Chapter 2: Look behind your back
After about two minutes, I slowed down, drew myself back to give place for Kay-Tee, our guitarist for his solo.
And then, everything turned totally black.
As soon as I could get myself up, without the danger of falling to the ground again, I stood up, still swagging and trying to find my balance, I leaned on my desk, pulled the datajack out of my head, and turned the deck off. I pulled the chip out of the machine and I took a look at it. It was totally destroyed, as I saw it. Something burnt out in it. I swore. Man, you can't trust your mates, even your so-called friends, I got used to that. You can't even trust your own family. Yes, you can't and I've almost paid for this lesson when my bro tried to steal all the money I've earned. But I can't trust my own BTL-dealer? That's totally nonsense. Maybe he didn't know that this one wasn't OK. But this didn't really change things. I bought some stinky and I had to talk to Tricky Nicky face to face, to show him, who was the boss.
Suddenly, something rang. It took a few seconds to realize – probably because of the dumpshock – that it was my small, hidden shop's bell. Slowly, I got up and looked out with the help of my security camera. The dude outside was a dwarf, he had the damned race of mine. He didn't have any hair, and his long beard was red. He was holding a deck in his hand, very close to his torso. I zoomed on it, to take a closer look. He rang the bell again, and looked around. I didn't really listen to him, just the deck. Although it was clean and covered with some chrome elements, I could guess that it was opened several times. I looked for a company logo but I didn't found any. The man looked around again, and took a step away from the shop. Just in that moment, I opened the door and he jumped in.
I went down, to the so-called service room where I met my customers.
"Can I help you?" I asked. It didn't really go the way I thought because I was still quite stunned, so my voice wasn't really polite.
"C'mon man!" he shouted. His voice was much higher than mine. For a moment, I thought about his age. When I had this kind of voice, I was about ten.
"My name is Manny." I corrected.
"Listen here. I got some Humanis idiots on me, so do me a favor, man. Hide this little one here. Don't open, don't do anything with it just pretend that it's not here." He showed me his deck. I raised my eyebrows. I have never seen someone, even in the deepest panic, who would have given his deck away. And, I was still a dwarf. I hated them, but if they are coming after him and they break into my store, I'll kill this fella.
Quickly, he pulled a credit card out of his pocket.
"2000 Nu, man. Totally clean."
I looked at him, trying not to look too greedy. 2000 was a lot of money, and he has just given it right into my hands.
"If anything happens to you, I'll pay it." he said. "Just show me the back door, man."
I grabbed the card and showed him the hidden entrance to my "office".
"Out there, man." I said but he disappeared in a split second.
Lazy Mary's place didn't change anything. You know, some things are simply eternal. I was surprised that even the smallest bits of dust were right at the place I've remembered, but how could I expect less? I thought about asking Mary if the Maria Mercurial photo and the small wooden cross were in his office but I decided not to. Surely, both of them were there. All of the guests were trogs, just as usual. Although when I arrived our usual place was reserved by some young orc gang members, one angry look made them disappear. Just as I sat down, Hatch arrived. He was a troll, and quite a huge one. People used to say that they don't even find his eyes among all the muscles of his body and the fact that he was bald made him look even more than his real mass. He sat down and the chair cracked. Always the same, I thought.
Brandon Hatcher (Hatch for his friends) gave the muscle to our former team, just like I did. He was caught in that disastrous mission, when nearly all of the team was slaughtered and I was caught, too. The only difference was, that he got away with just 60 months in jail, because he didn't wear firearms. He didn't need any.
"Haven't seen you for a long time." he murmured.
"How's the life outside?" I asked.
"Maybe I should ask you." he answered. " I heard about you. Damned difficult, isn't it?"
"Maybe I'll get used to it. I've got just two months. You've got a much bigger routine."
"Hopefully it'll last long." he said. And he sighed so hard, that I could feel it on the wall. "Why did you call me, Brick?"
"Double-D says he has a job."
"You think this'll work?" he asked but I didn't answer. I wanted to hear what was his next sentence. "Listen here. I don't know if you know this, but I'll tell you. I work in a damned circus. I'm on stage two or three times a day, lifting baby elephants and so on. I do hate my job. But I won't go back. I'm out. Get it?"
I nodded.
"OK. I get it. I just wanted to ask you. All of the others are Double-D's fellas and I wouldn't be so afraid if you came with us."
"You think he'll double-cross you?" asked Hatch.
"Unfortunately, I can imagine this. What's with Jenny?" I didn't want to talk more about the job. In fact, I was disappointed with him, but it was really his decision. He had more money, more routine than me. He simply didn't want to get back on track, in the forbidden area.
"Gone." he said curtly. I was shocked. Jenny was the only one of the team who got out of our action without any damage. I couldn't imagine that something had happened to her. She was a very hard and talented decker.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Lucky bitch. Got together with some squirrel. She got a fake SIN. Her last one, she said. Out of the country, for years. In Scandinavia, or whatever."
Hatch was right. She was really lucky. She left, as usual, without being harmed by any way.
"Still the Newpost ale?" I asked Hatch. Dammit, I had this only night before I get back to the shadows again. Maybe alcohol could calm me down.
Fortunately, I was recovering quickly, especially compared to the damage I've suffered. After a few days, I could get up from my bed. The unfortunate thing was, that the hospital was a cheap one and there wasn't any peaceful place in it. It was surrounded by dirty streets, and I always felt cold inside. I was looking down to the streets from a window, remembering my childhood, my parents, sitting at home, because they didn't have the money to come to visit me. They could hardly pay my tuition. Suddenly I noticed that the raccoon was beside me again, looking down.
"Wonderful, isn't it?" he (or she) said.
"What's so wonderful in it?" I asked.
"Don't you know, Alain? You lived in it."
"And I want out. My parents want me to get out. I must honor their work and love."
"Yet you gamble." he stated. Angrily, I turned away from him. I knew he said the truth, I only had to face it.
"Alain" he said to me "don't think I treat this as a sin. You're like me and I'm like you. That's why I'm here."
"Who are you anyway?" I shouted.
"Monsieur Carré." called someone my name. It was not the raccoon. I looked up and realized that it was one of the nurses.
"Are you all right?" she asked.
I didn't answer just ran by her, back to my room.
It didn't take fifteen minutes for the rats to show up at me. They were very quick, I thought. I knew Humanis as a group of idiot skinheads. I watched them from my office, using my security cam. These ones didn't look like the usual Humanis fans. There were only two of them, dressed in black, probably armored. They were looking around. They were looking for something. Surely, they won't find it. Or maybe, if they can get in, find me and pay me. One of them turned around and looked to the other side of the street. There were only a few bars, and lonely, nameless houses, mostly used by homeless people for resting place.
"Shit!" said the other one, just in front of my door. For the first time, he looked up but I couldn't see his face as he wore a ski mask. This looked strange. Policlub members used to love to show others who they are. "Are you sure he disappeared here?" asked he from the other one, who was just stepping down from the sidewalks to the road. He was holding a machine gun, so drivers changed their minds pretty fast about coming in this street.
"What's it?" the farther one asked.
"I can't open this garage." Sure you can't, I thought. I made that door myself and I knew they won't open it with any kind of small equipment. They should have brought a rocket launcher if they wanted to open it without my permission. "With this much time, he could have easily hidden in those blocks."
"Come." added the farther one curtly. In the same time, a third person showed up at the corner. I could hardly believe my eyes! The guy was wearing the same type of black clothes, but the most interesting things were his ears. The guy was an elf. I zoomed the camera on his face, and looked at his ears and almond-shaped eyes several times. These guys weren't Humanis members, I would have bet on that. But if they weren't, who were they? And why was the dwarf lying to me? Fortunately, they went away in a few minutes. And I decided to open up that deck.
The most important thing in my job is, that you must manage your account of dudes very well. You must know the perfect person for all of your questions. For this one, I couldn't be sure that I have that one, but I had a few tips. The first one was Miguel Ernesto Sada, an employee of the S-K. Yes, I know. It's hard to get close on that company. Anywhere you go in Europe, you can find the ugly Saeder-Krupp logo, and the great wyrm protects his secrets very well. In fact, the best way in the whole continent, some say. Well, if I had the amount of money he did, I should have done that, too. But his employees are still ordinary people. They have problems to solve. And some of these problems are dirty, and must be handled discretely. Sada's problem was quite simple, compared to my later ones. He was afraid that his wife is cheating on him. I know some would say I don't have much of ethics, but with my amount of money, I can hardly afford that – hey, pal, I have to pay my rents and food. And, after all, he was very pleased with my work.
I called him after working time: the stupid squirrel gave me his home number because he didn't want me to show up at S-K.
"Sada here." he said calmly.
"Edson." I murmured.
"What are you doing here?" He looked surprised but he didn't break the contact.
"Shouldn't I use my information? That's why I'm paid, Sada."
He laughed. OK, I got him on one of his good days.
"Listen here" I began "I don't have much time so I'll be quick. Is the line clean?"
"Yep." he answered.
"Alberto Correia. Do you know anything about him?"
"Nope. Should I?"
"Just keep your ears open." I whispered.
"Isn't that your job?" He tried to joke, but he didn't have a sense of humor. "Hey, hey, Edson, don't put it down."
"Why?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. If that "No" was also a joke, I make him squeak. Really.
"How hard are you working on your case?" he asked.
"Do you have something valuable?"
"No!" he laughed smoothly. "I just wanted to ask you a favor."
Great. Another idiot rat giving me instructions.
"What should be it?"
"Could you smuggle me out? Only a few times. These guards are really on me and I want to disappear for a few hours."
"Why are they on you?" I asked.
"I don't know, Edson. They are just getting more and more careful and I hate that. They should relax, if I need them, I'll call them right in that moment."
"Usual fee?" I asked. This work began to raise my interest. Guards aren't allowed to do even the smallest sloppiness. This should mean something. Maybe, they're afraid from something. I think I should go after this Correia guy as well. Why did somebody – maybe even S-K – want to kill him?
I cursed the whole world in the second my alarm clock. The second curse came off my mouth after I looked on it. Why did I set the clock at 9 pm if my seminar begins at quarter past 9 and I simply wasn't able to get to the university in 15 minutes. Especially, that I was still in my pyjamas. What did I think? Were I the one who invented teleporting? No, of course. Slowly – very slowly, because I was sure that I won't get in in time – I got up, I got dressed and I began to make some coffee. After all, it wasn't my first missed seminar, although the first one really practical and one of the most important ones. Focus architecture. I was very keen on to see what it looked like: to make a magical pendant or even a charmed knife. Naturally, it was totally different. In the first seminar, they brought us all out into a swamp and we were just looking for flowers and plants. It was unimaginably boring.
After the first parts of my daily routine, I got on the bus to the university. I nearly fell asleep on the way there but somehow I managed to get down and walk to the entrance. Suddenly, a small spirit materialized in front of me.
"Callum Douglas." it squeaked. "You're not allowed to entry Oxford University."
"Why?" I asked, although it was near useless. It was just a watcher. It was a miracle that it even recognized me. No answer, of course. I took a step to the entrance door. "I'll attack you if you don't go away."
"Don't be ridiculous." I said, bored. I didn't really have time to chat with this creature. In the next moment, another watcher appeared beside the first.
"You're expelled." he said.
Naturally, my face fell.
Back to the office. Back to the own, separated matrix, surrounded by graphs, mathematical matrices and numbers everywhere. We were on some economical graph programming project, just me and another idiot, Feras. I say, he really was an idiot. He used to stay here a lot more than the compulsory work time – the only reason he went to lunch that he was really human, I think, lunch was his only meal in one day. If someone's soul will be left in the Matrix, I think it'll be a guy's like him. I think he would have been happy if that happened. No more flesh to deal with.
The project was something to the logistical department, and I hated to deal with it. These kind of things weren't unknown for even a 20th century programmer but this was much, much more complex. We simply had to write the program –and it wasn't an easy task, although we were really the masters of our computers.
The beeping of my computer nearly saved my life. It was lunch time. I was starving and I wasn't able to spend more time with Feras for now. I saw the lunch and my face fell. Pea soup and spaghetti. I simply hated it. So, I finished fast. I thought about having some rest, but I decided to go back. I hoped I won't find Feras. Naturally, he was there. I immediately saw his uniform cossack icon. He turned to me and gave me a small nod. If the real myself had been there I would have raised my eyebrows. He didn't use to do that. I took a step to the plotting board icon symbolizing our current object. Suddenly, the alarm went off. Everything turned red and and everything was hooting. As the icon noticed that it shifted its shape – it turned into a small dwarf. I could hardly track anything going on around me. In one moment, I saw a white hammer in the icon's hand but I couldn't react. I was too slow. In the next moment, everything turned black.
It was quite simple and yet it was very frightening. Not because of this guy named Drachen. In fact, I was even happy that I had a safes in a bank. I hoped it contained at least a bit of money so I could get out of my former life, my former job, everything. Only one thing raised my suspicion. By controlling my rights to the safe, they used my DNA. But, if the bank and possibly Drachen possessed my DNA, where else can it be. I didn't even met this guy, but he used my DNA to identify me. And this was annoying. The fact that I received a metal box didn't calmed me down. I've chosen not to look in the box in the bank, almost fully crowded. I put the box in my old backpack and hoped that it wasn't explosive or something like that.
As I left the huge, decorated building of the bank, I've collided with someone. His skin had about the same color as mine but he was a lot taller than me, he wore an elegant suit and sunglasses. Well, this bank was mostly used by guys like this one. Offish, just thinking about themselves, and trampling men like me in the earth. I hoped that I won't met people like this one again.
Stupid Muslim, I thought. Normally, I don't have stereotypes, but these people made me shiver. Fortunately, I haven't met a lot of them so far. I hoped this one won't bring me misfortune. I've just spotted Daniele Braganza, the smuggler I was looking for in the Zweite Welle Bank. I thought that if he had gone away with the drugs, he should have had someone who had bought it. And if he did, he had a lot of money by now and he didn't want to be seen anywhere near Italy. Intelligent thinking but it wasn't enough.
So I've just spotted him, checked my gun and tried to step in when I collided with the Muslim. As he almost ran away, I looked at Braganza. His face was still calm. Probably he hasn't spotted me. I stepped in and moved my hand towards my Ares Predator. Luckily I went through the metal detectors without any single sound. My adrenaline levels ran high, like at any time I was about to kill somebody. This activated my artificially supercharged reflexes. From now, I was a predator. And, in the next moment, I had to realize that I was the prey. A man to my left, who was looking at his PDA and one of the other people to my right, in the row to the cashier, pulled their guns. I jumped left immediately, firing bullets to the assassin with the PDA, and landed on the floor. I definitely hit him, but he was just injured and probably dropped his gun. I rolled towards him as everyone was starting to get their heads down. But they still provided some cover for me. As I reached my destined point, I still kicked the assassin's head. If I was lucky, his nose has broken. But I thought I still had some work to do. There were no other sounds from guns, and some people were starting to stand up again. So did I.
"Don't move!" shouted someone. I turned back and saw the middle-aged bank guard, pointing a shotgun at me. He was about three feet away from me. I had only chance: hoping that he wasn't wired. I kicked at him as fast as I could and it was fast enough. He dropped the gun as I stepped beside him and shot his head. I turned around and looked for Braganza or his bodyguard. Just in the same moment when the alarm went off. The alarm surely distracted me so it took about a second to realize that there was a metallic security shutter, slowly rolling down in front of the entrance. I was sure that if it locks everybody, we'll get a big amount of stunning gas and if the bank guards find me – I didn't want to know what would have been the next step. I jumped towards the entrance door – luckily it was mostly made of glass and I hoped it was not bullet-proof. I took two shots on the door and saw that it didn't shatter but it definitely cracked. I slowed down as I was getting too close to it. I shot the rest of my bullets in it, feeling the breath and sometimes even the fist of the other suitsmen on my back and it finally shattered. I rolled out and I was finally on the street. The company men who haven't had wires like me, didn't manage to do that. I looked around once again for Braganza, though my gun was totally empty, but in my guts, I knew I had failed. And I wanted to know how and why.