Jon was hoping for a few more details. At least he was expecting a few more. Observe the commute? Was the party curious how annoying it is to be sat next to cranky strangers on a workday? Did they want him to track down traffic offenders? Is this how Enforcement got roped into their jobs?
“Whatever,” he said to himself. He was just going to board the overcrowded transit system and record anything out of the ordinary – which was a daily event in this city.
He walked up to the nearest platform and joined the masses as they waited for the next shuttle. It was the last line of shuttles for the morning run. If you weren’t allowed to drive a vehicle and you missed this shuttle, chances are you would end up on a different shuttle that took you to the outskirts of the city, rather than back to your warm bed.
Depending on the work you had been assigned and the current need for the job, the party would rarely show any sort of leniency for being late to work, outside of being too sick to stand – and being able to prove it.
Jon looked around and began to wonder where it was everybody was heading. What jobs were they assigned? Feeling slightly relieved from being released from the daily grind, Jon felt a little peppy that he got to try something new. He turned to the kindly looking, older woman to his left and gave a her a courteous smile and a “good morning.”
Instead of returning the greeting, she slowly dragged her eyes up to meet his. She took in a loud and obnoxious snort and then began coughing on the phlegm she just sucked from her nose into her throat.
Jon’s smile turned into disgust, and he quickly turned his head to face forward once more. It was another reminder why people rarely spoke with strangers in this town. Too few people had any sort of social skills. Jon wasn’t one to boast about being a social butterfly, as he was a crippling introvert, but come on, she didn’t have to hock a loogie in place of a standard greeting. He tucked his hands underneath his shoulders and cringed as he tried to purge that sound and image from his memory banks.
The old, dirty bus came roaring up to the platform as it hovered above the grid below. Suddenly Jon realized something. He had no idea which bus he was about to board. He had just found a line and got into it. The oversized wristwatch didn’t tell him where to go to observe the commute, but just to observe it. As best as Jon could figure, he was permitted to go just about anywhere – until he was told not to.
As everybody began to board the bus, Jon noticed that this line was going to take him back across town – near the library. That made his eyebrows raise and caused him to nibble on his lower lip. It was a tantalizing idea to go back into that hidden book fortress – despite the warnings from Greenwald.
“Hey pal, you getting on or off?” a man’s voice interrupted his thoughts.
Jon quickly looked around to find himself standing in the middle of the doorway, which was waiting to close as soon as the path was clear. He took a step forward onto the crowded tube and clutched the handles hanging from the ceiling. The loud roar of the shuttle taking off down the grid came over the all-too-familiar quiet crowd.
The shuttle was packed shoulder to shoulder. The seats were highly coveted, but it was hard to decide which was worse, standing and trying not to fall-down, or sitting face to crotch with complete strangers.
Jon braced as the bus made its turns. He was there to observe but all he could see was a tube of people with as much luck as a can of sardines. For the most part nobody said a word. It was just the steady roar of the city passing by. There were coughs here and there, a couple of lowly spoken words there but not much else. This was how the duration of this part of the commute would go, as quiet as public transportation could be.
The final stop was now in view and it was a welcomed site. It’s one thing to be packed into a hovering tube with sleepy and grumpy strangers on your way to work. It’s another thing to be trapped with them on your way to where you’re not entirely sure where it is you’re supposed to be.
The shuttle came to its roaring stop and the doors flew open, enough to give Jon a nice gust of wind to blow through his hair. He stepped off the bus, onto the platform and walked to the edge where he would continue his observance of this lively crowd.
They began to thin out and disperse as they made their way to their destinations. Jon watched as they all spread out and entered in to the office buildings surrounding the platform. What an interesting place to go to work – a skyscraper. Jon had no idea what the buildings were for. He couldn’t even guess. No matter. He was here to observe and report.
He pulled up his jacket and looked at the device on his wrist with sudden curiosity. He had absolutely no idea how he was supposed to record and report anything on this device, so he did what anybody would do in this situation. He began to tap the screen with the hopes of the slim computer making the next move.
It did.
It lit up white once more.
“State your name,” it read.
“Jonathan Ballard,” Jon replied.
“State your rank,” it read.
“Specialist.”
“Voice recognition confirmed. Transmit data now.” It was followed by three blinking dots, indicating it was time for Jon to speak.
“Uh… uh…” Jon was not quite prepared to report anything. “I don’t know, nothing? There’s nothing to report?”
As he spoke, the words appeared on the screen and then the words became highlighted. Then they disappeared and were replaced by, “data received.”
“Oh crap,” Jon said out loud as he cocked his head back. He pulled his jacket sleeve back down and began heading to the walkway below. That may have been a huge mistake. Or maybe it was no big deal. Or maybe he could expect a random vehicle to come escort him back to some detention center for being a moron. Or maybe it was no big deal. Maybe he could fix his mistake on the e-paper when he got home, but he’d probably just forget. He just put his hands in his pockets and started walking in whatever direction he happened to be pointing toward.
After several blocks of skulking, Jon finally decided to look up to see where he was headed. His head turned to the right and he caught a glimpse of something welcoming and familiar. It was that mysteriously hidden building. It was the library.
Jon looked down at his device and nothing was showing on the screen. He shrugged his shoulders, looked for any Enforcement that may be watching and crossed the street as soon as the coast was clear.
There was a bit of a pep in his step. He couldn’t remember the last time he was so excited about something that could get him into real trouble. Then he walked that thought back and realized it was because of the last time he was so excited that he got into real trouble. No matter, he would deal with the fallout later. After all, Greenwald seemed adamant but failed to give Jon a direct order not to go.
Jon raised his hand to the receiver and just as Greenwald said, the device worked as though it wasn’t on his arm at all. The door to the library opened. He stepped in cautiously as if Greenwald would be there to greet him with his thugs ready to clobber him into submission for being so nosy. As soon as he came into that foyer he caught a glimpse of the receptionist sitting at that intimidating white-walled desk.
It was not the older lady who had not so subtly laid her toes into his rib cage. It was a younger, much younger, girl sitting in her place. Jon felt his heart fluttering, and he suddenly couldn’t remember why he was standing there. She was beautiful. She was shorter with deep brown hair that sat on her shoulders. Her eyes were sapphire blue. The whites of her eyes were solid white but the rest seemed so dark.
She sat at that desk staring back at Jon, although she didn’t seem quite as infatuated as he did. Rather, she was a bit more curious why some young lad had just wondered into her workspace and looked like a deer in the headlights.
“Do you know where you’re at?” she asked Jon.
“I do,” he replied.
There was an awkward moment of pause. Those were the only words that could find their way from Jon’s brain to his
tongue and out of his lips.
“Okay,” she said hesitantly. “Is there anything I can help you with? Are you here on party orders?”
Jon smiled. He just found his in.
“Yes. Yes, I am.” He then began to make his way toward the desk. “I’m here on official party business. I need to find a few books to study for a moment, if I may.”
“Certainly. Just state your name and raise your arm so I can retrieve your data.”
Jon was quick to obey her orders. She was looking down at the screen in front of her as Jon’s clearance and information was transmitted to it. She paused. It was an uncomfortable pause. Then again, what wasn’t uncomfortable anymore? Jon was doing the very thing he was warned against, so this should be no bother.
Her head raised and fell to the side.
“Are you sure you’re supposed to be here, Specialist?”
The uncomfortable situation had suddenly become cause for alarm. Jon acted quick and kept insisting he was where he was supposed to be.
“Why else would I wander into a secret library?” he asked the girl.
She bit her lower lip as she stared at Jon.
“Find what you need, Specialist.”
Jon felt the panic flee from his chest, and his breathing pattern returned to normal. He slowly began to move towards the shelves, but not before catching this young lady’s name. It was on her badge.
“Sinda,” Jon couldn’t help but say it softly, and out loud. He looked up at her to find one eyebrow raised.
“Easy there, Specialist. I’ve seen men beaten and hauled off for less.”
Jon couldn’t help but smile at her. He didn’t care if she was trying to scare him or if she was dead serious. There were plenty of women around town. Many of the attractive ones were plastered across party propaganda all over the city. This one, Sinda, seemed different. There was something pleasant about her, something comforting. Jon was captivated by her.
But he knew the rules as well as any other citizen. It was only the night before he saw a man and women beaten and kidnapped by the dreaded ghost soldiers. Being that this was a party member, he needed to be careful with what he allowed to slip passed his filter. As Jon was walking away from her station and towards the books, he stopped.
“I apologize, I didn’t catch your position,” he inquired of Sinda.
She let out an annoyed breath, “I’m a specialist, like you.”
“And how long have you been part of the party?”
“Long enough,” she replied as she put her eyes back on her desk.
Jon quietly nodded his head and turned back to the task at hand. This trip to the library looked like it was going to work out. He saw a girl that could take his mind off the numb and the mundane life in this city.
That gold text caught his eyes.
“Cowboys,” he whispered to himself.
No need to sneak this time. Sinda did not inform him of any limitations on this visit. If there were any, he could at least play the ignorance card. Despite that, he decided to grab the book and head for the corner he was initially banished to on his first trip.
He took a seat, leaned over the book and stared at the cover for just a moment before opening to the first page. Jon’s interest peaked again. The character in this book seemed to share his own name. Jon read.
He woke to the sounds of hooves beating the ground in the distance. It had to have been the middle of the night, somewhere between midnight and two a.m.
Johnny sprung out of bed and jumped over to his window to see what, or who, in the world was making such a ruckus at this hour and so close to his property. Off in the distance he saw a group of men on horseback, heading towards his home. If that didn’t seem like trouble enough, they were all carrying torches.
Johnny flew into action like a hawk on its prey. His boots and shirt were on within in seconds. He grabbed his shotgun on his way down the stairs towards the front door.
The men arrived to the home as Johnny came to the nearest window to the door.
All the men were wearing masks.
“Johnny boy! Is you in there?” they shouted.
Johnny did not return the greeting and stuck his shotgun out of the window and pointed it at the one speaking.
“Nah, nah, Johnny. This goin’ be easy on ya. Y’all just stay put and we’ll put you out of your misery.” The masked man let out a cringe worthy laugh as the rest of the group encircled the home. “It’s time ta pay for your sins, Johnny boy! We don’t need you in this town!”
With that, all the men hurled their torches at the home, some of them breaking through the windows and others landing on the rooftop.
Johnny didn’t hesitate. He opened fire on the masked man and watched as the man was ripped off his horse.
The rest of the posse started to take off, while two of them came to assist the man who had been shot by Johnny. He was screaming as the men tried to put him back on his horse.
Johnny fired off another round, but this one missed. He cracked the barrel open to reload, but it was going to be too late. The man was back on his horse, and they were turning around to head back out the way they came.
“See you in hell, Johnny boy!” the man screamed as he took off with the rest of the herd.
Johnny ran back to his bedroom. His wife was already out of bed with their baby cradled securely in her arms.
“What’s happening, Johnny?” she pleaded with him.
“Make sure he’s warm and come on! We need to get out of the house!”
Johnny kept his gun clenched in his fists and made sure his pockets were full of bullets. Then the three of them fled from the house. They got far enough to turn around and watch as their home was consumed in fire.
“Studying hard?” came a women’s voice from above.
Jon looked up to catch eyes with Sinda.
“Uh. yeah, yeah. I think I found what I was looking for.” He tried to give her the most convincing smile he could muster.
“So, you want to tell me that one of your higher ups sent you here to study a book about cowboys?” she asked.
He looked around for a quick moment and shook his head as he began to speak.
“You know, I never ask questions. I just try and stay on task,” and then he let out an audible swallow.
“I can see that.” Then she gave a long and awkward pause. “We normally don’t let anybody linger around for more than a few minutes.” She stood over Jon as she was trying to hint to him it was time to leave.
“I see,” he said as he stood up. “Well thank you for the time, and hopefully I’ll see you again.” Jon gave her a smile and started heading for the door.
Then came a loud, suggestive cough from behind. He turned back to face her.
“The book stays here,” she said with her hand sticking out, waiting for him to hand it over.
“Oh this? Right… of course it does.” He handed it back to her. “Take care.”
She said nothing back.
Jon tried to give her one more clue that she had caught his attention as he reached the door back to the street. He turned as it opened and gave her one last glance. She went back to her desk and looked up to catch eyes with him. She didn’t look at him long for Jon to read her. She put her eyes back down on her desk.
As he came out of the library and back into the concrete labyrinth, that now familiar warm and gentle vibration was felt on his arm. He pulled back his sleeve to reveal the display.
“Visit food distribution center. Assess employee behavior and portions being distributed. Report back.”
What did that mean? It felt more and more that he was just the informant for the Enforcement. Go around and tattle on anybody doing anything naughty. That’s what was really going on here.
The distribution center was somewhere between where he was standing and his living quarters. There was a bit of a hiccup in his plans to get there, however. The last transit for the morning was the one he had already gotten off of, and he no longer had
the privilege of operating his own vehicle anymore. That meant it was time for a walk.
He tucked his hands into his jacket pockets and began his walk back the way he came. At least it was a nice day. The sun was out and it was bright. The air was cool and crisp, but not too cold.
Jon had never gotten to experience the city midday. He was always stuck at work, of course. It was a strange feeling to not have to be stuck in one location all day. He finally got to see the other side of the coin. Except there was nothing there.
The hustle, bustle and chaos of the every-morning work stampede had come to an end, and almost nobody was left behind. The vehicles traveling on the grid were few. There were no shuttles roaring overhead. As far as Jon could tell, he was the only one walking along the street.
It quickly became an uncomfortable feeling, as though he shouldn’t have been out there, all alone. He kept his gaze down on the walkway as he pondered his new routine. It was going to be difficult to transition into this. At least his last job offered him the opportunity to talk to people. As if his days weren’t lonely enough, now he didn’t know how many people, if any, would be crossing his path anymore.
Suddenly, a blaring squeal came roaring down the road next to him. Those now familiar flashing lights came into view. And out of a loud speaker came those now familiar words.
“Citizen, stop where you are and prepare for assistance,” the officer demanded as the vehicle came to a quick stop next to Jon. The Enforcement officer came out of his vehicle with great haste.
“Great,” Jon said quietly to himself. “I’m going back to jail for reading a book about a cowboy.”
The officer, with his hand on his firearm, barked his next demand.
“Raise your arms and surrender your encrypted data,” he shouted in his cyborg voice.
Jon responded accordingly with a look of disbelief on his face.
While the officer waiting for the info to show up, Jon simply outstretched his arms and put his head down. He was waiting for those restraints to be placed on this wrist’s once again, perhaps one last time.
“Specialist Jonathan Ballard,” the officer spoke.
The Cowboy of Pinnacle City Page 9