Prime City: A Science Fiction Thriller (Neon Horizon Book 2)

by Michael Robertson

  Eight lights down, half the arena plunged into darkness, Marcie dodged not only the projectiles from the black jackets, but those from the crowd too. Some flew wildly past her, some objects clanging the metal poles. Several shoes hit her; a bottle slammed into her temple. She nearly lost her grip on the bars.

  The longer she stayed up there, the more chance she had of taking an unlucky shot and falling into the pack below. She quickened her pace, kicking out light after light.

  The place now in complete darkness, she turned off her glowing red eyes. The projectiles stopped and her night vision gave her a moment to count the black jackets. Several of her opponents had fallen, victims to the showering of weapons. But sixteen remained as green silhouettes. She dropped and landed in amongst them, knocking down three in quick succession.

  The darkness had quietened the crowd, but when three more black jackets yelled out to the thwack of Marcie hitting them, they booed with renewed vigour. Not only were they being deprived of the bloody deaths they so craved, but they weren’t even able to watch the fight.

  Ten left, Marcie went through them one at a time, flashing her red eyes on a second before she dropped each one with a well-aimed blow. Some of them fought back, throwing wild punches into spaces she no longer occupied.

  With just four remaining, Marcie lost her sight. She paused. “What the …?”

  A fist slammed into her left cheek and she stumbled backwards. They’d blocked her night vision. X-ray? Nothing. They’d blocked the lot.

  The crowd noise drowned out the sound of her approaching attackers. A punch landed on the end of her nose, sending fire through her sinuses. Another one slammed into the side of her head, and she stumbled sideways.

  Marcie dropped down into a crouch and pressed her palms to the mat. The vibrations from the closest footsteps came from her right. They ran straight past from where they were also blind.

  The next set of steps closed in. This time Marcie swept their feet away, and they hit the mat hard. She felt for them, patting her way up their body until she reached their face. She punched harder than she would have had she been able to see. Her fist sank a little too deeply into her opponent’s face. Three remained.

  Another one of the black jackets charged. Marcie jumped up and stuck her arm out, catching the person around the neck before slamming them to the ground and kicking them in the head. Two remained.

  Marcie forced the next one to the ground. A larger boy, it felt like wrestling an alligator, his thick frame bucking and snapping beneath her. She pinned one of his shoulders with her right hand and climbed on top of him, sitting on his chest, a knee on each shoulder before she slammed a one-two punch against his nose.

  One left. And then she heard it. The crowd grew still. A wet whimper, her breaths heavy and moist. “I’m done.”

  A spotlight on Marcie’s right flashed across the arena. It had been brought in by more black jackets. The bodies of the fallen either rolled on the mat or lay still from where she’d left them unconscious. The defeated girl in the middle of the ring kneeled as if praying. Blood rained over her chin, gushing from her nose and pooling on the mat as she cried freely. Sally.

  “Once again,” the commentator called, “Marcie Hugo has proven her worth.”

  The crowd clearly didn’t agree. From a cursory glance, the only black jacket deaths had happened to the ones caught by falling weapons. She’d won on her terms, and they hated it.

  “Go back to your hotel, and we’ll deliver your bounty later.”

  Another bottle flew from the crowd. A blue electric bolt hit the thrower, who yipped, snapped rigid, and then fell.

  “We’ll turn the voltage up for the next person who throws something,” the commentator said.

  It didn’t stop the abuse, but like when she’d entered the ring, Marcie held her head high and walked up the stairs back towards Slip and the Eye. When she reached the top, the Eye hugged her, his thick fur coat reeking of damp like their hotel room. “Well done, kid. Now let’s get the hell out of here.”

  Chapter 44

  Marcie managed to get into Prime City while avoiding the jocks and crewcuts. Maybe there were other bounty hunters around, but they didn’t make themselves known. And why would they? Anonymity would make the job much easier, and the professionals were there to get paid.

  This time Mads had given Marcie a seven-day visa, and the payment promised to be much higher than anything he’d given her previously. The Eye had sent Slip home because he couldn’t cope with the idea of spending the next seven days with the boy.

  As Marcie moved through the crowds in Prime City, the Eye played the footage of the Ghost’s crimes, and Marcie’s stomach churned. The first news report played in the bottom right of her vision, presented by a red-faced man with a rigid jet-black centre parting, as if his hair were made from a plastic mould. “The Ghost sneaks into the apartments of good hardworking citizens,” the reporter said, “and violates the women in there. Even the best security in Prime City is no match for this menace. His most recent victim, Constansa Louquella—”

  “Off,” Marcie said, a woman nearby turning to face her, her eyes wide. She lowered her voice, “I’m guessing I’ve seen all I need to?”

  “I’d say that’s enough to get the gist.”

  The apartments of the super wealthy stood on stilts thirty metres above the city. They were rectangular buildings with a leg sprouting from each corner that started thick and then narrowed to a point so they could find space to stand in the overcrowded streets. At their narrowest they could accommodate an elevator shaft and no more. It made them much easier to put wherever they liked. It also made them portable should the rich tire of their views. They loomed over the city, giant insectoids standing in judgement of what sat below them. “There’s not many causes I’d choose to take up to help those who live in the apartments,” Marcie said. “They get enough help as it is. But the Ghost sounds vile. A truly abhorrent person.”

  “You don’t know the half of it.”

  “I know enough.”

  “He’s had a bounty on him for some time. No one’s been able to catch him.”

  “But you can?” Marcie said.

  “Yeah, it took some digging, but I’ve found a pattern to his attacks. When you look at the apartments he’s entered, it’s always been when their alarm systems are being updated.”

  “I can’t imagine the security company will be happy about that.”

  “Huh?” a man in a suit said, but Marcie continued past him.

  “No, I can’t see them shouting about it either. All the apartments have high-tech systems managed by the same company, Securicorp. They can tell you when a fly’s touched down on the outside of the building. But to stay one step ahead of the criminals in the city, they update once a month, always changing their systems to make them hard to crack. It only takes sixty seconds to do the update. It’s actually in the fine print of all their contracts, but no one reads contracts, right?”

  “So he’s not cracking the systems?” Marcie said. “He knows the point in the month when they’re all going to go down, and then breaks in?”

  “That’s the thing, the systems go down once a month for each apartment, but which one goes down and when is completely random. So every night, there are always a few out of action for sixty seconds. The trick for him is identifying the very few he can break into.”

  “If he can work that out, it doesn’t sound like a very sophisticated alarm system.”

  Another person glared at Marcie, so she ducked down an alley and hopped up to the roof of a building.

  “You’d think, but it’s almost impossible to predict. An algorithm manages when to shut them off. It’s as random as it can be. If he were guessing, it would be like winning the lottery every time he bought a ticket.”

  “Yet he has predicted it … and I’m guessing you have?” Marcie paused for a moment on the shop’s roof. She stood by one of the triangular jet-black legs of a sky apartment, her neck sore from look
ing straight up. “I still don’t get it. How does he get up to one of these buildings in sixty seconds? That seems impossible.”

  “Come on, Marce, you’re smarter than that. If you had one minute to get onto the roof and into one of these apartments, how would you do it?”

  “The sky apartments are above the skylanes.”

  “Correct.”

  “But they’re not taller than many of the tower blocks.”

  “There we go.”

  “But I’ve never seen anyone jump from a tower block. Other than me.”

  “Doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Also, Prime City is a big place. I’m sure there are lots of things here you’ve never seen happen before.” A red block highlighted a skyscraper similar in design and size to the Apollo Tower. It ran straight up, the tip taller than the sky apartments. Like the Apollo Tower, it overlooked its surroundings. Another red block highlighted one of the luxury apartments. “This is the next one due to reset. They reset in the middle of the night.”

  “So I need to be up there waiting for him?”

  “Yep.”

  “We might need to find another way if it doesn’t work tonight,” Marcie said. The tower she’d picked stood nearly as tall as the one she’d been on the previous evening, and taller than the one from the evening before that. Each time, the apartment she watched had gone down for a minute before going live again. Nothing had happened.

  The wind slammed into Marcie, turning her nose numb and burning her cheeks. “It’s strange not to have Sal in my ear right now.”

  If the Eye heard her, he didn’t reply.

  Prime City stretched away from Marcie on all sides as a seemingly unending garish sprawl of light. The only break in the bright glow came from the corner where the docks opened up to the sea. “I’m worried we won’t sort this out before the visa expires,” Marcie said. “If nothing else, I don’t want to have to pay to spend any more time in that shitty hotel. One more night in that place and I’ll be getting another bill. I’m not sure where I’ll shove it if the hotelier tries to hand it to me.”

  “I’ve been doing everything else I can to find this man, but he’s not showing up anywhere. Despite all the attacks, he’s left no DNA traces. No fingerprints. He’s stolen nothing that has any kind of tracking device in it.”

  Almost imperceptible against the dark sky, Marcie caught the slightest flash and flicked to night vision. The green silhouette stood out in the darkness, and she hissed, “It’s him.” Dressed in black with a black glider, the man came in from a tower block on their left and landed on the roof of the building they’d been watching. “You were right.”

  “Of course I was.”

  The sky apartment was a steel box with a flat roof and glass walls. The man stuck a strong magnet to the roof and clipped a rope to it.

  “Forty-five seconds left,” the Eye said.

  The Ghost abseiled down one of the windowed sides, cut a hole in the glass, and slipped through.

  “The security company would have a shit fit if their clients saw how easily he broke in,” Marcie said.

  “Thirty seconds left,” the Eye said. “You should wait for him to come out.”

  “And let him attack someone else? No chance.” Marcie took a running jump from the roof of the tower block, spread her wings, and zeroed in on the apartment. As always, her legs took the momentum from her landing, shuddering as she touched down to just the gentlest tap of her feet hitting the steel. “I can’t let him remain free for another evening.”

  Marcie already had the rope in her hand, ready to follow the man in through the window, when the Eye said, “Wait! At least check the apartment with your X-ray before you go in.”

  Although Marcie continued to grip the fine but strong rope, she humoured the Eye, scanning the apartment. She dropped the rope a second later.

  “What is it?” the Eye said.

  “He’s the only person in there, and he’s already coming back up.” A red ring flashed in Marcie’s vision. It headed straight for her. “A drone!”

  “A bomb!” the Eye said. “Get away from it now!”

  Marcie darted to the other side of the apartment’s roof and hung off the edge, the bomb flying past her and hitting the tower block she’d leapt from, exploding into a ball of flames. Her body swayed in the wind as she clung on. Her X-ray vision showed her the Ghost unclipping his rope. He lifted the magnetic anchor before he picked up his glider, took a two-step run-up, and leaped from the edge of the building.

  The Eye said, “He did all that in fifty-three seconds. Now get after him.”

  Marcie pulled herself back onto the roof, sprinted across the top of the building, and leaped off after him.

  The wind turned Marcie’s nose numb and dragged her hair out behind her. Still above the skylanes, she flew as fast as she’d ever flown before, but when the glider vanished around the side of a tower block, she pulled her arms in and dived.

  Marcie rounded the next building and landed on the closest roof, now level with the top lane of traffic. “Where the hell is he?”

  A pink light flashed in her vision on her left. She turned almost one hundred and eighty degrees to lock onto the pulsing dot.

  “I’ve managed to put a tracker on him,” the Eye said. A police drone shot past, heading in the direction of the dot.

  A building about twenty metres below her, Marcie followed the rapist’s path, jumping to the lower roof, gravel splashing up when she touched down. She turned, ran, and leaped. Spreading her arms wide, she twisted and turned through the busy skylane. Were it not for the Eye’s tracker, she would have lost him for sure.

  A lorry beeped at Marcie with a deep foghorn note as she turned sideways, flashing so close to the front of the large vehicle she nearly became one with its grille. She levelled out and hit the ground running, the pink silhouette a block away on the busy streets. “Where’s his glider gone?”

  “He folded it up when he landed. I think he’s trying to disappear into the crowd.”

  Marcie cut through an alley and reached the main street. It might have been the middle of the night, but there were as many people here as she’d expect during the day. The pink silhouette moved through the crowd. “Where’s the closest police station? I get the impression this one won’t give up easily. I could do with having it marked.”

  “There’s one two blocks away.” A blue arrow flashed up in Marcie’s vision.

  “Can you stall him near the station?”

  “I’ll try.”

  Although Marcie gained on the man, those around her tutting and shoving back as she elbowed her way through the throng, were it not for the Eye, she would have lost him. Whoop, whoop! The police drone sent the Ghost running back the way he’d come.

  As he got close to the police station, Marcie charged and tackled him, the power in her legs sending both of them slamming through the police station’s front door. On top of him on the foyer’s white-tiled floor, the man squirmed, so she punched him once, then again.

  Two police officers closed in, tasers alive with the crackle and spark of electricity.

  The Ghost shook her head as she gave up the fight. “You’ve got me, okay?”

  “It’s a woman?” the Eye said.

  The woman squirmed, removed something from her pocket, and slipped it into Marcie’s palm while the police delivered a clichéd, “Freeze!”

  “I’m a bounty hunter,” Marcie said while slipping the small data stick up her sleeve. “This is the Ghost.”

  The police paused, allowing Marcie to stand up and away from the woman.

  One of the officers stood over the Ghost, his taser raised. The other officer removed her hood. The woman had auburn hair and green eyes. She must have been in her late twenties to early thirties. She fixed on Marcie, her face twisted. “You’ve made a big mistake.”

  “I’d say so,” the officer who’d removed the Ghost’s hood said. He raised his taser in Marcie’s direction. “The Ghost is a man.”

  “T
ell him to look at the screen,” the Eye said.

  “What?”

  Both officers and the Ghost frowned at Marcie.

  “Just tell them.”

  “Look at the screen.”

  A large monitor on the far wall, a screen used to display videos advertising just how wonderful Scala City’s police force were, flickered before recorded footage of Marcie’s X-Ray vision flashed up. “This is the entire crime and the chase. I’ve added footage from the drone to show them how she got here.”

  “That’s all the evidence you need,” Marcie said.

  The police kept Marcie in the station until the early hours of the morning, watching the footage with their superiors and checking with the owner of the apartment. They finally accepted the woman as the Ghost after jumping to their own conclusions as to how she violated her victims and why. They weaved a strong enough narrative to deliver a press release to the people of the city. Of course Marcie didn’t feature in the capture of the criminal. Not that she would have given them her details had they asked.

  The police loaded Marcie’s credit card with her sixty-five-thousand cut of the bounty and took sixty-nine hours from her visa, giving her just three to get back to the Black Hole.

  By the time Marcie left the police station, her head was cloudy with fatigue and her breaths were heavy. “There’s more to the Ghost than we’ve just seen.”

  “What did she give you?” the Eye said.

  Marcie put her hand in her pocket and felt the outline of the memory stick. Best not to pull it out too close to the police station. Or maybe not until she got back to the Black Hole. “Information of some sort.”

  “Bring it to me and I’ll find out what it is. For now, you need to come back and rest before your visa runs out. Then you need to get Sal’s lungs. Well done, Marcie Hugo, you’ve lived up to your promise. Your work here’s done.”

  Did she detect a warble in his voice? She shook her head. It had been a long few days. She’d probably just imagined it.