Specter Protocol

by Eddie R. Hicks

  On her thirteenth birthday, she received the gift that’d be a burden for the rest of her life, the gift of telepathic powers. She had become like her parents now, and her brother Nobuo, an eyesore to the human population of the Federation.

  The vision changed. Miyuki was fifteen now, on her knees with tears streaming from her eyes, and an angry mob of humans tossing rubbish and bottles at her. Her brother stood ahead deflecting the broken glass with his psychokinetic powers. Tokyo had its share of IW related crimes and anyone that had been a registered one stepping out from their district was assumed to be an IW looking to rob a bank, or mind control people into handing their wallets over.

  Miyuki and Nobuo were just searching for honest work. Their parents had been unemployed for years. Nobody hired IWs who were direct descendants of the ones that served in the third world war. The IWs that fought during the war were viewed as the primary reason the death toll and destruction skyrocketed during that conflict.

  It was on that day Miyuki accepted that she’d fall into the same void her parents did. Jobless, unhappy, wearing a veil of fear as the humans that controlled the world sought for an excuse to not trust you, and looked for a reason to avoid you when their eyes glimpsed you walking the streets under the light of the neon and hologram media.

  And then her father ended up in a casket. She wished that vision didn’t manifest. Her father had grown desperate for food and money and tried using his telepathic powers to rob a store. If he had been younger, he might have been able to escape from the RWs that shot him dead.

  Eight months flew past in seconds, and then Miyuki once again stood in the same funeral home. This time it was her mother in the casket. Mother had gotten a job as a psychic medium and then was beaten to death when her last client didn’t like the truth her mother’s psychic gifts unveiled. Miyuki and Nobuo had the house to themselves. He was all she had in the miserable and dying planet. Nobuo had enough of the never-ending pain and left. He said he had a plan to bring in money, help Miyuki, and give her a special gift when he returned.

  She never saw Nobuo again.

  Three years later Miyuki got the news. Nobuo’s decapitated body had been pulled from the burning triple towers of the Yoshida Corporation’s main office in Los Angeles, a city in the Alliance of the Americas. That was two days ago.

  Miyuki didn’t cry. She turned off the TV, stripped naked, entered the bathroom, and drew a nice warm bath. When the bathwater was ready, she grabbed a razor, sat down in the bathtub, slit her wrists, and watched as the clear water changed to a murky red from the massive cuts across her left and right wrists. She had enough of the bullshit and society having preconceived notions about her and her now-deceased family.

  That’s when Miyuki realized visions had been flashing before her eyes. This was it. She was dying. And then was she dead.

  It was so peaceful now.

  Murmurs echoed. Someone was speaking words in English. One whispered in Japanese; another spoke Chinese. The murmuring voices grew louder, fellow spirits from the afterlife she assumed, ready to receive and guide her back into the arms of her big brother, and maybe her mother and father too, and past IWs that died too soon.

  Beeping came next. Electronic beeping. This was unexpected.

  “Got a heartbeat.”

  “Holy fuck, it’s working.”

  “Can we get the tracking device out her head?”

  “Yeah, it still works. Corporate salvage teams were going to come looking for it anyway and put it in another IW.”

  There was silence, except for the beeping. Clink went an item into a dish, so she assumed. “Okay, now what?”

  “Now…” That voice was female, Chinese accent. “We wait.”

  Miyuki’s eyes opened to a ceiling glowing blue from various computer monitors and medical equipment. Her heartbeat was in sync with the beeps from the heart monitor next to her. She grimaced. Miyuki doubted this was the afterlife. She was supposed to be dead and feeling its eternal void suck her in.

  Why am I in a hospital surrounded by doctors? She thought.

  Miyuki sat up, studying the faces looking back at her. She didn’t recognize them. “I take it this isn’t the afterlife?”

  A woman stepped forward. Half her face was covered by long black hair. “It could be,” she said. She was the one that spoke with the Chinese accent. “If you have a wild imagination.”

  Miyuki looked down at her wrists, wondering if she made the slit right. She couldn’t see the cut or the flesh on her wrist, only the chrome shine of cyberware.

  The beeping on the heart monitor upped in tempo. Miyuki faced the alluring Chinese lady. “What did you do to me?!”

  “We saved you.”

  “Impossible! I was alone, nobody should have seen… what… I did.”

  “Nobody did.” The lady grinned. “You died and your body was recovered after your tracker reported your vitals were fatal.”

  Miyuki looked away. “I didn’t know my tracker had that feature.”

  “It didn’t, but the Yakuza you paid to have the tracker removed, only to fail, infected it with a virus. It sent them everything about you to them.”

  “I should have known it was a scam…” She was looking back at the cyberware on her wrists and the wires entering her elbows. Her legs going up to her thighs had visible chrome attached. Someone was midway into putting cyberware into her body. “Why are you doing this? Can’t you leave me? I’ve had enough of this shit. I want out.”

  The woman snorted with crossed arms. “And why’s that?”

  “What’s the point in continuing to live when you have nothing, and humans take offense that they have to share the air we breathe with them?”

  “There are always people out there that will see you as an irreplaceable individual.”

  “My parents are dead,” Miyuki said, shaking her head. “The last person in my life, my big brother Nobuo is gone, killed in the Alliance, doing things he’d never do.”

  The strange woman leaned forward. It gave Miyuki a better glance at her eyes in the darkened hospital room. Her irises were like a ruby emitting light. “Such as?”

  Miyuki recalled the details the news said about her brother. “Violence? Nearly starting a war with the Federation and Alliance while working with IWs the Federation’s military recruited. The report said he was an S ranked telepath too. That’s not the big brother I knew. Nobuo would never hurt anyone. He only wanted to protect me. We were the last members of our family left alive.” She lowered her head, gazing at the loose-fitting hospital gown, her eyes leaking tears of sorrow that ran down her face. They formed tiny moist circles on the gown. “He promised…” she added after a minute of sobbing. “He promised he’d come back with a new opportunity for the both of us… a gift for me.”

  The IWs Nobuo worked with weren’t just any IWs, they’d been outfitted with cyberware. It was an achievement that was considered impossible because of IW physiology. And since weaponization of IWs had been banned worldwide, so was research into IWs, such as the development of IW friendly cyberware. Nobuo didn’t just try to start a war, he was also a criminal by international standards and made it look like the Federation was backing him, even though state media had denied it over and over.

  To continue living, after learning what he had done, also meant carrying the shame Nobuo brought to the Matsuoka family, what was left if it, being her.

  The Chinese woman offered her hand to Miyuki to shake. Her hand was a chrome job like her wrists, augmented with cyberware. “Would you like to know why Nobuo did it?” she asked. “Or perhaps learn if he even did it at all. You should know no news organization can be trusted, Federation or Alliance. The only way to experience the truth is to see it for yourself.”

  She didn’t accept the handshake. “There’s no point,” Miyuki said, wiping away the tears. “My big brother is gone, and he’s not coming back to fulfill his promise.”

  “So why don’t you do it for him?” The two made eye contact once ag
ain. The ruby glow from the woman’s eyes was synthetic.

  “How?”

  “You’re officially dead, Miyuki,” she said. “Your tracker has been removed and will be implanted in another IW.” Miyuki reached back, touching the back of her head. There was a bandage covering the spot where her locator GPS was installed. “Just say the word, and I’ll see to it you return to the world as a yūrei. Join us in the Specter program and help us learn what your brother did. And who knows, maybe you’ll find the gift he never got to give you. This way, even in death, his promise to you will be fulfilled.”

  She grimaced at the usage of the word yūrei, a Japanese ghost and remembered the stories she and Nobuo had read together as children. It was ironic that Miyuki was being resurrected with technology to become one.

  “If you prefer death, however,” the woman continued. “We can undo the work we did to your body, and you can return to it.” The woman’s back was turned to Miyuki now. She was walking to the door, summoning the doctors to move with her. “I will leave the choice with you.”

  Miyuki considered her next words, her next choice. Death, which was what she wanted. Or rebirth as a yūrei.

  “What do I need to do?” she asked.

  The woman stopped, spun, and faced her with a devious grin. “Survive the cyberware augmentation process and subsequent training.”

  “Isn’t that illegal?” Miyuki asked.

  “Yes.” The woman nodded. “And it’s the only way to get the desired results my team has built a reputation on getting. Let me mentor you in your new life as a yūrei.”

  “Who are you? Obviously not an RW.”

  “I am Yanmei Feng.” Yanmei nodded to the team, and they moved to gather their tools and equipment. One doctor gently forced Miyuki’s head back down to the pillow. A blanket covered her body. Miyuki only saw the blanket’s fabric now. “Stay still. You’re supposed to be dead right?”

  Miyuki continued seeing nothing but the blanket at that point. It was just voices, and the feeling of her medical bed being pushed out of the room and into the hospital’s halls.

  “Serge,” Yanmei whispered. “Get the van ready, we got what we came for.”

  The movement of her bed continued, making turns at the hall’s intersections, the glow of the ceiling lights bleeding through the blanket over her frame.

  “What do we do if someone asks why we’re moving her body out from an operating room?” One doctor that had operated on her asked.

  “Stick to the story,” Yanmei said. “We’re on business for Zhang Industries.”

  “Right, you don’t ask agents and doctors from Zhang what they are up to.”

  “Where are you taking me?” Miyuki asked.

  “Shush,” Yanmei whispered, “no more talking, dead girl.”

  The chilly air of nighttime penetrated the blanket, covering Miyuki’s naked body under the gown with goosebumps. She felt the bed rise off the ground and then there was some darkness, then feet stepping on something metal. A door slammed shut, and then another opened from behind her, two of them, and those shut. Later a vehicle navigation computer beeped.

  Yanmei pulled the blanket off. They had placed Miyuki inside a van as it drove away, leaving the hospital behind. Behind Yanmei stood the doctors, and three men dressed in black, their bodies wired with cyberware like Yanmei, ruby glowing eyes included.

  “Welcome to the Specters,” Yanmei said. “Your new home and family.”

  “Don’t worry, love,” said an Australian voice in the driver’s seat. “We all want to know what Nobuo was up to. It’s what the Federation hired us to do. You’re gonna help make the world a better place for us all. Starting with the People’s Federation of Pacific Nations after we sort this out.”

  Four

  Estrella

  The car Piper was driving left the financial and corporate district of Los Angeles. Behind were the suits moving in droves across the sidewalks to the subways or parking garages from their jobs. Traffic was thick. Local bars were filling up with people seeking that after-work beer. None of them looked happy. Estrella wondered how many of them were working those jobs out of fear of the alternative, unemployment, and forced to sell your body either to the sex trade or become an RW.

  They arrived in district 666, the IW district, a place of cheap rent, sad buildings, and IWs that despised most humans and almost all RWs. Estrella felt safer here, especially after the heist she, Piper, and Ray pulled off. Piper parked at the side of the road, far from Estrella’s apartment. Where Piper got the money for a new car was an excellent question. Piper’s sports car was totaled weeks ago on the freeway. Piper had to have mind-controlled a dealer to give it to her, she figured.

  The doors unlocked as Piper undid her seatbelt. “Let’s take a walk, shall we?” she said and exited the car.

  Estrella faced Ray sitting in the backseat and gave him a perplexed look. He gave one back. The two joined Piper on her walk on the sidewalk below neon hotel and motel signs that gave light to the darkened environment. To the left was a sushi restaurant full of patrons exiting or entering, all of them were people with special abilities, even the staff.

  Piper didn’t utter a word about the secret she promised to share with the two, the secret about what was really going on in the world. Estrella wondered what the holdup was. She’d been putting the reveal off since Theo and Bashiir first suggested she tell them. At first, it was because Piper was tired, then it was because she needed to trust Ray and Estrella, and so the break-in at the datacenter mission came together. But that was done now. What was the excuse now? Why was Piper hesitating?

  She watched as Piper shut her emerald eyes in bliss while her hands reached for the edges of the black hood of her cloak that shrouded the pixie kiwi’s head in mystery. Piper pulled the hood off that kept her identity a secret.

  “Are you sure that’s safe?” Estrella asked Piper. “Facial scans might not identify you now but wanted posters will.”

  “Yes, it’s safe,” Piper said. “As long as we’re deep in the IW district, we can walk with our faces seen. Nobody will give a rat’s arse if they recognize us.”

  Estrella looked at Ray. He kept his baseball cap and shades on. It didn’t look like he would take that risk, and she couldn’t blame him.

  “So, what’s the rabbit hole?” Estrella finally asked.

  “Yeah, yeah.” Piper nodded and continued leading their stroll past the gothic-dressed people in the dank sprawl. They arrived at the Witches Brew minutes later. Piper stood, looking up at its flashing neon sign. “We might wanna sit for this chat.”

  “We were sitting fine in the car,” Estrella said. “And at my place, before you sent us on that mission.”

  Piper entered the establishment. Estrella and Ray faced each other again, shrugged then followed. Inside, nobody seemed to care that Piper arrived, or that Estrella was with her, or questioned why Ray was there. Not even Robbie whose smiling face greeted the three as they sat at the bar.

  Robbie dragged a damp towel across the bar, wiping it clean. “Piper, hun, you owe me some money!”

  Piper pulled out a fist full of Alliance dollar bills from her cloak’s pocket and handed it to Robbie. “Yeah, sorry about the dash.”

  “All good,” Robbie said and counted the cash. It made his bronzed face grin. “Your face turned up in the news after that, so I’m gonna assume it had to do with that.” He put the cash in the register and returned. “So, what can I get for you three lovelies?”

  “Nothing,” Piper said. “Just wanted to prove a point to Ray and Estrella.”

  Robbie beamed brightly. “Oh, I see. Well, holler at me when you need to wet your mouths with some delicious alcohol.”

  He walked off to serve other witches and warlocks sitting in his bar. Estrella glanced at Piper. “So, Robbie, an IW, doesn’t care that you and Ray are wanted…”

  “And neither do most folks living in the IW district,” Piper said. “People like me, Theo and Bashiir are too important to the c
ommunity.” Piper’s synthetic hand stroked her chin. “Oh, where do I start…?”

  “Tell them about the war.” It was Robbie unexpectedly jumping into the chat. The three faced him in unison. “Don’t mind me, I’m just eavesdropping. Slow day, so sue me.”

  “What war?” Ray asked, breaking his silence.

  “I wouldn’t call it a war exactly,” Piper said. “There’s an invisible conflict going on and me, Bashiir, and Theo got drafted into it. Was a conflict, I should say. Seems like we put an end to it.”

  Ray winced. “I wasn’t aware of that…”

  “Well, it is an invisible war,” Piper said. “Outsiders like you and the rest of society don’t see it.”

  “I dabble on the dark web from time to time,” Ray said. “Even they don’t talk about it.”

  “Then we’ve done an excellent job keeping it a secret,” Piper said. “Though, the incidents in the EU, Indonesian jungles, New York, and LA aren’t perfect examples of that.”

  “The Federation IWs we fought,” Estrella said. “Are they part of this invisible war?”

  Piper nodded. “Yes. Now for a story. World War III ended only because the IWs forced to fight in the war rebelled against the nations that created them.”

  Ray chimed in. “Right, they banded together and formed the short-lived IW uprising and fought their human masters, regardless of where they came from.”

  Piper continued. “After the failed uprising, those IWs were forced to surrender to the first generation RWs dispatched to quell them. After that, governments sought to keep all IWs on a leash, banned training them, blah, blah, blah, you know the rest, right?”

  He nodded. “Right.”