“Disable the power for the entire building, and destroy the machine sending those signals. If someone doesn’t do something, it will only get worse. This’ll send a nice big ‘fuck you’ to Zonos. Something those assholes have had coming for a long time,” Rez said.
“I dunno, mystery guy. This shit sounds a little too ambitious. I mean, based off what you just demonstrated, I believe you’re crazy and capable enough to do it, but, this is dangerous. I got money to make. Can't lose my men,” Marx said.
“Since when was there not a risk involved in what you guys do already? Look at Darkside. Darkside only happened because of Zonos. You’re already stealing from the government with your energy siphoning. What’s so different from what I’m proposing? And I’m already offering you a twenty-five thousand Cred advance. Sounds like a win-win situation for you,” Rez said convincingly.
Marx gave it some serious thought before he gave his answer. “Look here, whatever your name is. I’ll agree to this, but tell me something, what the hell is your intent with all of this? You just gonna go and start a one-man war with Zonos over this and then quit? Or is there something more? You tryna start a coup?” Marx asked.
“The coup is already beginning,” Rez said. “I already have your phone number and email address. I’ll send you the specs for everything. Have your guys ready by ten thirty tonight,” Rez said as he left the briefcase full of cash.
“Hey, man! How did you know all those things? Never mind. What about the rest of the money?” Marx said.
“You get the other twenty-five thousand Creds when the job is over,” Rez said.
“Okay. One more thing! What’s your name man?” Marx asked.
“Rez,” he said, before exiting the basement, then the house. The gang members cleared a path, due to their newfound fear and admiration of Rez. His NOVO Lenses were active; every single one of their heart rates rose.
Rez walked out of the bungalow. He was going to hole up in a hotel near Zonos Tower and plan for the final move. He applied some preprogrammed holo-straps and a fake ID to make it easier to move about in public unnoticed. He hopped on his bike, put on his helmet and took off to Nova Central.
CHAPTER 38
---usr/systems/server-x/TWINS ON THE RUN---
The girls made their exit from Home-base a few nights prior. Their decision did not come easy. But they decided they wanted freedom over their love for their friend. Having pooled every Cred they had made from their Neuro-Voyeurism exploits at The LoveMaars, they had enough money to get by for a little while. They purposely chose the Cardale Inn in West Andromeda as it was the closest hotel to the lot where the Psi-Corp hover sanders were kept. They devised an elaborate plan to steal one and make their way back toward home in Rune Village.
It was a risky mission, especially without Caiden’s help. Getting to the Cardale Inn wasn’t easy either. They failed to reprogram their holo-straps before leaving Home-base, so they had to go about without a disguise. Starting out on foot and eventually catching a cab, they made it safely to West Andromeda without many issues, although they were nervous the entire way.
“The lot is three hundred yards away, Nams. And from what I can see, Psi-Corp switches guard duty every hour,” Hitomi said. It was six p.m. and the night was cool. It began to drizzle.
“Sheesh, they have a new set of eyes patrolling every hour, for twenty-four hours a day,” Nami replied.
“Yeah, there’s gotta be some sort of blind spot, something we can use to our advantage,” Hitomi said.
“Hey that’s it!” Nami said.
“What is it?” Hitomi asked.
“There must be a…” Nami suddenly felt dizzy.
She could feel the blood rush to her head. She put her fingers to her temples. As she looked over, her sister appeared to be experiencing the same sensation. They both saw a shared vision.
***
Two Psi-Corp officers accompanied by two Chimera henchmen stormed up the stairs of the Cardale Inn. Their door was kicked in, and in came Slavo. The twins turned to look at the open window.
***
“Oh my god! What the hell was that?” Nami asked while panting for breath.
“I don’t know,” Hitomi responded, disturbed.
“That felt so real! Did you see Slavo too?” Nami asked.
“Yeah,” Hitomi replied.
“But what does it mean?” Nami asked.
“I have no idea. That was too scary. It felt so real,” Hitomi said, visibly shaken.
“I remember! Remember when Mom once told us about this strange feeling she used to get before Daddy would get mad?” Hitomi asked.
“Yeah! She was never wrong! She called it the—”
“The Eye of Rune!” Hitomi said, finishing her sister’s sentence.
“Wait a sec! You don’t think we have the same gift?” Nami asked.
“I’m not sure, Nams. But we just experienced what Mom did. She always knew when something would go down. No wonder she always knew when to protect us from Daddy. Maybe we should get outta here,” Hitomi said.
“Yeah, maybe we should,” Nami said. The twins heard a forceful knock on the door.
“Room fucking service! You exotics better be the fuck in there! Open this door, damnit!” the voice behind the door yelled.
There was no mistaking it; that dreaded voice belonged Slavo. Nami gasped before rushing to gather her things. Hitomi followed suit. They heard a single kick to the door. The deadbolt prevented the door from slamming open.
“Listen you little bitches! Open this fucking door now! I got money to make back and you’re gonna make it for me! Do you know just how much trouble I went through to find you?” Slavo belligerently yelled.
How did he know we were here? Hitomi and Nami thought to themselves individually. The twins were terrified. Nami remembered the window in the vision she and her sister shared just moments before. She tapped Hitomi’s shoulder and pointed to it. Hitomi’s face lit up and they snuck over to the window. Nami looked down; there was a fire escape.
They were only on the third floor. Hitomi opened the window and they both made their exit down the fire escape. About halfway down the first flight of the creaky metal stairs they heard the door of their room crack from the force of a battering ram from one of the Psi-Corp officers. The girls ran down the steps. Once they safely reached ground level, the twins ran. They didn’t bother wait for anything else to come their way.
Making their way toward the guarded lot where the hover sanders were, it was now or never for the twins. They only made it one hundred yards down the busy street before they saw some commotion up ahead. A group of four Psi-Corp officers rushed the sidewalks, appearing to look for them. Using the cover of the umbrellas being held by other pedestrians, the twins ducked under them and hurried in the opposite direction of the hover sander lot.
“Hito what’re you doin’? That’s our only way out!” Nami said.
“Not right now, it isn’t!” Hitomi said. They’d have to find another time to steal a hover sander.
“If we get caught now, we can forget about seeing the light of day ever again,” Hitomi said gravely.
They cut through the crowded sidewalks and back streets. They were making a break for it when Nami felt Slavo’s long skinny fingers grab her from behind. She yelped before his other hand covered her mouth. She bit down as hard as she could, surprising him.
Nami struggled to get away from Slavo. She elbowed his groin and he loosened his grip on her. Hitomi quickly followed as she struck him square in the jaw. The combined attack from the twins took Slavo by surprise as he was knocked down. The girls ran, successfully giving Slavo and his goons the slip. It was evident that their combat training paid off quite well. They jumped into a taxi and sped off.
“Sir, can you take us to Darkside, please?” Hitomi requested.
“Oh, shit! Why that dangerous place?” the cab driver asked.
“Just do it!” Hitomi yelled.
“Okay, okay! Sheesh” t
he cabbie replied.
“Hito, why back there?” Nami asked.
“There isn’t a safer place in the city! Plus, he promised he would help us get home. And this time we will make him help us!” Hitomi said. Nami sunk in the seat with both relief and exhaustion as they headed back to Home-base.
Like all other cab drivers, he didn’t want to linger in the perilous neighborhood. The twins paid him and he drove off. Despite their improved self-defense skills, as shown in how they dealt with Slavo, they were still vulnerable. Getting to Homebase was priority number one. They navigated the twists and turns of the elaborate path toward the four large boulders. Hitomi found the hidden access panel and typed ‘Red.Alpha.Violet.224.#’. Hitomi scooted close to the panel for the retinal scan.
The airlocks released and a door camouflaged with the environment surfaced from below. The twins entered, watched the door close and seal in front of them and then the elevator like entrance descended below. The door, perfectly blendedng back in with the environment around it. They were finally safe.
“Caiden? You here?” Hitomi called out with relief.
“Oh, he’s here! The door to the lab space is open!” Nami said.
They smiled at each other and happily made their way downstairs to embrace their friend. They were ready to tell him everything that happened and to make everything right again.
“Caiden! We’re so happy to see you!” Nami said. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs when she realized that the man standing there wasn’t Caiden.
“Who the fuck are you!?” the Hitomi shrieked. The girls tensed, ready to run back up the stairs.
“Hey, wait a sec!” the man said. He was in the training area, looking around.
The twins saw the new weapons Caiden had developed on one of the lab tables. They rushed to them, picked them up and pointed them with the intent to kill the intruder.
“This is just a big misunderstanding! Wait! Please!” the man pleaded with his hands in the air to show he wasn’t a threat.
“Who the fuck are you!?” Hitomi asked.
“Why are you here!?” Nami asked.
“Okay, okay! Just chill out! I can explain! I came here because of a friend! He gave me these coordinates!” Vantz took a piece of paper out of his pocket. “He said that when in doubt, or when my life is in danger, or if things got outta hand to just come here. Caiden, he… There’s something going on with him and I can’t figure out what it is, so I came here. But I wasn’t expecting to see all of this,” the man said.
“You know Caiden? Wait, is your name Vantz?” Nami asked.
“You know my name? Yeah, I’m Vantz. I’ve been Caiden’s best friend since we were fifteen!” Vantz said.
Nami and Hitomi looked at each other. They knew Caiden was far too cautious and meticulous to give the location’s coordinates to just anyone. They also took into account that he had very few friends apart from them and Vantz. What Vantz said added up. They lowered their weapons.
“Phew! You guys scared the shit outta me! I’m sorry for startling you,” Vantz said.
“Likewise,” Hitomi said.
“Yeah, so, you guys know my name. What’re yours?” Vantz pleasantly asked.
“I’m Nami. This is my sister, Hitomi. Nice to finally meet Caiden’s best friend,” Nami said.
“Yeah, that’s me. So, how’d you guys meet Mr. Antisocial?” Vantz asked, snickering as he said it.
“He is definitely antisocial. Where do we start? Well, we all kinda met under, like, really weird circumstances. Nams and I, we were kinda— Well, we were working at The LoveMaars,” Hitomi said awkwardly.
“The LoveMaars!? I’m sorry, it’s just that I’ve heard so many stories about that place. Just never thought I’d meet a couple of, uh, employees from there. I’m sorry, please continue,” Vantz said.
“Well, how we ended up there is really a long story, but, we sent out an encoded message on CWR. Caiden managed to crack the code. Fast forward some time, and we ended up meeting face to face, and he helped us escape from there,” Nami explained.
“We’ve been camping out here, hiding from Chimera ever since, until recently. He promised to help us get home back to Rune Village, but so many things started getting out of hand. We tried to help, but we only ended up getting in his way. So, we left to get out of his way, and to try and make our own way home,” Hitomi said.
“But, obviously, we’re back here, so the latter plan didn’t work all that well. This is the safest place we know, and with Caide’s new developments, we figured that it was best to come back here to see what was going on,” Hitomi added.
“Whoa, man. This is totally insane! But hearing your story confirms a lot of things. Caide can’t just sit by idly and watch innocent people get hurt. He’s always been like that, which is why I find all this craziness about him being the person behind the assassination of Ren Krong to be complete bullshit. I know he has his ways, but he would never do something as terrible as that,” Vantz said. The twins nodded in agreement.
“No wonder Caide risked life and limb to save you,” Nami said.
“Oh, man. So, you know about the android situation, I guess,” Vantz said, embarrassed.
“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Look at us!” Nami replied.
“Yeah, I came here not because I’m in danger or anything, but because he seemed a lot more stressed lately. And now he’s nowhere to be found. I’ve tried calling him. I just hope he’s not getting himself into deep shit he can’t get out of,” Vantz said, concerned about his friend.
“Yeah, that’s part of the reason we… Huh?” Nami was interrupted.
On the computer screen’s security feed, a was a platoon of Psi-Corp soldiers, accompanied by a dozen Chimera Gang members who were rummaging about near the hidden entrance of Home-base. They were closing in, slowly inspecting the area.
“Oh my God! How did they find this place?” Nami asked, panicking.
“There’s no way they could’ve followed us! I thought we gave them the slip!” Hitomi replied.
“You guys were followed here?” Vantz asked.
“We were about to snag a hover sander and escape the city, but before we could make our move, this guy from Chimera showed up with a bunch of Psi-Corp officers and his own goon squad,” she said.
“We were almost recaptured, but we got away,” Nami added.
“There’s been so many rumors of a partnership between them, but this shows it’s true,” Vantz said.
“Slavo! That bastard! He must’ve tracked us using his optic visor augmentation,” Hitomi said in frustration.
Both twins picked up their weapons. Nami put in a command to Xandra’s security system to lock and seal the door to the lab space and to turn the power off upstairs. Their enemies were standing in front of the boulders at the secret entrance. The soldiers and armed thugs were equipped with scanners, attempting to find clues how the girls managed to vanish into thin air.
“It’s no wonder Chimera has been able to exist and run as freely as they have. If they’re doing joint-task missions like these, that means they are more powerful than I thought they were,” Vantz said.
“We can’t stay here long. I wouldn’t want the likes of these assholes to get a hold of anything here, let alone us!” Nami said.
“Well put, Nams. But how are we supposed to get out of here? We’re completely surrounded and it doesn’t look like they’re going anywhere any time soon,” Hitomi asked.
“Then we wait. We’ll wait for our chance to make a break for it. I did drive here, after all. And you guys are pretty familiar with Caide’s systems here. I’m sure he’s put surveillance cameras in damn near every advantageous spot in and around this place. Can you guys check those feeds and see what’s going on?” Vantz said.
“You’re pretty damn smart yourself. That’s a good idea, let’s check it out,” Hitomi said, impressed with Vantz’s quick thinking.
“Xandra, please bring all security feeds to the main screen.
Run a simulation on the best course of escape using Vantz’s car from here, based on the position of the enemy coordinates,” Hitomi commanded.
“Very well, Hitomi. Commencing now,” Xandra replied. There were dozens of holo-screens brought to the forefront and placed in organized rows, allowing the three of them to see every position of every enemy.
“System converting outdoor holo-image security protocol into calculated simulation to determine best course of escape,” Xandra replied.
“Holo-image security protocol? What is that?” Nami asked.
“H-I-S-P utilizes a complex system of holographic projections installed throughout the immediate environment and outside of Home-base to create realistic images of people. Systems can be used to effectively draw intruder’s forces away from Home-base. System was created by primary creator of Home-base,” Xandra explained.
“That freaking brother of mine! What a damn sly dog! Hey, Xandra? Did he install any other protective measures here? Like maybe a weapons system or something that we can use in conjunction with the HISP program?” Vantz asked.
“Hidden turrets have been strategically placed around the premises,” Xandra replied.
“Looks like we have a shot,” Vantz said optimistically.
I’m not surprised he and Caide get along so well, Nami thought. Hitomi understood her sister’s thoughts and nodded in agreement. The Eye of Rune ability allowed them to sync on a telepathic level.
“Okay, girls. It’s been close to twelve minutes since those goons got here and they’ve fanned out significantly. Most their forces have gone a few hundred meters east of the property. If all goes well, we won’t even need to use the security programs. We can just wait till they leave the area and head in the opposite direction, away from Darkside. Let’s just remain hopeful. I hope this place has food. We may be here for a while,” Vantz said.
“Yeah. I guess you’re right,” Nami replied.
CHAPTER 39
---usr/systems/server-x/WINDOWFALL---
It was a quarter past ten in the evening and Rez was sitting at the desk in his room on the seventeenth floor at the The Rowe Hotel. What is up with all this shitty rain over the past few days? Rez angrily asked himself as he looked out of the window, NOVO Lenses active and glowing. He was scanning Zonos Tower and accessing Zonos’s databases.
Neon District: ALPHA (The Neon District Trilogy, Book 1) Page 38
