So, I found myself sitting at the open bar in the hotel, thinking of ways to tell Berlin that I was secretly working for The Bounty Officers.
As I sipped my drink distractedly, a lot of thoughts swirled inside my head, as always. What is she freaks out, I thought. What if she tells everyone about Destruction's operation?
But then again, Berlin didn't seem like the type of person to freak out under any circumstances. I came to the decision that I was going to just tell her, that it didn't matter if she didn't want to help me, as long as she knew the truth.
"Are you going to finish that?," a man next to me asked in an overly drunken stooper, pointing at my drink.
"Take it," I answered, and retired to my room.
The next morning, I walked right up to Berlin's desk, disregarding the fact that I could be dragging her into extreme danger. That I might be turning her world upside down.
"Berlin, we have to talk," I said.
"Sure," she said, looking up from the computer. "What's up?"
"Can we go somewhere more private?" I asked.
"We could go to the cafe next door, they make killer espresso."
"Would Mr. Richardson care?" I asked.
Berlin stood up and grabbed her jacket. Swinging it onto her back, she said, "Nope, I go there all the time. And if he says anything, just pretend you don't know what he's talking about, vocations are bad with denial."
"Okay," I said, and followed her out of the building.
In the cafe next door, waiters and waitresses ran around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to attend to everyone in the cafe. A waitress placed down our beverages in front of us, and we thanked her, smiling kindly. I took a deep breath.
"Okay, here goes nothing," I said. Berlin looked up from her coffee, which she had been blowing on to try and cool down. "Have you ever heard of the terrorist organization, Destruction?"
Berlin's eyes widened in fear, the first time I had seen her show an emotion other than happiness. "Vocation 13?" she asked.
"What the hell? Yeah, how do you know about him?' I asked, awestruck.
"That asshole killed my father," Berlin said, taking a sip from her coffee, now not paying any attention to the piping steam that rose from it.
The look of confusion and pure astonishment on my face must have said everything, because Berlin began her story:
Jackie Lewis stood at the beverage table, taking in the scene of the gala. Every single person other than him was on the dance floor, prancing the night away.
Looking towards the balconies above the main hall, Lewis spotted their two other Bounty Officers, one a sniper, and the other prepared to jump into action at any moment.
The level of tension that was unbeknownst to the guests made Lewis's suit uncomfortable, but then again tuxedos were always uncomfortable. Jackie hated dressing up.
Suddenly, all the lights dimmed, and a spotlight ignited, focusing on the stage on the other side of the room. Climbing the stairs on the side if the stage, was Dallas North, the genius himself. The inventor of HARMONY.
"I've got eyes on North," Lewis said into his ear piece. "No threats so far."
With the invention of HARMONY, there were obviously going to be many people who didn't agree with the product. This gala was being held to celebrate the invention of the drug, therefore being a perfect place for Vocation 13 - an anti-HARMONY activist - and his cronies to strike. The Bounty Officer's mission was to keep Dallas North safe at all costs.
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, Lewis spotted something peculiar. A vocation stood in the crowd, his hands in his pocket, staring up at the stage as North talked about his new product. Only humans were invited to this shindig.
"Guys," Lewis said into his ear piece, and looked towards the balconies. Both Bounty Officers were gone, replaced by two vocations in tuxedos, staring at Lewis.
Jackie looked back at the vocation who was in the crowd, and saw that now he was pulling something out of his pocket. A silver object that couldn't be mistaken for anything else but a blaster.
Lewis took action, sprinting towards the vocation who now had the blaster fully out his pocket, and was pointing it as North.
Lewis grabbed the vocation's hand, placing his arm between the vocation's face and the blaster, and pointed it up. With a deafening blast, it shot off, hitting the ceiling.
"Holy shit!" Lewis screamed as the crowd dispersed, running in different directions hysterically. Lewis looked towards the stage, and saw that North had escaped, his mission was complete.
However, Lewis could stay there and finish the job... take out three of Vocation 13's men, saving some trouble for future Bounty Officers. Maybe Vocation 13 himself was here, and Lewis could stop all this now. Besides, there was a chance he could survive. He thought of his daughter back home, who's eyes lit up every time she saw him walk through the door. "I love you Berlin," Lewis said.
Next, Lewis bent his arm and jerked it backwards, elbowing the vocation in the face and sending it stumbling. The vocation's blaster exited its hand as it stumbled backwards, making its way slowly into Lewis's. He pulled out his own, now sporting two, almost fully loaded blasters.
He pointed at the vocation on the dance floor and lit it up, blasting it to smithereens, and started to walk towards the stairs to the balconies.
Once at the hall to the balconies, Lewis started to walk slower, hoping not to alert the vocations who stood on the ledges, perhaps they might even wonder where he went.
But no, a vocation jumped out of the entrance to the first balcony and grabbed Lewis's wrists, pointing his blasters towards the sky. They grappled for a second before the vocation raised its leg and kicked The Bounty Officer, sending him sliding across the floor towards the stairs.
While still on the floor, Lewis pointed his blasters at the chest of the vocation, and pulled the triggers. The vocation fell with a CLUNK!
Lewis got off the floor and started to walk towards the last balcony, expecting to be ambushed again. He swung himself around, his blasters trained on whatever was on the ledge looking over the dance floor.
A muscular vocation stood on the balcony, its back facing Officer Lewis. His hands were behind its back, as if he was casually watching an opera.
The vocation turned slightly to look at who was behind him. Lewis could now see that half of the vocation's face was torn off, revealing layers and layers of circuits and panels that buzzed and hummed.
"Why hello there," the vocation said. He had a British accent. "We were expecting company."
"Yeah, well we won," Lewis said.
"Did you, though?" asked the robot. "The woman and the man are dead. I assume they were two other Bounty Officers. And I can't imagine you'll last long. So that's three humans to save one human's life. Does that seem fair?"
Lewis looked at the vocation's back for a second, and lowered his guns realizing what this mission had been about, and what the leaders had known was going to occur.
Suddenly, the vocation spun around and grabbed Lewis, pinning his arms to his sides. The vocation's face was ever scarier from the front, and with the super-human strength given to every vocation, he flung Lewis off of the balcony.
Lewis landed on the dance floor, breaking every bone in his body. The vocation followed him, and landed next to him, with a booming mechanical sound.
"Please," Lewis struggled to say. "I have a family."
The vocation raised his blaster, pointing it at Lewis's face. "When Destruction is in charge, I'll tell them you say hi."
YOU ARE READING
Infiltrating Harmony
Science FictionDuring the 2050s, a new drug has been introduced into society. It is called HARMONY, and distorts people's views of reality, making them see only what would lead to a peaceful, crime free community. Of course, with a phenomenon as great as HARMONY...
