Annabella smiled a half-smile that barely registered.
“Okay, you check out,” she said.
Prime looked confused.
“Whilst we’ve been talking, our security has been checking data against you. As soon as you entered the building, our facial recognition software has been tracking your whereabouts for the last 72 hours. Lucky for you, a street camera picked you up walking down the Boulevard at the time Simon was killed. I can’t say I trust you completely, as there is minimal information on you, but you didn’t kill Simon.”
Prime let out a breath he didn’t realise he was holding.
Lucky! If they’d checked any of your biometrics to any of Persephone’s from the crime scene, she’d have a different opinion of you, don’t you think?
“Great, I’m glad we have that sorted out,” he kept his composure.
“So, you want to see Simon’s last movements?” Annabella pulled a tablet from her jacket and skimmed it across the table. It came to rest in front of Prime. “Every last step is on there, up until about half an hour before he was killed.
Prime spun the tablet around and tapped on the screen. A map was on the display, a line depicting the route of Simon’s last steps.
“We have him last at a body shop on the Boulevard before his transmitter went quiet.”
“That’s a good place to start,” Prime said, standing up from the table.
“Hey, where do you think you're going?”
“To the body shop.”
“Not without me, you’re not, not until I know exactly what’s going on here.”
That’s not a good idea.
Prime shrugged, pushing the tablet back across the table.
“Fine by me, just don’t get in my way.”
“Who is this Persephone to you anyway?”
“Unfortunately, that’s not something I’m willing to divulge. You might not trust me, but I don’t trust you either, Annabella.”
“Well, at least we have an understanding. But call me Bella,” she said as they entered the lift.
*
Bella kept her eye on Prime as they made their way to the reception foyer. As they walked through the receptionist looked over at eyeing them curiously.
“Karen, let Mr. Silverstone know that I’m heading out to investigate Simon’s disappearance and may be gone some time,” Bella said as they reached the door, meeting the receptionist's eyes, saying more than the words she spoke.
Karen nodded and made a note on her computer. ‘May be gone some time’ was their code for ‘activate tracking systems.’ Something that had saved Bella’s life more often than she cared to admit.
They stepped onto the street outside as falling snow continued to cover the pavement in a white blanket.
“Shall we get an AutoCab?” Bella asked, already hailing one from her PDA.
“Sure,” Prime nodded.
Almost immediately, a cab pulled up, a fine spray of snow trailing in the wake of its electric exhaust port. The door slid open with a stuttered start, the cold causing the motor to stick. Once inside, the silence between seemed to grow uncomfortably. Prime was looking out of the window, the lights casting shadows that danced across his face.
“How long have you been tracking Persephone?” she finally asked, breaking the silence.
Prime didn’t stop looking out of the window as he spoke, his voice distant.
“A few months, she’s been coaxing me to find her. Testing me.”
“Testing you? For what?” Bella asked. Prime paused as though listening to something she couldn’t hear.
“I don’t know. She just seems to know me,” he replied, trying to deflect the question.
“Listen,” Bella said with authority, “I know we don’t exactly trust each other, but I think we both know we’re on the same side here. You don’t want to tell me everything, fine, that’s your prerogative. But if we are going to investigate this together, we need to at least be on the same goddamn page.”
Prime looked at her, his focus entirely on her now.
“So, I want you to be honest with me here. Is this Persephone something personal to you? A sister? Jilted lover? So that I know, in case things get dicey further down the line. If she is this Prime Killer, then she’s killed a lot, and if my life is at risk, I’m not taking any chances!”
Prime paused again before nodding in defeat.
“Not sister, not exactly, but you could say we’re related,” he said.
“Okay, she’s family, I get it. Is there going to be an issue if we have to do something to stop her? ‘Cause, we might have to act before we think,” Bella held Primes’ eye contact.
“No, we need to stop her,” Prime didn’t hesitate.
“Good, I’m glad we cleared that up, Reilly” Bella extended a hand to Prime.
“Likewise,” Prime took the hand and shook it.
*
The AutoCab pulled up to the curb, the BodyShop was in the Boulevard's GigaCity district, and it was peak shopping hours and the crowds were out in force despite the weather. Though the Boulevard itself was cleared of snow, the glistening of falling flakes caught the neon lights twinkling in the air as Bella and Prime got out of the car and headed towards the shop.
The BodyShop was illuminated in dark blue, a neon Vitruvian man was rotating in the window display, each limb with an Augmentation creating the neo-Vitruvian man that was the shop's logo.
“The tracker says Simon went in here, but it doesn’t look like he came out,” Bella said, double-checking the tablet.
“Hmm, so either he was killed in here-” Prime began.
“Or the tracker was removed inside. They’d have the tech to do it,” Bella finished.
They walked through the doors into the BodyShop, the sounds of the Boulevard became a muffled silence as the doors hissed closed behind them. The entrance was decorated on the left with a large floor-to-ceiling glass tank of water, inside several artificial fish swam back and forth, their light cascading in a rainbow of colours. Inside the shop, rows of booths ran along each side of the room. The pods were designed for people to sit inside to upgrade and diagnose their current implants. Each was private and fully enclosed, but as they walked past, they could tell which were occupied as beams of light illuminated from inside.
“You have any implants?” Bella asked casually as they passed the pods.
Prime laughed, while he had none of the usual augmentations, the design of his brain, and the biotech that was inside it could be classed as such. He decided that this wasn’t something to go into right now.
“Nah, never got any myself.”
“None at all? Not even a PDA or Medi?” She said, referring to the Personal Display Augment and Medical units which were the most common augmentations.
“Nope,” he said, raising his PAD unit for her to see.
“Huh, I’ve not seen one of those in years, you remind me of a friend of mine,” Bella laughed, looking at Prime sideways.
You’re really enjoying playing the mystery man card here, aren’t you Peter mocked.
They reached the counter at the far end of the room. Behind it, a large man in a black tank top stood. His shoulders were almost perfectly square and made of silver metal. Both his arms were a similar smooth metal. While most of his face was flesh, both his eyes were made of circular lenses, which flexed in and out as they focused on the two approaching him.
“Hello,” the man said. His voice was modulated slightly.
“Hi there,” Bella said, smiling.
“What can I help you with today?” the man’s voice sang out like an auto-tuned lounge singer.
“We’re looking for someone. They would have been in here two days ago,” Prime said.
“Oh, I don’t know if I can help. We have a lot of people through these doors in a day.”
Bella placed the tablet on the counter. A motion picture of Simon on it showed him smiling and waving before looping back again.
“This man, his last kno
wn location was right here,” she said, her tone becoming threatening but still calm.
The man watched her for a moment, then turned the tablet round to look at it. He paused, his eyes refocusing on the picture, then pushed it back.
“Sorry, I can’t say I remember seeing them.”
“Have a closer look. I want you to be very sure,” Bella moved the tablet back slowly.
The man cleared his throat; the modulation tried to alter it, making it sound like birdsong.
“I’m sorry, I can’t help you,” the man insisted.
This is taking too long; let’s just torture him! You can see he’s nervous about something.
Before Bella could speak again, Prime raised a hand to stop her.
“He’s scared of something,” Prime said, “Look at his eyes.”
The man’s lens eyes were in flux, extending and retracting at a rapid pace, like a nervous twitch.
“What are you scared of?” Bella said. “You know what happened to this man, don’t you?”
“I…Oh, shit,” the voice sang out.
A crash from behind them forced them to turn around.
Finally, some action!
Two of the pods had been thrown open, the doors flying off their hinges as a man and a woman rose out of them. Each had several augmentations, the man’s right hand a solid chunk of metal like the end of a hammer. The woman was crouched, cat-like, with hunched legs.
“You should have just left,” the man said.
“I know you,” the woman purred, looking at Bella with a motion like that of a prowling feline.
“Sure, when you kidnapped my boss’s daughter. I beat you then, maybe you’ll fare better this time,” Bella said, drawing a pistol from a holster on her hip.
“We ain’t got time for games,” he growled, as he swung his hammer-fist around, smashing a pod to his side before rushing towards them.
Chapter Seven
Julian
Julian had been doing as much research as he could into Thomas Keller. After reading the article, he’d immediately checked the Blackwater Prison systems. Hacking directly into the prison's records, he studied the current population of the prison. Keller was still a registered inmate, as he had been since the end of his trial fifteen years ago.
Julian decided to go a step further, accessing the prison’s security cameras. It was a slightly riskier move as most government systems had reverse trackers embedded within them that could locate the source of any hacks and attack the hacker's own systems, but Julian was confident that the encryptions he and Quartzig had created were more sufficient to protect them. While the hack was taking place, Julian pulled up his virtual notebook. The notebook only existed in virtual space, and only he could see it by looking through his bio-locked goggles. It allowed him to write anything, anywhere and was completely encrypted. He added several key details about Keller to the book. If this led somewhere, it could easily become a major news article for him to report on.
The prison cameras flickered into view as the hack completed its circumvention of the prison system. Julian waved the notebook away and turned to look at the screens. Each camera showed a small area of the prison, covering the entrance through to the living quarters in each section of the prison. He flicked through them one by one, trying to find Keller’s cell.
Several of the cameras didn’t show anything of interest, automated sentry guards patrolling, a handful of empty rooms. Then he started looking at the cameras covering the cells, and each one covered four cells at a time. Inside each, he could see the prisoners sat on their beds. He kept looking through them. They weren’t numbed, so he didn’t know which was Kellers’ cell, but something caught his eye. Checking several cameras, he flicked back and forth to compare them. They all showed the same situation. On every camera, the prisoners were all sat on the centre of their beds, their feet over the side, staring at the wall opposite. He checked more of the cells. Twelve of the prisoners in total were in exactly the same position, like statues, just sat there.
“What the hell are they doing?” he said to himself.
He leaned in closer to the screen, trying to see if there was anything else in the rooms. A warning light flashed on the keyboard under the monitor coupled with an audio alert.
“Shit!”
The light indicated that his signal was being traced. Someone was backtracking the connection. He needed to disconnect immediately, a large red button was set-up for this exact situation, and he slammed his fist on it. Instantly the connection severed triggering a complete network shutdown. Julian’s fingers flew across the keys as he did a quick diagnostic check. It didn’t look like the connection had been tracked all the way back and had been cut off at a rerouting substation he’d set up.
“How the hell did they manage to break through the encryption?” he said out loud with a sigh. Looking back at the monitor, the last recorded image was frozen, captured just as he’d hit the disconnect. A chill ran down his neck as his eyes scanned the picture.
One of the prisoners who had been sat down was now stood-up at the edge of his cell. Looking directly at Julian, or rather the camera, a smile lurking on the edges of his lips. It was as if he’d know he was being watched. Julian stared at the man, his eyes locked on the image. Somehow, he knew it was Keller.
The sound of the apartment door opening made his heart jump, and he nearly lost his balance.
Ally and Quartzig came into the apartment. Ally was still dazed by what had happened at the clinic.
“You guys okay?” Julian said, leaving the comms room and walking into the main living area.
“I think so,” Quartzig said as Ally moved towards the bathroom. The blood spots that were on her face and hands had begun to dry and crust on her skin. Julian looked at her, concern in his eyes.
“It’s not mine,” she said, closing the bathroom door. The sound of the shower began shortly after.
“She’ll be okay,” Quartzig said to Julian, who nodded. He was just glad they’d both got back safely.
“I want you to look at something,” he said, heading back into the comms room and hitting a transmit button. All the information he’d gathered was sent directly to Quartzig. “What do you make of that?”
Quartzig tilted his head slightly to the side, the transmission coming into his receivers as he examined the information Julian had just sent him.
“Interesting, so Keller is still in the prison. How did they manage to start tracing the signal?”
“I thought you might be able to get to the bottom of that. It was way too fast to be the usual government equipment,” Julian walked over to the window, looking out at the Metro below.
“I’ll see if I can get anything from the signal data.”
“Do you think the woman that attacked Ally could have been some sort of Copycat killer? Using the Keller name as a reason for their own murders?” Julian asked.
“No, that woman changed; it was like she wasn’t the same person we found in the lab,” Ally said as she stepped out of the bathroom, her hair damp and wearing a dressing gown.
“I agree. The woman we found was genuinely terrified by what she had done,” Quartzig said.
“So what was it?” Julian watched his reflection in the window. The image of Keller staring back at him kept playing in his mind.
“We need to find her again, but be ready for her next time,” Ally said, getting a bottle of vodka from a shelf.
“Okay, let’s see if we can track her down. Whatever this is, we need more information.”
“On it,” Quartzig moved into the comms room, hacking into the MPD systems to see if he could track the woman once the police had arrived at the scene.
Ally moved next to Julian, brushing his arm.“Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Julian laughed slightly. She was the one who had just been covered in blood.
“I’m okay, just this Keller guy,” he sent the image of him looking at the camera to Ally’s PDA. “It’s
like he knew I was watching him on the cameras.”
“That’s impossible,” Ally said, passing him her glass.
“Thanks,” he took a sip, letting the alcohol burn slowly roll down his throat.
Ally PDA pinged a muted alarm, an incoming call. She lifted it and hit answer.
“Hello?”
“Ally!? Is that you? We need help, like NOW!” Mollies’ voice shouted through the unit.
“Mollie? Where are you?”
“I’m sending you the location, please hurry-”
The call cut off, and a map marker pinged on the screen, a warehouse in the centre of the MegaTown district.
“What the hell?” Julian pulled up his PAD.
“See if you can find her,” Ally said as she rushed into the bedroom to get dressed, her PDA beeping with another call as she went.
Using the location Mollie had sent, he had begun to hack into anything he could find, from security cameras to delivery drones. He scrolled through the views as fast as he could. He couldn’t see anything.
“I can’t get any visuals,” he called out.
“That was Prime,” Ally said, returning dressed and hanging up the call, “he’s on his way too.”
“Prime? We haven’t heard from him in weeks! Where’s he been?” Quartzig asked, stepping out of the comms room, having heard the commotion.
“He didn’t say, just asked where we were heading. He sounded worried,” Ally replied.
“Strange timing,” Julian said, almost to himself.
“C’mon, let’s go,” Ally said, walking towards the door, Quartzig close behind.
“Stay safe. I’ll see what I can find,” Julian headed into the comms room and began to hook into the systems again. Once the others had left, Julian started to access every camera he could, tracking their location and the one Mollie had sent them. He hoped he could find something, anything that would give them some clue as to what was going on.
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