“So, please, just come back with us to Rune Village. Let’s get away from this madness and start over,” Nami begged Ciaden.
The girls could feel a powerful coldness, a darkness, a deep void of limitless anger slowly boil from his depths. They felt it so much, that they subconsciously took a step back as if to stay clear of the invisible aura Caiden was giving off.
"Have you ever wondered what it would be like to wake up every morning and barely recognize yourself? Or your sister? Sure, your lives were full of unimaginable pain. You were whisked away from your home. Forced into unconscionable acts against your will by those detestable gangsters. You’ve lost your parents, your friends, your freedom. You lost your home, and had only each other to fend off the ills that have plagued your lives. But you wanna know what the difference is between you and me? It’s not the nanocells, oh, no.
“You guys have a past! Something that you can remember! Beyond all the heartache and pain, you have your past where good memories, however few, existed even for a short time! Have you ever wondered about your existence? What your purpose was? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to never be able to acknowledge each other as sisters because you’d have no memory of each other?” Caiden asked them. Nami’s eyes welled with tears and Hitomi squeezed her sister’s hand.
“I don’t know why the fuck I am even here! All I know is that I feel this drive, deep down inside, that recognizes people and other things that I cannot, no matter how hard I try to remember. There’s a clear connection between everything that has happened and me! Something more is at work here! None of this is coincidence! And I intend to get to the bottom of everything that has destroyed my life with or without your help! I’m not going to run away,” Caiden yelled as he rushed to his workspace downstairs.
The twins tried to wrap their heads around what just took place. Caiden, on the other hand, was laser focused. He locked the door to the lab space for some privacy. He slumped into his computer chair angrily. He felt a lump in his throat. The tears began to flow. He clenched his teeth in frustration.
Their words pierced him deeply and struck a nerve. He knew they weren't wrong, and that they said what they said because they cared. But what the twins said had also frustrated him because he knew no matter what, he couldn’t abandon that nagging feeling in his heart to uncover the mysteries of his past. To stray from the path that had been laid out for him represented a betrayal of his need to remember. He couldn’t abort his mission in favor of theirs, not yet; not until he found the answers. The nano codec, the nanocells, Wizard, Knight-1, Amiko, Zonos; somewhere, in middle of all those things, was an answer that would help him.
He dried his eyes, took a deep breath, and recalled the meetings he overheard between the familiar man, and Chimera and ZOBE. There’s no doubt they were up to something. Assassinations? ZOBE? Chimera? Everyone knows Zonos does backdoor dealings with Chimera on a regular basis. I should do a reverse image search on the Hybrid man from the negotiation tents and see what I can find out about him. And maybe I should pay Prime Minister Honda an early visit. Something about him had been bothering me, Caiden thought to himself. Turning his computer’s holo-screen on, he switched it to TV mode, and the first thing that popped up was the end of a short press conference with Shino Honda, live on air. I wonder what this is about? Caiden wondered as he tuned in.
CHAPTER 29
---usr/systems/server-x/PRESS CONFERENCE---
“Thank you, all. Now I’ll open the floor for questions. You there, sir,” Shino pointed to a reporter.
“Thank you, Prime Minister Honda. Kano Greene here for the ND Daily. I’ve been receiving hundreds of calls every month since you apparently ceased your attempts at ameliorating the Psi-Corp Military Police Force. What exactly caused those efforts to cease? The police force in recent times has become harsher in their dealings with citizens and nothing seems to have been done about this. Can you comment on this?” reporter, Kano Green asked.
Shino looked down at his notes. “The Psi-Corp Military Police force has done an outstanding job protecting the citizens of this great city-state from both internal and international threats for many years. Given the uptick in crime in the city, it’s only natural that our forces find better ways of dealing with the increased violence and drug trade. We are currently working on a bill that will give the force the ability to better combat these threats. Next?”
“But Mr. Prime Minister, that didn’t answer the question. You were once a huge proponent of reform among police force ranks, and then suddenly you stopped…” Kano was cut off.
“Next, please. You there, yes?” Shino was eager to change the topic.
“Eva Young here for Q1 News. There’s been whispers of possible human clones being cultivated and developed specifically for the police force. First, is there any validity to these rumors? And secondly, if so, would this contribute to the force’s uptick in violent incidents toward the regular citizens of our city-state?” Eva Young asked.
Shino chuckled. “Of course, not. There is no such thing as a clone police force here. All of our brave men and women in the force are tax paying residents of Neon District who are normal citizens just like everyone else,” he replied.
“Sir…” Eva began.
“Next question, please?”
“Hello, sir. Terrin Jeffers, Liberty Port Exclusives. It’s my understanding that Representative Ren Krong is a valued leader of the people in this great city. Both he and you shared similar political views up until, well, up until you decided to, uh, ‘alter’ your stance. What’s your take on Representative Krong?” Terrin inquired.
“Firstly, welcome to our great city. It must’ve been quite the trip from Liberty Port. Representative Ren Krong is an excellent and well-respected politician within our ranks in government. He is an absolute champion for social justice and working, and middle-class families. Though our stances on certain matters may differ, he continues to be a beacon of hope here and I hope to work with him someday soon on future legislation,” Shino stated.
Eva wasn’t finished with her questioning. “Sir, is it true that Zonos is involved in the practice of voter suppression? There have been many rumors regarding your government’s increasingly oppressive ways. I heard of a bill that's going to make this legal. Can you confirm this? Also, is it true that your government participated in unfair housing practices regarding Hybrids? I also wanted your take on the recent boom of the android population in the city-state.”
An assistant rushed over to the Prime Minister after Eva’s onslaught of questions and whispered in his ear. “Unfortunately, I’ve just been informed that we are out of time. No more questions for the night. I will take my leave. Have a great night,” Shino said.
“But, sir!” The reporters tried to attract Prime Minister Honda’s attention.
The prime minister receded from the podium and exited the room. That was a shit show. He was clearly irked by those questions. Something has him rattled. It’s definitely time to pay him a visit, Caiden thought to himself.
CHAPTER 30
---usr/systems/server-x/UNEXPECTED MEETING---
Caiden woke up the next day after an unusually long sleep. It was already close to six p.m. Despite giving each other space, the quiet standoff between Caiden and the twins continued. There was an emotional silence. He was confused about what he should do and how to approach the twins after the previous night’s outburst. The girls were a little afraid and were unsure of how to break the ice. Caiden spent the night locked in his lab space.
The twins heard the door’s air locks unfasten as Caiden silently made his way to the shower in his bedroom. After several minutes, a fully clothed Caiden emerged from the room and returned downstairs to his lab space and locked the door behind him.
“I can’t believe this shit,” Hitomi grumbled. “All we wanted was for him to be safe! We didn’t even say anything bad!”
Nami put her hand on her sister’s. “I know, Hito. He’s confused right now. You ca
n feel it too. Caiden has a heart of gold, we know that. But he doesn’t know what to do right now.”
“The best thing we can do is to not burden him anymore,” Hitomi finished.
Nami looked down at the floor, then at the information on tablet she had in her hand. The tablet contained data on the Home-base security systems. They had a plan, and intended on seeing it through.
In the lab space, Caiden rolled up his right sleeve, closed his eyes, and concentrated. He blocked everything out. He envisioned the nanomolecular imprint in his right forearm; his gunblade. The gunblade materialized far quicker than it had before. Perfect, he thought to himself satisfactorily. He was getting used to his new abilities quicker than he imagined. He then dematerialized the gun. He shook his hand, rolled down his sleeve, and got ready to leave.
He re-emerged from the lab space with a small backpack and headed toward the door to leave. The twins still refused to speak to him. He typed in the code to open the door to the underground garage and walked through. He looked over his shoulder at the twins as the door closed behind him. He could see the sadness and discontentment on their faces. His heart twisted and turned then dropped to the pit of his stomach. He didn’t know what to do so he just left. He got a popup notification from the reverse image search query of the strangely familiar man from the Bazaar. Lieutenant Daav August, Psi-Corp Military special ops division?
He saved the search results in a folder in the NOVO OS storage location. He mounted his hypercycle and took off. When he reached the borough of Cosmica, he pulled into a local diner for something to eat. Finding a secluded booth in the restaurant, he immediately got to work.
“NOVO Lenses,” he commanded.
His eyes lit up. His visual feed brought him to the main menu. He tapped into a secure network and ran a search on the address that matched Prime Minister Shino Honda’s. As confirmed, Plush Grove, Cosmica. Hmm, really nice place. Quite the palace. Befitting of a cowardly king, he thought to himself as he watched Shino’s premises through the security cameras in the home as well as HSDs on the lampposts outside of his home. Caiden was looking for security software, feeds, and other technology so he could override them.
The response time of the NOVO OS was getting faster. Caiden’s special nanocells were beginning to adapt more efficiently to the OS. Hmm, what do we have here? Unilox Security software, so you pop up again huh? This should be a cakewalk. Caiden thought to himself as he analyzed the security software coding. He opened a terminal window in his visual feed and wrote a security override code like the one he used when he broke into the Clone Farm. But this time, to ensure complete cooperation from Shino, he only disabled the security functions around Shino’s study, where a large window was located.
Rendering cameras, security drones, and electricity useless. Connecting to my command module. Now I can slave that particular portion of the Unilox system with my terminal. Perfect. Hmm, what’s this? Electronic proxy locks, huh? Looks like this was skillfully woven into the OS of the security system for the house. I guess it would make sense for someone like him. This works in my favor, he thought. His eyes and mind were moving, beautifully in sync with the OS.
He then tapped into the security cameras surrounding Shino’s house, then further out, eventually increasing the surveillance radius to the entire gated community of Plush Grove. He was looking for signs of special government agent outposts. He switched his view from standard to thermal, searching for any agents wearing cloaking devices to remain out of sight.
“Two agents at the gate. Thirty others spread throughout the rest of the neighborhood, but there is a concentration of thermal readings around Prime Minister Shino’s mansion. Ten, to be exact. Hidden along the front of his mansion. All concealed by chameleo-ware. Only one chameleo-ware cloaked agent in the backyard. How arrogant. He must really believe that the majority of threats only come from directly in front of him,” Caiden said to himself as he surveyed and set markers of the neighborhood on his visual feed.
Just then, a popup on the main screen of the NOVO visual feed showed that Yvora was calling. I can’t answer this right now, Caiden thought to himself. He was determined to move forward. He finished his food around seven p.m. He paid the Auto-Cred collector on the table, zipped up his gear, left the diner and headed to Plush Grove.
Caiden turned down a side street that was far enough away from Plush Grove for him to not be noticed. Parking his bike in the woods, he placed his chameleo-cloak over the bike and it blended in with the shrubbery. Caiden cut through the suburban backyards, dead end streets, and hidden paths until he spotted the elaborate booth and gate leading into the exclusive neighborhood.
He activated the NOVO Lenses and scanned the area; no visible threats were around. According to the NOVO Lenses, the wall surrounding the community was fifteen point three feet high, and was made of simple limestone construct. Should be easy to clear that, Caiden thought to himself. Before he made his move, he noticed a series of HSDs atop the limestone gate, spread thirty feet apart. Using his newly developed terminal, he overrode the feed of the two cameras closest to him.
He made his way toward the wall. With a running start and one giant leap, he grabbed onto the ledge and easily pull himself to the top. There was twenty-five acres of rich green grass, luxurious modern mansions, palm trees, expensive cars parked in oversized driveways, colorful gardens, and perfectly trimmed shrubbery.
“This is no Darkside,” he lamented, referring to the disproportionate gap in the quality of life between the two neighborhoods of the same city-state.
Caiden switched the NOVO Lenses back to thermal mode, on the lookout for any hidden security guards. Better to sniff these guys out and know where they are and avoid any unnecessary conflicts, he thought to himself as he quietly dropped to ground level inside Plush Grove. With very little time to react, Caiden made a quiet dash to some nearby bushes as he saw a thermal signature heading in his direction. He summoned his gunblade and had it locked and loaded just in case he was discovered.
The signature, most likely a special government agent, moved slowly; as if they were looking for something. They stopped, standing just beyond the thicket where Caiden was hidden. He tensed, anticipating a fight. But the secret agent moved onward. Caiden waited until he was in the clear and made his way to Shino’s place. Shino’s mansion was huge. There was a row of palm trees on each side of the elaborate white brick driveway where two luxurious cars were parked. On the island in the middle of the circular driveway was the statue of the shiny golden lion. Ground lights were strategically placed on the outer edges of the driveway and walkway that led to the house. Caiden located the large double doors of the massive two-story mansion.
Thermal readings only picking up two signatures in the front, and still just one in the back. Hmm, they must’ve rotated shifts, he surmised.
Skillfully avoiding the two agents in the front, he scaled the trimmed bushes in the front yard and jumped over the fence into the backyard. The backyard was full of lush greenery, a well-cared for lawn, a polished granite party deck, an illustrious pool, and a small rock garden, giving way to a man-made stream and waterfall that was attached to the pool.
Several feet away and to Caiden’s left, stood the thermal signature. Caiden got lucky, as his NOVO Lenses identified that the agent was facing the other way. Caiden stealthily dashed toward the agent, wrapping his right arm around the agent’s neck, twisting his torso, and slamming him face first toward the ground! He muffled his mouth as he wrapped the agent in a powerful grip, cutting off his air supply just long enough to make him pass out. His chameleo-ware cloak came off.
Caiden searched him for any weapons, communication devices, datashades, and other technology. He only found a DNA assigned pistol and a cell phone, which he took. He disarmed the gun by taking it apart and throwing away the bullets. Caiden put the agent’s hands behind his back and put a pair of magnetic cuffs on him. He also took the agent’s tie and tied it around his ankles, then dragged him into
a nearby bush to conceal him. The NOVO Lenses began scanning the height of the second story window of Shino’s mansion. The OS also began crafting a proper climb path by calculating Caiden’s weight, with the density of the mansion’s protruding bricks, ledges, and decor.
Perfect, he thought. He followed the path the OS laid out for him, nimbly scaling the wall to get to the large window on the second floor. Caiden looked over the ledge and into the study. There was PM Shino Honda, studiously reviewing stacks of documents. Caiden pulled up his terminal and initiated the security override code. He had complete control of Prime Minister Shino Honda’s entire home security system and the building’s power. Caiden smirked to himself and initiated a quick shutdown of power inside the home. All electronic devices and lights were rendered useless for all of ten seconds. Caiden powered the lights on again, which caused a bewildered Shino to look up briefly. Caiden initiated another quick blackout.
“Honey! Can you check the power panel in the basement?” Shino’s wife, Rinn, called out.
“Okay, I’m on it,” Shino replied.
Caiden tapped into the home’s security cameras to determine if anyone else was home. No sign of their kids; they must be away, Caiden thought. No other people were in the house, and there were only agents outside. Caiden continued to watch through the window as the door to the study reopened.
“Looks like I’m gonna have to call Neon Utility to come and check out the issue tomorrow,” Shino said.
“Okay,” Rinn was heard saying from another room. As soon as Shino closed the door behind him, the lights went off. But this time, the blackout was isolated to Shino’s study.
Neon District: ALPHA (The Neon District Trilogy, Book 1) Page 29
