“I’ll see if I can get any kind of aerial view-” Julian began to say over the comms when the signal suddenly went dead, and the hiss of white noise filled his ears. Something had blocked the transmissions to the others.
Julian retried the connection, but nothing was coming through. Their communications were set to a very specific system. A link that Quartzig should be able to get through anywhere and anything. They had redesigned the system after the Fall, allowing them to connect even into the Underpass, and so far it had been flawless.
That’s the second time something has affected our systems. Julian thought, re-checking for the third time.
He looked over to the work Quartzig had begun on tracing the Prison signal, wondering if there was a connection between the signal issues. Quartzig had started tracing the source of the feed from the Prison, looking for its origin. But something wasn’t right. The signal wasn’t tracking back to Blackwater but to somewhere in the city itself.
“Oh shit,” Julian whispered to himself, sliding over to the console to check it properly. The tracer showed that the signal was being relayed from the prison to a separate device, one that was in the middle of the Boulevard.
Julian continued to pick up more signals that lead back to the same point. A spider web of lines illuminated the screen, showing relay points. Signals were coming from all over the city, each of them leading to one point before heading towards the prison.
That’s a hell of a lot of data being transferred between the city and the Prison.
A warning alarm flooded the room in red light, and a klaxon rang out. The perimeter alarm of the apartment has been activated.
Julian had set up the system to alert if anyone entered the apartment that wasn’t already scanned into the bio-data system, and the alarm meant someone had just tripped it.
He switched a camera on, and a video feed of the main area inside the apartment flickered into view. A woman was walking around the room. He looked closer at the figure, who turned towards the comms room. She had long black hair tied back in a tight ponytail, and her skin seemed slightly pale, which was highlighted by black make-up around her lips and eyes. He was sure he recognised her but couldn’t place where.
The door opened, and the woman stood, framed in the light of the entrance.
She stepped forwards into the room. The red light was still glowing from the alarm and gave her pale skin a red glow.
“Julian, nice place you have. I don’t think I’ve ever been here,” she said, glancing around the room.
“I’m sorry, do I know you?” Julian asked.
“It’s okay, Julian. I appreciate you and all you did for me. After all, if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be here.” The woman moved closer.
“What?” Julian looked confused.
“Oh, of course, you don’t recognise me. You saved me from prison, sort of, so I do owe you a debt.”
“Peter?” Julian’s eye widened, not understanding.
The woman smiled and winked.
“Bingo. Well, not quite. I prefer Persephone these days. I have Peter’s memories from when he transferred his dying mind into mine before the Fall.”
“The female clone? The one who killed Owens!” The pieces fell into place in Julian’s mind.
“That’s the one, fully loaded with Peter’s memories, though I’m very much my own woman. The transfer wasn’t quite complete, he was dying after all, but all those fragments merged with my own mind to create something better,” Persephone smiled again, picking up a glass of water that was on the counter next to her. Taking a slow, deep drink, she finished the glass.
Julian lunged to the side, grabbing a small welding torch, the only item he could think to get.
“Stay back!” he shouted, lighting the flame.
Persephone laughed for a second, the sound was almost sympathetic, then she threw the glass at Julian. The force of the throw caused it to shatter across the side of his face, shards of glass sticking into the flesh.
“You know, I always liked you. My saviour from Prison. That’s why I chose you, Julian. You are going to be the catalyst.”
Julian was trying to clear the glass from his face, wincing in pain as he brushed the shards, which scratched deeper causing blood to weep from the lacerations.
“What...what are you doing?” Julian managed to stutter, falling back his hand hitting a button on the console behind him.
“Oh, this is the beginning of something huge. You see, I have much greater ambitions than Peter Henshaw ever did, and soon there will be a radical shift in the way the city runs.”
Julian felt himself growing dizzy as his legs started to buckle.
“Ah, ah, ah, not yet!” Persephone moved to grab Julian before he fell, “I need you alive for the next part. You are more important than you realise.”
The last thing Julian saw before he lost consciousness, was Persephone looming over him, her face smiling down.
Chapter Eight
Xander
“So, what’s the plan, boss?” Mollie called back to Xander, who was sat at the computer in the office.
They had returned to the office to find Ava had taken Howie to a medical centre and were tracing the location Mr. Fostia had sent them.
“I want to know as much as I can about the apartment block, who owns it, who lives there. We may have the information, but I don’t want to go in blind. If that’s a Slider’s hideout, then we need to know what we’re walking into.”
Mollie walked over and pushed Xander aside from the computer.
“Allow me,” she smiled, knowing how long it took Xander to find anything on the machine. He moved aside and began pacing the office as he lit a cigar.
“Okay, so it looks like the building is registered to a Lenin Corp. That name mean anything to you?”
“Probably a cover name,” Xander replied.
“There’s no information on them, just that they’ve owned it for the past few years.”
“Figures, the Sliders have been working the city for decades in one form or another.”
The door to the office opened, and Ava walked in, carrying a bag of food.
“Evening,” Xander nodded. “How’s Howie?”
“Hi. The doctors said that he should be fine. Blood loss and bruising but nothing fatal,” she said.
“Good, thanks for looking after him.”
“Of course. I grabbed some supplies on the way back,” Ava said, pulling a packet of synthetic candy out of the bag of food and throwing it to Mollie.
“Thanks!” Mollie caught the bag with her metallic hand and ripped it open.
“The name Lenin Corp mean anything to you?” Xander asked, taking the bag from Ava and put it on the desk.
Ava paused, accessing her memories and the back-up data files from CyBio’s archive which she still had access to.
“Lenin Corp, they owned several buildings all across the Boulevard, including a facility that CyBio hired. Mainly for the discreet storage of certain items that were being kept hidden from competitors. Lenin Corp prided themselves on their ability to keep things private.”
“That was not what I expected to hear,” Xander let out a long wisp of smoke as he listened.
“How come?” Ava studied his face.
“It appears that Lenin Corp are the registered owners of an apartment complex that the Sliders are using, could be their base of operations, though it could be storage, we’re not sure,” Mollie replied.
“I see. Well, it doesn’t surprise me; secrecy isn’t exclusive to the large Corporations. If I were a company like Lenin Corp, I’d be working with the illegitimate underground elements just as much as the legitimate ones.”
Mollie and Xander shared a concerned glance before breaking in smiles. Ava looked at them, puzzled.
“I’m just glad you’re on our side Ava,” Xander smiled at her.
“So, what’s the plan?” Mollie asked, popping another brightly-coloured sweet into her mouth.
“I
think we need to go have a look around that apartment complex,” Xander replied.
*
Xander had driven them to the street the complex was on. They passed by it several times to get a good view of it before pulling up a couple of blocks away.
“It looks pretty standard,” he said, double-checking his revolver and holstering in on his belt.
“I couldn’t detect anything out of the ordinary,” Ava agreed.
Mollie remained quiet. While she hadn’t seen anything either, she could feel something wasn’t quite right about the building. She shook the feeling off, putting it down to adrenaline and the constant bloodlust that still gripped the edges of her mind.
They got out of the car and began to walk down the street. It was one of the more residential areas of the city. The sounds of the Boulevard several blocks away was a distant hum of electricity and music. Luminescent graffiti-covered several walls, its glow bouncing off the snow which was piling up along the road. With no under paved heating in this area, the snow was a mixture of half melted slush and dirt.
“Remember the last time we came to an apartment?” Xander glanced at Ava, “let’s not have a repeat of that.”
“I’d prefer not to,” Ava smiled, recalling the events of their investigation into Donovan.
The apartment complex itself was made of a dark black brick that towered upwards for twenty-seven floors. Each floor surrounded a central courtyard. In the courtyard’s centre, stood a water fountain, an abstract collection of brickworks that jutted out in what appeared to be an approximation of a tree. The water that would have flowed along the branches and into the pool below had been replaced with a hologram representation of water that rose from the top and cascading into a digital pool complete with holographic fish swimming in the light beams. The colour of the water flicked through a rainbow prism of lights as it flowed.
The trio stepped into the courtyard. Mollie immediately ran over to the pool and placed her hand into the holographic water, her fascination with the design taking over her apprehension of the building. The water sensed her touch and rippled accordingly as she tried to cup one of the fish, though it evaded her hand every time by darting left and right.
“This is so cool!” she called back to the others. It was easy to forget sometimes, Xander thought, that she was from the Underpass, and some of the higher-tech of the Boulevard was new to her.
“It’s pretty clever,” Xander smiled, walking up to the fountain. He glanced at Ava, who was scanning the balconies above them.
“No signs of anything, or anyone for that matter,” she said.
“It’s almost too quiet,” Xander said, regretting his cliched phrase immediately as the sound of a door opening caught their attention. It came from somewhere above them. Xander drew his revolver and automatically stepped closer to one of the pillars around the courtyard as he scanned the balconies above.
“Hullo down there!” a voice called out, though none of them could see the source.
A spark of yellow light fizzled into the air above them and began to snake its way downward, leaving a trail of static behind it. It hit the ground and slowly began to form into a shape, like water filling an invisible glass. The figure started with feet, followed by legs, until standing before them was a man. He was glowing slightly with yellow light radiating out of him but looked relatively solid now that he was fully formed. Dressed in a monochrome suit and his hair slicked back, the man smiled at them.
“Hullo,” he said again.
“Hi,” Mollie said, walking up to the hologram, ”who are you?”
The man turned and smiled at Mollie, though a quizzical look entered his eye.
“Why, I am James. The concierge of this establishment, how can I be of service?”
Xander turned to Ava, curiosity in his eyes.
“I’ve heard of these, holographic hosts for buildings, used in some of the TerraCity buildings. More reliable than human hosts, though I’ve never heard of them in the Mega,” Ava said, walking around the hologram.
“We’re looking for the Sliders,” Xander stepped forwards, his revolver still in his grip but kept lowered at his side.
“I…I…see,” James blinked rapidly, the yellow lights began to flicker and fade.
“Are you okay?” Mollie asked, putting a hand up to the lights.
The lights changed from the yellow to a faded grey, making James look more like a charcoal sketch as his clothes began to shift and adjust. A moment later and he was wearing a pair of ripped black jeans, and a short sleeved denim jacket over a black. A scruffy beard had also grown on his face, covering his lower jawline in grey that matched his now long hair.
“What the hell?” Xander took a step back, pushing Mollie back with him.
“What business y’got with the Sliders?” James asked, his polite tone shifted into a more hostile drawl.
“So, this is the right place, James?” Xander smiled, he was more comfortable when he was being threatened.
“James? I’m Jimmy, and you’ve got ‘til the count of three to give me a good reason not to blow you all into rat food,” Jimmy raised a hand. The clicking of several guns being drawn echoed around the courtyard though they couldn’t see the weapons.
“It appears his source code has been tampered with, I can see his original coding but there are some, alterations, pretty rough ones I might add,” Ava said as she scanned Jimmy.
“Hey, stop looking at the merchandise!” Jimmy spun and glared at Ava.
“We just wanted to find where the Sliders are hiding, just wanted a nice chat with them,” Xander tried to get Jimmy’s attention back to him.
“Well you’ve come to the right place,” a different voice rang out.
The owners of the guns came into view as several Sliders appeared from all corners of the courtyard, and more on the balconies above.
“So tell me, what exactly is it you want to have a chat about?” the speaker was a large man, his left hand side fully augmented, from his skull to his legs, whilst his right side looked organic. He moved towards the three of them, and passed a hand through Jimmy.
“Thanks for keeping them busy,” he grabbed something from the centre of the hologram.
“No problem boss. Hey, no, don’t turn me off, I can hel…” the hologram faded away before he could continue, the man held a small metal battery in his hand and pocketed it.
“He can go on a bit,” the man shrugged. “Now then, I’m Ryder, leader of this little group, and frankly I don’t give a damn who you are, but you’ve stumbled into here asking questions about things you shouldn’t know and I really can’t let you go unpunished.” He raised his hand.
“Wait, I’m the one you want, these two don’t know anything,” Xander stepped forwards.
“You think I’m stupid enough to fall for that? Kill them,” he dropped his hand, and the guns around them opened fire.
Mollie managed to raise her metal hand up which deflected a couple of shots, giving her time to dive for cover into the base of the fountain. The hologram rippled to a point the image stuttered, unable to cope with the sensory overload. Scrambling along the base of the fountain, Mollie’s hands felt a hatch below, pulling it open she saw a service tunnel underneath.
Above ground Xander dived forwards and collided with Ryder, using him as a shield from the bullets as none of his gang would risk hitting their boss. Ava had been hit twice already as the bullets ricocheted around the courtyard. She was, however, still on her feet and marched towards the closest shooter who had emerged from one of the doors. She grabbed their gun, twisting it backwards, breaking the shooter's wrist in the process.
“Ava!” Xander shouted. He had managed to get Ryder into a stranglehold with one hand, and his revolver to the man’s head on the non-augmented side. “You okay?”
“I’m fine, the bullets missed my vital components,” she replied, ripping the shooter’s gun from his limp hand, and smashing it into his temple. He dropped to the floor.
&nb
sp; “Everyone,” Xander called out, “drop your weapons or your boss here get a bullet in the fleshy side of his head!”
“You idiot!” Ryder spat, “You’re in for it now…” his eyes rolled back into his head, and his body went limp.
“What the hell?” Xander almost dropped him as the dead weight became heavier.
Ryder jerked with movement and was suddenly awake again, he turned his head to Xander. There was something about his eyes that felt like they were burning into Xanders’ soul.
“Unhand me, or I can’t promise the consequences will be healthy for you,” Ryder said, his voice had become calmer, more specific.
Xander grip loosened slightly, unnerved by the man’s tone. Sensing the change, Ryder took the advantange and slapped Xander’s gun away and drew his own.
“That’s better, now, is everyone here?” he called out to the other members of the gang.
Around the area seven gang members walked forward and into the courtyard, nodding to Ryder.
“Excellent, please grab that woman, or synthetic as I think she is, and take them to the holding cells,” he said, motioning to Ava.
“Stay back,” Ava raised a gun and pointed it at the two men coming towards her.
“I wouldn’t,” Ryder said.
She fired a shot off, the bullet plunging into the man’s chest. But he kept walking towards her, despite the blood pooling across his chest.
“What the hell are you?” Xander said.
Ryder shook himself loose from Xander’s grip.
“My name is Thomas Keller, and you are going to wish you never came here.”
Chapter Nine
Mollie
Mollie had dropped down the small hatch under the fountain as she heard the sounds of gunshots above her. She wanted to make sure the others were alright but knew she would be far too exposed in the centre of the courtyard. If she could get to somewhere safe, she could call for help.
Under the hatch, she saw a small ladder descending into darkness and nothing more. She blinked. If anyone were looking at her, they’d have seen that her eyes flashed slightly red, and suddenly she could see into the dark with complete clarity. She fought away the hunger which erupted inside her, triggered by using the power.
Neon Blood (Neon Helix Universe Book 3) Page 5