23 January 2106 by Pete III
Chills shot down my spine as I watched Ken's entire home crumble into a giant mushroom of fire and smoke. I'm sure I yelled out something stupid just before I began running forward.
Hu, being not quite twice my age but easily as fit, kept up with me and we reached the edge of the walkway in just a few minutes.
I gasped for air as I took in the destruction. The fires had gone out, but Ken's building was gone along with several on either side of where it had stood just minutes earlier.
"Your mentor--was he?"
"I truly hope not." I said looking down at the path the debris had taken. The buildings had broken apart from the explosion and were further disassembled by the lake's projection chassis below. I could see as far as darkness from where I stood--which was about two hundred meters down, I should think.
We stood there for who knows how long when my dev chirped at me. I pulled it from my pocket and looked at it's display. It was a message from Chancellor. I decided not to take it because I had a feeling she was just telling me to go cover this story.
As I put it back in my pocket it chirped at me again. I glanced down at it and saw that it wasn't another message from my employer. I looked more closely at it to be certain I wasn't mistaken.
It was from Ken!
I tapped the "answer" button and spoke. "Ken! Daijobuka?"
"Yes, I'm fine--thankfully. Are you?"
"Indeed! Where are you?"
"I'm about three hundred meters below you."
"What? How?" I was quite astounded.
"I have my ways. Listen, I can't meet you there now. Meet me in an hour at the Lucky Bubble Cafe."
"Where's that?" Hu asked.
"Eleven sections west, three levels down and then eight east."
"Eleven west, three down, eight east. Got it," I said.
"See you soon," Ken said as the connection went dead.
"Eleven, three, eight," Hu repeated.
We began to walk.
The hour past quickly as it took us most of that time just to get to the LBC. Turns out it's an old-style bubble tea establishment in a very bad are of town. It was difficult to imagine how low-class things got so close to LNA--or what had been LNA.
It seemed like the bad areas of town were slowly creeping up on the good. Soon my flat won't be worth the money I pay to live there.
The Lucky Bubble Cafe is a seedy place, all right. It looked, to me, to have been at one time, a very high quality cafe. There was stained wood everywhere--walls, trim, door and window-frames--except for the ceramic tile floor. The tables and chairs looked like stained wood as well. However, upon closer inspection it was all simply coated Plecksi. Litter dotted the corners of the establishment and it looked like a good cleaning was something it had no experienced in some time.
"Are you going to order anything while we wait?" Hu asked.
"No, I don't think so." I was hesitant to trust the health standards of a place like this.
"Why not? You know, bubble tea has Asian roots, it's your heritage."
"Genetically, perhaps, but I grew up in New Edin--on the European continent and my father grew up in New Columbia, so, it's not really my... cup of tea."
Hu smiled. "No, I suppose it isn't."
I took a seat as Hu ordered. I checked my dev to discover that we had taken roughly forty-five minutes to get there. The real delay was in two elevator banks being down. We had to take a stairwell that was a full three extra intersections away.
Luckily, Ken was early.
He entered with a flushed look on his face. "Come on, Pete, we've no time. Where's your doctor friend?"
I nodded toward Hu as he returned from the order counter with a drink in either hand.
"Here, Pete, I got you a boba coffee."
"I told you not to order for me," I said.
"Just try it, you'll like it!" I shrugged and took the drink.
"Ken, this is Hu, my health official. Doctor, this is Daisuke Ken, my mentor."
"A fellow Asian--Japanese by the sound of it!"
"Yes, pleasure to meet you, Doctor but we must go, quickly."
As we chased him from the LBC I became puzzled as to why we were leaving so quickly.
"Ken! Why are we leaving so soon?"
"I barely got out of my lab with my life. When corporate or government authorities show up, they're going to need me to make a statement--even if I was not at home, they'd need me to help with the investigation. That will slow us down quite a bit, won't it?"
"Then shouldn't you stay behind and help investigate?"
"Masaka."
"Why is that impossible?"
"I'm not about to make myself an easy target for another assassination attempt."
"Assassination?" I was shocked.
"Who would want to kill you?" Hu asked.
"Not just me. All of us."
More tomorrow...
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