Neon Cowboys

Chapter 3: Lucy

Lucy watched Scorch eat his food. The small diner was so nondescript, an easy place for a AeroDome corpo to meet up with a MODA. MODA were often mistaken for the sex workers they protected. No one would look at a suit and his perceived toy.
Lucy couldn’t believe Scorch had paid each of them 100,000. She knew he was frugal. 1.2 mil frugal though? Specs to his friends. Dani really was a man of many names. Specs, Scorch, Dani. What was his real name? She had spent time smuggling implants for him. He preferred Retrieval Officer Alpha #2212 but he always found extra gear to sell her. Then he was a good asset. This lowlife now? Scorch had turned into a money grubbing corpo. Lucy felt confident Scorch would find the information she asked him to. His ass was on the line. Thus, she did the curtesy of calling him Scorch. He just needed to get them in Megabuilding 3090.
“I asked around.” Scorch sighed. “I didn’t learn anything. It is just as you said. AeroDome doesn’t want whatever this is out. I am intrigued. I have a duty to see if a repeated failure deserving a lengthy report.”
“A financial oversight?” Lucy stepped close to Scorch, he shrunk a bit. “Money, money, money.”
“And a bit of human life saving in there. Whores and all.”
“What about your little dick?” Lucy backed up, the worm was still needed. “Little detective girl find anything? You’re a few days away from the end.”
“Psy will meet us there. Said she found a way in. One chance. Besides, I heard Elika and her team could get it done in 24 hours. I have…mmm 80 hours or so to prove your suspicions are null. It’s an expensive project, that’s all and I’ll shut it down. No human trafficking, not AeroDome.” Scorch scarfed down the last of his waffles.
“Another promotion.” Lucy laughed. “First Specs now Scorch, eh?”
“Specs was a mocking nickname. Scorch is my codename. It’s mine forever, promotion or not. You ready Lucy?”
“MODA always ready.” Lucy smiled.
Scorch led them out of the restaurant. His AeroDome corpo car was sleek. Lucy felt uncomfortable on the clean seats. It didn’t feel lived in, it was a public display. To whom, she wondered. People above him weren’t impressed by the brand and model of the vehicle. People like Lucy, rarely ever got to be in such a sleek design. It all seemed so pointless to Lucy.
“Here.” Scorch said.
They were at the base of Megabuilding 3090. Lucy looked around. This was where they wiated. Hundreds passed by them, they nestled close to the railing separating walking traffic from rolling vehicles. Lucy lit a cig and waited. She finished two more before Psy finally arrived.
“Okay.” Psy was breathing hard. “We have our way in. Lunch starts in a few minutes. For a select few moments. Floor 88 will be empty. The entire floor has a safety meeting, construction company. The MODA have tracked as far as floor 90 as the best guess. It’s supposedly a residential neighborhood. But floors 85-95 aren’t available to anyone. The owner of the building doesn’t even know. Like he cares, whoever is renting it out is paying forty times the value for him to look the other way.”
“How do you plan on getting to the 88th floor exactly?”
Psy smiled, she pointed to a storage container. Various other construction containers lay around it. “That is being moved up there right before their lunch break. My contact will open it up and disappear.”
“Wait is there a plan to get out?” Lucy asked.
“I…kind of hoped to find out once we’re in.” Psy shrugged. “I’m a P.I. Not a fixer.”
Lucy laughed. It would have been more frugal for Scorch to pay another Freelancer. She figured he was playing a longer game. Psy’s youth may be swirling around in his mind now.
“I’m a burner. I’ll have access to, at the very least, the blueprints. We just need to get to a console on the floors.”
“Not worried about ICE (Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics)?” Lucy asked.
“Why would AeroDome create ICE to kill an employee? A high-level employee?”
“I don’t know why AeroDome would kill its employees. Usually, they only kill ex-employees.”
“Alright, noted.” Scorch said through gritted teeth. “Lead the way Psy.”
Psy brought them to the storage container. Psy punched in numbers she gathered at some point. They hopped in the storage container and waited.
“So…MODA? You’re a smuggler?” Psy said shyly. They were sitting on some type of crated item.
“I smuggle implants. If that’s what you want to know. Scorch was an AeroDome contact of mine for a long time. I find implants and sell them.”
“For what purpose?”
“To recover strippers and hookers. They do get injured a lot, don’t they?” Scorch smirked as the storage container was pulled up.
“Yes. Our two most repeat offenders are usually from three sources: the Feds, Spartan Security and AeroDome. Corpos think they deserve the world. MODA will crush anyone’s neck, though.”
“You protect…sex workers?” Psy asked confused. “Why?”
“Why not?” Lucy asked. “Police are too busy being personal models for politicians. The Feds are busy fighting with corpos and each other. Assholes like Spartan…and AeroDome, they don’t care. Torishibu Industries did though. MODA was created by them to help sex workers, while giving Torishibu a line into the gangbangers world. It started as a solid pull of info, sex workers here a lot of powerful people’s words. But it’s grown beyond the past.”
“A corpo created gang?” Psy asked puzzled. “I should have guessed such a strategy. What if your owners demand you look the other way? Doesn’t AeroDome own the MODA now?”
“Yes.” Scorch said. “But the MODA have always done what they want. They’re mythos got bigger than their creator. MODA will wage war with anyone. Anyone who harms sex workers.”
“That’s why this is so important to you.” Psy nodded her head. “What are you getting out of this Scorch?”
Scorch gave Lucy a look. Lucy should’ve known he lied to her. “I told you Psy. I will make it out of this on top.”
“100,000 for a small-time private eye like me though? From the Neon Cowboys? Come on. What angle are you working?”
“You get paid, eh?” Lucy asked. She couldn’t have Psy freak out. She was key to getting into the building. There were missing sex workers, some type of sex trade. She may freak out if she found out it was to kill Dr. Mal. This job and the MODA would sell Dr. Mal to the wolves at the drop of a hat. That was the price of this whole operation. “Tell me, girl. Why are you doing this? Me? MODA, makes sense. Brown noser Scorch here? Possible promotion. But you? From the meek Neon Cowboys?”
“We used to be known as the deadly one you know?” Psy pouted. “I’m a good detective. Real good. And…and I’ve been working on shooting.”
“What about combat?”
“I’ve been living paycheck to paycheck to get a combat shell installed.” Psy tapped the side of her head. “I took out a pretty big loan when that wasn’t enough.”
“You’re going to make the jump?” Lucy smiled. “Ah…the Joon-19. You want to be a combat specialist? Like your little friend Elika?”
Psy grimaced and turned her head. “Neon Cowboys time as the little bitch is over. I’m going to force Neon Dallas to look at us. We’re going to earn respect.”
Scorch chuckled. “That’s pretty admirable kid. I don’t think we’ll need that combat from you. Everything goes to plan? I escort you out of the building myself. Things go south? Well, they won’t. Besides that’s what Lucy is here for. MODA are…what’s that word you use?”
“MODA are madzuh.” Lucy smiled.
Psy had a wide grin on her face. “Good. We need more wildcards like you.”
The storage container stopped and opened quickly. It was some construction guy. Psy paid the man and they passed without a word. Psy led them a direction.
“How much this info cost you?” Scorch asked.
“Free.” Psy said. “I pulled out a lot of favors for this.”
“Me too kid.” Scorch took a shakey breath out.
Psy eventually led them to a stairwell with no door. They ascended the stairs. “My contact said, if there was anything worth while going on during the construction. Start at floor 90.”
They followed her up to that floor. Once again, no door. It wasn’t under construction though. No, it had dark walls. Low lights. It felt industrial, and the floor even seemed wet. It was a strange place this floor. Lucy’s boots made each metal crate floor even louder. She took off her shoes and the wet look was just a look. Her socks remained as dry as her sweaty feet allowed.
They continued farther into the hall. There were no doors, no turns. But at the very end was a small, simple red door. They pushed the door but froze when they heard voices.
“Word is we’re shutting down this center.”
“Why?”
“AeroDome thinks the Collective is closing in.”
“Collective?”
“It’s some group of rich assholes trying to play up some type of illuminati group.”
“Ah. Rich people who think their money deserves to make them deciders of society. So, what could they possibly want with this? It’s a complete failure.”
“No. I heard three lived. Three survived SoulCapture.”
“Three? They…they don’t scream like the ‘survivors?’”
“Not that I’ve heard.”
“Hmm. Do you think…do you think they’ll perfect this tech in our life?”
“Why? Want your consciousness to live on after your physical body is gone?”
“Maybe. My daughter could talk to me, well…the engram of data that represents who I am.”
“Is it even you?”
“I don’t know…”
They fell silent. Scorch turned to them. “Lucy, Psy. Kill.”
Lucy nodded. She brought out a large knife from her implant arm. It slid out of her hidden storage with ease. Psy couldn’t believe it. Scorch shook his head. He had an extra blade. He produced his own from his implant left arm. The two bladed women stood at the door. Lucy took a deep breath in and pushed the door open.
“Hey what the – ”
Lucy rushed the closest man, she thrust and the blade went through his eyes and back out the skull. He went limp and Lucy kicked him off the blade. Psy sprinted and took one swipe. The other man’s head fell to the floor. His body slumped down next.
“Impressive.” Scorch said. Psy tried to hand the red, humming blade back. “Please. It’s yours. It’s never spilled blood, it’d be rude to take it from you.”
Psy looked down at it. “I don’t have a sheath.”
Scorch smiled. “Right. Press that button.”
Psy pressed a small button on the hilt of the sword. It retracted to size of pistol handle. Psy had a wide smile, but Scorch pushed deeper in. He looked down. This room was for observing. Observing herds of people into a sprawling web of chairs in connected medical cubicals. Tall walls separated the “patients.” By the dozens, people had a helmet with wires leading to a large machine placed over their head. They screamed in pain as lights and sparks came from the helmet. When they stopped moving, scientists in hazmat suits studied the body, checked something on their tablet. With a wave the dead one was moved and another escorted in.
They watched in silent horror. It wasn’t just sex workers. It was low level Corpos, teachers, students, cops, everyone. Scorch watched the corner, in the back several kids under twelve were being gathered for the same “procedure.”
“Is this an oversight?” Lucy spat. “Is this enough for you?”
Scorch punched the window, it cracked a small amount. “How? Why? It’s not even perfected tests.”
“How do you think your products get through human trials?” Lucy mused, mostly to herself.
Scorch wiped his face. “I need to stop this.”
They watched as a group of Hazmat scientists jumped up and down together. They looked at their tablets and nodded. They embraced in a big hug. The dead body sat unmoving nearby. Lucy scoffed. “Looks like this little AeroDome project just Soul Captured it’s fourth consciousness…of thousands. Millions maybe, dead for a dangerous, inaccurate tech.”
“Scorch, we have ten minutes to get back. We might be smuggled back down from where we came. You have the evidence. Look at the bodies.”
Scorch glared at the AeroDome dead. “Go. I need work on this. The gigs done. Now you know Lucy. I plan to have it shut down before a MODA response can be made.”
“I’ll send Elika out.”
“Where are you sending her?” Psy asked concerned.
Lucy grimaced, her eyes lit up as she sent a message to Elika.
“You didn’t.” Psy wiped a tear from her face. “You’re still a monster.”
“Please. These are humans. Dr. Mal is a freak. He’ll be retired. Now, if you excuse me, I have a much bigger problem than some vacant.”
Lucy escorted her out. Psy was silent, mad. “You knew…”
Lucy sighed. “He’s right. Mal is just a vacant.”
“A vacant…soldier…paramedic. Almost a citizen.”
“Elika will move on him. Two others of her choice. He won’t last.”
“No stopping her…” Psy wiped her face. “Fuck me. Just thought…a good person could live. Survive.”