Bubblegum Crusade (Ch. 12 of 24)
Jul. 10th, 2009 12:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fanfic_mausoleum_n_grillWELCOME TO BUBBLEGUM CRUSADE!
Standard disclaimer. Whoa...I need a slight pause to catch my breath.
But, this pause only lasts one chapter.
Chapter Twelve
FLY AWAY
Drifting headlights
Whipped by the racing wind.
A pack of lies,
Artlessly scattered,
Like waves stealing onto the shore.
There's no horizon to be seen,
It's obscured by buildings.
"Fly away" to a city with neither
Darkness nor sun.
Priss and the Replicants -- The bootleg tapes.
Mega-Tokyo, 14, October, 2034
By mid-day, Leon made his way across Mega-Tokyo to a street
in the suburbs, indistinguishable from a hundred others. The
second Great Kanto Earthquake leveled this area of single family
dwellings and GENOM construction put in ten to fifteen story
apartment buildings. Leon turned off the major arterial, tossed
the remainder of a cup of ramen and sushi in a garbage can, and
started to look for a number.
The street was a dead end nestled up against the back wall
of a computer chip company. There was no through traffic so the
street was filled with the neighborhood kids too young for
school. Leon smiled as he saw a five year old managed to get the
basketball away from an older boy down at the end of the street
were someone had put a hoop into the brick wall of the plant's
fence. The boy heaved with all his might and only managed to get
the ball two/thirds of the way to the hoop. The others started
to laugh.
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"You're it. You're it," screamed a girl as she led a pack
by Leon. A boy slammed into Leon and continued the chase.
"Hello."
"Hi," responded Leon to an old man who was sitting in the
afternoon sun on the steps to an apartment. He was carefully
trimming a bonsei tree. Leon continued on and felt the old guy
watch his every move.
Leon found the number he was looking for, it was across the
street. He took a step towards it when two samurai leaped into
existence in the middle of the street. Both were wearing
traditional garb from the 12th century, and were armed with
lightsabers. One purple, one black.
A majority of the children stopped what they were doing to
watch the holo' duel. Leon started to edge around the crowd.
It was simple VR teck' the girl and boy combatants were
using. Both wore goggles which made them see through the eyes of
their samurai. Both wore the slim collar of sensors that
monitors the neutral transmissions to their muscles, so their
samurai could move accordingly. Gloves for the specialized hand
movements, all command prompts for the game, and to feel the
weapon they held. These were linked by fiber optics to the
sending unit/CPU/power unit they belted on. The holo' images
everybody else was watching came from the receiving unit between
them.
The boy scored a blow to the right thigh pad of his
opponent. The holo' showed the thigh pad disintegrated and holo'
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blood flowed from the wound. Her samurai now limped slowly
around, blocking and parrying his attack.
Leon stopped to watch. He noticed the blood shimmer and
twinkle out of existence when it dropped out of the holo' field.
They were pushing at each other, their lightsabers crackling
between them from the pressure. The girl suddenly collapsed, her
foot in his stomach, and he sailed over head. She rolled, swiped
his feeble guard away, and took his head with a clean cut from
her purple blade. The end program started. The winning samurai
lifted the head of his opponent. "Victory," he bellowed. The
two samurai vanished. The children began to disperse, going back
to the other games. A group started to congratulate the winner.
"I want a rematch, a rematch," yelled the loser.
Leon turned and walked up the steps to the apartment complex
he wanted. He looked over the mailboxes on the porch. The names
were neatly listed on every box except for the one he wanted.
Leon got an illegal non-IDed AD Police card from his wallet and
ran it through the door scanner. The door unlocked and he went
in. The foyer was grey fermica tile, muted blues and greys for
the wallpaper and paint. He glance at himself in a mirror as he
headed for the stairs and not the elevator. This place is dead,
he thought as he headed down. So quiet. Not even any noise from
all those kids. The hallway in the basement was wide, well lit,
and without a sense of anybody being around. Leon walked to the
end of the hall and looked at the last door. It was ajar. He
noticed that the doorbell had been removed and the hole repaired;
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the job was almost good enough to suggest that one hadn't been
put in.
Leon felt his stomach clench up into knots as a nervous
energy fill him. As he slid the door open, he again remembered.
It was in November of 2029 when Leon watched his squad
leader be examined by a renegade boomer. Jeena Malso had led her
squad to the waterfront district on the trail of the
malfunctioning boomer. They cornered it in a warehouse and Jeena
ordered them in to mop up the situation before backup arrived.
Once inside, the boomer started to fuse to the steel support
beams. When the AD Police came in, they were attacked by steel
beams. The whole squad, except for Leon and Jeena, was crushed
between steel and buried in the rubble from the collapsing parts
of the warehouse. Leon was partially pinned beneath a pile of
debris. When he came to, he heard Jeena screaming.
She slipped through the maze of swinging beams to nail the
boomer in the face. It knocked the gun from her as it remolded
its face. Its body grabbed her and hung her upside down in front
of itself. An I-beam wrapped around Jeena's cybernetic left arm.
It just started to look at her, to feel what she was made of. It
made the discovery that she was wearing cloths and stripped her
of them. Leon awoke as it ripped her left arm out. The boomer
decided this part didn't go with the rest. It started to
manipulate her left foot, testing the ankle and learning about
it. It soon discovered how much pressure it could apply before
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it broke and how much more before it would come off.
Leon watched, frozen in place until it ripped her foot off.
The boomer laughed, the high pitched squeal/giggle of pure
discovery as blood squirted on its face. Jeena was still
conscious.
As Leon struggled to free himself from the debris, the
boomer cut her left leg off at mid-thigh and shredded it as it
explored this new thing. It finished with that before starting
to manipulate Jeena's right knee, twisting if off. Leon freed
himself and scurried for a gun. The boomer was enjoying this
learning experience. It was so caught up in the joy of
discovery, it failed to notice Leon or the back-up AD Police
arrive as it pulled her right hip apart.
As they destroyed it, a flash of white light erupted from
the head of the boomer, searing into Jeena's face. They barely
got the emergency medical equipment to her in time.
It was during the Christmas season when the AD Police
investigation into this incident closed. Leon's truthful
testimony about how she ordered them in before backup arrived,
coupled with her past record of condemnations for `reckless
heroics' swayed the boards decision. They opted for retirement
due to medical condition, starting January first.
Jeena remained calm when Leon came to the hospital and told
her. She didn't say anything, just hit him in the stomach with
her new left hand. The blow ruptured his appendix. Leon didn't
file charges and hadn't seen her since.
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It was dim in the apartment as Leon slid the door open. The
light from the hallway flooded the entryway. He closed the door
and stood there in the entryway to let his eyes adjust to the
semidarkness. The absolute stillness made him even more jumpy
until he drew his 9mm beretta. The cool hard metal in his palm
made him feel better. He slid the traditional fusuma open. It
was so quiet he could hear his own heart beat. The apartment was
mainly one big open space. Off to his right another paper wall
surrounded what Leon assumed was the bathroom. To his left was
the kitchen area and a low table. The raised bed platform was in
the center, between the kitchen area and bathroom. Beyond was an
open area with nothing in it. Leon was about to step in when the
shadow in the open area spoke.
"You're shoes, rookie."
"Jeena?" Leon put his gun away and took off his shoes. He
entered, came up to the bed, and stopped to look at her.
She was kneeling before a classical Zen painting. She was
dressed in a dark robe and her dark hair now came down past her
shoulder blades. The shadow moved. She made a sweeping `come
in' gesture with her left hand. Leon noticed the cushion on the
floor half a meter to her left and sat down. She knelt with her
hands clasped in front of her. The blue cybernetic hand looked
black against the pale white right. She continued to stare at
the painting.
"Jeena...I'm sorry about what happened. I didn't know
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they'd can you. I just...answered their questions honestly. Ya,
I know, big mistake."
"Are you? I wonder. Is the rookie really sorry or does he
need something from me?"
"Both."
"I see."
God she's changed, thought Leon. "I need your help."
"Oh?"
"I can't resurface and I need to find out a few things about
what's really go'en on. My usual contacts aren't trustworthy
enough not to talk. If word gets back to GENOM about me, I'll be
dead."
"So GENOM snatched you. Interesting. Now tell me, rookie,
why do you come to me, a women whom you haven't spoken to or seen
for nearly four years? A woman who should be boiling mad at you
for just sitting there when she was dismembered."
"I'm desperate. If you don't want to help me I'll leave."
Leon started to get up.
"Sit down," Jeena thundered. "I swear, still as stupid as
ever aren't you. Now tell me rookie, tell me your sad story, and
make it good."
"GENOM snatched me and.."
"How do you know it was GENOM?"
"I...Ok. Four boomers snatched me. They took me somewhere
to interrogate me. A bitch, cold blue eyes, silver hair did the
questioning. She wanted to know who the Knight Sabers are?"
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"Do you know?"
"I know who one of them is. Do you know what Black Magic M-
42 is?"
"Truth serum they use in special forces; deadly."
"She had that...well...what she used on me was marked Black
Magic M-42."
Jeena smiled faintly. "And obviously wasn't. Did the
rookie spill his guts before or after she used it on you?" Leon
remained silent. "Before, huh? Ok, who did you peg?"
"Priss Asagiri."
"A woman?"
"I've seen the Knight Sabers in action several times and
I've been close enough to hear them speak. They're women. I
just happened to see Priss by accident one time and since I knew
her anyway..."
"Is she good in bed?"
"Don't know. We barely know each other. She treats me
coldly and..."
"Skip it." Jeena pulled a data pad from the folds in her
robe and made a notation. "How did you escape?"
"I don't know. I woke up on a bench in Sector 7. I found
this in my pocket and that's when I knew I was fuck'en lucky."
He handed her the crumpled up note.
""I fished this out of Tokyo bay as he was headed down.
GENOM really doesn't like him. His life would only be in
jeopardy if he publicly surfaced now. He was meant to be a
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warning to the Knight Sabers." Nice kanji. So you were saved by
a GENOM insider that knows exactly what's go'en on. A boomer
rampage happens, and the Knight Sabers cut loose. Well rookie,
it looks like you're a pawn in somebody else's game."
Leon nodded. "So why are they at war? The Knight Sabers
haven't been seen since the incident at the power plant and they
haven't messed with GENOM for over a year."
"Why ask me? If they're at war then it's the usual stupid
reasons for one. You know, power, control, money, god. They
stopped fighting over honor and women along time ago."
"It's just that GENOM's enemies are usually dealt with
quickly. GENOM waiting this long doesn't make sense."
"Oh rookie, you're..." The data pad Jeena held beeped. She
looked at it. "Hmmm? Most interesting."
"What?"
"You're friend Priss seems to be no longer among the
living."
"What? She's dead?"
"Not quite. There's no record of a Priss Asagiri anywhere
in Japan. Not even a phone number. The Government's sealed and
deleted her. It seems that there was also a trace connected to
inquires about her."
Leon jumped to his feet. "We have to get out of here."
"No. My ICE (Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics) was
strong enough to block their pinpointing attempt until the safety
kicked in. About half of this sector just lost their connection
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to the Mega-Tokyo net." Jeena turned her head away from Leon to
hide a small smile. "We should be safe enough for now. Since
your up, go make some tea." Jeena put the data pad back in the
folds of her robe and closed her eyes. Leon stood there puzzled
for a moment before turning towards the kitchen.
Ten minutes later Leon poured her a small cup of boiling hot
tea. She downed it in one gulp and held the cup out for more.
He refilled her cup and poured one for himself. "Well, are you
going to help me?"
Jeena smiled and sighed. "Shall I hold little Leon in
mother's sheltering embrace were he'll suckle at my nipples safe
and contented?"
"I don't have to sit here and take this," Leon shouted.
"My, my, finally a little fire from someone who pronounced
himself desperate. About time." Damn fool doesn't know what
desperate is. "What do you need my help with?"
"I've heard things about your work as a PI. I thought you
might have connections that don't normally talk to AD Police."
"Connections and a safe haven from GENOM. That's a big
order Leon. Connections are easy. Hiding you from GENOM isn't,
if they're looking for you, which I doubt." Jeena finished the
last bit of tea and Leon quickly filled her cup. "But you still
haven't told me what your goal is. Or do you even have one?"
They sat in silence for several minutes. "Don't have one do ya?"
"I want to help the Knight Sabers. There must be a reason
for what they're doing. Priss just isn't a murderer. Sure,
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she's tough, independent, a bit cold at times, but she's not the
killer type. The Knight Sabers I know fight for this city, for
order, to get rid of monstrous boomers and GENOM officials that
think they're above the law. They've saved this city and now
everybody's turned against then. We all owe them a dept that
can't be repaid. We owe them the benefit of the doubt if not
full pardons. But people and politicians don't remember the
past. I can't forget. Priss even saved my life once. I have to
help her."
My, my, thought Jeena. Leon's feeling really guilty about
spewing his guts. And it's pretty plain that he likes her too.
Oh well. "Leon, I think you've grown up a bit since we last met.
I apologize for my earlier words. They were the words of a woman
fighting with an ancient anger that doesn't even have a basis in
fact. You did what you could. You were honest. And that
inquisition just played politics and fucked me over." She rose
effortlessly; Leon caught a glimpse of her cybernetic legs
beneath the folds of her robe. "Grab your shoes." Jeena put the
tea cups in the sink and headed out to the entryway. "What's in
the bag?" She put on a pair of Nikes.
Leon showed her the magazines nestled against the automatic
after he slipped into his shoes. "Cop killers."
"Great. Yes, you're definitely learning rookie."
"Would you stop calling me that."
"And what if I don't. Man enough to make me stop?" She
flexed her left hand before his eyes. "I thought not." She
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locked her outside door before pressing her right hand against a
hidden sensor panel. It scanned her palmprint and a concealed
trap door opened in the floor.
"Where we go'en?"
"To find the Knight Sabers, where else?" She slid down the
ladder leading into pitch blackness. Leon followed.
* * *
Boston, 13, October
He's late, thought Dr. Richard Geary as he stood on an
enclosed commuter causeway between two buildings at the 40th
level. He watched the gentle rainfall while sipping a cup of
coffee as he waited. We're born, we live, we die. Oh Sylia,
what you've done...I've been concerned with my research for so
long that I don't have anything else; now you've taken it and
Crystal away. I was a fool not to fight you on that decision. I
don't even know why I didn't, why I didn't fight...for Crystal to
stay. Damn you. I should curse you for making me think about my
own mortality, but I can't. What is my `leave behind' in this
world, something that was already done? Just a guy that worked
to recapture someone else's genius? I wonder if contemporaries
of Einstein felt like this, dwarfed, their own contributions all
but meaningless.
A stout, white haired, black man puffed his way towards
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Richard through the people in the causeway. "Rich," he called.
"Simon." They embraced.
"Sorry I'm late. I got so absorbed in the stuff..."
Richard shushed him. "Don't," he hissed quietly. "Yeah, I
haven't seen you in along time too."
Simon looked at his old friend and college roommate in
confusion. "Rich?"
"Come on, I'll buy you a cup of coffee." They moved into
the building to the left were the expresso stand was. When they
put the causeway in between buildings, the designer got
permission to remodel an area in one of the buildings. She also
received permission to take out the offices on the 39-41th floors
around the causeway to create an informal gathering place. The
floor was tiered downward with couches, tables, and chairs
skattered throughout. The dark glass on the outside was replaced
with clear glass that would tint over on command, for when it was
a particularly sunny day. A small fountain, plants, numerous
paintings, and several statues ornated the area. On the
traditional coffee break times, this area was packed with people
from both buildings.
Richard bought two cups of coffee; they headed for the
elevators and rode up to the top floor in a full car.
"Were are we going?" Simon followed Richard into the
stairwell; they headed up.
"Some place where we're not disturbed. We have alot to talk
about."
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"I'll say."
They emerged into the wind and rain on the roof. Richard
started for an outcropping of solar panels. Simon shook his head
and followed. He's always been like this, he thought.
There was a small space under the solar panels, back next to
their mounts that was dry and completely sheltered from the wind.
Richard sat down as Simon joined him.
"Why are we sitting here?"
"I don't want to be overheard by anyone."
"I take it this has something to do with the Stingray
programs?"
"Everything to do with them. What does the MIT expert have
to say?"
Simon laughed. "This MIT expert is stunned, flabbergasted,
and awed. And these were made 17 years ago? God damn."
"Sylia was the one that managed to salvage most of what he
did, using the Haynes prototype to add the factor of speed. She
doesn't have his genius, but she's a great one for putting the
pieces together. The day she walked into my office in Germany,
my life and research was flipped totally upside down."
"Full awareness. It's hard to believe."
"Yea. I couldn't believe it at first. But as Crystal grew
in awareness, I saw her breath in the very spark of life itself
until she was full, full of energy, vitality, and life. Old doc
Frankenstein must be howling about now."
"I don't think he'd be mad."
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"No, laughing at us."
Simon was puzzled by this comment for a moment. "Rich, you
were saying this was stripped out of the boomers. That they once
had this?"
"Yea." Richard raised up a little and looked across the
rain swept Boston cityscape to the GENOM Tower. "GENOM must
control its boomers, and full sentience would be a big problem.
Sylia's told me stories about some boomers, older boomers and
their fight for freedom, from GENOM. If you look at the berserk
boomers as boomers trying to cope with becoming aware in a human
society, then it's not very hard to see why they start tearing
things up, if that's all their fundamental programming is for
them to do. The boomers have started to quiet down in recent
years. The older boomers with the correct programs were hunted
off by the police and the newer ones didn't have the right
programs."
"What I don't understand is how GENOM kept a lid on this,
how they managed to conceal all of this for so long."
"Shit Simon. We're both some of the top people in boomer
programming and neither of us knew. How did the US government
cover up the '63 coup d'etat of its own president? Nobody
thought it could happen, and when it did, the lies were ready to
carefully conceal the truth. Sylia told me that her father and
Haynes were both killed over this. GENOM's grown in size and
stature with its near monopoly on the boomer business."
"So, GENOM killed them so these programs wouldn't come to
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anyones attention. If the boomers all became alive, then GENOM's
base of power in the world would be shattered."
"I'm sorry Simon. I've involved you in something that gets
nastier the more I look at it."
"Global politics and economics, I've never understood very
much about them."
"Both of us were better suited for the labs."
"Yeah." They sat for several minutes in silence, drank the
remainder of their coffee, and looked out at the GENOM Tower
through the rain.
"Simon."
"Hmmm?"
"There's something I still haven't told you. Crystal should
be able to interface with other boomers, but she never did it at
the lab. Whether she could..." He shrugged. "I don't know. She
has the same programming as Haynes's ADAMA." Richard lapsed into
silence.
"What about it?"
"Well, Sylia wanted to strip that section out of Crystal's
programming. I convinced her to leave it in after...after alot
of fighting. A couple of months later, Sylia told me why she was
fearful of that section of the programming matrix. She told me
of a boomer who thinks of itself as god. A god destined to lead
the boomers to a new world without humans. She told me that he
can infect other boomers with the section of programming Haynes
gave originally to ADAMA. That he could awaken boomers to help
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him with his crusade against the humans. Sylia didn't know if
this boomer is still alive or not."
"Hmmm. If this boomer awoke, then he had Katsuhito's
programs and enough time to awake. Since Haynes's work is based
on Katsuhito's, I would imagine that this interface is like a
latent ability Haynes brought out. A simple ability they would
share with their ancestors, if you will, the regular computers.
This is marvelous; a race that is naturally telepathic."
"Simon, I haven't told you the worst part. Sylia also
mentioned that this boomer once absorbed a human consciousness."
"How did it do that?"
"I don't know. There must be some parts of the original
programs still missing and this boomer has them in its matrix.
But you miss the point. Dr. Stingray didn't just start a new
race, he gave us...us, the path to immortality."
"I don't follow...I...oh...oh god," whispered Simon.
"Boomers don't die of old age. All their parts can be
replaced. It wouldn't be a sterile mechanical existence if you
put a human mind in a boomer body because all of Crystal's sexual
parts are cybernetics. That was the one big upgrade over the 33-
S model. The 35-S's only human parts are skin, blood, and their
hair. They can feel everything we can." Crystal was a much
better lover than anyone I'd ever been with before. I just don't
know if that explains why she simply felt...better.
"If this is true..." started Simon.
"Then the human race is on the verge of exploding."
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"Aren't you jumping to conclusions?"
"Am I? Sylia's seemed more knowledgeable about this whole
affair from the beginning. She stormed into my office and told
me we were going to make a boomer sentient. I doubted and then I
helped her do it. I don't have any reason to doubt her now.
Simon, take that back-up memory core I gave you and throw it into
Boston harbor."
"But...but..."
"No buts. Can't you see that we'll destroy ourselves over
this? Come on man, there are still wars going on over religious
differences. There's still poverty, hunger, hatred, despair.
Something like this will shattered any pretense of order on this
planet because it changes the fundamental structure of who we
are. The rich will want it for themselves only. The middle and
poor people will...will be left to die and they won't stand for
that. I know I'd be madder than hell if I knew immortality was
possible, but only for those that could afford it. In the end it
would probably be immortal vs. human in a fight to the death.
One wanting what the other has, the other not wanting everyone to
have it. If there's something like a fundamental principle to
war, that's probably it. Can't you see our planet in flames?
Can't you see a jihad, a holy war waged against those that would
grasp immortality and throw away their humanity? The human race
doesn't have a future unless we get rid of what Dr. Stingray
did."
"Richard," said Simon softly. "Have you considered the
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possibility that this might be the next step in our evolution."
"Of course, I'm not that big of a fool," he yelled. "I'm
sorry. It's just that change is at the heart of evolution and if
we evolve to immortality, what do we do when our oldest dream is
realized? Live happily ever after like the storybooks say?
Simon, you love your wife and kids, but in a thousand years, will
you still love her, want to make love to her? This changes
everything and to much change to quickly is always devastating.
And since the world is as it is, perhaps only the boomers would
survive. That boomer Sylia spoke of has the key to our
destruction in itself. I wonder if it knows that?"
They sat and listened to the rain for several minutes before
Simon said: "So what you're saying is that GENOM was right to
hide these programs. The boomers shouldn't be sentient because
they carry the key to our destruction as a race. That Sylia has
exposed us to a danger which could engulf the world into total
anarchy and destruction as we fight for this prize of
immortality. That the name Stingray might be written with
several billion curses at the end of human history. That Hitler
was nothing when compared to what Stingray unleashed on us."
"I don't see why she can't see this. Sylia sees things so
clearly. Maybe she's blinded by her father's brilliance."
"Richard, didn't she ask you to take out that set of
programs in Crystal? But you convinced her to leave them in."
"Oh ya."
"Einstein once said that if he had known what the government
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would do with his work, he'd of done something else." Simon
sighed. "I think Sylia walks the same tight rope. One side is
the oblivion of the human race, the other is the oblivion of the
fledgling boomer race."
"Sylia Stingray," Richard said slowly. "She's a woman that
wants us all to live, but we couldn't if it became known that
death was now irrelevant. The programs, if not all of the
boomers, have to be destroyed."
The rain poured down.
* * *
Mega-Tokyo
Leon was surprised when the ladder only went down three
meters. A light flared and the trapdoor closed above him.
"Hmmm?" They were in a 4 by 4 meter space. One whole wall was
computer equipment with a single chair on rollers. There was
also a storage cabinet, workbench, and a row of sealed
containers.
"Yeah, this is the sanctum sanctorum of a Mega-Tokyo PI."
Jeena put on a pair of shades and tossed her robe. She started
to put on a black pair of tight pants and a grey shirt she got
out of the cabinet. Both pieces of clothing were made from
Abotex, the super-high-density material they made boomer muscles
from. The cop killers Leon had would penetrate her cloths, but
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few people had those in the Loop.
Leon looked around as she dressed. "Your eyes still
sensitive to light?"
"Yeah."
"Why not replace them?"
Jeena stopped dressing, moved across the floor to him in a
series of back flips and grabbed him by the throat with her left
hand. "Replace my eyes with something like this? You moron."
"I...I..." managed Leon.
"Enough of my body is already boomer. I can't stand the
idea of having more." She released him. Men don't like
mechanical women when they can have the real fuck'en thing, she
thought. They all run away, screaming for a human bitch to stick
their cocks in. It's been so fuck'en long.
Leon sucked air for a moment. "Why not replace your limbs
with organics?"
"And lose my edge? And lose what's saved my butt more than
once? Not likely."
Leon was silent until she finished dressing. "By the way, I
never figured you for the type that would live out on a street
like this."
"I'm not. The GENOM construction people did a fast and
nasty job when they built these places. They bulldozed the area
and just poured one foundation after another. No thought for
underground parking structures, no thought to what was under what
they were building upon. This apartment house is located on the
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very fringe of Paradise Loop."
Paradise Loop was a belt line that shut down after the
super-conductor metro was completed. Why it was shut down when
it still could function properly was an economic decision by the
city council and the people who built the new metro. The
contractors, mainly GENOM, wanted their money back out of the new
system as soon as possible. Paradise Loop was shut down so
ordinary people would have no choice but to use the newer one.
Thus, they payed the higher price ticket on the metro and there
could be no ticket war because the metro line held the monopoly,
with Paradise Loop shut down.
Since then, it had turned into a nefarious outlaw area, home
to various black markets and every illegal activity imaginable.
It was a playground for the wealthy teenagers that had Mommy and
Daddy's plastic. A place where they could indulge what ever
fantasy struck them from moment to moment, as long as their SEC
flowed. The G-Strip and Paradise Loop were reflections of each
other; the twin pleasure centers of Mega-Tokyo. One ran on the
average tastes of the middle classes; one ran on the extravagant
tastes of the rich. Both were controlled directly or indirectly
by the Yakuza.
Paradise Loop contained centers where all the activity
happened. Between these centers was the old belt line, a place
few people dared to enter. It was home to the worst scum Mega-
Tokyo could produce, and home to those that had no where else to
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go. It was a place the N and AD Police paid little attention to.
Leon and Jeena once worked a prostitute murder case on Paradise
Loop. The only reason they did was because the bodies turned up.
No blood, no foul; no body, no crime. People in the Loop knew
the fundamental facts of life in Mega-Tokyo. If they killed each
other and got rid of the body, the Police weren't interested.
Kill some rich brat, who's SEC made the entire place run, and AD
Police would gut the place to find the murderer. The last person
who killed one of the rich patrons didn't live ten minutes after
the deed. His body and the proof that he did it was immediately
turned over to the Police. Case closed, justice served,
everything normal.
"Back to the Loop huh?" Said Leon. "Haven't been there for
awhile."
"Uh-huh." Jeena crossed to one of the storage cabinets and
palmed the sensor pad. It slide open when she tapped in a code.
"Here." She threw him a gun.
Leon looked at it, shaking his head in confusion. "What
type of gun is this?"
"You didn't hear about it?"
"Don't think so."
"It's an H.S. blaster."
"Never heard of it."
"Point it at the wall and pull the trigger." Jeena pointed
towards a section of cement. Leon aimed and fired.
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"Holy shit," he yelled as the blast of laser energy slammed
into the cement. "Where in the fuck did this come from?" Leon
started to stare at the gun in amazement.
"GENOM." Jeena put on a shoulder holster and a black
leather jacket, which was similar to Leon's. She put the extra
FN mark 2 pistol in the small of her back, patted her other
concealed weapons to make sure they were in the correct positions
before putting on a red head band that trailed down into her
black hair like blood from an open wound. She put on a pair of
biker gloves before glancing at herself in a mirror. "How do I
look?"
"Huh?"
"I asked you, how do I look?"
"Real hot. Shit, I had no idea GENOM could make something
like this. Where did you get it?"
"I stole it on my last case. It's a prototype. Damn thing
saved my beautiful butt. Do I really look hot?"
"Yea, definitely."
"Like maybe I have alot of money, like I'm a spoiled rich
bitch."
"Yea. Perfect for the Loop. What?" Leon just looked at
Jeena's outstretched hand. "Oh." He gave her the gun back and
she put it in her shoulder holster.
"All set." She slipped her right glove off, palmed the
sensor on the last storage container, and palmed the sensor
inside the empty container. A trap door opened underneath the
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workbench. "Down you go. I'll follow." Leon headed down, a
faint neon blue on each rung of the ladder guided him down into
the darkness. He heard her climbing down after him and the soft
hiss of the trapdoor shutting.
"Ouch. You stepped on my hand."
"Well, get move'en."
"Now what?" Leon moved aside as Jeena reached the bottom of
the ladder. He fumbled in the darkness to find his footing.
Leon heard a tarp rustle and light leaked into the space from
under a door. He glanced around at the plain metal chimney they
climbed down.
Jeena unbolted the door and walked out onto a platform
across from a subway station. Leon blinked to adjust his eyes to
the light, which was about half of normal. Jeena put her shades
back on. The silence was broken only by the echo of water
pouring onto cement. "Come on, this way." She jumped down
between the tracks and headed left into the system.
"How can you see anything?" Leon stumbled. He felt her
hand steady him and pull him along.
"Infra-red."
"Those shades didn't look thick enough for that."
"These are the latest model. They won't hit the streets for
another month."
"You still have connections." Shit, better than mine, Leon
thought. "Since we're go'en to see what's up with the Knight
Sabers, and they're fighting GENOM, do you think the Tokyo
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People's Liberation League would be able to help us out?"
Jeena started to laugh. "Where in the fuck'en hell have you
been? Do you now check in your brains when you work for Ad
Police? God Leon, those assholes haven't been around since you
and I were in the shithole situation with ALEX. That mess wiped
their command core, or have you forgotten?"
"I remember," said Leon in annoyance. "I thought they were
still around, pull'en some small shit against GENOM."
"They were never more than a gnat biting a human when it
came to mess'en with GENOM. It surprises me that the Knight
Sabers are now doing the same kind of shit. If GENOM knows who
they are, and you've pegged one, which undoubtedly lead to the
others, then their hides should be in the bay by now. Why
they're not is..." She shrugged in the dark. "Everything that
GENOM does is to protect and bolster their power base. Why they
haven't hammered the Knight Sabers for Mason's death is beyond
me."
"What, you a GENOM expert now?"
"Fuck off Leon. Shit. My last case, when I got this
baby.." Her hand caressed over the cold steel of the blaster.
"..I had to do some checking on various GENOM activities; how
they do things. While I was doing that, I noticed something
strange about the Tai-Pan."
"What?"
"Well, when he started to lead GENOM, he dropped completely
out of sight for about 10 years. No press photos, vid', nothing.
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And in the last 15 years there has been only two segments of him
captured on vid'."
"So he turned recluse. If I had that much money and power,
I'd need to be guarded 24 hours a day with very few public
appearances."
"That doesn't explain why he looks exactly the same now as
he did 25 years ago. I think the Tai-Pan was around 55 or so 25
years ago, so that would make him at least 80 now. I know our
surgery is good, and with his money he could get the best, and
the best doctors and drugs in the world, but still..."
"Hmmm? That's fuck'en strange. Did you find out anything
else?"
"Nothing that would interest you."
"Oh."
"Ya. We're almost to the Sand Pit."
"The Sand Pit? Great, fuck'en on the indoor underground
beach. Party, party, party. Ah, finally, light. You sure you
didn't run across anything else of interest concerning GENOM?"
"Well, I did find out that the Kanto earthquake helped GENOM
out. When it struck, the boomer juggernaut was, well, fuck'en
crank'en like it is now. All that boomer money made it possible
for GENOM to rebuild most of Mega-Tokyo since then. And what
they've rebuilt, they still own. My rent, and probably yours,
goes to a little dinky company in the back waters of the GENOM
empire. Making places for people to live is nothing in the over
all scheme of GENOM."
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"Ya, GENOM and their fuck'en boomers. Boomers don't need
places to live. They just serve their masters and kill humans in
their rampages."
"A-fucking-men."