around. Sure enough, datachips are scattered across my desk and both my tablet, monitor and a flickering holo display information about my current case. My latest obsession, my colleagues might call it.

As if on cue, my monitor lights up with a message from Dylan Grey, my partner at the UNBI. The familiar opening screen on the monitor greets me when I click the notification. Welcome, Agent Rachel Cassanova. Please scan your ID card and type your password. I sign in and open the chat box.

D. Grey: Hey, I haven't heard from you since your task force left last night. How did the raid go?

My mind is still foggy but it all starts coming back to me. The raid at Café Suki last night. The anonymous tip.

R. Cassanova: They didn't get her. I think she escaped out the back entrance when we came in, either that or it was a false lead.

D. Grey: She? How do you know xCodebreaker01 is a girl?

Sorting through the mess on my desk, I struggle to find the d-chip with Café Suki's security camera footage among the clutter. Eventually, it resurfaces between my travel mug lid, a pile of little holo-projectors and the broken stylus I keep forgetting to get fixed.

R. Cassanova: Security feed at the café. I think it's the girl in the booth at the back. A few seconds after the Tokyo police went in, she ran out the back entrance and disappeared.

D. Grey: And that boy across from her, you think he's the client?

R. Cassanova: Yeah, he seems to be giving her a payment card in exchange for a datachip. I'd better head in to work now. Let's talk more when I get there.

I'm able to head out the door in less than 5 minutes, tossing the d-chips, my tablet and the holo-projector, still clipped to my main hard drive, hurriedly into my standard-issue UNBI backpack on my way down the stairs of my flat. My girlfriend is in the kitchen, making herself breakfast, but I don't have time. With a wave and a quick 'bye', I slip out, simultaneously making a mental note to get at least a coffee when I get to the office.

When I arrive, Grey is already sitting at my desk, waiting for me.

"Did you have a chance to look over the security feed?" I ask.

"Yeah, I think you're right about her being Codebreaker. Unfortunately, she's facing away from the camera the whole time."

"She's a pro." The remark leaves my lips with a hint of admiration as I pull my drive-plus-holo-projector combo from my bag and wave for it to turn on. "She's probably wearing a mask, too, just in case. Look at the client, though. He looks nervous, keeps glancing around the room. Won't maintain eye contact with her. His face is visible, too, so we can probably ID him."

Flipping through the tabs on my holo, I quickly find the one running a FaceRec search on the client.

"I'm already running his face through our databases, it should only be a few more minutes."

"Great. Can I do anything to help?" He asks, and I smile innocently.

"You could get me a coffee?"

Grey jokingly rolls his eyes, but agrees with a chuckle and walks toward the break room. By the time he returns with our coffees, the FaceRec software has identified the suspected client.

"Evan Barcy. Age 15. Average kid, does pretty well in school, not too social but nothing out of the ordinary. I started research into his life, school, etc. Only one thing worth mentioning," I tell my partner, waving through the hologram to switch to a tab showing security footage at the kid's highschool.

"Hey— Let go of me!" A girl shouts from the projection of light. An aggressive-looking boy shoves her backwards, against a wall of lockers.

"Whatever. But you better watch what you do around me, honey, or this goes public." The boy holds up a smartphone, and the girl steps back, her body language showing obvious concern, when she sees it.

"Unfortunately, the phone screen isn't in view of the security cameras. We don't know what he was threatening her with. But, see that boy over there?" I point to a kid on the monitor, who's watching the scene unfold with a look of concern. "That's Evan. Based on a little more digging I did, seems like he has a crush on the girl in the video, who is..." I switch tabs again, "...Teresa Abernathy, age 16, one year older than our suspect. Pretty smart, pretty sensible, pretty pretty. But, she's gotten mixed up in some not-so-smart, not-so-sensible, and not-so-pretty things." I tap a button on her profile, revealing a criminal record of a couple minor, but unfortunate, offenses.

"Drug possession, a couple DUIs..." Agent Grey looks at me, confused. "So she's gotten into some minor trouble with the law, that hardly makes her a suspect for a hacker as infamous as Codebreaker. Honestly, she just doesn't seem like the type."

"Of course not. She's not Codebreaker."

"Then, why are you showing me this?"

"Connect the dots, Grey. Pretty girl gets in trouble. Girl gets blackmailed by big bad boy. Big bad boy has a compromising video of girl. Nerdy kid has a crush on girl..."

"Nerdy kid hacks boy, deletes video, saves girl." Grey finishes for me.

"And then they fall in love, and ride off into the sunset," I recite with mock fairytale intonation.

"So, this kid — You said his name's Evan, right?"

"Evan Barcy."

"So, Evan hires xCodebreaker01 to help him access and delete whatever this video is that the guy's blackmailing her with. What would he need in order to do that?"

"First of all, access to the bully's smartphone. A way to unlock it. From there, it's just a matter of looking through his camera, and deleting whatever it is he wants to delete."

"So you think Codebreaker made him a program to unlock the smartphone?"

"Given what we know she's capable of, it wouldn't even be hard. She must've coded that sort of thing before. But even better, I know how we can get Evan to help us."

* * *

"Mr. Barcy, do you know why you're here?"

"Uh... no?" He responds nervously. Grey and I watch through the monitor while the two Tokyo-based UNBI agents interrogate the suspect. A social worker sits beside him, a necessary protocol because he's a minor. I wonder where his parents are...

After an uncomfortable silence, Barcy continues. "I don't know anything! Umm, I mean, I don't know why I'm here, I didn't do anything,"

One of the interrogators waves on the holo-projector that lies on the table, revealing security footage of Café Suki.

"Is this you?" She points to the boy on the screen.

"Umm..."

"I'll save you the trouble of denying it. It is you, we've run the video through facial recognition, Evan. And we have reason to believe this—" She points to the girl with her back to the camera, "—is an infamous hacker known as xCodebreaker01. Now, you can continue denying it, but we have a search warrant for that datachip she's handing you, and I have a feeling I know what's on it. So, unless you want to be fined, have this added to your permanent record and possibly even face jail time for intent to commit cyber crimes and conspiring with a cybercriminal, I suggest you help us."

After a few seconds, Evan speaks up.

"Look, I— I wasn't trying to do anything, I don't know, bad? I just— There's this girl who—"

"Teresa Abernathy, right?" The other agent shows him the school security footage. "My guess is you were trying to get the video from Mr. Mean Boy over there."

He shifts uncomfortably, in guilty silence.

"Look, Evan," Agent 2 says softly, "We don't want you to get in trouble. Believe it or not, we just want to help you."

"You're a good student. Promising future ahead of you," the female agent adds. "We wouldn't want that to be jeopardized by one mistake."

"Umm... What do you want?"

"We're trying to figure out the identity of xCodebreaker01. I need you to tell me everything you know about her."

His gaze darts around the room as he tries to remember.

"Uh, her face was covered, she had a mask,"

"Her whole face?"

"No, uh, just her mouth and nose. You know, a face mask like people wear when they're sick."

"Can you describe her? Her appearance?"

"She had blue eyes, dark hair. Her hair was tucked into her hoodie, but from what I can tell, it was straight."

Grey and I exchange a look. Blue eyes, straight black hair. That's a pretty generic description. We can search by characteristics in the face database, but we'll need to narrow the search parameters to get anything useful. Suddenly, Evan looks up, as if remembering something.

"Oh, umm, did you know she's a cyborg?"

Interrogator 1 raises her eyebrows. Now this is new information.

"No, Evan, that's very useful. Can you tell us more? How did you know she's cybernetic? Do you know what parts of her body are artificial, or a percentage?"

"She has a cybernetic arm, but that's all I know. I followed her out the back entrance when the police came in, I thought maybe she knew something about it. Anyway, I guess she thought I called them? She, um, I chased her, I fell into the ravine. She kind of, like, tackled me I guess? Not in a violent way— Or, I don't know, she just asked me if I called the police and I said no, she let me go, and—" He sighs. "Long story short, she was holding me with her right arm, which I noticed was metal. I asked her, and she said she's cybernetic."

"Hold on, so you had physical contact with her?" The agent asks, and I know we're thinking the same thing. Turning to my partner, I ask, "DNA scan, maybe?"

"If you're thinking of a DNA scan, that wouldn't work," Evan tells the interrogators. "She only touched my clothes, which were muddy from the ravine, I already put them in the wash. Besides, she was wearing gloves. Sorry..."

"That's OK, Evan. Thank you for your help," the second agent says. "We'll call you if we need you to come back again."

The kid leaves, and I open a new tab and start a FaceRec search in the Identity Database, telling Agent Grey my plan as I go.

"So, the boy with the video. The one we saw on the security footage? How hard do you think it would be to get a warrant for his phone?"

"Why?" Grey asks, confused. "Now that the Tokyo team has Evan, why does it matter about the specifics of whatever he wanted to hack?"

"We may have Barcy's information from that night, but I think he might still be of use to us. With the right motivation."