The Dark Edge Chronicles - Hardwire

Setting up the Test Run

Mordecai was hunched over in his usual spot at the kitchen counter, fingers working frantically as he assembled yet another EMF shield generator when Dee and Duffy stepped into the apartment later that day. After a quick glance at the big man, Dee came up short as she turned to look into the rest of the apartment and found herself literally overcome by everything that she found herself staring at.

The living room had gone through an amazing transformation into what could only be described as a workshop of the future. Everywhere she looked, some strange piece of equipment had sprouted almost organically, flashing displays or power indicators generating a virtual rainbow of color.

The apartment's singular window was covered by an almost living mass of gadgetry and, with a flicker of blue light, several holographic displays were floating seemingly unattached throughout the room, showing one piece of equipment or another in various stages of disassembly. In all, it had the appearance of some strange vision of cyber life, pulsating machines filled with a life of their own as they glowered, stared and huffed at the unwelcome intruders.

"Coor, old bean, I'd say you've been a bit on the busy side," Duffy stated dryly, shaking his head in wonder at the futuristic collection of cyberbilia that now filled the living room. "Let me guess: your parents didn't let you play with toys when you were young. So you're making up for it now!"

"My father committed suicide when I was 12 after he found that he couldn't keep the voices out of his head," Mordecai rasped tiredly without looking up from the device he was working on. "And my mother died of a broken heart two days later, unable to live without the only man that understood her visions of the future." He looked up, his eyes haunted.

"And no, they didn't let me play with toys."

"Nice fuckin' move, Duffy," Dee growled, giving the older man a smack on the shoulder as his face fell in response to Mordecai's flat words. "Can't you see the guy already has a lot on his mind?"

"It doesn't matter," Mordecai abruptly interjected, sighing as he sat back to rub tiredly at his eyes. "I'm just a bit touchy, that's all."

"Because you're tired. Which you ought to be, considering you didn't get a wink of sleep last night," Dee pointed out, taking another swing around the apartment. "You stayed up the whole time, building these toys from your newest bag of tricks, didn't you?"

Mordecai smiled faintly at the note of reproach in the red headed detective's voice.

"Guilty, as charged. But, at least we've got the entire consignment for the Qos Viran team completed. We'll be able to transport the gear over to them as soon as possible." He let his hand drop from his eyes to his mouth, speaking the rest through his fingers.

"How goes your investigation?" The words were quickly followed by a yawn.

Dee pulled the folder containing the dossiers of the suspected Brotherhood moles from the gym bag she had hanging via its strap from her shoulder. She dropped it into one of the few open spots left on the crowded kitchen counter.

"Ten out of sixteen confirmed moles have been judiciously terminated by our vampiric allies," Dee reported perfunctorily. "You'll find their dossiers notated in the folder with the appropriate information. Using data confirmed from that operation, Duffy was able to identify a possible front organization that the Brotherhood was using here in Calgary, to mask its own operations."

"Oh?" Immediately the big man perked up at that. The dark eyes, abruptly seething once more with intensity, turned to the wrinkled old detective. "And what did you find, Duffy?"

"An organization calling itself Brother's Keeper," Duffy replied, pulling a report of his own from an inside pocket. Peering closely at it, he began to summarize the data out loud even as he read from the page.