Randomers

by Alexis Dogman

The elevator's doors slide open and from her angle she can see that there is only a Caucasian man in the elevator. It is Zach and he hurriedly presses for the elevator to close.

  "Wait up" Yuna cries and he holds the elevator for her before retreating to the corner of the elevator. The man looks exhausted, with black eye rings circling his eye and beard stubs all over his chin. He looks like a drug addict - all messed up. He gazes at the floor indicator and his stare is almost blank, like a man who has lost everything at a gambling table. Yuna takes the other corner and in her awkward dress of a bathrobe with stilettos; the man turns to give her a glance. Yuna does not dare return the glance and will only stare down at her feet.

  Chapter 31

  Malaysia: Tuesday, 18th November 8:46 a.m.

  Zach is early. The street is not busy in the day as it is busy at night. He walks down Jalan Alor, a red light district turned street food haven with the whole street selling nothing but local delicacies. He cautiously strolls down the street, carefully scrutinizing the five stories high shops to find the place called Dragon Tattoo and he is almost halfway down the street when he sees a tiny signboard on the second floor window of a barbecue seafood restaurant. The red signboard with the name Dragon Tattoo in quick, black, strokes hangs just beside a large green signboard that reads Carol's Budget Hostel.

  Zach instantly darts for the cement staircase of the old, stained, yellow building. Zach hurries up the stairs, pass the first floor and straight towards the second floor. Reaching the second floor, he sees two doors. The one on the right belongs to Carol's Budget Hostel. Zach looks through the stained glass door and the first impression is, it is not budget but cheap as the interior looks old and dirty. The glass door on his left is barred behind a black set of metal grills. Above the grill is the same red signboard.

  Zach steps onto the almost torn red welcome carpet and pulls against the grill. It is locked but someone is seated behind the desk facing the door, only that his head is hanging low, obviously staring into his phone. Zach presses at the buzzer and the head lifts up. Despite the punk hairstyle, it is a Chinese woman in her late thirties. She looks up at the door and reaches for the button by her table. The magnetic lock at the top of the grill releases and Zach enters through the opened grill and glass door. The woman looks up at him indifferently. The right side of her head is shaved clean, with the rest of her long hair blown over onto the left side like a half Mohawk. On her ears are large silver loop earrings. Her makeup is dark and slightly Gothic, with almost dark purple lipstick and black, smokey eye shadow over a very pale skin complexion. The woman has a silver spike pierced through the right side of her nose which compliments her punk look all the more.

  Zach analyzes his surrounding cautiously as he enters through the glass door. It is a typical tattoo parlor with tattoo and body piercing posters pasted all over the walls. There are two tattoo stations and nothing more.

  "What can I do for you tourist?" the woman asks, her voice flat and emotionless. Her English is particularly good.

  Zach removes the yellow note from his jeans pocket and passes it to the woman without uttering a word. The woman raises her hand to collect the note from Zach and it is only then that he realizes that what he thought were colorful sleeves to her black top are actually tattoos. She is wearing only a black spaghetti top and both her hands are bathed in tattoos, covered from the top of her fingers crawling up her shoulders right to her collar bones.

  Her right arm, covered in an ocean of white and blue waves, has a three-eyed Samurai holding a sword with a fearsome tiger crouching behind him. On her left arm, covered in a sea of orange and red fire, is a ferocious Samurai with jagged teeth and a sword. A green dragon swirls up her left arm, behind the samurai.

  "Very on time -," the woman comments, getting up from her chair, "- take a seat over there." The woman motions at one of the tattoo stations as she walks off. She has an athletic body, like a runner almost and she strides past him in her baggy hipster cargo pants through a yellow Japanese door curtain into the back of the shop while Zach stands there unfazed, as though dreaming.

  The woman comes back out through the door curtains with a small brown envelope and a shoe box sized aluminum hard shell case in her hands. Seeing Zach still in his trance, she calls out at him again pointing at one of the tattoo stations, "Come over here tourist."

  Zach rigidly walks over to the tattoo station and sits himself down onto the black leather chair with stainless a steel frame. He stares at the woman like a frightened animal, waiting for her to do just anything to him. She places the aluminum case on the table beside him and snaps the two locks open. Flipping the case open, Zach can see a type of stainless steel injection gun fitted in the gray sponge housing. The woman then tears the envelope open and removes a tiny transparent plastic container like that of an SD card casing.

  The woman continues to put on a pair of white disposable rubber gloves and proceeds to swab the right side of Zach's neck and the back of his right ear with an alcohol swab. Zach starts to feel the nervous bug gnawing at his nerves. Why is she swabbing his neck? He is sure she is going to inject something into his neck using that weird looking gun, but what? Is it a poison that will make him loose his mind, like Nikki or worse still, something that will turn him into a mindless minion? Zach watches, breathing heavily as the woman breaks the safety seal of the plastic case and removes a small golden chip, shaped like a grain of rice, but even smaller. The woman removes the gun from its casing and inserts the tiny chip into the tip of the gun, without hardly any emotion on her face, like she has done this over a thousand times.

  "What... are you going to do to me?" Zach finally musters the courage to stutter out his question.

  "Relax," the woman answers as she bends down to examine his neck. She uses her forefinger and middle finger to press onto the site that she has cleaned and pouts her lips in dissatisfaction, "If you are going be this tensed, it's gonna hurt."

  "What are you going to inject me with?" Zach blurts out another question.

  The woman stares at him like a broken piece of art and places the gun down.

  She takes a seat down at the chair next to him and finally starts to answer him, "This little baby inside the front of this gun won't kill you."

  "What does it do? They took my wife. How is this going to help?" Zach fires the next question.

  "This is the most advanced RFID chip in the world. I will put this into the skin here," the woman answers in a less emotionless voice as she pokes at her neck, "and it will transmit your location and other vital information to them."

  "It's a tracking device," Zach utters, feeling a slight relief that it won't kill him.

  "No, it's hell. This thing will read your thoughts and transfer all the data to them. You can't run, you can't hide and you can't lie. They will know if you are alive and breathing or dead. Once this goes in, you become a prisoner," she explains to Zach's horror. Staring into her eyes, Zach knows she is telling the truth.

  "Why are you helping them?" Zach asks, almost shivering with fear.

  "The money's good," she replies flatly.

  "Aren't you afraid they'll kill you if they knew you told me?" Zach asks.

  "Its part of my job you know what it does so that you become obedient without having them train you to," she answers, taking the gun and looking at the chip, "You can still walk out of here. They won't force this thing on you. I don't care shit. I still get paid. Only you won't see her again."

  The weight of the world crushes onto him, weighing him down. He can't leave Nikki to die. But this is beyond acceptable.

  "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Zach curses, bent and crying with his forehead on the ball of his right palm.

  "So do we go ahead?" the woman pushes for his decision.

  "Fuck it," Zach sniffs, raising himself to sit upright in his chair again, "Go ahead."

  Zach takes a deep breath and laces his fingers together nervously waiting to get tagged. The woman puts the gun against his neck and pulls the trigg
er. With a sharp pierce, the chip is lodge into the side of his neck, under his skin.

  "Voila," the woman says as she slaps on a waterproof plaster onto the point of insertion on Zach's neck, "don't move yet. It's not over."

  "What?" Zach exclaims, wondering what else she is going to do to him.

  "You have the chip alright, but you still need the receiver to receive instructions right?" the woman says and takes another plastic container from the envelope. She pulls the safety seal off and places another chip into the gun.

  "It'll just be a pinch," she mutters and aims the gun against the back of his right ear at the crease between his ear and his head. The moment she pulls the trigger, Zach can feel the probe being inserted. She's right. It isn't as painful as the neck one.

  "What next?" Zach asks, recovering from his burst of emotion.

  "Go back and wait for instructions. Just never try to remove the one in your neck. It's so close to your carotid artery you can kill yourself trying to remove it," the woman warns after pulling her gloves off and putting the gun back into it's holder before shutting the case.

  Zach touches his neck, in which the pain has started to subside and gets up from the chair. He makes his way to the glass door as the woman tidies up the area, throwing her used gloves and the envelope and the chip container into a gray ziplock bag before sealing it tight. After making sure that Zach has left, the woman puts on another rubber glove onto her right hand, grabs some cash from the cashier before leaving the shop herself.

  Back in the store room of the tattoo shop is the rightful owner to the tattoo parlor, a chubby woman lying unconscious on the cold cement floor. By the time she wakes up, it will be two hours later and the woman who drugged her by spraying a mist at her face before robbing her would have been long gone.

  Forlorn and restless, Zach has no choice but to go back to The Axis to wait for further instructions. While he walks off, deep under his skin, the temperature sensitive chips have been activated by his body heat, automatically uploading data to the Hive.

  Meanwhile, back in the Hive, Ada is sleeping when her leech lets out a gentle buzz as the matte surface emits a soft, blue light, informing her that the chips have been successfully engaged with its owner. Ada now has access to everything - his vital signs, knowledge of the things he sees, smells or even feels as the chip can read the unsaid thoughts vibrating through his vocal chords. She can pinpoint his exact location and worst of all, it allows her to torture him by executing a small electrical charge that will cause excruciating pain to the neighboring nerves in his neck. And if one day he dies, the chips will die with him as once his pulse stops for more than one minute; the chips will self destruct by burning up.

  Back in Canada, computer generated photographs of Nikki and Zach happily holidaying in Malaysia are uploaded onto their social accounts for their family and friends to view. Not a soul will suspect that things have gone wrong.

  Chapter 32

  India: Tuesday, 18th November 9:30 a.m.

  After three hours of desperately needed sleep time, Ada's brain finally seems less deprived and more alert. However, three hours is all she can afford. Although still feeling physically exhausted and mentally drained, she forces herself out of bed and directly into the cold shower.

  While she let herself shiver under the cold, running water, she realized that her leech has two unchecked updates for her. It is Zach and Mohamed Yusof. The first message informs her that Zach and his chips are engaged. A hundred percent success. The next message informs her that the extermination of Lee Yu Na is not yet successful but framing her for Mohamed Yusof's murder is completed. She pulls her fists against her chest in victory, exclaiming a 'yes'. Now the local police will hunt her down. This will make her job so much easier.

  Since one thing is settled, she can now fully dedicate her attention to the most important task on hand - extermination off Kaew Saowaluk and Lee Yu Na.

  After an ice cold shower, she is nothing less than alert. She pulls out her drawer revealing a chest full of plain white undergarments. There is no love life in the Hive and that reflects onto her choices of undergarments. Without anyone to parade them to, white is the simplest choice. Not even caring to look, Ada grabs a pair of panty and bra from the drawer and slips them on. She then hastily slips into her uniform and styles her blown-dry hair into a neat bun before running some wax onto her hair to prevent stray strands from falling out of place. There is no more mood or time for her usual make up routine and Ada simply slaps on a thin layer of liquid foundation before gliding the lipstick onto her pale lips. Ada steps into her boots and she is ready to go.

  Back up at her workstation, the first thing she does is to go to the pantry and brew herself a cup of coffee. Regardless of the time of the day, there will be a rotation of hot or cold snacks prepared for them on the far end of the pantry like a mini buffet spread. And this morning it is bite size smoked salmon panini, cheese plate, scones with jam and cream and macaroons in the color of pink, blue and yellow.

  Ada has never liked anything sweet. She takes a designer glass plate from the stack of plates beside the food spread and reaches her fingers for the paninis. Beautifully twirled into a rose, the orange brown smoked salmon slice sits on a small piece of lettuce leaf above a tiny square of cheddar over the bite size panini bread, all completed with a sprinkle of caviar over the top and a tiny drizzle of vinaigrette sauce. She picks five of them onto her lotus leaf shaped plate and together with her cup of coffee, marches back towards her workstation.

  Ada sits before her workstation and starts watching the video recording from the lurker's extermination of Mohamed Yusof recorded using the lurker's digital contact lenses. She carefully lifts one of the paninis to her mouth and is about to pop the whole little designer sandwich in when she sees how he slaughtered the randomer. Her first reaction is utter shock and instead of biting down the panini, she chokes at it, coughing it back out in disgust.

  Ada feels nauseated and sick to the gut. She immediately pauses the video as she lowers her head to try and swallow the guilt down. She is the one who orchestrated his murder. The lurker executed it but she is the one who is really responsible for his death. For the six years in the Hive she has never once felt sorry for what she has done. But the moment she gets to witness the result of her execution, she starts to get shaken up for the first time. Guilt starts to drown her soul and she feels so evil and tainted. No wonder during her early days training they have been advised over and over against the use of a lurker unless you are sure you are mentally strong enough for it. The results are devastating to a person's faith on his occupational integrity. The detachment wall she has worked so hard to build around herself from the randomers has just started to crack. Ada takes several deep breaths and tries to coax herself into believing that it isn't her fault Mohamad Yusof is slaughtered.

  "It is all their fault. I wouldn't have sacrificed him if it isn't because of them. They're gonna pay for this. I'm going to make sure that his sacrifice is more than worth it," Ada promises to herself raising her head up from the table as she inhales a deep breath calming her crumbling emotions.

  She plays the video again and forces herself to watch on. Ada watches as the lurker enters the bathroom and sees the opened air vent and stiletto seemingly showing that Yuna has escaped from the air vent.

  "Wait... What is that?" Ada whispers to herself as she notices a speck of red in the reflection of the mirror. She pauses the video and enlarges the frame. Through the unclear pixels, she sees what looks like a heap of towels in the whirlpool bathtub. The image is out of focus but she is sure there is something hidden underneath the towel. Ada has a hunch that it is not that simple and somehow it is related to Lee Yu Na. Ada decides to download the security camera videos and as she starts watching the woman in red following Mohamed Yusof into the elevator, she is sure it is Yuna who was hiding in the whirlpool bathtub. Ada then forwards the video and watches until she sees Yuna exiting the hotel room in the bathrobe.

&n
bsp; "You cunning bitch," Ada quietly curses to herself, "Glad I have plan B in hand. Let's see how you escape us and the police."

  Ada then pushes her food aside and starts pulling all security videos available from the hotel and starts to trace Yuna's every move after exiting the elevator. Ada watches as she boards a budget taxi with the number plate BHP 1657. Typing another string of command into her super computer, all the related videos that had captured the taxi after picking up Yuna is downloaded. By piecing together the different videos, from cameras, phones and security footage, Ada manages to trace Yuna to a little coffee shop called 'Little Mermaid' and watching the video footage from inside the coffee shop, Ada can see Yuna rapidly approaching a small and skinny man seated just by the door with his back to the camera. Wearing a checkered red and blue long sleeves shirt, he has a baseball cap over short curly hair. Beside him is a large black nylon duffel bag. Yuna enters the coffee shop with the bathrobe in her hands and immediately drops it onto the chair. Without slowing her footsteps she takes the bag from beside the man and walks into the bathroom. The man turns around to signal for the bill and Ada is sure that he is Kaew Saowaluk. Wearing a pair of square framed nerdy glasses and with mustache and a fake beard covering most of her face, she is almost beyond recognition. However, who else would be waiting for her if not her comrade?