Endgame
Chapter 1
Julia
It was the shortest skyscraper in the only city on an asteroid called Yakana. It was topped by a perpetually marching zebra-striped teddy bear, and the neon sign indicated the building was just a toy store. Not a likely front for the Komodo Syndicate. By 15:00, it was surrounded by snipers with heat-seeking rifles. By 15:23, the second team was entering the building to make sure no one was left. Kyt Harley went in himself. He wanted to make sure the man who'd killed his mother was dead.
He found him on the top floor, the only floor that wasn't crowded with stuffed toys, stacks of games, and corpses. He was alone in the room, slumped over a computer, hair splayed over the keyboard. Kyt noted this to Agent Delaware over his communicator, then dismissed his troops.
"So Komodo's dissolved. This is gonna change all the syndicates, you know. Komodo had its fingers in most of the syndicate pies," Delaware crackled in his ear.
"You never know with an organization like Komodo. The syndicates weren't even aware Komodo was the controlling hand. It passed itself on as a weak syndicate located in West Bumfuck, Aurora Borealis. They could have prepared for something like this. I hear they've got uncanny cloning techniques these days."
"So run an HPB on the bodies."
"I've got a couple of avenues I'm gonna cover before I'll consider this over," Kyt said. "Then I'll consider your offer to close in on the Red Dragon syndicate. As for now, I want to be alone. Harley out." He turned off the communicator and turned to the body slumped over the keyboard. Slowly, he walked to it, grabbed a handful of hair, and pulled the man up so he could get a good look at his face. Ideally, he should have had a more creative death. Realistically, chasing the perfect grudge usually got both parties killed.
Only a second after he became aware of a presence behind him, he felt a brief shock at the base of his spine and lost control of all his muscles. He fell face-down and didn't even feel the floor's sucker punch to his face, though he was sure there would be some damage in the morning. Slowly, the floor rotated into a fixed perspective of the ceiling as he was rolled over. He couldn't even feel the pressure of the person's hands on him, and he certainly didn't have the wherewithal to shout for help or make an alert on his communicator, which of course was the point of a shocker.
An infinitely sad face framed by a tumble of moon-dimmed blonde hair floated into view. It drifted up as the girl stood; she had a gun.
"I don't want to hurt you, but I will," the girl said. "You have to understand, they had my brother. They said they had a kill switch. I saw you coming a couple months ago- I found the kill switch. I'm not making much sense, I know." The girl ran a hand through her hair. She nodded towards the figure of Dios Pyrrh, leader of the Komodo syndicate. "He tried to recruit me, years ago. I used to fight for money. I was the best in Aurora Borealis. But I wouldn't join. My father was a syndicate man. That's why my brother and I were orphaned. But he took him, my brother, and told me that as long as I would work for him he would live. He said if I tried anything funny, if he died, that there was a chip in my brother's brain that would explode if anything went wrong. I. I think I disabled it. I knew you were coming." She leaned down again, put the gun to his temple. "I'm telling you this so you understand that I will kill you if you don't tell me where my brother is. If you shout for help, I'll shoot you. I know I'll die. I'm okay with that. Blink three times if you're ready to talk."
He did.
She placed the shocker at the point where his neck and jaw met. A surge of electricity awakened his face to sensation. Everything below it was still paralyzed. "So?"
"I don't know where your brother is. But the Komodo syndicate uses this sort of recruiting tactic a lot. They always kill the victims right away."
"No- I saw-"
"They have visuals and information and he writes you every week, right? But they fake visuals all the time. They can age a face, and they've got psychologists trained to get all the background possible out of the victims before they die. They're the ones who write the letters. And I'm pretty sure you wouldn't need to be told this if you weren't so intent on believing your brother's not dead."
He expected her to cry, but her expression didn't change. She rose and stood, as if in deep contemplation, for a moment. "Will you find his body for me?" Her voice broke at the end, knowing it was a request unlikely to be granted.
"There's a card in the inside pocket on the left hand side of my coat. It has my contact information." She wavered, looked at the window and back at him, and he knew she didn't trust him, so he said, "He did the same thing to my mother. My father was Uri Harley."
Her eyes widened in recognition, then relaxed back into their half- lidded sadness. She bent down to retrieve the card, which she pocketed. She lifted his head and placed the shocker at the base of his skull and let off a pulse of electricity that sent his body screaming with pins and needles. He sat up shakily.
"What's your name, anyway?" he asked.
"Julia," she said. She pulled the hood from her cloak over her head and disappeared. Thermoptic camouflage. He supposed it was how she had avoided the heat-seeking rifles.
Chapter 1
Julia
It was the shortest skyscraper in the only city on an asteroid called Yakana. It was topped by a perpetually marching zebra-striped teddy bear, and the neon sign indicated the building was just a toy store. Not a likely front for the Komodo Syndicate. By 15:00, it was surrounded by snipers with heat-seeking rifles. By 15:23, the second team was entering the building to make sure no one was left. Kyt Harley went in himself. He wanted to make sure the man who'd killed his mother was dead.
He found him on the top floor, the only floor that wasn't crowded with stuffed toys, stacks of games, and corpses. He was alone in the room, slumped over a computer, hair splayed over the keyboard. Kyt noted this to Agent Delaware over his communicator, then dismissed his troops.
"So Komodo's dissolved. This is gonna change all the syndicates, you know. Komodo had its fingers in most of the syndicate pies," Delaware crackled in his ear.
"You never know with an organization like Komodo. The syndicates weren't even aware Komodo was the controlling hand. It passed itself on as a weak syndicate located in West Bumfuck, Aurora Borealis. They could have prepared for something like this. I hear they've got uncanny cloning techniques these days."
"So run an HPB on the bodies."
"I've got a couple of avenues I'm gonna cover before I'll consider this over," Kyt said. "Then I'll consider your offer to close in on the Red Dragon syndicate. As for now, I want to be alone. Harley out." He turned off the communicator and turned to the body slumped over the keyboard. Slowly, he walked to it, grabbed a handful of hair, and pulled the man up so he could get a good look at his face. Ideally, he should have had a more creative death. Realistically, chasing the perfect grudge usually got both parties killed.
Only a second after he became aware of a presence behind him, he felt a brief shock at the base of his spine and lost control of all his muscles. He fell face-down and didn't even feel the floor's sucker punch to his face, though he was sure there would be some damage in the morning. Slowly, the floor rotated into a fixed perspective of the ceiling as he was rolled over. He couldn't even feel the pressure of the person's hands on him, and he certainly didn't have the wherewithal to shout for help or make an alert on his communicator, which of course was the point of a shocker.
An infinitely sad face framed by a tumble of moon-dimmed blonde hair floated into view. It drifted up as the girl stood; she had a gun.
"I don't want to hurt you, but I will," the girl said. "You have to understand, they had my brother. They said they had a kill switch. I saw you coming a couple months ago- I found the kill switch. I'm not making much sense, I know." The girl ran a hand through her hair. She nodded towards the figure of Dios Pyrrh, leader of the Komodo syndicate. "He tried to recruit me, years ago. I used to fight for money. I was the best in Aurora Borealis. But I wouldn't join. My father was a syndicate man. That's why my brother and I were orphaned. But he took him, my brother, and told me that as long as I would work for him he would live. He said if I tried anything funny, if he died, that there was a chip in my brother's brain that would explode if anything went wrong. I. I think I disabled it. I knew you were coming." She leaned down again, put the gun to his temple. "I'm telling you this so you understand that I will kill you if you don't tell me where my brother is. If you shout for help, I'll shoot you. I know I'll die. I'm okay with that. Blink three times if you're ready to talk."
He did.
She placed the shocker at the point where his neck and jaw met. A surge of electricity awakened his face to sensation. Everything below it was still paralyzed. "So?"
"I don't know where your brother is. But the Komodo syndicate uses this sort of recruiting tactic a lot. They always kill the victims right away."
"No- I saw-"
"They have visuals and information and he writes you every week, right? But they fake visuals all the time. They can age a face, and they've got psychologists trained to get all the background possible out of the victims before they die. They're the ones who write the letters. And I'm pretty sure you wouldn't need to be told this if you weren't so intent on believing your brother's not dead."
He expected her to cry, but her expression didn't change. She rose and stood, as if in deep contemplation, for a moment. "Will you find his body for me?" Her voice broke at the end, knowing it was a request unlikely to be granted.
"There's a card in the inside pocket on the left hand side of my coat. It has my contact information." She wavered, looked at the window and back at him, and he knew she didn't trust him, so he said, "He did the same thing to my mother. My father was Uri Harley."
Her eyes widened in recognition, then relaxed back into their half- lidded sadness. She bent down to retrieve the card, which she pocketed. She lifted his head and placed the shocker at the base of his skull and let off a pulse of electricity that sent his body screaming with pins and needles. He sat up shakily.
"What's your name, anyway?" he asked.
"Julia," she said. She pulled the hood from her cloak over her head and disappeared. Thermoptic camouflage. He supposed it was how she had avoided the heat-seeking rifles.