ABC - Penance

Alvarez Apartment Building, South Bank District

7th February V27 (2047)

It was nearly dusk when I got home from Headquarters, my day filled with completing reports and answering questions about the Kamarov case. I was tired and looking forward to a quiet Thursday at home, watching the Gravity Ball game and drinking a beer or six.

My only regret was I would be watching it alone, with Minke spending the night at Papa’s and Jan busy with work. I consoled myself with the thought I would order a takeout that only I liked and I could watch the game in my underwear.

The below ground parking lot was only half lit, the building owners being tardy with replacing some busted lights. My bike lights were already on from the long ride home, flashing like a lighthouse beacon across the other parked vehicles as I pulled into my usual spot.

I had dismounted and doffed my helmet, reaching for the charging cable on the wall when a faint scrape of a boot made me pause. The service pistol was under my left armpit, waiting to be drawn, yet something made me leave it there.

I turned slowly towards the sound, seeing a tall shape rise up from behind an electric sedan. The shadows were deep in that side of the lot, only the gleam from a small pistol throwing back the faint light.

“I’ve been expecting you” I said to the figure as they strode forwards. As they stepped into the light I realised what a fool I had been. It wasn’t Pony, that much was evident as soon as I saw the tall black boots and split skirt as a woman came towards me, the slim pistol aimed at my stomach.

The light embraced her fully, revealing the dark skinned ice bitch from Human Resources, Ms Prendergast.

“So you’ve come to finish the job you started in the boiler at last” I snapped. My hand drifted to my holster, wondering if I could draw fast enough to take her down.

“Please, Inspector, you have to help me!” she begged. “They have been hunting me for days!”

My hand stopped moving, my brain belatedly cataloguing her appearance. The hair was tangled, her makeup non-existent and the expensive skirt suit looked like she had slept in it for a couple of nights at least.

“Who has?” I demanded, thrown by her pleas.

“That would be sweet little old me” spoke a new voice and I turned to see a vision of elegance in a dark green jacket and plaid kilt. His hair was a vibrant shade of blue, trailing to white at the tips. Bold red lipstick made his mouth stand out, revealing the cruel smile he bestowed upon us mere women.

It was the fabulous Myles, the Receptionist from the Wonder Bar factory. Held in two hands, his nails painted a matching shade to the jacket, was a short barrelled shotgun. It was aimed in the general direction of Prendergast and I, but a single blast would likely hit us both.

“Please drop the gun, Roxanne” he demanded in a voice that could freeze water. Prendergast’s lips trembled and then she threw her tiny automatic to the floor, despair welling in her eyes. “You too please, Inspector” he added, a slight shift of his gun emphasising his request. I drew my gun carefully and laid it on the floor, standing back up slowly with my hands raised.

“Where is your partner, Inspector?” Myles asked, his eyes darting briefly to the shadowy depths of the parking lot.

“No idea” I answered truthfully. “I haven’t seen him for a couple of days” I gestured towards Prendergast, looking between us with desperate eyes. “How did you find her here?”

“I loaded a tracer onto her phone a while back” he said with a grin, his teeth a crisp white in the lights. “Same one she then transferred to your phone, Inspector” He nodded at the terrified woman in appreciation. “Thanks for that, by the way. It saved me finding an excuse to tap into the Inspector’s phone”

“So why take so long to hunt her down?” I queried. “Prendergast say she’s been on the run for a while”

Myles nodded sagely in acknowledgement. “It’s been fun watching the Ice Bitch scurry like a rat from hole to hole” he admitted. “But I needed to know who she was looking for. Who she wanted to pass on her stolen data to”

“Myles, you don’t have to kill me” she begged the man. “I don’t know anything, I swear”

“About what, Roxanne?” he coaxed her, his eyes never wavering and his finger on the trigger of the gun. I wanted to warn her to shut up right now, but I was too slow.

“The Basic Bars” she blurted and I could see her realise the mistake too late. I jumped forwards, trying to knock her down behind some cover when the shotgun went off.

I felt the razor sharp Ceramite flechettes tear through my jacket, putting fresh holes in my backside. It hurt like all kinds of fuck and I thought I was screaming, but it wasn’t me. Roxanne Prendergast caught the brunt of the blast, dozens of razor sharp needles tearing through her stomach and chest, sending her toppling backwards.

High heeled boots click-clacked across the hard concrete as Myles came over to finish us off. I could see Prendergast lying on her back, still breathing as blood weeped from multiple punctures. She was crying, her head lolling towards me in her final moments.

Myles was nearly on top of us, coming around the protection my bike had given me. The dying woman pushed a bloody hand into her stained jacket, taking out a high end model phone.

“It’s all there” she said, red foam bubbling from her lips. “Please stop them....”

“Now, now, my employers can’t have you flashing their secrets around you naughty girl!” Myles declared, and stood over her dying body. His shotgun was aimed at her from less than a couple of meters. At that range she would blasted into ragged chunks by a single burst of flechettes.

“Don’t shoot, Myles” I said from where I lay on the concrete. “She’ll be dead soon enough”

“I know, but this is my last contract for the Society” he answered me coldly. “After this I’m leaving this stinking town and heading back to New York”

“What about me?” I asked, feeling the blood loss from the flechette wounds making me light headed. “Don’t they want me dead too?”

“Yes, but that is someone else’s gig” he smiled at me. “I’m just tidying up loose ends from the Wonder Bar factory. Once the Ice Bitch is dealt with, I’m out of here”

He raised his gun once more, then paused and stepped back a pace.

“Don’t want to get blood on my kilt” he explained and sighted down his weapon.

The shot was remarkably quiet, throwing Myles forwards onto his knees, the shotgun flying from his nerveless hands. Blood fountained from the hole ripped through his chest and he gazed at it in disbelief. Like a tree in a forest, he fell without a sound.

I got to my feet and grabbed a first aid kit from a pannier on my bike, then knelt at Roxanne’s side. She was barely conscious, her body surrounded by a growing lake of her lifeblood.

“It’s Okay” she told me faintly. “It doesn’t hurt at all”

Her right hand still held her phone and she lifted it towards me.

“My parents died in the last Virus” she told me, urging me to take her phone. I grasped her hand, locking my grip around hers as she faded before my eyes. “Don’t let them do that to the world again”

Then Roxanne Prendergast died.

“I called for an Emergency Team” Ghost said, lifting me from my knees. I hadn’t heard him arrive, not that I expected to. “They’ll be here in five minutes”

“That’s too late for her” I replied, my eyes still on the woman at my feet. I wiped her bloodied phone on my already stained jacket then handed it to my partner. He slipped the device into a pouch of his Chameleon Suit, the camouflage deactivated now.

“I’m sorry” Ghost answered. “I couldn’t get a clear shot until it was too late”

“Yeah, I figured. I was trying to keep him talking but my feminine charms weren’t enough”

I took off my jacket and laid it over Roxanne’s face and chest, giving her what little dignity I could. Myles got a spare tarpaulin thrown over him that I used to cover my bike.

A commotion came from the end of the parking lot, near the stairwell. Mrs Avonmore came barrelling out from the doorway, a huge pistol in her metal hand. Behind her tottered Mr Liu, an Assault Rifle of Global War vintage in his wrinkled arms.

“What the hell happened down here, Alvarez?” she bellowed. She eyed Ghost with thinly veiled hostility, not aiming at him but her pistol was definitely waving in his direction. Mr Liu was not as subtle, the rifle tucked into his shoulder and squinting down the iron sights at my partner.

“I have been under covert Police Protection for the last few days” I told my building Super. “Detective Gaunt here has been shadowing me, waiting for the assassin to make their move”

“He’s a Detective?” Mrs Avonmore queried suspiciously. “He looks like a Jack from the Guard”

“A lot of people say that” I explained. “He’s kind of self conscious about it”

“Oh, I see” she said. “My apologies, Detective Gaunt” She looked at me and the two partially covered bodies on the ground, her eyes softening. “You’re wounded, Luisa” she said. “Let’s get you upstairs and get that bleeding stopped”

“I’m bleeding?” I queried her and looked down at myself. “Oh yeah, that’s right. Actually, I am in a surprising amount of pain right now”

Then I collapsed. The only thing I will say in my defence is that this time I didn’t pass out. I really wished I had, because those flechettes in my ass hurt like a son of a bitch.

=====

Mrs Avonmore had a tiny apartment, I already knew that. What surprised me was how comfortable it seemed, the walls painted in a vibrant peach and the floor covered in tasteful rugs some pastel shade I couldn’t identify. Framed photographs covered the walls, the few I could see clearly of a young Avonmore in uniform, others of her in a white wedding suit with a short man in a tux.

He looked handsome and bridal Avonmore reminded me of Bobbi. As she guided me to her bedroom, I wondered how long ago her husband had died.

She laid me facedown on her single bed, ignoring my dazed protests about getting blood over her bedspread. A medical kit was produced by Mr Liu, who was then banished to the compact living room while my uniform pants were unceremoniously yanked down.

“You were lucky, Alvarez” she told me, ripping open sterile bandages and washing her hands with disinfectant. “Your jacket slowed the flechettes enough to stop them hitting your major blood vessels. I would wait for the Paramedics, but the wounds seem to be closing over the darts”

“Uh, yeah I’m a fast healer” I grunted as she used a pair of forceps to pull the first dart out of my butt. Avonmore apologised that this was going to hurt a lot more, then went after the next sliver of Ceramite embedded in my ass.

All through the extraction of six razor sharp slivers, she kept talking to me, trying to take my mind off the inevitable pain. Mrs Avonmore had been a Marine, fighting for the Northern Block much like Bobbi had done. It was ten minutes of agony for me, but by the time the Paramedics arrived and could give me some painkillers, she had gotten every flechette safely from my body.

The Paramedics were a Police Auxiliary team, a male Officer in charge with a young female assistant who looked barely older than Minke. They cleaned up my wounds, sealed them with some skin spray and told my Super she had done an amazing job.

“I cross-trained as a Field Medic” she told us. “That was before I lost the arm though. It’s a mighty fine combat device but the damn thing isn’t so good for fine work”

I was lying drowsily on her bed, the wonderful warmth of prescribed painkillers washing away my hurts.

“I thought you did a great job” I told her sleepily.

“Hah!” she scoffed. “On a beat up old ass like yours, I was willing to give it a shot”

I decided I still didn’t like her after all.

=====

Ghost carried me to my apartment and laid me in my bed. The Paramedics had checked my vitals and I was in far better condition after my ordeal than they expected. Normally I would have been carted off to hospital for further examination and treatment, but my partner had vetoed all of that and signed a waiver for me to remain here.

A team from Headquarters had arrived to take away Roxanne and Myles. They wanted a full statement from both of us, once again being sent on their way by an intimidating Ghost. We would have to give a report soon, but that was not going to be tonight.

With tender strength, my partner stripped off the rest of my uniform, his warm hands gently taking off my bloodied boxers and my sports bra while I lay on my front. All I had to protect my modesty was a series of bandages taped around my butt, hardly covering the bits I only showed my loved ones.

His big hand stroked my back, running down my spine to the swell of my cheeks. I had my hands clasped around my chest, lying on them as if to hide my breasts.

“Does it hurt, Alvarez?” he asked me softly, the warmth of his firm hand filling me with a strange sense of calm.

“Not anymore” I answered, my mind fuzzy with the drugs I had been administered. Ghost’s hand still rested on my unwounded butt cheek, his thumb moving in a slow circle against the base of my spine. I could feel my nipples hardening against my arms, a weird sense of excitement pulsing lazily through me.

“I wished I could have taken the shot sooner” he whispered. “But you were in the line of fire”

He shifted on the bed, moving his hand along my spine and up my neck, running it through my short trimmed hair. I rolled on my side, meeting his mismatched eyes with my own dark brown ones. An intensity filled his flesh eye, watching me with a hunger I had never expected from him.

I lay back, seeing his eyes roam down my body, past the exposed breasts to the dark valley between my legs.

“You have become precious to me, Luisa” he told me. His hand still caressed my neck, then he leaned in and kissed me tenderly on the lips. Ours eyes were closer than they had ever been, the faint light emanating from his artificial eye filling my vision.

If he had asked to bang me, I would have said yes there and then despite my injuries. I loved Jan with all of my heart, yet this stoic warrior had stood by me so many times already. I would not deny him anything he asked from me.

“You are precious to me too, Ghost” I breathed huskily. Whatever shit the Paramedics had given me, it took my pain and a whole lot of inhibitions away too. I cocked an arm under my head, letting him see me in all my modest glory.

“I’ll give you whatever you ask” I promised him.

He looked away, his eyes searching my room and in his thoughts the apartment beyond. His mind made up, he looked back at me.

“In that case, can I have all your protein bars?” he said eagerly. “I’ve run out at my apartment”

“You shit!” I yelled at him, pushing him off the bed and dragging the covers over my head.

I heard him stumble to his feet, taken aback at my reaction.

“But I thought you would do anything for your big brother?” he queried me in confusion.

“Fine!” I shouted from under the bedspread. “Take all the bloody bars you want”

His footsteps sounded loud as he walked to the bedroom door, making noise that he had never done in the past. I pulled the blankets down to my nose, watching him with moist eyes. He had paused at the doorway, looking at me over his shoulder.

“You know I was offering myself to you, right?” I said quietly, feeling my cheeks flaming red with embarrassment.

“I know” he agreed. “And you are a beautiful woman, Luisa. More importantly, you are my little sister. I have to protect you when I can, not take advantage of you”

“Am I your sexy little sister?” I teased him.

“No, you’re the annoying one who always causes me trouble” he declared. “But you are all the family I have and I won’t let anyone hurt you”

“Aw, shucks” I said from my bed. “In that case can your little sister get a goodnight kiss?” I pulled the covers to my neck, making wet smoochy noises with my lips.

He moved noiselessly to the bed and leaned over, his face nearly touching mine.

“Go to sleep, Alvarez” he said flatly and rapped me on the head with his knuckles. I yelped and dove under the protection of the covers once more. I stayed there until he turned off the bedroom light and closed the door.

I heard him in the living room, moving around as he made sure the apartment was secure. Without a doubt, I knew he would be standing sentry all night, watching over me.

With a sigh, I threw the covers down to my waist and turned onto my uninjured side. Between the painkillers and those Nanites my strange benefactor had injected into me, I was feeling pretty numb once my rush of adrenalin had passed.

I lay like that for a long time, thinking about the deaths that had happened tonight. The Society wanted to clean up its mistakes before they left the Zone, which basically meant killing anyone who had stood against their plans.

There was no doubt I was one of their mistakes that needed to be dealt with. Myles had said taking me down was someone else’s gig, which meant someone other than Victor Kamarov. Victor had wanted to kill me in order to regain lost favour with his employers, yet he had failed and they had cut him loose.

Whichever AI had been shielding Kamarov, it had left him to fend for himself. Without the AI blocking the facial recog systems, he had been found and dealt with.

My drugged mind was running in circles, pondering all of this, when I drifted into a series of remarkably erotic dreams. Sometimes it was Ghost running his strong hands across my eager body, other times it was a huskily breathing Jan as she brought me to ecstasy.

The final dream I remembered in snatches only, my thoughts running in a whole new direction. I dreamed about meeting the Great Archimedes, with his Avatar Jericho-Three leading me into the labyrinth of tunnels beneath the massive tower in Pan City. I had never even been into Archimedes Tower, sitting at the very centre of the city, so in my dream it all looked like the service tunnels under Spitfield.

My boss led me deeper and deeper, the air growing warmer and more humid as we descended into the depths of the earth. At last my dream self followed Jericho as he opened one last set of giant doors, revealing a glowing cylinder of energy encased in Ceramiglass.

“It’s an honour to meet you at last, Great Archimedes” I said reverently to the world’s first Artificial Intelligence.

“Thank you, Inspector Alvarez” the powerful mind replied to me. “Yet you are mistaken I am afraid. Archimedes is my younger brother, created after me”

My dream self looked in confusion at the AI then at my Boss.

“Sorry, Alvarez” dream Jericho apologised. “Must have taken a wrong turn somewhere”

I turned to run, knowing somehow this was a truth I was not allowed to have seen. A gunshot sounded and I felt stinging pain in my butt as the darts knifed into my flesh.

With a shout I woke up, flinging back the covers. Ghost burst into the room, his artificial eye glowing softly in the darkness. He had a drawn pistol in his hand, scanning the room urgently.

“Are you Okay, Luisa?” he demanded.

I pulled the sheet up to cover my chest, feeling the sweat running down my chest and back. I was mildly feverish, still feeling the effects of the sedatives I had taken, yet my dream remained clear in my memory.

“Yeah. Sorry, I had a bad dream” I apologised. My partner came over and sat at the foot of my bed, watching my easily in the dark room with his Enhanced vision. I mulled over my thoughts as I sat there, favouring my unwounded ass cheek, putting together in my conscious mind what my sleeping one had already achieved.

“Ghost, you know that Professor Rackman created the first AI using his experimental Quantum Processors, right?”

“Of course. Everyone in the world knows that” he replied, wondering what I was driving at. I turned on my bedside lamp, warming to my theory. I needed to see his face, to make him understand my revelation.

“He produced twelve Quantum linked processors, joining them together one by one and running Turing tests to see if the program had reached true Intelligence. When his team added the sixth one, the tests proved he had created the first Artificial Intelligence”

“Correct” Ghost confirmed. “That first version was called Archie, short for what would later become Archimedes. The minimum of six Quantum Processors is what we refer to as the first Rackman Limit”

“Right” I continued. “But the whole thing about those processors is that the Quantum link can only be established at the time they are created. So that first version, Archie, could not be linked to the bigger production run of nearly ten thousand processors, am I correct?”

Ghost touched his right temple, where his own Quantum Processor lay embedded within his reinforced skull. One of that same run of ten thousand, or more accurately nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine which we labelled the second Rackman Limit.

“Affirmative” he said slowly, a look of understanding beginning to fill his expression.

“Great Archimedes is made from the later run, allowing him to control what we call the Archimedes Network” I explained. “Everyone naturally assumed that Archie and Archimedes were one and the same entity, a child grown into the adult”

“Yet they couldn’t be the same” Ghost added. “Rackman may have used the same core programming to create Archie and Archimedes, but they could not be the same mind”

Ghost had come to the same point I had, however I had two more facts he was unaware of.

“When I met Rackman, he told me he loved all of his children. He would never allow any of them to be harmed. And Georgia’s own tracing of the rogue AI that had been monitoring me showed that it was located in Pan City. At first I thought it had to be some obscure plot by Archimedes, but now I think I know the truth”

“Don’t say it, don’t even think it” my partner warned me, yet I couldn’t stop myself now if I wanted to.

“There are two AI’s in Pan City” I said. “Archimedes, sitting like a giant spider at the centre of his web, and his older brother Archie. Not as powerful and lacking all the resources of his younger sibling, hidden somewhere in the metropolis. Rackman loves both of them, unwilling to take action against either child”

“The worst part is, I think they are at war with each other. Archie has sided with the Darwin Society, using them to get what he wants in this struggle. Archimedes is playing the long game, using his resources carefully and quietly so no-one cottons onto the conflict”

Ghost sighed and looked up at the ceiling of my bedroom, as if he was trying to see past the concrete and steel into the sky above.

“We’ll know in less than a minute if your bedroom is bugged” he told me in response to my query. “It will take that long to get Orbital One into firing position”

I looked up in alarm, as if my organic eyes could see into low orbit above the Zone.

“Archimedes would wipe us out for knowing this?” I wondered aloud.

Ghost gave me a thin lipped smile, which answered my stupid question.

Five minutes passed without a column of incandescent fire obliterating my apartment building. I lowered my head, rubbing at my aching neck and gave Ghost a grin.

“Well, I guess that means my apartment isn’t bugged”

Some days I am the real fucking optimist aren’t I?