Crash Flux 1: Welcome To The Machine (5 page)

She said, “Nobody celebrates those anymore.  What’s with the shock-stick?”

“Need it for work.”  He reached under the counter and grabbed a small object the shape of an electric razor.  “You should take this.”

“What is it?”

“Contact disrupter.  Surprised you don’t carry one.”  

She put it in her pocket.  “I need to stop by the venders to pick up my dress suit.  Where’s Raydin?”

“Raydin said he was going to be a bit late and that we should meet him at the plaza in front of the office.”  He looked her up and down, smiled wickedly, and said, “Looks like you got all dressed up for nothing.”

Irule said, “Shut up, Adon.”

They walked through an underpass, cutting through the magtube system.  The pass was damp and cold, exposed piping running overhead and to the sides.  Steam rose from a grate in the floor.  Three men crawled out from their hiding places to the sides, blocking their path.  They dressed in tattered mesh denim, the shoddy kind that had bits of fiberglass that rubbed the skin raw.  The largest one had a thick jaw and a sloping forehead, his eyes were those of cruel Neanderthal, a species left behind generations ago.  Two others stood behind him, gaunt and sickly, covered in pock marks.  The big one tapped the huge metal pipe on his other hand.  “What we got here?  A stick boy and his little slut.  Come down here to do a bit of naughty business?  Me and my boys here figuring on doing some naughty business of our own.”

Adon said, “I’ll take care of this.”  He pulled out the control rod and pressed the black button, activating the sleep function.  One of the skinny thugs became dazed.  The big one smacked him upside the head, snapping him out of the trance.  The big one said, “So you’re the terrorists everybody been talking about lately.  I should thank you truly for your help… them pit-bull won’t be sending me back to iso too soon.   Course, since I got deprogrammed yesterday, those codes won’t be helping you either.”

Adon hit the yellow button as the group advanced.  One of the thugs dropped the wrench he was holding and started to run.  The big one grabbed the back of his collar and threw him to the ground.  He yelled at the thug scrambling up from the floor, “Get yer ass back up!  Up, you chickenshit!”  The third thug stood off to the side, frozen with fear.  Adon pressed the blue button again and he crouched into a ball, shivering with fear.  The large thug hit Adon with his pipe, slamming it across his back and sending him into a wall.  He grabbed the control rod from Adon’s hands.  “Won’t be using that on us again.  Won’t need it where you’re going.  Humantix is going to double the size of my cubby once I turn you in to the Guard, probably raise my allowance too.”

The skinny one said, “Look at his eyes.  He’s rigged for a marquee deck, this one.  Probably thinks 'cause he can read he’s better than everyone else.  Were the special ones, see, 'cause we don’t read, we gets free rent.  Humantix pays us for doin’ nothing.”

Adon said, “Humantix pays to keep you ignorant.  You have a disease, it’s called dyslexia, you stupid fuck, and there is a cure-”

Adon didn’t get to finish his sentence as the big thug sucker punched him.  Irule yelled, “Stop!” Adon started reaching into his jacket, gripping the shock-stick he hid underneath.  Irule put a hand up signaling Adon to wait.  

She walked towards the thug with the pipe, swinging her arms to the side as she strutted towards him, looking deep into his hollow eyes.  “Are you sure we can’t work something out?”  She slid her hand across his leg and gently squeezed his thigh.  

He said, “What did you have in mind?”  

She said, “It’s a surprise.”  She fingered her small contact disrupter from behind her back, gripping it from her side pocket and palming it, running her fingers over the flat, round contacts as she sighed, laughing.  She moved her hand up his thigh, taking him into her hand and squeezing firmly.  He jumped a little, and she pulled the disrupter around her body.  She clenched her teeth together and sneered.  She squeezed tighter, smiling as he whimpered and doubled over in pain.  She let go, pulling the contact disrupter out from behind her back. She pulled him towards her by his shirt using her free hand, while she jammed the weapon into his crotch, pulling the trigger on the disrupter.  He screamed and fell to the floor as the beam arced across the ‘trodes, twitching and holding his member.

Adon got up ran towards them, broad-siding the skinny dreg across his temple with his shock-stick, the light flashing from the top of the stick and sending him face-down to the floor.  The other charged and Adon threw his baton at his face, bloodying the other’s nose.  Irule sidestepped and came around behind him, pushing her disrupter into his neck.   His eyes rolled up into his head and he fell over, unconscious before his head hit the floor.  

Irule was breathing heavy, covered with sweat.  She ran her hands through her hair and shuddered.  She looked at her ripped stocking, then at her torn leather top.  She screamed, “FUCK!  This top cost two hundred credits, you dreg!”, then smashed her foot into the thugs crotch again and again, until Adon came up behind her and grabbed her by the waist.  “Let me go!” she screamed.

Adon let go, and said, “Irule, relax!  He’s down!”

She relaxed a little, still struggling in Adon’s grip, and said, “Alright, alright!  I’m fine, let go!”  She sat down against the wall of the underpass, sliding her back against the chitin until she touched the floor.

Adon breathed heavy and sat down on the ground.  “Remind me never to fuck with you again.”  She laughed, they both stood up, and left the large man moaning on the ground.

Miles away, Raydin was working on some finishing touches.  He went through all his old accounts, deleting every trace of his existence.  It wasn’t hard, Raydin had no citizen identification number, his universal communications device was a blank.

Raydin jacked out, opened the door to his cubby, and stepped out into the real world.  He was the last to arrive at the plaza, near the Holografix Corporate Branch Office lobby.  He lifted his shades, then nodded to his crew sitting by the fountain.  He used his C-MAX, turning thought impulses into audio signals, translating them into phasewaves, which were picked up by Irule’s C-MAX, then translated to nerve impulses which only she could hear.  Not quite telepathy, but nobody could mistake it for a phone call.

Raydin thought, “There is some sort of commotion going on.”

Irule thought, “I see it too.  Abort?”

Raydin though, “We can’t.  Let’s just see how this plays out.”

He turned towards the commotion.  A scene was taking place on the twenty-fifth floor of the building.  Irule rounded the other side of the building and crept up behind him.  He turned and she said, “Looks like another jumper.”  

Somebody from the crowd said, “How did he get the window open?”

Another replied, “Stunner.  Sonics shattered the window a few minutes ago, sent shards flying everywhere.”

“How much you want to bet he does it?”

“Two hundred credits says he jumps.”

The commotion on the ground was picking up a nasty vibe, people started laughing and throwing their money down.  A man taking bets accosted Raydin.  Raydin opened the palm of his hand and closed it around the man’s face, pushing him back into the crowd.  He bumped into Irule, who booted him on the ass, and sent him sprawling. She yelled, “Get away from me, you fucking sleaze!”

Raydin wired Irule, “We got to go, Irule.”  

A chant had started from the crowd below.  It grew louder, meaner, until the words were clearly audible.  “JUMP!  JUMP!  JUMP!”  Tie flapping in the wind, the lonely executive looked down upon the crowd from his window ledge.  As Raydin approached the lobby, he noticed the jumper giving the crowd the finger, then retreating back into his office.  Raydin smiled, walking towards the front door.

Raydin waved his id tag across the scanner, itching at the trick sleeves he wore underneath his sports jacket.  He had two implants, one in each arm.  The sleeves would fool the MRI scanner long enough to get inside.  He walked through the sensor screen, then made his way up the lift to the twentieth floor.  Through the glass cylinder, he thought he saw Irule as she entered the building.  

The others hung out in the lobby for ten ticks, then one by one, merged with the throngs of people making their way into the building.  Irule was last, and as she approached the center of the lobby, she froze.  She wired Raydin, terrified.  “I see them.  I see the z-man!”  In front of her, a tide of people spread out around a man standing in the center of an empty circle, as if he stood in a small empty bubble, afraid to approach him, going out of their way to avoid him.  “They don’t see him.   They don’t see him, it’s…it’s like he’s not even there!”

Raydin wired Irule, “Look away!  Just relax.  People spot z-men all the time, then immediately forget that anyone was there.  Just don’t stare too long and he will leave you be.”  Irule stared, unable to look away from the barcode on the man’s forehead.  She breathed deep, turned her head down, then away.  She turned towards the front desk and made her way through security.  If she would have held his gaze for more than a few seconds, the agent would have made her disappear, and she would have spent the rest of the day in an isolation chamber, brainwashed into believing she hadn’t seen anything at all.

Raydin, Adon and Irule navigated the maze of hexagonal cubicles.  Raydin exited the elevator and entered the lobby on the twentieth floor.  He walked towards the secretary at the desk, pulled out his control rod, and pressed the black button.  The secretary immediately fell into a trance, staring off into the distance.  He looked around, until he was confident nobody was watching.  “I want you to allow anyone who walks to that door to pass.  Do not alert security and remain at your desk for the next fifteen minutes.”  He pressed the black button again, and the secretary buzzed him through.

Burk walked passed the dazed security guard and into the sub-basement.  He found an isolated spot and got to work penetrating the buildings hardwired security systems.  He connected his UCD to the earpiece and collar microphone.  He said, “Testing, one, two, testing…”  

Raydin spotted the office he was looking for.  He removed the name plaque from the door and walked inside, closing the door behind him.  He removed his trick sleeves and left them on the floor.  The security system prompted him for his identification, and he removed the slip packet that he had hidden carefully under his sports coat.  He ran through the retinal print, the palm scan, DNA print, and security password, using the clever gizmos Burk had devised for this little operation.  He took the mask from inside the packet and placed it on his face, it melded around him and morphed until his face looked identical to Melvin Holocauster’s.  He placed his face in the scanner and it beeped twice.  The desk embedded in the wall rolled out onto the floor and said, “Good morning Mr. Holocaustic.”  He removed the mask and threw it to the trash, where it dissolved into a pile of goop.  

The holo screen flared, but he didn’t have time for the graphics board to warm up.  He started typing, his fingertips tingling as the holographic keyboard crackled with static electricity.  He took a deep breath, then sent a message through his C-MAX.  “Everybody here?”

Adon saw the text message scroll across his vision as he searched through the Loan Officers spreadsheets, using his marquee deck to shuffle through the rows and columns of data, filling out a hundred pages of padwork in just under a tick.  He sent a text transmission through his marquee deck, playing it directly across Irule’s and Raydin’s vision and scrolling across Burks UCD screen.  “Ready,” Adon transmitted. Adon took a quick glance through the window, making sure nobody was watching.  

Burk touched his earpiece to his ear.  He pried open the floor panel, and talked into the mike.  “Waiting on you, boss.”  He pulled a pair of cable cutters from his tool box and ripped them out from their containment housing.

Irule wired the rest of the crew.  “I’m here.  Present.  Whatever.”  Irule popped her gum, surrounded by a room full of people staring blankly at the wall.  She pressed the black button again, and they all went back to work as if she wasn’t there.  Her C-MAX searched until it found a wireless jack, and a small AR window projection surrounded it, bathing it in a halo of orange light.  She loaded its comm. Frequency and entered the media center’s simulated environment.  She started giving commands, and the office personnel went to work.  She spoke out loud, “Alright you code monkeys, get ready to kick some ass, because we are going to be doing a live emergency broadcast!  I want you to set everything up and get ready to roll!”  She smirked to herself, and thought, “I always wanted to do that.”

Raydin jacked into the time broker’s account through the wireless jack at his desk.  The simulation booted up and he was standing in a control station and atop a wall of a massive warehouse.  Beneath him, on the cutting room floor, thousands of administrators took on the image of tiny firefly’s swarming over a massive cube of blue lightning, rolling down an assembly line.  The cube represented a tiny fraction of the genetic data being collected by the legacy virus, which would be interpreted by millions of employees and decoded to the best of their ability.  One by one, the administrators cut it up into tiny cubes and carried them off to be processed by their indentured employees.

The simulation lagged for a moment, struggling with Raydin’s command sequence.  The program bypassed the security protocols and safety procedures while he looked down below.  He looked at the reflection of the office employee in the glass separating the floor from the control tower, and frowned.  He loaded his own persona, then, satisfied with his appearance, waited for the others to get ready before the final command sequence was delivered.

Burk said, “Uh, Boss?  We got a problem.  Four suits just came up elevator twelve, they're not in the employee register.  They have priority clearance and our carrying around some serious gear.  Barcode tats on their forehead.  Pretty sure they are z-men.”

Raydin wired, “Damn it!  What tipped them off?”