“ ...and it drains neuro-electric energy,”
“I knew it! All the stuff I've been sayin', every word is true. Government's in cahoots with a secret organization, the Ray Sphere... damn, it all makes sense now,”
“Calm down. You're going to hurt yourself,”
“That Ray Sphere must dish out powers to anyone controlling it. You gotta bring it back here,”
“Sure, I could use a sidekick,”
“Ah, hell with that. Zeke Jedediah Dunbar is his own man,”
“Your middle name is Jedediah?”
“It is. After my grandfather. Strong man for his size. Uh, I don't know where Zeke comes from but—”
“You can tell me later. You need a nap and a bath. I have stuff to do," I say, cutting him off.
“I was gettin’ to that. What, you taking orders from this Moya person?”
After he says that my receiver goes off.
“Yes he is s, Zeke Jedediah Dunbar,”
He steps back in surprise.
“The hell?”
“It’s a one-way signal, I can hear everything near this receiver,”
Zeke looks at me.
“And you’re just fine with that?”
“I didn’t have a choice. It’s helping clear my name of being a terrorist,”
“Alright man. I’ll be here if you need me,”
“Thanks man,”
Zeke walks away.
Moya starts talking.
“I've got a couple of leads for you; the coordinates have been uploaded into your phone. Give me a call when you're in position for them,”
I look at my phone and decide to go for the one that is nearest to me. I jump off the building and head towards the coordinates.
When I arrive I end up at Archer Square, where they dropped the food earlier today.
“Alright, I’m at Archer Square,”
“I'm picking up some weird interference from a rooftop not far from you. Can you find out its origin and purpose?”
I start scaling a nearby building.
“So what am I looking for?”
“Not sure, probably a transmitter of some type,”
When I reach the top of it I look around. I hear a weird frequency, like someone trying to tune a radio. I follow that sound and what I found looked like a satellite dish with a tape recorder stuck onto it.
“Found it. Looks like a portable audio drive attached to this satellite dish,”
“See if you can listen to it with your phone,”
I hook my phone up to it and start to play the audio file.
It sounds like a jumbled-up mess.
“Sounds like a bunch of garbage,”
“It's encrypted, but I can't break it. Look around for others so I can decrypt,”
“Alright,”
I scout out the other buildings and see the shape of another satellite dish on the building East of me. I run then jump towards the next building.
When I reach it I start climbing to the top.
After a little bit of searching, I found the next dish, I hook up my phone and the message sounds no different.
“It’s the same thing as before,”
“I'm running the signals through a decryption program on this end. I only need one more, then it should be good,”
I already scouted out the next building I’m going to and jumped towards it.
Once I reached the base of the next building and start climbing it. Suddenly, I start getting shot by the Reapers.
“Ah hell, you guys again?”
Why do they keep attacking me? They know they can’t beat me right?
I jump down towards the small group of charging Reapers. I lift my hand and start blasting all of the Reapers. One survives, I run towards him and punch him in the jaw and he falls onto the street. Then a car comes speeding down the road and runs the injured reaper over, and a black liquid sprays everywhere.
“Gross,”
I start climbing up the building again and find the dead drop.
“Got the last one,”
“Give me a second — all right, that should do it. I'm uploading the decrypting algorithm to your phone. It should let you listen to the messages,”
I start listening to the recording.
A man starts speaking.
“I-I couldn't stop Kessler from detonating the Ray Sphere. Damn thing took out five or six square blocks, killed god knows how many,”
“Found the Ray Sphere in the blast center, next to some kid. Dunno if he was dead or not, didn't have time to check. I'm going to try and hole up somewhere. If anyone is even listening to these things, I need immediate extraction. Please. You've got to get me out of here before Kessler finds me,”
Wait, this guy saw me after the Ray Sphere went off, was he the one who said that cryptic shit to me while I was out?
But the voice I heard was familiar, didn’t sound anything like this guy.
“You understand any of that, Moya?”
“I don't believe it — that's John. He must have used dead drops to communicate with his handlers,”
“So that means what exactly?”
“It means there are probably more of those scattered around the city, they might tell us where he took the Ray Sphere”
“Finding John and the Ray Sphere seems easier now”
“Right, but John has been known to never stay in the same place for long,”
“So we’d have to be quick,”
“Correct. We don’t need them, but they could be helpful,”
Moya adds on.
“But first, we should focus on completing these tasks, head for the next one. I’ll be ready whe you are,”
I check for the next GPS coordinates, not too far away.
I ready myself, then leap off the building.
YOU ARE READING
The Legacy of Cole MacGrath
ActionOn another typical day in Empire City, a bike courier, Cole MacGrath, is delivering a package that would change his life permanently.
