Chapter 22

Geraldo took one last drag of his cigarette as he looked up at the towering apartment complex. The building loomed over him, its glass face glimmering in the neon of the billboards and lights that surrounded it.

He let the smoke out in his lounges slowly before he crushed the butt of the cigarette under the heel of his boot. He checked his palm terminal to see where Gabriela was. The information that displayed on the screen said she was at some swanky retirement community on the far side of the city.

“Plenty of time.” He mumbled and tucked the terminal in his pocket and walked inside the building.

A concierge stood up and smiled as the doors to the building slid open.

“Can I help you?” He said cheerfully. Geraldo flashed his badge without slowing. The man sunk back into his chair, but said nothing more.

Geraldo took the elevator up. Gabriela’s personnel file said she lived on the fortieth floor. Not a penthouse, he noted, but high enough to be expensive.

The elevator itself was housed in glass. Geraldo could see the city unfolding before him as the elevator took him higher and higher. The buildings shone brightly, reflecting the never-ending lights of advertisement even in the mid-day gloom. The city stretched as far as the river, where the massive dam could be seen. And in between the high buildings and overpasses was the Lower City, covered in a blanket of smog that made the Upper City appear as if it was built upon clouds. Geraldo had no doubt that there were people that felt it may as well be.

He had never left New Madrid. The city was the only home he had, but he often wondered what it would be like to live somewhere else, far away from the city of his birth. He had seen the videos of the pacific sprawl in the old USA, as well as the wastelands of northern Europe. Everywhere he looked seemed worse than the last. Corporate greed produced poverty and lawlessness. New Madrid seemed to be one of the last bastions of civilization. A bastion that seemed to him, to be slowly dying.

The elevator doors slid opened onto a dimly lit hallway, pulling him away from the scene of his beloved city.

The few people in the hallway ignored him as he marched ahead to Gabriela’s door. He tried the handle, but it was locked. Geraldo knelt down and reached into his jacket and retrieved a codebreaker. He looked around the hall before he inserted a card into the door, a long ribbon of wire, which was attached to the card ran back to a small device that displayed a screen that simply said, “Analyzing.”

Codebreakers were not slandered issue equipment, and they weren’t exactly legal, but one never knew when they would need to get past a locked door without someone knowing, or without needing a warrant.

After a few seconds, information was displayed on the codebreakers screen about the door’s security system. The software it ran on and that the security code was an eight-digit pin with an infinite display of numbers before him.

Geraldo grunted as he typed away into the codebreaker. His grizzled face illuminated in the green light of the screen. He was hoping for a four-digit or even a six-digit pin. It would have made the process faster. A couple walking down the hall gave him a sideways look as they passed, but no one stopped him. Even in a nice apartment like this it was best to mind your own business.

After a few moments, the codebreaker beeped and with a touch of the screen the door made a loud click as the bolt disengaged.

Geraldo put the codebreaker back and smiled to himself. The device was worth every fraction of crypto he had spent on it.

The door swung open slowly, and he stepped inside and closed it behind him as softly as he could before he turned and surveyed the apartment.

It wasn’t as big as he had expected. The layout was much like his own, but with the addition of a living space and what looked like a bathroom. He briefly wondered if she had a bath behind the cracked door.

The kitchen was cluttered with take out containers and bottles. He wrinkled his nose in disgust and moved the trash around a little before he moved on. What he needed was something that would be personal to Gabriela. It wouldn’t be kept with the trash.

The living space was the only part of the apartment that wasn’t cluttered. A rounded couch sat in a recessed part of the floor with a round tabled in front of it and an end table with a lamp. Geraldo briefly stopped and admired the lamp, silently wishing he could afford a place with enough space for optional furniture.

He pulled his eyes away from the lamp and made his way to the bunk. If there was anything to find it would most likely be there. Gabriel’s bunk was just as disordered as the kitchen. Beer bottles littered the floor around the bunk. Geraldo had to carefully step around them, not wanting to disturb anything. He wanted to get in and out without her knowing he had been there.

There was a shelf above the bunk, lined with books. He picked up one and read the cover “Do Androids Dream of Electronic sheep, By Philip. K. Dick.” Geraldo had never heard of the author. He slowly flipped the pages of the book. Such a thing was a rarity. Books hadn’t been published since the end of the Euro War. In a desperate attempt to curb Co2 in the atmosphere, the UN Charter banned the harvesting of trees.

Geraldo flipped the book over and gave it a shake, expecting something to fall out. When the book failed to produce what he needed he placed it back and moved on to the next. He sighed when he placed the last book back. Geraldo felt a little sheepish thinking it would be as easy as thumbing through books.

He carefully knelt down and checked the low ceiling above the bunk before he moved to the bed itself. Geraldo slid his hands along the mattress, checking to see if anything was hidden between it and the frame.

Geraldo smiled when his fingers brushed against something hard. He carefully pulled the object out and examined it. It was small, just a little bigger than a pack of cards. A clear plate of glass or resin with a piece of polished metal along one edge. The only thing in the glass was a tuft of dark hair.

He felt along the edge of metal and found a power button and pressed it. A three dimensional picture filled the glass. It was a young Gabriela lovingly holding a small baby to her chest.

“Gotcha.” Geraldo said and smiled, just before his vision exploded into stars and he felt himself falling.