The jeep rocketed past the signal. Fortunately the streets
were virtually empty; most people were just finishing dinner and starting to
relax. Only couples and pet owners, a couple of a different sort, occupied the
sidewalks. Just as it skidded to a stop
next to a tall skyscraper, an athletic woman in dark leathers jumped out, a
small packaged carried tight to her breast. She ran in and out of the building,
returning without the package.
A moment later the first floor of the building was engulfed in
flame as the sound of thundered joined the cacophony of the urban evening. The
jeep sped off as couples scattered and animals barked in the wake of the
vehicle. A lot of calls went out to emergency services.
Pallas hit a button on her steering wheel. “Call Hazard.”
She paused until she heard someone answer. “Last mission completed.” Something
was said. “Sure, I can do that in my sleep. Tell the client I accept.” Pallas
smiled; she loved when she could jump from one assignment to the next, even
though the next assignment would not start for until the next morning, giving
her enough time to find a new vehicle before her current one was tracked down.
She seemed to go through a lot of vehicles in her line of work.
As she realized that she still had time to tell her daughter
a quick story before bedtime here face lost her smile as she became the epitome
of a focused mom and floored it. The jeep disappeared into the crowded night.
* *
* * *
Well above the city floor, Taneka stared out his window lost
in thought. A large man in a silk suit, the moonlight glowed off him as he
studied the tableau beneath him as thoughts swam just below his consciousness. He
was staring at the red and white ants below him as the sped and stopped as
dictated by the red and green signals, all of them trapped on the black ribbon between
the gray buildings. The traffic patterns gave him a meditative focus as he
processed his notes for the following day; while he enjoyed the overall pattern
he had forgotten it was made of individuals a long time ago.
His phone on the desk rang and he walked over to it, each
step careful, measured. He grabbed the phone as he slid past the desk,
answering with a single smooth action.
“Hello? She has accepted? Excellent.”
He clicked the phone off and set it down. He turned and
walked away from the window, heading for the door. His mind went through a
quick checklist as he moved to the door, marking off an item with each step.
Satisfied that he was forgetting nothing and that he would be able to forget
the pressures of his position as one of the highest ranking vice presidents of
Taneka Enterprises as soon as he left, he keyed in his password to the tablet
on his desk. He would table the success of the first stage of his strategy
until tomorrow.
“The day is almost over,” he said to himself as he left the
office. It was time to enjoy the remainder of his evening and he had a number
of distractions planned. He would be in the garage in a few minutes, his
personal Porsche waiting for him, and on an easy path to a secret party where
he was sure to break a few laws.
* *
* * *
A blimp rose into the night, thousands of LEDs combining to create
the face of a young woman dressed in red and white robes and made up as a female
kabuki character. There were a few modern twists so as to make sure she was
cute rather than scary. She assayed the ground below her, acting as if Kabuki
were trying to see what was below her. She waved to those below her, and some
waved back, not knowing or not caring that she could not actually see them wave
back. Suddenly, loudspeakers blared to life as she started to speak.
“Good evening, Upper San Angeles. It’s Thursday, November 21,
2109. It’s Scorpio’s last day as he cedes the month to Sagittarius the Archer,
a man with piercing arrows or something…harder. For those not quite ready to go
to bed….” She paused long enough for a high-school girl’s giggle. “Sorry, to
sleep, check out the Sakura Party Ring. Those who know, know where it is.”
The message would repeat a couple of more times before the
blimp floated off between the skyscrapers. On the ground a couple was
passionately embracing beneath a street light, apparently lost into whatever
universe lovers disappear into when they kiss. All but the studious would
notice that just past the lovers was an alley, of which the lovers were in an
excellent position to guard if they were so predisposed. Next to a garbage can,
embers glowing just below the edge, a muscular black man in tight camos stood over
a Japanese boy in a bomber jacket and jeans. While the man stood ready for
anything, the boy was meditating. Between the two lay a notebook computer, a
program running across the screen. A wire led from back of the teenager’s head
to the notebook and then another wire ran to the simple yet elegant watch worn
by the black man on his flesh arm.
The notebook beeped. A metallic yet feminine voice made a short
announcement: “Download complete.”
Dish snapped out of his meditation. “Talk about primatech.
Soka, your onboard comp sucks. Just make fewer notes or make it SOTA, soka?”
Captain Thomas Steel yanked the wire from his watch and it
reeled into the notebook. “I’ll try.” He hated that the kid refused to speak
regular English; the kid’s personal mission was to see if he could crash Steel’s
translation software. He sometimes succeeded, but Steel had gotten better at
hiding when it happened.
Dish smiled at the older man’s grumpiness. He pulled the
wire out from the back of his head and let it go; it reeled into the notebook.
As a pair of headlights flashed the alley he grabbed the notebook and stood up.
A limousine pulled up. Two Mr. Johnsons dismounted and
walked over to the pair. The exact identities of the two never mattered, only that
they delivered the information required for the mission to succeed. The two
company men sniffed disdainfully at the smell of the alley. Steel quickly noted
the lumps in their jackets and made a note on how to react if either man
reached for his gun. He also mentally readied the remote keyed to a special
surprise if things got too hot. He may curse the experimental cyberwear that
made up a third of his frame, but it did give him a few tactical advantages.
Steel decided to take the initiative. “Do we meet at the
dump next? That would fit the established pattern.” So far in the last month
they had met in three other alleys and a dump; the Johnsons liked meeting in
out of way places with no cameras. At least they liked to mix it up a bit.
The first Johnson ignored the insult. “Is your team
assembled and ready?”
“Do you have the floor plans?”
The second Johnson pulled out a briefcase, opened it, and
handed a small compact disc to Steel handed the disc to Dish almost
reflexively, who just as reflexively slid it into his notebook. He pulled a
wire from the notebook and thrust it into the back of his neck. The screen of
the notebook started spewing maps. Dish gave Steel a thumbs up. Steel turned
back to the Johnsons.
This time the Johnson took initiative. “The remainder of
your fee will be deposited upon completion of the extraction.”
“Do you want him dead or alive?”
“We would prefer not having to worry about neurological repair.”
The two Johnsons walked back to the limousine and mounted
up. The alley was yet again flashed by lights as they drove off. The couple at
the streetlight disengaged. The blonde in tight leather holstered a pistol she
had in the small of the guy’s back under his jacket while the Puerto Rican kid
in denim sheathed a pair of knives he had hidden by keeping them in his sleeves.
Their shift from intimate lovers to fellow employees spoke to how often they
had performed the ruse. The pair looked expectantly as they waited for new
instructions. Dish’s screen went dead as Dish let the cord reel back into the
notebook. “The data is GTG.”
Steel looked at him. “Everything okay?”
“Even the secret passages are red-painted. Go time?”
“You have an easy-access jackpoint?”
Dish closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them
quickly. “Yeah. A vendamech just two decameters from target. Its cred-checksys
provides an easy back way in.”
“Good. Sounds like go-time to me.”
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