“Bring him in alive if possible.” Wesley paused here, not lacking the knowledge of what he was going to say next but emphasizing the following words. “If he refuses, the other way as well.”
I stood in the dilapidated room, chipped walls produced from the first wave of the colossal 3D printers to reach the moon. Like the rest of the building it was bare, bruised and broken, if a compound could be described as such.
The only item in the room was a black disk projecting my handler’s image in front of me. Wesley eyed me with indifference, watching, studying, searching for even the slightest hint of hesitation.
“I understand,” I told him. “I’ll get it done.”
“I know you will,” Wesley said, removing a cigar from the inside pocket of his long jacket. “Angel will provide you with an eye in the sky. Preacher will have the rest of the Pack on standby if you need backup but, Daniel, make no mistake, this is a test. Your first solo run as a member of the Pack.”
I set my jaw and nodded. I understood everything Wesley was and was not saying. He knew I could operate with the rest of the unit in near perfect harmony. We were all killers; together, we were unstoppable. That was why this was such a test for me. Wesley and the Immortal Corporation board wanted to make sure I was just as good on my own as I was with a team.
“All right,” Wesley said, bringing out a handheld torch and puffing on the end of his cigar. “Your target is Doctor Fredrick Enzo.”
The hologram projection that had shown Wesley a moment before shifted now to an image of a middle-aged balding man who couldn’t be pushing more than five feet tall.
“Doctor Enzo was contracted by Immortal Corporation to facilitate the creation of a wearable AI code named ‘Apocalypse’,” Wesley continued as the image shifted from Doctor Enzo to files and pictures of computers and robots. “For a time, everything was fine. He submitted his progress reports as agreed upon. Then three weeks ago, he fell off the grid. Nothing. Until now. We’ve tracked him to a warehouse five blocks from here. Find him, bring him in. If that’s not possible, then end him and bring in what he’s been working on.”
More images crossed the hologram, showing another beaten-down building in this section of town lovingly referred to as New Ranch. An aerial view laid out a diagram of the path I could take to get there. I committed every detail to memory.
“Questions?” Wesley asked, the image transitioning back to him. Billows of cigar smoke seeped between his lips as if he were some kind of mythical dragon. There was no doubt in my mind that the man who had recruited me was just as deadly as the serpent of old.
“Only one,” I answered. “We have artificial intelligence already. We have robots. Why is this specific AI Doctor Enzo was working on so important?”
“That’s code-phrase classified,” Wesley answered without a second thought. “What I can tell you is that no artificial intelligence to date is able to interface with its user on the level Doctor Enzo was working on. That’s all I’ve got for you on that. I could show you the file, but all the good stuff would be redacted anyway.”
“Understood.”
“Daniel.”
“Sir.”
“The strength of the wolf is the pack.”
“The strength of the pack is the wolf.”
“Send me,” Wesley ended with our mantra.
“Send me,” I answered.
The hologram clicked close. Wesley vanished without so much as a goodbye.
“Jeez, he up and left you without even a high five. Come on,” Angel sounded via the wearable comm in my right ear. “You ready for this?”
“I’m ready,” I answered, walking the three steps to the puck-sized projector and placing it in my pocket. “I’m going now, unless you see something I don’t.”
“You’re good to go,” Angel confirmed. “Nothing besides a few local drug dealers on the streets, probably pushing Crank or Amp. “Did he even give you a weapon?”
“I am the weapon,” I answered, determined.
“Okay, calm down there.” Angel chuckled.
I moved out of the room and down the stairwell to the bottom floor. The whole building smelled like a mixture of mold and urine. This new world humanity had built on the moon under their domes was far from the Utopia we had been promised. The Galactic Government had lied, but what else was new?
I moved through the front door to the building, or rather, where the front door would have been if it were there anymore. Outside, it was bright, the twin domes overhead, which sat in the sky like blue-hued guardians, protecting us from the black vacuum of space.
Our habitat was a concrete jungle made by machines, not man. Most everything was gray or black concrete. The occasional still-working neon sign was the only thing to break up the monotony of the area. Humanity’s last attempt to combat the drab environment that had been created for us.
This part of town, New Ranch, was mostly bare. No one came here unless they were hiding from someone, had nowhere else to go, or were part of the underground crime worlds that lived in the shadows of our own.
“You’ll head three blocks north and then two blocks east,” Angel coached in my ear. “Outside of the thugs on the corner of the street two blocks up, you’re clear.”
“Copy,” I answered, seeing the men in question. There were five of them hanging out on the sidewalk. They had already spotted me.
I had nothing to prove. In fact, I understood enough at this point of my life that I actively shied away from conflict whenever I could. Trouble brought the Galactic Government and questions I knew I couldn’t answer. My training had been complete. I was no one and everyone.
To this end, I crossed the street and planned on passing them on the opposite side. I didn’t stare. I didn’t challenge. I was no one, just moving along my way.
Up to this point, I had been a good boy. Head forward or down, minding my own business. I could feel the eyes of the men on me from the other side of the street. Gangs like this could be territorial.
Angel said it in my ear before I had the opportunity. “Maybe we should have gone around them.” Angel sucked air through her teeth. “They are eyeing you like a grass-fed steak.”
“Please never say that again,” I answered, continuing my walk. I had drawn parallel to the men on the other side of the street. I was almost there. Just one foot in front of the other; I would continue on and eventually make my right and be beyond them.
Just when I was about to reach the corner of the street, a group of kids appeared on my left. I say “kids” because they were younger than me, but in reality, they were in their teens, perhaps late teens at that.
They were well-dressed, sticking out like a Galactic Government dropship in the middle of our destroyed Earth. The one that led the way looked me up and down and moved on. Behind him, a guy and two girls of the same age looked anything but sure of themselves. Their eyes were as large as twin moons as they passed me and headed to the group of men across the street.
“Ray-Ray, I don’t like this,” one of the girls said to the boy leading the way. “We should go back.”
“Yeah, you didn’t say it was this far into the slums,” the other boy pleaded.
“Will you two please stop being such cripping babies,” Ray answered “Come on, we’ll get some stem and be out of here.”
“The youth of today,” Angel sighed. “So misguided. I see bad skin and missing teeth in their futures.”
I didn’t disagree. Part of me wanted to step in to make sure the kids would be all right, but that wasn’t my mission. My mission led me another block up and then two blocks to my right.
“Woohoo, what do we have here,” the drug dealers started crooning at the pair of younger girls. “Ray-Ray, you didn’t say you were bringing skin to trade.”
“No, we have credits, just want some more stem and we’ll be gone,” Ray answered.
Just keep walking, Just keep walking, I told myself in my head. This is not your problem. This has nothing to do with you.
“Well, maybe we’re going to create a new deal, Rich Boy Ray-Ray,” a deep voice cackled. “Stem for the girls. Don’t worry, we’ll be gentle.”
I was halfway up the next block. Just another half block and turn to my right and it would be someone else’s problem.
“No,” Ray shouted.
One girl screamed and then the other.
I turned right and hesitated.
“Daniel,” Angel warned. “Daniel, don’t do it. An incident could be reported to the GG. We’ll have Praetorians all over this place.”
“No, let her go!” Ray shouted.
The commotion had drawn out inquisitive eyes from some of the surrounding buildings. Homeless, the degenerate and destitute were all willing to search for the trouble but unwilling to intervene.
If I said I stopped in the middle of the street for some noble purpose, I’d be lying. The truth was, it was instinct. It was as though I didn’t even have to think about it at all. I just stopped, every muscle in my body following what my heart knew was the right thing to do while my mind told me to keep walking.
“Oh no,” Angel sighed. “You’re going to do it, aren’t you?”
I took a long breath and fully turned around.
The scene in front of me was pretty much what I expected. All four youths were hemmed in by the five thugs. The one giving all the orders was young, with a gold tooth and tattoos crawling up his neck.
He was slapping around Ray at the moment, asserting dominance. He didn’t notice me stop and turn, but one of his lackeys did. The lackey in question nudged his boss and jerked his chin toward me.
One of the girls was crying, the other seemed defiant.
“What?” the leader rang out, looking at me with indifference. “You got a staring problem?”
I didn’t say anything. To be honest, I still wanted no part of what was about to go down. I had a mission to complete and Angel was right. This could go bad and the GG would come down on us in a hurry. I walked back toward the group without saying a word.
When I didn’t answer, this seemed to irritate the leader. He stalked forward, lifting his baggy sweater to show a handgun shoved in his waistband. He acted like the display was supposed to impress me. The only thing that impressed me was the kind of gun he carried, a TTI Hyperion Mark 7. It was the latest and greatest from the top weapons manufacturer and came with a healthy price tag.
“I said, you got a problem?” he asked, coming within a few feet of me.
I was wrong before; he had more than one gold tooth. The tattoos on the left side of his neck were of a snake.
“No,” I told him, as calm and cool as ever. “I don’t have a problem. And I’m trying so very hard to mind my own business, but you, you’re making that incredibly difficult for me.”
The guy gawked at me like I was slow. He leaned in and squinted, staring into first one eye and then the other like he couldn’t decide if I was being serious.
“You know who I am?” he asked, still open-mouthed, squinting at me like I had brain damage.
“No, I do not,” I answered.
“I’m the Viper, man. I own this street,” he said, shaking his head like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “You’re breathing right now because I deem it so.”
“Is that right?” I asked.
“You know what,” Viper said, reaching for the weapon at his waistband. He pointed it at my forehead. “Maybe I won’t let you live after all.”
“Or you can let them go.” I nodded to the kids. “You can let them go and we can all go our separate ways. I have a—meeting to get to, and you, you need to make better life choices.”
Viper looked at me like he couldn’t believe his ears. He looked back for the slightest moment, about to mouth something to his fellow lowlifes. I moved like lightning.
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