Chapter 6

Thousands of lights flickered beneath me, as the Cab brought me through the skylanes of Bridge City.

Reminiscence hit me, as I hadn’t seen the city in months since that debacle with Akatani.

I can’t say that I was happy to be back, because returning meant I’d have to leave my family, but one thing I knew as I soared through the sky, heading to my destination.

I love this city…but it hates me.

Nothing hadn’t changed in the few months I wasn’t here, nor did I expect it to.

Hundreds of lanes, with traffic coming and going to their respective destination filled the sky making it feel like mayhem, it was all too familiar.

Bright lights from oncoming traffic passed us by. Caution lights from Trucks as they hovered in the sky trying to swerve into another lane.

It was like the skylanes themselves, smiled when they saw me return, just to bog me down in this traffic.

“How soon till we reach our destination?” I asked the cabbie.

“Another ten…fifteen minutes, but that depends on how things are in the Industrial District.”

“What's wrong with the district? Is there another riot? I thought this Elhisia woman smoothed that out.”

The Cabbie looked into the rear-view mirror, laughing at me. “Nothing of the sort,” He laughed, “but a huge reconstruction project has been enacted within the district.”

“Already?”

“Yeah…I’m surprised too. Hell, twenty percent of the district was destroyed during the riots.”

“Heh…thanks to Colvolt,” I whispered.

“What was that?” The cabbie asked.

“I said that the insurance company cleared the claim fast.”

“That isn’t anything new. Insurance companies and their partners tend to be bed together. Hell, that’s probably why this city is going to the Imbibe so fast!”

“Heh…I hear ya.”

The Pharzeon Group didn’t need the creds from the insurance claims to repair their Industrial District.

I received Three Hundred Million Credits from Elhisia, just for that lineagecube. Only to lose two hundred and sixty FUCKING million of it to the FUCKING Mangol. I mused bitterly. And despite that, the bitch still tried to have me killed, again!

I balled my hands into a fist, thinking of how the Reaver stabbed me in the chest, leaving a wound on my right pectoral.

The scar the Reaver left me had healed, but not perfectly. Eight of the twenty-nine stitches I got, were still seen in my right hand, which annoyed the living shit out of me.

My body was littered with minute scars and a few bullet wounds. As a husband, I could only imagine what Shin-Lee saw, but regardless of that, she still embraced me tenderly, which I loved.

I need to get back home I thought, this is the last time! This is the last FUCKING TIME! I swear to God!

Incoming Call…

“Cypher…”

“FINAL-FUCKINGLY! YOU FINALLY DECIDED TO STOP DODGING MY CALLS!”

“I’m not dodging your calls, Rex. I just had better things to do than listen to your mug.” I said dryly

“Mug? I’m hurt Cypher, how could u say such a thing?”

“…because you tricked me.”

“That’s not fair Cypher. I did as asked, I helped you get into Underwent Market, cut me some FUCKING slack!”

“Cut you some slack? Damn it, Rex. You could’ve told me what you were doing. I would’ve manoeuvred DIFFERENTLY!”

“It wasn’t me Cypher, we’ve discussed this, it was the hired help that wanted to get into Underwent’s Cybersecurity team! You know how we Cyberweavers operate, cut me some slack, you paid a million credits for a thirty million credit job!”

“It’s not about the price Rex. You know I’m angry you didn’t give me a heads up!” I snapped.

“Fine,” Rex said softly. “You were right. I should’ve told you, but if I did, would you have paid them?”

“YES! My family was in danger Rex. I WOULD’VE DONE ANYTHING FOR THEM!”

The deafening silence that sat between Rex and me, boiled within my stomach. I know Rex wasn’t a friend, but shit, he could’ve told me what he was doing, I wouldn’t have made myself look like a fool in front of The Mangol.

Still, though, Rex knew why I was angry, but he was too jovial to care, which was my problem. “Is that all you called me?”

“Yeah…”

I groaned, then shook my head. “Look Rex, I’m not blowing off your calls, but I’ve been busy. Once everything’s clear I’m gonna punch you in the face five times, and we’re all squared, cool?”

“Make it two times and we clear!”

“Fine…ten times it is!”

“You bastard,”

“Just like you asshole!”

The call disconnected and so did my annoyance. The bastard could’ve at least sounded like he cared, but thankfully, I know well enough, not to expect much.

The cab dipped in the Skylane, sending my stomach to the bottom of my throat as I felt my back sink into the backseat.

The cabbie sent the cab through a series of gentle turns, with a hard left, and a sharper right.

The spooling sound of the afterburners hissed beneath me, as it reminded me of the Kite I took whilst I was in the Waste on my way to Devil’s Reach when I was trying to save Elhisia’s neck.

The Cab took me through the Western District, making it down to the Southern District, as Mr Black’s GPS bangle instructed.

Once the cabbie reached the assigned coordinates. He brought the cabbie down on a Landing Pad, in a section of the city I wasn’t familiar with.

“Nova where are we?” I asked the AA. Then caught me in a frenzied mind. Right…Nova’s not here anymore I thought.

“This is The Jarchion District,” The cabbie said, answering me.

“Jarchion? What bullshit is this?”

The cabbie laughed, then looked into his rearview mirror and shook his head. “Where have you been? It’s a new district, started about a month ago. It’s catered to the low-income. I and the wife are considering a spot.”

“Low-income housing?”

“Yeah.”

“You see the skyscrapers over there.” He said pointing through his window, “Everything from, there to there, is for low-income workers.”

“Interesting, why hasn’t this been brought up in the news?”

“Secret project between the Romacellins and the Antillean government.”

“Bullshit.”

“I’m serious.” The cabbie said smiling through the rear-view mirror.

“When was this announced?” I asked.

“Two weeks ago. The PR was done, a Romacellin Representative showed up, took some photos with Lev Ryan and some other officials.”

“Heh heh…Lev Ryan? I guess it’s official.”

“That’s what we thought. The poster boy for Federation upfront, make it seem official, get everyone excited, then pull the rug on the entire thing and kill the project quietly.

“Except…it happened,” I added.

“Exactly.”

I stared through the window, as the cabbie steadied his landing. Twelve Skyscrapers shot up in the air, in the form of steel beams, just like in Castrian piercing the clouds like needles through a cushion

If it were still daytime, seeing them would’ve been as easy as watching clouds in Freedom park.

The steel beams of the skyscrapers were littered with lights, ensuring the vehicles that came too close could see them.

It seemed like a feint rainbow enshrouded around them, making them seem similar to a rainbow after the rain fell. Blue, Purple, Red, Green, Yellow…it was pretty, I could at least admit that, in essence.

However, beyond those skyscrapers, the land was barren, with little to no housing, which made these skyscrapers seem like castles in a desert. Weird…but not surprising.

“Any businesses came flocking to the area as yet?”

“Of course, but as these skyscrapers went up in quick succession, people are now buying, which skyrocketed the value of the land.”

“Something the Romacellin’s expected.”

“Chess. Not checkers.” I said softly.

“We’ve arrived.”

I swiped my creditstrip against the machine and the door slashed open to my right.

A cold gust of wind howled through the door, stealing warmth from my nose, lips and fingertips.

As I sighed, pushing myself through the door, steam wafted from my lips like a snake and then rolled into my eyes.

I stepped out of the vehicle, haversack strapped across my shoulder, and then headed down a flight of stairs.

My eyes caught sight of the surrounding area, and my knees felt a little weak. It’d been months since I was so high up in a skyscraper, after living on the ground for Shin-Lee so long.

The wind roared, almost pushing me aside as I made my way to the staircase, which would’ve led me downstairs.

On the right of the roof with a crane, and below that is the operator station. On the left, with rows of AC Units, where smoke wafts from unceremoniously, whilst to the right of those units were pipes, smoke trailing from those.

I reached the staircase, and then tugged on the knob. “Locked?” I said aloud. A message popped up in my cybernetic eye, showcasing a series of letters and numbers. 2T2D69ET2C3E3AE3.

A loud snap cracked to the right of the door from the wall. It split, then slid down showing a number sequence rotating on the digital keypad. A cypher? I laughed, funny Mr Black…that’s my name.

The numerical sequences flashed across the digital keypad an array of rows, rotating and flickering between each other.

I watched as the rows, combined, then dissipated like dust in the wind, then ignored all of them, typing in the sequence as displayed in front of me.

It was a cypher of sorts, but the key was recognising the pattern, which was an overlay of a standard keypad, divided into letters and numbers.

Once I hit the final number, 3. The lock on the door snapped, and then the door split open. Cold vapour wafted through the door, as if it inside was freezing, which made me feel a little hesitant to enter. However, with the cold already being stolen from my fingertips I could as well, get this over with and fast.

I pushed my way inside, only to find out it was an elevator. The door slammed shut behind me, and the lights went off within the room. Then pulsed back on, but in reading instead. A green number 60 appeared to the right of the elevator, and then and loud hiss echoed above me, and then the elevator started.

The elevator went down sixty floors, then some more, officially ending at Negative twenty. The door slashed open, and the dark hallway came alive in the form of lights on the floor and roof.

I followed the hallway, which turned left, and a series of right turns. As I walked, I noticed that they were no doors within these hallways, which was as weird as it’d get. Eventually, those turns led me to a staircase, which was only two flights up. Once I finished that, another door slashed open and I entered and was met with even brighter lights.

At the end of the corridor was a silver door, with a brown knob. Just like the elevator, I tugged it, and after a second tug, it turned. I walked into the room, and all the lights pulsed on, leaving one chair and table there, and what seemed to be a holographic projection which no doubt was for me to view.

I walked up to the desk, noticing a brown datacube on the table. I scooped it up, placed my haversack on the table and walked towards the holographic machine injecting the datacube into the slot.

The lights within the room dimmed, and the holographic projection exploded an array of light throughout the room like a Christmas tree. My right eye watered from the brightness of the light, which forced me to rub it away.

Once my eye was good again. I looked closely at the holographic projection which showed Mr Black standing up, coat, barely hanging off from his shoulder, his canine golden tooth flashing, despite the holographic projection being white.

“Mr Cypher.” He finally said after waiting for me to take a seat. “It’s good to finally have you here, and since you’re here, let’s get this started.”