by Ian Williams
“Shredded by hand, I’d say, then accidentally dropped.” Joe scanned the floor quickly with his eyes. “But there’s only bits left behind, the rest is missing. Perhaps the person was in a hurry when clearing the place out?”
“My thoughts exactly. Question is, what did they take?”
He was thrilled to see that the killers had begun to make mistakes and were leaving a trail in their murderous wake. And it was not only made up of the deceased kind this time either. The two dead men they had found appeared to have been neck deep in it. Possibly they had stumbled upon the killers and had been murdered for it, or were involved right from the start, making them previous members of the cult.
Even though they had turned up yet another body, it had not been a totally fruitless visit in the end. The investigation was finding its own direction now, like they often did when Conrad knew they were on to something. He always thought of his cases as if they were living things, able to flow freely and move of their own accord. In his mind the case had suddenly just sprouted wings and was trying to take flight right in front of them. It was his job, therefore, to nurture it and help it grow. Only then could they move the investigation along.
Unfortunately, without power they could do little more than look around for the time being. Following up on any leads would have to wait until the nearby relay came back online.
Conrad needed time to think anyway.
Chapter 6
The walking wounded
2pm, Thursday: 34 hours until Switchover
Phoenix sat opposite the man she still had no real name for in the Mag-Lev car as he picked out the scenery with his rapidly roaming eyes. Ninety-three’s wide-eyed expression was that of someone visiting a new and strange land. He did not fully understand what he was seeing, she suspected at least. His overreaction to each and every thing he saw out the window was far from normal. More and more she thought this. How could someone lose that much of themselves so completely?
They had been travelling for well over an hour since leaving Elliot at the outskirts of the city. He had been as pushy about tagging along as she was expecting. Thankfully it had only taken a few reminders of what he was leaving behind to change his mind. Waving goodbye to him had been a strangely emotional affair still. She knew it had not been that way because she was leaving Elliot, but because she was leaving the safety of her home. That had been what really tugged at her insides.
The last time she faced saying goodbye to her childhood home, it had been under similarly worrisome conditions. That time, ten years ago, she and her two brothers had just become orphaned by a violent gang who had chosen to take up residence in her home. She had been petrified by such an enormous change of lifestyle, one without the guidance of her parents too. At the time the city had been the only place she and her brothers could escape to. Nothing else offered any hope of survival.
She was thankful that, at twenty-four, she had finally regained control of her life. There were no more Anthonys around to lead her family astray. He had been an easy compromise in the beginning, considering the help and support he gave her. Of course, now she knew better. Anthony had used her from the start, grooming her into what he needed. No-one would ever be allowed to do that again. She knew good people these days, the kind that would look out for her. It was for this reason that she had not wanted Elliot along for the ride. He knew what she was capable of. She would rather not remind him though.
“How much further away do you think we are?”
“A few minutes,” Phoenix replied. She suddenly became aware that she was staring directly at her travelling companion. Even if possibly too late, she lowered her eyes to her hands anyway.
“Fascinating. People actually live in these towers?”
Ninety-three’s way of talking had become weirder the deeper into the city they travelled. It was not the first time he had asked something that dragged her mind through the dirt either. He was one giant puzzle to her, and with each odd question he asked, the chances of her figuring that puzzle out diminished a little more. It sounded as if he had never seen a building before. She found it hard to believe he could have lost these most basic of memories. He had been fine with the Mag-Lev line, so he had retained that at least. For some reason the city was something new to him.
Where did you come from? She could only ask the question in her own head. There was definitely something else to this man. She could not imagine asking him outright what that might have been. Whatever the answer was, she would be glad when she finally had it.
“What is our destination?”
“I’ve told you already. We’re heading into the central district of the city. It’s where all the rich people live.”
“And we are to meet a friend?”
“Yes. We both worked for the same man for a while. He helped with any technology we needed. He might be able to fix that box on your head.”
“I sincerely hope so,” Ninety-three said as yet another new sight drew his attention away.
This time Phoenix could understand the reason for his interest. Passing by their small Mag-Lev car’s window, only a few hundred feet away, was a building with a gaping hole that went from the roof and through a few of the floors below. What remained of the top half now appeared nothing more than an empty shell, one she could see right through to the centre of. As with so many other buildings in the city, this one once had a power and data relay positioned on its roof. When the overload caused the relay here to explode it had taken most of the building with it.
I hope most of them made it out, Phoenix thought.
No more than ten minutes later, and after the scenery had become much less dramatic, they arrived at their stop. They exited and immediately it was clear that being surrounded by so many tall buildings was something her friend did not enjoy much. His face had shifted from a look of wonderment to one that more closely resembled a puzzled kind of fear. It had once scared her too and not because she had been smaller then. The buildings in this part of the city were all in a race to reach the sky. Looking up, she thought some appeared to have made it too, from their position anyway.
What she also noticed as they walked the Mag-Lev platform, was that things were still far from back to normal in the city. It was true that the damaged or destroyed relays had been, or were still due to be, replaced. That did not mean everything was once again working as expected. Nothing happened automatically for those using the relay network anymore. The predictive system had gone entirely. Where before just the mention of going somewhere would call a Mag-Lev car on your behalf, now citizens were lucky to get one at all. And even if they did, they were faced with the old-fashioned situation of having to manually enter a destination into the car’s computer.
From the long and angry queue that stood waiting for a Mag-Lev car to arrive, she could tell there remained a lot of room for improvement. An automated message played out in a loop around the Mag-Lev platform as they took the stairs. “Please accept our apologies for the delay. A car will be allocated to you as soon as one becomes available. Thank you,” the friendly woman voice said.
Phoenix’s previous few trips into the city in the past eighteen months had been quick ones, in and out before anyone could know. They had been for supplies mostly. After the collapse of Simova the city had been a place to avoid. On those occasions her mind had been full of worry; at least after the first few times anyway. Her days as a red-haired troublemaker had not gone unnoticed by the rest of the city.
Being a blonde these days did not guarantee a free-from-suspicion ride into the city though, it only made comparing her to the previous description more difficult. Because of her televised appearance in among Anthony’s terrorists, she was still a wanted criminal. This time it would have to be different, and she knew to be more vigilant than usual.
A short trek away from the Mag-Lev line later and they were walking a street littered with trash that led toward another tall building. Despite the untidy state of the area it was still a world away f
rom the dusty roads and gravel tracks she had found comfort in for over a year now. This place was filled with bright lights and eye popping advertisements lining their path – some of which were faulty. It was a world of chrome finishes and brushed metal styling. The buildings themselves were all covered in glass and concrete, but they now appeared dull and with dirty stains on the lowest levels. She preferred the warm wood and brick of her home.
The looks she and her friend were getting from those they passed made it clear they were not blending in too well. Her friend’s head-mounted black box was not helping either.
“This is the place,” Phoenix said, looking up to the middle section of the building, where her friend would be.
“Your friend resides in this building?”
She was finding it hard having to answer him at least twice. It was getting worse all the time. He seemed unable to understand things as quickly now as he had earlier. The device on his head needed removing sooner rather than later, she decided.
“Yes, he owns the entire thirty-fifth floor. It’s a sort of shopping level for the people who live in the building. The place is one big cover for what he really does to make money. I guess he launders his earnings through the businesses he runs here. All we care about is what he can do to help you.”
The entrance to the building would not be open to the likes of them, she knew full well. With one look through the large double doors she had confirmed it too. Only those who looked like they belonged there were let in; all far more stylishly dressed than either of them. A constant presence of security guards kept the unwanted out. Waiting for night was not an option either, they could never sneak past such a level of protection. Besides, she could not afford to be caught outside after the curfew.
The place was a perfect disguise for her friend’s criminal activities. No-one would suspect that one of the city’s most prevalent hackers would be based in such presentable surroundings; very much a wolf in sheep’s clothing kind of setup.
She had only been here once before, with Anthony. To get in unseen that time they had made use of an otherwise unknown entrance. The guy they were there to meet had an image to uphold, without which he would have been locked away years ago. Discretion was as much his concern as his clients, which was why most of their dealings had happened elsewhere. Convincing him to let her in was going to be tricky, because this time she was not offering him a job or paying him for his services, she was there to ask a favour.
“This way,” she said before leading them away from the front altogether.
Their new route took them around the street and to a rear alleyway used by the building’s large amount of staff. The rich needed more looking after, it appeared. Each staff member entered the premises with the use of a key card. She would not need one of these. What she needed was to find the hidden intercom system that connected directly to the thirty-fifth floor’s less than legal side of the business.
After a few incorrect searches she eventually found the fake junction box that contained the intercom and forced its lock open. There was no time to mess about with picking the lock, they needed in without a fuss. So with her bag rested between her legs, she squeezed the handset’s talk button and stretched out the coiled cord, then went straight for an answer.
“Rhys? You there, it’s Phoenix. I need your help.”
A loud smash rang out back in the street. It brought Phoenix’s and Ninety-three’s eyes to the end of the alleyway. Then, and bringing with it a sense of relief, a man raced past the end of the alley with a handful of wrist screens in his hands. The goods he had stolen from a nearby shopfront would fetch him a nice pay. Good luck trying to sell it all, Phoenix thought with a shake of her head.
“I do not see how we will gain entry to this building,” Ninety-three said a few doors away.
“I’m trying to get us in. Just wait there and don’t–”
“Hello?” someone suddenly said on the other end.
“Hi, is Rhys there? I need his help,” she said, turning away from her companion as she spoke.
“Who the fuck wants to know?” the man on the other end said with a growl.
“Don’t be a pussy, just tell him it’s Phoenix.”
The line went silent while the man on the other end no doubt tried to grapple with her reply. She had not needed her badass bitch persona for some time, it had returned to her much easier than expected. Being around these types of people again had brought it out of her like a bad case of flu brings out a fever. An acidic tongue was one of the many automatic defences she knew would make a return out of nowhere during their time in this place.
While she waited she nervously kicked the wall with her boot. Just a light tap was enough to dislodge more dirt from them than she suspected was contained within the entire building. She thought this too the last time she gained entry, before she was then quickly ushered out of sight. Some of the residents living there had flashed her a disapproving look as Rhys had done his best to make her group out as some kind of maintenance team; hard labourers only there out of necessity.
“Hey, you still there?” came a different voice this time.
She snapped out of her daydream and raised the handset to her mouth. “Yeah, we’re still here.”
“Go around to the service elevator. Someone will bring you up.”
A loud crunch and a crackle signalled the end of their conversation.
“Come on,” she said to Ninety-three, who continued to search for a way in by himself. He followed after waving her past in an overly polite way, which she had no idea how to interpret.
A few doors along they came across a large man holding one open for them. He waited patiently while they crept inside, his bulging chest almost blocking the entrance. His refusal to create more room for them, plus his tightly clenched jawbone, suggested he was the one she had insulted only moments earlier.
Once through the door it opened into a long and narrow storage room with boxes stacked up either side of them. At the end was a door that probably led into the lobby – not one they wanted to try – and a metal cage lift. When the large man had joined them, he went on to the lift and began to ready it for departure. He pulled the shutter style door up with one arm and then stood waiting with the strap in hand ready to pull it shut again.
She turned to her companion and made sure he was comfortable to continue. He appeared happy enough and barely wasted a second more before stepping aboard the lift like it was a playground ride. It was anything but fun for her, as the large man had not once taken his eyes off of her. If she knew any better she would say he knew of her fiery reputation. As much as Rhys had tried his best to look reputable while dealing in the shadows, she had done the same to create a fearsome image of herself. It had been the only way she could survive in the criminal underworld. If the guy knew this then he almost certainly would not want to trust her. Thankfully it was not his choice.
The lift set off with a worrying amount of rattling. When it had reached full speed the strong sensation of upward movement was compounded by a rush of warm air. It stayed at a constant flow until they neared the thirty-fifth floor. The lift then slowed as fast as it had set off, making her feel temporarily as light as air.
“Out,” the large man said as soon as the lift had settled. He pulled the shutter up, let them out, and then led the rest of the way without another word. A quick combination of doors later and they had arrived at Rhys’ hidden world. The guard left them there after a single bang on the metal door.
“Thanks,” Phoenix called down the hall to their chaperone with a slightly sarcastic tone.
“Bite me!” he replied.
A small hatch slid open in the door at head height, and one bulging eye greeted them. The person on the other side did not speak at all. After a short look up and down the pair of them, he had seen enough and closed the hatch again. For a moment Phoenix thought they had been refused, but then she could hear the many locks being opened. They had passed inspection, it seemed.
&
nbsp; “Just let me speak to Rhys for a minute, OK? You’ll probably freak them out,” she told Ninety-three beside her, who nodded in response.
When the metal door finally opened she was met with a friendly face, at least one much friendlier than those she had seen there already. Rhys stood not much taller than her and was dressed in baggy jeans and a t-shirt with a comic strip design across his chest. He had the same hairstyle as before, with gel holding it up in tiny spikes, and one huge black disc in his right ear that unnaturally stretched the lobe. This was his normal appearance, though not the one the other people living in the building saw. When expected to mingle with them he had to hide what he could and alter his dress sense entirely.
“Phoenix?” Rhys said as he pulled her close for a hug.
The embrace had taken her by complete surprise. She had not expected this kind of a welcome at all, especially after everything that had happened. A volley of verbal abuse perhaps, but not this. Her closeness to Anthony should have made her his worst enemy. She pulled her bag further around her side as they hugged, so he would not accidentally feel the submachine gun sat inside. Finding such a serious piece of weaponry on her would definitely have broken up the niceties prematurely.
“I’m so glad to see you’re alright,” Rhys said. “I was so worried when I saw you on TV. I thought you’d been killed, like the others.”
It took her a little while to realise he was talking about the shots of her on the roof of the shopping centre during Anthony’s attack. It had happened only eighteen months ago, yet to her it felt like much longer than that.
“I got out before it really kicked off. That wasn’t something I wanted to get involved in. I didn’t know what was going to happen.”
“I guessed as much. Anthony was playing everyone right from the start. I would never have helped him if I’d known what he had planned. The guy was fucking crazy.”