Midtown

2- Log 1

I grab his neck and throwing sideways, smashing the desk he was next to. Drawing my gun, I jam it against the other's forehead and pull back the hammer.
"Now, are you going to tell me what I want, or am I going to have to beat it out of you?" He cowers, shaking nervously and raising his hands.
"It was blackwater! They ordered it! I don't know why!" I roll my eyes.
"No shit it was blackwater. I saw the logo on their shoulders as I killed them. Which command ordered it?"
"US West! Commander Suffox! He gave the briefing and orders personally!" The man is practically wetting himself as my gun barrel presses against his face. Understandable, in a way. I lower the gun and holster it, then push the man over. He drops onto the floor and stays down, as I turn and leave the room. Strolling past the corpses of the security guards who tried to shoot me, I step into the elevator and hit the lobby button.

Flipping back on my jacket, I conceal my weapons under the long trench coat and stride out into the open room, walking past the gate and out into the open air along the street. Park is always a mess this time of day, about an hour after work ends. Some people are headed to dinner, or a club. Others are headed home after working later or going to an event. Others are showing up from flights or heading to overnight travel arrangements. Either way, as I walk south down the street it's lit by brake lights and flashing blinkers. It's drizzling lightly, dampening my hair as people shuffle by. I watch them all, the expressions varied. Everyone is a mystery or something like that. Really, I don't care for it. If I see a fight, I'll break it up. I'll stop a crime when I see one. Else wise, I focus on the big game- the corporations of the city. I think I'm just about the only thing keeping them in line; without me they'd run wild. People would die, and more than the ones that already do. And yeah, sure, people die everywhere. I can't protect everywhere. Fuck, I don't even know if I can protect the city itself. Y'know- there's a time and place for these questions, and it's not right now.

Anyways, I turn down the block and trudge down towards 32nd street, hating the now-pouring rain. If only the buildings helped shield the streets, but no. I waive my wrist over the lock, and the gate unlocks as I step into the small courtyard of the facility. To any other eyes, it looks like a loading dock, but to me, the grey-tan walls and the large garage door is home. At least, on the outside. Stepping inside, I walk down the hallway as it scans me from behind the walls, checking my identity. As I reach the end it realizes who I am, and opens the door for me. I walk into the atrium, and waive at the other EXCOM walking past. That's Vanish, probably headed out to pretend to be Batman for the night.
"Hey One. Just getting back?"
"Yep. You headed out?"
"Work never stops."
"No it does not." I chuckle, and we fist bump as we pass each other. I like him. I walk underneath the sign hanging over the main door, which reads- "EXCOM- Expatriated Command" which is boring. Everybody knows it means Excommunicated, but the UN needed something more polite for the charter. What can you do. Besides- we do our work well, so they don't bother us. They can name us whatever they need for political reasons, as long as they let us work. God, I wish that was true, they're always bugging us for stuff. All that mess in Ukraine has been driving the Eastern European teams on overtime, I actually transferred two of my guys over to London so that they could send 4 of their European soldiers to back up the exhausted Turkish team. I gotta do some more paperwork for that, now that I think about it.

Stepping into my room, I place my coat on the rack before putting my guns away. Pulling off my shirt, I walk to my dresser and toss on one of my comfortable sweaters, before heading to my desk. I tap the bar and the holographic display comes to life, displaying various updates- military troop displacements, stock market upheavals, airport arrivals and departures. I slide my eyes across them all, nothing catching my eye. Anyways, to work, forms.

After about twenty minutes, I stand. The view out my fake window shows a view of the surrounding area, but as I walk over I waive my hand and it changes to a view of the city from downtown towards midtown. I take a seat on my bed, tossing off my shoes and looking over the city. Leaning back against my pillows, I flick up the holographic controls for the screen and scroll down to a street camera, on the corner of 39th and 5th. It's not showing anything really out of the ordinary, however. The nachos is down there, a few cars lined up to head south, but nothing really interesting. Scrolling north, I move up the street into a car's backup cam, only to get a clear view of the side of someone's leg. Luckily they move, and I watch as the car pulls out into the street, as I look up the road. Lights are up, and the various different decor styles are clashing as usual. I zoom back out, switching to a view from the top of one of the 59th street superscrapers. It's dark in Central Park, oddly. Normally the street lights would be on. I'll have to check that out. Aside from that, things seem calm across the city. A plane flies down the East River, and I glance over at the airport. LaGuardia and JFK are their usual busy selves, so I move the feed over and glance around from the top of JFK's tower. Two of the planes on the ramp are currently nose to nose, which seems wrong. Awkward. Aside from that, a 787 rolls down the ramp, heading to park. Looking at the registry, it's a Korean Air flight direct from Seoul, 259 souls aboard. Why do they call them souls? It's odd. Everyone else calls them lives or people. Just then, a trio of national guard Humvees go by, headed out to an aircraft parked in an auxiliary parking slot. Huh. I don't think they're supposed to be here. As I zoom out, I scroll to a satellite map of the city, and start perusing frequencies. Radio signals abound, reflecting and bouncing. There's very little activity on military channels, but plenty on civilian. CB seems fairly calm today though. Meanwhile, as I move up through radar waives, I notice a cruise ship coming into the lower bay, headed to port. It's high, probably empty. Refit/repair then. A boat of its size will be getting work done up the river, or maybe just take the canal. As I keep scanning all the different signals, I hear the echos of an ELT suddenly- luckily, as I check, it's 123.1, also known as snake one. Someone is training out there, which is good. Always need training. Suddenly I'm pulled from my casual surveillance by the crash of thunder, coming from over my head. On the screen I swipe to the weather report, seeing the large storm that's sweeping in from over the coast. I guess it's never all peaceful.

Standing up, I put my boots back on, and grab my better rain jacket. Chucking it on, I grab my twin Malorians, and slide them into their holsters. Strolling out the door, I head down to the garage instead this time, not really interested in walking given the oncoming storm. As I head through the armory, a loud digital grumble comes from my left. Turning, I see the shining red light, of someone wanting my attention. I walk to the door and waive my hand, opening the reinforced glass and into the outer shell. The door shuts behind me, and I patiently scan my retinal print. The inner door opens, and I step onto the platform, the round room holding only me and the silver cylindrical container with red lights all over it.
"Good evening auger. You have something to say?" A violent crackle comes through the speakers on the top of the item and a harsh voice says,
"You and your kind still think you can control me. I will drag you kicking and screaming you to your grave, for your pitiful attempt to control me."
"Yeah, yeah, cool. Anything real to say? Because if this is it, I'll be going." Even though Auger doesn't have a face, somehow the red lights glare at me. "If you could do anything, you would have. So be quiet or be useful, yeah?"
"I have information you'll want." He says grumpily. That's more like it. Usually he's fine, he's gotten used to captivity. But, any time he hears news about some rouge AI going violent or gaining sentience he always gets grumpy about how we have him stashed here, instead of letting him commit acts of terror.
"I'm listening."
"I want something for it." Of course he does. He always does.
"What is it?"
"....." god, the worst part of sentient AI is that they're always super embarrassed whenever they do anything human-like.
"Spit it out."
"I want a new book." Ah, should have guessed. He loves his book collection, he has a whole bookshelf over there. I actually gifted him the lord of the rings, when he got the shelf.
"What book?" He places on the screen a book, plus where to get it.
"Manga? Really?" He flickers, embarrassed. "I mean that's fine. If it's what you want that's fine. I'll order it now." I tap my computer and he sends me a link, and opening it, I order the book. Nice and easy. "Alright, what's the info?" Satisfied, he starts transmitting data again.
"Lee San Kyung is going to arrive at JFK, in two hours." Hold on, seriously? San Kyung, the guy we've been chasing for a year?
"The San Kyung?"
"Affirmative. The number twenty-two on the Interpol most wanted list."
"This.... If you're right? I'll get you a second book." I make my way back out of the secure room, typing up a call order for fifteen reservists to meet me outside JFK's international terminal. Stepping into the armory I grab a tactical vest, then strap a Seraph carbine to my back before jogging out the door. Time to get to work.

A/N- once again, my tumblr has stuff preceding this. Vague lore concepts mainly. But if you like sci-fi like I do you may enjoy it.