Codename: Angelus

Chapter 8 - Enters: Maria

Cepheus City was the US biggest and most densely populated colony on the Moon. It had been built in the Cepheus crater and named after it.

It extended underground to a depth of seven layers, the spaceport and promenade being in the first level, which were located on the surface inside geodesic domes, the city proper located on levels two and three and the other levels dedicated to the colony infrastructure.

The colony was completely self-sufficient: it produced its water, air and food. The environmental control system was state-of-the art, enabling an artificial day-night cycle, alternating weather and even the passing of seasons.

The city had been laid out as a series of concentric circles, with the Central Business District located inside the inner ring, followed by the Administrative District, the Industrial District, a green ring and the residential blocks. The main roads split the numerous annuli into circle sectors and reunited with the two orthogonal axes at the center of the city, creating a radial pattern. Public and private transport were maglev, designed to produce no poisonous gas emissions. Each vehicle had its own track and it was a fast, reliable transport system.

The architecture was mid-XXI century colonial development standard prefab buildings: tall, streamlined, modular titanium and glass towers which shined bright in the artificial light.

Maria was sixteen and a savvy hacker. She had been playing with code ever since she was a pre-schooler and she knew machines and their languages like the back of her hand. She attended the International University for Technological Innovation in Cepheus and lived alone in a private apartment in the residential quarters of the university grounds.

As she stepped in and the door automatically closed behind her and the soft, manly voice of the computer greeted her, turning on the lights.

“Welcome home. There are twenty unread messages in your voicemail.”

Maria let out a growl. Surely SPAM.

“Delete them.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. And lock the door. Are there any eggs in the fridge? What about maple syrup?”

“There are six egg in the fridge. There is one bottle of maple syrup in the cupboard.”

“Okay, thanks.”

She put set down the gym bag and backpack, removed the scarf and gloves, which put into the coat’s pocket and unbuttoned the duffel coat.

She put it away, took off her gym shoes and put on a pair of slippers.

She went straight to her room, turned on her terminal and changed into a tracksuit.

First thing she did after logging in, was check her e-mail; she always did.

She did already know who wrote her and how many messages there were, since her e-mail account, hPad and miniPhone were synched, but she still preferred to read them on the computer, being the monitor much bigger and the holokeyboard much more comfortable.

There was, as usual, a huge amount of SPAM, which she deleted without even looking at it, some messages from her friends, mom’s monthly letter and an e-mail from Janice Okuda, Head of the Cybercrime Unit at OmniSoft. She checked it first.

> I left you like 20 messages and I’m sure you told your household computer to delete them! We had a problem with — Just look at the picture. I need your HELP! 😱😖😭

Her soft bunny-shaped miniPhone buzzed. She glanced at the holoscreen. It was Janice from Japan. She accepted the call.

In the meantime she looked at the picture Jan sent her. Shit!