Macio stretched his hand, to grab it. “No. Transfer the half in advance.”“You don’t trust me? I have yet to see the items.”“That’s the new rule.”The boss narrowed his eyes to slit. “Fine.”After the demand was met, he opened the case which had expanded to twice its size in his hand; a delighted glint flashed in his eyes. The lid uncovered rows of intricate cavities holding crystals filled with electric currents. Wrapped by the currents were two minuscule balls. In the city filled with visual complexities, the crystals apparently held value beyond their appearance; Blaise took his eyes off them. “Another half.” The voice was monotone. “Since you have checked the products.”The command came. “Do it.” Upon him taking the first step, the exchange took an odd turn, unfolding two things. The other group disappeared, being swallowed up by the floor under their eyes. Black gas was billowing out of the hole in the absence of the cylinder. “Fuck,” Macio cursed beside him, right before h
***Feb 14, 3027***“Did you know?”“What?”“Today used to be some sort of day for haters or something? In the past.”“Haters?” Slurping noises interrupted. “That’d be fun. Why the hell did it stop?”“I don’t know. Too many brawls maybe?”“Hmm… that’s possible.” The conversation was on hold as Ivan and Antonio focused on their bowls of noodles at a quaint diner, an unmanned shop with a few benches and tables. A hovertrain drove past under the transparent road, muting the excitement bubbling out of the intersection. “We should’ve chosen the shop with humans.”“Think we’d find out about Kaiden’s men? No fucking way.” “No.” Ivan plunged the chopsticks into the noodle soup. “I think it’d be easy to blend in. What’s the point in eating our dinner in this worst fucking vending machine? The taste is like silica worse off than the one in our den. One horrible ramen: the machine must be made in—”Their debate was short-lived for screams and crashes erupted from a close distance, from one est
Blaise waited till it was fully opened, and a bit more, because he could also be patient. “Underboss… we—we’re here,” rasped Antonio from a distance.“Umm-hmm.” He put one hand on his hip. Naked eyes might as well be blind in this deep darkness, especially adjusting from a place of a million lights. In his stillness, his fingers grazed the gun Macio had given him as the initiation.Nothing followed the first sentence. SWISH!A vehicle flew past behind him. He trod his way into the apparent unknown. In his manner, he would look reckless and ignorant, but he drew the gun at the last second. He had noticed something was wrong. Shadows moved and he fired subsequent shots all around, not aiming anything in particular. Bullets broke through the breeze he brought along with him from outside, igniting gasps, sounds of metal piercing flesh, and thuds. He was faster than them. Contrary to how it opened, the door shut abruptly and the room lit. There was always someone who would follow an
Noah had never been taken a step beyond this floor since he was brought here. Only once, he had had a direct conversation with the boss, in this same room, about the topic. That was last week. Jayson had not told him he could not go out. He might not prevent him if he tried, but he didn’t want to escape alone. At the time, he had been the initiator. “Boss.” He wouldn’t dare to address him by name as much as he found the man to be a disgusting human being. He had found out Macio was behind the famous underage cases around Paradox.“Boss.” Macio swiveled in his chair, looking away from a crime news hologram dwelling amidst the gathering. He occasionally did that, watching the presenters wrongly reporting criminal cases, especially if he was somehow involved, just to make fun of them. “Speak. Get to the point.”“Can I go out of this place? Am I still–”“I see,” he interrupted. “You can, on one condition. Come here. Closer. Kill somebody.”“Are you–” he almost asked if he was serious.
“Mr. President, the mayor had requested a meeting with you last week,” informed the secretary from her desk. One deep charcoal wall decorated the world-renowned abstract painting that appeared total gibberish casually painted by a child who couldn’t handle a brush. Just as the president of CNA, in a fashionable blue suit, had signed the last document, an entire set folded up and went into the large desk on their own. “How are you, today?” he uttered the first words in what seemed like forever. “I’m great, Mr. President. Thank you,” she smiled politely. “Even the minister of defense and the secretary of the state agreed with me,” the president sighed. “What can I do? Let him in.”Upon arriving at the president’s office, the two greeted and exchanged admiration for their performances. The mayor started explaining the purpose of his visit, by depicting how protests were growing all over the city.“Thank you. I’m well aware of that,” the president interrupted. “That’s their rights af
A new noise he hadn’t heard during the first visit prevented him from immediately going out of the vehicle: a usual beeping sound that didn’t belong to his wristband. Noah should have nothing on his body that gave off that sound, except…Crap! He rushed to the door; though the noise stopped, it had already alerted the surrounding. Upon his exit, he pressed his back against the vehicle and looked over to where Noah stood, who started to explain. “I didn’t—”“Get here!” he whisper-yelled. “I’ll go check,” said a cop from a distance. Noah moved, but it was too late.“Who’s there? Kevin?”The voice and the footfalls came from the other side of the vehicle line, already in proximity. He must have seen a suspicious figure. “Freeze! Hands in the air! Announce yourself?”Blaise straightened up, to intervene if necessary. “I’m a reporter.”He might not be necessary. A ray of light fell; he silently moved his leg away. “Show me your ID! You’re trespassing!”“WHO IS THAT, LIEUTENANT?!”“SAI
Oh, shit! Shit! Shit! Noah swore inwardly in shock. He was dead! He was not thinking straight when he made that shot. The damage was so obvious even before he broke into a run, under the dimmer lights at the ground level. He had been following him since he spotted him across the sky-lanes. Only when they got to a street market, he realized that the one behind Jayson had not been going his own way as he had first thought. He had tried to warn him, but he had nothing. That had been quite a fall. At first, he considered taking a road-elevator. That looked like a suicide but he would lose sight of him while he had an enemy so close behind him. When he got to his side, he showed no surprise at seeing him or him shooting someone to death. “You killed him.” Jayson sat down by the body. “I guess. I thought….” he blabbered. “Are you having regrets?” “No. Not really.” Jayson removed the remaining headset, a chunk of it at the back was gone. A revolting sight that was, and he did that. T
The news was so insignificant that he might as well be stalking people around on his own and met an accidental death. There was no mention of an undergoing investigation. Was he on duty or not? Not included. “You were right! They don’t even care!” Noah said, as they crossed paths in the den. ‘They didn’t care?’ That was doubtful. Blaise resorted to getting into casual conversations with his former colleagues at a crime scene, a high-end restaurant at the top of the troposphere. Certain types of questions demanded casualness.Half of the staff, especially the servers, were AIs; with a borrowed suit, he made himself as immaculate as possible to pretend to be one of them. And be polite.Nobody seemed suspicious of him, not to mention they didn’t recognize him. A wealthy couple was murdered, possibly poisoned, and he answered their questions by modifying the AI’s answers.“Last week, we had fewer reservations compared to this week, officer. The majority were regulars except for Detective