Chapter 46: Ray Dawn

Ray Dawn cruised past an unassuming building in the heart of Gau City. An ordinary skyscraper in every sense of the word. He rounded the building, stopped at the entrance to the underground parking lot and lowered the window of his two seater WinCorp F9 floatcar.

A soldier in blue camouflage stepped out of the security booth, a tablet in hand.

“Name?”

“Captain Ray Dawn Zappa.”

The soldier studied his tablet for a moment. Satisfied his name was on his list he tapped on his tablet a few times, prompted the gate open.

“Go ahead, she’s expecting you.”

Ray Dawn drove into the parking area. Green LED lights illuminated the underground space.

He parked and met with his benefactor at the elevator. She was in a grey pencil skirt, ruby shirt and a silver electronic band around her right wrist.

“You’re early,” Marieshan said.

“Thank you again Miss Marieshan.”

“Don’t mention it. Just Marie is fine, only my Nana uses my full name.”

‘I don’t care.’

Ray Dawn nodded and rummaged his pockets. He ignored the syringe, the blade hilt, the roll of razor thin steel wire and pulled out a small gift box.

“A small thanks.”

“You didn’t have too,” Marieshan said as she relieved his hands of the box.

She opened it with sparkling eyes and caressed the gold bracelet within: a simple gold chain with gem studded gold hearts dangling around it.

Ray Dawn manufactured a half smile. “It’s the least I could do.”

‘After stalking your social media page and unearthed your love for heart shaped jewellery.’

“Try it on,” Ray Dawn said.

She fitted the gold bracelet on her left wrist, appreciated its lustre a bit. Then hugged herself giving him a look. “Still, you went with jewellery. That makes a girl think you know.”

“I must admit wasn’t planning too but after seeing your social media pictures, I simply had to bring a gift along.”

She rolled her eyes and despite her efforts to conceal it he noted the corners of her lips bend up.

She swirled and said. “Let’s get this tour started then.”

Her electronic band blinked and the elevator doors sliced open for her. Ray Dawn followed along

“Data banks,” Marieshan said.

The elevator descended, whizzed down the electromagnetic rails with a static hum.

“Security here is quite lax,” Ray Dawn said conversationally.

He’d barely seen any security besides the soldier at the gate and the building was void of any cameras as far as he could tell.

“We don’t have surveillance feeds because technically this place doesn’t exist and we can’t risk footage of this place leaking. Only a handful of high ranking officials like Rafinya know about this place.” Marieshan gestured to him. “And lucky boys like you who brush elbows with the right people.”

“And if you must know,” Marieshan said dramatically, unable to suppress a knowing smirk. “The whole block is state owned. All the traffic you saw is military in disguise. Without pre-authorized access metro police would’ve rerouted you the moment you tried to enter the block. The check at the gate was superficial, just to make sure it was really you and not someone in disguise as you.”

“I see.” Ray Dawn swallowed. “So what’s it like being a guild mage?”

Marieshan blinked at him. “Dunno what Rafinya told you but I’m no mage. Just a data technician.”

“Oh and what does a data technician do here?”

“I’m a middlewoman between the guild mages and your cybercrime. Otherwise I simply monitor that there is an uninterrupted data flow, supervise server bank maintenance and other miscellaneous tasks.”

“Hmm.” Ray Dawn bobbed his head.

The elevator stopped and opened. A cool breeze rushed in prickling his skin.

“Welcome to the data banks.”

Marieshan lead him into a well-lit warehouse cooled to a constant seven degrees Celsius and lined with rows of server racks that rose up to the ceiling. The quantum servers were stacked onto the racks, encased in reinforced glass and were littered with tiny lights flashing incessantly with every byte of data received.

‘What I could do with all this computing power and to think this is only the tip of the federation’s power.’

The Gau City Data Guild was one node within the larger network of data guilds spread across all the free cities and branching out between to the Sol colonies.

She took him around the numerous rows of servers, feeding him knowledge about the guild.

“…the hardware of Gau City’s virtual network if you will. All of the city’s data is routed here through KaibaCore satellites. The guild mages monitor the virtual network 24/7 for any cyber intrusions, digital traces of wanted criminals, viruses and most importantly for any AI’s—”

“AI’s?” Ray Dawn asked.

“Oh yes. You’d be surprised how many idiots with a bit of programming knowledge will attempt to build one. Especially those machine worshippers who believe AI’s to be benevolent. It’s their life’s goal to reincarnate their AI gods.”

“I see. I see. Say where do the mages work from?” Ray Dawn asked sweeping his gaze around. There were only servers in sight.

Marieshan shook her head. “We can’t disturb them. They can’t let up their surveillance of the virtual network even for a second. So they can’t be interrupted in any way during a shift.”

“Hmm. I see.”

‘There wouldn’t be a need for such if they just used a damned AI to monitor the net.’

Scouting the virtual network for extended periods of time, he couldn’t imagine what that did to a cybermage’s psyche.

Marieshan’s bracelet flashed, interrupting their tour.

“Again,” she frowned.

“What’s wrong?”

She nodded him to follow. “Someone’s been trying to hack guild since last night.”

‘Nice timing Shen.’

He wasn’t aware of their protocol but he guessed if their systems were being hacked there would be some kind of protocol allowing him to see more.

She led him to solid looking wall at the end of the middle row of servers. Her electronic bracelet flashed and the solid wall slid up. They rushed into a compact control room. There was a large control panel at the end of the room with an even larger virtual screen over it. The virtual screen displayed the condition of all the servers, status of the numerous firewalls and other miscellaneous data.

“Where are all the mages monitoring the virtual network? And drone surveillance?” Ray Dawn blurted out.

“I told you they can’t be interrupted so we work separately.”

Ray Dawn exhaled hard, his uneven eyes sullen.

Marieshan flopped into her chair.

There was a flashing notification at the bottom of the screen showing an attempt at breaching one of the firewalls. The guild mages wherever they were hidden, were trying to block the intrusion and trace the hacker.

The cyber intrusion didn’t last long and was aborted before the mages could triangulate the intruder’s exact location.

“Making me rush for nothing,” Marieshan muttered under her breath before spinning the chair around to face him. “This happens quite often actually. Some idiot hacker thinking they can hack the data guild. At least this fool knows when to run.”

‘That he does.’

“I see,” Ray Dawn said taking in the room.

There was a red couch on one side with a coffee table before it. On the other side, a door labelled bathroom. He returned his gaze toward the control panel and virtual screen.

‘Their mages aren’t in here, probably further down.’

Ray Dawn whistled.

Marieshan twitched, hoisted an arm to her face. The gold bracelet had tightened across her wrist. She fiddled with it, panicked and tried to pry it off her wrist.

“Ah!” She flinched as if pricked and clutched at the gold bracelet.

Marieshan regarded him as her eyes faltered. A questioning look on her or perhaps it was disbelief in her eyes.

‘Probably still hung up on that whole betrayal thing.’

He’d seen that look before, on Pa when he sold him out to the authorities.

“Why?” She croaked.

Was this where he explained himself? Would she even understand? Pa never understood.

‘No one did.’

He sighed.

So Ray Dawn stared blankly at her and said. “Fear not. You won’t remember the last 10 minutes. As far as you’ll remember I was nice to you.”

“You monster—”

She tilted, swayed and fell of her chair. The drugs were finally taking their toll.

He knew this probably wasn’t how Rafinya had pictured things playing out but any scenario with her leaving him alone to explore was unlikely.

‘And finding Carrasco takes president.’

Ray Dawn could’ve moved quick enough to catch her.

‘But she called me a monster.’

He watched her cracked into the floor head first.

He sauntered cross the small room, scraped Marieshan off the floor and dumped her on the couch. He nodded at her bruised forehead. It would give his story more credibility when she woke up and he told her all about how she tripped and fell.

He relieved her of the electronic bracelet and made for the elevator. The electronic bracelet flashed and the elevator doors split open.

“Down,” he said.

There wasn’t any movement.

‘Voice recognition.’

He took a moment and loaded the last recorded voice into his electronic voice box.

“Down,” he said in Marieshan’s sultry voice.

The elevator doors clanked shut and motioned down. The descent was short. The metal doors sliced open and blossomed into an expansive red lit space.

Ray Dawn lifted his head and shuddered.

He’d always imagined the data guild as a place where a collection of cybermages monitored hundreds of surveillance feeds, tracked everyone’s chip or sifted through exabytes of data from the virtual network.

It was all that but much to his shock the cybermages in regard didn’t seem to have a choice in the matter.

‘If you can still call them that.’

In the centre of room suspended mid-air were seven youths. Each youth hung by two thick electrical cables one at the top of the temple and another at the back of their necks. They sported half masks with oxygen tubes and IV drips sticking out their veins. The tubing neatly floated up the ceiling along with the cables.

Their limbs hung limp as if they’d never walked a day in their lives. They all had glass eyes that flashed sporadically.

“These are the guild’s cybermages,” he mumbled to himself.

His shock was replaced by enlightenment.

“So this was how they monitored the virtual network and surveillance feeds 24/7,” he chuckled to himself.

He’d always known they monitored the virtual network all the time but he’d assumed they rotated shifts. These guys were stuck here which explained the operating efficiency of the data guilds.

‘The perks of secretly ignoring the whole human rights thing.’

“Hehe…Hehe…” he cackled. “That means all the other data guilds are the same.”

“You’re not Marie,” a voice croaked.

Ray Dawn paused. Stared at a dark corner of the room, a figure rose from slumber on a sleeper couch.

“An intruder, that’s a first.” He pulled out a communicator, took a look and put it back. “Oh! Signal disruptor. You’ve come prepared.” He scratched his scruffy beard and reached for an open beer by the side table.

“I’m the guildmaster by the way.”

‘I don’t care.’

Ray Dawn pulled out his blade hilt and fitted an enarmes on the other hand.

“Straight to business, ey.” The guildmaster chugged down the beer and sprang to his feet. He glanced at his mech suit in pile on the floor. “Would you wait while I equipped my armour?”

Ray Dawn didn’t reply but his dark rimmed eyes never left the guildmaster.

“I guess not. Lucky I always keep these on me.” The guildmaster held his gaze while he pulled a blade hilt and enarmes from his utility belt. The photon blade sizzled on and the energy shield buzzed into shape.

“I haven’t duelled in while,” the guildmaster said, slowly circled the room. Their gazes locked over the short distance. “Will you go easy on me?”

“We don’t need to have a conversation,” Ray Dawn said.

“I must be nervous,” the guildmaster chuckled.

‘He’s either trying to annoy me to death or catch me off guard.’

A duel was no joke. It was bloody work and Ray Dawn treated it as such.

Every duellist had a mage chip to optimize their performance so every duellist was near equally skilled as the next and why one on one duels never lasted long. The first to strike usually won or gained a significant advantage on his follow up strike.

The guildmaster leapt forward and Ray Dawn charged to meet him. They sprinted with their shields raised, straight at each other like two rosters in a cock fight.

The rammed into each other, sparks flew as their shields clattered together. They both screeched to a dead stop. Their charge evenly matched neither with an advantage.

The guildmaster jabbed his shimmering blade over Ray Dawn’s shield, aimed for his temple. Ray Dawn’s thrust was just as timely aimed at the guildmasters face.

Ray Dawn strained his neck at the last moment and the opponent’s blade bit deep into his shoulder. His own blade also redirected into the guildmaster’s shoulder.

Their actions were even in every way. The guildmaster was emotionless as he offed the blade, prepared for another bite into him. The guildmaster’s actions were methodical despite his injury, he was muted. It was the norm amongst most mages.

Not Ray Dawn though.

He roared in agony. Pain spiked up his arm. The gaping wound in his shoulder oozing blood.

The guildmaster’s expression was one of puzzlement. Everyone knew not feeling pain kept a mage’s actions meticulous as long as their injury wasn’t a movement inhibiting injury.

The guildmaster didn’t let his surprise delay his actions. He aimed the blade hilt at his neck and motioned a thumb to flick it back on.

“Argh!” Ray Dawn let out an agonized war cry and used his shield to push back his opponent.

The guildmaster stumbled back before he could flick on the blade and wore a shocked expression.

They’d been equal in strength a moment ago but Ray Dawn could best him now. Ray Dawn pounced forward, teeth clenched to suppress the pain and a frenzied look on his face.

Ray Dawn attacked, photon blade splitting the air in a wild slash.

The guildmaster’s eyes were wide as moved back and dodged the slash with ease but couldn’t retaliate because he was on the back foot.

Ray Dawn pressed, dashed forward like a crazed beast and he threw his weight into a stab.

The guildmaster held out his shield, tilted it slightly as the blade made contact, parrying the thrust.

The guildmaster raised his photon blade to counter but Ray Dawn pivoted and desperately lunged into the guildmaster, tackling him into the ground.

They tumbled, losing their weapons. Ray Dawn clawed and bit at the man as they struggled.

“Where is your honour?” The guildmaster spat. His hand prying away the jawing Ray Dawn from his face.

This wasn’t how duels usually went.

“Fuck honour!” Ray Dawn snapped as he managed to get atop of his opponent. His shoulder dripping blood and throbbing relentlessly.

‘It hurts, It hurts, It hurts…’

But that didn’t stop him, only fuelled him to kill the threat before him, the source of his pain.

Mages thought of pain as an inhibiter but pain was also an alarm, in abundant doses it alarmed one to how close they were to death’s door and the fear of death made men like Ray Dawn desperate and desperation fuelled adrenalin.

Ray Dawn curled his hands around the guildmaster’s throat and squeezed.

The guildmaster thrashed and writhed, his pale face turning crimson. He punched at Ray Dawn’s bloody shoulder.

Ray Dawn winced. The guildmaster punched again, then jabbed a thumb into his gaping shoulder.

Ray Dawn roared an anguished outburst. His grip loosened despite the backing of his rage.

Ray Dawn pulled up then pushed down, cracking the guildmaster’s head into the tiled floor.

The guildmaster was undeterred, his thumb fishing deeper into his wound.

“Fuck!” The guildmaster croaked a breathless curse. Yanked out his thumb, the finger was bloody but more ominously mixed within the blood was what seemed like a black mold that doggedly gnawed at his thumb, chewing through skin and muscles.

There was confusion in his eyes but the guildmaster needed air and didn’t care to understand this phenomenon. He jabbed his thumb toward Ray Dawn’s wounded shoulder but his thumb was unable to penetrate. The wound was mostly stitched back together by the same black mold that attacked the guildmaster’s thumb.

‘The nanites sure work fast, perfect for the bloody work of duels.’

The guildmaster punched and clawed at his wounds but it was healing faster than could be damaged without a weapon.

Ray Dawn regained a bit of strength, sank his fingers deeper into the guildmaster’s throat.

The guildmaster’s heavy punches became taps, and then he stopped altogether, unable to lift his arms. His eyes bulged, red veins filling the whites as the life pooled out of him.

Even when he’d stopped struggling Ray Dawn didn’t let go until he’d snapped his neck for good measure.

Ray Dawn rose. Stretched his arms out and yawned. He examined his bloody clothes.

‘Seems I’m on the clock now.’

With a dead body on his hands he wouldn’t be able to cover his tracks.

Despite the commotion, the seven guild mages remained unresponsive to his presence, just hanging around.

He advanced on them. They seemed to be in a full virtual dive, hard to snap out of without physical interference.

‘Why though?’

He didn’t doubt there were many cybermages who wouldn’t mind spending the rest of their lives in virtual. But this way should they ever change their minds their bodies would be useless. Why the federation didn’t store their bodies in med-pods like they do in VR farms?

‘Or perhaps it was done purposefully so they couldn’t change their minds.’

Ray Dawn manufactured a half smile. ‘Genius really, if one looks past the cruelty of it.’

He stood before one of the hanging youths. Their eyes were replaced with glass like retinal implants which served as displays.

Ray Dawn slapped the youth hard.

‘That should be enough jolt him out of virtual.’

The youth’s eyelids twitched profusely but Ray Dawn noticed no other change.

“What did they do to you?” Ray Dawn asked in Marieshan’s voice.

“Invalid request,” the young man said in a scratchy almost robotic voice.

This was worse than he imagined. He sighed as he recalled a passage from the scriptures.

Wiping the part of the brain that controls personality is the same as taking a person’s soul. What remains is a living shell, void of a will of its own and obedient to any comprehensible demand. – The Encrypted Scriptures, Volume 1.

But he wasn’t here to reprimand the federation on their practices. He’d long known the depths councils would descend to maintain their grip on power.

“I need you to track a chip for me.”

“Chip IP or full name required.”

“19941001.”

“Chip IP is 1.9.9.4.1.0.0.1. Confirm.”

“Confirm.”

The young man’s glass eyes flashed as he processed the request.

The federation feared AI’s because they were cold heartless programs.

‘How is this poor sap any different from the empire AI’s?’