Chiba Blue - cyberpunk novel. Chiba Blue is the sequel to my first novel - Lapocalypse. While the storyline runs parallel to the first book, which takes place in Los Angeles, Chiba Blue begins in Japan with a different protagonist who ultimately binds the two stories together, and brings closure to the events of the first book. Since 2014 is the 30th anniversary of the cyberpunk masterpiece: Neuromancer. The title of this novel is meant as a respectful nod towards the Godfather of the genre, William Gibson. The amazing cover artwork, was conducted by the one and only artist extrordinare: http://aguynamednunz.weebly.com/
Please do yourself the favour and check out his amazing underground art/music magazine as well: http://butterzine.weebly.com/
CHIBA BLUE
Inspector Koto looked upon the darkened sky, from where the rain had been pouring down for a week, hovering somewhere high above the city, the artificial weather system had malfunctioned. He was tired of using the smart-suit button on his traditional designed trench coat, to transform the fibers to raincoat fabric. But what worried him was the fact that Mrs. Koto would be nagging him about another one of these recent late night endeavors‘. This was the seventh - within the last two weeks. The blue lights from the police cars lit up the crime scene of yet another headless body.
Not that limbless bodies turning up in that part of the harbor was an unusual sight, but it was usually a victim of the black market organ transplants. But a missing head only meant one thing; it was someone who had messed with the Yakuza… The bureau’s best know forensic - Yamuzo, examined the clean cut with her Bio-enhanced ultra zapruders, running all the statistics from the previous six victims. She nodded - the angle matched with a 99% accuracy. The killer was estimated to be of the same height and weight, as the previous six killings.
Inspector Koto shook his head shaking raindrops off the gray Fedora. He suspected that this latest victim would come up clean like the rest, no record, and no apparent link to the mob.
RAIN
Before she put it back in the sheath, Xiola had wiped the bloody blade off of the Katana, it was 3.AM and she had chased down the last remaining hacker - who had crossed the Yakuza. The abandoned docks on the wrong side of the harbor, was a dangerous place at night the risk of getting caught by a gang of marauders, was a guaranteed one way ticket - to become an involuntary organ donor at one of the black market clinics. She had been spotted shortly after leaving the scene of the crime, by a small automatic police drone. An explosive star shaped shuriken had made it crash and burn, now she cursed herself for being so careless - to be caught off guard by a standard surveillance device. She tried to convince herself that she had not been caught on video footage, but you never know…!
She made her way thru the sparsely lit business district, the dark glass facades of the skyscrapers reflected the cold blue light coming from the tall galvanized lampposts. Under an entrance to a bank, sat a Neo-Goth teen and scribbled poems of the night city at the Q-pad on his wrist, soaking up the atmosphere of the night city so to speak.
She figured that the drone had failed in capturing a description off her, but she had seen it circle the beheaded hacker, and she knew the place was swarmed with cops by now. The paranoia got a boost by the low hum of a lightweight motorcycle behind her. They had told her that she would be picked up somewhere in the business district - as soon as they were sure she was not being followed. She got on the back of the bike and wrapped her arms around the leather clad driver.
Some twenty minutes later they pulled up to a nicely fenced enclave right on what used to be the outskirts of the city. An eye-scan identified the driver and soon after they pulled up to a black epoxy machinate house. A guard met them at the door and led them down the hall towards the oval room where Mr. Nagasaki had his office, he gestured for her to place the black rubber studded PVC backpack - onto the dark oak desk. Another hand gesture, and she opened the zip, and pulled up the head by its rain soaked pink Mohawk, that had belonged to the hacker under an hour ago. An assistant drew a handheld eye-scan device and opened one of the closed eye lids; it instantly showed that it was in fact the object desired.
Mr. Nagasaki smiled and displayed his silver teeth smile. Telling her that their business deal was concluded, and that she needed not fear for her boyfriend’s life, his debt with the Yakuza was now settled! She asked if she was free to leave? He told her to hang on a moment and drew a electric file up on the large synz-screen from his computer. He told her that he had a business proposition for her… The black one piece smart-suit dripped on the floor, her jet-black hair with the pink stripes and sharp bangs was soaked, but she forgot about the cold for a moment.
¨¨Listen Xiola, now that you’re on such a murderous roll and doing so great - would you be interested in earning enough money for Alex to get a new pair of visual implants and restored his optic nervous system?¨¨
He congratulated her on behalf of his employers who had great confidence in her. after she had so successfully eradicated the unlucky seven,(the unofficial name of the Japanese hacker guild.) that had been foolish enough to try and rip off three giant zaibatsus, who was under protection of the Yakuza.
The file showed the info, on the two missing links, of what would had been the burglary hack of the century, they had sold out the Japanese branch of the operation,(trying taking the loot themselves) leaving their names exposed to the Zaibatsus surveillance systems. one of the foreign hackers(Danish.) had then double crossed the other one(Pakistan.) and taken the loot for himself. Without any hesitation she told Mr. Nagasaki that she would take the job! He was pleased that she volunteered for the assignment. But he had to warn her that there was a great possibility, ‘’that she might not succeed’’ that this job would be far more complicated since she was going overboard for the two subjects.
She informed him that if there was the slightest possibility that Alex’s ability to hack could be restored, she would do anything within her power to make sure that it happened. Mr. Nagasaki nodded in agreement. She had until noon tomorrow to discuss it with Alex, she made it clear that there was nothing to discuss - since she saw it as their only chance to get their old lives back.
¨¨Very well, you will have to get some upgrades on your wetware - hard disk. The ninja program alone is not enough, we will fix that tomorrow, and you will be leaving for Pakistan the same evening!¨¨
She could feel her confidence slip a bit, as she went over the thought of leaving Alex defenseless behind, but also the fact that she had not left his side in all the time they had been together,(let alone going overseas by herself.) She asked him where she would be going?
¨¨First off you will be sent to Lahore - a city in Pakistan to do a hit on Point Blank, which was the hacker that got exposed by his tag-team partner, his name was poorly hidden in a file system discovered by some Chinese cyber detectives who was put on the case, you will be led to him by a contact we have in Lahore.¨¨
She wondered, ‘’why they had not had him killed by someone there?’’ he read her hesitation, and told her that it was to send the message to other hackers around the world - that the Yakuza was far stronger than just their influence in Japan, that they could send a super hitman around the world on a killing spree, if they wanted to?
She nodded and sank
¨¨Now - the hacker who got away with a big chunk of the Yokozama corporation’s financials, and who sold out Point Blank is gonna be the hardest to get your hands on, we have come across some old intelligence concerning the whereabouts of his existence. But it could go either way. ¨¨ He pouted his lips and raised his eyebrows, as she asked what he meant?
The last digital footprint he had left, was over two years old, it concerned a physical address, he had revealed for no apparent reason? to a German hacker colleague. - She asked him why no new information was available?
¨¨Because the Hacker who goes under the name Thor! Lives in the hermetically closed fortress of Denmark; ruled by the crazy dictator the white duke! Since nobody had been inn or out of the country since he came into power some fifteen years ago… the country is as closed digitally, as it is physically.¨¨
He explained to her - how the little kingdom had the most aggressive defense mechanism known. The rumor alone worked as an adrenaline magnet - it was the mere risk, of breaking and entering that had intrigued hackers, and third world governments. In recent years some thirty-three hackers had lost their lives being cold fried in the most sneaky black ice defense mechanisms known. All they could do was to hope for was that ‘Thor’ still lived in the same place, where his last digi-footprints had come from?
She tried to play it cool, pretending not to be scared He told her that they would be providing her with a real and a fake passport, and Alex would be taken good care off at a luxury hotel of his own choice… Mr. Nagasaki gestured arrogantly with his hand again the meeting was over. A different chauffeur in a black Mercedes took her back to the rodent infested slum area in NÜ-Chinatown, where she had lived with Alex, (since his accident) The drainage system worked especially bad here, the streets were permanently covered in some five inches of water, pouring down from the malfunctioning weather regulators, above the neon lit sky.
Before she opened the rusty metallic door, her thoughts always drifted back, just a months ago! they had still lived in his big condo downtown. - and he had still been able to work; before the black ice had gotten the best of him…
She opened the door which always gave that annoying squeaky sound.
It was dark in the tiny musty smelling room; the single light bulb in the middle of the room had gone out again. Not that it mattered to Alex, who spent his entire day in bed, since he had gone completely blind from that last fatal job - where his sidekick co-cowboy Hexx Angel had died. While he had been fortunate enough to be disconnected by Xiola unhooking his Jack-in cable behind his ear,(which he used for direct entries to the digi-realm.) ‘’Those damn retro cowboys and their nostalgia for hard hacks’’ she pondered as she shook her head lightly in the darkened room. - Alex was such a renaissance man, and his old school bio-goggles were dead. they were designed especially to adjust to the inner field program known as the digi-realm, which was designed to be compatible with the regular version of the web, adapted zeros and ones into objects for a 3D experience when you tried to do a hack on some corporation or generally surfed the info stream highways.
But it was designed for true rivet head daredevils, cyber renegades running on adrenaline willing to take the chance of being trapped in security systems which had aggressive firewalls, that usually shut down your computer and programs. Using the Jack-in port to the digi-realm was a death defying act - that the hardcore hackers lived, and sometimes died for. Making the virus security systems attack your optic devise first, and your brain second,(basically crashing your head instead of your computer.) Unfortunately - the one he and Hexx Angel had been caught in had been out of their league as they had taken upon them, to try and retrive the Yokozama corporation’s money for the Yakuza. his bio implants had almost completely melted, and caused some nerve damage as well, it was a complicated and costly operation to restore his abilities to hack,(let alone see again.) The lead that he had followed, had been an output only highway called - Bifrost:(the one-way closed digital entry that had killed at least thirty-three hackers) trying to enter the kingdom of Denmark!
Thor had been waiting somewhere in the system disabling certain precautions; just to unleash them with double impact, Hexx had worked alone from her teenage bedroom in her parents apartment and had been fried on the spot! they had found her the next day - with her head slammed down in the keyboard the jack-in behind her ear, had gone all black from the electricity launched by the vicious Danish defense system. After frying Alex, Thor had cleared out all of Alex’s accounts,(including the hidden Swiss ones.)
Alex Green - had under the moniker Razor-Cash been one of the top hackers in Chiba and conducted several successful hacking tasks for the Yakuza and the Zaibatsus they represented - Failing the Yakuza normally spelled death by instant execution! But his loyalty had led Xiola being offered the job as Hitman, with the mission to eradicate those - ‘’unlucky seven’’ who she now had decapitated, within the last two weeks. She had paid off his debt: which meant that the thousand year old criminal organization would spare his life. - She had accepted to have the Yakuza pay for a wetware package,(nano ROM/hard disk device) to be implanted in her head, containing an illegal Chinese Ninja combat program: which had made her a ruthless hitman - without any further training required. Making it possible Wielding a traditional Katana,(level - A) and use other close combat Ninja weapons, as well as mastering other handy skills - such as rappelling: like she had done for her first kill, just two weeks ago: when she had scaled down the elevator shaft of the one hundred and fifty stories high Fujitsi tower-1 building. That had proven to be too secured to enter from the ground perimeter, a chopper paid by the Yakuza had sat her off at the roof.
Her target assignment had been the hacker Yapet Futzimuji who went under the moniker - Meltdown. She had rappelled down the darkened elevator shaft to the; hundred and thirty-seventh floor, from where she had entered silently from the front door. Meltdowns obese body had hit the dirty floor(covered in Chinese take-out boxes) two seconds after she had grabbed his decapitated head mid-air. Almost without nausea,(but high on adrenaline) She had returned to the chopper on the roof - with the first of seven heads in a disposable PVC backpack.
- Meltdowns last hack which had not manifested his legacy, since he died before he could tag the hack. He had successfully infiltrated the artificial weather system high above the city. His plan had been, to let it rain for two days without letting up, as a prank and to show off to the hacking community… But since Xiola had killed him it was still pouring down now two weeks later, since the systems had been impossible to reach by repairing devices, due to the constant looping of the seawater that got processed in tanks to freshwater before it came down over the ‘sprawl that Chiba and its surrounding cities had turned into.
- Alex had awoken when she entered, he had only slept lightly, and she told him that the last hit’ had been a success as well. She filled him inn on the offer Mr. Nagasaki had given her and that she had accepted it. He did not argue with her… they both knew that the last bit of money they had lying around was as good as gone. and none of them wished she should go back to work at Big Joe’s Go-Go establishment: which was the only thing she knew off, since her Dad had sold her to the owner - Big Joe, four years ago: to pay off his gambling debt before he had returned to the US. - Xiola being the only Caucasian there did not help matters,(even the Russian girls were mean to her.) The customers were terrible and she was lucky that Alex had rescued her from that horrible place, just the mere thought of ‘’exotic dancing’’ or being with someone else than Alex felt repulsive to her. He had seemed so out of place there, as he had slipped a way too big a tip into her latex thong, they had clicked instantly, and at the end of the evening he had approached ‘Big Joe himself, and bought her out of her slavery like contract. She had instantly moved inn with him, in the pricy downtown area, in his luxury condo.
‘’That was already two years ago’’ Time had moved so fast and they had been happy until Alex had gotten into that ambush, that had forced them to evacuate the apartment,(with only the ready cash they carried.) He seemed overwhelmingly saddened by the prospect of letting her go - and possibly losing her? if he could have cried she was sure, she would had seen tears streaming down his cheeks, his voice trembled as he told her how of how much he loved her… as they held each other tight for their last night at the lousy cockroach infested Chinese motel, the heavy constant rain on the tin roof, drowned out the sound of sobbing as they fell asleep.
Side F/x
The next day a limo with Mr. Nagasaki and an assistant picked them up and drove straight to the ‘Premium clinic, where she had the wetware implanted a little over two weeks ago. In the meantime - Alex would be taken to the McHubbard resort hotel, since they provided the best service and security in the tourist district uptown, where he had requested to stay - while waiting for her safe return - a week from today if all went well? Mr. Nagasaki, had already paid for the enhancement programs upfront - She entered the clinic by herself. - A staff member led her to the room where the procedure would take place. She recognized the young Dr. Matsumoto who had led the surgery procedure of her wetware implant, the young doctor did not ask her any questions, as to how it had worked out for her,(since such programs was illegal by Japanese laws) and the implant in itself was a risky procedure as she had had been informed before, she had been laid in full narcosis, she remembered nothing from the operational procedure, it had not hurt afterwards. But this time it was easier - but she would be awake, since there now was a jack-in port behind her right ear: just like the one Alex had.
Dr. Matsumoto jacked in the plug, and hooked her up to the main computer desk in the middle of the room. She was thinking of Alex as the new programs uploaded to her implanted hard disk that was connected to her nervous system. Some thirty minutes later the new programs were installed, she had not even asked what the programs were? Dr. Matsumoto explained to her that a basic level-A shooting program as well as that of an inn voice bi-audio pro language program in Danish had been installed. - She asked him how it worked.
He explained that it was basically an audio recognition program, that worked with a one second delay: from the time a person spoke in its native language - till it had been processed by the phonetic converter, and as she spoke in her native tongue - the words were transformed to the language spoken: and automatically altered by electric impulses to her vocal chords - in this case: Danish.
A cab held waiting for her outside after the upgrade, she would meet up with Mr. Nagasaki and Alex at the hotel. The city was busy as usual this morning. Inside the cab she caught a glimpse of a news program reporting from last nights beheading at the docks - a tired inspector Koto informed the awaiting press corps, with their arsenal of multi colored microphones: that ‘’tonight’s killer was suspected to be the exact same as of the previous six beheadings.’’ He regretted that the police was no closer to solving the case, since no one had heard or seen a thing, again he begged the public for assistance in this matter.
The press wanted to know how come the expensive installment of the ultra zapruders for detective Yamuzo, had not brought them any closer to solving the case, ‘’and if it were in fact not a waste of the taxpayers money?’’ A much distressed and tired Inspector Koto, reassured them that the ultra zapruders was a very valuable asset to solving crimes, ‘’but it was for analysis! not for solving a case entirely, ’’by that last comment he felt a great deal of self satisfaction, since he despised those new inventions, did little else than just speed up the process of the forensics.’’ but it was still good old policeman’s work that would eventually solve the case.’’
Xiola got distracted by the android-kitten the driver had next to him on the passenger seat, as it began to sing some random pop song? she wondered how come people would pay for these artificial animals,(to look as real as possible,) just to have devices implanted that could make them sing? She felt relived however that the trail on her - had remained cold, despite almost being caught by that police drone.
The cab holed up in front of the McHubbard resort hotel,(which was a franchise owned by the church of Scientology and the McDonalds.) A security guard sporting traditional clown-make up and a half automatic at his side opened the big glass door with the golden M logo for her,(and smiled involuntary) she approached the desk and got a keycard to room 688, as she rode the elevator to the 17th floor she noticed that the elevator muzak were playing the same song in a lounge version as the artificial cat had sung in the cab, ‘’must be some big hit?’’
she couldn’t even remember when Alex and her had been anywhere in a long time, they rarely left the condo since he was always busy with some kind of job in the grid, but the last month had been claustrophobic. She slid the card through the card sloth and the door opened, Mr. Nagasaki and his assistant sat opposite Alex in the red diner styled sofas, the suite was big and brightly lit, ‘’everything the Chinese motel room in NÜ-Chinatown had not been.’’ She placed herself next to Alex and took his hand. It was agreed that he would stay there on the expense of the Yakuza, till she either returned or completed the mission - dead or alive? The Yakuza assistant handed her two passports one with her regular name, and one which was a fake Danish passport, she smiled when she saw that her last name in her formal passport was stated as: ‘Green’ the same as Alex’s. She would first be heading off to Lahore in Pakistan, he gave her the basic instructions of who she would be picked up by in the airport the next morning. If the mission there proved a success? She would continue to the highly guarded Denmark. This would also prove the most dangerous part of the entire mission, since it was a hermetic closed country, and no foreigners had been granted entry: since the white duke had enrolled as sole old school despot. The risk that some words on her in-voice program were greatly outdated or perhaps forbidden to speak? was a risk they had to take! She was advised to speak as little as possibly, and remembering to dye her hair before entry. So it matched with her fake passport. She would be entirely on her own, and it would be up to herself to acquire a weapon if needed once there. Alex tugged her hand tighter as Mr. Nagasaki mentioned the high risk of failure. He wished her good luck before he and his assistant left the suite.
Mr. Nagasaki had left them some credit for the stay. So she ordered some new clothes for Alex, and Some food that neither of them touched, during the evening. She had hoped that he would had made love to her on their last night together, but his mind seemed elsewhere, ‘’probably worried of what would become of him if she failed.’’ - She promised him that no matter what happened, he would see her again. She had cried as they said farewell in the suite, he had told her to take care and ‘’kick ass for the both of them‘’ he had seemed so saddened to her. the caretaker that she had requested for him during her absence, passed her in the hallway,(which made her feel slightly better.) She knew she had to be strong for the both of them, she wiped the last tears away as she hailed a cab to the airport, the line at check in took forever… she finally boarded after what felt like an eternity? After take off she ordered a small bottle of Vodka and while she dosed off - she went through the list of hackers she had killed in the previous weeks: all assassinations conducted to the cleansing soundtrack of falling rain, Starting with:
Meltdown - at the Fujitsi Tower 1
Death-code - in the alley of an all night diner
Zero signal - after exiting a retro arcade
Glitch Bite - at a toilet on a tube station
Atom Eyes - in the elevator of his apartment building
Plague - while disguised as pizza delivery girl at his apartment complex
Acid Burn - on the docks
This new assignment - ‘Point Blank should be no harder the previous ones,(and this time she even had assistance.) She fell asleep only to be interrupted by a nightmare: She dreamt that Alex was onboard of the plane, they were holding hands, as the plane was ripped in half and he got sucked out of it, there was nothing she could do, as she was firmly strapped tight in her seat. - She woke from the horrible dream and downed the rest of the vodka, and slept tight for the remainder of the flight.
She woke up as the plane was about to enter the landing strip. She could not remember having been anywhere else than Chiba? Even thou she knew - she had spent some time in America as a kid. but it was as if every memory of her alcoholic Father had become a distant memory by now,(even his face was hard to make out.) She pushed the thoughts of her blurry unpleasant past aside. Inside the customs area she picked up her luggage, which only contained three sets of clothes. The heat was unbearable and extremely humid as she stepped out of the crowded airport terminal, ’’it never got this hot back in Chiba, the government simply did not allow it,’’ that’s why the weather systems kept everything leveled.
She only walked a few meters before she was approached by a female that called out her name. She looked almost African to her, with the big green mess of hair, and six’ blue glow in the dark eyebrow piercing. She introduced herself as - Roxy. she shook her hand with a firm grip, as she asked her to accompany her to the parking lot across the airport. The air-condition felt nice on her skin inside the cabin of the Lamborghini that was wrapped in golden chrome polished carbon fiber - as Roxy swung the car onto the four laned highway that hovered over the barren desert-like landscape below. It was barely mid-day and the traffic in the four lanes was sparse, which made Roxy push the gold wrapped Lamborghini to the max. She asked her ‘’if she had been a Hitman for long?’’ As they speeded towards the city limit of
Lahore
She declined saying - ‘’she did not consider herself a hitman as such,’’ which made Roxy frown, and launch into a tirade on the lack of girl power these days, and making it on your own as an independent woman! As they approached the city she pushed a button on the touch sensitive synz-screen, and some really loud aggro-industrial filled the white-sparkle leathered cabin, the music video that accompanied the music was by the Los Angeles industrial/metal band - Nazi Occult Bureau and the track was called Sperm Festival, lifted off their newest album - Pleasure is our business. The video featured the recently deceased Pakistan adult actress - Zubi Ztar, who Roxy informed her had died last week from having crashed her red Ferrari straight into the al aqsa mosque - while driving under the influence of Nude. Roxy swore that the video was a masterpiece - as she put her right hand over her heart, stating that it would be Zubi’s legacy, cause it was the last thing she did before she died. - Xiola had a hard time keeping up the direction of Roxy’s constant babbling, the car was now stuck - as some great parade was making its way down the main street, luckily the air-condition worked as the sun was mercilessly pounding down from up high.
¨¨ Look - look! ¨¨
Roxy slapped her arm with her skull ring adorned hand, to get her attention as the video was nearing the end, through out its entirety Zubi Ztar had played with herself on a big heart shaped metal bed, the six band members now stood around her in a circle as the Pakistanian actress was on her knees, she tilted her head backwards as the band members took turns ejaculating on her face, the video ended with Ztar spitting their cum out on a blackboard and afterwards write the title of the song with it, she looked into the camera in a playful way as the last riff rung out, which made Roxy hunk the horn mercilessly, and yell out a -
¨¨GIRL POWER!!! ¨¨
Xiola looked a little surprised at her, Roxy had winded herself up! she pointed at the parade outside, telling her that it was in fact the funeral entourage for the burying of the dead actress, -
¨¨You see that’s how you get remembered, you don’t complain and never have to explain, Zubi would had become the brightest star, she could have made it to Hollywood!¨¨
Xiola found it a good idea to just nod in agreement.
¨¨You don’t get it do you… you make yourself! if someone asks you if you are a hitman, you say - hell yeah I’m a hitman! Zubi stood up for herself and what she believed inn. Don‘t let anyone push you around!¨¨
The funeral parade had finally passed and Roxy stepped on the gas pedal - the Lamborghini raced towards the downtown area, at the corner of some big white ancient looking building, Roxy slammed the brakes making them give a high squeaking noise. She told Xiola to stay in the car as she walked determined towards the corner, where some workers with hard hats were taking a break. She noticed that some of the wall had been broken off there. She saw that Roxy pushed two of the rather small workers aside and ripped something from the wall.
She walked towards the car again holding what looked like a white brick in each hand, she turned side ways and threw the one in her right hand through one of the mattered glass windows, in what looked like a giant castle to Xiola? the vertical door of the Lamborghini locked behind her.
¨¨Take it!¨¨
She handed Xiola a white brick she had taken from the wall. She accepted it, as she figured that Roxy probably would not take a: ‘’No thanks’’ for an answer.’’ She could sense a speech coming up.
¨¨You take this with you, that was the last physical manifestation of the most important woman to come out of Lahore, you hear? So you take this! and you remember that you are a free woman! that can do as you please, now take some pride in yourself, okay!¨¨
She nodded to please her contact, as she wasn’t really sure what she meant?
¨¨So now I ask you! What is your profession!?!¨¨
She caught the hint, and faked some pride,
¨¨Yes, you’re right! I am a goddamn hitman!¨¨
Roxy yelled out in some traditional celebration in the tradition of sliding her tongue from side to side really fast making a high pitched sound, the contact high fived her and her mood seemed to change for the better instantly - Xiola asked her why she had thrown a brick through that window and she replied that, - ‘’had it not been for that stupid building, Ztar - would still be alive.’’
Ten minutes later they pulled up in front of Roxy’s apartment complex, the sun hit the glass facade and made her think of that building in the business district in Chiba two nights ago - She tried not to think of Alex cause she missed him already, they had not spent as much as one day apart since they had hooked up two years ago. Her fierce contact drove the golden chrome Lamborghini down a ramp that led to the underground parking lot, which like the rest of the building complex had air-condition installed all over. The couple took the elevator up to her apartment on the 18th floor. Once inside she showed Xiola to her bedroom - where she opened a gray aluminum flight case which contained a katana, similar to the one she had used in Chiba, she wondered if it perhaps was the exact same one, that Mr. Nagasaki had sent to her?
They went into the living room where Roxy picked up a LIQ-THC shooter that lay on the glass coffee table and loaded it with a green capsule offering Xiola a shot, which she declined. Roxy pressed the shooter to the left side of her neck, and revelled in the soothing effect of the drug herself, as told her of the plans for tonight to get to: Point Blank. Afterwards, Roxy unsurprisingly gave her a rundown on her life story, of how she had gone from drug smuggler to sex-worker, to finally become a hitman. She raised a much pierced eyebrow when Xiola told her that she had only worked the hitman business for a mere two weeks, due to the wetware installment. Roxy asked her if she wanted to make out? Since she had never been with another hitman before! To which she politely declined, making her hostess a bit offended. She loaded up the shooter with some capsules sporting an images of a smiling monk, called ‘Dalai.’ And insisted that they took two hit each, which made them both dose off, in each their couch; for the remains of the day.
SEX
Xiola tried her best to stay calm as the afternoon turned into night time and the time of the assassination approached, she kept thinking of what would happen to Alex if she should fail? The big apartment reminded her of their luxury condo in the high priced downtown area. she wanted so badly to get the life back they had lost, and most of all a new pair of visual implants for Alex. She thought of calling him up, once the assassination was a success, but she was too nervous to speak to him at the moment. Her nerves was all worked up as Roxy called for her in the bedroom to come and get dressed! She had laid out a spread of plastic sheet on the floor at the end of the bed, showing Xiola how she had mounted the Katana with Dutch tape, right underneath the edge of the bed for her to grab, she pointed to an spray can in the window, containing liquid nitrogen, which she could use on the bleeding afterwards so the room would not get flooded, she understood the idea and thanked her. Roxy went to the closet and drew out some garments. - Fist off a ripped top from Filth Generation and a pair of gold lamme’ hot-pants from Ultra Venus, some pink self supporting fishnet stockings and a pair of knee-high shiny black latex boots with red laces, from a company named LaWhore(which Roxy had a lot to say about,) since it apparently was her cousin that had started the local based company, that was one of the main delivers in sexy gear to the local booming sex film industry. She told her that Zubi Ztar had been buried in a white pair, the same model as she now wore, called - Explosive neon highs’’ It seemed to Xiola that everything Roxy did ‘’was about paying tribute and showing respect.’’
She asked her why they had to dress up like whores? Roxy - who seemed to have an opinion on everything, informed her that hacker nerds Like: Point Blank, only had eyes for stripper dressed hookers, so that was what they would go like,(given the circumstances by which she had met Alex, she did not feel a need to disagree) Roxy further explained to her that doing background checks on: Point Blank, it was easy to trace where he spent his money on, when not using it on black-market software or recreational drugs. They made their way down the elevator, with a bunch of loaded Arabic teenagers, every time the elevator made a stop it seemed like it was the last days of ancient Rome, replaced with: drunk naked Arabic youths running around everywhere. As they reached the bottom floor, Roxy informed her that the entire complex was only used in the holidays! where rich Arabic kids from more traditional or still strict regimes in the middle east and Europe escaped to have some freedom,(while telling their parents that they were elsewhere)
They hit the streets that was still oozing warmth from the radiated heat during the day, she noticed how the street curbs functioned as neon commercials similar to those in Chiba. The area was filled with young people and loud music was coming from the many bars and establishments. Roxy briefed her as they walked a couple of blocks ‘’that this part of Lahore was the party capitol of the country,’’ followed by a myriads of - wallah’s,(which seemed to both start most of her sentences, as well as finish them.) Some thirty offers of - ‘’sex for money’’ later they stood in front of the favorite hacker, and lowlife cyber thieves hangout called: Heart-Y-red.
The bouncer let them in free because of their clothes. Inside the club, the only source that cast some light against the perpetual darkness, came from the glow sticks that bounced and swayed from the audience on the dance floor, Holograph projections of what appeared to be some kind of bi-nary codes of zeros and ones scaled down the darkened walls. now and then an image of an old sci-fi film relieved the green zeroes and ones for a couple of seconds, which made certain people shout out some dialogue that seemed to accompany the clip. A roar of approval then followed accompanied by high fives. Roxy explained to her, that those were the cyber-thieves: the wanna bees! Hardcore hackers did not have time to study movies, and learn passages of dialogue to impress their friends, so if she saw someone who did not flinch - laid back on a couch against the wall somewhere; it was probably a hacker? Which were the high end of the food chain.
Over the very loud aggro music coming from the small stage, at the end of the room - Xiola tried to shout to her how she could be sure that, Point Blank would be there? and what they were supposed to do if he was not? Roxy laid a skull adorned hand on her shoulder, pulling her closer to her big mop of green hair and told her not to worry, since her employer had made sure that his favorite Techno-Thrash outfit: Uzi-Baby would be playing that night, and Point Blank never missed one of his gigs,(she gave her a wink of an eye) They paved their way though the crowd towards a spiraling staircase that seemed to be made of plexi-glass the railing was shaped in what looked like metallic gray monster heads combined with machinery, in an odd symbiotic formation,(the name; Geiger was flickering in certain spots.)
On the first floor, people were leaning over the railing watching the band while others played it cool and sat in their booths. Roxy signaled that she had located Point Blank, as they approached the booth,(she let her know that the game was on) her six, blue - glow in the dark eyebrow piercing lit up due to the fluorescent light.
They slid in on the bottle-green seats opposite him and his friend. Point Blank’s non mechanical eye instantly focused by the sight of Xiola, (since fair skinned hookers were a rarity at the club.) Roxy took the word and introduced them as Candy & Angel. He smirked saying that - ‘’his friend and him worked under professional monikers as well’’ introducing his friend with the braided skullet and the graying beard as - Rambo Child and himself as Point Blank. Roxy asked them if they were looking for some fun this evening? He couldn’t take his one non-mechanical eye off Xiola, as he instantly responded with a series of, ‘’yea-yea-yea!’’
He asked her of her whereabouts, and if she was Russian? since most fair skinned girls working in Lahore came from Moscow… She almost blew their cover as she blurted out nervously that she had just flied in from Chiba - Japan. Roxy gave her a hard kick over her latex clad shin under the table with her explosive neon highs. ‘Point Blank considered it for a second? then merrily responded, ‘’that it was in fact good news she was not Russian’’ since he would had to let his older hacker pal, Rambo Child get first pick, since he was after all Russian! Politely everyone around the table laughed. Roxy asked them to leave the club with them, the hacker that was oblivious to the fact that he was a Yakuza hit, hesitated for a second - then - Uzi Baby launched into the song: Red Dawn! The Russian with the braided skullet leaned in to whisper something to him, he nodded to Roxy, saying that Rambo Child wanted to stay for this one song and after that one they would come with them. 2 minutes and 33 seconds later, they were heading back to Roxy’s condo in the Arabic debauchery hideout complex. As they rode the elevator to the 18th floor, Point Blank’s hand slid under her ripped Filth Generation top, and fumbled her boobs; asking her if they were real? She nodded as she felt sick by him doing so, since it reminded her of some of the customers at Big Joe’s years ago - that drunkenly had tried fumbling her while she performed private lap dances - before Henry the bouncer had thrown them out on their ass. The elevator stopped and they walked down the aisle towards the apartment, stepping over passed out Arabic youths everywhere.
She told them to take a seat in the living arrangements while she got them a couple of local - Harem beers’ from the fridge. Point Blank asked for his friend to stick a hand under her shirt and feel her boobs, asking him if he could believe they were real? He did not seem too impressed, and mumbled something in Russian…? Roxy came back with the cold Harem beers, and the foursome clinked bottles in the white leather arrangements. Rambo Child opened one of the font pockets in his navy blue combat vest - and pulled out an old red tin box, with a hammer and seal logo - containing some purple pills, which made Point Blank lift his eyebrow and made a zooming sound with his mechanical eye.
¨¨Buzzo! From Russia with love?¨¨
His friend smiled as he, with a - ‘Ta-Dah!’ gesture drew a small canister holding some baby-blue pills, Roxy widened her eyes as to indicate that she had was impressed!
¨¨Ooh, Cicodrine - yea?¨¨
Rambo Child looked at her in what was probably meant as a flirting gesture and rolled on the R’s as he said -
¨¨Improved Cicodrine, baby!¨¨
Roxy clapped her hands - as if it was a present she had looked forward to.
The two hackers washed down the purple pills, and the improved Cicodrine with the local - Harem beer. Xiola tried to make some conversation.
¨¨So you guys are hackers not cyber thieves, right?¨¨
They frowned and unleashed a tirade of swearing, at what they thought were imposters on their domain of craft! Roxy was not soon to get it under control, as she made a cheer for the - Real hackers! the mood improved instantly.
Point Blank turned to his desired object of the evening -
¨¨So you’re from Chiba, you say? Have you heard of some hackers gone missing lately, the grid have seemed a little…empty?¨¨ Xiola accidentally nodded, realizing the mistake she corrected herself as she shook her head and declined.
Point Blank noticed it, -
¨¨So you do or you don‘t…? which one is it gonna be?¨¨
Roxy acted fast - saying she did not know anyone? Point Blank who seemed a little jumpy all of a sudden, told her to ‘’shut up!’’ as Xiola repeated her: No…
¨¨So why did you nod first?… Why!¨¨
He was about to get all worked up as his older buddy who clearly had been around the block a couple of times, told him to, ‘’calm the fuck down.’’ As they were about to have a good time, explaining to him, ‘’that new hookers often were insecure, and he should not worry about it.’’
Roxy took off her top and asked Xiola to do the same, she started kissing her and as she approached her ear, she whispered -
¨¨No more talking ok, now get the subject into the bedroom and let’s get this over with!¨¨
Xiola did not respond, but gently pushed her off and got to her feet, she asked Point Blank to follow her into the bedroom, he instantly followed having forgotten all about his recent burst of paranoia,(by the sight of her boobs) He closed the door behind them.
She took control of the situation and placed him on the end of the bed, relying of her old routine from working at Big Joe’s. she told him to undress, as she kneeled before him. The purple Buzzo love drug pills as well as the improved Cicodrine were working in his bloodstream now, as he fumbled with his pants and drew out his stiff member. She licked her lips, as she reached under the bed; he tried to shove her head towards his crotch. Her hands wrapped around the shaft - of the Dutch taped Katana, she felt the empowerment of the weapon she had murdered seven hackers with so far!(she could not wait to make it eight now,) as the Ninja program responded to her impulses, and she in two motions. - One: got to her feet, and Two: spun 360 degrees and took the head off the Pakistani hacker. His head fell right down on the plastic covers that Roxy had spread out earlier, the head bounced twice before it came to a rest… A vertical red squirt stood up from the main artery in the neck, as the body tilted forwards a second later, and joined the head on the plastic sheets, a little blood from the neck hit her shiny latex boot…
She could hear the fast synth beat of the Techno-Thrash coming from the living room now, she grabbed the liquid nitrogen spray can, and fixed it on the hole in the neck, - before the entire room turned into a pool of blood! The nitrogen quickly dry froze the severed arteries and tissue so that the bleeding stopped, she did the same to the bodiless head. For some reason this kill disturbed her more than the previous seven killings…? Perhaps because she was reminded of those horrible years she had spent at Big Joe’s? or the fact that she had come so close to doing something intimate, with someone else than Alex! strangely it seemed to be the latter that gave her a weird feeling inside of treason. She could feel her rage boiling over, when she heard Roxy scream out loud from the living room!
The music was so loud, that it could not be heard that she flung the door open, as she ran still bare breasted into the living room with the Katana ready for attack. On the white leather couch Rambo Child’s massive corpus was bended backwards, as he thrusted himself into Roxy that was underneath him on her knees screaming hysterically! Xiola Jumped forward as she swung the Katana and took off, Rambo Child’s head in one of her now trademark,(slightly tilted clean cuts.) The force was so great that the head flew against the wall, and bounced off of it. The body remained in its place, as the head skipped across the floor, landing close to the glass table near the couch, making Roxy scream out a rant of: ‘’Fuck you!’’ (which she first thought was aimed at Rambo Child,) but soon realized that Roxy was screaming at her? She commanded her to quickly get the spray can! She ran back to the messy bedroom where she almost slipped in the blood, as she fetched the spray can, and returned as fast as she could to the couch, where Roxy who was still mounted in the same position: from where she bossed her to spray the neck, and put her knee to the back of Rambo Child’s headless corpus that had remained upright.
Xiola could feel the vibrations on her knee, as Roxy thrusted her behind against Rambo Child’s pelvis area. Xiola nervously started chanting: ‘’no-no-no-no-no-no,‘’ as she could not believe what was going down.
¨¨Shut the fuck up you idiot… I’m just about to come!¨¨
A minute later Roxy screamed out a very loud orgasm, that Xiola thought sounded more like a primal roar of aggression, unleashed from some probably extinct animal? She slid off him and got up from the couch only wearing her explosive neon highs. She slapped Xiola across the tits and pointed a finger in her face. Telling her that, - ‘’she would had murdered her if his dick would had gotten limp!’’ Xiola massaged her breasts after the hard slap and found herself, surprisingly apologizing to her Pakistani hostess?
¨¨I-I-I’m sorry Roxy I thought he was raping you!¨¨
She frowned at her, hissing -
¨¨If you can’t you tell the difference between a passionate woman, and someone getting raped, you must be one lousy lay sister!¨¨
She shook her head and fetched the LIQ-THC shooter on the table, she wiped some of the beheaded hacker’s blood off of it, reloaded and pressed it to the left side of her neck, and savored the soothing effect seconds later. She took her cell-phone and went to the bedroom and snapped a couple of pictures of - Point Blank’s severed head, her green mop of hair bopped as she nodded to herself ‘’that they were good enough.’’ Her fingers jumped across the touch screen display, as she told Xiola that she had sent the evidence to Mr. Nagasaki. There was a weird atmosphere in the condo as the minutes passed, before Roxy got a message back from him. She drew a big sigh - as she informed her that he seemed satisfied with the result,(He still wanted the trophy) She put the dead hacker’s head in a plastic bag and stuffed it into the fridge, together they wrapped up Point Blank’s body in the plastic cover spread in the bedroom. As they returned to the living room, Roxy told her that she had decided to keep Rambo Child’s body in that position until, it started to decay, now that the hole in the neck was concealed. Xiola looked puzzled at her. Before her hostess laughed out loud at her, asking: ‘’if she thought she was crazy!?!’’ The atmosphere eased up a little. Roxy pressed a speed dial on her phone and stated her addressed followed by a code and hung up.
¨¨Ok let’s get out of here, the clean up team is on it’s way.¨¨
She told her that she could take her to the airport and perhaps get her on an earlier flight to the Netherlands, she declined the offer as she put her ripped shirt back on and said she better stick to the plan. The couple entered the elevator again, where a young couple seemed to have passed out while having sex with her on top, the content of a bottle of Jack Daniels had made the floor sticky. They had not bothered changing their ‘undercover’ clothes, as they hit the nearest bar and started on a traditional ‘‘Pakistani rum rampage’’ that lasted until the wee hours of the morning, as they returned to the apartment hours later - Roxy could barely stand on her explosive neon highs, as Xiola helped her inside the living room where there was no traces left of the evenings events? even the white furry carpet under the glass table, had been cleaned off the blood from the head, that had soaked it…
Roxy threw up in the sink before she fell back on the white leather couch stating that she already missed her fuck-toy! as she drunkenly laughed in a hoarse manner. She asked Xiola ‘’what time it was?’’ she told her that she should be on her way to the Netherlands in less than two hours! The rising sun got blocked out, as Roxy pressed the button for the electronic Venetian chrome silver blinds that darkened the room. As she reached between one of the cushions and drew out a bag of cocaine. She fixed up a couple of lines on the glass surface on the coffee table, and snorted them while she told Xiola, ‘’that she thought that it might do her good if she grew a spine,’’ - ‘’and started to enjoy both drugs and sex some more.’’ laughing some more drunkenly laughs at her. Some fifteen minutes,(and a couple of barfs) later she told her to get ready and change into her boring old clothes(which she already had done.) Roxy taunted her that ‘’she was not worthy to wear her cousin’s brand of porn gear anyways!’’ They rode the elevator down again, the sleeping couple was gone and the Jack Daniel’s had completely dried up now. Roxy approached two Arabic teenage boys that rode with them from the 14th floor, instructing them - that they should swing by her room later because she wanted them to fuck her brains out, providing them her room number.
As they walked thru the air-conditioned parking lot, she lectured Xiola on why she chose to stay in that building, ‘’because there was always a banquet of fresh meat to stuff yourself from.’’ The vertical doors locked behind them in the well tempered cabin of the golden wrapped carbon fiber Lamborghini - as Roxy, slowly maneuvered the car up the ramp and onto the already warm dark asphalt outside. After nearly hitting five cars in the opposite lane, and a couple of pedestrians, Roxy agreed on Xiola’s request to put it on auto-driver, which in turn made her coked’ up hostess ramble all the way to the airport of her own philosophy of girl power, based on ‘’taking the pleasures you could, and kill that which did not work out for you.’’ In some strange way Xiola figured that she had become accustomed to her Roxy’s high strung character. At the airport she followed her inside and hugged her goodbye - giving her a kiss on the cheek, telling her that she was always welcome to look her up, if she should ever find herself in Lahore again?
Soon after - she boarded the plane and was on her way to a transfer flight in Amsterdam, cursing herself that she had not called Alex last night. Well seated - her focus returned to Alex, who she hoped was getting taken good care off. She reassured herself that her mission was now half way accomplished? but could not help to worry over Mr. Nagasaki’s words, concerning that she might not return from the mission in Denmark and that she would be completely on her own, once entering the country! She had dosed off for the most of the flight, even without the alcohol this time,(she figured that she was probably still a bit sedated from the binge last night in Lahore,) she smiled as she thought of Roxy and her crazy ways now. From the airport terminal in Amsterdam, she tried calling up Alex at the McHubbard resort hotel, the caretaker she had ordered for him, picked up the phone and informed her, that he was out. Which startled her some since he was after all completely blinded?… she assured Xiola that he was in good hands - as Mr. Nagasaki and his assistant had picked him up personally, taken him out for what… she was not sure?
She felt kind of angry as she hung up the phone.
The plane that bordered an hour later would take her first to Iceland which served as the only entry gate, to the secluded fortress that Denmark had become, prior to the Arabic invasion of Europe some twelve years ago. No one from the outside had been let inn there for at least fifteen years. She had no problems as she checked inn, at the German controlled gate. The few other passengers on the small plane kept to themselves,(much to her liking) since she had been warned not to indulge in conversations. It was a short flight before the plane sat down on Iceland that was under Danish supremacy, but remained as a portal out- for the few citizens that was allowed to get out for certain purposes, as the country still upheld a few diplomatic ties to Germany, and the Netherlands, There was a strong suspicion that Denmark might be in the possession of Nuclear weapons? Both the Netherlands and Germany benefited from that suspicion.
Jihad
The wind blew hard as she sat foot on Icelandic soil, it was summertime but it was a cold evening, and she felt saddened by the fact, that she had not been able to reach Alex. The voice translating program was activated,(as a Russian, sputnik satellite far away read her GPS transmitted destination.) she walked with the other passengers from the landing strip inside the terminal, the airport seemed tiny compared to that of Chiba and Lahore… At the passport control she handed them her faux Danish passport. The old man in the booth called for his supervisor, as he suspiciously looked at her. The supervisor who looked like she was in her early forties, came over and took her aside, asking her of, - ‘’how many times she had left the country before?’’ she felt a panic attack coming on! Mr. Nagasaki had told her to keep the conversation activity to a minimum, she felt her throat go dry, as she crossed her fingers for the voice recognition mechanism having kicked in? ‘’or it would all be over soon.’’ she responded, -
¨¨Never.¨¨
The vibrations that her vocal chords formed where altered, by the installed program - so it came out in Danish instead of English,(it felt weird, like her tongue and throat went almost numb?) The Supervisor nodded, as she studied her false travel information that stated that she had visited Amsterdam for two weeks, on business purposes. The supervisor asked her, - ‘’if she had left her brain behind?’’ Xiola did not know what she meant, so she just shook her head lightly. The supervisor held up her false passport and pointed to her manipulated dyed hair in the photo!
¨¨Your hair you moron?!? whatever you do abroad is at your own risk! but if you think you can be let back into the country with that black and pink striped thing on top of your head, think again!¨¨
She could not believe how careless she had been - not changing her hair color to blonde as Mr. Nagasaki had instructed her! now she had jeopardized the entire mission, being lost in Alcohol and thinking of Alex - instead of focusing on her job. She got a grip and softly apologized to the supervisor, who told her that she had to get it fixed, before she could travel the rest of the way to Denmark tomorrow, there was no way they would let her on the flight, that took off in half an hour.’’
Xiola kicked herself for the mistake, asking if she had to sleep in the terminal then…? The supervisor told her that sleeping in the terminal ‘’was probably even more illegal than her hairdo?’’ She called for a cab asking her if she had her Nationcard ready for payment, - ‘’or if she had left it behind in Amsterdam, along with her brain?’’ Xiola fumbled through her belongings, and drew out the replica red card, with the white cross motive. She waved it at her as to take it! which made the already annoyed supervisor roll her eyes, telling her in a much condescending tone, that: it was to pay for the cab fare when she arrived at the Superior hotel. Stating in no certain terms - ‘’that she hoped that she had enough cash on it to pay for the room as well?’’ Xiola nodded: she looked forward to just be anywhere else, where the supervisor would not be taunting her.
The cab pulled up some ten minutes later, she inhaled the cold air of the wind that blew in her face outside the entrance of the small airport. The cabdriver was a young(blonde) man that had seemed friendly at first, but once he noticed her hair color, his attitude changed drastically; and he did not speak to her for the remainder of the ride to the hotel. She looked out into the darkness it was far in between the lampposts, which sparsely lit the deserted narrow road. Some twenty minutes later the old red & white cab, pulled up in front of the Superior hotel, as far as she could make out in the darkness the circle shaped square in front of the hotel - was adorned by cobblestone: as well as some four X-shaped sculptures? It seemed like Iceland saved its power resources during evening and nights…
The unapproachable cab driver was on his way again, as she entered the lobby of what seemed to be an old, maybe twenty stories high hotel; that had seen better days. The glowing red; ‘S’ in Superior neon sign flickered - like it was about to go out any minute soon? Inside the lobby, an older lady that appeared to be around sixty years old came out from the back room, and got behind the brass desk in the sparse reception. She greeted her somewhat reluctant, and shook her head as if disappointed of her?
¨¨Now I see what they meant as they called from the airport, tsk-tsk-tsk - what a mess! A young lady like you should know better?¨¨
She bowed her head in traditional Japanese apologizing mode: which made the older woman wrinkle her brows, and ask her, - ‘’how long she had been gone?’’ - ‘’and if that behavior was what they were practicing in the Netherlands these days?’’ Xiola replied that she had been gone for two weeks, and she might have picked up on some, ‘’bad habits of the country.’’ The receptionist nodded, so that her tall gray hair that reflected an involuntary purple shine rocked back and forth, -
¨¨I know, it’s not good for young people to be gone for so long, its best to stay home, I wish I could have told my own daughter that years ago…¨¨
The receptionist seemed to become a little emotional by her own comment, She introduced herself as Hilda, and informed her that she was the manager of the hotel ‘’and conducted all other roles as well.’’ She grabbed a regular key, and led her to the elevator, where she took her to the top floor, and led her down the aisle, the cheap synthetic carpet made the air seem static, finally she opened a door to a room in which the air seemed as stale; as if it had not been opened for years? Xiola headed to the windows and tried to open one, but found that there were no handles, they were fixed! she felt the air was smothering her. The old receptionist - looked at her with great concern now, asking her -
¨¨Listen dear, are you suicidal?¨¨
¨¨No, no not at all, I just wanted to let in some air!¨¨
The receptionist nodded slowly, asking her when was the last time she had been able to open a window…? - She had no idea of what to answer her?
The receptionist told her that perhaps the hotels abroad had windows that could be opened? but it was very dangerous here! Years ago they had been hit by a wave of suicides, by citizens that was on their way back to Denmark. She suspected that it must have been something terrible they had experienced abroad, or some kind of virus? That had made those poor people throw themselves out of the windows, of the hotel. She had witnessed at least thirty people jump to a certain death, in just one week! before it had become mandatory for the windows to be replaced by fixed panzer glass… since some had simply thrown themselves through the replaced windows. She shook her head in disbelief, -
¨¨I’m afraid my daughter caught the virus as she was cleaning the rooms? poor thing.¨¨
Xiola could sense the receptionist’s eyes watering up as she approach the window frame, and lightly touched the glass, as if it was some precious artifact; Musing that - ‘’if only we had had the panzer glass back then.’’
¨¨how old are you dear?¨¨
Xiola responded that she was twenty-one. Silent tears now streamed down the cheeks of the gray haired receptionist, her voice broke as she told her -
¨¨Oh good lord! how time flies, she was a year younger than you, when she took her own life in this very room.¨¨
Xiola could feel the dread, and a great deal of discomfort.
¨¨I even heard that the virus had spread to Denmark? Is it true dear, that you all have panzer glass windows there now too? It’s so rare that I have guests here these days, I really don’t follow much of what is happening?¨¨
Xiola nodded and responded with a simple yes, she could not take her eyes off the delusional receptionist that clearly believed her own story. She left the room with a promise to bring her hair in order in the morning, as well as get her some proper clothes as well. She stayed in the bed sitting against the wall, she figured that it probably would not be a good idea, to try and use the antique telephone at the bedside; for trying to call Alex up in Chiba,(even if she could figure out how it worked?) She missed him, and she even missed the violent disgusting antics of last night - compared to this eerie atmosphere. The seclusion, and the fact that she was convinced that she was all alone in this creepy hotel with that psychotic manager! the solitude scared her to death, she tried to somehow focus on tomorrow, but she seemed unable to stop thinking of why Mr. Nagasaki had taken Alex from his hotel room? Eventually she slipped into an uneasy sleep, she woke up twice in the darkened room from having dreams of losing Alex: it seemed to be the same re-occurring dream of a plane being ripped apart and him being sucked out, only in difference was in the last dream, where she clung tight to a briefcase full of money, that got ripped out of her hands, and all the green bills got sucked out as well…!
She woke with a shock! Gasping for air - The old receptionist, stood leaning over her, smilingly telling her to wake up as she gently stroked her forehead. Xiola asked her - ‘’what she was doing?’’ the manager/receptionist from last night, seemed to be in a very good mood this morning. Telling her that, - ‘’she had always woke her daughter that way when she was a kid’’ she had brought her a tray of eggs, bacon, juice and tea. She had laid some clothes out on the bed, which she explained had belonged to her late daughter, and she figured that they were more or less the same size. She told her to get dressed, and get down stairs where she would fix her hair properly. She left the room and Xiola slipped into the red colored clothes, with a embroidered white cross adorning the sweater, as ugly they were - the garments fit her well, it smelled like it had been put away under plastic for a long time. She slightly nipped at the breakfast, before she made her way downstairs, the elevator played something that sounded like a march or a national anthem? conducted on rusty pipes. A traditional elevator ’pling’ sound went off as it reached the bottom floor, she got out and noticed there was a lot of activity going on with some truck, outside on the square with the sculptures she had seen last night.
There were a gift shop, and a hairdresser just behind the lobby. The receptionist called at her from inside the saloon, she had already mixed the dye, Xiola placed herself in a chair, and the old lady carefully rubbed it in, telling her that she might had to do it twice - since the black dye was usually hard to fade. She chit-chatted loosely as the dye worked its magic, she talked a great deal about her late daughter - especially when she had been a well behaved kid,(it seemed like the teenage years was a chapter she tried to avoid) Xiola praised herself that she did not need to speak much, since the older lady did most of the talking, having company was apparently rare for her. Finally she washed out the ultra-dye and blow dried her now blonde mane.
¨¨There you! go fair skinned and blue eyed girls like you should never stray from your God given blond hair, you hear me!¨¨
She had taken off the plastic gloves and pinched Xiola on her cheek, as one would do to a kid, she had never had her hair any other color than black and pink before, as long back as she could remember?(she figured the blonde actually looked great on her.) She lied to the Receptionist and, told her that, - ‘’it was nice having it back to her normal color.’’ The sound of a horn went off outside the hotel, the hotel manager was almost jumping up and down by sheer excitement by now! the sometime hairdresser - put her newly dyed hair in a pony tail, and told her that she had a surprise for her? that would no doubt be a throwback to her childhood! ‘’I used to do this every Sunday with my daughter until she became a grumpy teenager.’’
¨¨But I’ never stopped, there is so little fun to be had these days. Don’t you agree!¨¨
She smiled as she handed Xiola a see through plastic jumpsuit, made for working in rainy weather, she smiled with excitement as she made sure her hair was tucked firmly inside the plastic hood. She held out a couple of large protective glasses, -
¨¨I could only find one pair, but you take em’ - aren’t you exited!?!¨¨
She thought that that the manager, - ‘’had surely liven up since yesterday?’’ The older lady told her to come with her, and grabbed her hand as they walked hastily towards the sliding doors of the entrance.
¨¨My daughter - God bless her soul, loved this activity! we used to spend such nice Sundays together when she was a kid!¨¨
The sun had barely broken through the cloudy morning sky. Two trucks were parked outside, and some soldiers stood watch: which made her a bit uneasy at first, ‘’wondering that perhaps her cover had been blown?’’ The hotel manager confided with her, -
¨¨Yes I know it’s not Sunday, but the soldiers from Camp-8 owed me a huge favor after some trouble last time they stayed here. So I thought this would be the perfect occasion, to cash in that favor!¨¨
she could not help but smile all over her slightly wrinkled face, she pointed to the X-shaped sculptures
¨¨First rat is your’s, dear!¨¨
She gave her arm a gentle squeeze as she led her into the middle of the cobblestone adorned square, where the four X-shaped sculptures; formed a smaller square opposite each other, with some five meters between them. Different hammers and spears lay in the middle of the formation of the sculptures. She had tried to look down and ignore the moaning that came from the sculptures: that had people in orange jumpsuits; strapped to each one of them! She felt sick by the sight, and praised herself lucky that she had not eaten the breakfast in her room,(otherwise she might have spilled it right there on the old blood stained cobblestones.) She took a knee before the weapons, pretending to study them, when in fact she felt weak, and was just trying to drag the time along, before the inevitable! she could not comprehend the horror of the situation… The sometime’ hairdresser/manager almost twitched from excitement as she gave her a heartfelt motherly hug from behind,
¨¨This is all for you my dear - I managed to get a whole rat family just for you!¨¨
Xiola looked up and around, she had a hard time not breaking into tears, As the hotel manager’s voice tightened a little, -
¨¨Will you look at that filthy vermin, and how they breed like the rats they are; even in captivity!¨¨
She realized that a man and a woman was strapped to two of the X-shaped sculptures, and opposite them were two small kids, strapped onto similar X-sculptures. She started to shake as the hotel manager corrected her hood, and picked up a rusty spear.
¨¨I’m sure you played the game in similar fashion, with your own mother? but let me show you how my daughter and I used to do it! I go first, and on my call you strike, okay! ¨¨
The older woman balanced the spear, and semi-ran to the smallest of the kids, and drove it through its torso! the ancient spear pierced the wooden sculpture on the other side, and remained in place, the act generated a muffled moaning, followed by crying from the other gagged family members.
¨¨Now!!!¨¨
She felt sick, as she did not know what to do? The hotel manger pointed eagerly, and called for her to grab the sledge hammer; and finish off the baby rat!
Her entire body was shaking, as she got to her feet, and noticed how the soldiers were looking on smilingly! she fumbled through the tools, until she finally grabbed the one’ that the manger had wanted her to use. Hesitantly she walked towards the manager, and the victim that coughed and cried behind the gag. She noticed that the skin of the kid was dark like that of Roxy’s. The Manager told her, - ‘’that she was doing it all wrong!’’ and stepped forward to stop her.
¨¨No-no-no, you must go back to the middle and come running at the rat! think back?… I know you haven’t had any vermin in Denmark in years, but you gotta’ remember how you did when you were little… Run - Swing - and crush the rat’s head! Like the song goes.¨¨
She gave her a ‘’go on’’ pad on the butt, as Xiola turned on her shaking heels, and walked slowly to the center of the square, she glared at the soldiers, who looked a bit alerted by her failure to accomplish the kill?
She drew a big sigh, and reminded herself of the fact, that she did it all for Alex, if she faltered he would be dead…! The Yakuza would not take care of him. The McHubbard resort would kick him out, at the end of the week, and he would be forced to walk the streets blindly. He was a geek, not made for surviving on the rough environment; that was the hard streets of Chiba(even without burnt eye implants.)
She turned around, the tears in her eyes made it hard for her to see - the target was a blur of orange, she wiped her eyes, and drew another deep sigh, and ran towards the impaled target of this morbid game! She swung the heavy hammer and let go of it, as she kept running past the sculpture. she heard a disgusting crush and a squishy sound? that was followed by muffled screams of agony, and despair from the other prisoners,(but instantly over-roared by cheering from the soldiers.) On the Other side of the ‘X she bowed down, and threw up some clear liquid - since she had nothing else in her stomach… She wiped her mouth, and returned to the circle of the square where the cheering from the soldiers continued. Hilda met her with a warm hug.
¨¨Doesn’t it feel good to re-visit your childhood now and then? My daughter always used to say: look momma I killed the baby rat! When she was younger’ it always makes the bigger ones squirm.¨¨
Hilda shook her head, saying -
¨¨Almost if they have some kind of feelings, right?… Ok, lets switch for the next one!¨¨
she picked up a fresh antique looking spear, -
¨¨Ok let’s do the Pappa-rat now.¨¨
Xiola raised the spear over her shoulder and took aim, the Ninja program on her hard disk kicked in, and seconds later she threw the spear right through the heart of the man strapped to the X-sculpture. The soldiers let out a roar of cheer and admiration! but Hilda was annoyed… Again she correcting her on the rules of the game:
¨¨First you spear it! and then you kill it! No - direct kill.¨¨
The Ninja program had directed her throw by itself, it aimed to kill - so for the next one she had to do it herself, by walking closer to the target.
She picked up a smaller spear as Hilda told her to go for the remaining little rat. She walked towards the kid that wiggled on the X shaped sculpture. She rammed the spear right trough the victim, to get it over with as fast as possible, and to not draw attention. Hilda came running almost immediately - smashing the head with the heavy sledgehammer. Blood and brains squirted all over Xiola - who had not been fast enough to get out of the way. She made a barfing gesture,(but lacked anything to throw up.)
The soldiers laughed out loudly! Hilda retuned to her panting, and tried to wipe the blood off her protective glasses, which only made it worse! She insisted that they would switch again for the final kill of the Momma-rat, that had spawned the little rodents. Hilda drew a spear through the mother and yelled for her to attack! - She felt so strangely removed from the entire situation, her body had gone almost as numb as her mind, she feared that something in her, would stop her from doing the malicious deed - that was expected of her. As she made the final run with the bloody sledgehammer, she tried to think of it as a mercy kill, but the worst part of it she thought, was that she did not feel a thing at all - as the squishy sound gave way to a high red squirt that landed before her feet… as the clapping and whistling fizzled out, Hilda the well meaning sadistic manager - laid a comforting arm around her, and walked her to the entrance.
the soldiers walked over to the square, and started to clean up the mess. She felt so detached from everything, even Alex at this point? Hilda helped her get out of the bloodstained see through rain suit, and told her, - ‘’that she had made her day.’’ yapping on about how she reminded her so much of her own daughter, even thou she had been suspicious for a second’ in the beginning! if she would act defiantly as her daughter had done; when she had become a teenager. Xiola tried to smile at her. Asking if the family had been from Pakistan? Hilda shrugged her shoulders telling her that, - ‘’rats are rats, no matter what Country?’’
Hilda informed her that she needed a nap, as Xiola went back up to her room,(where she unsuccessfully tried to throw up some more!) she spent the next two hours in the shower cabin hunched up trying to cleanse herself with the hot water, she finally gained some kind of control of herself again, and her worries of Alex’s whereabouts returned to occupy her strained mind, as she put the old garments on again that had belonged to Hilda’s late daughter, she tried her best to push the events on the square earlier, as far back in her mind as she could. …It felt as if she had dosed off…? The sky had become dark outside the panzer glass windows, as the red antique telephone rang, she picked it up and it was Hilda that told her to come down to the lobby - her taxi had arrived. ‘’She praised herself lucky that she had been able to fall asleep.’’
Hilda met her at the lobby where she gave her a big hug, and said that she hoped to see her again! ‘’since she had reminded her of a more sane version of what her daughter should had been, but sadly had proven too weak to become.’’ - She told her that someday: hopefully soon? she would be making some Aryan babies of her own, and that it was important to keep the old tradition alive, since it was character forming for kids. Xiola nodded and sank, - ‘’she wanted to kill her more than anything in the world.’’ Hilda opened a small box and took out a silver necklace of a unicorn in sprint. She hung it around her neck and kissed her goodbye, pinching her cheek, the way she had done earlier.
She walked out the door with her fists clenched tight and got into the waiting - red cab with the white cross on the hood, the sun had started to set as it followed the same way back to the airport like yesterday. In the fields on both sides of the narrow road, she noticed how: men women and children of Arabic or middle-eastern decent was working with shovels, and some plucking with their bare hands, while soldiers in red and white uniforms - sporting automatic riffles, monitored them. The cabdriver was a different young man(but sporting the same blonde haircut like the one that had taken her from the airport last night,) luckily this one was more talkative. She approached him with caution, telling him, that it was her first time on Iceland, and that it was a spectacular view outside! he nodded, and looked in her eyes in the rearview mirror.
¨¨¨Oh, you mean the slaves in the fields?¨¨
She nodded…
¨¨Yes, I hear that you don’t have any left at all in Denmark, but they are quite useful during harvest.¨¨
¨¨And of course for fun and games?¨¨
¨¨Arh well, we don’t really practice that tradition anymore, I know Hilda at the hotel still stage those from time to time, but it’s more efficient to have them do hard labor; than killing them… they will die soon enough from the hard work. Besides - getting them to breed is not that easy.¨¨
He smiled as a tourist guide that has done his duty. She nodded and suppressed her anger, as they small talked the rest of the way.
OVERKILL
They rolled up to the Airport entrance - just as there were an hour until the boarding of her flight to Denmark: with the national Viking Airlines. This time there was no problem in using her fake Danish passport, she hesitated to use the airport phone to try and call up Alex… she finally worked up her nerves to run the risk,(only to find out that the phones only worked for calls to Denmark.)
She hit the airport bar next, figuring that she could use a drink before the late flight. There was a strange atmosphere in the bar at the corner of the airport called - ‘the little mermaid.’ Around twenty Danes,(all sporting red & white clothes like her) that apparently had been out of the country, were now returning home, they sat at round tables, and chatted of how they looked forward to returning home. The conversations sounded weird to her? Perhaps it was because of what she heard went through the voice recognition filter first! but they seemed dishonest, and forced in their voices! Resembling - bad actors…? It looked like a couple of them was about to burst into tears as they launched into a rant - badmouthing: Germany and the Netherlands. On closer inspection - a couple of them was in fact crying while others tried to comfort them, and state loud and clear, - ‘’that they just missed good old Denmark a lot.’’ She wondered why the Danes acted so weird?
She asked the blonde bar-maid, if she could have a double vodka? Which made the bar-maid eyeball her! as she poured her an Odin Brew from the tap,(the only brand of alcohol that was allowed within the kingdom of Denmark,) ‘’which of course also included Iceland.’’ - A minute later her paranoia went through the roof, as some red clad police officers showed up. Without hesitation they walked towards a man that was crying heavily - in the arms of what looked like his wife, that tried to comfort him: the couple got tasered, and then carried away by the four policemen. She could sense her pulse had gone up, as she tried emptying the big glass of Odin Brew in front of her.
Everybody in the bar acted as if nothing had happened? the few others that had cried pulled themselves together, and the already strange atmosphere - got weirder as the blonde bar-maid rang a bell: which meant that everyone got a refill of beer on the house! People held up their glasses as the bar-maid,(now wearing a plastic Viking helmet) went around with a huge jug pouring refills. - She had put on, what Xiola figured were some traditional Danish pop music,(that everyone seemed to be able to sing along with?) it was easy to hum along, even thou she had never heard it before.
The easy pop song; praised the country for being the best one in the world. perhaps it was the voice recognition device that faltered, but the lyrics seemed odd to her? One’ of the verses got everyone going: and the small congregation of Danes seemed to vent their anger, as they sang along with the lines -
¨¨There are other people than those who are Danish, they live in caves and fight all day.¨¨
The tension built in their voices -
¨¨We have just as well, never ever done that.¨¨
Everybody in the bar got to their feet and Heiled a right arm salute at the end of the verse that culminated in the line -
¨¨The warm countries are Shit!¨¨
Everyone returned to their drinking again - it seemed like the sing along had leveled them out some.
Soon after the song ended, the boarding call came over the speakers, she finished the Odin Brew, and headed towards the gate, no one approached her, people seemed to be trying to stick by themselves as much as possible. A woman that apparently knew the couple that had been dragged away by the uniformed officers asked a man ’’what he thought had happened to them?’’ he shushed her and pointed upwards discretely, while touching his ear as to signal ’’that people were listening?’’ They walked towards the gate and boarded the red and white plane. She never saw the couple that had been escorted away from the bar again, neither did anyone else mention them on the short flight…
It was almost midnight as the flight from Viking Airlines rolled down the landing strip of the airport of Copenhagen, Denmark. The airport seemed to be remotely big, it was deserted probably due to the time of night. She had her faux passport clutched in her hand, having remembered her fake name by now, she felt ready as she went through customs. The man in the booth seemed old and tired, and let her pass thru with a non cheering ‘welcome back. As she went through the closed terminal she was stricken by two facts.
One: She was now completely alone - she only had the voice recognition program to rely on for back up, no weapons or people she could call, and
Two: As she now stood outside the airport entrance… it dawned on her; in the darkness of the late summer evening - that snowflakes was falling all around her…?
I COME IN PEACE
She thought there must have been something she had missed about the weather in Denmark? or perhaps their weather system, ‘’if they even had one,’’ was broken like the one in Chiba… The wind was not exactly cold as such, since it was the middle of July, but still she felt a chill as she approached, a red and white taxi cab similar to the ones in Iceland, it looked like an old Mercedes…
She gently knocked on the window, the driver who looked like she was in her early fifties and had lived a hard life, was wearing a red and white beanie tucked well down over her ears; revealing her battered curly blonde hair that badly needed a dye. - Xiola asked her if she could take her to a an address in a place called - Holte…? Not considering that it was a rather small town she was in, the cabdriver looked with suspicion at her; asking what she meant by - ‘’a place’ called Holte?’’
The voice program worked perfectly! she had just formulated the question wrong, she shrugged her shoulders? the grumpy cab driver continued splitting hairs.
¨¨I mean, why don’t you just say, - take me to Holte! instead of a place called Holte…?¨¨
Xiola could not follow her?, she started to feel the heat rising in her cheeks. Shaking her head and apologizing as mellow as she could, so the voice program could follow her. The cab driver suddenly gave up on her rant? Telling her to get in on the back seat. - The taxi left the airport area, as the cabdriver asked her where she had been abroad? and commented ‘’that it was quick she had picked up on some bad habits - concerning the beautiful Danish language!’’ - Xiola shrugged her shoulders and gave her a smile that was only returned with an overbearing frown. They headed towards the city on a highway next to arrays of building blocks that all were dark, not a single apartment had the lights on, and only every second lamppost was turned on,(as it had been on Iceland.) The cabdriver looked at her
¨¨So what city are you from?¨¨
¨¨Uhm, this one - Copenhagen!¨¨
The cabdriver nodded - as if she understood,
¨¨Funny that ‘Holte, seemed like such a strange place to you then?¨¨
Xiola tried her best bluff - since it was a subject the cabdriver had a hard time letting go off?
¨¨Oh, you know it’s just been very hard being abroad and I’m very tired, of course I know of, Holte - it has just been a very long time since I have been there!¨¨
The cabdriver nodded again and said sure, confiding that she was just shooting the breeze, Xiola made a fake yawn as she stared out on the rows of dark apartment blocks, the cabdriver noticed her wondering stare.
¨¨Yeah we had a power delay this evening most of the city has gone dark only the town square is lit up by an emergency generator.¨¨
Xiola nodded and replied a uninterested - ‘’mm hmm,’’ as she was lost in thoughts concerning Alex, worrying sick if he was ok?
¨¨The cab driver asked her if she could remember ever seeing the city so blackened?¨¨
She responded that not to her best of knowledge?
¨¨Would you mind if we swing by the town square? you know it’s really close by. I could really need a hot coffee, to stay awake for the rest of my shift, I’ll cut you some discount on your Nationcard.¨¨
Xiola did not mind and said she could use one herself, some seven minutes later the lights became brighter as they approached the town square. The cab driver said that the coffee was on her, as she parked near the front of a large old red-brick building, which had banners that were lit up by projectors - the banners featured prints of what looked like an old pop-star(or politician) with shiny white teeth and some really perfect blonde hair who smiled a lot, the background looked like snow covered mountains? She rested her head against the side of the window, but only for a minute as a flashlight blinded her followed by a knock on the glass.
She was ordered to step out of the car, by the red clad police officer that had shined the light in her face, she opened the door. and stepped out on the snow covered ground underneath a lamppost, ‘’the snow seemed to fall even harder here than outside the airport!’’ The cabdriver was being held back by a second officer, she seemed almost hysterical shouting stuff like: traitor and spy! at Xiola. The officer asked to see her passport, and asked for her name. She calmly told him her name, that she had managed to mesmerize, and why she had been abroad! He nodded condescendingly - asking her to wait beside the cab as the two officers exchanged a few words and switched, the one who had held the screaming cabdriver back, now approached her. -
¨¨I’m sure this is all a misunderstanding… Miss. Hansen?¨¨
She nodded,
¨¨However, I just need to ask you a couple of questions!¨¨
She smiled at him saying that she had already given the info to his partner, he held up a hand to interrupt her words.
¨¨Now, the cabdriver, told us that you had asked for a place called Holte? and she states that - you told her that you were from Copenhagen? ¨¨
She confirmed that it was correct.
¨¨Then you surely would know of it! not speaking of it, as some place you had never been to, or heard of?¨¨
She sank and explained to him that she had only spoken Dutch for the past two weeks,(which had been terrible) and since she was very tired the grammar must have slipped. He nodded and scribbled something on an old paper block,(the kind detectives used in 21st century crime shows.) He nodded and said he understood perfectly,
¨¨She also said you seemed baffled by the darkness of the buildings on your way here, is that correct?¨¨
She read the lead of the direction it was going, and replied cautiously, -
¨¨No I wouldn’t say baffled? I just looked at them.¨¨
¨¨She told me that when she asked you if you had ever seen the city so dark, you responded - … not to my best of knowledge’ is that correct Miss. Hansen?¨¨
She was in a bit of disarray and tried to buy herself some time. Saying he could - just call her Camilla. -
¨¨Oh, I don’t know officer I’m just very tired and…¨¨
Unimpressed by her flirting, he cut her off, in a firm but gentle manner, -
¨¨Miss. Hansen just answer the question… you told me that you had grown up in Copenhagen, right! But you have never seen the city this dark before, now how can that be?¨¨
She finally understood what he was looking for.
¨¨Oh yes, of course I have! but I normally don’t see it from a highway this late at night, it just seem different than when you live in it, you know what I mean?¨¨
He told her not to worry and smiled at her, saying that it was just a misunderstanding as he had suspected. She nodded eagerly, he put the block into his breast pocket on the motorcycle jacket. The two police bikes stood nearby the tall brick building with the banners.
¨¨Ok just one more question Miss. Hansen and this is strictly off the record: would you mind if my partner and I joined you two for a cup of coffee?¨¨
¨¨No, no not at all - we could probably all use some hot coffee right now? ¨¨ He sucker punched her and yelled for his partner as she landed on with her knees, the next thing that happened was that she slammed her head against the taxicab’s door, as he kicked her straight in the head with his heavy motorcycle boot. Her sight flickered, and for just a moment she could not understand what was being said,(before the voice recognition device came back on.) She looked into the barrel of a gun which he pointed only an arms length from her head, exactly an arms length too close for the Ninja program on her implanted hard drive, not to respond automatically to the imposing threat! Adrenaline rushed through her veins as she kicked his balancing knee: the next moment she grabbed the gun from him, as he had lost his grip from the kick. as he hit the asphalt. She could sense his partner fumble with his gun holster, so she put a bullet through his head first. still resting against the Taxi, she fired a bullet into the cop she had tackled: The warm blood ran out from the hole in his forehead, and she watched for a second how the snowflakes melted upon impact, as the gun shots echoed out over the empty town square.
She snapped out of the trance, and ran over to the cab lady, who held her hands over her head to signal that she surrendered. Xiola knocked her front teeth out with a punch using the gun-handle, the cabdriver cried for her to spare her life! as she fell to her knees on the wet asphalt… Her hands was covered with the blood from her busted lips and gums, Xiola pointed the gun in her face and told her to get back in the cab! She instantly complied to the request. They skidded out of the empty town square, leaving the two bodies of the dead cops behind. Xiola now rode shotgun, having the gun pointed at her, as they drove fast through the deserted city. - She told her to slow down so she would not attract any more attention! the cab lady had not lost all her defiance, as she told her to look around and see if there was any other cars in sight…? She noticed that the roads was indeed abandoned, ‘’her head ached from where the cop had kicked her,’’ she was still surprised of how the cop had managed to blow her cover? She asked her how he could tell, ‘’Just by asking if he could have joined them for coffee?’’
The cab lady spurted out a bubble of blood as she laughed of Xiola’s ignorance.
¨¨Because there is ‘No coffee in the entire kingdom, it’s forbidden you fucking moron!¨¨
She did not feel offended, because as Mr. Nagasaki had explained to her - ‘’there was no reports of how the country had developed since it had shut itself off from the rest of the world.’’ She asked her about the darkness of the buildings? She shook her head; telling her that all light had to be turned off before ten’o’clock each night! When she asked why? she got the weird reply that: ‘’the white Duke looked after all his children and his command was their law.’’
For the remainder of the ride they managed not to speak to each other, as they approached the area of the address the cab lady assured her that ‘’she would not escape the country,’’ they were onto her now! She told her ‘’that she would rather be remembered as a hero, instead of being sent off to a work camp!’’ Xiola asked her why she would be sent off, when she had tried to turn her in? the cab lady looked even older now, and it seemed like she had lost her fighting spirit, she just shook her head…
¨¨People always disappear? even if they are honest! If you have been in contact with the system, you always disappear… But I wanna be remembered for something good, I’m too old to survive in a camp!¨¨
She pointed to a fenced area straight ahead, telling her that it was her destination, - ‘’but that she would never reach it!’’ Before Xiola could enquire her any further, she put the pedal to the metal and speeded up! some thirty meters further ahead - the red & white taxi wrapped itself around a solid tree, instantly killing the driver! while Xiola was flung from her passenger seat, through the windshield out of the vehicle.
…She awoke by voices asking her if she was ok, a couple of private guards from the shielded enclave, was trying to wake her up, she had landed in some thick thorn bushes, which had taken most of the deadly fall - caused by the suicide act of the taxi driver. A thin line of blood was running from a big gush in her forehead, as she removed a big shard of broken glass from the wound, caused by her head breaking through the windshield, she had smaller cuts on her hands and face from smaller pieces of glass,(and possible the thorn bushes in which she now lay.) Her head hurt from the crash, and that constant noise from the honking horn of the cab that now looked like a tree was wearing it as a metallic toga. She got to her feet and leaned against one of the guards to catch her balance, she could hear sirens coming from afar, she knew that they were coming for her, and that this might be her final chance? She snapped the pistol from the guard’s holster on his belt - waving it at them telling them to stay in their place, and she would refrain from hurting them! she walked around the corner of the green iron fence into the privileged enclave, some people had gathered at the opened gate, from which the guards had run to her rescue… the blood from her forehead blurred her vision! She wiped her eyes, and drew the address from a piece of paper in her pocket, she stumbled towards a man showing him the address and told him, -
¨¨Tell me where this is, or eat a bullet!¨¨
The sight of having the guards pistol shoved in his face! made the man spill it out instantly: it was the second house on the right, ten rows down the main aisle of the suburban paradise.
I’m A GUN
The approaching sirens made the adrenaline increase - her pulse throbbed harder as she ran down the main aisle with the nice module houses inside this exclusive part of suburbia! Wiping off the blood that reached her eyes now and then, she sensed the snow fell harder - as she tried to keep track of how many bi-ways she had passed? everything looked the same all those white houses with the red roofs. She finally reached the one she was searching for! she panted hard outside the house that would belong to: Thor!
She ran up the aisle with the rough tiles and the perfect lawn - just before she reached the door, she leaped into a jump kick to send the door flying off its hinges,(which it indeed did!) taking down a man that stood on the other side of it, Xiola stumbled on the door under which he lay, and slammed into a woman in a nightgown, she got on top of the shocked woman and shouted, - ‘’if the man under the door was the hacker Thor!!’’ The woman who looked terrified, shook her head, Xiola slapped her face first with the front, and then with the backside of her right hand, yelling at her that, - ‘’if she did not tell her where Thor was right now! she would blow her brains all over the floor!’’ the woman cried hysterically, but Xiola noticed how her eyes looked towards the ceiling,(she was sure her Target was upstairs) She pushed herself off the woman, and sprinted up the stairs to the first floor of the rather sizeable house. She ran to one of the three rooms upstairs where the door was closed - She kicked it in, only to find an obese kid around twelve years old? Sitting in his boxers in front of an old computer screen! She shouted at him to where ‘Thor was hiding!?! Surprisingly the kid flipped her off,(in an act too cool for his age.)
She had both hands on the frames of the door, ready to fling herself at him, when she felt a staggering pain - like white heat shooting up her spine, the woman from downstairs had come at her with a kitchen knife, which she now had placed between the shoulder blades! The annoying obese kid with the blonde bowl cut smiled -
¨¨Way to go Mom!¨¨
¨¨Run Thor!!!¨¨
Were the last words the woman in the night gown, got to speak before Xiola grabbed her by the hair with her left hand, and shoved her into the room, she cocked the gun, and put a bullet in her head from behind: making the woman’s brain squirt all over her kid’s obese corpus.
Xiola panted hard as she gazed at the blood and brain stained boy in the chair, zeros and ones danced on the screen before him.
¨¨Thor! I presume?¨¨
It looked as if his middle finger had frozen in its defiant position.
¨¨You’re just a fucking kid?¨¨
¨¨And you’re just a fucking whore!¨¨
The sound of the sirens increased as she reached for the knife between her shoulder blades, and pulled it out - the pain was excruciating, but there was almost no blood on it? she felt dizzy as she grabbed the mop of thick hay like hair on top of the juvenile hacker’s head, while pressing the blade to his double chin adorned neck, and told him to turn the old - ‘mounted’ webcam on’ at the top of the monitor! She dictated the vid-address for Mr. Nagasaki, Thor’s chubby fingers danced over the keyboard… Some seconds later, after he had navigated through the one way highway that was the portal from Denmark to the rest of the world, The Yakuza man’s face appeared on the old computer screen! The sirens were right outside the house now! Mr. Nagasaki asked her ‘’what the hell she was doing?’’ She shouted back that the chubby kid: was the hacker - Thor! He looked with surprise and disbelief for a moment, then told her to make Thor transfer the money back to him! She threatened the boy, but he struggled to shake his head as much as he could in her headlock grab. She made it certain that if he did not comply! she would kill both his Dad and him… He still refused, saying that, - ‘’the punishment by the white Duke would be worse!’’
There were now orders for her - to surrender herself coming from a nasal megaphone outside. The wallpaper - adorned by runes in Thor’s Teenage bedroom was flashing blue, from the at least five police cars outside. She screamed at Mr. Nagasaki on the old monitor that ‘’time was up if she was to keep her part of the bargain,’’ Mr. Nagasaki was furious! since the stolen Zaibatsu money was so close within reach, and yet so far - with the obese hacker, who refused to transfer them. Xiola shouted at Mr. Nagasaki to shut the fuck up! since getting the money back were not a part of their deal!
¨¨Now watch this! Motherfucker.¨¨
She slit Thor’s throat with the kitchen knife, that had just been between her shoulder blades(her third child kill, and her tenth hacker kill all within a little over two weeks,) Thor twitched in his comfortable gamer chair from the last century; as the blood covered his fat corpus. She shouted at Mr. Nagasaki - to recognize that she had completed the deal, and that he had promised to take care of Alex. The Yakuza man seemed paralyzed? not so much by the live murder he had just witnessed, but by the fact that the two hundred millions would not be returned to his organization…
¨¨Swear that you will take care off Alex for me, you promised me you asshole!¨¨
She barely noticed the sound of running feet; that came up the stairs towards her! one last warning to surrender was shouted from the megaphone outside, through the tears in her eyes she thought she saw Mr. Nagasaki nod in consent - just before the power was cut and the screen went black! along with the entire room, who was now only lit up by the cold blue light from the police cars outside. A stun grenade broke through the window and exploded right beside her feet: the myriad of flash explosions it made, along with the loud bangs confused her,(as it was supposed to do.) she did not notice the S.W.A.T. cop in the door opening, who fired his SMG-rifle at her! Then everything went black…
…She had no idea how long she had been out, as she awoke - strapped to a hospital bed, two cops was guarding her, she was tired of seeing the same colors. The cop uniforms were red with White belts, and holsters for the service pistol, their hats were white as well. She asked them ‘’for how long she had been unconscious?’’ But got no reply, figuring ‘’that they were probably not allowed to answer her?’’ She went through the events, which had all happened so fast, she tried blocking out the slaughtering of the obese hacker kid. While she tried her outmost to convince herself that Mr. Nagasaki - had nodded to her request of taking care of Alex. She could not decide if he had just lowered his head, or it had been an actual confirmation? of her request as part of their deal… She looped it in her head in silence for several minutes, it was all out of her hands now. Her mission was complete, - ‘’but a failure in the sense that she would never get to see Alex again.’’
At some point a middle-aged man in a worn out beige parka coat and a trilby showed up with her suitcase in his hand. He was accompanied by a police inspector who ordered the cops to un-cuff her from the bedpost, and escort her along with the him. He shook her hand introducing himself as, - Mr. Christensen. He informed her that she would remain handcuffed, should she try to escape she would be shot dead without further notice! He waited for her to confirm that she had understood his terms…
They provided her with a fresh red suit adorned by a white cross, similar to the one Hilda had given her back on Iceland ‘’come to think of it the cab lady had worn a similar one,’’ she figured that it was the standard uniform for all citizens in Denmark? They walked out of the gray concrete hospital. Outside the snow still fell from a sky that was too dark for a summers night! a scarlet red Limo waited for them, Mr. Christensen opened the door for her, and she got inn on the broad white vinyl seat. The two guards in their red and white uniforms placed themselves on each side of the tired looking Mr. Christensen in the battered Parka-coat. She asked where they were taking her? and he informed her that she was going to meet his employer: The King of Denmark.
She looked out at the still dark sky from where the snow fell even harder now, almost as if it where a regular storm. Only ten minutes later the red limo rolled into a huge circular courtyard.
Mr. Christensen told her some history of which king had built the royal residence that they were now about to enter. The limo drove in a circle inside the courtyard so Xiola had a chance to see all the big banners with prints of the white Duke - smiling in different locations, ranging from alpine like surroundings to those of being onstage, performing.
REVOLUTION
The white Duke had come into power in perhaps the most spectacular way the modern world had witnessed: fifteen years ago. Going from being a semi-successful pop-star; with a target market audience that was 60+ in his native Austria. To become Prime minister and to finally end up as the sole ruler of the kingdom of Denmark,(and later on self proclaimed king.)
Towards the end of his career he had experienced his most loyal fan base to be that of Denmark, even thou all of his songs were sung in his native tongue: German. He had been a prominent figure in the Nationalist party back home and running for a nomination as the next leader of the patriotic - Fatherland Party; when a feud had spilled out between him and the political top, that had deemed him too extreme on some recent statements, and thereby minimizing their chances of winning the upcoming election, he was then kicked out of the party, and could look forward to enjoying his retirement in bored luxury.
When he had conducted his farewell tour, which included most major Danish cities, he had applied for citizenship, and announced that he would leave Austria for the little kingdom of Denmark. The Danes had embraced him almost as royalty,(especially the older part of the population.) After his citizenship was granted he had announced that he would love to give politics a run, if they would let him take advantage of recently becoming a Dane? As his nickname had always been: the white Duke, due to his heritage,(as well as his perfectly white mane and teeth.) He had started - The White Party: which settled all too well with the older generation, which was also the last generation that had cared about voting, since it seemed irrational caring about what corporate sponsored candidate, for either the left or the right wing; would win? Only to spend the next four years blaming the previous administration for making it impossible to change anything?
The election the coming summer had seen him take over 90% percent of the majority of the votes, the white Duke,(whose birth name was Hansi Edelweiss.) could more or less choose which parties he wanted to work with. In just a couple of months he had eliminated all opponents by either having his right hand Mr. Christensen,(who worked both as his lawyer and shadowy spin doctor) set up scandals or simply make them disappear? He had told the public that ‘’he was just as tired as they where of the constant scandals, and he thought the beautiful citizens of this precious kingdom deserved better.’’ He would make an exceptional election where they could vote for him to be the sole ruler of the country(by adding an amendment) - this time the votes in his favor had increased to 95%, He immediately banned all other parties to the liking of the people: who had had enough of the constant scandals and lies.
A few days later The White Duke had issued a TV transmission, stating that - ‘’for a limited time he had hired the French foreign legion to help the Danish army help him clean out the rodents that had infested this beautiful nation,’’ he had assured the population that the money from hirering the army would be paid out of his own pockets: ‘’to show them how much he cared for them, and to show his appreciation for all they had given him.’’ - The few politically correct critics that were left on various publications were removed before they could critizize him, and since nearly everyone from non-western countries lived in ghettos,(in a kind of parralel society, they never knew what hit ‘em.)
The white trash that lived in ghettos - alongside the middle-eastern part of the population, were picked up in shuttle busses, and rehoused or placed in sporting facilities; for the time being. Strategically the twenty armies +, he had hired,(besides the French foreign legion,) ethnically cleansed the ghettos one by one: very few managed to escape and in certain areas - some building blocks was completely burned to the ground. After a week, most of them had been captured, and those that had not lost their lives were placed in concentration camps. The neighboring country of Sweden, that always had been seen as an uptight political correct country to the Danes; were the first to condemn the white Duke for his actions.
Much of the war on his own population was won through comercials that resembled those who had advertised his music. Every day he smilingly appeared on his own news broadcast! accompanied by one of his easy listening ‘schlager hits’ and gave the people reassurance that ‘’the plague of the rats was soon a mere saga.’’ Giving an update upon which areas, had been cleared of the plague of the - ausländers. The Duke invented the saying: - a square meter clenched, was a square meter won.’’ (of course he made sure that the most disgusting pictures never reached the public.) He let some pictures of what appeared to be nuclear warheads, leak to the foreign press corp, that was being held in captivity in various hotels. Sweden had talked about a possible intervention! but by those pictures being leaked they resisted - since they figured that, the white Duke was mad enough to do anything. They objected in the UN that the only humane thing to do was if the they would drop off the surviving prisoners in Sweden.
At the end of the week long cleansings the white duke had agreed to take Sweden up on its offer, he had winked with his eye at his population through a TV spot. Giving a knowingly smirk. His next move made most of his detractors, consider him a regular madman despot rarely seen after the 21st century. He had some ten DC-10s filled with people of Arab and middle eastern decent, and flied to Stockholm - Sweden, the DC-10s was accompanied by four Danish F-16 fighter planes. It was agreed that: the fighters would stay in Swedish airspace until the prisoners were dropped off, and the Swedish F-14 Fighter planes that would be on the wings, would tolerate the Danish fighter planes. The last thing the Swedes were interested in, was having an open dogfight over the country’s capitol.
But the DC-10s never sat down on Swedish soil? Instead they circled above the city of Stockholm - as the heavy cargo ports was opened and the spacious cargo cabins,(that had been soaked in oil before take off,) now emptied their human cargo over the city; it litterally rained over a thousand Arabs that crashed through buildings, landing on cars and killing some people upon impact! the Swedish fighter planes could not react as they would have shot the DC-10s down over a crowded city causing even more damage? The planes returned to Denmark while the F-16 kept circling the city but not unleashing any attack. The people of Sweden was devastated by this morbid act, while the people of Denmark had a hey day; since they had watched it live from the camcorders of the DC-10s and the F-16 planes.
The white Duke came back on screen from a studio at the end of the montage, saying that ‘’he hoped they could appericiate the humor since he found it very Danish,’’ stating furthermore that he had proven to be a man of his words, he had ‘‘dropped off the prisoners as the Swedes had requested.’’ The majority of the population had found the gimmick funny and the ones that did not, had kept their mouth shut. He noted that he could have given them parachutes, but then again?… ‘’Rats could not operate parachutes,’’ a pre recorded canned in-studio laughter, accompanied his morbid remark. The hired armies were paid off, and left the country soon after, the population was now in an euphoric state of being righteous, white and drunk with nationalistic power! something far right politicians had been hinting at for years;(but never had the vision or lunacy to carry out.) The Jews were up next as he declared them illegal rats as well. Declaring the day after the Stockholm drop-off; as - The night of the white flame.’ The very small minority of Jews was eliminated in less than twenty four hours.
‘Some analytics had hinted that the Arab invasion of mainland Europe two years later had been because of those horrific events, that had taken place in Denmark,’ while critics ruled it out. Fact remained - that the occupational Arab coalition had not dared to invade Denmark, because of the rumors of the nuclear warheads. Recent years had seen the Duke becoming more reclusive, not making many live appearances, and becoming more paranoid than before: as most despots,(he had eventually turned on the people that had once supported him.) People he saw as possible enemies were shipped off to Iceland, where the last remains of the middle-eastern population were held in penal colonies.
In the last two years of his fifteen year long reign he had only left the royal palace once’ to be ordained: The King of Denmark,(and even that had been a TV transmission ceremony only) recorded at the very courtyard where the limo now came to a halt.
Excess And Overdrive
The cops got out first, she noticed how the palace looked really old and cold, the red spots cast a gloomy sphere over the place while the snow storm escalated, the entourage went up some stairs to a heavy wooden door upon which, Mr. Christensen knocked in some ‘secret code - while telling the guards - ‘’that he better not be messing with him tonight!’’
Moments after after a helium like voice, was heard from the other side of the door, it spoke some kind of riddle or nursery rime? Which made Mr. Christensen instantly lose his temper. Shouting ‘’that he would kill him if he did not open the door immediately!’’ the helium voice was silent for a moment… but then continued in the riddle playing game: waiting for a certain code word? Mr. Christensen retreated to kicking the massive door, and shouting even more obscene stuff! at the voice behind the door. Finally they heard an - ‘’Alright-alright, but do not hurt me!’’ Mr. Christensen adjusted his clothes and drew a deep sigh, replying with a -
¨¨Ok, ok, I promise won’t,¨¨
The door irked open slowly with a dramatic creek, Mr. Christensen immediately lost it again and threw himself inn - screaming he would kill him! the guards gently pushed Xiola into the dimly lit corridor, she could see Mr. Christensen fighting a couple of meters away, punching a little man in a green suit with a hat that had bells attached to it - which made a spectacle every time he got a punch in. The midget shouted a tirade of ¨¨Fuck you!¨¨ to Mr. Christensen in between rants of that, - ‘’he was just doing his job!’’ Finally it seemed like Mr. Christensen had vented his anger enough and got to his feet, the midget kicked after him.
He signaled for The guards and Xiola to follow him down the murky corridor that smelled musty, like an old abandoned house. She noticed the baroque golden frames - which adorned every painting that hung with a meters distance between each other along the walls, each of them featuring: the white Duke portrayed as king…! she was led up a very broad staircase, covered in a red velvet carpet that covered the solid white marple underneath it. She could hear music coming from behind a green and gold double door, Mr. Christensen gave her a final warning -
¨¨Try any of that karate shit in there, and you will have a bullet in your head before you know it, understood!¨¨ - she nodded.
The door must had been isolated somehow from the inside, since the volume raised tremendously - as the cops opened a door each simultaneously. The scenery in front of her seemed odd, fake fires adorned a gigantic oversized silk bedspread surrounded by TV Cameras The music had seemed to go from some early 21st century rock, into what sounded like a dramatic rock-opera piece. She noticed how young boys covered in golden paint, was suspended from wires attached to a rotating device - attached to the ceiling and was being spun around as the music raised in crescendo.
The Opera section leaped into a wild rocking breakdown, as if they had not gone fast enough; the boys spun even faster now! One of the suspending wires snapped and sent one of the golden boys straight into the rail of the balcony above, before he dropped some seven meters down, the cameras that were placed stratetcally around the room kept filming as the breakdown - went into a section that was rich on harmonics, followed by a solo piece sung by the lead singer, only accompanied by a piano. It was at that moment, a man in a white suit and some silvery hair, was lifted from the bed by wires, as he mimed to the lyrics being sung: a cape of golden angel wings unfolded themselves on the back of his white jacket, and the light from above became stronger. He stretched out his right arm and put the other on his hip, as he ascended towards the imaginary heavens that were painted centuries ago at the oval ceiling. - As the sound of a dramatic gong, rounded up the musical piece.
Soon after the room went completely silent as someone shouted -
¨¨¨That’s a rap!¨¨
Mr. Christensen looked at the midget, as if asking him what to do? The little man waved at them with caution of not clapping. A voice came over some scratchy speaker system -
¨¨Rumble shaft you little shit! Bring the guest to me!¨¨
The little elf dressed man grabbed Xiola’s cuffed hands, and hastily led her through a door at the far wall, up a narrow staircase, the two cops and Mr. Christensen followed right behind them, the round staircase spiraled two times before they stood outside a golden door. A voice from inside called for them to enter, the midget pushed the door open. Inside near the far window stood the white dressed man, that had been lifted up from the oversize bed a minute ago, he turned on his heels and introduced himself to her as -
The White Duke
He walked over and offered her his hand, so that she could kiss it! Giving way to a disappointed sound,(saying mostly to himself.)
¨¨Women these days don’t have any manners…¨¨
He told the guards to wait outside - just as they opened the door, a man in his late forties, who had been about to knock on the door. Asked permission to enter. The white Duke went to his golden desk and pulled something from a drawer. ’
¨¨Yes Fred, what is it - can’t you see I have guests? ¨¨
The man nervously entered the dimly lit room. He asked - if the Duke knew what had happened to the golden boy whose wire had snapped?
¨¨Yes Fred I’m afraid so… You little loser of a son has disappointed me for the last time!¨¨
The man called Fred was wearing an even sillier clown-like suit than that of the midget, adorning even more bells that made a lot of noise as he nervously shifted from one foot to another.
¨¨You see, this was his second chance, and the Duke don‘t give thirds!¨¨
¨¨Bu - bu - but the the wire snapped! I don’t think it was his fault?¨¨
The white Duke drew a deep breath, as if no one understood his intention…? he took place on the ledge of the golden desk, from where he made a gesture to the two cops, that had waited to see what was happening. They instantly drew their guns, cocked them; and placed them to the back of Fred’s head.
¨¨Have I ever cared… of what you thought about anything Fred?, have I?¨¨
The man started to twitch even more nervously, and pebbles of sweat broke out on his forehead, as he started yapping apologies, -
¨¨No of course not you highness.¨¨
¨¨Right! And even more so - he has inherited those annoying buck teeth from your late wife, and quite frankly: he is a lousy lay and I’ve had enough!¨¨
The white Duke asked the little man he called Rumble shaft, to approach him, telling him to give the shiny object in his hand to Fred. The midget took what appeared to be a: silver chrome Magnum 45. He hesitantly gave it to the man called Fred and the Atmosphere intensified.
¨¨You know what Fred? you bore me… there’s two bullets in it give one to your son, and put him out of his God awful miserable existence, and… well’ have one on me! I don’t wish to see you ever again.¨¨¨
The man who still had the guns at the back of his neck - bowed and thanked him, almost crying,(hard to tell if it was tears of joy or excruciating pain.) He and the cops left the room and shut the golden door behind them. The Duke turned to Xiola still with his chrome mirror glasses on, his long square face was impossible to read with those on. He kept a serious mine when he asked her, -
¨¨Do you know what there is never a short supply of in this world?¨¨
She shook her head -
¨¨Losers and cocaine!¨¨
He ordered Rumble shaft to approach his desk along with Xiola, he grabbed the little man by his neck collar and back lining of his green velvet pants with the heavy brown belt, telling Xiola: ‘’to watch closely’’ - as he lifted the midget over the desk and what appeared to be a miniature scale of a city in ruins, most of the carefully sculptured white buildings missed their roofs while others where down to the ground, but not one building was left in mint condition.
¨¨Now sniff Rumble shaft! sniff it!!!¨¨
He used the midget as a handheld vacuum cleaner, as he hovered him above the city built of cocaine,(it clearly brought some repressed emotions up,) as he started taunting the little man that made sniffing sounds - as he was swung forward and backwards by the elegant figure of - the white Duke.
¨¨Now snort it all you filthy little dwarf! sniff it! sniff it, I command you to suck it up - as if it was flowers in that enchanted forest in which you live, you little piece of shit!¨¨
Two guns shots rang out from somewhere in the building. The white Duke - slammed Rumble shaft down onto the miniature cocaine city. As he wiped the desk with him, while hissing in German through his pearly white teeth; as if he was about to throw an even larger fit! He gave him a hard push over the edge! the abused midget landed on the thick bottle green velvet carpet, and received a kick from the Duke’s white polished snakeskin boot - with the orders to get out of the room!!! The midget that had received the thorough abuse ran into the wall and started to laugh manically. His face was completely covered in cocaine - as he ran by Xiola and pinched her ass on his way out.
The duke stood with his fist in the piles of cocaine that the city had turned into. Saying stuff about how much he hated Rumbleshaft: but he could not kill him because he reminded him of his childhood in the Alps…
He grabbed a handful of cocaine and threw it after Mr. Christensen’s head, he shouted insults at him - in what she figured probably was German? Mr. Christensen left the room too which made her greatly uncomfortable, (since everyone else in the room had been abused one way or another witin the last five minutes.) He told her to have a seat in front of the coke covered gold desk: he handed her a small galvanized pipe and took one himself - he made a sway with his left hand, for her to dig in. She hesitated to decline, there came a knock on the door, one of the cops returned his recently fired Magnum 45. He took a line, then fetched the gun and started to reload it. - while informing her that had it not been for him - ‘’That loser - Fred would automatically had been crowned king, and eventually his equally worthless son.’’ He shook his head asking her if she could believe it?
Enemy in me
¨¨So who are you exactly? The other passport found in your luggage states your name is Xiola, I assume that you are not’ Danish?¨¨
She figured that she might as well just level with him - so she told the entire story of how she had taken the hitman job to free Alex from a blinded existence, so they could have their old life back. He listened as he sniffed one line of coke after another. He had laughed greatly of her tale of slashing of Thor, who he told her, - ‘’had been the major income for the country in recent years,’’ - ‘’but he found him to an annoying undiagnosed ADHD brat.’’
She reassured him that the money was still in Denmark, since Thor had refused to re-wire them to the Yakuza, out of fear of his retribution, (which stroked his ego some) He nodded and rubbed his nose that was doing one hell of a job, keeping up with his massive intake. He tapped the table double speed with his second and index finger,(as if he was listening to some really fast techno.)
¨¨Wow…! I must say that you facinate me? - Quid Pro Quo!¨¨
He smiled and rubbed his much tested nose some more, she told him that she had no idea what that meant? he educated her that it was Latin, and it roughly meant, - something for something.
¨¨I mean, that was a truly a heartbreaking story, my question is how do you feel so much love, without having a heart?¨¨
….?
¨¨Perhaps you don’t know what you are? perhaps you believe what you have just told me! But I don’t believe for a second; that you are an ordinary human - perhaps you are an angel….?¨¨
She asked him what that was supposed to mean?
¨¨Well because that S.W.A.T officer that shot you back at the house after you eliminated, Thor. Failed to kill you, even thou he fired half a clip at you! how do you explain that?¨¨
¨¨I don’t know… I guess he must have missed?¨¨
¨¨Really! Then why don’t you pull up your ugly sweatshirt, and take a look for yourself!¨¨
She hesitated for a second, but found it better to do as he said. She lifted up in the red, white crossed adorned sweater. She glanced down at her torso, and found it pierced by a vast spray of bullet holes! she examined her left side, and found a line of at least six bullet holes going from her hip - up beside her left breast. She felt nauseous by the sight, and started to cry as she asked him, ‘’how they had kept her alive?’’
¨¨We haven’t my dear, the bullets haven’t even been removed! but the bleeding stopped by itself? we have not given you any tranquelizer or anything, and it can not be explained by shock alone.¨¨
She asked him if it was some kind of sick mind game he was trying to play on her? Since she knew damn well who she was, and she knew of the use of liquid nitrogen spray to conceal severed tissue… The duke shook his head bouncing, the silvery mane from side to side. -
¨¨I see, ok; you don’t believe me! Let me enlighten you, my dear.¨¨
He cocked the silver Magnum 45 and pointed it at her, barely given her time to shout. -
¨¨No don’t shoot me!!!¨¨
Before the loud release from the antique weapon rang out in his loft chamber. It felt weird she felt like throwing up, and at the same time she could only feel a faint buzz? She looked down her torso that was intact, she was shaken, and her pulse throbbed like crazy.
¨¨Look at your left bicep, Darling.¨¨
She turned her head, and saw something make a tiny spark - it was a red wire sticking from her arm! there were other wires sticking out from the fresh wound as well… the Duke got up and leaned over the cocaine covered gold desk, saying - ‘’remarkable?!?’’ She did not know what to say or believe, he went over and peeled a piece of what looked like metal and bone? - from the hole in her upper arm, as she just stared into the ground, still feeling dizzy with an urge to throw up. Mr. Christensen burst thru the door, alerted by the loud gunshot, he calmed down when he saw that his employer was unharmed. The Duke had him come over and check it out, shoving him the piece of metal that had some bone coating?
¨¨Most interesting isn’t it, Christensen? What do you make of it?¨¨
¨¨Yes - indeed it is! perhaps she’s some kind of robot, I can’t remember what they call those… err?¨¨
- They were trying to remember the word? when Xiola butted inn.
¨¨Are you saying - that I’m an android?¨¨
The two men agreed - that it was the word they had been looking for, and that’ - was probably what she was? She shook her head telling them that it was impossible because she had memories, feelings, and it hurt when she experienced pain, she knew damn well what an android was and she was nothing like it.
Mr. Christensen conducted that if she had a metal frame skeleton, and it was coated with some sort of bone? that’s how she could have avoided attention to the metal detectors at the airport… The Duke nodded and seemed very enthusiastic. He declared that ‘’he had not felt as exited in years!’’ He went over to the mattered window, and seemed engulfed in thoughts for a moment. He then turned on his cowboy boot heels and addressed Mr. Christensen, telling him to notify the airport that they were going to Iceland immediately!
He took a knee before Xiola, who tried not to think of her blasted bicep, and what the hell had happened to her arm while she had been unconscious…? as she had put the white crossed red sweater on again. He told her ‘’that she had shown him the way,’’ he had realized: that a change had to be made - since the world apparently had changed so drastically around him, unbeknownst to his attention? He told her not to worry! that he would harm her any further, promising her security, since from this moment on - she was his muse.
Mama Mia let me go
Minutes later Mr. Christensen held the door for them as they approached the red limo, The duke wore a white lion fur coat, and had given her one as well. The snow continued to fall on this weird summer night - as they headed towards the airport, from where she had arrived only a few hours earlier, the night was still as they drove past the same darkened building complexes on each side of the lonely highway.
They soon reached the airport, where the red limo was let in by a nightshift guard, unto the airfield where the private jet had been driven into take off position. She noticed the Duke saying something to his parka clad assistant, ‘’about having the Royal suite prepared at the hotel.’’ Xiola felt like she was in a twilight zone? too much weird stuff had been going on in the last couple of days, first Lahore which had been a walk in the park, compared to that horrific experience on Iceland - which had been the worst execution she had ever been involved in, - not that killing Thor had been pleasant by any means, but it was after all, what she had agreed to.’’ But that phsycotic hotel manager - who had meant it as a friendly gesture for her to kill that poor family… She felt the rage boil in her now that they were going back to that place, she managed to not think too much of her arm,(that apparently was mechanic?) or the spray of bloodless bullet holes in her body! As long as she stayed focused on Hilda, directing all her anger at her, she would be fine, as she indulged herself in violent fantasies of the sadistic managers demise. Besides there was nothing else she could do but go along with this ‘’muse stuff?’’ for now. It seemed as a better idea to be in favor of the white Duke - than against him. She sat by herself during the flight and emptied a small bottle of vodka, while the Duke and Mr. Christensen laid plans, and made phonecalls to people that were sleeping. She figured that her chances of escaping Iceland, was close to none, in such a small place filled with nationalistic crazies, she was at the mercy of the self proclaimed King of Denmark, whose mood swings seemed utterly unpredictable?
The airport was closed for the night, as they strolled through the abandoned terminal. At the entrance a white limo was ready to pick up the Duke and his small entourage, they drove along the dark highway where the prisoners had been harvesting the fields earlier. The limo took them straight to the Superior hotel,(as she had suspected) - the mere thought of Hilda made her sick. Twenty minutes later the limo pulled up on the circular square that also served as torture playground from time to time. She walked in through the sliding doors next to the duke, and the parka clad Mr. Christensen, who seemed beyond stressed at this point. After a couple of ringing of the bell in the lobby, a tired Hilda appeared from the room next to the lobby, she could not believe what she saw, as her favorite girl from earlier had returned? this time in the company of the sole ruler of the two countries.
She hastily ran over and kneeled before him, as it appeared to be custom when common people found themselves in his presence. He held his hand forward slightly flexed, she kissed his backhand and got to her feet telling him what an absolute honor it was, for her to have him stay at the superior hotel, she told him of how she had all of his music on old original CD’s. He seemed unimpressed and asked for the Royal suite and two other rooms for his guests.
Hilda proudly told him, how she had taken that lovely young woman in his company on a special treat yesterday’s morning, a game of ‘Smash the rats’ she laughed with excitement, telling her - self proclaimed King - ‘’how Xiola had enjoyed it like a little kid, and having been very grateful of her gesture.’’ Perhaps if Hilda had not kept elaborating on the subject Xiola would not had lost it, and grabbed the golden Magnum 45 from out of the white fur coat’s pocket belonging to the white Duke - cocked it and fired it directly in Hilda’s face, - but she did! Mr. Christensen looked on in awe, as the duke turned on his heels elegantly and snatched the gun back from her, adding -
¨¨Thank you my dear, I thought she would never shut up?¨¨
Xiola ran over and kicked Hilda’s dead body, while shouting -
¨¨Perverted old sicko! You Fucking sick fuck!!!¨¨
They waited for her at the elevator, as she wiped the tears off her face, before she got in, she ripped the silver unicorn necklace off, and threw it at Hilda. The duke padded her shoulder asking her if she felt better now? She nodded. He teased her saying -
¨¨my - oh my; aren’t you a feisty little robot!¨¨
She eyeballed him the best she could through his mirror shaded sunglasses,(which he never removed) He smiled back at her clutching his pistol, as in a playful way, saying - ‘’she could not have it.’’
For Progress
They walked to the presidential suite, which was rather dusty, Hilda had not taken much pride in it, since the duke obviously never had sat his foot in the hotel before now. While Mr. Christensen retired to his own suite the Duke sat down in the red and green velvety living arrangements. It was still dark outside, when he turned to her. Asking if she was familiar with expression, -
¨¨It’s always darkest before the dawn?¨¨
she was not, so he explained it, -
¨¨You see my dear, I have been bored for the better part of a decade now! was it fun coming into power, and let my inhibitions run wild? Sure… of course it was… for a while?¨¨
He rubbed his chin with the thin white stripe of beard.
¨¨But the decadent antics is just boring now… the power trip is getting old. My entire existence has become so gland, not even a city of cocaine can cure that! you don’t know what it feels like being almighty? Being Godlike for soo long… is just tedious.¨¨
She listened.
¨¨I really cannot thank you enough Xiola, had you not come along I don’t know what I would have done? I was so sad and lost before I met you tonight.¨¨
He sank as he clutched her hand and shook it a little while he thanked her from the bottom of his heart, she told him that she did not see how she had inspired him in any way?
¨¨Oh my dear, don’t you see! Out of the blue you appeared, entering my impenetrable fortress like a prince in an old fairytale rescuing the sleeping princess.¨¨
His voice cracked, as he said this overwhelmed by emotion.
¨¨You would give your life for your lover, you have such spirit for destruction, and death for the sake of purity, I see myself in you… or at least how I used to be.¨¨
She kept her mouth shut,
¨¨You are this android angel; with all these noble feelings and vigor, my dear.¨¨
She slightly hissed at him that she was not an android! but she could not explain the mechanical arm, - he hushed for her to keep quiet.
¨¨Doesn’t matter what the correct term for your kind is? the important thing is, that you made me see things crystal clear, - that I’ was the one who was mechanical I was the one living like a robot.¨¨¨
He sniffed and spoke with a voice that indicated that he had been relieved from a huge burden!
¨¨Every day the same routine : sex - drugs - torture. Over and over again, no person should be allowed to live such a mundane life, my dear.¨¨
He played with a lock of her newly blonde hair, as a tear slipped from under the edge of his mirror shades, he caressed her cheek with the backside of his well groomed hand.
¨¨ What you did was so grand! you have saved me from my ivory tower existence, you have shown me the way, I owe you so much, I cannot possibly thank you enough for your inspiration, so… ¨¨
He padded her hand that he held in his,
¨¨Tomorrow I will make sure that you are on a plane out of here going to Amsterdam, from which you will take a flight back home to Chiba and your beloved Alex, on the expense of your’s truly of course!¨¨
She couldn’t help but smile, she had figured that she would have ended up dead, once the Duke had grown tired of her or having a fit of wild mood swings!
¨¨I will miss you by my side tomorrow, when Christensen and I will watch the final fireworks.¨¨
She asked what they were celebrating?
¨¨Oh! not traditional fireworks like that, darling.¨¨
He padded her thigh, in a friendly way.
¨¨ I’m talking about the nuclear missiles that the Arab coalition that has occupied Sweden will launch at us, once we drop a Nuke on their capitol, oh I have always loathed Stockholm, so rigid and un-sexy!¨¨
He smiled self sufficient, with a dash of sly pride, she couldn’t believe what she heard? Somehow - his twisted cocaine induced brain, had turned her love motivated assignment, into inspiration for a nuclear holocaust that would affect millions.
¨¨You can’t be serious…? But that is mad!¨¨
He laughed a little as he leaned back into the velvety couch.
¨¨Yes… M.A.D.! Mutual - Assured - Destruction, my dear.¨¨
- He elaborated on how beautiful mutual nuclear annihilation was! musing on how one part takes up the challenge of the other. Comparing it to have having intercourse, and the death of the absolute forbidden desire to eradicate your passion, stating that the mere thought made him quiver with anticipation.
For a moment she had thought that her inspiration had been for something good, but she found her own motives of sacrifice filtered through the mind of a madman, would prove to spell total annihilation?
- She had witnessed his erratic ways earlier, and sensed ‘’that it would be pointless to try and tell him to reconsider his decision,’’ she knew that the mood of The Duke could change within seconds, ‘’and who knew what he then would do to punish her defiance?’’ while Alex would die on the streets of Chiba by the hands of some teenage street gang! or end up an organ donor on the black market? She better keep her mouth shut, the white Duke opened a bottle of old scotch and poured himself a glass, she wanted to forget as much as possible, she asked, - if he was not going to offer her a drink. The Duke raised an eyebrow! He laughed, and she smiled as their glasses met one another in a salute for inspiration! they got drunk - and after some ten toasts; including toasts to nuclear warheads, love and the ultimate power,(and loads of cocaine for the Duke!) Xiola fell asleep on the couch while he was singing melancholic songs from his own back catalogue in his native German tongue, at one point she thought she heard him changing some line to - ¨¨Too many humans - we need a nuclear war¨¨
The next morning he woke her up telling her it was time to go, she was lucky that her real passport was intact after the taxi crash, had it caught fire he joked she would had no other option than staying there and watch the end’ with him… Downstairs Mr. Christensen waited by the white limo again, the Duke and him got inside along with her, they both seemed in a much better mood than yesterday, more relaxed and content? They escorted her inside the airport where a few people waited, the white Duke himself walked up to the counter, asking: when the next plane bordered to Amsterdam? The clerk instantly broke into a sprinkler of cold sweat; by the sight of his King. He managed to stutter a reply of -
¨¨S-S-Sorry, Mr. President, err… m-my King, b-b-but there is no departures before tomorrow morning.¨¨
The Duke held up his hand sporting a white glove, to cut him off.
¨¨You must have been misinformed young man, there is ‘one leaving in less than twenty minutes, am I not mistaken… and I never am!¨¨
He looked over the top of his mirror shades,(just in case the clerk should be a bit slow) The cold sweating clerk instantly grabbed a phone, and told his supervisor that they needed a pilot immediately!!! Some ten minutes later a cab holed up with shrieking brakes outside, a man half dressed in a pilot’s uniform struggled with getting his flight captain jacket on. Mr. Christensen got up from the chair in the little mermaid airport bar, where they had spent the time waiting - shouting for the attention of the stressed guy! the clearly nervous, and still sleepy pilot - led Xiola through the customs.
COME DOWN
She had instantly started taking swags from the bottle of scotch, that the white duke had given her as a farewell gift, as he had kissed her goodbye in the airport. She tried to make some sense of it all…? but she needed to get back to Alex and feel safe first, it was all too much to take in at this point. An hour later she was back at the airport in Amsterdam,(it was not the fist time that a plane had unexpectedly appeared from either of the brutal regimes of Iceland or Denmark,) the airport authorities led her easily through customs, asking her if she wanted to seek asylum? which she declined, she asked them for when the next plane would board for Chiba - It would still be a couple of hours, she checked her reservation that the white Duke had handled for her.
She hurried to one of the intercom payphones, and called up the McHubbard resort hotel immediately! the girl in the reception said that she was not allowed to put her through to ‘room 688, all calls was blocked for that room number! which made her throw a fit shouting at the receptionist on the other end of the line! which kept her cool - just as any member of the cult/burger franchise were trained to do. She hung up… no one seemed to have been alerted by her fit? she figured ‘’that she was no longer in Denmark, so there was no reason to be so paranoid…?’’ She tried to call up Mr. Nagasaki with the net access as well but his vid-mail had been disbanded, ‘’which probably wasn’t so odd, since a Yakuza member probably had to do that often due to being under surveillance.’’ What bothered her was that she could not be put through to Alex’s room. If Mr. Nagasaki had hurt him, she swore she would do all she could to make him suffer!
She needed to get some new clothes, her retarded leisure suit was a stark contrast to the white lion fur coat; she wore over her shoulders. The bottle of scotch had not done her much comfort, she had ditched it after just a couple of glasses on the plane. her mind was racing! stressed from the past days events, she wanted badly to come down and forget about her worries of Alex,(and her mechanical arm?) she wandered the airport terminal randomly - as she came by the vapor lounge of the Dutch THC franchise: HeadSoup. She was never that into LIQ-THC as Alex were, normally she was content, and never indulged herself in any recreational drugs at all, since she still felt high on being in love. Back in the day, at Big Joe’s bump’n’grind go-go establishment - vodka had been her drug of choice, but there was also bad memories attached to binging on alcohol.
She entered the store and approached the Rasta behind the counter, he smiled and told her it was a very nice fur coat! She told him that she would trade it for anything that would make her calm down and forget! He smirked and told her that the coat worth a lot more, - ‘’than she could ever smoke even if she stayed there for a week!’’ She told him that she could use some new clothes, he smiled stoned back and said that: his friend who had a clothing store in the same aisle owed him a big’ favor! so she was free to pick whatever she needed in his store, - ‘’just tell him that Joseph I, have sent you.’’ She gave him a fist bump handshake, it seemed like a good deal, he introduced himself as Joseph I.
¨¨But first what can I offer you, girl. You don’t wanna go shopping straight!¨¨
He slid the edge of his hand over the glass counter and pointed to the wall behind him, that had various greens, browns and purples, that were ready to be cold pressed through a machine, which made capsules that fit the vapors that people were smoking all over the airport.
She felt at ease as she entered the clothing store that Joseph I, had pointed her to. The female clerk spoke in Dutch with a friend on the phone, she thought the speaking sounded like, ‘’the quaking of frogs on Japanese animes!’’ she started to giggle and felt unable to stop again, the overdressed clerk rolled her eyes, she probably experienced that all day long with tourists? Xiola’s giggle drew the attention of an older couple in the shop who started to laugh, and could not stop either; so they left the store in embarrasment.
Perhaps it was the habit of the mindset of having acted hitman for a couple of weeks now, that made her feel attracted to the black smart-suit behind the counter? the clerk with the plastic-tube hair, sported a turquoise stripe that ran circular over her eyes, and round her skull of her shaven undercut - scowled at her, before she took it down. Xiola had finally stopped giggling,(she couldn‘t even remember what she had set it off?). The clerk asked her if she was even good for the credit?!? since she recognized that her clothes was from the fascist state of Denmark, and they never had any ready spending cash, and they only came to her store to look at the clothes they weren’t allowed to wear, or whatever? in the white kingdom!
She told her to never mind since she was not a citizen, besides - Joseph I had sent her, the clerk immediately became more humble and started to explain to her that it was a rather expensive smart-suit, one of those on which the fabric reacts to the toxins your body expels! Having it range semi Kevlar if confronted with an attack, to water-resistant in rainy weather and so forth… She tried it on and it almost seemed like the intelligent fabric was adjusting to her body contours. She agreed to it, and had the clerk throw in a black hoodie with a green glow in the dark biohazard logo on the back as well as a pair of knee high durable leather strapped Sawex boots. The clerk was becoming agitated and told her: to tell Joseph I. - ‘’that they were now even!’’ Xiola flipped her off as she returned to the vapor lounge section of the HeadSoup franchise. Where Joseph I - seemed fixated on the synz-screen in the top corner - that broadcasted live from al-Jazeera, who was: looping the footage from fighter jets as the headline sliding banner read:
¨¨Stockholm vaporized by possible Atomic bomb?¨¨
The Rastafarian owner of the HeadSoup franchise, seemed to be the only one in the entire store and lounge - who cared about what was going on at the red and green striped synz-screen, sporting a Lion of Judah sticker. He stated that he could not believe that, - ‘’The white Duke had finally lost it?!? to the point, where he would launch a M.A.D attack on his own kingdom?’’ - He shook his head saying ‘’he could not imagine what had compelled him to do that kind of stupidity?’’ Xiola sank and shrugged her shoulders a little animated - as she asked him for something that would knock her out. Trying her best to suppress a giggle, when she thought of the fact that ‘’Stockholm had been vaporized’ and she was in a vapor’ lounge…?’’
He took some white crystal coated buds with a purple glow from a well concealed can, it looked like it was so sticky that he had a hard time getting it off his fingers, and into the machine that cold pressed it into a capsule. Joseph I shook his head as he repeated - ‘’that mad Duke’’ to himself, he loaded up a shooter with the capsule, and handed it to her: providing her a Zwarte Piet candy bar to go with it - just in case she should experience a drop of blood sugar.
Sweet Coma
She sat staring at the synz-screen on the wall, in the lounge area that just looped blendo images, she had not even plugged inn the earphones,(she began to wonder what kind of music they played?) just as Joseph I approached her asking: if it was not her flight to Chiba they had just announced for boarding? she turned her head very slowly, saying a bit confused that it was first boarding in five hours?
¨¨It has’ been five hours!¨¨
¨¨Five hours…? what do you mean?… I just had a seat!¨¨
He laughed and coughed - padding her shoulder, -
¨¨Yeah, strong Ganja! you sat down five hours ago you have just starred Into the screen ever since, you are not really familiar with LIQ-THC are you, girl?… you haven‘t even touched the candy-bar! are you sure you are alright?¨¨
She wanted to shake her head - but pondered instead of his words while she took his hand, he reloaded the shooter for her, which had just laid in front of her; on the Jamaica colored glass table. The Rasta had someone fill in for him, as he helped her to the gate, he wished her a good trip and couldn’t help resist the obvious pun: ‘’that she was already on a good trip!’’ (She didn’t get what he meant at all…?) He told her to make sure to take the last capsule before she would go through customs in Chiba. - She wanted to nod but found herself too tired to do so.
Somehow she managed to get on board the plane, a Japanese business man beside her took out a shooter of his own, and pressed it to the left side of his neck, and she figured it might be a good idea to try and get some sleep, before she arrived back home, she was about to press the shooter to her neck! when she found herself strangely fascinated with the synthetic fabric on the top of the seat in front of her…? three hours later she remembered what she was about to do…? she looked at the Japanese businessman to her right that was sound asleep. She pressed it against her neck, but she did not fall asleep, she but kept starring with renewed interest - into the seat fabric in front of her for the ´remainder of the 12 hour flight from Amsterdam to Chiba.
She started to come down some - as she walked through customs with nothing to declare… the terminal was crowded with people preparing for departure, her cloudy mind had almost returned to the angst level before the LIQ-THC. She was supposed to call Mr. Nagasaki if/when she returned from her mission, but again she only reached a closed vid-mail. ‘Outside the rain still hammered down from the malfunctioning weather system high above the city, The smart-suit reacted instantly and switched to rain mode by itself! She immediately hailed a cab and told the cab driver to take her straight to the McHubbard resort - uptown. She was semi-able to push the last days events in the background, as her fear that something had happened to him increased. The cab finally hauled up, in front on the tall hotel building.
McAnswers
She walked past the Micro-SMG carrying clown clad guard, and got inside the enormous lobby with the golden pillars - that seemed to support the roof, everything that was not in white marble was covered in gold. She went straight to the elevator taking it to the 17th level not bothering to ask for a keycard at the reception: she walked straight to room 688, and knocked on the door - she let out a deep sigh of relief as she heard feet approaching the door. - A Japanese man she had never seen before opened the door? She asked to be let inn to see Alex, but he just shook his head saying: that there was no such person there? she could peak in over his shoulder: what appeared to be his wife joined him at the door, and asked what it was about…? Xiola told them, - ‘’that she was certain that it was the right room number.’’ but they declined and said there was no one there but them…! - The fluid space-jazz that faintly soothed the atmosphere in the elevator annoyed her beyond belief! she was certain that something had happened to Alex! that for some reason Mr. Nagasaki had gone back on his promise and broken their deal? ‘’but he had damn well seen the evidence of, Thor being executed!’’ She was getting restless and about to lose her cool as she went up to the big shiny desk. -
The overtly smiling - Japanese woman with the golden hair band and the late 21st century styled uniform: greeted her welcome! Xiola brushed her off: asking what had happened to Alex Green in room 688?!?… The woman behind the desk smiled mechanically, saying - ‘’she was not allowed to disclose information to strangers,’’ Xiola tried to explain that she was his girlfriend. and just earlier this week, she had been at the hotel when they had checked inn!… she mentioned Mr. Nagasaki, who had paid for the room! - but the receptionist just kept on smiling, in that annoying overbearing way - shaking her head. - All of a sudden she snapped, and slammed the receptionist’s head down in the desk, she leaped over it, and grabbed the receptionist by the hair as pulled her to her feet again, she grabbed and pressed a golden chrome pen sporting the: M’ hotel logo to the side of her neck: ‘’swearing she would not hesitate to stab her main artery right there!!!’’ The receptionist/sect member was so used to be smiling all day long, that she tried to keep up the act,(even while she was sobbing with a broken bloody nose.) She professionally looked through the week’s reservations, and found that Alex had checked out the day before today?
The crying,(yet smiling) receptionist had no idea: if he had left alone or with’ someone? People in the brightly lit lobby was startled by the violent scene, Xiola figured she better get out of there before the police arrived! On her way out she made use of the Ninja program, as she in one slide tackled the clown guard that came running to see what was going on? - he instantly got knocked out as he hit the marble floor, she grabbed his half-automatic rifle and strapped it under her black sweatshirt! she walked out the door and hailed one of the new auto-cabs that only drove in the uptown era,(due to the fairly low crime rates.)
She figured it was about time to start getting some answers! Since Mr. Nagasaki seemed impossible to get a hold off, she might as well find out what had happened to her arm(and torso?) She told the driverless cab that she wanted to go the Golden Light clinic 54th street. - Inside the clinic, she went up to the reception asking for Dr. Matsumoto! the receptionist asked her to take place on the silver nylon Chesterfield 1990’s remake couch in the waiting room, she wiped some rain of the sharp bangs of her now blonde’ hair. - A moment later, the receptionist called her name, and told her that the Doctor would see her in room seven! - Dr. Matsumoto asked her to take a seat - his office was as bright as the rest of the clinic you sensed that you could perform an operation of any kind anywhere - without getting an infection.
She wanted to know what he had done to her arm? The Doctor wrinkled his brows aking what she meant? She noticed that he sank as she pulled the black hoodie off, and pulled down the sleeve of the smart-suit and revealed the wiring sticking out…! he dismissively put up his hands saying that: ‘’that was not his’ work,’’ and ‘’such hardware configurations was never conducted at the ‘Golden Light clinic.’’ - She told him - ‘’that it was bullshit!!!’’ - That he had fucked with her arm when she had that wetware installed! She demanded to know what the fuck he had done of modification to her torso as well!!!… and why?!? The otherwise calm Doctor leaped off his chair shouting at her to show some respect! And asked her where her owner was?!?
¨¨My owner! What the hell are you talking about…?¨¨
As he was about to press an alarm button, she drew the half automatic from behind her back, she pointed it straight in his face - telling him that he better had to explain: ‘’exactly what he knew about her!!!’’ The Doc began sweating as he sat down in the chair again. Begging her to not hurt him, displaying a holgraph of his wife and some annoying fat kid… She slapped him with the gun’s mouthpiece
¨¨Start talking asshole! I don’t give a shit about your fucking family!¨¨
She heard guns clicking, two black suited Yakuza men was aiming silver chromed Smith & Wesson replicas at her. Mr Nagasaki appeared at the door, he entered the room and put a long thin black case at the desk between the Doctor and her.
¨¨Put the Gun down Xiola - let’s have talk.¨¨
The Yakuza boss, told her of the fact that he had cut another deal with Alex! taking him out to get new visual implants, the day after she had left, Alex had however bailed out on their, ‘’new deal’’ after having the new implants installed? Mr. Nagasaki knew where he had taken off to! and if she did as he said - he would in return give her the information. - She wanted to know exactly what had happened!… still not sure she could believe what she heard coming from him: asking him why she should trust a single word he told her,?
¨¨Well… do you have much of a choice?¨¨
She threw a fit of anger yelling at him that Alex would never run out on her like that! Why would he?!? He told her to come down, -
¨¨I understand your anger! but no one had expected you to return from that suicide mission to Denmark… come on, admit it! - did you’ think you’ would make it back?¨¨
¨¨…Maybe not, I dunno, but so fucking what?¨¨
¨¨Don’t get me wrong? We had faith in you completing the kill and perhaps getting the money back, but for you to return… no chance.¨¨
¨¨The money was never part of the deal, Nagasaki - and you know it.¨¨
He looked troubled, like a man that was in over his head? she realized that he had people in higher places to answer to, someone higher in the hierarchy than him, ‘’someone he had failed.’’
¨¨So that’ is what this is all about, yea! You’re in deep shit aren’t you?¨¨
No one ever talked to him like that, he slapped her across the face, making her promptly knock him into the Doctor’s desk! - with a fist to the right, he shouted for his men not to shoot her! She stood over him with her fists clenched.
¨¨So what is it this time! who do you need assassinated! who do I have to kill before you’ll give me the info?!?¨¨
He got to his feet again. Getting right up in her face! -
¨¨Don’t ever try and humiliate me like that in front of my men again, or I’ll have you pumped full of lead!¨¨
She just kept eye-balling him, to show that she meant business, -
¨¨You’re right, I want Alex to pay for running out on our deal, which included that he helped with getting the money back from Thor.¨¨
She nodded, -
¨¨And what made you think that he would risk getting fried for a second time in the black ice at the exact same place in the digi-realm?¨¨
¨¨Well you would had been in place - to persuade Thor to remove the aggressive defenses, and Alex could have snatched the money back.’’
¨¨So you basically paid Alex a bunch load of cash and he fucked you over!’’
¨¨A word is a Word, in the Yakuza!¨¨
¨¨Ha! First: Alex is not Yakuza you fucking moron, and second: Fuck you! Look at how you sold me out, fuck your mob codex - you’re just a lowlife in an expensive suit nothing more.¨¨
He raised his hand to hit her again, she reacted by grabbing his balls and squeezed hard!
¨¨Now why would I not just try and squeeze the truth out of you‘ instead of the Doctor? since you were most likely the one - that have paid for him to mess with my body in the first place?!?¨¨
He screamed in pain - that his men would shoot her dead -
¨¨I’m not so sure Nagasaki? I have recently taken a large spray of bullets to my body, as well as losing a good chunk of my left bicep - so maybe I’ll take my chances?¨¨
¨¨Listen to me you crazy fuck! My men will shoot you straight in the head! I don’t think you are as invicible as you make it sound! So listen to my proposition!¨¨
She let go of his balls, he rubbed his crotch, panting from the pain.
¨¨Ok no more fucking around - listen up: Inspector Koto is on the trail, soon they will have connected that the seven headless victims - were top-hackers connected to one’ giant hack attack! we are doing all we can, to hide what went down., Meltdown the first hacker you killed - is the one who connects this.¨¨
She wondered what he meant…?
¨¨Ever since the night of his murder - the rain has been pouring down! Now - since none of the hackers had any records with the police: the murders had seemed randomly conducted? but a memo has been leaked to the police - that connects the ‘unlucky seven’ as well as the date of Meltdown‘s murder to the heavy downpour, which match perfectly! We believe he is the one responsible for causing it: and if he gets connected to them - then before long they will start to connect the dots, and it will eventually lead to the Yokozama corporation - since its well known the Zaibatsus are under our protection - concerning cyber attacks,¨¨
She wrinkled her brows, -
¨¨What the hell does that have to do with me?¨¨
¨¨You know what they say; ‘what happens in cyberspace stays in cyberspace!’ It would not matter if we burned down his appartment, the data is still out there in the grid.¨¨
¨¨So why don’t you just get some hacker to wipe it clean.¨¨
He looked down for a second -
¨¨Cause the balance is off… everyone that had the skills to get around Meltdowns firewalls has been eliminated by you! Besides getting some outside hacker could draw more attention, right now.¨¨
She smiled sarcastic -
¨¨Another thing you needed Alex for, huh!¨¨
He tried to remain calm, he was not used to being humiliated, -
¨¨We have a premium hacking program we want to install on your hard disk, so you can hack your way into the weather control system directly from Meltdown’s own deck…! I don‘t know if it will work, but it‘s our only chance at this point!¨¨
¨¨Ok, sure why the hell not! I have so much crap on that hard-drive anyways, so - I erase all traces of him hacking the system?¨¨
¨¨And make that damn artificial rain stop on all accounts! Mayor Yamamoto has issued a bounty, to who can find the criminal that hacked the weather system.¨¨
¨¨Yea - yea I see, it could lead back to you, and you probably don’t have too many chances left to fuck up, do you?¨¨
He squeezed his eyes tighter to toughen up, she got right up close and personal with him, -
¨¨You are even more desperate than I am… am I right Nagasaki? If I fuck this up you’re finished in the Yakuza - yea!¨¨
He hesitated to answer her, but his silence gave her all the answer she needed,(she smiled by herself.) Telling him that she had some questions she needed to get a hold of, before she went to do the Meltdown business, he told her just to just have it done before midnight, or the deal was off! She asked him what kind of work, he had ordered done to her left arm, while getting the wetware installed? since there was now wires sticking out of it. He looked questioningly at her… stating that he had not ordered for anything else than the wetware and the following uploads! Dr. Matsumoto nodded eagerly -
¨¨That’s what I told her, we have done nothing but implanting the wetware and doing one upload besides that!¨¨
Mr. Nagasaki turned around on his way out,-
¨¨I don’t know exactly what it is you’re trying to figure out? But I don’t hope it will get in the way of our deal, as far as I am concerned you’re a hitman, mechanical arm or not.¨¨
Before he left the room with his two bodyguards, he handed her the thin black case, she opened it and found a Katana inside with a strap-holster as she had worn on all her previous missions. she strapped it under her black hoodie. Dr. Matsumoto looked a bit startled as she approached his desk and told him to get the hacking program installed, and that he better wipe every trace of the Danish voice recognition program, since she never wanted to think about that place ever again…
Monkey needs
She had a hard time believing that Alex had run out on her! the last time a man she had trusted to have loved her? he had left her on her own: It was four years ago, when her drunken father with a gambling problem, had handed her off to Big Joe: the owner of Bump’n’Grind in the red light district - oddly…? the same place that she had been rescued from two years ago. She figured that it might be an idea to drop by the filthy establishment, ‘’who knew what kind of answers she might dig up about that mechanical arm, and her blurry past.’’ - She had hailed a new driverless cab that now holed up in front of the main street where traffic was denied access, this part of old Chinatown was no longer Yakuza Turf - since the petty money to be made from the once lucrative red light district: was nothing - compared to the big business money from the Zaibatsus.
The red light district era was however highly protected since the prostitution and sex business - was run by local street gangs these days. - - Especially the growing middle and upper class - from former African countries laid a great contribution to the market there!
A shiver ran down her spine, as she walked down the street with sex establishments on both sides, she wanted to be anywhere - but back here, inside of the oval tube shaped street where a perpetual red light shone down from the ceiling, at all hours of the day! It was fairly dry except for places where the rain slipped through cracks in the plexi glass. She wished the water would break through it and wipe the old main street clean of all the scum, and bad memories she could not wash off…
She walked by a sex-parlor that only featured a whorebot from four years ago in the display, ironically surrounded by flashing holograms of, ‘’live girls inside!‘’: she pressed her hands against the window while she gazed at it for a moment. The features where crude in may ways, you could see that even thou it seemed live-like, it still had that element of what experts called ‘’the scary valley?’’ that odd place between something that tried to be as live-like as possible but actually ended up being scary?(especially to primates that threw hysterical fits of anger when exposed to androids.) - She realized just how much, there had been messed with her head this past week, the drinking and the drugs had added to throw her of her usual balanced self! the stress of the assassinations - the paranoia and fear of losing Alex, not to mention: Lahore, Hilda and Denmark had taken its toll on her… She knew her fuse had been shortening recently, she could have handled the situation at the McHubbard hotel better, but she was stressed out!
She walked on, and a couple of streets further ahead, she made a left turn down the dirty alley to Big Joe’s Bump’n’Grind. Nothing had changed… Henry the big bulked ex-CIA henchman still worked as security outside! she walked up to him, giving him a hug: ‘’He had been the only one that had treated her nicely.’’ She told him that, ‘’it was good seeing him again, but she needed to speak to Big Joe!’’ - he replied that he had never seen her before? - She asked him to take a closer look at her, stating that she used to have jet-black hair with pink stripes in it.
¨¨It’s me Xiola, Henry…¨¨
Still It did not ring a bell with him… but he offered to take her upstairs to Joe if she was looking for work? they could always use more blondes! He walked her inside the establishment, it seemed like it was ladies night? since the majority of the clientele was Japanese business women parading around in their Tribiani power suits, she stated that a lot had changed since she had been there last time? Henry looked at her asking, - ‘’when exactly that was…?’’
She told him: two years and four months to be exact…! he shook his head saying - that in the last five years the establishment had more or less relied on the female executives displaying their power and financial status, by buying dances and sex from the place,(which they found authentic in an patriarchal way!) She asked him if they employed bots? he shook his head declining that Joe was not interested in that stuff. It made her feel better, they entered Big Joe’s office at the first floor of the old building. Big Joe had gotten his name because of his reputation, the man barely stood five feet three tall, and the yellow retro monkey-suit he wore did not make it better, he smiled in a slightly angular way displaying a row of golden teeth.
¨¨You?!?¨¨
¨¨Yes me Joe, I’ve come for some answers!¨¨
Henry looked surprised that Big Joe knew her…?
¨¨What answers? Where is your owner!¨¨
She tried her best to repress the anger rising inside of her! -
¨¨Don’t piss me off Joe, I already feel like killing you, because of the shit you made me do, the years of abuse!¨¨
Big Joe laughed in a, - ‘’I can’t believe what I hear?’’ way. Henry asked his boss - ‘’if he should throw her out?’’ which in turn made Xiola swing a straight karate chop to the right to his neck, sending him unconscious unto the floor. Now Big Joe got up from his chair, ‘’shouting for her to calm down!’’ She leaped forward knocking the air out of him with a knee to his solar plexus, the small man fell to his knees in front of her, as she pulled the half automatic from beneath her hooded sweater and shoved it in his face.
¨¨Tell me about my father!¨¨¨
Big Joe looked confused - asking her what that was supposed to mean? she bitch’ slapped him a couple of times, stating ‘’that he should not test her limits.’’ Asking him about Alex and what he knew of him before they had met.
¨¨Nothing - I did not’ know him! you mean the guy that bought you right?¨¨
She nodded, guessing that that’ would be what he meant by her owner?
¨¨Listen we just got you in, two nights before he showed up, he instantly took a liking and bought you, that’s it!¨¨
She tried to read his narrow eyes.
¨¨So he bought me out off the contract that you had made with my father, and that’s all you know?¨¨
He asked her not to hit him again, -
¨¨Listen, I don’t know anything about your father, I don’t know what you’re talking about? you were brought in for testing that’s all…¨¨
¨¨What the hell is that supposed to mean?!?¨¨
¨¨Yukihiru Sakamoto, the owner of Play-doll, approached me to, take you in for a trial period… I’m not into having artificials working in my establishment, but he wanted to test if people would notice it with his latest creation.¨¨
She hit him with the half automatic over the head, and started to kick him while she called him a liar! the tiny man with the grand name begged for her to stop!
¨¨That’s fucking bullshit Joe! on the way here I passed a whorebot - from four years ago? are you trying to tell me that I am a goddamn android developed, at the same time as that! ‘you think I‘m that fucking stupid, huh! Huh!¨¨
She hit him over the head again with the Micro-SMG
¨¨Do you think I have forgotten how you treated me you fucking creep! how you bought me - from my useless piece of shit of a father!¨¨
¨¨Please… for the last time I don’t know anything about your father? And of course you are not like one of those, from four years ago, I never said that!?!¨¨
¨¨But Alex and I met here two years ago!¨¨
Big Joe nervously answered her back -
¨¨Sorry but no… no you didn’t? He came in here a little over a month ago! he was really impressed, and asked if he could buy you? I called up Sakamoto and they agreed on some deal and that’s it - I never saw neither one of you again, until now! Please… I don’t know that Alex guy - you should talk to Sakamoto, he knows of your origins… if that’s, what you wanna know?¨¨
She did not want to believe him, not a word of what he said made sense. She asked him how come she had such a clear memory of her father selling her off to him? and all the years she had been forced to degrade herself in his sleazy joint! the abuse he had inflicted on her! Her last remark seemed to make him angry. -
¨¨Listen!!… I never abused you, why would I? I treat all my bitches good, I might fuck ‘em - but I never beat ‘em. And you only worked here for two days as an experiment - since I owed Sakamoto a big favor! In those two days, I tried my best to avoid you… I’m old school - you artificial whores creeps me out!¨¨
- She wanted to kill him almost as bad as Hilda back on Iceland. But she resisted the impulse with all her might.
¨¨Listen Joe - my head has been fucked with so hard for this past week, if your story prove to be yet - another head-fuck? then I will return and kill you, but I will torture you first… in ways you cannot imagine? do you understand!…¨¨
He nodded and gave her the address to the Play-doll Inc. Headquarters - which lay in the wrong part of the harbor, not that far off to where she had killed Acid Burn, and almost got detected by a police drone. She turned around to get up, she got knocked to the ground by Henry, who had gotten to his feet again she automatically fired the gun at him making him tilt backwards, she pointed it at Joe who held his hands over his head still lying on the floor. Reminding him that she would come for him. As she ran down the backstairs, she cursed herself again for being too careless with the gun,(instead of retreating to the Katana,) ‘’she had to get her anger and impulses under control.’’ Soon some kind of neighborhood watch team of gang members would appear, after hearing a round of ammo being blasted on their turf!(Especially The Sputniks had a penance for ultra-violence) it was probably a good idea to split and head for the harbor immediately, the sky was darkening against the heavy rain, and the docks were a scary place after dark…
Embodiment Of Frustration
She made it along the abandoned cargo containers on the right side of the docks but sooner or later she would have to come closer to the dangerous area, of the fenced warehouses, and black market clinics… She crossed the old loading docks, where only the real hardcore addicts and lowlifes hung around, those were the ones that were strung out on Dregup. - at the docks you could by the Dregup straight from the labs, and cut the middle man out! But it was also the place where only the truly desperate came, in hope to sell an organ on the illegal black market, with its many pirate clinics! Problem was that only fresh addicts could be used, and all the scumbags that hung around were scavengers, who was hoping to rob the newly operated for their cash when they came back out. But her real fear was based on the marauder gangs that went for the late night shift workers. The docks were a rough urban environment, anything could go down at any minute!
She remained largely unnoticed as she passed heaps of scrap metal, and burned out old oil barrels used for fires, she finally came to the address that hosted: Play-doll Inc. Everything was quiet… no security and there was no electronic wiring attached to the six feet high fence, only adorned by good old barbed wire at the top. She hesitated for a couple of seconds, wondering ‘’if Big Joe might had warned them beforehand?’’ She scaled the fence in three pre-programmed Ninja moves!… still nothing? she found it strange that there was no guards for a company that worked in the docks at night? She only walked a couple of steps in the dark parking lot, before she heard the sound of sheet metal - being banged against the concrete wall of the building of the company warehouse, - followed by the sound of metal moving fast, scraping against the wet pavement - as two mechanical pitbulls came at her: with their jaws wide open. She barely got the Micro-SMG out before one of them leaped for her head! she squatted and fired at the mech-dog as it flew over her head, the bullets pierced its body armor, and the early evening darkness was lit up by a trail of sparks as the dog - slid across the parking lot before coming to a halt… the second dog snapped its killer jaws around her left shin, and she screamed out in shock - as it threw here off balance, twisting its head, as it tried to chew through her leg! She fired half of the magazine into the dog, before the piercing red light of its diode lit eyes faded. Slowly it loosened its strong grip, the smart-suit had shifted to semi Kevlar - but it hurt like hell! The dog she had shot came limping towards her on it’s three remaining legs, looking like a robot shark plowing through inches of rain water in the soaked parking lot, she could barely stand on the foot, which the mech-dog had chewed on. She made her way towards the entrance with the damaged killer hardware a couple of meters behind her. She knew she must had drawn some attention, by using the gun to soon! before long the place would be crawling with the organ marauder gangs, who controlled the area after dark. Wounded there was no way she could outrun them, in their fast modified pick-up trucks. She needed to get inside the Play-doll Inc. warehouse.
The lock was not that hard for her to pick - it seemed empty inside the warehouse, there were some lights on at the end of the big hall, she walked towards the metal door in the far end,(she could not feel her left foot now,) she had forgot to lock the door and the crippled mech-dog, made a dull scraping sound, as it kept following her across the hall with the electronic workstations on each side. It seemed like an eternity before she reached the door, from where the light spilled from the edges, She cursed the smart-suit for not being strong enough to keep the sharp metal teeth of the mechanical dog out. She opened the door that luckily budged as she lay her weight into it.
A guy was sitting with his back to her, operating on what looked like a naked woman? lying on a stainless steel table, he removed a pair of welding goggles, and rubbed his eyes - as she slowly staggered towards him, having drawn the katana. The disabled watch dog banged against the heavy metal door she had shut behind her. The technician turned around and removed one of the inn-ear phones that had been blasting loud music,(which explained why he had not been alerted by the round of ammo she had fired outside!) He stared at her with a nervous expression on his face, asking her what she wanted? stating that if it was money she was after - ‘’they had none lying around: since it was strictly a factory! but she could have whatever cash he had on him.’’ Every ten second, there would be a banging coming from the door due to the watchdog in attack mode.
She got right up close - asking him if he recognized her? He shook his head wildly, she asked him if he was the owner of the company? He responded that he was just the chief-engineer at Play-doll Inc. and he was certain that he had never seen her before?!?! She asked him again if he didn’t recognize her…? The engineer shook his head… he was too scared to truly fathom the situation. She glanced at the naked woman on the table in front of him. Xiola swung the katana and beheaded the woman, who she realized was mechanical - due to the open torso, and the fact that her facial features were the exact same features as hers‘.
¨¨D-did you make me…! W-was I made here?!?¨¨
He understood where it was going and studied her face closer.
¨¨Yes - yes, ok… yes - I believe you are, what has happened to you, did your owner do this to you?¨¨
He was no doubt referring to the gush in her forehead, As much as his ‘question pissed her off, she resisted beheading him. As long as she kept her anger burning it wouldn’t give way to her tears of frustration.
¨¨So I am an artificial… an android or a cyborg what the hell am I?¨¨
He looked a little shy and looked down, -
¨¨Well… we just call you guys, whorebots.¨¨
¨¨WHAT?!?¨¨
The engineer start to blink neurotic by her harsh manner and the waiting katana.
¨¨Sorry! Sorry! Well it’s not me, who invented that word, I just work here you know? I mean we can call you an android err… if you like, cause you know that’s the technical term… I guess?¨¨
¨¨A whorebot is that all I am to you?…huh!¨¨
¨¨Ok - no, just don’t hurt me with that sword ok!¨¨
She pointed it closer to his neck, the rapid twitching of his eyes intensified! As she warned him not to lie to her.
¨¨I-I - mean, Yes, that is the purpose why we produce you guys,¨¨
¨¨So just to get this straight! what you’re saying is that the main purpose for my sole existence is to be a sex-toy, do you honestly think that I‘d buy that?¨¨
(He knew that there was no way - to answer that question correct.)
¨¨I don’t believe it! if I was some simple fuck-toy android, which I very much doubt…! then how come I feel like killing you right now? ¨¨
¨¨Because your electronic brain is constructed to reflect synthetic generated emotions under the influence of three primary stimuli, either a smell an image or a sound, which activates three panels that again determines a simulation of passion resembling love, fear, lust, hate and so on…¨¨
She looked at him under heavy eye lids, losing her patience fast, his geeky nature had him rambling on nervously -
¨¨And err… these artificial feelings have a register consisting of another three levels to display the level of the simulated feeling,¨¨
He noticed how she tightened her grip on the shaft of the katana. Still he kept going, -
¨¨And of course, cross fading the three emotions at once, y’know?¨¨
She swung the katana down fast and the sharp blade went through the edge of the chair between his legs, he jumped in his seat, swearing it was true what he told her!(but due to aggressive denial, she wanted to hear something else coming from his mouth.) Saying she did not believe him - that she was sure he had cooked up the entire story together with Big Joe! she confronted him with the sharp blade to his neck to validate: that her conspiracy theory held true?
¨¨No that’s how you’re constructed, you are of the newest generation, not even out in the US yet, and I don’t know Big Joe, honest!¨¨
¨¨So do you know Alex?¨¨
He shook his head, telling her that he was only in charge of manufacturing the bots - everything else was handled by; Sakamoto the owner. But she noticed - that he had avoided answering her question of him knowing Alex? she pressed the katana harder against the left side of his neck, and drew a little blood. He begged her to stop as she repeated her question.
¨¨Yes, err… No! I don’t know him like that? Sakamoto just showed up one evening together with him and you.¨¨
She kept the pressure of the blade stabile.
¨¨All I know is that Sakamoto wanted to try you out at a place to see if people would notice a difference!¨¨
She asked him what he meant by: ‘’a difference?’’ But she had to cut him off, as he started to elaborate on the technicalities of the flex skin between generation 3 and generation 4 whorebots.
¨¨How long was I there?¨¨
¨¨Not for long… like two days or so?¨¨
¨¨Uh-huh! And when was this?¨¨
¨¨Like a month ago or so?¨¨
¨¨That’s a fucking lie!!! How can that be when I remember slaving away for years at Big Joe’s Bump’n’Grind?!?¨¨
The engineer look guilt ridden, and looked through her -
¨¨Because that’s what your owner… I mean Alex wanted you to remember.¨¨
She looked at him with great disbelief -
¨¨That doesn’t make any sense, Alex loves me! why would he want me to have false memories? Such horrible detailed memories?¨¨
The clearly stressed engineer scratched his head, apparently he felt a great discomfort discussing the subject.
¨¨Well you see… - your very nature is promiscuous, like not being able to say no, I think he wanted to make sure that you did not stray.¨¨
She could feel the watering of her eyes, she did not fully understand what he meant, as he elaborated further on the subject. -
¨¨The bad memories should work like the way you shame someone - to make you feel bad about certain err… stuff, like sex and other guys.¨¨
¨¨But I remember he saved me from Big Joe, what about my dad, it can‘t be right?¨¨
The engineer shook his head again, -
¨¨I’m sorry but you don’t have a father, that’s a memory imprint as well, Alex paid good money for those programming advancements.¨¨
The water from her eyes now ran down her cheeks.
¨¨Also to prevent me from straying, I guess?¨¨
¨¨Yes, to make sure that you, erm… felt bad about the male sex in general, except for him… I think that programming that stuff was going too far, I did not agree with it, that parent stuff, and all that abusive shit, just so you know.¨¨
She sat down and threw a coffee mug at the steel plated door, from where the mech-dog on the other side kept up the rhythmic banging, eager to get in,(which unfortunately made it even more determined.) The engineer looked questioningly at her, asking her how she had come to suspect that she was an artificial human? ‘’Again empathizing that that’ Alex guy - had some really sick ideas,’’ and that he begged her to spare his life, since he had just followed orders… She felt so strangely detached to the word human! she had a hard time figuring out how it made her feel,(except for confused and lost)
She pulled the soaked black sweatshirt off, and pulled down the sleeve of the smart-suit: displaying the wires sticking out of the hole in the left bicep - caused by the white Duke. She told him that the bullet holes on her torso had helped to convince her, that there was something else wrong with her besides the mechanical arm. He nodded. -
¨¨Listen I can fix you up if you want me to?¨¨
¨¨Yeah how so? You got some spare parts lying around?¨¨
She sobbed harder, now that she no longer could dismiss what she was. He told her that he would show her where she was made/born. They entered the room next to that. Some ten big tanks stood lined up along a wall, containing some kind of liquid resembling clear jelly. Tubes and wires went into the wall through a control station at each tank. The atmosphere felt weird and unfamiliar to her? The Chief engineer suggested that he could heal her wounds, and she asked him suspiciously how it would work, he launched into a speech
¨¨A stingy liquid nutritional stimulates the growth of damaged flesh or limbs. A dummy network of artificial blood vessels growing into the body at the same time, replacing the damaged tissue with new, while the supplemented body's own circulation system.¨¨
¨¨So the liquid can actually heal up my damaged body, just like it created me?¨¨
He nodded, saying she just had to get out of the clothes and get into one of them.
¨¨I guess some alarm must had gone off, as security was breached when I trespassed the gate.¨¨
¨¨ Don’t worry I instantly hit the default button on the alarm system, those watchdogs takes a run at coke cans all night long, since it’s a favorite pass-time, for the scumbags that hang around the era: to throw stuff over the fence to see the dogs come running at it, so its just a reflex to press abort.¨¨
She stripped off the Sawex boots, and the smart-suit and got into one of the tanks: while still clutching the katana in one hand, the liquid felt strangely comforting against her skin, it felt neither warm nor cold? She slid under, only keeping her head and hands above the liquid, she could almost feel how it worked instantly, as the engineer pressed some buttons on the control panel and some electricity worked through the liquid. Half an hour later, the bullet holes on her torso had almost healed up, much of her bicep had restored a thin layer of calcium that covered the metal skeleton, and new tissue had already encapsulated the wiring, he told her that new flex skin, would be forming within a week from today - now that the process had been initiated! ’’she would however get scar tissue in the places where she had been wounded’’ She looked in a mirror and saw that the gush in her forehead was almost gone from the liquid she had smeared on it, the ‘’skin’’ looked fragile and irritated where it covered her Danish wounds, -
¨¨So I have not been launched on the market yet, you say, how come?¨¨
¨¨We only do business with one company in the US, the whole artificial thing never caught on here in Japan, besides we have made an ’exclusive only’ deal with them, you see - they usually want to replace all the previous generation of bots at the same time, but we are actually flying out two whor….I mean bots’ of your Generation - for a preview to, LA SIN tonight, we are greatly behind schedule actually. She dried off the tank liquid before she slipped back in the smart-suit, and strapped on the Sawex boots,
¨¨Oh yeah, before I forget, you said that I was at Big Joe’s for a trial period, how did I do.¨¨
¨¨Erm… well you did splendid, like no one noticed that you were a bot.¨¨
¨¨Except Alex, I guess… how did he find out?¨¨
¨¨I think he wanted to fuck you, and Joe wouldn’t allow it, since the deal was just for you to strip, and give lap-dances.¨¨
¨¨Is it normal for whorebots not to get anything out of having sex, I mean not liking it except for the comfort of someone…loving you?¨¨
He shook his head, and she knew it meant that Alex had that installed in her as well, he leapt into a rant of how he might be able to re-boot some of her programs, deleting certain chapters, but she could feel the anger rise again, she wanted to find Alex, and make him pay for the shit he had done to her. She had pondered whether she should kill the engineer or not, but she decided to let him live for now. She cut the wires and cables to the growth tanks, much to his dismay. Telling him to change the features on the 4th generation, so they looked nothing like her. As she approached the sliding door: the mech-dog was not fast enough to react as she grabbed it behind the neck, and carried it twitching in front of her out of the building, outside in the pouring rain she threw the dog across the parking lot. She scaled the fence once again in three pre-programmed steps: luckily her bitten foot felt stabile again. As she landed on the other side! A projector from a truck nearby blinded her, somewhere down the road, another truck approached in high speed. she pulled the katana from its sheath on her back…
Violent New Breed
Half an hour later Yamuzo - the bio-enhanced forensic approached Inspector Koto, in the rain soaked parking lot; where a truck had barely burned out! only light source apart from the blue light of the police sirens came from behind the Venetian blinds in the windows of the hangar that housed the headquarters of Play-doll Inc. The main alarm had gone off as the truck had crashed into the building through the fence.
Yamuzo confirmed the data - analyzed by her receptive bio-implants, the cuts in the tires of the burned out truck, to the beheaded victims that most likely were a gang of marauders, catering to the black market organ business - all matched! they had all been hit with the same weapon; a Katana, that held a 99% similarity to that of the previous two weeks slaughtering, of the mysterious seven beheaded victims. The thing that puzzled inspector Koto, was the fact, that the marauders usually kept it very low key, they only went after down and out victims or at least groups no larger than three, to avoid trouble with the law: but this was a regular massacre! Marauders that had not been in direct contact with the suspect, were reported as having been hunted down in the area, and at least two abandoned cargo terminals,(organ clinics) had been set on fire.
Yamuzo yanked his sleeve of the parka coat,(set to raincoat mode as usual.) She had just received info on a secured crypted line from another division with the Chiba police department - She now had an address that might be worth re-visiting. Inspector Koto addressed his assistant -
¨¨Do you really believe that all this can be the work of one’ renegade?¨¨
She shook her head as they got into the police car and speeded out of there.
Renegade
Downtown she walked through the falling rain that made trance like drum patterns on the plexi glass sheltered filth street of the red light district, she pressed her hands against the window that displayed the dusted 1st generation whorebot, she felt a pain, trying to remember what the engineer had told her, about the response of mixing signals on displays or whatever? she felt so strangely human and vulnerable, the slaughtering of the marauders had felt soo good… so had the burning of the clinics they had revealed, they had worked for. But the anger was giving way to the hurt of betrayal by Alex. At a spot on the wall - a steady line of water kept gushing down like a cheap waterfall. she placed the palm of her hand against it, and the blood from murdering Big Joe washed off some, she had gone back on her word, she looped his last words, and could not figure out if it had been a curse or a compliment: when he had told her, that she was - ‘’Human, way too human.’’
She was sure it was something about being deceptive? but she did not care much, she wanted more than anything to hunt Alex down! She figured that she needed to do the last job at Meltdowns place? Of course she could try to scale the fence or sneak into the safe enclave in which Mr. Nagasaki lived, and kill off his ensemble of bodyguards, but the last enclave - break and enter! had not gone over too well, and she knew she could end up either badly wounded, or shit could go south from the get go, and Nagasaki could end up dead before she could torture the address out of him!… Better to play it save, she figured. There was still a couple of hours till the deadline of their agreement was up! She thought back on the first kill, and the memory of the Fujitzi tower 1 came back! it seemed like this time around, she would have to make her way in, attracting attention from the guarded front entrance, ‘’but so be it’’ she pondered, as long as she got the lowdown on Alex‘s whereabouts, this time it was not about rescuing him…
Some half hour later she rode the elevators to the 137th floor, from where she walked down the hall to room 847. Perhaps the luxury condo had been rented out again, Since there was no yellow police tape at the door? she picked the lock and entered the dark apartment, making her way to Meltdown’s deck, without turning on the light. The five synz-screens were dark, she re-booted the computer, luckily the screens flickered on - ‘’flashing images of people running from one of many the Fukuzhima Meltdown alerts!’’ she found a fiber-optic cable and attached it in her jack-in behind her left ear. She hit enter on the keyboard, and attached the other end of the cable into the main console, that’s when she heard guns clicking behind her, followed by the command not to move! Inspector Koto and the bio-enhanced forensic Yamuzo - had finally managed to catch the person, who had caused them grief for over two weeks.
- The inspector told her to slowly put her hands behind her head, as he walked over to cuff her, Yamuzo kept her standard corp-gun - aimed at her. She knew she could not reach for the Katana - yet? As the inspector placed one of the cuff’s around her right wrist, the ninja program worked its magic, and she grabbed the shaft of the Katana in a second - while he conveniently provided her shelter for Yamuzo to take a shot. In the same movement of pulling the sword out of its sheath, she swung it upwards with a hard flex of her cuffed wrist and snapped off both hands of the old inspector, who looked down in disbelief at the stumps he had left instead of hands - while the forensic shouted twice for him to move, before she got silenced as the Katana pierced her skull by a well aimed throw, over the shoulder of the be-handed policeman! Xiola sat back in the chair and plugged in again, as he fell to his knees behind the comfy gamer chair, to the sound of clicking of keys, by way of her newly installed hacking program. As he steadily lost consciousness, he held up his arm stumps, and his final thoughts drifted to: how he would never get to hold Mrs. Koto close again, the comforting way she liked it when they fell asleep, he blamed himself for the fatal mistake - ‘’that he had not removed the sword before cuffing the suspect.’’ A mistake that would see Mrs. Koto grow old and die alone without him, tears formed in his eyes as he lost consciousness, on the junk food box-covered floor, and bled to death in the apartment where it all had started roughly two weeks ago. Xiola did not notice this as she was already looking through Meltdown’s file system using the efficient hacking program she had gotten uploaded at the Golden Light clinic.
As if she was in a trance her fingers danced over the keyboard with the hacker‘s dried up blood, the computer logged online and pulled up data, and all kinds of binary codes that flickered for seconds. A couple of minutes later, a hologram of a head’ appeared on the screen in front of her, it looked stiff but puzzled, she recognized it; it was the face of - Meltdown!
Deus ex machina
She sank as he addressed her! asking who she was? The hacking program tried to delete the image, but it seemed there was no way to get the image of the dead Yapet Futzimuji,(which was Meltdown’s real name) removed from the interface! she figured it was some kind of smart-mechanism that popped up if anyone tried to either ghost hack - or manually hack their way into his mainframe. The image looked confused, and asked what she was doing? After one stressful minute - she spoke out loud,(mostly of annoyance) telling the face on the synz-screen: that she was trying to hack into his system, to stop the water from pouring down so she could get the info, on where Alex was hiding his sorry ass…?
- She jumped in the chair when the image spoke back to her, through the speakers on each side of the headrest on the gamer chair . She could not believe it at first, when is asked her, out loud -
¨¨What did you say? That you’ are hacking my computer?!?¨¨
She did not know what else to do than speak the truth, -
¨¨Err. Yeah I am… sorry about that - but it really doesn’t matter now.¨¨
¨¨What the hell are you talking about girl? nobody is trying to hack my computer! I can’t see no firewall going crazy?¨¨
¨¨Ok just forget what I said.¨¨
The image kept looking at her, as if it somehow could see her…? but she was sure it was how the precaution program had been made, ‘’to psyche out the intruding hacker.’’ Meltdown’s dark eyes stared at her from the synz-screen, she tried not to look at it while her fingers automatically flew over keys - until the image spoke to her again, -
¨¨Hey Blondie! Where are you doing? Talk to me.¨¨
She tried not to avoid his eyes,
¨¨Doesn’t matter! please go away, or shut down or something!¨¨
He laughed mechanically forced back at her, asking ‘’what that was supposed to mean?’’ there was silence for a second then her hands stopped tapping rapidly. She slowly raised her head as the various intruding programs disappeared from the screen, her eyes met his, -
¨¨Now answer me! Yes I see you were actually trying to hack my system, with some pre-set shitty program, not very clever! Do you have any idea who I am? and why the hell are you on webcam when you try and hack someone?¨¨
She had no idea of how to wiggle her way out of this one? to bullshit a top hacker like Meltdown - you would have to know the grid lingo, and she was far from being able to come up with something remotely believable, so she stuck to the truth, -
¨¨I dunno? it just came on as I turned your deck on…¨¨
¨¨What the hell are you talking about? It sounds like you think you are at my place, but cut it out you freak - I think I would have noticed if you were sitting on my lap - wouldn’t I?!?¨¨
She shook her head slowly, -
¨¨No I’m afraid not Meltdown,¨¨
¨¨And why not?¨¨
¨¨… Because you are dead! and I am’ at your place, trying to make that fucking malfunctioning weather systems stop from your hack?¨¨
¨¨What the fuck! are you high on Dregup or something?… dead! What the fuck is the matter with you girl!?! I just made that hack a minute ago, are you some kind of government paid counter hacker…?¨¨
¨¨No I am not! what I am telling you is the truth, ok! you are fucking dead, I’m sorry, but if you don’t believe me watch this!¨¨
She picked a scantly clad - Manga figurine at the desk and threw it at the switch next to the door, the lights came on in his messy apartment, and Meltdown got quiet for a second.
¨¨B-b but - but, if you are at my place right now, then where the hell am I?¨¨
she shrugged her shoulders, -
¨¨Inside the computer somehow I guess?¨¨
He pondered her words for a couple of seconds before, before responding -
¨¨… Shit I believe you now, shit! Fuck! how did it happen? how did I die? I only remember hacking the weather system… and next thing: I was speaking to you! but if the date is right, then it has been two weeks since I died?¨¨
¨¨Yeah that’s about right. You died because you had messed with the Yakuza doing that giant hack with the other six top hackers, which also lost their heads, one by one after your slaying. you were my first, but I don’t suppose it makes you feel any better?¨¨
¨¨Lost my head! How do you mean?¨¨
She drew a big sigh, as she prepared to tell him, -
¨¨By a Katana, I sneaked into your apartment and simply chopped it off, look… I am sorry ok! but I had no choice, I was hired by the Yakuza and you were on the hit list.¨¨
¨¨Are you shitting me? I don’t feel much like a download, I mean if this is what it’s like to be an A.I. - and you! sorry but you just look like a pretty girl from the west, you don’t look much like a ninja or whatever, who are you?¨¨
All of a sudden she felt a sting of pride, from out of nowhere, -
¨¨I’m Goddamn hitman! and I did what I do best, you should not have fucked with the Yakuza, if you were not ready to pay the ultimate price!¨¨
¨¨Damn… you sound like a really bad movie; saying that shit! do you expect me to thank you for killing me or something?¨¨
¨¨Listen Meltdown, if I had not turned on your computer, you would probably have digitally rotted away, in whatever program you are in; at some police warehouse storage somewhere?¨¨
¨¨Oh! Well then - thank you very much Master, thank you for giving me life, thank you, thank you, soo much!¨¨
¨¨Cut the melodrama emo-stuff alright, we both know that you fucked over people that were out of your league! as far as I am concerned - I am all you have at this moment, so deal with it!¨¨
He scowled at her thru the screen,
¨¨At least you were once human, if you are pissed of being a program now, try and put yourself in my place: This evening I discovered; that I am supposedly nothing but a whorebot!¨¨
¨¨Really? You look way too human for that! but at this point I am ready to believe anything… just let me think for a moment ok.¨¨
- He asked her what she was after? So she explained him the entire story of how Alex had sold her out after the deal with the Yakuza, he was a bit relieved of the fact that she had killed, Thor - who had been the breach in the entire operation on the Zaibatsus. She told him that she wanted revenge on Alex! that was all she was after! He agreed to help her on the condition that she downloaded him onto her wetware hard disk. - She asked what consequences it had for her? The A.I. reassured her that it was only when she logged onto a computer, using the Jack-in that he could appear, he begged her since the mere thought of being stored away at a dusted warehouse frightened him to death,(so to speak.)
She agreed and he initiated the process of transferring the data ‘’that now was his post-human existence to her,’’ it took all of ten seconds to make the transfer complete. She could not tell if it was her own hacking program or the A.I. version of Meltdown, as her fingers once again speeded over the keys? He spoke to her again through the speakers, asking her if she wanted him to turn off the water first? She hesitated for a moment, asking him if he could find Alex somehow without Mr. Nagasaki’s help? She gave him the address of the McHubbard resort hotel, room number and date! - At least twenty different surveillance cameras or so filled the screens, it seemed like Meltdown had a pretty good grip on the situation: as more of his synz-screens flickered on and filled up with data, some of the surveillance got speeded up. He informed her that he had tracked Alex’s way from the time he had left the hotel, she saw Alex come up on one of the screens - waiting in line in the airport, more surveillance camera footage from a multiply of angles now, it speeded up and Meltdown had him tracked down, before she could even see what had happened?
¨¨Ok no Problem… err, what’s your name by the way? I don’t wanna call you hitman, brings back bad memories.¨¨
¨¨Xiola.¨¨
¨¨Ok Xiola your - ex: is in Los Angeles, he booked the flight from the hotel the night before he had the bio-implant operation!¨¨
¨¨We need to go there, can you book us… I mean me’ a ticket?¨¨
¨¨He laughed synthetically thru the speakers.¨¨
¨¨Have we already been together for so long, that you have started to say us’ instead of I, ha ha ha!¨¨
She smiled sarcastically, as he continued, -
¨¨No sorry, can‘t do!… you wouldn’t make it far - recent footage shows agents all over the airport, it seemed like someone was decapitated in the red light district, and a lot of action on the harbor - also beheadings. and arson…? I guess I don’t have to ask if it was you? Surveillance cameras outside a sex-parlor identified you, seemed like you took a break to wash your hands, on a wall with water flowing down from it.¨¨
¨¨Really?!¨¨
¨¨Yes and you will never guess the irony, the footage that nailed you is a direct stream - through the eyes of a 1st generation whorebot that faces the street: functioning as a surveillance cam, did you two had a quarrel or something?¨¨ There was more electronic laughter coming from the speakers in the chair, ‘’Meltdown turned out to be quite the merry prankster it seemed?’’ She told him to can the jokes! He had already made a move, and downloaded an escape route onto her hard drive: combining it with the Ninja program, telling her ‘’that it was fairly basic system linking actually.’’ He told her of the stored conversations he had seen on her drive.
¨¨What! So you can pretty much read my mind?¨¨
¨¨No, not really! you see I have no idea what you’re gonna’ do - only what you have’ done… well never mind, but I suggest that we sneak aboard that Play-doll Inc. deliverance to Los Angeles that conveniently is leaving for Los Angeles tonight!… you could had told me that info before… anyways’ - all you have to do is get inside the hangar and enter the cargo the bots are in.¨¨
¨¨So you basically want me to fly as cargo for the entire trip?¨¨
¨¨Yes - unless you have a better idea? we could of course see how long you could dodge the police that are looking for you all over town, and perhaps Mr. Nagasaki will keep his word this time?¨¨
¨¨She had already made up her mind, -
¨¨No fuck Nagasaki, if I don’t get him what he wants tonight - his Yakuza brothers will do far worse things to him, than I could ever come up with.¨¨
¨¨And you have even been to Iceland!¨¨
¨¨….Two things Meltdown, don’t refer to my memories, it’s fucking creepy ok, and second - Don’t ever mention Iceland to me ever again!¨¨
¨¨Ok - got it… sorry, I won’t peek and tell, I‘ll just keep it to myself.¨¨
¨¨Guess I can’t keep you from sneaking around?… ‘about the weather system! Let it be - let Chiba drown…¨¨
He told her to hang on a second, she was getting impatient now, asking him what he was doing.
¨¨Oh, I just realized I never got to ‘tag the hack, so I just released a statement to the news stations. You can jack-out now, just find a computer when we get to LA, and we can track him from there, the escape route has already kicked in, just go with the flow, and have a safe flight.¨¨
She stuffed the cable inside of the smart-suit, and pulled the Katana from the head of the forensic, she stepped over the dead bodies of the two detectives, who had left a rather big pool of red, as she exited the apartment.
One Trip Down
She walked through the pouring rain towards the tube overpass, the system reacted as if she knew where to go, it felt as if felt her actions were her own, and she intuitively knew where to go. it was not as creepy as she had imagined?
She climbed on top of the graffiti covered overpass, waited until two tubes had passed below, she felt what was possibly artificial induced adrenaline - as she leapt from the overpass onto the slippery roof of the A-line that headed towards the airport. She wished she had kept the hoodie since she could use the cover of the hood, as the speed of the tube made the rain in her eyes difficult to see anything! she did not dread the cold even thou it felt unpleasant, she figured that she probably didn’t need the warmth,(since she was artificial…?) she tried her best to embrace the cold and the rain in her face, she felt repulsed by whatever need or feeling she now experienced, except for revenge! thinking that she could not trust any of her ‘’feelings or memories’’ since most of them had been installed in her, on behalf of Alex’s sadistic version, of her needing him or vice versa?
After some twenty minutes she suddenly felt the urge to leap from the roof of the train over a barb wired fence, and onto a slippery field of grass, which was the rear end of the airstrip - not too far from the large cargo halls. She found the section that Meltdown had miraculously located as the freight: leaving Play-doll Inc. She found it to be unguarded and opened two gray metal caskets, one of the bots featured the same black and pink hairstyle she had sported, ‘’before Hilda had dyed her hair’’ the other was a platinum blonde model: both sporting typical whore/stripper gear resembling those Roxy and her, had worn to get to Point Blank back in Lahore. She heard noise from some vehicle outside? and kicked lock the first casket, as fast as possible: she dragged out the platinum blonde bot, and hid it behind some containers, the mechanic noise came closer as she slipped into the now empty casket, and heard its locks shut! soon after she could feel the casket shaking. - Followed minutes later of what sounded like doors being shut? after what seemed like a very long time she could hear some noise which sounded like machinery, and roaring pitch of turbines… at some point she fell asleep to the industrial lullaby… She awoke hours later by rumblings motions of her metal casket being shoved around, there were faint voices from time to time. In the complete darkness she realized that there was no way she could get out of the metal casket on her own - Ninja program or not! So it was better to just keep cool, not panic, and see what happened? She had lost track of time completely having no idea where she was? what seemed like a lifetime later, she finally heard the locks being opened, and the light blinded her, she hoped that she was in:
Los Angeles
A couple of white clad lab rats gave her a hand out of the metal casket that had served as her cocoon for the trip, she intuitively thanked them. They looked at her with an odd expression - ‘’like it was unusual for a whorebot to talk without being asked?’’ she figured she better return to the anti-social approach she had conducted in Denmark, by only speaking when spoken to, and try to stay under the radar. She looked out the glass windows onto the skyline of city of angels, it was early. The lab rats approached her and talked to her again, telling her to take a seat on the couch, she placed herself next to the raven haired bot she had opened the casket to in the airport. The technicians placed themselves in the couch opposite them, one of them spoke up.
¨¨So you guys are; Traci and Amber… now, who is who?¨¨
The bot next to her raised her hand in an eager way,
¨¨I’m Traci, and I’m soo horny right now, you guys wanna fuck…?¨¨
The technicians who looked like a couple of stereotypical nerds, giggled like 5th graders and shook their heads while dismissively holding up their hands.
¨¨I can’t believe how sultry these new bot are, I mean seriously dude, they are so aggressive.¨¨
The other technician actually blushed, the tech in charge turned to Xiola -
¨¨And how about you, Amber! Welcome to LA…¨¨
¨¨Thank you.¨¨
Again they broke out in giggling, high-fiving each other.
¨¨I can’t believe it bro, they are so unbelievable real, like this blond one she’s super polite, like when we gave her a hand,¨¨
¨¨Yeah I know, the kind you could bring her home to Mother.¨¨
They laughed some more, it was clear that they were overwhelmed by the life-like ways the bots acted. Xiola could not believe, that the bot sitting next to her was artificial? Just like her’ she looked and sounded 100% real, ‘’her features were luckily slightly different than hers.’’ She wondered what the deal was by making them so real, if you were that interested in ‘realness’ then why not just buy another human…? The doors opened and the two technicians jumped from the black leather couch, and greeted someone they referred to as, Mr. Wood. She turned her head and saw a short man in a white suit with an entourage of what happened to be an assistant, a lawyer and a consultant, devoting their outmost attention to the man.
¨¨So these two are the new generation, yes?¨¨
He went over and inspected them carefully, telling them to get up. He seized Traci and slid his hands under her pink fishnet top to feel the breasts, Traci instantly started to moan, he told her to shut up…! he felt her skin saying that it was amazing, how completely real it felt, asking the two technicians if they were playing a joke on him…?
¨¨Have you boys been down on the boulevard and picked up two real working girls? Huh!¨¨
They shook their heads giggling with excitement, knowing he was kidding. Mr. Wood smiled self sufficient with his newest investment.
¨¨You know I’m an old fashioned guy, who likes the real’ thing! but you could have fooled me, boys!… the last remaining girls on the boulevard will have to look for a job at Würst King… you know, why?¨¨
The two technicians anticipated a joke coming on, as they shook their heads.
¨¨Because that is the only place, that anyone would want to buy their cheap meat!¨¨
The technicians laughed out a little too loud, as his assistant rolled her eyes, while taking a call… she addressed Mr. Wood -
¨¨Sir, its from marketing - they have a very demanding customer who have just placed an order for two bots, do we want to try these new ones out, they ask?¨¨
Mr. Wood thought about it for a second and nodded, asking what made that customer so demanding? The assistant asked Marketing and replied, -
¨¨He has been buying some thirty-three bots, just this past week, from the escort service, he would be the ultimate test, they figure!¨¨
¨¨Well, he sure knows our catalogue! sure let the girls… I mean the bots get to work, and see if they are worth the money?¨¨
The chief Technician that was the most talkative responded that the bots had visual playback options, so they could check out the recording upon their return to the headquarters. Mr. Wood seemed satisfied as he winked for the man in the suit that was with him.
¨¨Come over here and try and feel this new flex skin, Mr. Smith. It is so real, you will not believe it?¨¨
The man fumbled Traci as his employer had done, and nodded condescending. As they were about to leave Mr. Wood turned on his heels and pointed to Xiola, -
¨¨By the way what is the deal with that whole-suit? its not LA SIN policy? Get her some slutty gear, fix her up, before sending her out, ok!¨¨
The technicians stumbled over the words, as they promised Mr. Wood that they would see to it.
In - Out
Ten minutes later She was on the backseat in a black BMW X 500, with toned glasses, she had been shown a wardrobe, and picked an outfit of glittering purple spandex hotpants and a yellow ripped top similar to the one Roxy had given her in Lahore, she had kept the Sawex boots, so she felt only mildly awkward as they drove down a wide street, ten minutes later they pulled up in front of a big hotel. They got out and the man called Mr. Smith - told them to be out front in exactly two hours, or there would be trouble! Before he took off. She looked up on the sign that read - La Hacienda. They made their way inside the swing doors, oddly it seemed like there was no concierge working the desk? but she figured it was due to the fact that it was still early? they went up the stairs, after they found out the elevator did was out of order. She tried asking Traci a couple of questions about where she was from? - To test if they were anything alike, but were mostly met with a couple of encoded standard replies, saying: she was from here and there? - she tried telling her that she was from Chiba, but it seemed like Traci’s system was triggered by responses such as -
¨¨Oh wow! that’s soo hot, know what? it really turns me on!¨¨
She could not tell her apart from some of the really brain-dead girls that had worked at Big Joe’s place, but then again she had never really worked there, ‘’perhaps all her false memories were based on bots like Traci?’’ She figured that she better go along for now, Meltdown had told her to get to a computer as fast as possible, so they could search for Alex. She had slipped the fiber optic jack-in cable down her sparkling hotpants without the technicians noticing, but getting her trusted Katana with her had been impossible… if the guy they were about to see, had a terminal of some sort? She might get a chance to use it…
They read the floor directions when they came to the second floor, still no guests or staff in sight? they walked down the corridor and knocked on the door to room 233 as they had been instructed. Loud break-core blasted from the other side of the door, it took a minute before the resident heard their knocking it, and opened for them. The room was a complete mess! the guy appeared to be in his mid-twenties, (probably of middle eastern decent) - dressed in dirty black rave gear, he turned down the loud music and gazed at them bewildered asking if they were really from LA SIN?!? Since they looked so real?
Traci instantly started yapping with her pre-programmed porn dialogue of, ‘’how horny she was, and how she needed to be fucked, instantly!’’ her aggressiveness seemed to repulse the guy, that was clearly off balance, (despite the bulk in his baggy parachute pants.) He seemed strung out to her! like the really hard infected casualties in Nü-Chinatown, who twitched in the filthy back alleys. She figured it was probably due to the various recreational drugs, that was scattered on the glass table in front of them: A mashed out pile of green and blue powder, ‘’that looked like someone had dipped its head into it?’’ Scattered Cherry/Watermelon energy coke cans seemed to be his diet of choice? She figured that the guy’s name was Ali? since Traci now begged of him, -
¨¨Please fuck me Ali, I need your big cock right now!¨¨
in her forced porn talk. Xiola realized that a jack-in port was available from the Tres-console to the synz-screen on the wall. The customer was still fumbling about with Traci, he put his hand under her short skirt and pulled it back again smelling his fingers.
¨¨What the fuck! Your pussy don’t smell at all? so how can you… you look so damn real? ¨¨
¨¨Well of course I’m real you silly stud? Real horny that is!¨¨
Traci pushed him down on the couch next to Xiola and got on top of him, much to his protest.
¨¨Why don’t you wanna fuck me?¨¨
Traci complained, implying a sense of hurt in her begging tone, He was clearly out of his head in many ways! Xiola showed him her Jack-in port, and reassured him that they weren’t real, it was a new feature called: flex skin, and he should calm down! Traci paid no mind to the comment, as she continued her wooing, -
¨¨Pretty please with sugar on top, I really need to get fucked…¨¨
¨¨yea-yea, sure! I just had to be sure you weren’t real.¨¨
Traci kept coming on to him, completely ignoring the questions of being ‘’real’’ and it finally seemed like he gave in to it. Xiola improvised and told him that the company would refund some of his money if he was not entirely satisfied? she jacked-in on the remote-pad, and used the barcode number on the old black Gold-Pod that lay on the messy table.
- Meltdown’s digital face appeared on the big synz-screen, he greeted her quickly with a ‘’lets get to work’’ as she saw the figures on the total of the payblog disappear as he emptied the Gold-Pod account, and started to scale the LAX surveillance footage from a couple of days ago, a vast array of images flickered on the screen, as they had done back at Meltdown’s desk. She saw Alex enter customs, and soon after Meltdown told her that he had located the taxi cab he had taken from the airport to a motel downtown, called: Paradise City… - The synthetic version of Meltdown asked her, ‘’how the flight had been?’’ and she flipped him off which made his A.I. smile back at her, - Ali asked her who she was talking to and she told him, ‘’it was the headquarters, that gave him a full refund!’’ he could not see the synz-screen from Traci that was straddling him, he nodded satisfied… - Meltdown asked her where she was? she told him that it was a hotel called the La Hacienda! but she had no idea where it was? it took him a couple of seconds before he responded that it was located on La Brea, she replied, - whatever…? just as Ali reached out and grabbed one of her tits - the Ninja program responded with efficiency, as she sent a straight chop to the side of his neck, he moaned weakly as he passed out, Traci kept riding him eagerly animated… after a while it seemed like she finally noticed that he had passed out? she unmounted him and placed herself in the couch, as if patiently waiting for him to wake up again? Xiola shook her head…
Meltdown told her that he had booked a room for her at the Paradise City motel, and she could go there anytime she wanted to, he was in the process of ordering her a temporary credit card, with the cash from the Gold-Pod. She took the LIQ-THC shooter on the table and gathered the unused capsules that were spread over the table, and in the couch and slid em’ down the shimmering hot pants next to the fiber-optic cable. The customer seemed way passed out! but just to make sure: she reset the clock on the synz-screen so it looked like two hours had already passed, she figured ‘’he was too out of it to start calling the company, that had delivered them.’’ - She pulled off her top, and woke him up, it took a couple of minutes before he just mildly came to his senses, she told him ‘’that he would get a transfer from the company, because of their realness factor bothering him.’’ she put on her top again, as she told him that the sex had been awesome, and got up from the couch; telling Traci to get dressed and follow her. The Arab looking guy got up as well, and pulled on his dirty rave pants, and fell down on the bed just as they left the room.
Outside the hotel, she told Traci that seemed a little lost, that they should go their separate ways, - Traci asked where she would go…? ‘’She told her that she could go anywhere that she wanted to!’’ Xiola headed left just as Meltdown had instructed her to, she turned around at one point, realizing that Traci stood in the same spot, waiting for Mr. Smith to return as they had been ordered to. She shrugged her shoulders…
Take Me Down
Los Angeles - was slowly waking up, the early morning traffic moved bumper to bumper down La Brea, some fifteen minutes later she walked down the Hollywood boulevard, as she passed a HeadSoup franchise where a couple of boys who looked like 5th graders on their way to school, hung around outside. She asked them if they were looking to cop? and in bragging demeanour they replied - yes! she sold them the shooter and four of the capsules for two-hundred in ready cash, and hailed a cab to take her to the Paradise City motel, Alex had it coming…
She entered the small lobby of the shabby motel, mostly adorned in baby blue and pink colors, that had started to peel of the walls here and there, the sign outside read: Welcome to the 1980es’ - The place had surely seen better days, she had a hard time imagining, if it would even be a Dregup addict’s version of paradise?!? ‘’just a roach infected place, not exactly Alex‘s style,’’ why on earth he would choose a place like this, was beyond her? but she would soon find out. The man behind the desk was watching the battered synz-screen with the - ‘free dope now! stickers on it. He sported old style prison tattoos and natural red braided hair that stuck out underneath the red bandanna, he looked uninterested at her.
¨¨I’m not buying…!¨¨
¨¨…Well I’m not selling! There’s a reservation for me Xiola Green?¨¨
He tapped the battered computer and scowled at her, and the into the parking lot of the U’ shaped motel, He squeezed his eyes -
¨¨You sure you don’t got a customer with ya?¨¨
¨¨Look, deuce bag! I’m not turning tricks ok? This happens to be high fashion in Lahore right now.¨¨
He kept scowling at her -
¨¨Ok, whatever you say?… I see the room is paid in advance.¨¨
He smacked the keycard onto the desk, asking if there was anything else he could do for her?
¨¨Yea as a matter of fact there is, Alex Green is supposed to stay here, could I get his room number, if you‘d be so kind.¨¨
¨¨Friend of yours?¨¨
¨¨-Ex!¨¨
Before he could tell her that he did not pass out information like that, she had grabbed him by his braids, and pressed his head down onto the desk: telling him that she would not ask politely again! a bit shocked he quickly checked the computer, as she let go of him, a couple of the braids came off… Nervously he told her that Alex had checked out the day before! she could see that he was not lying. He had all of a sudden changed his attitude a great deal. Telling her that if she needed anything? ‘’she’d go see Mama G. at the bottom of the U’ room 16. to get hooked up,’’ she asked if he knew where Alex had gone? he quickly shook his head, and apologized for not knowing so.
She walked out of the lobby, but before she went to her room she decided to pay Mama G. a visit, what appeared to be her young daughter opened the door, as Mama G. shouted at her from inside the room:
¨¨What have I told you Denise!!!¨¨
¨¨I know mama! aaaalwaaaays have the gun at hand…¨¨
The little girl rolled her eyes, adorned by Hemp leaf pictured, Blaze contact lenses,(she had clearly heard that speech before.)
¨¨What yo lookin’ fo whitey….?
Xiola asked if she could buy a shooter, Denise went into the living room for one as Mama G. went to the door for the money, she looked at Xiola saying she had not seen her around before? Asking if she was new on the boulevard? Xiola shook her head, asking, ‘’if she had encountered a skinny white guy with visual implants, in the last couple of days,’’ - ’’most likely he would had bought some LIQ-THC?’’ - Mama G looked suspicious, asking her, - ‘’if she was a cop?’’ She told her ‘’that he was her boyfriend who had fucked her over big time.’’ The big black woman, nodded with a ‘’mm-hmm’’ seemed like she wasn’t into discussing her customers, asking if there was anything else that she could do for her? Without giving it much thought, Xiola asked her if she could get her a gun? Mama G, told her to give her whatever cash she had now, and come back later and bring some serious dough! Denise returned with the shooter, Xiola paid the pusher lady, and went back to her room, she still had some capsules called Shiva tucked down her hotpants.
Rest Is A War
She opened the mini-bar and drew a bottle of scotch placed herself on the bed and jacked-in to the sticky filthy laptop in the pink room,(sporting flamingo wallpaper.) - The interface with meltdown’s slightly pixilated head appeared, she told him of Alex’s disappearance, and violent methods or not? no one seemed to know where he had taken off to? As she waited for some strategy thinking from his side. She loaded one of the Shiva capsules, and shot it in into the left side of her neck, which made her think of Alex, as she addressed Meltdown, who was checking electronic bookings on hotel guest lists all over the Los Angeles area.
¨¨You know, it’s funny just how much I am constructed like a real human, Alex and everyone else uses a shooter the exact same way as I do.¨¨
Reservations and hotel lobby ID scans, flickered on the screen. As the cultivated-THC worked it’s magic trough her artificial grown veins.
¨¨I mean I got a lot of bodily functions in common with ordinary human beings and my feelings seems kinda real, Y’know? ¨¨
¨¨Look! I’m trying to find Alex here what’s your point, stoner?¨¨
She had almost lost the thread,(as is common with many a new LIQ-THC user.) She giggled in a sedated manner as she wrecked her brain to get back on track. -
¨¨Well, my point is this…! I know I’m an android or whatever? but I think and feel like a human… I guess? But most people wouldn’t call me that if they knew of my origin right…?¨¨
He responded with a grunt, as info flooded the screen.
¨¨But you on the other hand is a human intelligence trapped in a computer, funny isn’t it? Like I’m a computer in a human body!¨¨
¨¨No, I’m not finished, let me finish! Ok… my question is; how do you know if you’re real or not! why are you more real than I am? ¨¨ He pondered her words for a while, -
¨¨I don’t know? I don’t think I am any more real’ than you are, while I was alive in my body, I spent all my time inside the digi-realm! now I am finally here, and do I miss my body? Not all that much to be honest, hacking stuff is way more fluid now, even more so than with the jack-in bio-goggles and all that shit!¨¨
She listened as she grew tired, she downed a glass of Scotch.
¨¨You know what I’m saying, Xiola? Like I never had any relationships, and never too many emotions… - while you were all alive, and kicking ass, and being in love and shit!¨¨
She could almost sense a bit of jealousy in his voice.
¨¨Yea maybe so? but all that stuff was planted there by Play-doll Inc. on the request of Alex, so none of it… or most of it is fake anyways!¨¨
¨¨Does it really matter? You are so hung up on this ‘realness’ thing!¨¨
She began a rant about how important it was to be real, not having people manipulating your thoughts, asking if he did not find it crucial? -
¨¨No not really, I mean how many chicks out there don’t you think have fallen for some douchebag kinda guy? ‘You being in love with him felt real’ right? and now that you are pissed and want revenge, I bet that feels just as real’ right?¨¨
She nodded and a tear streamed down her cheek. As she poured herself another drink.
¨¨So in a sense… whatever he programmed you to think of him is’ real! cause you acted it, and believed it, but I am pretty sure that he did not program you to chase him half way around the globe to get even? That’s all your’ work!¨¨
She wiped the tears away and looked at him -
¨¨Yea I guess so? Thanks for cheering me up Meltdown, you’re a good guy, you know that? I’m sorry that I killed you.¨¨
¨¨ Nah, I was really anti-social, always preferred avatars’ to real people, I won’t be missed by anyone, believe me.¨¨
She emptied more bottles from the mini bar, and shot another two capsules of Shiva, before she passed out the on the bedbug infested mattress. - The hours passed in a dreamless state, before she woke to the sound of gunshots fired from outside the parking lot! A round of automatic gunfire pierced into the outside wall and a few bullets broke through the window - which shattered in a thousand little pieces, instinctively she pressed her body against the mattress! Listening for a moment, she expected to hear footsteps outside, but nothing happened. she realized she had fallen asleep: still plugged into the open laptop, she hit enter and a moment later Meltdown’s now familiar face reappeared. - She told him ‘’to check the security cameras outside to see if there was a hit squad coming for her or something?!?’’ her mind raced - trying to figure out if the scumbag motel manager had sold her out to Alex? Ten seconds later Meltdown’s A.I. interface told her that the downtown area in which the motel was placed, had turned into a riot zone, and the mayor was close to bringing down martial law. Something about a Nazi gang, led by a Christian celebrity? and some black teenagers in a jeep gunned down brutally, by the LAPD last week, it didn’t make much sense…? Meltdown had a hard time connecting the dots of exactly what had caused the riots, that now was spreading all over Hollywood and its suburbs.
¨¨You were online the whole time, and you didn’t think of warning me or something?!?¨¨
¨¨Listen if your screen goes black I can’t get through to you alright, I’m an A.I. not a wizard alright, I still work within a fucking laptop!¨¨
¨¨Shit Meltdown, you really do live in your own little part of the grid!¨¨
¨¨Listen you ungrateful bitch, I didn’t check the news ok, since I was busy tracking down your -Ex, and guess what? I finally found him, he’s in Las Vegas, he has taken his precautions, signed in under a different name.¨¨
He told her that the temporary credit card he had ordered, was expected to be delivered to the motel this evening, but given the current situation, chances were beyond slim that it would arrive, she had to flee without any cash or gun. - She could smell the smoke of burning metal and rubber coming through the broken window, the vile choking smoke accompanied by a constant soundtrack of gunfire, screaming and sirens, a violent evening had settled over Los Angeles. Meltdown asked her ‘’not to disconnect while he uploaded a car-driving program onto her hard drive.’’ A minute later she carefully opened the door to the balcony and peeked out at the rioting downstairs: some three cars had blocked the parking lot and behind them gangbangers were shooting with semi-automatics towards what looked the room of Mama G. who it seemed was retaliating with some heavy gunfire that pierced the sides of the gangbangers lowrider cars. - ‘’Puta!’’ Seemed to be the favored word being shouted next to that of, - ‘’Fuck!’’
She sneaked out of the room, and made her way,(unnoticed to the gangbangers involved in the parking lot showdown) into the small lobby around the corner. Loud sirens filled the air as she reached for the gun in the hand of the dead manager who lay over the desk. It looked he had been robbed, she checked the chamber that was full,(minus one bullet.) She entered the street missing her oversized black hoodie to hide it in, ‘’thou it did not seem to matter much,’’ Since the entire street was a mess of police cars: chasing what looked like random cars and people who was robbing stores, while others tried setting stuff on fire! She made her way towards a nearby parked car at the curb. She went up to the driver and pointed the gun in his bandana clad face, she noticed that he, and the other passengers wore different gang colors than those who were shooting in the parking lot. The driver had asked her: to fuck off…! which in turn had resulted in a direct blast to his bandana draped head, from the mouthpiece of her newly required gun, the three remaining passengers hastily fled the car, as she placed herself in the driver’s seat, after having pulled him out the car. She turned the car around in a 180’ degree turn, wondering ‘’if it was a bank robber drive simulator? That Meltdown had installed on her hard drive!’’ no matter what she was satisfied with the new skills.
She speeded up, and swung the cabriolet into the motel parking lot, slamming it sideways into the nearest lowrider car, crushing the two green clad gangbangers who was still firing at Mama G. She fired the gun over the roofless windshield, and took out the remaining two in front of her. Mama G, ceased fire as Xiola ditched the now empty gun and screamed, - ‘’girlpower!!!’’ at her in the other end of the parking lot, and raised her fist in the air, the thin voice of her daughter Denise shouted ‘Girlpower! back, as she ran halfway across the battlefield and threw a gun towards her. Xiola grabbed the new firearm - speeded up and exited the parking lot, back onto the street that was becoming a scrap yard of burning cars, the GPS router connected with the car computer and she was on her way to Las Vegas, if she could just survive getting out of the city alive.
An hour, and at least seven re-directions,(due to police, rioters and road blocks later,) the cabriolet ran out of gas on the lonely highway, with only desert on either side of the road, Los Angeles was far away now. She waited for some twenty minutes, without seeing as much as one car pass, in the direction towards Las Vegas. She clutched her gun as she thought she could her an engine not far away coming towards her.
The next moment the sky over the city of Los Angeles, miles away lit up as she was hit by a wave of air, that threw her against the side of the cabriolet, she slammed into the side door and it hurt, ‘’like when that fascist cop in Denmark had kicked her against the cop car.’’ She shook her head as she pushed off the asphalt, and focused her aim on a dune buggy that struggled to maintain some down force on the road, due to the massive shockwave. It regained its balance just as the driver slammed the brakes as he realized her pointing a gun at them in the middle of the road, the passenger slammed his head into the dashboard. She walked over to the drivers side and realized the driver was equally aiming a gun at her.
Vegas bound
She asked them to step out of the vehicle! - ‘and he asked her to forget it! The ninja program was calculating statistics like mad, and feeding her info that there was a 91% chance that the driver would get a fatal shot at her before she could take him out, due to the accuracy of the angle, and estimated expertise in which it was placed, she hesitated; thinking it would be stupid to risk any further injury, being this close to Alex. She hesitantly lowered her gun, and explained that she just needed a ride, because her car had broken down, he did not seem impressed, as he kept his gun aimed at her, while she begged for a ride to Las Vegas. All of a sudden the passenger that had suffered a bloody, and probably broken nose if the Ninja program was estimating correctly, busted out, saying, -
¨¨Hey, I know you, don‘t I!?!¨¨
She looked at him and realized that she had seen him before, the paranoia measurement device in the assassination program went through the roof as it read the gun wielding drivers body language, calculating an 97% chance that a bullet would be fired within the next ten seconds. Until the passenger responded to the army fatigue clad driver.
¨¨No wait, its cool, she’s just a whorebot!¨¨
As mad as his sentence made her, she did not retract to violence, but instead nodded her head in agreement, the driver exited the buggy, he stared her in the eyes as if trying to read her? she sensed his head with the graying crew cut nodding ever so slightly.
¨¨…Really, Ali? she looks awful real to me!¨¨
¨¨Yea-yea I know, she’s one of the next generation whorebots, scary real! I tried one out this morning.¨¨
¨¨Oh yeah! but not her?¨¨
He shook his head, and wiped the blood off his broken nose.
¨¨Why not, she looks like an ordinary girl?¨¨
The passenger nodded, saying, -
¨¨exactly!¨¨
The crew-cut man with the gun shook his head in disbelief, his graying mullet brushed at the top of his shoulders, as he did so.
¨¨Ah-yea, I forgot! You’re one of those freaks that likes them as artificial As you can get ‘em?¨¨
A couple of ‘’fuck you!’’ were exchanged between the two, before the man who introduced himself as Hank welcomed her to take a seat in the back of the Dune Buggy, as long as she handed her gun over to him. She found that she had no other options at this point. The buggy speeded down the desolated highway, once again she was on her way towards Las Vegas.
¨¨Wonder if it was some kind of bomb that went off? First I thought it was something you guys fired at me, but it looked like it took you by surprise as well?¨¨
They both squirmed in their seats, strangely replying in a mix of:
¨¨Well, yea… not exactly,¨¨ and ¨¨Perhaps a little but we… yeah it was like… not really our fault!¨¨
She had a hard time understanding their reactions? It seemed like they withheld some information, that made them uncomfortable, Hank put the pedal to the metal, with only the headlights as a source of light underneath the evening sky, that seemed twice as dark out here in the dessert, as it had done in the city an hour ago.
¨¨I’m sorry… Xiola, was it?… yea y’know, best if we don’t tell you too much about it alright, but we might just have set that bomb off?¨¨
The passenger turned her head and looked at her.
¨¨Ok you know what… we probably did set off that bomb or missile attack? but we were framed y’know, it’s not like we wanted to destroy LA.¨¨
She asked the scrawny guy that had recognized her, what he meant by destroying LA? He turned his head towards the desert as the driver who had introduced himself as Hank took over again a bit stressed.
¨¨What Ali is trying to say is that… yes: in a way we are responsible for blowing Los Angeles to pieces. But we were framed in some sort of conspiracy, too complicated to explain really…¨¨
Ali looked back at him with an angry demeanor.
¨¨What?¨¨
¨¨Yea Hank, maybe you shouldn’t blabber to a fucking whorebot, who might be recording this shit for all we know!¨¨
¨¨So fucking what man, everybody is dead you idiot, and we are on the fucking run, what does it matter?!?¨¨
It was clear to her that tension was running high, the voice recognition device in the Ninja program, revealed that they were not making this story up!(or they at least believed it themselves?) There was silence for a long time, while Hank tried to reach some guy called Brain on the radio, without any luck…
Hank asked her if she was on the run from her pimp, which made Ali burst out laughing of his ignorance, saying that, ‘’whorebots did not have pimps, since they were all owned by Stuffed Inc/LA SIN.’’ More silence followed in the awkward atmosphere. But it wasn’t long before the odd tag team tried their best to explain to her, a very tangled plot, that seemed almost too good to be true, they seemed as paranoid as they were guilt ridden, but strangely they seemed believable, she once again shared her entire motive with them, for gong to Las Vegas, whose city lights could be sensed in the horizon, for the remainder of the ride the two guys, filled her head with information she didn’t really care about, until finally they entered underneath the radiating neon sign of the no.1 twenty-four hour gambling city of the west coast. the buggy drove down a couple of streets next to the brightly lit main road, from where they asked a homeless guy direction to a cheap motel, a little while later they pulled up to what had once been a cheap motel in the 21st century,(but now more resembled a poorly disguised drug den.) Xiola asked them if they wanted to exchange favors.
¨¨Listen guys, i think I could help you out, and you could probably help me?¨¨
Ali who came around the car in his dirty black rave gear put up his hands declaring that they weren’t interested in fucking her, and she should take a hike, since - ‘’there was plenty of tricks to turn up on the main street.’’ She punched him straight in the face making him yell out as he fell to his knees in the small parking space outside the dirty motel. Hank put his hands at his hips, asking her what kind of deal she had in mind?
¨¨Well I happen to have an A.I. of a deceased hacker on my ROM hard drive, he can track down that guy who framed you, if he is still here in Las Vegas.¨¨
Hank looked suspiciously at her, saying ‘’that he wished his buddy, Brain was there with them, to verify that what she had just told him, were in fact something that was real?’’ She convinced him, that all she needed was a laptop, and a Jack-in hook up to the net, to prove her claim. She just needed a place to stay for the night, since she was all out of cash! While Hank considered her offer, she was certain that Ali was cursing her, probably saying - ¨¨You bitch¨¨ but the cluttering of blood and snot in his already broken nose, made the words come out as - ¨¨Uo ith¨¨
Hank finally made up his mind and told her not to hurt Ali any further, while he checked into the Motel, paying for a four man room, for them.
Once inside there was a rush for the mini bar. With the small bottles divided between Hank and her, and a sullen Ali.
She told Hank that she needed a bigger gun in case Alex had hired some bodyguards, he offered her the one he had pointed at her in the desert. She accepted it, and asked Ali to remove his filthy black hoodie so she had something to conceal the weapon underneath. The room started to smell real bad the moment he took it off, so they told him to quickly put it back on. ‘’For some reason it was out of the question that she could have one of their black - The Foundation windbreakers?’’ She jacked-into the battered 21st century laptop, ‘’that seemed to be mandatory equipment in American motel rooms, no matter how lousy?’’ She told Meltdown to reconfirm Alex’s location, which he pinned down within a minute to that of the Cesar hotel, residing in the presidential suite, she looked down for a minute at the bar like pattern on the nasty rug, created by the Venetian blinds that Hank was now closing, shutting out the purple neon light of the Motel sign. She figured that Alex was enjoying his new bio implants, had he ripped off the Yakuza he had no doubt gone for the F1-11 model. He loved that vintage cyber stuff. Soon he would soon have to answer to her, even thou something in the back of her artificial memory longed for him, still hoping that Mr. Nagasaki had lied to her…
From behind the screen Meltdown’s interface called for her attention! By Hank’s account, she told him that he should be looking for footage of a military helicopter, arriving somewhere in Las Vegas approximately an hour ago. The content in the small bottles from the mini-bar disappeared rapidly, seconds later Meltdown told her the location of the two guys that exited the military vehicle at a heliport on the roof of - The Mirage. Impatiently Hank scribbled the address on some paper, and thanked her while Ali replied with a grunt… She told Meltdown of her plan, and had him write her into the information on the hotel computers.
¨¨Ok here is how it’s gonna go down boys, first off: you’ smelly.¨¨
She pointed to Ali, who seemed a bit afraid that she would hit him again.
¨¨Don’t speak to me again, unless I speak to you, you understand!… call me a whorebot one more time, and I swear by my postmortem A.I. that you can pick up your teeth, with your broken hands, you got that?!?¨¨
He nodded. She pointed at Hank, -
¨¨And you, go freshen up a bit you are coming with me acting as my bodyguard, we can get into both hotels playing the escort trick,¨¨
She looked at Ali who looked at the carpet, not uttering a word.
Hank put the semi automatic in a self made holster, he opened the sports bag and pulled out a flight jacket, that served to disguise the second gun he placed on his back at the top of his pants. Before they left, she turned to Ali one more time.
¨¨And for fucks sake, please take a shower while were gone.¨¨
They stepped over the Rancor junkie that had crashed right outside their door, and walked down the dimly lit street - bathed in the glow coming from the many broken neon signs, as lowlifes were hustling on every street corner. they walked towards the center of the brightly lit city some kilometer away. ‘’The dune buggy was too risky to be seen in, at this point’’ he assured her.
Pushing You Too Far
In the lobby of the Cesar hotel, Hank who had been briefed on her plan, walked up to the receptionist in the traditional red/golden vest. And cleared his throat, -
¨¨Miss. Vanilla June is here to be escorted to Mr. Johnny Zero at the presidential suite¨¨
He pointed with his thumb over his shoulder at Xiola that stood in her glittering purple hotpants and yellow ripped top. The receptionist unconsciously licked his lips, and checked the escort reservations on the computer terminal, confirmed it and told Hank to take the elevator to the top floor, room - 242. Outside the door Xiola asked him ‘’to keep calm while she talked to Alex, and only interfere; if the situation got out of hand.’’ Hank nodded and said ‘’the faster they got to the Mirage the better.’’ He rang the door bell to the presidential suite, stating their business. - a voice was heard from the other side of the door soon after, declining that he had ordered a hooker!
¨¨Sir’ we have the reservation coming from your room.¨¨
¨¨No, no - I don’t think so, must be a double booking or something.¨¨
Hank looked at Xiola that was out of sight from inside the door spy, he shrugged his shoulders.
¨¨What do you mean sir’?¨¨
¨¨I mean the whores are already here! I’m pretty sure that I got all those that I ordered?¨¨
Hank picked up on it, when he heard some sniffing sound from behind the door.
¨¨Oh, yes - yes, of course sir’ but we wanted to give you a special treat on the house.¨¨
¨¨On the house…? Wow I must say that Vegas is something else, ok sure come on in!¨¨
The door clicked and Hank stepped inside, closely followed by Xiola who walked behind him. Some seven prostitutes hung out in the living room as Alex who was only wearing a silk housecoat with an embrodied wreath of bay leafs on the back, walked thru the room addressing Hank without once turning around, Hank showed the gun to the hookers, and made a waving movement with it, they cleared out of the room as Alex led them towards the master bedroom. Hank closed the big double doors behind them, as Alex placed himself on the edge of the big bed, and put a hand over his F1-11 retro eye implants, excited as a kid at Christmas that were about to receive a special gift,(which he in fact were.) Xiola bid her lip to keep it from trembling, as she walked over and placed herself in front of him, -
¨¨You can look now, Alex!¨¨
He removed his hand without being too shocked by being called by his original name, the white powder underneath his nostrils probably clouded his alertness? For a second an expression of horror came over him as he looked into her face… but the shock quickly subsided, as he smacked her ass and looked over at Hank, who stood with his arms crossed guarding the door.
¨¨Oh shit! Ha ha ha what a shock! Man‘… you won’t believe it but I had one just like her, just with jet black hair instead of blonde.¨¨
Hank looked down at the velvet carpet, hesitating to respond.
¨¨Y’know… I appreciate it and all, but frankly just the mere sight of this thing bores me stiff!… and not in any good way, even thou it can seem misleading ha ha,¨¨
He laughed and pointed to his stiff member that stood out, from the silky housecoat, he did not notice the tears that had started to run down her face, as Hank improvised:
¨¨I’m sorry that the model is not to you liking Sir’. We thought that it would be a special treat.¨¨
¨¨Yea - yea, I get that, but I have lived with a with a similar one for like a goddamn month, so please just take the lousy thing away, and let me get back to the real whores ok!¨¨
¨¨Alex!!!¨¨
¨¨Why the hell does this thing call me Alex? That’s not the name I gave you guys?¨¨
Her voice and lips trembled, while snot and tears streamed down her face.
¨¨Alex, look at me!¨¨
As he looked up into her face, the Ninja program enacted with her impulses, and she made a lethal pointing and index finger punch that pierced through the bottle green vintage looking glass of his right lens. He screamed out in pain, as shards of glass entered the optic nerves of his one’ eye socket, he threw himself backwards on the bed and screamed until she punched him in the solar plexus that made him lose all air, (which in return caused a weird combination of gasping and coughing.) She grabbed him by the neck and pulled him right up close to her crying eyes, that now bolted with rage, for a second she wondered what panels connected with what levels in her system, but it did not seem relevant at all? she could only feel the rage caused by the hurt from his betrayal!
¨¨Alex, if you’re too damn wasted to realize this, it’s me Xiola… you piece of shit!¨¨
¨¨What the fuck!?! You’re supposed to be dead? What the fuck! did Nagasaki send you to kill me?¨¨
¨¨No he didn’t, Alex. I came to see for myself.¨¨
She started to sob heavily unable to keep her tears back thru the rage, -
¨¨What the hell did you expect, first you have me programmed to love you endlessly, and then you fucking stab me in the back hoping I would die on that overseas mission, I’m so fucking hurt and disappointed, y’know.¨¨
¨¨Fuck you, you ruined my eye! I don’t give a shit about you, you stupid bitch! So you know the story, huh! Yeah I had your sorry ass existence reprogrammed, you were nothing but a fucking whoring device, and if it wasn’t for me you’d still be!¨¨
She tried gathering her fragmented thoughts, not knowing where to begin…?
¨¨Does it not matter at all Alex, that I fucking loved you, and I was willing to die for you, doing the things I did? Don’t give me that shit! at some point you must have loved me?¨¨
A thin stripe of blood ran from where the lens had broken and dripped onto the floor.
¨¨you wanna know the truth? Ok - here is the truth; I thought it was convenient having you around, so I always had a fuck-toy at hand, someone to run errands for me,¨¨
Her sobbing had stalled some, as she asked him why?
¨¨…. Because I have been a hacker and alone as far back as I can remember, never having a relationship with anyone, real? So I figured that now, that technology have come this far - making whores looking totally real, I’d give it a shot… a relationship y‘know.¨¨
¨¨yea - how so? By having all kinds of horrible memories installed on my fucking hard drive, all sorts of painful shit for no goddamn reason! than your own morbid amusement? Just what kind of monster are you!?!¨¨
¨¨… I figured that if you had those kind of memories then you’d need me more, and stay close, not straying, due to your slutty nature, my folks were like that…¨¨
¨¨Like what? Your mom being an ex-hooker with a bad childhood, and your dad someone who reveled in that?¨¨
¨¨Yea, something like that… only my mom had too much self-esteem, and left my dad after years of abuse, guess I’m a scumbag like my old man, runs in the family or something? But I would never let some bitch take advantage of me like he let my mom do!¨¨
Hank chipped inn, musing something about, - ‘’better to dump someone, than risk being dumped.‘’ …? They both ignored him.
¨¨So what do you want, Xiola! You traveled half way around the world to kill me, is that it; is that what you want? just plain and simple revenge, huh!¨¨
She sniffed and reached out for Hank to throw the gun to her. The thin line of blood still dripped from his mechanical eye socket and onto the rug, his head was bended. As she cocked the gun,
¨¨Ok Xiola, I just want you to know, that I would have given you a lithium flower.¨¨
¨¨… a lithium flower?¨¨
Something inside of her stopped, her movements froze, she was unable to move as much as a finger, she could not speak either, but the audio processing worked fine as she could still hear him talk, -
¨¨Besides you can bitch and moan all you want about your lousy past, but if it wasn‘t for me you wouldn‘t have a past at all…¨¨
He now turned and addressed Hank.
¨¨Hey listen up army dude. Get rid of the bot and I’ll double you whatever she is paying you to kill me.¨¨
Hank drew out a second gun aiming it at Alex commanding him to lift the spell, which he clearly refused: since it was the safeword that had just made his assassin freeze up! he tried to triple the pay, but Hank kept refusing his offers, saying he needed her alive and demanded for Alex to unlock her. There was a stand still in negotiations - she could hear the two men quarrel. then she felt how things started to shift inside her head, it felt as before Alex had made her say the safeword, and she felt like she could move again, she had no idea why? She tried moving by way of the Ninja program, which conducted a second, two-finger strike punch in the remaining glass lens. The screaming process was re-lived once again. Hank pulled him off the bed as she waved for him to constrain him, the ex-marine put the belt from the robe around his wrists on his back, She gestured for him to remove his untied rope, She picked up one of the many sex-toys that lay scattered around the bedroom, she fetched: a big black strap-on, which she put on. Hank looked on baffled as she got the cable out of her purple hotpants, and attached it in the jack-in socket on the side of Alex’s retro goggles from which he bled, she kicked his legs from behind so he fell to his knees, she placed the laptop on the bed, and kneeled behind him, adjusting the strap-on device.
¨¨Alex, dear! I’m gonna screw you over as hard as you did me, just not as hurtful, loosen up!¨¨
She pointed to a lubricant on the shelf that Hank handed her, while Alex moaned and complained, she carefully put the lubricant on the black dildo on the attachment, and gave Hank order to plug him into the open laptop on her command, the otherwise sturdy man sank and replied with a, - ‘’yes ma’am.’’ He clearly did not like what he was about to witness.
She put her knees over his calves so he couldn’t move his skinny legs his complaining turned to hysteria when she probed him with the device. She pressed his head into the mattress to muffle his screams, now that the lubricant made his resistance attempts futile, she banged him as deep and hard as she could thrust the thing.
¨¨This is not even half the pain you have given me you cold hearted bastard, but I wanted you to know what it felt like being kept in the dark, and finding yourself being fucked over, by one that was supposed to have loved you,¨¨
She pulled his head up, he screamed out as she banged him harder to drive her point home.
¨¨I guarantee you Alex than in less than a minute you will forget about this pain, when you feel what I have in store for you, you fucking asshole, pun intended, dear!¨¨
She felt the empowerment, that Roxy had introduced her to. As she shouted in his ear that she was a goddamn hitman! One not to fuck with!!!¨¨
She signaled for Hank to plug the cable into the laptop. Just seconds later Alex changed his screaming to a horrified frenzy of sheer panic now that Meltdown unleashed a black ice attack on him, one that he could not even try to escape, since he did not have a keyboard in front of him, his skinny body spashmed,(and he almost threw her off at one point) but she held her ground, his head trembled steadily, and soon she sensed the smell of burned flesh.
¨¨Goodbye Alex, I don’t love you anymore, I’m free now.¨¨
She focused on the feeling between her legs as she kept thrusting him, a moment later she felt a trembling in her pelvis area! just as his head caught fire from the black ice attack, the F1-11 had almost melted into the bedspread. She unhooked the device around her waist, letting the dildo rest in his dead ass, and staggered to her feet, grabbing a hold of Hank, who was pouring a beer over Alex’s head to put out the fire, a bit shocked, the ex-marine acting bodyguard asked her if she was ok?’’
¨¨Wow yeah, totally… haven’t felt this good in a long time, don’t know what happened, I have never felt this way before?¨¨
He smirked and glanced at her.
¨¨Well it looked like you came pretty hard, if you want my two cents?¨¨
She started to laugh -
¨¨Really is that what it feels like! you think I did? Hell I never tried that before… fuck I hope I’ll be able to do that without killing someone next time ha ha.¨¨
Hank really didn’t know what to do of himself.
¨¨Ok you did good Hank, surprised that you had the guts to watch the entire thing, you could just have left y’know? Maybe you enjoyed it?¨¨
He shook his head wildly, claiming that he could not have left, because the deal then would had been off! She gave him a devilish smirk, as she replied with a, -
¨¨Mm Hmm, yeah sure thing Hank, whatever you say.¨¨
She picked up a canister of Improved Cicodrine and a vial of Zen-coke that lay on the coffee table in the living room, she felt relieved as she told Hank that next stop was The Mirage hotel. But she would need him to keep his distance, this time.
Cyberfreak
They pulled the same stunt in the lobby of The Mirage, that was filled with geeks wearing backstage like passes for something called Def Con? only this time she took the elevator by herself, while Hank hit the hotel bar. She had gotten used to the action by now. A spectacled guy named Pointdexter opened the door, and was instantly taken by her looks, she pulled the routine, and asked ‘’if he wasn’t gonna let her in?’’ after some ten seconds of saying err… and arr, she slipped past him. He asked what she was doing there, and she told him while slipping out of the ripped top that, ‘’that a good friend had sent him a treat!’’ making a Ta-DAH! motion with her arms raised, Pointdexter didn’t seemed to notice words,(since he was starring at her boobs.)
She pushed him onto the bed and crawled on top of him, kissing him while she asked him if he was a high roller or something? He laughed it off and adjusted his heavy glasses, ‘’declining to have anything to do with gambling at all!’’ after a couple more flirtatious inquiries, he at least gave away - that he was a computer expert, without going into further details. She bit her lower lip, and told him that her ex-boyfriend had been a big hacker, and challenged him if he had ever done anything spectacular…? She slowly kneeled down in front of him, and started to open his zip, caressing his thigh with her other hand. She looked him deep in the eye as she revealed ‘’that nothing turned her on more than that of spectacular hack.’’ Pointdexter was already over the edge of submission, ready to reveal whatever that would get her going,(and a bit challenged by plain old measuring of dicks by computer nerds.)
¨¨Well I… well you sure but can’t tell this to anyone ok?¨¨
She nodded as she fumbled with his boxers, -
¨¨Of course? I’m good at keeping a secret, so is it something big?¨¨
She looked down at his crotch, throwing him even more off guard with the ambiguous question, he switched back and forth between yes and no, not knowing what was the correct answer to which thing? She asked him to take a pill of the improved Cicodrine she had fetched from Alex‘s room, ‘’assuring him that he was in for a long haul!’’ he did as she said. Awaiting her next move. She made sure that she remained in charge of the situation, -
¨¨Wanna see something cool?¨¨
She showed him the jack-in port behind her ear, his geeky nature made him lose every façade, ‘’as he ranted on about how wetware installments were still illegal in the US.’’’ She took the fiber optic jack-in cable and attached it to the Q-pad strapped to his wrist, then guided his hand to her jack-in portal, she made a small moan as he plugged it in behind her ear.
¨¨I‘m gonna show you POV porn like you’ve never seen,¨¨
He nodded his head so eagerly that the heavy black rimmed glasses almost flew off. She told him to watch the display on the pad, as she took out his limb member and worked it with her mouth, he saw what she saw on the small screen, replying with a, - ‘’That is so fucking cool!’’ At the same time and unbeknownst to his knowledge, Meltdown worked through the internal systems of the Q-pad, and derived the info on Pointdexter and Jonsey’s operation of laying the city of Los Angeles to waste on behalf of the Mafia in Las Vegas. Mob transactions as well as complicated codes for entering the missile warheads and so on - were sent to the headquarters of the FBI and CIA, all of this took less than a minute while Xiola kept Pointdexter busy. Meltdown’s A.I. appeared on the conspirator’s display addressing Xiola.
¨¨Ok you can spit him out now,¨¨
¨¨I thought you liked to watch?¨¨
Pointdexter was somewhat alerted by the talking animation on his wrist device, still he did not react, as he was receiving the blowjob of his life.
¨¨yea… well, there is no pleasure in it for me in here, guess it only works when you’re in front of the screen, not behind it.¨¨
- They both laughed as Xiola pushed off the bed, and knocked Pointdexter flat out! She slipped off her hotpants, and got back on top of him, guiding his hard member inside of her,(thanks to the enhanced Cicodrine); it remained unaffected by the unconsciousness of its owner. Meltdown told her that it might be a good idea if she left the room sooner than later, since various government agencies - would be on their way to arrest Pointdexter, and Jonsey, She told him to shut up.
¨¨Just give me a goddamn minute here, Meltdown. I just gotta get off before I get out, ok!¨¨
Four minutes and two orgasms later she told Meltdown, that she would see him back at the roach motel, she Jacked-out and tied up Pointdexter who remained unconscious and stiff on the bed, she left the room satisfied with herself. She met up with a much anticipating Hank in the Hotel bar, who relaxed some as she told him of the success of the operation, she joined him for a double shot of Vodka. He was already hammered from waiting and reducing the stress. He pointed to an older middle eastern looking guy that performed magical tricks, on a very small stage at the bottom of the bar, - ’’look that guy is really good, he pulled out an artificial bunny of his hat, just before you walked in.’’ They traded the vial of Zen-coke for a cab fair back to the motel, fingers crossed that Ali had taken a bath, stopping only at a 7-11 for more booze, ‘’It had all worked out, still she felt kind of empty inside, without being able to work out the exact reason why?’’
They spent the rest of the night in the motel room, waiting for things to settle, watching the news that looped pictures of a cuffed Jonsey, and Pointdexter being escorted from he Mirage resort by the FBI, both the media and the police was surprised of the turn the case had taken.? - Without being fully disclosed yet - the FBI confirmed that warrant arrest had been issued on leading mobsters! they further expressed that they still wanted to talk to the two guys, that first had been suspected of launching the nuclear strike at Mexico,(who had retaliated instantly with their own nuclear warheads.) She remembered how the white Duke, had referred to it as M.A.D: Mutually Assured Destruction! Hank had almost passed out from the bottle of scotch he clutched in his hand. As some news reporter consulted an expert on the matter, commenting on: ‘’what a crazy week it had been,’’ with at least four major nuclear attacks around the globe. It seemed like the cities of Stockholm and Copenhagen had wiped each other out in such an attack, barely two days ago, ‘’surprisingly, it did not seem to be related in any way, to these current horrific events,’’ leading to the strike that had been launched on Mexico city, and the retaliation on the city of Los Angeles. The expert elaborated on how there was no apparent ties between either the fundamentalist Islamic government of Sweden to the fascist state of Denmark, or for that matter the Neo-communist regime of Mexico… She turned the TV off, and Jacked-in to speak to Meltdown.
Subliminal Life
His now well known A.I. came up on the sticky motel laptop.
¨¨So… raped anyone lately?¨¨
¨¨Not besides Alex and I guess that Pointdexter didn’t mind, I just couldn’t stand him looking at me through those thick glasses.¨¨
Meltdown laughed mechanically at her words.
¨¨We did good huh!¨¨
¨¨Yes we did Meltdown, you were awesome, I mean I would never had made it without you,¨¨
¨¨Arw, come on… ok well you’re probably right.¨¨
She smiled, -
¨¨So now that you got even with Alex, do you feel any better?¨¨
¨¨I don’t know? In some way I feel… like?¨¨
¨¨Yeah I know what you mean, like you completed this giant thing, and you imagined it would bring you peace of mind right…? But instead you just feel like you need a purpose right, something to live for,¨¨
¨¨Yea, sounds like the way I feel.¨¨
¨¨I used to feel like that after every damn hack, nothing out of the ordinary, believe me.¨¨
¨¨Wait… are you still messing about on my hard drive? reading my mind!¨¨
¨¨Oh will you stop being so damn paranoid! Having access to your memories are no different than someone telling you their secrets, or about their past, its just unedited, that’s all¨¨
She shrugged her shoulders, pouting her lips,
¨¨Listen Xiola, I like you and all, but you really need to quit feeling so damn sorry for yourself!¨¨
She responded in a insulted tone, -
¨¨Is that so?!?¨¨
¨¨Yes it is! I get it - Alex fucked you over, and broke your heart. But in a way he did create you… was it not for him you would be spreading legs somewhere right now, not having anymore consciousness than that Traci, doll? So I understand he was an asshole, but you killed your master, and proved that you have a free will, you’re constantly beating yourself up over being an ordinary whorebot,¨¨
¨¨Well that was what I was designed as!¨¨
¨¨Sure. but you are so much more than that now, don’t you see?¨¨
¨¨Like how?¨¨
¨¨Like when you froze up by that safeword, what made you snap out of it?¨¨
¨¨I have no idea, it must had malfunctioned somehow?¨¨
¨¨No it didn’t, the safe word probably worked on a more simple version of you? but you beat it, you have as much mind and willpower as any ‘real’ human!¨¨
¨¨yea, you think…¨¨
¨¨Fuck I know so! You’re a goddamn kick-ass hitman Xiola! and who cares if someone trained you or it was downloaded on your hard drive,¨¨
She kept quiet as he lectured her, -
¨¨And you are fucking special you hear me! I did go over your memory bank, and you used to be so fragile and introvert, not getting any pleasure from sex, just comfort and reassurance that he wouldn’t leave you, but all that changed tonight, you own your own sexuality - as perverted it may be,¨¨
She laughed as she cried tears of relief, telling him that, - ‘’hopefully she wasn’t that’ freaky, given less stressful situations.’’
¨¨And I’m no expert on this Xiola, remember I lived my live in the grid, but the detachment and sense of not belonging is human, everyone feels that way, real or not… ok!¨¨
She wiped the tears off her cheeks.
¨¨So quit feeling sorry for yourself, cause you are as free as everyone, no God - no Master! get out there and do whatever the fuck you wanna do,¨¨
There was silence for a bit, before she asked him what was next, if he just wanted to continue, being her A.I. sidekick, -
¨¨As tempting as it may be, I think I’ll decline, it was fun and all but, I’m gonna have to leave you…¨¨
She asked him where he would go…?
¨¨I wanna get out there and see what I can do, someone once called death - the final frontier! but its not? I survived it and I feel free. I feel like I wanna blend in with the zeros and ones, in every fiber optic cable out there, it’s hard to explain, but I feel like I could be everywhere at once…?¨¨
The breaking dawn was coming through the edges of the dirty Venetian blinds, as she asked him, -
¨¨So this is it huh?¨¨
¨¨No it isn’t, girl. I’ll be keeping an eye on you I promise, I’ll be out there.¨¨
¨¨I’m sorry to see you go, and I wanna apologize again for beheading you, but I somehow sense that you enjoy life more dead…?¨¨
¨¨I’m not dead, I’m just beyond life ha ha, like you have every feeling and emotion and doubt like so-called humans, you’re just different - we could call you beyond-human.¨¨
They both laughed, like two friends that knew that they wouldn’t be seeing each other again for a while, he told her to wait at the motel for a messenger that would deliver a platinum credit card, as well as a new passport. She told him to give her a sign, that he was out there as soon as he could…? he smiled back and waved a pixilated hand, she raised hers too. The screen went blank for a moment, then his image was replaced by a news headline from Chiba: which proclaimed that it had finally stopped raining, and the sky was blue, she knew it was his way of saying: cheer up! she Jacked-out.
Hank and Ali was just about waking up, as she drew the blinds, and poured herself a glass from the last bottle in the mini-bar, as she opened the door, took a chair and went outside the motel room, her make believe bodyguard from last night joined her. As soon as he and Ali had talked to the police, he would take the buggy and drive back to the desert, and look for his partner in crime, Brain. He said he still wanted to expose the hypocrisy, and lies of the government,(without going into details) and they could use a kick-ass hitman as her, if she was interested? She declined, but wished him the best of luck with exposing whatever it was he was after.
Ali came out, he had tried washing his dirty rave gear last night,(it had not gone too well,) Xiola who felt mighty fresh, felt a need to taunt him, -
¨¨So it seems like LA is gone? hope you can find some artificial pussy in this town!¨¨
He kicked the chair away from which she was leaning against the wall, so she fell flat on her ass. Hank got in between them before any of them could hit the other, -
¨¨Ok ok you’ve had your share of puns at him Xiola, but go easy he lost his Mom last night as Los Angels got vaporized,¨¨
She placed herself back in the chair again, as Hank told Ali to wait for him in the buggy. He told her that they would try and look up his Dad, he might be in Vegas?… he asked her again if she might reconsider his suggestion of joining the vague resistance? she declined once more, ‘’and asked him not to mention her at the police station,’’ as he headed for the buggy. She watched as the dusty vehicle drove out of the parking lot. Some twenty minutes later a FedEx delivery guy approached her, handing over an envelope containing the goods that Meltdown had ordered. She opened it, and took a look at them, the passport had her pictured with scarlet red hair for some reason? She figured that she better get to a hairdresser and get some new clothes as well, she could probably get it all done at the airport, while waiting for her flight. Lahore seemed like a nice place this time a year, always a buffet of fresh meat as Roxy had told her, and she could need a vacation…