22 January 2106 posted by Pete III
I woke the morning of the 20th with a great amount of expectation for the day. I knew I'd be going to bed before my adventure fully began, but regardless of that, my nerves were on edge all day. Knowing that I'd be expected to meet someone in twenty-four hours time in a location that I had no knowledge of was oddly compelling. I was expected to simply be where I was to be.
No instructions, no directions, no communication containing any kind of useful information. Not having any control over this situation was downright exhilarating.
If I was going to be late, I couldn't call her to let her know.
If I needed to change the location of our meeting, I would be unable to do it.
I couldn't inform Ken and the doctor where we were to meet the fourth in our party, either.
My apologies if this seems odd to you--we're just not used to this sort of lack of control over a situation. I didn't like it, but for some reason I trusted Ryca, so it was a thrill, in the end.
By nine hundred I was at my Madame Chancellor's office. She was still using a levchair to get around and I nearly broke my leg over it on my way into her office.
"Oh, hey ya, kid!" she said backing away from me.
"Good morning, Madame. I'm surprised to see you back in your office but not fully mobile."
"Yeah, well, the nanos aren't done fixing my legs but I couldn't bear the idea of that bastard Kevins in here running things." She maneuvered her hover chair back, behind her desk as I sat down. Her office was decorated with display panels that rotated through a bloody endless supply of images featuring Chancellor and one famous politician or corporatician or another. For such a matter-of-fact person, her choice of content for her wall hangings seemed on the inconsistent side.
"Didn't you appoint Kevins as your vice editor?" I asked. knowing she had done so. I attended the naming ceremony, myself.
"Yes, of course, kid. He's one of those guys who you think you know and then you find out the kid's been lying to you."
"Lying? How so?"
"It's nothing I can go into, kid. I need you to head over to the convention center. There's a pharma conference and we'll need some content on it."
"Yes, that's why I wanted to talk to Kevins, or you, I suppose."
"You don't want the assignment," she said.
"Well, it's not exactly hard-hitting news, is it? No one likes to read about--"
"Kid, I know, but we do have audience that likes that kind of content. So just get over there and get it done. There's a seminar by Adam Douglas that I want you to cover, specifically. Cover the whole thing, but the seminar in particular."
I was in no mood to do a fluff piece on "possible" (but unlikely) cures for Germ Syndrome, which is all the pharma is used for these days.
"And if it's a fluff piece you're reacting to, don't let that distract you. This will be a serious story if you really dig into it."
I was barely able to listen to her. I just nodded my head in agreement.
"Three, are you listening to me?"
"Yes, yes, of course!"
"Dig into this story. Trust me on this, all right, kid?"
"All right," I said standing up and heading for the door. "Oh and Madame Chancellor, do get better soon."
"Kiss-ass. I fell off the tallest building in New Angels. I'll take my time getting better, thank you very much!"
I smiled and left.
The conference was a blur. I was too busy going over everything in my mind. The mysterious woman, Ryca, going back to the flat beyond the 33rd. It was all such a grand mystery, I had no problem getting through the day. I even managed a short interview with Dr. Adams after his seminar. I recorded everything and wrote my content on the subtrain on the way to the doctor's office.
As I set foot in his waiting room I tapped the send command out on my dev and my content was transferred to the SNA's secure server. No sooner did I pocket my dev than did Dr. Hu enter the waiting room.
"Ah, Mr. Three, right on time."
"Yes indeed, well, not that being late matters, does it?"
"Yes, quite. Very strange this chemcoding business. We've twelve more hours to kill, don't we?"
"Yes. Are you ready to go?"
"Yes, yes! I have my field medical kit right here," he said putting his hand to a gray pack over his shoulder.
"Doctor, your lab attire may be a little inappropriate for the trip we are taking tomorrow morning."
Dr. Hu smiled and unbuttoned his white lab coat to reveal a tight fitting combat jumpsuit--the kind the BGA (Body Government Authority) use when they go after the Nogoodnicks. It was even had grenades and two pistols hanging from his waste.
"You'll need to use the offensive gear as I took the Hippocratic."
"The what?" I asked.
"The Hippocratic Oath--it's a promise any truly good doctor makes to his patients to never be destructive or cause any damage to a person."
"Really? Do you understand the world you live in?"
"Yes, of course," Hu said, smiling. "I'm just a bit old fashioned."
"Well, we all have our quirks. Shall we be underway?"
Hu nodded as we left his waiting room.
Minutes later, we were aboard the subtrain heading for Ken's."
"So, tell me about our plan."
"I told you as much as I know already."
"Spend the night at your mentor's home and then leave when you feel the time is right?"
"Unfortunately, that's all I know."
"Perhaps she was referring to some sort of technology that codes memories into your brain chemically."
"We shouldn't be talking about this now, Doctor."
"Yes, yes, of course."
We were silent for much of the rest of the forty minute journey to LNA and Ken's place. It's not that there was some awkwardness between us. Hu had been my father and mother's health official before me. While I don't claim to know him well at all, I did trust him and, that evening, I could tell he was deep in thought. I decided he was still thinking about that chemcoding.
We arrived at the subtrain station nearest Ken's lab and made our way along the walkway that led along side the LNA. I glanced at Hu to see if he had even noticed the gorgeous hologramatic lake stretching out to our left. He was still deep in thought.
I looked back out at the water. It was truly stunning. I could even see people taking advantage of the antigrav technology--swimming and riding jet-powered waterbikes through hologramatic, simulated water.
"I should have to save up for a vacation here one day soon," I said.
"What's that?" Hu asked. I looked over at him and he had barely come out of his mental cocoon to speak to me.
"Are you still pondering the chemcoding?"
"I thought you said we shouldn't talk about it."
"No, you're right about that, but--" I smiled with relaxed frustration. "But Doctor--look at the lake. It's--"
I stopped talking as I could hear a rumbling coming from beneath Lake New Angels.
"What's that?" Hu asked as a large ball of flame erupted from the hologramatic lake, roughly two-hundred meters from the shore, where we stood.
We both stopped walking and watched as the entire hologramatic lake blinked out of existence. With the lake gone, we could now see that a huge portion of the chassis that created the water and the gravity effects of the water had been blown apart. It had to be the Nogoodnicks.
I stared out at the people who were enjoying themselves in the imaginary body of water. They just hung there, not sure what to do.
"They'll be fine as long as the antigrav tech continues to function," I said to Hu.
"Yes, of course, but look at the fire--it's spreading to toward the power supply."
I looked over and saw that tiny explosions were occurring in a long line, heading directly for the large power supply, that was predominantly underneath the edge of the lake five or six hundred meters from where we stood.
"Those aren't flames--those are more detonations." I looked back to the people who had been enjoying themselves.
"GET OUT OF THERE!" I began yelling. I waved frantically at them to head to shore. Hu joined me.
The detonations hit the large section of the lake's chassis that supplied it's power and the entire thing was enveloped in flames. I looked back to the people as the antigrav field gave out, allowing them to fall into the complicated array of antigravity field and hologram projectors.
"Oh, no!" Hu exclaimed. I glanced back to the exploding power supply as it erupted into a giant mushroom that grew upward, overtaking the buildings that sat atop the power supply on the edge of the lake. That's when I recognized one of those buildings as... Ken's...
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