“I feel good,” Moss told him without thinking. He saw Ynna being loaded into one of the cars with Grimy at her side. She gave a slight wave as the door closed and the car took off.
“We have to get out of here,” Seti told them as Patchwork approached with packs for their escape.
As they geared up, Moss looked at his friends. “We did it,” he said.
“Thanks to you.” Gibbs smiled and Issy kissed Moss on the cheek. His heart raced and he forgot all about what they had just done for a brief moment.
While her face was still pressed against his, she whispered into his ear, “I’m still pissed.”
“I know,” Moss admitted. He hung his head with shame.
“But I still love you,” she said and gave his hand a little squeeze.
“You, too,” Moss answered.
“I know,” Issy said, rolling her eyes and stepping back. The sky was full of people taking flight, leaving the roof of the now destroyed ThutoCo headquarters. Moss felt pain and elation, misery and joy as he lifted from the roof. Gliding over the neon city, he thought of his grandmother, of his parents, and of Burn.
“We did it,” he told them and smiled into the night sky.
Epilogue
Arthur Smith was nervous. He had never been nervous meeting with the other members of the Amalgamated Interests Council before. He resented it, hated that he was made to feel less than, that the other members were making him wait outside while they had a discussion. He felt like a child waiting for the principal to call him in.
He had helped to make this council what it was—brought others to the table and had given them a unified goal. His trade deals with the off-world corporate separatists had made them all richer. He had made ThutoCo a guiding force for global profits.
Not that any of that mattered now.
He had been brought low. His plan had been exposed. His research had been destroyed. He had put the council at risk and now he would pay. He had his talking points planned, though. He knew how to spin it, sell optimism from failure. He had done it before. He could do it now. He pulled the glasses from his nose and cleaned the already pristine lenses between his thumb and forefinger with a lens cloth.
The door opened and he knew to enter. He strode in with all the confidence he could muster and looked up. He was surprised. The room was empty save for Alice Carcer, CEO of Carcer Corp who had changed her surname to reflect her dedication to the company.
“There has been a vote,” she said in a calm but calculated manner. Her unnaturally baritone voice had always thrown him.
“You can’t vote without me!” Arthur shouted; the composure gone in an instant.
“Emergency measures,” Alice told him. “Take a seat, Arthur.” He sat in a plush leather chair around a circular wooden table opposite the severe woman who stood in a freshly pressed suit. He had known her a long while and knew her calm façade covered a serpent’s den mind.
“What vote did you take?” he asked.
“Don’t worry,” she began, “you will remain on the council.”
He wanted to spit. Of course, he should remain on the council. His ire was up. He wanted to stand and hit the woman but knew she was stronger than he.
“Good,” he seethed, trying to cover his anger and failing.
“But I have been made president and was asked to speak with you,” she said with a crocodile smile.
“Just like that? Without giving me a chance to present my case?” He could feel his blood boiling.
“Just like that,” she repeated, adjusting the ceremonial blade she was famous for wearing so she could sit. “Listen, Art,” she began in a conversational tone. “You fucked up. We all know it and you know it. This plan was your baby and we all loved it, but you were shown to the world.”
“We can still achieve our goals,” Arthur forced.
She stared at him with cybernetically enhanced crystal blue eyes, piercing him. “Perhaps, but it will take time and planning, and everyone is pissed.”
“A mechanized planet was always going to take time,” he defended.
She nodded thoughtfully. “Yes, but we were right on the cusp of beginning. This cockup exposed the frailty of your plans and set us back years, if not decades. The colonies are growing and expanding by the day and we will continue to waste valuable resources here.”
“I know,” he said, rubbing his face with the palms of his hands. “I was the one who came up with the plan.”
“So, you keep saying,” Alice said, inherit condescension laced into her words.
“I have a plan to get us back on track,” Arthur said.
“Enlighten me!” Alice smirked. “Your employees are rioting, ThutoCo is being mocked in every city, you are having to pay off families, facing lawsuits and even investigations from the mayors of Seattle and Mumbai. But you have a plan?”
“Yes. But I’m not inclined to share it with you now,” he hissed.
“Fine, you got yourself into this mess, let’s see you claw your way out,” she said, rapping her fingernails on the table. “As to the employee Moss,” she began.
“I will find him, and his little group, and they will suffer.” Arthur snarled. He hated to hear that name. The little pissant has caused him nothing but headaches.
“You’ll do no such thing!” Alice laughed. “I have wardens in every city clamping down on these little groups. The bounties are so high, that any of these so-called ‘detritus’ even sneeze and we are banging down their door. Your corporate security couldn’t stop them before, so it will be Carcer to stop them now.”
It was Arthur’s turn to laugh. “You didn’t stop them either. Bernstein had a bounty worth, what? Fifty million? And he still eluded you for years.”
Alice’s bristled and her eyes narrowed. Arthur had watched as powerful people had crossed her before disappearing off the face of the earth. She had not become head of the world’s most powerful security company for nothing. At that moment, he didn’t care. He was wounded and angry and had his own reputation.
“My employees keep this planet safe while yours cause headaches. My wardens are not at issue here,” she stated so bluntly that Arthur hardly knew how to react. He knew she wouldn’t see her own failings and had already pinned everything on him. He wanted to hurl the proverbial bag of shit she had laid at his feet right in her face but knew he had to play nice if he wanted to keep his seat at the table. He had scraped his way up from the bottom before and could do it again.
“What makes you think you can catch them now?” he asked in as conciliatory a manner as he could muster.
She smiled and stopped letting her fingers click their eerie sound. “Because I had something set aside for a rainy day and now it’s pouring.”
Arthur found this answer almost comically vague despite her attempt at gravitas. “What have you done?” he asked dubiously.
“I have cast a line and soon Detritus Sixteen will be caught. Then we can figure out what to do with you,” she said, her voice so low it sent a chill down Arthur’s spine.
NOTE TO THE READER
Thanks for reading Into Neon: A Cyberpunk Saga. If you enjoyed the book, please leave a review; it is incredibly helpful to new authors. Reviews are one of the ways in which people can discover new work and help me to create more of it. Thanks again for reading.
For more information and bonus content, visit ThutoWorld.com
AUTHOR BIO
Matthew A. Goodwin has been writing about spaceships, dragons, and adventures since he was twelve years old. His passion for fantasy began when he discovered a box set of the Hobbit radio drama on cassette tape in his school’s library at the age of seven. He fell in love with fantasy worlds and soon discovered D&D and Warhammer miniatures.
Not wanting to be limited by worlds designed by others, he created Thutopia (now called the Thuton Empire), a fantasy world of his own, which he still writes about to this day.
Like many kids with an affinity for fantasy, a love of science fiction s
oon followed. He loved sweeping space operas and gritty cyberpunk stories which asked questions about man’s relationship to technology. That led him to write his first published work, Into Neon: A Cyberpunk Saga, which takes place in a larger science fiction universe.
He has a passion for travel and wildlife, and when he is not off trying to see the world, he lives in San Francisco with his wife and son.
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