“I’m sorry for your loss, but I don’t see why I’m the person you need for this? Sounds like there's something big happening,” Julian said.
“Big is an understatement Julian, whatever this is, it's huge. I need someone I can trust, someone who understands the technology and what we can achieve from it. Someone who can ask the right questions to get to the bottom of this.”
“What makes you think you can trust me?” Julian realised it wasn’t really the best question to ask.
“I know you better than you think, your expose of the MPD corruption, the last big case you had. It makes me believe that you wouldn’t be one to fall for any decoys, and to dig further to find the truth. Also, to be honest, you’re expendable.”
Julian sat back in the chair and closed his eyes.
What.The.Hell.
“Let’s say I help, what is it you want me to do?” Julian asked.
“Simple really, we need someone to trace Owens' body down, if we can find that and get it back to our labs, we can run our own autopsy on it to find out who killed him. In return, we will reward you handsomely. Also, I’m sure it will go to some degree to helping you bring back some guilt you felt from what happened on the Henshaw case.”
The last statement took Julian by surprise, how did he know that it had that effect on him. He skirted the point for now.
“So I help you find Owen’s body and you can wipe out whoever did it?” Julian queried.
“It depends who it is, really. I have suspicions but I’d like them to be confirmed or denied.”
“OK, I’ll bite. Do you have anything for me to start with?” Julian decided it was intriguing enough to take on, but more so he wasn’t sure he’d be leaving the car alive if he declined.
“We have the transport code for the movement of the body last, when it departed from the MegaCity precinct. I never reached its destination however, I have sent you all the details to your PDA, once it reactivates it will all be ready and waiting for you.”
“OK, I’ll do what I can,” Julian replied.
Yuri tapped on the window behind him and the car slowed down.
“Oh, and here take this, it’s a prototype but you might find a use for it.”
Yuri handed Julian a small square block of black metal, it had no markings or anything on it and was as smooth as silver.
“What is it?”
“You’ll know when you need to use it,” Yuri replied, smiled and opened the door for Julian to get out. “Good luck!”
Julian stepped out of the car and onto the rain-soaked pavement.
“How do I contact you?” Julian shouted.
“You won’t have to, we’ll be watching,” Yuri shouted back as the door closed and the car pulled away.
Julian looked around, realising he had no idea where he was.
Suddenly his PDA lit up like a Christmas tree, as dozens of messages and alerts came through as it reconnected.
“JULIAN!” A voice screamed in his ear, causing him to put his hand over them, though it made no difference.
“Quartzig, don’t shout I can hear you!”
“Where have you been?” Quartzig demanded.
“You won’t believe me when I tell you.”
Julian tapped his PDA to bring up a map now it was reconnected.
“We’ve been recruited by CyBio to help solve the murder of founding member Maxwell Owens,” Julian explained.
“… ok I did not expect that,” Quartzig admitted. “So what do we need to do?”
“First, I need to figure out where the hell I am,” Julian tapped on the PDA a few times.
“It appears you are on the edge of GigaCity, but quite off the boulevard.”
“Yeah seems so, can you get a taxi to me Quartz, I need to look into this.”
“On it.”
Julian opened the attachments from Yuri and began to read through the reports on Owens' death.
CHAPTER 20
Xander
Xander had searched the cell completely. It comprised a single bed with tight bedsheets pulled across it military style, a toilet, a basin and a small desk with a chair. Other than those and the four lights on ceiling of each corner of the room, there was nothing else to see. The bars of the cell were painted black and ran top to bottom with no joints or door to open.
“I've checked everywhere, there’s nothing,” Xander called out to Donovan.
“There must be something, have you looked underneath the bed?”
Xander knew he was trying to help, but he had looked in every corner of the room and checked over, under and inside everything he could put his hands on in the room.
“I’ve checked everywhere. Is there anything in your room?” Xander called out.
“I’ve been through the room a million times already, there’s nothing here,” came the reply.
Xander paced around the room, Ava had said that he was to guide Donovan out, but how was he meant to do that when he was trapped himself.
He looked at the lights in the corners of the ceiling; they were the only thing he hadn’t been able to look at as they were so high up he couldn’t reach them. He dragged the chair across the floor and stood on it; they were still just out of reach.
“Hey Donovan, do you have four lights in there? Up in the corners?”
“Yeah, I’ve got four, all lit up. Do you?”
As he spoke, two of the lights in Xanders’ cell turned off, one near the bars and one diagonally opposite. Xander looked up, startled.
“Two just went off, can you reach yours?”
“Yeah, they aren’t too high,” Donovan replied.
‘I have to guide him’ Xander thought.
“Face the bars of the cell,” he told Donovan. “And take out the bulbs at one ‘o'clock and seven.”
“OK….”
Xander could hear the squeaking of the bulbs being removed, as the second one came out, a loud clang filled the cells.
“Something happening,” Donovan called out.
The metal bars at the front of the cell started to slide away, leaving an exit. Xander jumped out and looked round to Donovan’s cell, it was also open and Donovan walked out.
“Is that it? Are we free?” He asked.
“I have no idea,” Xander replied.
They looked round, at complete darkness as it had been before. The cells now looked like a movie set standing out in the dark. A second later, they faded from view. Then a new scene unfolded before them, a large open forest which surrounded them in all directions.
Xander had never seen a real forest, not that this was one either, but it felt real. The scene expanded, until the blackness was gone. The sound of birdsong filled the air around them.
A small worn path lead away in front of them, looking back, the path ended abruptly in large overgrown vegetation. So they began walking along the path, figuring there was nowhere else to go.
“This is not what I expected,” Xander said.
“Me neither, how did you find me, anyway?” Donovan asked.
“I was asked to look into the Owen’s case by Ava, his wife.”
Donovan looked shocked.
“Ava came to you? I couldn’t track her down when I was investigating.”
“I think she was scared of CyBio, they’re the ones that did this to you, this is their tech.”
“What? No, it wasn’t CyBio, it was Jacob.”
“Who?”
“Jacob Winters, one of the original founders of CyBio. He was fired when his research methods came into question,” Donovan explained. “I was looking into the last know places of Owen’s, seeing if anything looked suspicious, when I found he had been invited to visit a Church in BitVillage the day of his death. The Church of Damian is an anti-augment religion, they probably wanted to try to show him the error of his ways I thought, but Owens rejected the offer. I looked into the Church and found that it’s Father is Jacob Winters. When I had found that out, I requested a warrant to search the church, but when I was
leaving the apartment to track it down, Father Jacob visited me, before I could do anything, he injected me with something. Next thing I knew, I woke up in that cell.”
“When was this?” Xander asked.
“Tuesday, twelfth… November?”
Xander stopped in his tracks.
“It’s the tenth of February, Owen’s murder was reported only last week?” Xander replied, hesitating to tell Donovan he’d been in the cell for almost three months.
“That can’t be, it was definitely the twelfth of November, I wrote down the date on the damn warrant.”
Xander thought back to what he knew so far.
“Ava, she’s the one that told me the murder was last week!” Xander recalled. “Even at the station, they didn’t mention the date.”
“What does that mean?” Donovan asked.
“I don’t know, either Ava was wrong about the time, but I somehow doubt that, or she’s got more to do with this than I thought.”
The forest had opened to a clearing now, a large open expanse of grass with a bright summers sky above. Xander had to pause to appreciate it all, before looking around for what he expected would be the exit.
In the centre of the field was a large oak tree, carved around the lower half of the trunk was the shape of a door, with a knot of wood where the handle should be.
“I guess this is it?” Donovan said, as he reached for the knot.
“Go for it, let’s get out of here.”
Donovan twisted the knot, and the door shaped engraving opened as though it was always a door. Donovan stepped through into what looked like the apartment. In fact, Xander could see himself inside the room, with Ava and Donovan inside, all linked together.
Donovan stepped through and disappeared, as he did, the Donovan who was sitting in the chair jumped to his feet and looked directly at Xander through the door. Xander walked towards the door.
“I’m afraid I need you to stay there,” Donovan spoke, but his voice was different, “I can’t risk you and Ava getting away just yet.”
With that, Donovan turned to Ava and ripped the cable which connected her to Xander’s unconscious body.
“Donovan no!”
The door and tree fell away, into the distance, as did the fores,t and then the field from under him.
Within seconds, Xander was left standing, or at least he thought he was standing, in complete darkness once again. This time nothing appeared for several minutes.
Until he saw court steps appear in front of him, he recognized them as the ones from MPD. They were filled with people, journalists and activists alike. Suddenly, he recognized the event. He saw Peter Henshaw appear at the top of the steps, smiling that grin of his as he strode down the steps towards the camera.
“Today, Justice is done in the face of a corrupt and out dated police system,” he bragged about his release.
From behind Peter, Xander saw himself come out from the courthouse, making a direct beeline for Peter. Approaching, he spun Peter around and punched him full strength into the jaw, the blood and spit exploded in the air. Peter tumbled to the steps, his head bouncing on the edges. Xander then jumped on him and pummeled his fists into Peter’s face.
Xander watched all this with anger, shame and horror filling him up, he knew it was over, but as several officers dragged Xander away, the whole scene restarted. Xander was watching the situation reenact, the worst day of his life, where he let his emotions take the better of him.
Then he watched it again,
And again,
And again.
CHAPTER 21
Prime
Reilly woke, something felt wrong.
He was laying down, that much he could tell. The hard back of what felt like the metallic table he had seen in the moments before his black out was under him.
The feeling of prodding in his head, like worms squirming inside his brain, made him panic. He tried to move his hands to his scalp but found his arms were strapped down to the table. Likewise, his head also couldn’t move, a strap across his forehead preventing movement.
“Please don’t struggle, it makes this terribly more difficult,” Dr Koenig spoke from above him.
Reilly focused, his eyes upwards at the ceiling, on which a large mirror allowed him to see himself strapped to the table. He could see that Dr Koenig was sitting on a stool next to his head, and that half of his scalp was missing. Koenig was using a metallic device to prod directly onto his brain.
“What the hell are you doing?” Reilly shouted as he started to breathe heavily.
“Oh, don’t be such a fuss, I’m just having a look at what we have in here, it’s very fascinating,” Koenig spoke, half to himself.
The feeling in his head continued as Koenig prodded further.
“You appear to have some sort of receiver here, for radio signals maybe? Where did you come from? Quite the enigma yes?” Koenig continued to speak.
Reilly felt something enter his thoughts, not an idea ,but the suggestion of one. Like he had thought of something, but it hadn’t come from himself.
“Hmm what if I do this, I wonder?” Koenig sent a slight electric jolt into the receiver from his scalpel.
“… and now coming up on Hyperneonic Radio waves, a groovy number to really to get you in the mood. I know that times are hard here in the Nexus, but you gotta remember that no matter who you are and how hard it gets, you gotta be facing those things with a digital smile and a neon fuck you!” Reilly blurted out.
“Well, that is certainly interesting, yes?” Koenig laughed.
“So I’ve got an update from my informant honchos in the MPD, apparently the Grand Falls Hotel has sent some of their Hunters out into the Underpass in search of someone! You know those Hunters, they gun first and ask later, so make sure you stay away from those guys, you hear? And if you’re their target, and if you are hearing me, you better take cover or you are gonna be gunned!” Reilly watched his face moving and talking in the mirror in horror at both what was happening and also what he was saying.
“My my my my my, I do believe you are talking about you, no?” Koenig laughed again. “Perhaps I should change the channel?” Koenig hit another blast through the receiver.
Reilly felt a twinge in his head again, and then a relaxing of the muscles around his head.
“What are you going to do with me?” He asked.
“Do with you? I am doing it! I always need new specimens to examine and learn from, you see? Mollie is a doll and always brings me new things to play with,” Koenig had picked up a bowl from next to him, after a moment Reilly realised it was the top of his skull when he saw hair protruding from the bottom. He did everything he could to prevent himself from being sick.
“Now, I don’t know, you seem quite popular no? “Koenig replaced the skull and using, what looked like a blowtorch, sealed the scalp back in place. “Should I let them have you? Maybe? Or hide you and find out why you're so popular?”
Reilly was glad to have his head fully intact again, but he still wasn’t confident on his odds.
A moment later, Mollie burst through the front of the tent.
“Hey doc, I think you might wanna hustle Reilly out ta here. We’ve got Hunters checking all the tents coming up. They looking for him!” She shouted out as she came in, JJ in tow.
“They all ov’r the place Doc, you don’ wanna be the one they find wit’ the body!”
Koenig looked up and then back to Reilly, taking a moment to consider. Then, he grabbed a blade and cut the straps holding him down.
“Yes, better not to have him here, too much risk yes?” Koenig said, lifting Reilly up from the bed.
Reilly steadied himself and placed his feet on the ground, taking a moment to adjust.
“Go this way please,” Koenig held a curtain open and showed a route through the back of the tent away from the main path. Reilly didn’t take time to argue and ducked through the exit. Mollie and JJ followed him.
“We’ll make sure he goes f
ar from the tent doc.”
“Yes, a good idea,” Koenig replaced the cover of the exit after they had passed through and settled himself at the desk, ready for the Hunters to arrive.
The trio emerged into an area filled with bags of rubbish and other assortments of items scattered around. They were behind all the stalls and tents.
“Where are you taking me now? Selling me out again?” Reilly said to Mollie. She didn’t reply.
“Jus’ business, nothin’ personal.” JJ answered.
“It felt personal!” Reilly shouted back, as he did, they heard voices from behind them.
“Keep your voice down! You want those Hunters to find us!” Mollie hissed at him. Her fear of the Hunters was far greater than anything else. They were hired agents who had killed people just for looking at them wrong. The MPD always turned a blind eye, as ninety percent of the time they were hired through the massive corps which ruled the Boulevard.
“Ok ok,” Reilly quietened his voice. “But where are we going?”
“We’re taking you to the edge of the Nexus, then you’re on your own.” Mollie replied. “We don’t wanna be seen with you, would make us as much a target as you!”
They weaved through the maze of tents, avoiding the main routes where the Hunters could be watching. The claustrophobic spaces began to spread out as they reached the outskirts.
“This is as far as we take you, good luck,” Mollie gave a quick smile before turning away. As she did, a shot rang out and went straight through her side. She fell to the floor, clutching at the wound.
“Shit!” JJ yelled as they saw a group of Hunters walking towards them. Reilly, torn between running and stopping to help Mollie, froze on the spot.
JJ stared them down.
“C’mon you freaks! Shootin’ an innocent what’s wron’ wit you!?” He turned to Reilly, “Put this on and get ‘er out of ‘ere!” He threw his trench coat to Reilly. “It’ll hide those chef clothes of yours. I’ll hol’ them off.”
Reilly paused, then leaned down to pull Mollie up. He owed her nothing, but the Hunters were after him and it was his fault they had shot her. He threw JJ’s jacket on; it was long and the hood helped cover his face. Mollie screamed in pain as he put her arm over his shoulders to support her weight.
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