1:42pm, Tuesday the 13th March, 2125.

The woman sat across from him in an old-fashioned grey suit, the kind of white shirt and sharkskin coloured jacket that important people wore in the old movies. She wasn’t ugly, but her professional demeanour and short-cropped silver hair weren’t to his tastes, and he kept getting distracted by the way her eyes changed colour as she read her touchpad.

The surface of the conference table that separated them was turned off, and on its black screen he could see the reflection of the megapolis outside. He looked up from it, turning his gaze slightly to his right and peering out of the slanted window. It was bright – the sun painting the canton superstructures and great towers varying shades of cream and dark slate. The lower halves of the buildings and the streets below were bathed in shadow, getting darker the lower one looked, but it was difficult to see down there from so high.

“Is it too bright?” The woman asked, monotone.

“A little.”

A moment later the window darkened just enough to bathe the office in shadow, and the reflections on the surface of the table disappeared. There was silence then, and nothing else to focus on except for the commendations on the wall. Diplomas in political philosophy and communications, appointments to the U.N.S.C, and finally promotion to Deputy Recruitment Director for the local branch of the Intelligence Service. Most were holographic images, but that last one was on framed paper. There wasn’t much paper around anymore.

“I must say, Mr. King, your résumé is impressive,” the woman said, lifting her now green eyes from the touchpad and looking into his own. “I see why you were referred to me directly.”

“Please, call me Aiden,” he said, shifting attentively in his chair and giving her a polite smile. “Though I have to admit, I didn’t think I would be invited to an interview with someone so important. I’m very thankful for this opportunity – it’s been my dream for years.”

“Well you’re clearly a special candidate, Aiden. Let me ask: how much of an effect did sheer hard work have on these results?”

“Well hard work was part of it, and I stayed up late many nights. But honestly, academic work has always been something that’s come easy to me.”

“And university? Does the prospect of a higher education, and the possibility of a career in academia or science not appeal to you?”

“Well… It does, yes. I’ve had extremely tempting offers from many universities. Oxford, Harvard, Johannesburg, Mombasa, St. Petersburg, Peking, Tokyo. Others too, but none as prestigious. I’ve always wanted to serve my home and do some actual good by enlisting somewhere I can make a difference. My father was a soldier and saw combat in Iran and North Korea, and my older sister joined the police force a year ago, so I guess it runs in my family. Plus, I’ve always wanted to travel.”

“Well, Aiden, I’ll be blunt: the Intelligence Service would love to have you,” she replied with a smile. “With your potential, we could train you to fill any role you could think of. Field agent, intelligence analyst, researcher, whatever you’d like. Based on your educational and aptitude test scores I could guarantee you a position in training right now, if this is truly the career you want.”

“Really?” Aiden asked, somewhat taken aback. “I hadn’t expected it to be so simple. I would definitely like to accept the offer.”

“Good. That’s good.” Said the woman, swiping away the screen she had been viewing and turning off her touchpad. She placed it down on the table then, and suddenly Aiden felt the atmosphere of the room change based on nothing more than a sudden and subtle shift in her body language. It was tense now, and despite her experience in her field, she seemed to be struggling with how to broach a subject. She was looking down the faintest amount, trying to figure out the exact sequence of words she would have to use to accomplish a task that had been given to her. She was cool about it – clearly trained to prevent her body language from betraying anything inadvertently – but Aiden could still see. It was one of his gifts.

“Aiden,” she began to say, “I’m afraid to say that I have not been entirely honest with you as to the purpose of this interview.”

“Really? How so?” Aiden replied, now watching her even more closely.

“Your results are incredibly impressive, but if we had no further interest in you then another officer could have adequately handled your recruitment process. I have asked to meet with you today because your results have presented us, and you, with an extremely rare and interesting opportunity. You said you wished to travel: have you ever wanted to go to Kanto?”

“Kanto? Sure, I suppose?”

“The United Nations Intelligence Service, and the United Nations Security Council it falls under, have a vested interest in the development of a new independent intelligence and anti-terrorism organization based there. It’s getting massive funding from both public and private sectors, and several of the biggest megacorps and private military contractors are cooperating to make it a reality.”

Aiden looked confused for a moment, glancing down from the woman’s eyes and looking at the plain grey buttons of her jacket. “Megacorps? I thought it was illegal to have corporate interests in U.N affairs? They used to call it ‘lobbying’, didn’t they?”

The woman smiled. “Sort of, though it wasn’t exactly the same,” she explained. “You are correct though. Therefore, this new organization will officially fall out of U.N and corporate jurisdictions and will be top secret for at least the first few years of operation. You must understand, Aiden, that this organization represents a way to unite megacorps who have unofficially warred for decades, while simultaneously bringing them under a single committee of oversight. This entire endeavour is endorsed by the security council, and we will have a seat at its table.”

Aiden had to think for a minute. He had always been politically inclined, and he had never agreed with the idea of the corporations being involved with government. For seventy years many corporations had held more power than the governments that regulated them, and though highly supervised they were so wealthy and powerful that they couldn’t be touched by the law. They had their own private security forces, military-grade arsenals, fanatically loyal mid-level employees and competing aspirations. Suspected corporate killings were always on the news and it was rare that anyone was sentenced for it. Police departments lived at the mercy of their generous donations, and the C.E.Os were more like bosses from the old mafia movies than they were entrepreneurs.

Was it really a good idea to have them create an intelligence service? They would be forced to work together, true, but what about the harm they could cause? Even if the U.N were at the table, they would have limited power over the internal affairs of a supposedly independent organization.

“I’m not too sure…” Aiden admitted. “It seems kind of… Risky?”

“There’s always risk in this field, Aiden. And you wouldn’t be alone – the U.N.S.C and I.S are donating dozens of scientists, operatives and other staff to the endeavour, as are the other members. There will be plenty of U.N personnel there with you,” she replied.

“Well… You still haven’t explained what it is you want me to actually do there, and why you want to send me, of all people?”

“Because of your records, Aiden. Perfect test scores in your final exams, another set of perfect test scores in all the aptitude tests you’ve taken. But most importantly? Because you came to us. You want to work in this field. The organization is looking for a select few, extremely capable special operatives to spearhead its future. You’re inexperienced, and untrained, but that can be fixed. We want to put you forward as one of those operatives.”

Aiden couldn’t help but smile, as much as he tried to hide it. They wanted him to be a ‘special operative’ in a secret organization, based on nothing more than his final exam results and a few tests he had to take when applying for the service? He felt his ego being massaged, and though he hated to admit it he had always been a little vain. It was any boy’s childhood dream – to be a secret agent – and though most boys forgot about it when they reached adulthood, Aiden found the opportunity being offered to him on a platter. How could he say no?

“What’s it called? This organization?” He asked, his mind now made up.

The woman tapped her finger down on her touchpad, and the screen came to life with neon colours. “It has the working name of the Research, Engage and Neutralize Division,” she said, as she opened up an application form.

“Rend…” Aiden said slowly and quietly. He looked off through the window again, imagining himself returning to the England Megapolis some suave and respected hero; handsome, with women on his arm, and nice cars, and high-tech augments and gadgets. He saw himself battling terrorists, and saving innocent lives, and scouring the netscapes for information that could save thousands.

“I’ll do it,” he answered. “It’s an opportunity I would be stupid to pass up.”

“Fantastic,” the woman replied, typing away on her screen. “What will you tell your family?”

“That I’m going to university.”

2:48pm, Tuesday the 13th March, 2125.

Aiden looked into the elevator mirror and ran his fingers through his light brown hair. It wasn’t long but he had combed it for his interview, and it made him look like one of those snobbish boys who grew up private schools. He made it naturally messy again like the wind had blown him, then peered into his own eyes.

He still had his birth eyes, naturally blue, which was somewhat strange in a world where so many eyes were unnatural now. Where he was going it would be even more so, for eye colours could be changed as easily as contact lenses. They were all artificial colours; red, pink, green, white, purple. For a moment he wondered if he had made a bad decision; how was he supposed to see what a person had in their soul if their eyes were no longer windows?

The elevator door pinged open, and the metal doors opened behind him. The mirror suddenly displayed a thank you message, alongside an advertisement for hair products, and Aiden turned and followed the other thirty people out into the street.

Outside was filled with shade now that the sun was dipping again, and the forest of giant buildings that reached into the sky blocked direct light from touching the floor. Around him tens of thousands of people walked the streets, and columns of cars zipped along the mag-roads too fast for him to really see. Above them the rotors of flying vehicles hummed in near silence, and they flew around megastructures like birds flew around trees.

“Aiden, where are you?” A feminine voice asked directly into his ear.

“I’ve just come out of the elevator,” he replied. “I’m on level 0.”

“I don’t see you. Turn off to where that burger place is, I’ve parked just outside there.”

“I’ll be five minutes.”

Aiden walked along the wide street, cars zipping to his right, and a swarm of thousands around him. He walked through them carefully, hearing just enough of their conversations to make out words, but not enough for them to be anything more than nonsense. He was in a rich part of town, meaning most wore smart suits and had expensive haircuts, but in the side-streets he could see a far more interesting palate of people. A thousand individuals from a hundred sub-cultures walked those streets, with looks as unique as the colours that made them stand out from the urban grey.

He turned down one of those streets and walked for several more minutes past a dozen small restaurants, shops and inner-city apartment buildings with private security guards stood watch outside. He heard one woman screaming at her retro-phone and glanced at two people smoking down a back-alley. In front of him a dark-skinned man ate a large sub sandwich, and as Aiden walked past him he realized that the man’s arm was mechanical.

“I got you a-“ the woman’s voice was interrupted when Aiden walked into her, and he stepped back to apologize profusely until he realized who it was.

“Damnit Sarah, why are you standing in the street?” Aiden asked the woman, but she shook her head and held out a large burger for him to take. He took it. “Oh, thanks.”

“You need to watch where you’re going,” his sister told him, and he walked at her side towards a smooth dark grey car that was parked outside a small food joint.

“Well maybe you shouldn’t just stand there?” Aiden asked as she walked to the driver’s side door and unlocked the car with a tap of her finger. The driver’s door opened, and Sarah brushed off her jeans before she climbed inside. He took a bite of his burger, then climbed into the passenger seat when his own door opened.

“Try no’ ‘o ma’e a mess i’ my ‘ew ‘ar,” Sarah struggled to say with her mouth full.

Aiden swallowed. “I didn’t buy me the burger!”

“Actually, you owe me for that,” Sarah said after swallowing her own bite, a grin on her face.

“Bitch.”

“Dick.”

“Whatever.”

“Car, take us home,” Sarah said, leaning back in her seat and peering out of the dimmed windows into the street. The car lit up, and the engine started, and soon it was pulling itself out onto the road and driving away. “So how did your meeting go?” She asked him.

“Oh, you know. Fine, I guess,” Aiden replied between bites.

“So, when are you going to tell us what it was about?” She asked, brushing strands of long brown hair out of her face so she could eat her burger in peace.

“Well… I guess I can tell you now. I didn’t want to say anything in case it turned out to be nothing, but it did, so… I’ve been offered a big scholarship to go to university. I think I’m going to take it.”

Sarah grinned again. “I knew it. My genius brother is going to university. You know, I have friends who lived down near Oxford. I’m sure they can point out some great places for you to live.”

“Yeah, but… Well… I’m not going to Oxford, I’m going to, uh, Tokyo.”

Sarah suddenly coughed, almost choking on her bite. “Tokyo University? You mean… In Kanto? In Japan?”

“Uh… Yeah,” Aiden answered, looking almost sheepish.

“Are you sure? That’s on the other side of the planet, you know. I don’t even know how many kilometres away it is, and I can’t exactly pop down for dinner, can I?”

“It’s about 9400km,” Aiden replied. “And yeah… I know. But I want to travel, you know? And well… It’s Kanto! It’s the biggest, wealthiest city on Earth. The freaking United Nations are headquartered there.”

“But you don’t even speak Japanese?” Sarah asked him.

“I speak a little bit, but that doesn’t matter. Everyone speaks English now.”

“Well, I suppose. If it’s what you want to do, I support you, and I’m sure mum will too.”

“Thanks Sarah,” Aiden said with a smile. “It won’t be until September, so you still have six months of me.”

“Huh. Imagine that,” Sarah said, scrunching up her burger foil and throwing it into a small bin. “My young, innocent, eighteen-year-old brother leaving this tiny, unimportant island off the coast of Europe to go all the way to another tiny, unimportant island off the coast of Asia.”

“Maybe I should stay here and join the police instead, like you?”

“Ha! No, please don’t. We’re trying to solve crime, not exacerbate it. You’ll do good though. Dad would be proud.”

“Thanks,” Aiden said, peering sideways out of the window. They were on the magroad now, and giant buildings flew past them in a blur. He wondered what Japan would be like, how it differed from England. What the shapes of the buildings would be, what the food and people were like. He wondered if he truly wanted to take the offer given to him, or whether he should just go to university like he told his sister.

He sighed silently and finished the last of his burger. He was an adult now, a grown man. He had made a decision that day that would affect everything from his home to his family, and he knew his life would never be the same again.