Specter Protocol

by Eddie R. Hicks

  “Well, turns out members of that uprising survived and went underground,” Piper said. “They secretly began plotting a second uprising when the time was right, creating hidden IW training schools across the globe to keep their forces sharp.”

  “So, S ranked IWs had existed since the war ended?” Estrella asked her.

  “Yeah, just smaller in numbers and stayed underground.” Piper crossed her arms, shutting her eyes to recall the details. “Things were going according to plan until the group started cutting deals with corporations. They ended up doing a lot of dirty work for them, rather than continue to fight for IW freedom. Something needed to be done, so an IW reached out to me, Theo, and Bashiir and asked us to take action.”

  Progress at last. Piper was telling the truth and waving away the fog of mystery and deception. Estrella wanted to know more. “You three and that IW are the ones that triggered this invisible war?”

  “Yeah,” Piper answered. “Well, not the IW that contacted us. Truth be told we’ve never met him, her, or them. Hell, I don’t even think it’s one person, could be a fucking group. They dispatch IWs to speak with us, relaying messages from them to us with orders. That’s how I met with Bashiir and Theo. Like me, IW messengers approached them and told the three of us we had to work together to stop an IW uprising. Those orders and secret messages lead me to Los Angeles and from there, the clash with Nobuo and the IWs from the Federation. And, thanks to you guys, they’re dead, not sure about their leaders though.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Nobuo wasn’t the leader, more like a second-in-command. He was following orders from another. We don’t know who; not even the people relaying messages to us know. So, while their main assault team, led by Nobuo is gone, out there is a pissed off leader of an IW uprising group that wants to know who fucked with them.”

  “You said something about removing registered IWs from Yoshida’s database. What’s that about?”

  Estrella had no intention of letting up on the questions. She and Ray had unknowingly taken part in an invisible war. They had to know everything now. Especially if Nobuo’s boss was still alive.

  “Well,” Piper drawled. “The list I gave Ray were registered IWs. But thanks to him, he helped free those IWs. They now have the freedoms humans freely kept to themselves. Those messengers I talked about? They also ask us to share the freedom we have with those that want it and protect them from trouble if they run into it. Now and then, we pay hackers that can get in and change their profiles or use mind control and push certain individuals into creating the new lifestyles for the newly freed IWs to live. If any registered IW wants to break free, they need to reach out to us.”

  “What about the GPS trackers they implant IWs with?” Estrella asked her.

  “Also carefully removed or disabled with paid help found on the black market.”

  “And nobody notices that they've gone missing?”

  “Nope, there are thousands in the city. It's impossible to live monitor them all. Only IWs of interest are consistently tracked. Those that aren’t being monitored get logged in the system in case something happens. To catch us freeing IWs, you’d have to be watching the GPS reports the second we have them disabled.”

  “We’re opposed to the registration laws,” Robbie added, much to Estrella’s surprise.

  “Robbie,” Estrella said, facing the bartender. “You in on this too?”

  “Yep.”

  Estrella grimaced. “You’re registered though.”

  “Plausible deniability,” Robbie said. “I had my fun as an unregistered; it’s what got me in the navy. But I had to take one for the team, so here I am. But damn, do I ever miss those days serving aboard the Rio Grande.”

  “Robbie running this bar helped feed us the lowdown in the IW district,” Piper said.

  “I hear all and tell all to Piper and the messengers that swing by for an update.”

  Piper laughed. “You’re still part of the team!”

  “Retired member, dear!” Robbie waved an index finger back and forth. “I serve drinks now, not shoot up the naughty boys and girls.”

  “What’s your endgame?” Estrella asked.

  “Peaceful co-existence, hopefully, I guess,” Piper said. “I’m not sure honestly. The messengers just showed up one day, knew everything about me, and told me I had to play along. When I met Theo and Bashiir, I learned they had the same story. The messengers told them they had to participate. We knew walking away carried more risks than going along with it. Whoever it is that dispatches the messengers to us knows everything, and probably has the power to make anything happen to us. So far, all they asked from us was to free registered IWs and stop IWs from the Federation with links to the original IW uprising at the end of the third world war.”

  “Let me get this straight,” Ray said. “Nobuo and the augmented IWs are part of the faction you fought right? They weren’t working for the Federation?”

  “Were,” Piper corrected him. “That faction is no more, but yes, they operated in Federation territory, and pulled strings there, including its corporations, but that was it.”

  “Then what about you?” he asked. “You’re a Federation IW posing as an RW, just like some members of Nobuo’s group. And didn’t you say the shit in my head is related to your existence?”

  “Yeah, I did.”

  “Then whose side are you on?” Leave it to Ray to ask the tough questions, his background as a journalist was still there. “Zhang Industries developed your cyberware which suggests you’re the last surviving member of Nobuo’s group. I also heard him call you a traitor. But everything you said just implies you’re their enemy and had been.”

  Piper looked away, scowling. “Shit was done to my body by Zhang, yes.”

  “And?”

  “I’d rather not talk about it, it’s not relevant.”

  The look Piper made, and the change of her voice was a familiar one. It was the one Estrella made when people pestered her about why she sold her body to Yoshida and had almost fifty percent of her humanity gutted out and replaced with cyberware. Estrella did it to get back at the Bald Skulls gang that murdered her parents and forced her into performing in underage adult psytrip memory spheres. It sounded to Estrella like Piper too was forced into having half her witch body ripped apart, becoming the IW-RW hybrid she was.

  She had to change the subject. If the position was in the reverse, then Estrella would hope Piper would do it for her.

  “Norris Kounias.” It got Ray’s attention and Estrella connecting the remaining dots.

  Piper said her group secretly gave unregistered IWs in the city and elsewhere new lives, at the request of an individual neither of them knew or met personally, orders issued by IW messengers that knew where to find them. Norris Kounias was the father of Arianna Kounias, Ray’s missing girlfriend, and according to Piper Norris had been an unregistered IW. It all made sense now, the more she thought about it and why Piper was so interested in the Kounias family and befriended Ray. She was watching over the Kounias’ like a guardian angel and used Ray to get close.

  Ray spoke up, his eyes wide with inspiration. “Norris was one of the unregistered IWs you set up, isn’t he?” he asked Piper.

  “Yes, and when we discovered Arianna, who is half IW, got a job working for Yoshida, we became concerned. They asked me to come to LA and observe them.”

  “And then you came up with the cover story about being a Federation refugee that received prototype Yoshida cyberware,” Estrella said.

  Piper made a Mona Lisa smile. “Fooled everyone, didn’t I? Well turns out they were right to suspect something since Arianna was part of this avatar project and stole the designs to a weapon Zhang was developing.”

  “And for who…” Estrella groaned. “Before things were simple, it was the Federation’s fault. But now you mentioned this prick Nobuo worked for… Who was Zhang making the weapon for? The Federation? Or them?”

  “Could be both,” Piper said. “Gue
ss we’ll never know until we can extract the memory Arianna put in Ray’s head, or perhaps my messengers send me an update.”

  “Whoever your messengers get their messages from,” Estrella said. “You take orders from people you’ve never seen or met, and it sounds like Nobuo did the same. Are you sure we can trust them?”

  “They organized us and haven’t let us down,” Piper said. “Well, not too much.”

  “They,” Robbie chuckled, reminding Estrella he had been there listening from across the bar. “I thought we agreed to call those that dispatched the messengers, Nexus? And Nexus is why Ray, and Piper are safe. Registered IWs don’t want any part in the conflict, and unregistered ones are grateful for their freedom. The IW district right now is the safest place for Ray and Piper to roam in.”

  Ray frowned. “Damn, so I’m stuck here?”

  “You can leave the district, but just be very careful,” Piper said to him. “You won’t get the same treatment here, as you would in the human-controlled areas of the city. Even with the facial scan problems taken care of; wanted holograms might remind humans of us. The community here will protect us, however. But, enough talk.” Piper looked toward Robbie. “You got the keys?”

  Robbie reached into his pockets and pulled out a handful of electronic security keys. He pushed them across the bar to Piper. “Four single bedroom units, cheap rent, right smack dab here in the district.”

  Piper gave Ray one key. He gazed blankly at it. “You’ll have to live here for a while, Ray, until we clear your name,” Piper said.

  “Fantastic.” Ray groaned. “Can I at least get my stuff from my place?”

  Piper shook her head. “Probably be best to start over.”

  The chatting ended. Robbie asked if they wanted anything to drink. Estrella and Ray said yes at the same time. After what she learned she would need it. Later in the evening, they left the bar after Robbie gave Piper and Ray the directions to their new apartment.

  Piper waved farewell to Estrella with the key to her new place in hand. “If you need us, we’ll be over there, moving in.”

  “And if you need more batteries,” Estrella said. “You know where my place is.”

  “Of course.”

  “Of course, that means if you need more, then you’ve gone through more than you needed, and then I’ll be pretty fucking pissed. So, don’t do anything stupid Piper, or you’ll be putting my life on the line.”

  “Oh relax, we’ll be fine.”

  “If anyone’s looking for me,” Ray added and pointed to the neon sprawl ahead. “I’ll be shopping at the nearest computer store. I’m going to need some new hardware to continue the search for Arianna.”

  “Take it easy guys,” Estrella said and marched to the subway. Her motorcycle was still at the police station thanks to the limo ride from Lady M. She never got the chance to pick it up and made plans to do so in the morning. It was getting late and she was getting tired. Then there was newfound paranoia from the reveal.

  It was indeed a rabbit hole Piper pushed Ray and Estrella into. There was no way she could live a normal life anymore, knowing there had been an invisible war fought between IWs and the world didn’t know about it until it was too late, like Munich, New York, and Los Angeles.

  Piper said the war was over following the defeat of Nobuo but seemed convinced his leaders were still alive. Somewhere, out there beyond the neon, was a force that had no fighters left to fight their invisible war.

  And they had Estrella and Ray to thank for that.

  Five

  Miyuki

  One month later…

  Rain from the dark gray skies drenched the late evening streets of Tokyo. You couldn’t make out the faces of those walking on the sidewalks or crossing the streets, not with their umbrellas deployed. It was a sea of dripping umbrellas of various colors, a sea Miyuki had to navigate through alone. She walked among the people to her destination, her boots splashing through the shiny streets reflecting the neon and talking hologram ads decorating the sprawl. The talking billboards selling new electronics periodically turned to government-paid PSAs.

  Report all anti-government activities to the authorities. Help make the Federation free of senseless violence.

  It was written in Chinese first, then switched to Japanese, then English. Public service messages calling for citizens to report unregistered IWs were Miyuki’s favorite. They always ended with a reminder that facial recognition was watching and knew if you failed to do so.

  The government spent more time cracking down on that than acting upon the violence humans and IWs exchanged with each other daily. It had Miyuki wondering, as she walked under the holographic billboard, if life outside the Federation was like this too. Few people living in the Federation knew what happened beyond its borders. They knew only what state media broadcasted, and when they reported on international matters it mostly focused on how delusional the Alliance of the Americas and European Union was, or how selfish and secretive the African Dominion had become. Not much was said about the New Soviet Union, the Federation had a finicky on-again, off-again friendship with them.

  She got out of the rain a few minutes later, stepping into her favorite arcade. Her hands were covered in black gloves, leather just like her jacket, shorts, and long black boots. The arcade games made it impossible to hear her bootheels clicking as she moved through the flashing lights of the buzzing gaming hangout. It felt nice, strolling through such a densely packed place, and not one person noticed her altered appearance, following her death last month. Her outfit covered just enough of her body and the cyberware augmentation, especially her eyes behind the shades she wore. She kept the shades on despite being indoors, even after ordering some bubble tea.

  She stood sipping on her bubble tea, waiting for gamers to finish playing at the arcade she had her views on. The game was Imaginary Protectors, based on a popular anime and manga featuring a trio of cute ecchi magical girls in skintight outfits. The game, much like the source material, told the story of a team of three witches forced to use their powers to defend Earth from alien invaders. It was one of the few forms of entertainment around that painted IWs in a positive light, rather than the villain.

  A Game Over screen pulsed. A man who had been playing grunted at his loss, then left the game to play another. Miyuki took his place, setting her half-empty bubble off to the side of the cabinet. Facial scanners scanned her, red laser light flashing a grid of lines across her face. It confirmed her fake identity, Kumiko Yanaka, set up by Yanmei Feng’s people. The game reset after deducting funds from Miyuki’s account, one that didn’t belong to her. Yanmei and her people owned that.

  She held the joystick in her black-gloved left hand and inched her right-hand over the buttons. She selected her favorite character, Luna, one of the three witches from the game’s story. Level one loaded, alien invaders began the assault on Earth, and Miyuki’s character answered the challenge with her pyrokinetic powers. It was a bit of a power fantasy of hers, Miyuki always fantasized about what life would have been like had she been born a witch with pyrokinetic abilities, and not the telepathic ones she had. She took great care not to break the game’s joystick and buttons, by pushing it too hard or turning it fast. Miyuki still hadn’t gotten used to the newfound strength the cyberware within her hands provided. No need to reveal what she truly was by snapping a game cabinet into pieces.

  An hour of gaming and nursing her bubble tea slipped away. Her phone vibrated in her jacket pocket. Miyuki waited until she cleared the level she was on to reach for it and read the message. She was about to break her previous record and playing with one hand wasn’t going to let her achieve that. Then she grimaced as she saw the message. Yanmei was coming over, and Miyuki wasn’t home where she should have been.

  Reluctantly, she backed away from the game, still in progress. Breaking her previous high score would have to wait for another day. She tossed her empty bubble teacup to the bottom of the recycling unit on her way out.

 
She was home now, a cube-shaped suite comprising of a kitchen, bedroom, living room all merged to form a room in the sky. Four walls and one of them was wholly a window, peering out at the neon skyline of Tokyo. Yanmei hadn’t arrived yet. Miyuki took advantage of that and walked past her bed, picking up the pack of cigarettes and lighter that were on it. She put one to her lips while using the lighter to bring a red dot of light to its tip. A puff and a mist of white left her mouth as she stepped over pants, shirts, and two or three bras on the floor on her walk to the window.

  She ignored her reflection on the glass, especially the light her synthetic ruby eyes made after she lifted her shades to her black hair. She peered at the skyline, her HUD overlaying various lines of text, computer windows, and icons. It made watching the skyline and ships blasting off into orbit or flying in from elsewhere in the world interesting. She could zoom in and inspect things or activate her optical scanner and read the digital text written in Japanese scrolling across her vision.

  A knocking on the front door broke the silence. She ground out the cigarette in an ashtray, slogged to the door, once again stepping over unwashed clothes and socks. Yanmei stood behind the door, toolkit in hand, shades covering her ruby glowing eyes. She let herself in, and Miyuki shut the door.

  “Oh, the maintenance,” Miyuki said after taking a second glance at Yanmei’s toolkit.

  Yanmei placed it on the floor, kicking aside a pile of socks. “You forgot?”

  “I did,” Miyuki said. “I had gotten used to the pain and discomfort.”

  “Perhaps I should leave you then—”

  “Oh no, please. I’d prefer we take care of this before it gets worse.”

  Miyuki approached the edge of her bed, pulling her shirt up and over her head, then off. She pulled her shorts down next, then kicked them off to land on the pile of clothes. Then came her panties, sliding down her skinny legs, lined with metal parts, and scars from where her bones were ripped out and replaced with cybernetic ones. She reached behind last, fingers locating her bra hook. That too came off her body and was dropped to the ground.