RETALI8ION: The Cobalt Code Read Online Free PDF Page B

breathing.  “Alright, start talking.”
    “That a girl.  Time is, unfortunately, of the essence,” Artemis said with a smile.  He then reached up and made a motion with his hands towards someone.
    Regina turned to see that the hooded figure was standing up.  She watched as the person started walking towards them, and slowly pulled their hood back, revealing the most shiny neon pink hair Regina had ever seen.  That pink hair framed a near perfectly symmetrical androgynous face below.  A face Regina recognized.  “Yosha, you crazy son of a bitch,” she said with a smile.
    “Pronouns, please,” Yosha said.
    “Sorry, my fault.  You crazy child of a bitch,” Regina said, correcting herself.
    Artemis slid over, and Yosha took a seat next to him.
    “How are you holding up?” Yosha asked, sitting their laptop on the table.
    “I've been better,” Regina replied with a shrug.
    “I bet.  How are you doing, Thomas?” Yosha asked, looking over at the cat.
    “Been better,” replied Thomas.
    “Well let's get to it, huh?” Yosha said, pressing a button on the laptop.
    Regina watched as several components were displayed on the screen.  The only thing she recognized was the name at the top of the screen.  CEL P7.  “What am I looking at?”
    “This is apparently what you were sent in to find, from what I understand.”
    Regina nodded.
    “Well this is CEL P7, a brand new interaction enhancement drug made by our friends at MPHarm.  This thing hasn't even been announced to stockholders yet.  Otherwise their stock would have seen a swift uptick,” Yosha said, somewhat excitedly.
    “So what does it do?” Regina asked.
    “You've used Regenerzon K before when diving.  Like during the China job we did two years ago when we had to pull that little princess out of that slave trade org.  It's like speed for computer junkies, right?  Well, this little pill does that, but better.  Plus, it even increases the physical interaction you'd get from a dive suit by slowing down some of your physical responses, and speeding up others, like your hands and arms,” Yosha finished with a hand motion to make it seem as though their brain was exploding.  “It's quite exciting.  Ya know, if it works like they hope it does.”
    “Will it?” Regina asked, suddenly very curious.  “I mean, without melting my brain and all that kind of stuff.”
    “Maybe...  Probably.  I don't know.  But they sure think it will.  They just sent a testing request for it today.  Or yesterday, now that it's after midnight,” Yosha said pushing a button to display the documents that had been submitted by MPHarm.
    “Fuck,” was the only word Regina could say at that moment.
    “Food.” Thomas stated, as a waitress started coming towards the table.
    “Who ordered the Kansas City Strip?” the waitress asked as she approached the table.
    “Mine,” Thomas said happily.
    The waitress looked Thomas over, shrugged, and sat the plate down in front of Thomas.  “Enjoy.”
    “Will,” Thomas said.
    “Steak?  Are you sure you're a cat?” Artemis asked.
    Thomas looked towards Artemis and produced a goofy toothy grin.  “Meow.”
    Thomas then started eating the steak without any table grace or manners to speak of.
    Regina turned her attention from Thomas's socially inappropriate eating habits, and back to Yosha.  “Then it makes sense that that was what I was sent to get.  Especially if it actually does all of that without turning up veggies.”
    “Yeah, but then there's the frack of it all,” Artemis said as Yosha closed the laptop.  “It wasn't another pharmaceutical company, or even a conglomerate with pharm co ties that hired you for that run.”
    “I'll have to admit, I'm pretty damn interested in who did, then,” Regina replied.
    “How close did you inspect that video from Thomas's rig cam?” Artemis asked.
    “Pretty fucking closely.  Aside from the one suit who was dropping the stick to Thomas, there wasn't anyone