Ultraviolet

by Joseph Robert Lewis

  I walked up to the first row of shelves where there was a small sign, but it was too dark for me to make out what it said. And that’s when I realized that my holo-gloves didn’t have any sort of flash light programmed into them. Kicking myself for that oversight, I took out my phone and used the glow from its screen to read the names of the feedstock items on the shelf.

  Wood pulp, pine.

  Wood pulp, cherry.

  Wood pulp, black walnut.

  I moved on down the aisle, reading the little signs, working my way through the organic stocks to the plastics, and then finally to the metals. Iron, tin, zinc, lead, copper… more copper… aluminum… way more aluminum than copper…

  I had to move to the next aisle, and then the aisle after that to find the rare metals. Lithium… palladium… and there it was, finally. Rubidium. I grabbed five of the slender bars in plastic sheathes and slipped them into my backpack. And then I grabbed three more, just to be safe.

  I stepped back.

  I did it. It’s going to be okay now.

  I turned to head back to the stairs.

  “I knew it would be the rubidium.”

  The voice echoed through the vast canyons of the warehouse, but it had sounded close. Very close.

  I didn’t move.

  “When I saw the clips of you online, I was just blown away. I really was. Never seen anything like that sword before.”

  It was a man’s voice. I wasn’t sure if he had an accent or not. If so, it was very faint. There was nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, but I pressed up close to the shelf and moved along it toward the aisle as quietly as I could.

  “Oh, no, wait, don’t go. It’s okay, I’m one of the good guys,” he said.

  Yeah, right. Likely story.

  I turned the corner and kept going.

  “No, wait, Carmen, stop for a minute.”

  I stopped. “How do you know my name?”

  “Well, everyone knows your name. From online. I guess someone recognized you and tagged you in the clips.”

  I sighed. Of course they did. “Okay, so who are you?”

  “Name’s Felix. I’m coming out, so don’t slice me in half or anything, okay?”

  A shadow stepped away from the other shadows halfway down the aisle and started walking toward me. He had his hands half-raised to show me they were empty. And when he got closer I saw that he wasn’t much older than me. Short hair, dark clothes, a bag over one shoulder. Nothing special, but nothing scary either.

  “Hi, Felix.” I kept my hands at my sides. I had the gloves on, which made me feel better. “That’s close enough.”

  He stopped. “Sorry if I scared you.”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Waiting for you. I’ve been here since last night. I figured you might come here, once I figured out how your gloves work.”

  I frowned. “What do you mean? You know how they work?”

  “Well, not exactly. I mean, once I saw your name, I looked you up. Holographics engineer, Cygnus, terminated two months ago. But then I… well, I pulled up your feedstock order history, you know, to see if I could figure out how you made the gloves, and I saw the rubidium, and I figured that was the key, since it was restricted, and this was the only place you could get more, so I came here to try to meet you.”

  “Wait, go back. You pulled up my order history? That’s a private transaction. How’d you get those records?”

  “Oh, well, I used to work for Cygnus too. And I sort of kept an access card that I wasn’t supposed to have. I worked right here, actually. I did quality control checks on the metal stocks. I’m a metallurgical technician. Or I was, I should say.”

  “Oh yeah? You get fired too?”

  “Yes, yes I did,” he said a bit proudly. “And the company was kind enough to alter my employment records just a bit so that now I can’t get a job anywhere, even at the smelting plant.”

  “Wow.” Poor guy. I thought the smelting plant never turned anyone away. They always needed bodies down there, fixing the machines, breathing in those fumes. “What’d you do?”

  “I invented a new kind of aluminum.” He laughed. “It was kind of by accident, I was just fooling around with some samples in the scanner when it happened. But I came up with an alloy that could replace half a dozen of the expensive stocks, stronger than steel and a better electrical conductor than copper. And it’s really easy to make. I figured it was my golden ticket out of this place, you know? It would make feedstock a lot cheaper for everyone, using my aluminum instead of the pricy stuff. But Cygnus didn’t like that idea so much.”

  “Well, yeah, why would they want to replace something expensive with something cheap, and better? That would only be good for everyone else, not for them.”

  “Yeah, well, I learned that the hard way.”

  “So they got rid of it, and you.” I took a few steps closer to him. I still couldn’t see him very well, but I could see his shy, nervous smile.

  “Yeah, they did.”

  “When was that?”

  “Last year.”

  It was weird how nice it was to be having such a normal conversation about my crazy life. None of that serious tone from my dad, none of the hyper-excitement from Dom, none of the sickly sweet pity from Mercy. Just a guy who seemed to get it. “What have you been doing since then?”

  “Living at my brother’s place, working odd jobs. I can’t really get anything steady.”

  I nodded. “Sorry.”

  “Naw, don’t be. I’m not here for me, I’m here for you. What are you up to? I mean, since you’re not working for Cygnus anymore, what are you doing with those gloves now?”

  “Actually, I’m selling them to another company.”

  “Really? That’s excellent. So your golden ticket paid off?”

  “Well, I hope so. Still have to jump through some hoops first.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like seeing whether these new guys are willing to fight a little legal battle over my patent rights with Cygnus.”

  Felix nodded. “Sounds like a big hoop.”

  “Yeah, pretty big.”

  “So is that why you need the rubidium?”

  “Yeah, I need to make another pair of gloves to give to Susquehanna for testing and stuff, but—”

  “Whoa, back up. Susquehanna Power? That’s who you’re selling to?”

  “Yeah.”

  “No, no, no.” He pushed his thick curling hair back as he shook his head. “You can’t go to them.”

  “What? Why not?”

  “Because they’re owned by Cygnus.”

  The world stopped. I wondered if I’d heard him right. He had to be wrong. Cygnus and Susquehanna were both very huge, and both very different.

  “Did you hear me?”

  “Uhm, yeah.” I nodded. “Are you sure?”

  “Sure, I’m sure. See, Cygnus does lots of bulk orders to big companies for feedstock, and there were always two shipping codes. One code for outside companies, who get charged full price, and one code for subsidiaries, who get a discount. Susquehanna gets the discount.”

  “But… then why would they do that whole interview with me?”

  “Maybe didn’t realize who you were. You know, maybe Cygnus hadn’t put out a major alert on you yet. Or maybe they knew, and they were trying to play it cool, tricking you into turning over the gloves voluntarily. I don’t know.”

  I started rubbing my head and pacing across the width of the aisle. This could not be happening. “No, come on, no.” I kicked a crate of plastic rods. The crate didn’t seem to mind but my foot sure did. “Damn it, it’s not fair!”

  “I’m sorry.”

  I waved him away. I didn’t trust myself to speak. I wasn’t sure if I was going to break down and cry or if I was going to start screaming and tearing off heads, and his was the only head nearby.

  “Look, it’s not that bad,” he said. “I worked here for a few years, and I know lots of companies that are totally independen
t from Cygnus, parts of other corporate families. You can sell your tech to one of them.”

  “Are these independent companies big and rich and powerful? Powerful enough to go to court against Cygnus, and win?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe. Some of them.”

  I nodded. I knew he was just trying to help, but he couldn’t help. No one could. Cygnus was holding all the cards and blocking all the exits. They hadn’t just rigged the game, they were the game, and the house, and all of the other players. There was no way to win.

  “There’s really no way to beat them, is there?” My voice sounded really small and far away to me.

  “There must be.”

  “How? They’ve got all the money. They’ve got the law on their side, and the government in their pocket. They can kidnap people’s families. Break into homes. Throw people in secret prisons.”

  “Yeah. I know.”

  “So what do I do? I can’t stay here. I can’t get a new apartment or a new job. I can’t sell my invention. I can’t help myself, let alone my parents.” I shook my head. I couldn’t see a way out, and it was really starting to piss me off. I wanted to punch something, but the people I wanted to punch were all far away, safe in their offices and private homes on the north side of the city.

  “I don’t know, but I’m sure we can figure something out. But right now, let’s just get out of here and back to the city, someplace safe, and we’ll come up with a plan.”

  I nodded. I didn’t know what else to do. Felix pointed back behind him and I followed him down the aisle to one of the side doors, where he swiped his stolen badge to open the lock and let us out. It was pitch black outside, except for the glaring parking lot lights. I couldn’t see any stars overhead, but that was nothing new. They say you had to drive halfway to Pennsylvania before you’d be far enough from the city to see any stars. Sounds about right.

  Felix pulled an old red bicycle from the rack against the side of the building. “Do you have a bike or something? How’d you get here?”

  I glanced at him, still clenching my jaw, still not really trusting myself to be civil. I held out my gloved hands. “Lux, scooter.”

  The hologram materialized, glowing and humming softly, and I stepped on.

  “Damn!” Felix stared at me. “That’s amazing.”

  I almost smiled. Almost. “Thanks. Let’s go.”

  Felix started pedaling across the lot. I could ride three times faster, but I didn’t mind slowing down for him. It was the first normal company I had had in over a week. It was nice. It was nice all the way across the huge parking lot, until we got to the front gate.

  Felix was just about to swipe his badge to open the bicycle gate when we saw the headlights on the road coming toward us. One, two, three cars, close together.

  “Quick, get back.” I zipped back from the gate into a shadowy spot between the glaring floodlights, and he hurried to follow me.

  The three cars rolled up to the fence and the gate rattled open to let them in.

  “Oh crap.”

  The cars pulled into the lot, but didn’t stray far from the gate. Doors opened, men in suits got out, and then they all took out their phones.

  “What are they doing?” Felix asked.

  I didn’t answer. It looked like they were all tapping away at some app, but then they started walking slowly away from the cars, gradually turning left and right as they moved. I focused on the man closest to us. He peered at his phone, then looked up and turned to face directly at us, and he started coming forward.

  “He sees us!” Felix moved like he was going to start pedaling away, as if there was somewhere he could possibly go on that bike to get to safety.

  I grabbed his arm. “No, he’s tracking us.”

  “What? How?”

  “I don’t know. Can they track the rubidium?” I pointed my thumb in the direction of my backpack.

  “No, no way.”

  “Then…” I looked at him. “It’s the badge. Throw away the badge, now, as far as you can.”

  “But I need it to—”

  “Get rid of it!”

  He grimaced, and then hurled the little plastic rectangle as hard as he could. It sliced cleanly through the air for a moment, and then tumbled over and dropped to the ground. It hadn’t gone very far.

  “Sorry,” he muttered.

  I rolled my eyes. “Get on my scooter.”

  “What about… okay.” He set his bike down quietly on the ground and swung onto the seat behind me with his arms around my waist.

  I had no idea if there was a weight limit for holograms, but there wasn’t time for any tests. The man with the phone was getting closer. In a few seconds, he would see us. The men behind him were starting to move in our direction too. It had to be now.

  I gunned the throttle and the black scooter accelerated across the lot. The man with the phone looked up sharply and reached for something that might have been a gun, but we shot past him and then I aimed straight for the open gate behind the cars. The other men saw us too, and they all reached for their weapons or started barking orders or reports into their phones.

  But it didn’t matter. We were going at least forty miles an hour already, and in another second we’d be through the…

  The wheels of the holo-scooter stopped turning and we started to slide and skid across the parking lot. It was all I could do to keep us from falling over, especially with the extra weight behind me, but then the scooter flickered and we both fell off. Or should I say, we fell through.

  Right before I hit the ground I shouted, “Lux, off!” just to make sure the scooter didn’t try to rematerialize and burn some nice laser holes in my legs.

  We both hit the ground moving, still hurtling forward with the momentum of the scooter, and we rolled hard several times toward the gate before our bodies stopped.

  I guess there is a weight limit.

  I blinked. A little stunned, a little dazed, but not hurt. I stood up with the sounds of shoes thumping on pavement in my ears.

  The men!

  “Lux, shield!”

  The black shield appeared just as the first shots were fired, but the bullets pinged harmlessly off the cold photons and clattered on the ground.

  “Stay behind me!”

  Felix scrambled around behind me, putting his hands on my back like he was afraid to lose me. He probably was, what with the guns and the shooting.

  They fired a few more shots at the shield, and a few more smashed bullets rattled on the ground at my feet. I knew I should have been more scared at that moment, but the shield didn’t even let me feel the impacts, so it sort of felt unreal.

  “Carmen Zhao, put down the weapons and surrender immediately,” one of them said.

  “Is that you, Frost?” I asked.

  “Give it up, Carmen. You’re surrounded. No one wants to hurt you.”

  “Then shooting at me just now was a really bad idea, wasn’t it?”

  “Cygnus wants the gloves, not your head.”

  “No, they want what’s in my head, they want the tech.”

  “That’s the law.”

  “The law is wrong!” I shuffled sideways toward one of the cars.

  “Maybe, but I’m no lawyer. And where are you going? You think you’re going to drive out of here?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe.” I glanced at the car. “Lux, sword.”

  “Hey, what are you doing?” Felix asked as the black blade appeared in my right hand.

  “Auto repair.” I jabbed the sword into the hood of the car and felt it cutting into something big and heavy, which I assumed was the engine. “Oops. Sorry, Frost. Guess I’m not that good with cars.”

  I started shuffling toward the second car, still holding the shield between us and them so I could only barely peek around to see the bottoms of their shoes or the tops of their heads.

  “Carmen, stop!” Frost ordered.

  “What’s that? I can’t hear you.” I killed the second car with a swing of my glowing s
word. The blade nicked the tire as I pulled it out and the whole car sagged a little as the wheel deflated.

  “Think about your parents,” Frost said. “Think about what you’re doing to them.”

  “I’m not doing anything to them!” I wanted to run out there and wrap my hands around his neck for that. “You’re the one who took the job, you’re the one who went to their house, you’re the one who shot them full of drugs and carried them off! That’s you! Not me! I don’t hurt people for a living!”

  “I enforce the law.”

  “The law is wrong!”

  “Take it up with the government.”

  “Yeah, I’ll get right on that. I’ll just throw a little party, maybe a thousand dollars a plate, to do a little fundraising for my best friends in Congress to buy a few votes. Easy. No problem. We’ll have freedom and justice for all by the dessert course, right?”

  Someone fired a bullet into the car behind us and we shuffled over to the third car. I nudged Felix and said, “Get in the car and start it.”

  He got in and I covered him.

  “I need the password to start the car,” he said.

  “Password!” I yelled at Frost. “I won’t kill you, but you don’t want me to start poking you with this thing.” I waved the sword over the shield.

  “Farmhurst,” he said calmly.

  The engine started.

  “Where will you go?” Frost asked. “Everyone’s looking for you. If you run now, you’re just setting yourself up for another confrontation, another shoot-out, somewhere else, maybe with lots of innocent bystanders nearby. But if you surrender now, right now, then no one gets hurt.”

  I hesitated. He was right. It was only going to get worse, more dangerous, more desperate. And I could stop it whenever I wanted. I could choose, right now. I could. “Pass.”

  I jumped into the back seat of the car behind Felix and he tore out of the parking lot as I held my shield-arm out the window to cover us. We roared out onto the main road, leaving Frost and his friends stranded in the dark.

  “Lux, off.”

  I leaned back in my seat and let myself just breathe for a minute. The guns had been less scary this time, for some reason, but my heart was still pounding and I felt exhausted.