“Kid, nobody even knows they’re here” Jimmy backpedals and continues back to grab the mag rifle. Jimmy rolls up his suit and pats Dixon on the shoulder, smiling.
“Couple of mag rifles help you boys out?” Gizmo says as he reaches for the gun. “New addition to the armoury since your days, Dixon.” He hands it over. Dixon takes a hold and is instantly impressed at how light it feels. Its design reminiscent of an old AK-47, but with a bit bulkier. The barrel isn’t a cylinder either, four prongs stretch out with a compensator at the end that comes to a sharp point. He turns it in his hand several times.
“You know, I uh-“ Gizmo’s tone turns serious “I’m sorry about what happened to you, Dixon. Real shame about your two angels.” Dixon turns his eyes to Gizmo, they soften a little as he talks.
“I may not get out of here much but I remember seeing you, your girls and Sadie at the park. I always liked you lot, probably one of the only glimmers of something beautiful left in this world. If I had the strength, I’d be out of this chair hunting down the fuckers that did that to you. I’d take every weapon I’ve got here and use it on them.” His cracked lips quiver a little. Dixon does his best to hold it together, resting a hand on Gizmo’s shoulder.
“Thanks, Giz. Sadie always liked hearing the stories of the old days you had to tell. I know the girls would have too”. A lump forms in Dixon’s throat. He pauses, and the two of them share a look of understanding. “Now tell me about this thing” he cocks the gun back in his hands.
Gizmo shakes his head and takes a deep breath. “Lightweight, quiet and super-efficient. If you’ve got a problem with how this thing handles, then the problem is you!” He grabs the gun from Dixon, placing it in his lap, gripping the handle, he flicks a switch on the side of the gun and an LCD window flickers on with “0000” displayed. Gizmo points it at Dixon.
“This baby has multiple fire settings; single, burst, auto and turbo. Flick it up to turbo and she’ll spit out nine hundred needles in around fifteen seconds.” He tilts it to the side, popping the empty clip off easily. “Each clip holds around fifteen hundred needles, so if you do decide to paint a target with holes, keep in mind you’ll be out quick.”
“So why don’t we take a railgun? Used that trusty beast against the riots when Halo wiped out that little village. Worked a treat” Dixon says remembering the rebellious locals who wouldn’t budge. The railgun tearing through the buildings they stayed in, while also keeping anyone close by firmly in their shit stained spot.
“He’s right, Dix. We don’t want to go in guns blazing. That’s too loud. If Lopez has elite Talons guarding him, then he’ll be able to get a hold of back up easily” Jimmy reassures him.
“Railgun - you’ll blow out the walls and ears of everyone in the building. Mag rifle - you’ll be able to wipe out a guy’s insides through three walls and nobody will hear a thing.” Gizmo leans back into his chair, perching his chin on his fist.
“Wipe out?” Dixon asks
Jimmy takes the gun, plugs the clip back in, winks at Dixon. “Incapacitate” He walks further up the aisle and grabs a couple of LAF issue combat blades, tossing one to Dixon. “You got another mag rifle for me that won’t be missed?”
Gizmo stops and raises up to a standing position. “Gentlemen, the last time I saw somebody down here, it was two rookies who were gearing up to go out for a raid in the gallows. One big ugly fuck” he looks at Dixon. “And one scrawnier, slightly less ugly prick.” He looks at Jimmy. “As far as I’m concerned this is all pretty much your stuff. Just leave chuck alone.” Gizmo disappears back into the room he emerged from. Dixon, curious, shouts after him.
“Chuck?” As his voice echoes, he hears a gruff noise. A slow paced pat rings through the silence before a wrinkled and old looking St Bernard peeks out of the doorway. It tilts its head at the sight of Dixon, spotting Jimmy it pants a little.
“Hey Chuck” Jimmy locates another mag rifle under a table, rolls it up in his suit and carries it over his shoulder as he walks away. Dixon follows after Jimmy, looking back at the dog, tilting its head again, it lets out a faint growl of curiosity.
“C’mon Chuck!” Gizmo’s voice shouts. Chuck turns from the doorway and paws off, the door slamming shut behind him.
Chapter 13
“No, he’s not LAF assigned,” Jimmy says to Dixon, before he can ask the question. “Giz found the pup not long after you left. The poor little guy was hiding in the trash behind the precinct. Must have been running from a mod gang wanting him for fights.”
The two of them ascended the stairs and quickly ducked into the staff toilets. Grotty looking, and as abused as Dixon remembered, they spend little time hanging around. Grabbing a stall each and undressing so they can put on the valk-suits.
“The modders use the dogs for fights?” Dixon asks, over the cubicle partition.
“Yup. They jab them and malnourish them so that they get desperate and angry. Toss them in a pit with another poor dog and let them fight it out till one is dead. Thousands of credits get bet on them. Even some high levellers have been spotted at events.” Jimmy explains.
“Sick fucks!” says RJ. Dixon slaps his arm chastising her.
“Yeah, it’s messed up. Not as messed up as when they take the torn up dogs away after the fight, juice them up with adrenaline and mod the dogs. Replace limbs and teeth, almost giving them weapons instead. Eventually, there are too many machine parts and not enough dog left, and it gives out.”
“Bastards!” RJ and Dixon say together.
Covering themselves again in their regular clothes, and exiting, they check how they look in the mirrors.
Adjusting his shoulders and neck, Jimmy remarks, “Not too bulky, heavy though”.
“We’ll get used to them,” Dixon says, as he checks his edges, making sure it doesn’t look too obvious.
Jimmy kinks his mouth left to right. “Feels almost like its itching, and like I should be sweating my balls off in this thing.” Dixon turns and nudges him out of the bathroom.
“That’s just because you’ve never had the build for clothing to stretch around you” He laughs as they leave the precinct and head back towards Jimmy’s car.
“Alright ass-wipe, not everyone was born with your freakishly broad shoulders and frame. I had to work to get in this shape.” Jimmy laughs as he pretends to flex his muscles under his leather jacket. He wasn’t a scrawny man. Jimmy saw it more as a benefit, a hidden strength. “I’m surprised you’re so large still, thought all that destroying yourself would have left you a quivering stack of bones”.
“Hmm,” Dixon reaches the car, opens the door and slides in “that was probably one of the things that kept me sane. Working out while shit faced gave me an angry focus and a stupid lack of control.” He looks down at his hands, cracking his knuckles. “Too drunk to know when to stop.”
As Jimmy turns the key, and the engine whirrs to life, his arm chirps. He pulls his sleeve back and sees a notification alert. Pulling the sleeve back down, he taps a display on the dashboard and a holo-display syncs with his arm. Dixon leans over to get a better look.
“What’s up?” he asks.
“Sadie’s quick! She’s sent through a bunch of files already” Jimmy says surprised.
“Great. We can look them over on the way to Chester’s.” Dixon clenches his fists feeling the armour grip his forearms tightly. He wonders if he could flex through it like he had done with t-shirts when Sadie started dating him. Thinking again he realises, there was no chance he’d be strong enough to break it.
They roll off from the precinct. Jimmy sets the destination into the car’s dashboard and hits the auto-drive. The steering wheel slowly peels back into the dashboard, the gear stick folds down allowing both of them to adjust into a more relaxed position. Jimmy begins filtering down the files received after skimming through the first three. Dixon watches him work away, remembering how much of a stickler for detail he used to be.
“Need any help?” Dixon grumbles. Fully aware
of the response he’ll get.
“Uh, nope. I’m good man” Jimmy says, a dead silence fills the car for five seconds, and then Jimmy raises his head seeing Dixon’s mild frustration. “Come on man, this was how we used to work. You did the heavy lifting and physical force, and I did the pencil pushing.” He smiles supportively.
“Sat there and looked pretty you mean?” Dixon looks from the corner of his eye, edging a sneer.
“Give Sadie a call, maybe she can give us some tips,” Jimmy says, peeling his sleeve back and flicking through a couple of menus. Tapping twice on his arm before burying his head back into the files.
“New contact received” RJ pipes up from Dixon’s arm. “Sadie Knight, hmm. Please don’t go getting drunk and trying to phone her at three in the morning”.
A faint digital sigh emanates from his arm before RJ recalls. “Remember that time I had to call an ambulance because you’d pissed and vomited yourself unconscious while sobbing outside the house you two used to…“
“Shut up and call her!” Dixon thumbs at his arm harshly. RJ’s voice cutting off and the call initiating, Sadie’s name displayed in green with a pulsating circle around it. It pulses four times and then cuts out.
RJ’s voice returns. “No connection available. And I might add, cutting me off is rather ru…“. Dixon pushes the call button again, but the display simply pulses four times again and cuts out.
“I swear you’re either pissed at Sadie, or pissed at me. Just don’t cut me off, would you?” RJ moans. Dixon ignores her.
“Can’t get through, she must be in hiding.” Says Dixon.
“Smart move, if Halo finds out she’s been snooping they’ll go fuck shit crazy,” says Jimmy as he leans back, still focused on the files. “There are four transactions about to go through, and two that passed yesterday that could relate to this merger.”
“Huh?” Dixon shakes his head.
“Look” he warps the holo-display larger for them both to see. “These two properties were transferred from Fenghuang to Halo for next to nothing. They are close to Feng HQ in China.” He swipes through to other files. “And these four are for property going the other way. The two in China are listed as new research and manufacturing sites for Halo. The other four properties, from Halo going to Feng, have perfect tactical advantage for a potential military force to control the entirety of Colorado.”
“What are you thinking?” Dixon asks.
“Well, if the merger goes through, then Fenghuang is going to have what looks like two of the biggest research labs ever next to their home, and Halo is going to have perfect staging grounds for a military force to take control of everyone. Both Colorado and North Eastern China would become totally secure to them.” Jimmy raises his eyebrows. “Stronghold fortresses like that would make it pretty damn easy to push rival territories back.”
“Let’s see what Chester thinks” Dixon nods.
Chapter 14
Driving past the front door of Chester’s building, they turn down an alley. Rubbish and abandoned goods fly up as the car edges down the narrow corridor. Pulling into a small loading dock for an abandoned shop, the two exit the vehicle. A homeless man with an implanted eye wakes, and looks over at them. Dixon motions for him to remain calm, and the eye turns from yellow to blue. The homeless man shakes his head and mumbles some insult, before turning over and returning to sleep.
They sneak along the alleyway, taking the back route to the building, as they reach it Dixon leans against the wall, poking his head out slightly to check if the coast is clear. Jimmy leans against the wall, standing behind Dixon.
“What d’you see?” Jimmy asks.
“Looks clear, oh, wait,” Dixon notices one of the talon guards stepping out from a doorway and looking down either direction of the alley. “One elite, what’s the approach?”
“Spare change?” Jimmy asks as Dixon looks back at him. The two nod.
“I’ve got a very bad feeling about this” RJ says.
They shimmy out into the alleyway in plain sight of the talon guard. His head quickly turns to face them, the lights on his helmet focusing on them for identification. The built-in computer processing them in its digitised voice.
“Two men approach, facial recognition – no result. Statistical analysis enabled. Covered in rags, slumped posture, sloppy footing. Homeless? Highly likely. Inebriated? Highly likely” The talon hears in his helmet. He turns his body to face them.
The mumbles slowly get closer before Dixon speaks up. “Hey, you, Mr, uh, Mr, spare any change for a poor bum” The words not seeming to land with the guard, who reaches into his suit and pulls out a thick rod.
“Back up” The talon orders. Raising a hand as the two continue to close the distance.
“I repeat, back up!” A firmer tone emanates from the helmet with a metallic tone. The guard whips the rod in his hand, it extends further, and arcs of electricity begin shooting up and down it.
As they close in even closer, the guard reaches into his jacket again with his free hand, pulling out a matte black pistol. A gold phoenix leers down the barrel, a gold blade attached to the top and bottom of it shimmers in the light. “Back the fuck up you bums, or this is going to be your worst day”
“Really?” Dixon’s voice breaking from the rasp he put on, to clear arrogance. Both Dixon and Jimmy whip their rags off. They fly into the air as the mag rifles emerge into the light. Within a second both are aimed at the guard. He tries to quickly draw the pistol up to them, but it is too late.
He drops to his knees, as a faint ting is heard in the distance. A small puncture in his suit begins to spit out blood in a rapid stream. A small hole in the helmet also pours red down the smooth black. The faucet of blood from his chest slows down as he falls to the ground. Jimmy looks to Dixon who is almost gasps.
“Fuck me!” Dixon looks at the gun and then back at the disposed of guard, the compensator at the end of Dixon’s mag rifle fizzing as the hot metal singes the dust particles around it. Jimmy’s gun doesn’t fizzle. Looking back at the gun Dixon smiles. Flapping the remaining rags off his arm, he opens the door the guard was protecting and looks back at Jimmy. “C’mon, Kersh” he beckons.
“Think he had any family?” Jimmy asks, staring at the body as it leaks. Dixon reaches to him and pulls him inside, shaking Jimmy back to attention.
“I think we need to get to Chester Lopez and make him spill the details.” Dixon edges to a corner inside the corridor, checking the coast is clear again. He looks back to Dixon who slowly walks behind him. “Besides, I bet the guy didn’t even have a girlfriend, was probably cooked up in some geek lab somewhere”. Jimmy nods and cocks his rifle.
“Yeah, just never killed anyone” explains Jimmy.
“Seen plenty of corpses though” Dixon squares up to Jimmy.
“I’ve seen dead people, people beating the shit out of each other, hell, I watched you obliterate the face of the guy we’re about to go and see. I’ve never seen someone die though.” Jimmy looks up at Dixon, showing the truth in his statement. Dixon stares back for a couple of seconds before blinking and rolling a shoulder.
“Forgot you weren’t at White River when all that shit went down” He manages to stifle a half smile before turning and leading the way around the corner. The corridor is tiled and littered with storage boxes. Eventually, they reach a large metal door with a circular window in it. Peering through, Dixon reports back.
“Kitchen!” The two nod at each other and edge through. People work away not noticing them, the head chef chopping away at some meat, too mangled to decipher. Dixon quickly sneaks up behind him, gun pointed directly at the back of his head he taps his right shoulder. The chef turns around, his rotund figure nearly pushing Dixon away. As he sees both men he inhales sharply, the notices Jimmy with his LAF badge on display. A finger to his lips, he softly shushes the chef.
Grunting and frowning in return, the chef turns back, mumbling in an unknown language and pointing to the door. Jimmy relaxes a
little and looks to Dixon. Both shrug and walk calmly through the kitchen, staff paying little attention apart from stepping out of their way and trying not to drop dishes.
They push through the next set of doors - another corridor. To the right are a set of stairs and the three elevators that Jimmy and Dixon used on their first visit. To the left - the restaurant area of the building. Dixon scoffs as he peers through the window in the door. Several couples sit in large comfortable looking booths, extravagant meals and drinks spread across their tables. Waiters dressed to the nines provide any and every service they can to get a coin thrown their way. It’s dark, but Dixon can make out the sharp eyes of two talon guards at the back of the restaurant area. No doubt there are two standing on the other side of the door.
Jimmy signals the elevator, and it swoops quietly - the doors parting they slip in and press Chester’s floor. Jimmy breathes a little easier once the doors close.
“You were put on White River as a special assignment. You had the better marksmanship scores, and they needed me filling the database back then. How many was it?” Jimmy doesn’t look over to Dixon as he asks. In his peripheral vision he sees Dixon sigh and box his head. It feels like an eternity passes before Dixon speaks.
“Two thousand” He swallows, and looks off into space, remembering the slaughter. LAF was called in to support Halo ground forces during a rush of people from Utah. Rumours had come in of anti-Halo terrorists and Fenghuang collaborators. Orders were to oversee and diffuse potential situations. When they arrived Halo troops had already been overrun; the arrogance of Halo to put twenty rookies with no field experience out there. Dixon’s commanding officer quickly rallied his squad, screaming to open fire on the crowd of colours and voices hurtling at them. Bullets tore through flesh and muscle. Within ten minutes the scene resembled an old war battlefield.
That was the first time that Dixon received prescribed time away from work. The majority of the squad suffered from PTSD; when they rolled the bodies over, they discovered the majority of the crowd were women and children. A few elderly males were also amongst them, a crowd of people who were in actuality, fleeing from the oppressive hardness of Salt Lake City.
Neon Haze: Snakes and Roses Page 7