“It’s definitely been tampered with.” Caiden spun around and saw the silhouette of a person running away.
He ran after the silhouette, gun loaded and ready. By the time he reached the corner, the person had already escaped. He heard the squeal of tires as a car drove off into the distance. Looking around the alleyway, he checked to see if anyone else was tailing him.
Caiden stopped what he was doing. He began to feel an intense migraine coming on, and he experienced painful high-pitched ringing in his ears. He dropped to his knees and gripped his head in response to the sudden burst of pain. After a few more seconds, the pain stopped completely. All that remained was a thought. More than that, it was a memory. A sequence of events were playing out in his mind as clear as day. He saw a woman with bluish-violet hair and entrancing golden eyes.
“Rez! Rez! Rez!” the voice from the woman kept calling to him.
Caiden snapped back to reality. He found himself on his knees mouthing the name ‘Rez’. He stood back up once he regained his bearings.
“I dunno what that was, but I’ve no time to find out right now. It’s too dangerous here. I gotta find Vantz before it’s too late!” He headed back to the garage to get his hypercycle and made his way toward West Andromeda District in a hurry.
CHAPTER 17
---usr/systems/server-x/SECRETS AND ALLIES---
“Destination; seven-four-six President’s Avenue, is one hundred feet ahead. Estimated arrival; one thirty a.m. Navigation will now cease,” the navigation unit inside his motorcycle helmet stated.
He came to a stop with the engine still running, getting a good look at the area. It was vast, with dozens of warehouses. It all looked rotted and abandoned. Not even squatters from Darkside would think of living here. This wasteland has to be where these damn androids are, Caiden thought to himself.
He drove his hypercycle behind a rundown building. Once he deemed the coast to be clear, he threw the chameleo-ware cloak over the bike, took his gun out his holster, checked the ammo, and unlocked the safety. Pierce better not be wrong about this shit, he thought to himself.
With his gun locked and loaded, he cautiously proceeded forward, staying close to the wall. He searched around, looking for any clues that could possibly lead him to his best friend. Nearly one hundred meters ahead, he saw a sliver of light coming from a manhole off in the distance. The cover was tilted, possibly indicating that it had been forcibly opened. It’s definitely sketchy for that manhole cover to be dislodged. That might be worth checking out, he thought to himself while checking his surroundings. He made his way toward the manhole. Being careful to not make a sound, he listened closely for any sign of activity. There was complete silence.
This could be a trap. Anything could happen, he thought. Regardless of this truth, he gathered his resolve and descended the sewer opening. He was light on his feet, ready to spring into action on a moment’s notice if he needed to. At the bottom, he came across a narrow corridor that was dimly lit with rusted flood lights. He followed the corridor to the end where he made a sharp left turn.
The air was thick and oppressing. The passageway smelled of malodorous mildew. There was an excess of moisture buildup, particularly running off the pipes. The walkway was narrow and held together by makeshift metal fencing and railings. Caiden made his way through the passage, gun held forward, aimed, loaded, and ready to shoot.
At the end of the corridor came a series of confusing twists and turns; it was an underground labyrinth. Whoever constructed this piece of shit did it on purpose, he thought. Whoever made it did so with the sole purpose of discouraging any intruders from advancing further. Caiden pressed on, eventually coming to a small metal door with a keycard access panel and a fingerprint scanner. Shit, this is just great, he thought.
He inspected the surrounding area, hoping to find some hidden latch, lever, key, or keycard for the door; there was nothing. He then checked the hardware of the keycard access panel for a port of any kind. He was in luck. There was a fiber optic port; the same kind as the port as the one in the android’s skull. It looked to be manufactured from Quantum Corporation technology. He plugged his fiber optic cable into the port on the access panel and into his holo-watch. He opened a new terminal window.
Upon connection, a cryptographic sequence window surfaced. First, Caiden had to override the cryptographic sequence that required the password. To do so, he used his terminal to diagnose the base software used for the security protocol. It worked.
“Unilox Security software coding huh?” he said. “This should be simple then.”
In a matter of minutes, Caiden turned the security coding on its head and completely overrode its cryptographic sequencer prompt. And the password is Nephele4@3, huh? Easy work! he triumphantly thought to himself. Befitting of his prudent nature, he thought it best to do a little more research on what was beyond the door before barging in. Burrowing deeper into the security software, he branched off to see how many PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) were active.
The readings came back, reporting that there were over a thousand different types of PLCs running, including lights, electromechanical arms, cooling chambers, multiple computers, process controllers, sequential, relay, closed circuit security readings, and motion detectors. They all read as green and currently active. All green? Whatever’s beyond this door is supposed to be abandoned! None of the buildings I saw had any windows. No light came from any of them. It’s a surprise that this place can run so subtly with this much processing power and energy, he thought.
Good thing I checked. Without a doubt, there’s some sort of surveillance technology here, so I need to be careful, he thought. Caiden then prompted a sequence on his holo-watch to tap into any readings that resembled HSDs. Due to a wave of interference and static, he only made out a few of them via his Holo-watch. The most important camera was the one behind the door.
He set that camera on an infinite loop, but not before getting a good look of the what was behind the door. It was a small empty corridor. There was a soft glowing light emanating from beyond the cameras field of view. I guess the coast is clear, he thought. After he entered the password, the door unlocked and he quietly slipped through, crouched low and ever vigilant.
Closer to the end of the small corridor stood a vast space with tall ceilings. It was remarkable that such a facility existed. It was also underground, beneath the beat down warehouse. There were thousands of strange chambers neatly organized into rows. None of the overhead lights were turned on. The only lighting came from the chambers and the computer panels attached to them. The chambers stood approximately seven feet high at a reclining tilt, and were as wide as a king sized bed. The ceilings were capped by a built-in metal frame.
The cylindrical chambers were surrounded by reinforced glass. The reinforced glass casing was secured by a retractable metal seal that ran across the width of each unit. Each of these pieces of equipment were lit with a soft with halogen light from the inside.
It was hard to see what else was inside because of the thick white mist that was constantly being pumped into the chambers. There was a power distributing device that was equipped with large industrial grade tubes. The tubes were connected to smaller tubes that were distributed among the thousands of units in the facility.
What in the hell is all this? Caiden thought to himself.
Above the power distributor, was a large rotating Hover Surveillance Drone that was surveying the entire layout. There wasn’t a single guard on duty. Hmm, I wonder why that is? he thought. There were no other cameras that he could see; none floating above, circling the perimeter, none in the corners of the facility. He made his way toward the closest stasis pod to him nearest to the wall on the right. Still crouched low, he moved under the cover of the shadows toward one of the chambers. At the base of the chamber he inspected, was an LED screen showing status reports.
“Healing Vapor Distribution running at full capacity? ScioN serum distribution sequence initiated? This
can’t be!” Caiden said to himself. It was difficult to make out what lay beyond the glass, but through the mist Caiden could see a human’s leg.
The healing vapor function finished its operation and was slowly filtering out of the stasis pod. When the mist was gone, Caiden could see the body of a woman. She looked very strong. She was about five feet and ten inches, and was very well defined. It was almost as if she were built specifically for combat. She was covered by a skin-tight, flexible material, like a diving suit.
Caiden examined the construction of the stasis pod. He discovered an engraving text near the rear portion of the chamber. Clone Nutrient, Repair & Maintenance Pod? No Way! he thought. Just as he finished reading it, the contents inside an entire row of stasis pods became crystal clear. There were many male and female clones locked in animated suspension inside these things. The clones had a diverse range of skin colors; some were dark skinned, others fair skinned, and others had tanned skin. All the men and the women had similar, if not identical, features.
Whoever headed this project must have started this years ago, slowly multiplying the pool of possible clones to mix genetic coding with, and give birth to newer, slightly different looking offspring than the prior copies. Thus, the variations, yet, eerie resemblance to one another. Caiden surmised. None of these clones looked any older than thirty years of age and were all physically fit, which was also very strange. So, the rumors were true. Zonos really built themselves a military police force made entirely of clones.
Wasting no more time, he synced-his holo-watch to a live feed broadcast mode and transmitted the feed to his severs at his place in Darkside. Simultaneously, he contacted the twins.
“Caide, what’s this weird link you just sent?” Nami asked.
“Jus’ hurry and click it open,” he hastily replied.
“What is all this? Where are you?” the twins asked.
“I’m at some sort of cloning facility,” he whispered.
“Cloning facility?? What about Vantz? Any sign of him yet?” Nami shot back.
“I dunno yet, I’m still looking. Ended up running into this place,” he replied.
“So, why are you sending us this?” Hitomi asked.
“This is a huge discovery. I’ll explain when I get back. I just needed to make sure you guys got this link. Is it being properly uploaded to the server?” he said.
“Yeah, its uploading as we speak,” they replied.
“Okay, good. I’ll contact you if I need anything else.”
“Caide wait!”
He cut transmission.
Cognitive synchronization can only mean one thing; Zonos/Psi-Corp is controlling the free will of these clones by way of the COGLIMS. Not to mention the lengths they’ve gone to conceal their identities. This could explain the reasoning for those ridiculous helmets they wear when on duty, he deduced.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the subtle flicker of a light. He retreated to the shadows and looked in the direction of the light. Approximately twenty feet above, near the far end of the facility, was a control booth, sealed by double layered glass. There were myriad of blinking lights flickering from up there. Caiden made out a single silhouette manning some controls. His back was turned, so he hadn’t spotted Caiden yet.
Shit, that’s my cue, he thought. Just as he began heading back, he heard the door that he hacked open. Two people walked through. One had a large toolbox in his hand, the other looked like a standard guard. Caiden retreated further into the shadows as he watched the other two men walk from the back entrance and up the metal staircase leading to the control booth.
“I dunno why they went through all that bullshit to make such a shitty maze and such a shitty entrance to this place. I mean c’mon! Why so secretive? It’s not like the public would really believe we have a force made up entirely of clones,” The guard said.
“You’re such an idiot. It’s no wonder you’re limited to grunt work. Too stupid to see the bigger picture” the workman replied.
“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?” the guard asked.
“Exactly my point,” the workman said. He whispered under his breath. “What a fuckin’ idiot.”
Just as they entered the control booth, Caiden quietly surveyed the area. From his position, he was closer to the front entrance than he was his original point of entry.
“Shit! Can’t waste any more time!”
He made a dash for the front exit. Success! He made it, completely unnoticed by the three men, but there was a new problem. In addition to needing clearance for entrance into the facility, he needed clearance to leave. Any attempt at leaving without verification would trip the alarm system.
“Shit!” he panicked.
Once again, he connected his fiber optic cable to the input on the security panel and initiated the same sequence as earlier. The door from the control booth opened.
“Good thing you guys got here. I was starting to doze off,” the control booth guard said.
“I guess so, huh? We’re gonna make the rounds. It’s Pod function maintenance time,” the workman said.
“Have a blast” the booth guard replied.
Caiden turned his focus back to the display from the security panel; he counted down the seconds. The pod workman and the new guard on duty began traversing through the massive facility, starting with the large row of pods closest to the entrance. Great, just fucking great, Caiden thought to himself. Five, four, three, two, one. Access granted! The two men were fifteen feet away. The only thing between them and Caiden was the stasis chamber that they were inspecting.
Preoccupied by their task at hand, Caiden seized the opportunity and slid through the door, taking care to close it as softly as possible behind him. He was out. What awaited him was another underground labyrinth. Figures, he thought to himself. He readied his weapon and made his way through the underground passage. He passed through it without any trouble. At the end of it, he came across a ladder leading up to the surface. Reaching the top of the ladder, he took an extra measure to lift the manhole cover just enough to look around, in case of an ambush.
There was a road several yards away to his right. Looking to his left, he saw the wall of an abandoned warehouse. Hmm, odd place to put a manhole cover. But I guess it all makes sense, considering the clone farm secrecy, he thought. He turned to the opposite direction and recognized the alleyway. It was the same alley where he left his hypercycle. It was still camouflaged by the chameleo-ware cloak. Before he fully lifted the manhole cover to exit, a figure crept toward the location of the bike.
The chameleo-ware was supposed to make any object that it covered, invisible to the naked eye, unless someone had some sort of device or cybernetic implant to enhance their vision. The figure was inspecting the area where the bike was, almost as if he could see the bike, but not see it at the same time. Nevertheless, Caiden knew that something was up. This person must have followed him and tracked him down to this location. The figure looked around. Caiden quietly lowered the manhole cover, trying not to be seen. He continued watching this strange person to try and figure out their motives.
Focus, focus, he kept thinking to himself. As if by sheer force of will, he managed to see more of what was going on. Somehow things appeared closer to him, even though he hadn't moved an inch. The silhouette became a bit clearer; it was a man wearing a dark cloak. There was also a faint blue glow emanating from under the hood. Some sort of visor?
The silhouette vanished down the adjoining alleyway, as though they knew that they were being watched. Huh? They must know I’m onto them, Caiden thought, referring to the androids. After another minute of waiting, he decided that it was safe enough for him to move. He successfully placed the manhole cover back and advanced forward. Not sure if that sketchball planted something there for me or not, but if he came this far to inspect what should look like a regular wall to him, he must have some bullshit in store for me, Caiden thought. Instead of heading to the bike, he took another path in-between two ne
ighboring buildings, in plain view, knowing that the hooded figure would see him. That blue glow; it must be another type of android scout or something. This area is way too large to just pinpoint my location only, he thought.
Caiden began to feel a knot in his stomach; someone was watching him. The figure was on top of the building watching Caiden’s every move. Perfect, he thought. He deliberately began to walk with heavier footsteps, to draw him in closer. As Caiden came to the opening between the buildings he stopped suddenly, and then bolted. The figure jumped down and took off after Caiden, hoping to catch up to him. As the person arrived at the same opening, Caiden was nowhere to be found. A split second later, the cold barrel of a pistol tapped the pursuer’s head.
“May I help you with something?” Caiden said with a menacing tone. “You’ve been trailing me since Merchant’s Rowe, haven’t you? And you must’ve been the shithead that tried to get me killed with those other androids too, huh?”
“Wait! Please!” the voice shrieked.
Hm? That’s weird, this person’s voice sounds like Wizard’s, but more masculine, Caiden thought.
He yanked the hood off the pursuer. It was another android, but with glowing blue eyes. The upper body was shaped like a slender human male. The android’s face was very human looking, equipped with a nose, mouth, ears, and chiseled jawline. Like the others, this model of android was made with the purpose of applying skin grafts. The color of the porcelain and graphite materials of the face were a greyish-white color. The neck was encased in a translucent, powerful, and flexible plastic. Beneath the casing, were hundreds of thousands of blue wires.
Neon District: ALPHA (The Neon District Trilogy, Book 1) Page 18
