ManaNet

by Hancock, Thomas H.

  “If we let the Knights find him I can go and identify him tomorrow. Then he’ll be sent back to the Colonies for a proper burial.”

  “It would save us investigating ourselves,” Weasel said. “We let the Knights do all the work, then steal the results from their system.”

  “I guess,” Jackal sighed. The pair shuffled into the park and carefully laid Ethan’s body besides a tree, making it look as if he had just fallen. Lily was disturbed by the ease with which they managed it.

  This probably isn’t the first time they’ve done this, she realised.

  Seeing Ethan lying on the grass bought a fresh swathe of memories, and Lily felt tears forming in her eyes once again. She remembered his initial message: ‘come find me in the city. I need help.’ She’d tried to get more out of him, but he’d refused to say except in person. He’d been scared. Eventually he’d sent her an address, near to where they were now. She’d come to find him, and now…

  I will get to the bottom of this Ethan, I swear. I’ll find your killer, and I’ll stop whatever catastrophe ManaNet is going to cause.

  Lily was suddenly distracted by Jackal. He appeared to be talking on a phone, more sophisticated than her own but recognisable none-the-less.

  “Dead, yes.”

  Silence.

  “No, but we have a witness. Female. Caucasian. Slightly shorter than average with long blonde hair.”

  Another silence.

  “Yes, got it. Will do.”

  Jackal closed the phone and put it back in his pocket.

  “Come with us,” he said to Lily. “Our boss’d like to speak with you.”

  “But-” Lily tried to protest before her tongue got stuck in her throat.

  “Sorry miss, but that wouldn’t be wise. What the boss wants, she gets.”

  Lily caught a hint of fear in the man’s voice, and sensed a whole lot more. If only for his sake, she realised she should probably go with them.

  Leaving Ethan alone in the park, the trio began walking back the way they had come. The clack of Lily’s shoes echoed between the buildings. In the silence of the night, all sounds seemed to be exaggerated. She could hear her jeans rubbing together, and the wind whistling past her ears.

  “You’re an Empath, aren’t you?” Weasel said suddenly, taking Lily quite by surprise. She had never discussed her power with anyone other than Ethan, and no one had ever guessed before.

  “You don’t need to say yes, I know,” he continued. “Don’t worry, you won’t get judgement from us. Nexus’ goal is freedom for Gifteds, so you’re in good company.”

  “How could you tell?” Lily asked eventually.

  “I can see ManaNet.”

  You can what? Lily thought. How is that possible? Sensing her confusion, Weasel elaborated.

  “My gift is to be able to see Gifteds’ connections to ManaNet, or what some call their aura. They’re unique to the person, but have common traits which match the Gifted’s power. It took me a while to place yours, but now I’ve got it I’m sure you have the signature of an Empath.”

  “In here,” Jackal interrupted, stopping and gesturing to a rundown building. He stepped up and held his hand to the lock. A second later it flashed green and clicked, the door swinging inwards. As they stepped inside, Jackal held his hand up and created a glowing ball. The room was mostly bare, its concrete walls beginning to crumble. A couple of old chairs sat in one corner, positioned around a small crackling fire. At the far end rose a staircase which the trio took to the next floor.

  “We’ve done as you asked, ma’am. Here’s the witness,” Jackal said as they entered a large room with plain walls. Lily looked up to see a woman playing with a holographic display. She was sat at the centre of a huge encircled eight-pointed star, painted in deep red. A wave of calm washed over Lily. She relaxed for a moment, welcoming a break from the turmoil of the past hour. Then her senses kicked in and she realised the calm emotion she was experiencing should make her feel anything but.

  How can this woman be so relaxed when someone’s been murdered just around the corner?

  The woman waved her hand and the display vanished. She looked up, her eyes staring straight at Lily.

  “Welcome. I am Yakshi.”

  “Lily,” Lily replied, the calmness still having an effect on her.

  “What a pretty name. It’s nice to meet you, Lily. I was sorry to hear about what happened. Witnessing murder is never pleasant.”

  “It wasn’t just that. He was a friend.”

  “In that case I’m all the more sorry. I’m afraid I have some questions to ask you; however, provided you answer them to my satisfaction, this will be brief. First, did you see the killer?”

  The shadowy man flashed through Lily’s mind, eradicating the calm to leave her back in her nervous, fearful state.

  “O-Only for a second,” she stammered. The woman looked at her, clearly expecting more, so Lily forced herself to continue. “I couldn’t make out his face. He wore a trench coat.”

  This answer seemed to please the woman, not that it showed on her expressionless face.

  “Thank you. Did you speak to the victim before he died?”

  “Yes.”

  “And what did he say?”

  “He said… something about ManaNet,” Lily replied. She instantly regretted it. There was something off about this woman, and the less she found out, the better. The woman waited for her to say more, but Lily remained quiet.

  “The panicked remarks of a dying man, no doubt,” the woman replied. “Final question. Did he give you anything before he died?”

  Lily paused, remembering the box in her jacket pocket. She shook her head.

  Yakshi nodded.

  “Very well. You may go.”

  Lily nodded, her silent way of saying ‘bye’, before Jackal gestured for her to take the stairs back down and escorted her out the building.

  “Are you going to be alright getting home?” Weasel asked as Lily stepped onto the street.

  Lily nodded, knowing she wouldn’t be able to keep a shake out of her voice.

  “If you’re sure.”

  Lily nodded again before beginning the walk to her hostel. After a couple of paces, she heard the door close behind her. She’d barely taken two more before her face was soaked with tears once again.

  Chapter 3 - Anger

  01:04, Apartment Building, West District

  The hum of the jet bikes died away as Damos and Matt parked them on the roof of an apartment building, deep in the bowels of the city. The moon hung high in the sky above them, surrounded by glittering stars. Their light reflected off the windows of the neighbouring buildings, making the city sparkle all around them. While Matt stopped for a moment to admire the beautiful sight, Damos stalked across the rooftop and entered the building through a broken fire door. With a sigh, Matt turned and followed. He could hear Damos’s heavy footfalls before he had even stepped inside.

  This is not going to be fun.

  The trip back had been passed in silence. Damos was clearly angry over the night’s events, or whatever passed for angry in Damos’s case. The man never seemed to show true emotion, only giving fleeting glimpses into what was really going on inside his head.

  Eventually Matt reached the thirty-seventh floor, at which point he turned off the stairwell and into a room which led to several apartments. In front of him he saw Damos, stading next to the door for apartment six.

  “You waited?” Matt asked in surprise.

  “You have the key,” Damos replied matter-of-factly.

  So I do, Matt thought, reaching into the pocket of his cargo trousers and pulling out a small metal key. Most places used some kind of swipe card or retinal scan, making tumbler locks extremely uncommon. It was precisely this property which made them an attractive choice, as they couldn’t be hacked and no one bothered to learn to pick them.

  Matt carefully slid the key into the lock and turned. With a series of clicks, the door’s myriad bolts receded. Matt tur
ned the handle and tentatively stepped inside, finding himself in the apartment’s familiar front room. Its yellow walls glared at him, reminding him how much he wanted to repaint them. In the back corner was a small kitchenette, kept meticulously clean. The middle of the room was taken by a round table surrounded by five chairs. Its surface was covered in maps and satellite photographs, mostly of the area they’d just returned from. Around the edge of the room were several doors. From one came a woman’s voice.

  “Report.”

  “One sec,” Matt replied as Damos stepped inside. He closed the door and twisted the lock, triggering a second plethora of clinks as the bolts slid back into place.

  “I’m waiting,” the voice replied. Matt turned back to see Victoria standing in one of the doorways, leaning on the doorframe. Despite the fact that they lived together, Matt still felt a jolt of fear every time he laid his eyes upon her.

  A fusion of flesh, metal and mana, Victoria had not been fully human for some time. While the left half of her face retained its humanity, the right was covered in thin metallic lines etched into her skin. Several of these led from an artificial eye, its iris faintly pulsing with blue light, and passed back through her crew-cut hair, leaving several bald lines. These trailed down the back of her neck and branched out across her back, connecting into a central processor and mana receiver which fused with her spine.

  Her right arm, the arm she was leaning on the doorframe with, was etched with slivers of silver. Although idle for the moment, when activated, the slivers filled with solidified mana similar to that from which Damos’s knife was made, giving Victoria extreme strength. Combined with the feed from her artificial eye, they also gave her incredible accuracy with firearms.

  Victoria’s other arm didn’t exist, at least for the moment. In its place extended cables, clumped together like squid’s tentacles and extending down to roughly where her elbow would have been. Like the majority of her grafts, the cables were currently deactivated. However, when Victoria willed it, the cables could spring to life, separating and stretching taught. Solidified mana would stretch between them, extending into a holographic - but very real - arm which could reform itself into different shapes at will.

  The rest of Victoria’s body was hidden behind a tank top and camo-trousers. Matt had only seen what was underneath once, and it was not something he talked about with anyone, not just for the sake of his own sanity but for Victoria’s. He knew she had not been put under the knife voluntarily, and out of respect for her chose to keep his silence on the matter.

  “Go on,” Victoria prompted impatiently.

  “Target’s dead,” Damos replied, making a beeline for one of the other doors.

  “That’s it then? We can expect to be paid as promised?”

  “There were a couple of… hiccups,” Matt said. Victoria’s head snapped round, and Matt felt both Victoria’s real and artificial eyes boring into him.

  “Hiccups?” she repeated.

  “A bystander may have seen the take-down.”

  “May?” Victoria fumed.

  “Did. Did see the take-down. And...”

  Damos stopped, flicked his head round and glared at Matt. His eyes spoke for him. Don’t you dare.

  Matt looked between Damos and Victoria, trying to decide who he was more afraid of at that moment.

  “And… he also killed three Nexus gangsters.”

  Victoria’s face flushed red with anger.

  “You did what?” she shouted.

  “They were a threat,” Damos replied, turning and continuing on his path like it was no big deal.

  Victoria snapped. The tendrils which replaced her arm flicked up, before she managed to get herself under control and they returned to hanging limp.

  “Calm,” Matt said, but he knew it was pointless. Victoria’s level of self-control was insane, and there was no chance she would activate now she’d reined herself in. That didn’t mean Damos wasn’t in for a bollocking though.

  “Threat or not, you do not kill bystanders,” Victoria yelled. “Only the target. Human life is not something to be tossed away like an empty can. Am I clear?”

  If Damos was scared, he didn’t show it. His eyes were fixed on Victoria’s, challenging her authority.

  “Am I clear?” she repeated. Damos remained still a moment longer before turning and storming into one of the adjacent rooms, slamming the door behind him.

  Typical Damos, faking anger to stop her following, Matt thought, knowing Damos wouldn’t have been the least bit bothered by Victoria’s tirade.

  “I should never have taken you in,” Victoria called after him.

  “You don’t mean that,” Matt said.

  “Sometimes I do,” Victoria replied before turning back into her room.

  Matt took a moment to collect his thoughts before heading for his own room. No sooner had he taken a step than a door on his left opened and a man with short, dark hair stepped out.

  “What on earth was that about?” the man said.

  “The usual. Damos killed some bystanders, Victoria got mad. It’s okay, she managed to reign herself in.”

  “Thank Christ, her activating is the last thing we need. I’ve only just got everything set up again.”

  “Although a change in scenery would be appreciated,” Matt joked, nodding at the yellow walls. The man chuckled before heading back to his room.

  “Owen, wait up,” Matt said a moment later, following Owen through. He was instantly bathed in the light of multiple holographic monitors which covered the walls of Owen’s room. Lines and lines of arcane symbols covered several, while others showed camera feeds of both inside and outside the apartment. In the centre of them all was a reclined black leather chair. Owen slipped into it, the leather squashing back slightly, before spinning round to face Matt. He remained silent, waiting expectantly.

  “I was thinking on the way home-”

  “That’s a dangerous thing to do,” Owen interrupted.

  “Very funny. Anyway, I was thinking, you acquired the last target, didn’t you?”

  “Correct.”

  “And they gave you a time and location to find him?”

  “Also correct.”

  “Well, don’t you think that’s a little odd? I mean, they’ve basically done our job for us. All we had to do was turn up with a knife.”

  “And yet you still managed to screw that up, from the sound of it.”

  Matt held himself in check. He was used to Owen’s criticism.

  “Ignoring that, don’t you agree that it’s a bit strange?”

  “I suppose. Why bring it up now though? The job’s done.”

  “No reason I guess. Sorry for bothering you.”

  Matt turned to leave when one of Owen’s monitors beeped and a mail icon flashed up. Owen looked round and flicked his wrists. A holographic keyboard appeared in front of him, projected by a pair of bracelets he was wearing. The key’s symbols matched those on some of the monitors. He pressed a button and the mail icon blinked and expanded into a full message.

  “Looks like we’ve got a problem, and another job,” Owen said after quickly reading it over.

  “Problem? And a job request at this hour of the morning?” Matt replied.

  “We’re still up, aren’t we?”

  “Fair point. What’s the problem?”

  “The contractor for the last job is refusing to pay until we carry out another job for them. Apparently someone saw the kill, and they’re accusing us of being careless.”

  “Well they’re not wrong,” Matt said, looking slightly guilty. “Who’s the new target?”

  “A girl named Lily. No location or time given this time round. I guess they’re angry with us. We have a description at least, and a photo.”

  “Is there a time window?”

  “Not specifically, but it’s probably best not to leave it too long. We should start gathering intel tomorrow, figure out our best time to strike. We can’t screw up this time.”

 
“I second that,” Matt agreed. “I’ll get our girl on the ground on it first thing tomorrow. For now though, I’m going to get some sleep. It’s been a stressful night.”

  “Okay, I’ll do some digging until then.”

  “Don’t you ever sleep?”

  “Not with you lot next door,” Owen replied. He span his chair around to face the far wall and began rapidly typing.

  Matt let out a brief chuckle, then turned and closed Owen’s door. The tiredness suddenly hit him, and he sluggishly made his way to his own room, collapsing straight onto his bed. He was asleep in seconds.

  Chapter 4 - Guilt

  11:32, Blue Sky Hostel, East District

  The sun was high in the sky when Lily finally left her hostel the next morning. Despite how tired she’d been, she’d barely slept, the events of the previous night playing over and over in her mind. She still could not quite believe they’d happened.

  The confirmation came when she reached the park. Just as she’d planned, the Knights had found Ethan’s body and taken it away. In its place was a small notice: a request for information and the address of the local Knights branch.

  Lily was surprised by how much of the city she remembered considering how long it had been since she’d lived there. It didn’t take her long to reach the Knight’s station. Like most of the surrounding buildings, it was in a bad state of repair. What had once been pristine stone blocks were now chipped and worn, surrounding grimy windows with faint shadows moving behind them. Lily recoiled slightly as she reached for the door, fingerprints visible on the muck coated handle. Using the very tips of her fingers, she pushed the door open and stepped inside.

  The interior was as dull as the outside. Lily was faced by a reception desk, behind which sat a bored-looking officer. To her side was a seating area, empty but for a couple of people. Pale lights glared down at her, illuminating chipped tiles and peeling paint.

  She took a deep breath to calm her nerves before approaching the desk.

  “What can I help you with?” the officer asked, clearly eager for something to do.

  “I,” Lily began, before feeling herself choke up again. She paused for a second to compose herself, then said, “I saw the sign in Maul park and… well, I think I might know the… the victim.”