12.10.2011

Lesson number 9


                The good thing about being on a mission is that you don't have time to slow down and think. No matter how unbelievable the last 10 minutes may have been, the task at hand needs to be completed before you can take measure of the things you've seen. If your companions die, grieve for them after the action, finish your goal, just don't let them die in vain. I used to wonder how my uncle could just pick me up and run away from the rest of the family, leaving them behind.
          As I grew older I had to learn the hard way; you can't save everyone. So I've come away from that focusing on who I can rescue; and vowing to make my enemies pay back every drop of blood spilt, with interest.
          So watching my dad walk out of my life, and into certain death, just strengthen my determination.
          "Marla, that was the former Governor of Isle." I turned to face her. "Is our package ready?"
          Her mouth still hung open from her earlier inquiry. "Uh, yeah," she replied with a visible shake. "Lancer's guy, Maximillian Von Tummy, was able to find the assassin's physical location, catch him and interrogate him. He's being held at the maximum security facility in sector 73. Von Tom says he can get us in sneaky style, but I told him to focus on getting us structural plans on the building, we'd do the rest. He didn't seem to care about it one way or the other. I told him to expect a call at the restaurant you specified."
          "Good." I tapped my wrist, activating my communicator, "Time to go with the flow." Having given the order to initiate phase two of the mission, I lead the way out.
*                  *                  *
          "We are in queue for planet landing in three quarts." Trevor calls out from his console. "The Cloud Nine Tour alias was accepted. That cruise ship seems to have successfully stymied our capture of the Hawkins heir. There is news that Henry Hawkins has cut his vacation short and is en route to Cuvette Petit, where the cruise is scheduled to disembark."
          "So only father dearest knows something is up. Thankfully his pride wouldn't let Hawkins put a price on my head. He likes keeping things personal. Even if he finds out we have his boy, he won't know where we are. The second assassin wouldn't expect us to go to the first, so we should be in the clear on Chimera Moon."
          Marla and Jean-Pierre undo the straps securing them in place, then head off to collect their gear. April, at the console next to Trevor, pulls a container off the ground.
          I disconnected myself from my amended dentist chair. "Crew Status?"
          "May and June are prepping the Instruments. Ralph is setting the escape, and back up plans in place. Mad Max is contacting the blokes we were scheduled to pick up next. Dr. Tuan is prepping surgery, he said he's familiar enough with the questioning procedures of most corporations, that he wants to be completely prepared."
          "And how are our guests?"
          "Geoffrey an Horace are in the gym, working off steam. Oh, boss lady, the old man said to give this to you and ask that you meet him in the gym." She lobbed the small object through the air. I caught it easily, and began to open it.
          "Wait," April continued "until you get there, he said."
*                  *                  *
          From the hallway in front of the training room I could hear the sounds of rigorous practice. The doors parted to reveal young Hawkins, back to the door, following the same drills I did as a youth. He stood feet apart, arms raised, knife held blade down in his left hand. He made a series of slashes, turning his wrist as he did. The knife, the same blade Geoffrey had presented for his oath, had stylized hooks along the back edge; when twisted in flesh, the hooks had a tendency to pull and twist whatever tissue was nearby. Horace continued his routines, focusing all his attention on his movements and balance. I walked across the room to where the elder gentleman stood watching.
          "Has he been training long?" I asked.
          "No, and yes. I've just given him the Söz knife and shown him two techniques this morning. However, his father, and bodyguards have been teaching him various fighting styles over the years."
          "Is he good?"
          "He is mediocre." Until now, we'd been watching the lad, but now Geoffrey turned to me. "His skill has been limited by his training, which was undisciplined and sloppy." His face contorted on the last word as though the very memory of those previous training sessions left a foul taste in his mouth. " I was hoping, that along with his history lessons, you'd consider fighting lessons as well."
          "I'll think it over. I've always had a crew that could handle themselves, so I've never taught anyone anything. The way things stand now, we don't even know how much time we have before..." I trailed off as I wondered how to word killing Horace's father.
          "Yes, well, I shall see to whatever I can for the boy." He quickly filled in the gap. "I know you have many things to set right." He smiled softly.
          "I, and my crew, will help however we can. Just don't expect a proper schedule, or anything like that."
          "Of course, my lady. If you have a few moments, I'd like to start now?" I nodded yes and we walked over to face Horace.
          "Your blades, for a moment, please." Geoffrey asked of the boy and myself. We complied and handed them over.
          He held up, side by side, so that the raised edge of one fit into the engraved lines of the other. "These two blades were forged to work in concert. One is for attack, and the other for defense. Together there is almost no battle that can be won against the person who wields these, if they can handle them properly.:
          "Uh, why did you say almost?" Horace asked.
          Geoffrey then flipped the knives with a nice little flourish, and presented them, hilt out, to the boy. "Because there are three ways to finish a battle. Win, loose, or offer peace. Likewise there are three kinds of people in life. There are weapons," he handed my knife back to me, "there are shields," he then handed one to Horace, "and there is the olive branch."

12.01.2011

City of Walls:Ch. 14


   I did not realize it's been since the end of September, since Ch. 13 came out. I had a few illnesses, busy times, and just plain feet dragging with this chapter. It's a little boring, so feel free to make recommendations, or criticisms.




         The wind whipped my hair behind me, as we cruised down Henderson. I should get it cut, probably have  split ends. In the air two meters ahead, and two above the pavement, a bright neon red arrow pointed the way. It had been ages since I'd used anything other than a podtran1 to go anywhere, so using my netlinks2 directional guide seemed like a good idea. Sonj followed a bit behind me on her personal bike, a little purple number with plenty of places to latch things on. I pedaled the cherry red one, that had turned out to be the newest addition to the city's inventory, its seat was comfy, and it wasn't too tall. Hopefully Pablo can give me some time to rearrange my financials. Now that I'm working in the neighborhood, it'd be nice to have more options than just my feet.
          A block ahead of us was the hexwall3, just past the Tarrant County College's Downtown Campus, and before the bridge over the Trinity River. The roadway, as well as the MagRail4, was wide open and clear. I double tapped my lipmic5 with my tongue, initiating the short range communicator. Sonj responded, "Yeah?"
          "The turn is right after the bridge, then it should be about 3 minutes to the place."
          After a pause I heard a beep from my ocular receiver, then a response from Sonj. "Kay, then what are the plans for after that?"
          We came to a stop at the light just before the wall. "Well it's about 3:30 right now, and I figure assembling the bot could take a few hours. Grab a bite then head back to the spot where I ran into with the modrpunks6?" If we finish by 5:30 we can beat the rush to La Familia.
          A pause, then a beep, "Sounds good. Do you know what's good in the area?"
          "I've got something in mind." The light turned green and we passed through the opening in the northwest face side of the Downtown Hex7.
          We had encountered little traffic of any variety on Henderson; what little movement there was raced by overhead at the height of 38 meters. That all changed once we crossed the bridge and turned on White Settlement Rd. Physical & Digital Storage, our destination, was at the edge of a light industrial region, and was just few blocks from the border with the Cultural District Hex.8 Here older model hybrid trucks, electric cars, and bicyclists occupied the traffic lanes. It's a good thing my netlink** monitors distance. I'd probably get in another bikers space and cause a wreck. I think I was 12 the last time I rode a bike. The remainder of our trek was easy and without event.
          We pulled into the parking lot beside the storage facility, which took up easily half the block.
          "Mmm, something smells good." Sonj said as she chained both our bikes to the cyclone fence.
          "Yeah, that's Angelo's. Good BBQ, but a bit on the spicy side."
          "Spicy? Uh, never mind, I tend to prefer my sauce sweet, not spicy."
          "Come on, we got work to do." I led the way into the store.
          We entered a room not more than one meter squared. A counter ran from the left to the right side of the room; behind it on either side of the room were two doors leading to the rest of the building. When the door closed behind us a small bell rang, after that a woman in her forties entered from the right door.
          "Welcome, how can I help you?" She asked, laying her hands on the counter.
          "Hi. I'm Tara Harris. I have some things here." As I spoke her fingers flexed across the surface of the counter, and her eyes unfocused for a moment. "I was wanting to take a few items out."
          "Of course dearie." Her eyes once again focused on us, "Ms. Harris, I'll need to see some ID."
          I detached a pearl from one of the bracelets on my left wrist. Handing it over I said, "There's a certified ID document from the Russian Embassy on that storage pearl." She took the proffered gem and placed in on the counter top between us. With a tap of her fingers, a bright light flashed from the counter. Once the scan was over she handed the pearl back, and resumed massaging information from the computer embedded in the counter top.
          "OK Ms. Harris. According to our records your sector just had its monthly cleaning. I'll grant your visitor a guest pass. Just one moment while that gets processed." She turned around and a portion of the wall behind her turned transparent, revealing what looked like a slot, keyboard, and a scanner. She held up her right wrist, with a bar-coded bracelet, to the scanner. When a small ping sounded from behind the wall she typed on the keyboard. Her actions were rewarded with a small silver card emerging from the slot beside the keyboard. She took the card and turned back around when the returned to its original opacity level.
          "Alright then ladies, if you'll just follow me." She said as she handed over the card. She then opened small door built in the counter at the left side of the room. We followed her through the door and down a long hallway, finally stopping in front of a door marked 258.
          "Here we are, the key-card will let you in. When you are ready to leave, there are arrows on the wall pointing you back to the main office. The ladies room is two doors to the right. There is also an intercom in the room if you need anything." Her duties complete, she started walking back down the hall.
          As I unlocked the door, Sonj spoke.
          "It's not gonna be like some freaky old time lab with sparks flying, and cobwebs everywhere is it?"
          "It's just a storage room. Sides, the lady said they just cleaned, so no cobwebs." I open the door to revel a work bench on the left side of the room, space to maneuver in front of it, and boxes filling the other three walls. A peg board lined with tools hung on the wall above the workbench.
          "I hope you know exactly where your little robot is." Sonj said as I closed the door behind us.
          "Don't worry," I said as I grabbed a clipboard hanging beside the wall, "There's an inventory of everything."


1Powered Transportation; latest iteration of the "smart car". Runs on bioelec energy supplied by the user, or purchased with credit. Travels overhead on magnified rails.

2Personal Computing Accessory; highly customizable, jewelry like device which uses biological electricity converted from the user to sustain itself. Basic units consist of a synthetic data crystal, conversion chain, ring emitter, and gyroscope ring. Additional components include inner ear and occular ear receivers, conversion arm ring, bracelets, power storage bracelets, and specialized gems.

3The side, or "face" of one hexagonal dome.

4Magnified Rail System. Located at 35 m above ground, and following all major roadways.

5Lip ring with microphone jewel; a typical component of a netlink set.

6A cultural movement pertaining primarily of young peopled aged 16-26, using modified, "hacked", nannites.

7Region, or neighborhood of a city covered by a hexagonal dome. Specifically, the Downtown District of Fort Worth.

8 Region, or neighborhood of a city covered by a hexagonal dome. Specifically, the Cultural District of Fort Worth.