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"I need you to get me out of the city" Melissa spoke quickly, in hushed tones.
"What are you on about?" Thomas asked "You're about ready to burst and you want to try your luck outside?" he nodded at her swollen tummy, close as she was to full term. "You seen the news recently? Shit has got out of hand out there. Anywhere that's not the major cities with their defence systems is practically wasteland now."
"Says the Centrale news casts"
Thomas was incredulous "You still on about that? Even after the job we pulled last year?"
"You didn't see what I saw in their systems Tom"
"And you would never talk about it. Closed up tighter than Fort Knox, before it got vapourised that is" his voice trailed off, losing his cultural reference points to the encroaching war raging outside city limits. After a minute he continued "I always figured your grand conspiracy had been proven wrong and you were too proud to admit it" He anticipated a severe rebuke, but it never came, Melissa just sat staring down at her belly, rubbing it absentmindedly.
Thomas lifted his mug to his lips, gulping down the coffee inside. Two sugars, just a little milk. They sat at the end of a long thin diner, under what was to be part of the new autoroad system when construction was complete. It was a cosy little diner, former highspeed train carriage. Thomas had discovered it when out for a run a couple of weeks previously. The new owner of the joint seemed a bit grumpy though.
"I didn't know how to talk about it. You were off on you jobs" her distaste for his mildly criminal activities not hidden "and Robert. Well, Robert was Robert" she trailed off
"Wrapped up in the technology blueprints he swiped from Centrale?" Thomas' assertion was met with a nod from Melissa "Like a kid at Christmas he was" Thomas continued, cracking a rueful smile as he did so. The smile didn't last long though, "So, does he know you plan to waddle off out the city, taking his kid to near certain doom?"
Melissa looked up, eyes damp "I'm not taking the baby" she said simply.
Thomas put his coffee mug down, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, then said "You're crazy. Nothing you could have seen at Centrale can justify leaving your kid, surely?"
"Not leaving forever. Just till I find somewhere safe on the outside, then I'll come back for the baby" she made no mention of Robert, Thomas silently noted.
"You'll be drone food within an hour of leaving"
Melissa shuck her head "First, the drones don't use dead humans for fuel, that is simply Centrale propaganda. Secondly, I've got contacts. There are holdouts, where the drones don't go and Centrale doesn't control" her passion was starting to shine through.
Melissa was always hard to resist when she got like this. But there weren't lives at stake when Thomas had melted in front of her protestations in the past. "I still don't get why you need to leave so urgently" he stated, hands gripped back round the coffee mug, head bowed like a guilty school boy.
Melissa sighed "First, yes, I was wrong about Centrale" Thomas looked up, wide eyes in surprise at the admission. "But before you get intolerably smug" she continued "I was wrong because the truth is worse"
"So if not AI, then what? Aliens?!" he sniggered
Melissa slowly shuck he head at the teasing "Worse than any of the science-fiction bullshit you can come up with"
"Then what?"
"Not important. That battle has been lost. Question is what we do now"
"And in your case the answer is run away from your responsibilities?" Thomas said. In reply, Melissa's head fell again, hand back to her tummy "Sorry" Thomas mumbled.
Melissa sniffed "It's ok. You speak the truth. But I have no choice, I have to go"
"Why?"
"I drakked up Tom, I drakked up bad"
"How?" Thomas' questions monosyllabic as the knot in his stomach grew tighter.
"It was...it was back at the Centrale HQ. After you'd shown me the fire uniforms and I'd jacked into the system. Robert has a real talent with that sort of stuff, but I know my way around. Or thought I did" she paused to grab Thomas' coffee mug out of his hands and took a nervous swig, despite earlier having rebuked him for offering caffeine containing beverages to a pregnant woman. She continued, "Robert had left a sort of bread trail through the system, led me to some of the files I wanted to check out while he set about tapping into their technology data. Told me not to stray, in case I triggered the detection scripts they had running"
"I remember" Thomas lied. He did remember Robert saying stuff to Melissa back in the server vault, but it was all incomprehensible techno-babble to him.
"Well the Centrale files went deep and I followed, deeper an deeper. I think I triggered something while I was down there and I think they are on to me"
"Think, think, think - you got any certainty here? How about Robert, what does he reckon? Couldn't he look into this? I know he's on about changing our identities, won't that do?"
"He says I'm being silly. But I swear I've had street cleaning drones follow me in recent weeks. And a delivery drone tracked me all the way back from downtown last Wednesday. Who has these service contracts? Centrale do. A name change isn't going to stop them coming after me. I need to get out Tom, please"
Thomas frowned. Melissa sure looked anxious, but this sounded like grade A paranoia. His initial reaction was to tell her to stop being so ridiculous. But at the same time, he knew her. Knew that she would go it alone if he wouldn't help, or worse, would try to contact one of the people smuggling outfits. And he couldn't let her risk an unborn kid he thought of as a nephew. So let her get out the city for a while, he figured, sort her head out while the kid was kept safe.
"Ok" he said after a while's contemplation
"Thanks, I knew I could count on you" she rest a hand on top of his, the two of them lapsing into a silence, that if not comfortable, was one of relief. "You know we can't tell Robert any of this though" she said after a little while longer.
"I know"
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Jack yawned as he swung his legs out of the cot and down onto the floor of main room of the CHub. Similar cots, with hinged perspex lids, covered the floor of the room. As Jack slowly blinked awake a small wheeled drone came to a halt in front of him. He was asked to stay still in a slightly shrill metallic voice as the machine used slender robotic arms to peel off the contact points and wires stuck to his temples. Almost all Tower inhabitants tap straight into a scenario via their cervical spine ports, but it was also possible using older technology. Jack was about to accuse the drone of being too rough, but it was quickly back into his good books when it proffered a mug of steam coffee. Two sugars, only a little milk, just how he liked it. Perfect for waking up after a deep sleep, and deeper scenario.
His shoulder cracked painfully as he stretched, but he did at least feel rested. It'd been a while since he'd tried a scenario and the technology sure had improved since those nauseous headache inducing early days. Reliving those memories had reopened some old wounds, but had also helped him straighten up his thinking a bit in light of the previous day's chaotic events. Time to lay to rest some old demons he thought to himself as he followed the drone to the backroom office where Thomas and Mr Pinko were encamped.
"A restful period?" Mr Pinko inquired as Jack entered the room
"Not bad" Jack replied "Nice setup you've got here"
"I hope we have earned a repeat customer" the gorilla said with the hint of a bow
"Let's not get carried away. More important stuff to do first. How you doing, kid?" this question addressed to Thomas who was sat nursing a glass of orange juice.
"I'm alright. Been doing some thinking"
"You and I both"
"This might be to do with my mum"
"Maybe" Jack sat down in a battered leather armchair as he said this, then scratched his head uncertainly. "You, er, you can't see another person's scenario, can you?"
"Client confidentiality is a cornerstone of The Synapse Slap" Mr Pinko chimed in.
"But aside from the corporate-speak, can you?"
Thomas replied "Nope. The tech doesn't work that way, more to the point, the brain doesn't. Not like you've got a projector in your head we can tap into. Dad sometimes went on about looking in to it, but didn't get anywhere. Not like we'd want to see what some of these perverts ask for after-all"
"That's what I thought. So how come you think this might be about your mum then?"
Thomas whirled round, a smile on his face, orange juice forgotten "A-HA! So you did run a memory scenario about mum! I knew it! Told you Mr Pinko" he said with glee.
"What? I never said that...oh" Jack realised the trap Thomas had led him into - deliberate mention of Melissa baiting Jack, you dozy old sod, to start asking about scenario security and thus give away he'd been in a scenario with her. The kid was sharp, like his mum.
"So what has she got to do with this all then?" Thomas sat back, arms crossed, eyebrow raised.
"Not sure" Jack's opening gambit just caused Thomas' eyebrow to work its way even further up his forehead. "That's the truth, Kid. It's just that before she disappeared she'd been having these theories that what we now know as Civic Centrale were out to get her, because of some information she had on them. Sounded like paranoia to me"
"But now you find Civic Centrale out to get you?"
"Looks like it"
"And probably also dad?"
"Uh-huh"
"So what was the information mum had?"
"Don't know, she never said"
"Drakk it" Thomas cursed.
"Indeed. But look at it like this kid, it's probably her keeping that information to herself that has kept us safe this long"
Thomas looked unconvinced, he was as bad at hiding his emotions as his mother.
Jack continued "Doesn't change the plan for today though. We need to find your old man. Can you get us in to his offices?"
"Sure. I'm listed as a company co-director. Tax purposes." Thomas shrugged
"Cool. But if it is Civic Centrale that has him, chances are that they'll be watching his office"
"Already thought of that. Check this out"
Jack waited, but nothing happened.
Thomas slapped his forehead and exclaimed "Darkk it, sorry, forgot you weren't tapped in. I e-cast a copy of an invite. There's some fancy art gallery opening in the same office complex. That's our in"
"Art gallery? People still go to those?"
"Uh-huh. More about being seen than seeing the art mind"
"Some parts of human nature never change" Jack mused "but that suits us fine. Good thinking kid"
"It was actually Mr Pinko that suggested it"
Jack turned to consider the incongruous beast. "He can think tactically like that?" Jack admittedly didn't have much experience of drones, but the ones he did encounter tended to be fairly unsophisticated in their ability to think their way around problems. Other than the RAs maybe.
"Sure. He's quite the asset to the business, dad did a lot of work on him"
"You're dad was a clever man. Too clever for his own good sometimes"
Another shrug from Thomas "Maybe, but his thinking has kept you safe so far"
"It was his thinking that got me involved in this shitstorm to start with. Well, his and your mum's. Quite the team"
"S'what makes me so endearing" Thomas smiled, arms open. But then his face fell "just wish I'd had chance to know mum like you did"
"I'm sure she wishes the same about you"
"So you think she's still alive?" he brightened a little
It was Jack's turn to slump "If I'm honest, I reckon she was drone food pretty quick" If only I'd been more insistent on her staying, Jack added internally. The scenario had made their final conversation depressingly clear. He'd always half hoped that he'd miss-remembered it all, but now was in little doubt.
"That's pretty much what dad said, but I'd always hoped that was just to put me off looking"
"Your father only wanted what was best for you" Mr Pinko said solemnly. Jack frowned, there was something unsettling about the gorilla drone attempting to be reassuring. Something unsettling about it full stop.
If Jack considered the gorilla unsettling in its usual guise, then he was outright alarmed when he first saw it wearing a tie.
They'd reconvened at one of the floor's smaller elevators, away from the crowds that the larger systems drew. In the entertainment district they did not stand out, but when they emerged on the 58th floor, what was a relatively well to do business sector, they would.
A tie was never going to blend Mr Pinko into a business district, nor was the jacket he was initially supposed to wear, but abandoned when he complained it restricted his movement too much. Rather the idea was to make him look ridiculous enough to fit right into an art gallery opening. Indeed, if anything it was Jack and Thomas who stood out in their bland clothes and un-augmented appearances. Although Jack had caught at least compliment on his outlandish choice of head-wear. Appearances aside, it hadn't been too much effort for Thomas to transplant his name from the office complex systems into the gallery guest list, with a "+2" next to it. He was his father's boy in this technical respect.
On entering they had split up. Jack wanted to "case the join for feds" as he put it, Mr Pinko was more subtle in his desire to "identify any potential issues" where as Thomas elected to grab a drink from one of the hovering service drones to try and calm his fraying nerves. The real world--or as real as a chaotic gallery opening could be--was a long way away from the comfort of his scenarios.
"You alright kid?" Jack had spotted Thomas' nervousness from across the room and come over to see how he was doing.
"I'm ok" spoken quickly, in between gulps of his drink.
"You ever seen anything like this place? The people dressed like some neo-cubist fantasy and the artwork all beiges and greys. It's back to front."
"Theme of the gallery is something to do with early 21st century computer graphics" Thomas replied "Seems to be in again at the moment, we get a lot of scenario requests based around it recently"
"And the gallery attendees?"
"A taste of fashions to come. You're on the bleeding edge of Tower culture here Jack"
"Makes me want to jump right off that edge"
"I hear you" another swig of drink, something Jack eyed enviously
"Where'd you get that drink?"
"Drone waiter" as Thomas said this, a machine in question was fluttering through the crowds to their left with a tray of various drinks on its back. It was pausing by groups of attendees to distribute its wears, halting by Jack and Thomas. The younger man quickly helped himself to another, but the machine paused as Jack took longer to make his decision, eventually locating a whisky on the far side of the tray.
"Cheers" said Jack, raising his drink to Thomas, who did not respond. Instead Thomas just looked first thoughtful, then alarmed as his drink dulled mind slowly processed what he'd seen. "What's a matter?" Jack asked after a second.
"How did that drone waiter know to wait for you to choose your drink?"
"Eh?"
"It could see you"
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