“I swear I don’t know his name. I only spoke to him through private messages. He called himself Hoodlum or Hood, something like that!”
“Hood?” Lindsey asked.
“That’s what he said. I’ve never heard of him myself, but he was paying good credits to see this McKenna dead, or any info as to his whereabouts.”
***
Hood had followed the pack of gang members closely, but kept himself on the rooftops and out of sight. While skyscrapers towered over the undercity, slums often had smaller buildings crudely stacked on top of each other with their own rooftops. They were perfect for secret meetings, watching police patrols, or, in this case, watching a game of cat and mouse.
Hood had to start using his acrobatic prowess when the emissary started running, causing the gang to make haste. He jumped from rooftop to rooftop, so keeping up with the ground runners wasn’t hard for him. He saw Brooks run into an alley down below. The street in between was already narrow and away from where the police patrolled the main street. Why the emissary would make such a foolish decision was beyond him.
Hood sprinted toward the edge of the building and used the entirety of his leg muscles to launch himself to an adjacent building on the other side. He grabbed the ledge and swiftly pulled himself up to continue the chase before perching himself on a ledge to observe the emissary.
The assassins had caught up to Brooks before he did. Hood scolded himself for being too late. Now, he could only watch. They questioned Brooks for information on the new arrival from the docks, the same bounty he’d given Bucard – McKenna.
The gang looked to belong to Hasker, an ex-officer from Pluto’s Correctional Facility, as the adaptive camouflage used by the gang couldn’t be obtained by many who weren’t Hood’s commander. Hasker was one of the few who could move high-tech gear throughout the System illegally. The men chasing Brooks were Word Hunters, violent phishers of high value information, but Brooks hadn’t quite caught on to that yet. Otherwise, he wouldn’t even be trying to plead.
Hood thought strongly about intervening to prevent Brooks from revealing anything else, but the conversation was more than likely already being recorded and sent to Hasker. Brooks getting spooked and breaking his communication with Hood meant a loose end now, but Hood would be outnumbered if he stepped into combat. He stood a strong chance of dispatching them alone, but he wasn’t a fool. The Word Hunters had some of the best combat specialists within their ranks. Hood was simply here as an observer now, or in his own eyes, not there at all. He was just a ghost listening in and couldn’t make his presence known.
“Well, since you’ve already told us so much, maybe you can tell me why the Council wants this McKenna specifically?” Lindsey asked.
“They screened a bunch of people,” Brooks said. “Cops, soldiers, war heroes. But they wanted someone good. Really good. That’s all I know, I swear, I just arranged his arrival.” Brooks was sweating uncontrollably. The pistol Lindsey was waiving around his head didn’t help his composure either.
“Sounds like a strange story to say the least. But it’s quite apparent you don’t have anything else useful to offer, so I bid you farewell.” Lindsey pulled the hammer back on the pistol, which gave an audible click.
“No please!” Brooks shouted as he closed his eyes and pleaded. The henchman pulled the trigger, but all that he heard was an empty click. Brooks opened his eyes and saw Lindsey laughing. Then he turned and looked to his men as they started to chuckle as well.
“That look on their faces, boys! Gets to me every time!” Lindsey laughed. Brooks began breathing again, feeling a wave of relief now that his life was spared. “But that wave of relief on their faces is even more priceless!” Brooks smiled slightly as he saw Lindsey re-holster his pistol. “But you know what, Emissary? Being a Word Hunter is dirty business. Once the word is received, we must leave no trace of where it came.”
Brooks had figured the group was from Hasker but didn’t suspect them to be Word Hunters until now. His heart nearly stopped.
“That’s a nice Aether implant. If you’re not careful down here, someone is liable to take it!” Lindsey unsheathed a knife from his belt and made a quick thrust into Brooks’ throat, making a clean cut into his artery. He wiped the blood from the blade on Brooks’ coat before sheathing it and turning away as Brooks fell to the asphalt. Lindsey looked to his subordinates. “Rip out his bio-lung. This was a mugging. Hurry it up.”
Brooks clutched his throat, feeling his own blood seep through his hands. Every breath he tried to take was blocked by liquid pulsing from his artery. He looked up at the sky, trying to grab a peaceful thought, but found none as he slipped into the black.
One of the henchmen began to slice open Brooks’ throat and cut out the implants. Before he could make his way to the bio-lung, they all heard a loud screech past the wall in the alley. All three paused out of fear, looking at the wall. Lindsey thought it could have been far off, but the echo made it hard to tell. “Ghouls…” he said.
“What about this, then?” one of the others said, the implant in his hand.
“Get rid of it. Over the wall, no one’s going through there. Maybe this was a ghoul attack instead. Don’t forget his OPIaA.”
The hunter threw the implants over the wall as another hunter began wiping the emissary’s OPIaA. Data deletion of personal devices didn’t take long, but after hearing another shriek, followed by multiple closer ones, the hunters were all spooked.
“Forget it, let’s go!”
They were glad to hear it. The group’s camouflage activated as they exited the alley and disappeared into the crowded street.
Hood observed the body below for several more minutes, but he didn’t heard another shriek. He didn’t suspect any would come, but in case he was wrong he acted quickly. Hood jumped down from the roof, grabbing various beams and ledges on the way to soften his fall and activating the ALD devices, or Assisted Landing Devices, around his ankles to further soften the landing until he practically hit the ground like a feather.
He walked to Brooks’ body, the eyes still open but devoid of life. Hood didn’t care at all for the gangs. He thought them void of all honor and refused to give them an ounce of respect, often speaking to them as they were lesser than he. Sadly, something like this happened hundreds if not thousands of times every day. And with some, loyalty held a much higher regard than morals.
Hood knelt and scanned the emissary’s OPIaA for useful information or any info linking Brooks to him. Eliminating the source of info was critical for the Hunters, but the ghouls had everyone spooked and taking the tool would’ve been too risky as almost all registered OPIaAs could be geo-located by Interpol. Besides, even if Hasker had been implicated, there wasn’t much Interpol could do about a deeply imbedded Red Sector gang.
But Hood’s organization was different. He couldn’t let anyone else know what Brooks knew or what he was involved in, especially any information on Hood’s commander. Most of the data was gone, but he was able pull a few files on the new ISTF unit. He took a few more scraps of files pertaining to the police and McKenna himself. Then he performed a proper data wipe on the tool, erasing any secrets it once held. He quickly activated his earpiece.
“Kommandir, Brooks knew more than just the Martian’s arrival. I’m transmitting data now.”
“Is that all?” a calm voice said from the other end.
“Yes, there is one thing. Hasker’s people have my name. I wasn’t fast enough.”
“There is no electronic trace between you and me. This won’t be a problem. Should one arise, I trust you to stamp it out. Carry on.”
Hood stood up and ran towards the alley walls, then scaled them to make his exit.
9
SEED
The long, circular halls of the High Science facility had been cycled clean of any trace of the Black Cell, but crews still wore breathers for maximum precautions. Several Interpol Enforcers were present, either documenting, surveying or just standing gua
rd. The holographic police tape and body outlines on the floor, mixed with the several bullet holes dug into the walls, were the only remnants of the fast attack.
McKenna had only just arrived at the facility, but it was easy to conclude that the incident was nothing short of a massacre. He crouched to inspect a holographic version of an empty weapon magazine by a body outline, manipulating it with his OPIaA.
“Marshal!” He turned to see a High Science Security Officer briskly walking to him. “I was told to expect you, sir,” the officer said as he extended his hand. “I just didn’t think it’d be so soon. George Casey, I’m HS Security Overseer here.”
“Alan McKenna,” he said as he shook Casey’s hand.
“I trust you had no trouble getting in?”
“Two Interpol enforcers and two HS Officers had to check me out.”
“I hope you can excuse that, Marshal. We have to have utmost redundancy now; it’s how all of this happened, after all.”
“My condolences to your staff. I know you lost good people that night.”
“I’m only pissed now. Unfortunately, there isn’t much to go on from here.”
They both walked further down the hall, seeing even more holographic bodies. “Small team breached the compound guised as Interpol. Black Cell was pumped through the filtration system undetected, which took most of the staff. A few short firefights took the ones that managed to survive.”
McKenna held up the magazine still projected by his OPIaA. “Tarvin TC-40 magazine, thirty-five rounds, 7.5mm caseless cartridges,” Casey said. “Great for not leaving a trace.”
“Not cheap, that’s for certain,” McKenna said.
“I doubt even Earth Spec Ops run that kind of weaponry. I’ve suspected new players for several days now. Someone not on Interpol’s watch lists.”
McKenna discarded the hologram as he noticed a consistent theme with the bodies. “Not a single enemy body,” he said.
“It’s true, they didn’t take many casualties. We got a few of them, but they hauled their dead off pretty painstakingly so no trace would lead to them. So, this wasn’t any sort of message.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s no secret, Marshal. Black Cell research is only one of many projects here. Animal testing, post-mortem experimentation, bio-mechanical research, human-SI integration studies. Any religion or moral code is absent here. You can imagine the backlash we have in that social light. The only supporters we seem to have are the psychos of Sanctum Deus Mechanicus.”
“And Greenpeace doesn’t protest with assault rifles. The Machine God cult. Should I be worried?”
“Bah, I wouldn’t think so. They’re not fighters.”
“Right. This was someone with an agenda. Have you found out anything else recently? This is all in the case files already.”
“They did a good job deleting our surveillance records,” Casey said, typing in his OPIaA to bring up a screen in front of them. “It’s taken us a while to recover even a fraction, but luckily we just finished unscrambling some of our footage. Most of it is still washed out but we can make some stuff out.”
The screen hovered in front of them as they walked, showing garbled footage of firefights in the halls. Constant cuts were shown, not revealing the full incident, but commandos were systematically killing any scientist present as well as the security staff.
“I don’t get it. Why kill the staff? All for some mutant body?” McKenna asked. The two stopped in front of a door leading to the operating theater.
“Questions I just don’t have the answers to,” Casey said as he opened the door. The two entered the large room with the body outline of a security member in front of the door. McKenna looked at the body, which had dozens of bullet holes.
“Fortune…” McKenna said under his breath.
“Officer Caleb Cordt. It was his birthday that night,” Casey said as he looked at the body. “I had him on graveyard shift on his birthday…”
“You couldn’t have known.”
“He was executed like a goddamn dog, Marshal. Just a kid. Just to show him he didn’t stand a chance.”
McKenna viewed the footage of the room, seeing the security guard breach the door only to be gunned down by several commandoes even after surrendering. He freeze-framed the man dressed in an Interpol uniform and recognized him from several other recordings already. He must have led the attack.
McKenna looked past the execution to see the Auroran doctor, Veena U’ldanta, on her knees beside the lead commando. Although her violet eyes were vibrant and almost mesmerizing, her expression was lifeless and defeated. The image of several dead bodies around her, the helpless look upon her face, the look of defeat and sorrow. Hinsin was lying in her arms.
McKenna viewed the image longer than he thought, burning it into his mind. The video continued as the Interpol enforcer struck his rifle butt into the Auroran, sending her to the floor. He followed by firing three rounds into her chest. The commandos were ruthless. Body or not, she’d been executed just like the rest.
“This was Doctor Hinsin, one of the lead scientists researching the body,” Casey said, standing over another body in the room. McKenna broke his gaze from his OPIaA’s screen to see Doctor Hinsin’s hologram on the floor. He walked over to it and noticed the body contorted. While the holograms often left out subtle details regarding the actual bodies, McKenna could still see the blood coming from several orifices. “Black Cell got him before he had a chance to get his breather on.”
“Any ideas as to what they’d want the Auroran’s body for?”
“I haven’t got a clue. Experimentation, maybe.”
“You think the commandos were after the mutant body?”
“Why wouldn’t they be? It was stolen not even an hour after they brought it in. That mutant could breathe outside. It must have been worth something to someone, maybe that someone wanted exclusive rights to it.”
“Maybe. Or they didn’t want a cure to be made at all.”
“What?” Casey scoffed. “Why would someone prevent us from making a cure? And if that was true in the slightest, why take U’ldanta’s body? Why do any of this?”
“I don’t know. I think those are questions for this man here,” McKenna said as he showed Casey the freeze frame of the Trojan Enforcer. “I think U’ldanta was the goal here, not the mutant. Plenty of bodies to choose from. Mutants are rampant in the dark corners of the streets, but they take an alien.”
“There are Aurorans all over the city. Why U’ldanta?”
McKenna smirked. “That’s more like it, Casey.”
Casey stared at McKenna, worried by his abstract approach, but McKenna simply had to assume what no one else would, no matter how unsupported. The quicker he did that, the faster he could ultimately rule it out if need be.
“You know, you’re a bit different than the other guy,” Casey said. “You’re the second Marshal I’ve had to explain this all to, but he simply went through a checklist and left. Kind of like the rest of you Marshals. Always a bigger case, right?”
McKenna’s curiosity began to manifest. Another Marshal? The Council had failed to mention anything about it. He figured it must be a need to know situation, but the circumstance was still strange.
“Didn’t even stick around long enough to give you his name, huh?” McKenna jested.
“Kazan. I’ve seen him before, too, when I used to be with Interpol. Back then he was chasing down a murderous robot. He seemed like a no-nonsense kind of guy. You know him?”
“No, can’t say I do. Then again I’m not really from around here.”
“Lone Rangers, the Marshals, I forgot. I was born in the Pale City myself. Before it turned to a ghost town. Goddamn neighbors wouldn’t even speak.”
McKenna stood up, seeing nothing left to look at. The security footage would have to be enough for now, as it at least provided insight on the commandos in question, including their leader.
“What will you do now, Casey?”
/> “It’ll still be some time before we can continue here. The WHO has pledged support of the facility, but until they do, every research project we had has been put on hold with exception of the Black Cell.”
“The Black Cell? Its two lead researchers are dead and this facility is kaput. How can Black Cell research continue?”
“You didn’t hear?” Casey said. “The Council was prepared to pour billions into research once U’ldanta and Hinsin claimed they could develop a cure from the mutant body. Anything they needed, from what I understand. Although now those credits are for cleanup and reconstruction.”
“Who had the money to pick up that check?”
“Valiant Corporation stepped in and offered its own researchers. Though I can’t imagine they have much of a business plan now that the doctors are out of the picture.”
“Valiant?”
“Orson Valiant. You should know that name well: the designer of that breather on your face. His headquarters is right here in Freedom.”
McKenna nodded his head. “‘Largest medicinal industry steps in to fund cure research.’ Helluva tag-line. I didn’t think they did biomedicine, only equipment.”
“Paragon News claims he’s quite the philanthropist. He’s been a major contributor to FEMA, WHO, and High Science for years.” McKenna nodded, walking to the door. “So that’s it then?”
“This is the biggest case of the decade, Casey, not much is going to happen in this room!” McKenna made his exit and embarked on his investigation.
Casey shook his head as he watched him exit. “Marshals…” he grumbled.
***
Back in the Council Chambers, another meeting had just concluded.
“That will be all, Detective,” Windsor said. He watched the detective leave the chambers, no doubt with confusion. Partnering with a Marshal was a strange assignment.
Windsor and the other Councilors stood up and walked down from their desks. Several screens still hovered, displaying several activities and developing reports from across the system. Windsor let out a big breath as the final meeting of the day concluded. Just then the Council chamber doors opened and the Auroran Ambassador, Markal Ln’Tara, walked in with two Auroran guardsmen escorting him. The guardsmen stayed at the doors next to the Council guard as Markal approached.
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