The light goes dark and the surroundings appear to me as my eyes adjust. The first thing I notice is a pink katana held up to my neck which is attached to the arm of a shadow sitting in the chair next to me. I take a breath, making sure to take in my surroundings. The room is dark, the only sources of light coming from screens and servers in the walls. I can see a holographic projector above me that was once so bright but is now just giving off a dim light. There's a desk in the corner of the room with a bunch of monitors pointed at a woman with tattooed arms and dyed hair with a buzzcut on the side. If I'm in a server room, I'm probably underground for the second time tonight. Is it still night?
The shadow leans into the light of the holographic projector. She has striking, blue hair that falls in a bob cut around her shoulders, framing her pale face that's decorated with bold and meticulously applied makeup. She wears a black trench coat with a pink and white fur collar and the dress she wears is short and exposing. She looks like a woman of corpo luxury, but this place that I'm in tells me otherwise. Her blue eyes pierce through me, studying me. Who is she? Who's her friend?
She says nothing. I think she's waiting for me to speak. What do I say?
"I don't think he knows anything.", the tattooed woman says.
The blue-haired woman rolls her eyes, "Jesus. We're supposed to maintain mystery here."
"Well, you're the one who brought some Red Taxi driver into my space." She retorts.
As they began to bicker, my optics filter everything I see in shades of blues and greens. I scan the two women. The tattooed woman is Judy Alveraz. According to the scanner, she has a class three-star warrant for her arrest. Mainly illegal protest and resisting arrest. Not dangerous. The blue-haired woman is Evelyn Parker. No outstanding warrants. She looks back at me, noticing my eyes glowing blue from my scanner. She presses the blade to my throat. I turn my eyes off.
She postures up, "So Vega. You have some explaining to do."
I look her in her eyes, "Explain what?"
She looks at Judy and gives her a nod. Judy gets up from the desk with a data pad. She doesn't look me in the eye, she's just focused on the datapad. She taps the screen before taking the port cable from my wrist and I try to pull the cable out of her hands, but I can feel the pressure from the katana deepen on my neck. I let the woman take the wire and jack it into the datapad. I can feel the invasive electrons in the cable inject themselves into my brain as she taps the screen. She nods to Evelyn, "All set Eve."
Evelyn looks to the pad, then takes the katana off my throat, "Is your name, Wade Vega?"
"Yes," I answer. "Now what do you want from me?"
"Do you have sick fetishes, Vega?" She asks with a fake magnanimous tone. There's rage behind her voice and I don't wanna piss her off, "No. I don't have sick fetishes."
The datapad's screen flashes green, "He's telling the truth."
Evelyn chuckles cynically, "That's a first."
I don't like this line of questioning. "I have some questions of my own."
Evelyn places the katana back on the edge of my throat, "You don't get to ask questions. I still have some of my own. For instance, where were you at four in the morning?"
I answer her, "Asleep in bed. Also, how did you get me out of my bed?"
"Called in some favors from a netrunner." Judy chimes in, "She also got us some interesting photos."
Evelyn turns one of the monitors from the desk around. A collection of pictures from NCPD cameras appears on the screen. My whole shift is on screen for us three to see. And then a photo of me and her pop up on the screen. The joytoy I helped out. Evelyn notices the recognition in my eyes. "You know this girl?" she asks.
"What's it to you?" I ask.
She clicks the screen and the video pops up. The woman I watched walk down the street from me ducks into an alley. The sound of her heels stamping the concrete fills the alley. It's interrupted by the sound of a clanging sound. She turns around in fright but seems to calm down as a rat scurries past her feet deeper into the alley. But now she just stands there, frozen. What happened? Why is she frozen? It feels like an eternity before her eyes suddenly glow white hot and a bright light irradiates from her mouth. No, not light. Sparks.
She's fucking burning from the inside. My skin crawls as I see her agony, but I can't show my cards. I don't know what these two know and I don't know what they're capable of. I gotta keep my nerve. She begins to scream as she falls to her knees, clawing at the burning orifices of her face. Judy turns away from the screen, but Evelyn watches the video. She has this… horrified look. Sentimental too. Her eyes well up like when a victim's loved one is told about their grizzly murder, but she keeps her face stoic. She doesn't want to show her cards either. The woman falls to the ground, totally unresponsive as the sparks still burn. The video pauses. The woman is dead. Just dead. Another light that's been snuffed out.
(This video is not finished)