| Present, L's Point of View |
I leave the apartment and speed down the eloquent hall, feeling the shimmery black walls and bizarre modern paintings close in on me. On the right side of my mask, my back camera is displayed. Finding the hall behind me empty, I pull out my telescreen and check the cameras in our apartment.
Good. She didn't follow me. She's in the same spot I left her.
My gaze lingers on Raven a moment longer. Seeing her body relaxed and the dazed look on her face, my stomach whirls and I quickly close out of the camera.
I can still feel her face in my hands. My head feels hot and I suffocate in my mask as I relive the moment. The slick wet hair gliding around my fingers...her soft sigh and smile...
I slam into the nearest bathroom and land on the countertop, startling a man in a jumpsuit. He takes one look at my mili-tech gear and bolts out of there, mistaking me for a Watchman. Finding myself alone, I rip off my mask for air.
I breathe heavily and slide my hands along the countertop, hoping its icy surface will cool me off. My heart beats in my throat as I look at myself in the mirror. Woah...I know I have abnormal eyes but I've never seen them this bright. I look wild. My mind stops racing the longer I look at myself and logic and sense slowly return to me. Too wild.
I sigh heavily.
My emotions are out of control. I need to do better. No, I will do better. Raven hasn't joined Firewall yet. I shouldn't put myself in that kind of position again. Phantom is close by and I need to be on high alert. I can't lose myself. I need to be focused.
I put my mask on. Time to get to work.
I break into Skyview's security on my telescreen to check all their cameras. So far, there are only sleepy travelers wandering the halls or twitchy businessmen working around the clock.
I should do a street sweep.
After taking an elevator and exiting the lobby, I step out of Skyview and am met with Pandora's lively nightlife. Cars and other hovercraft fly over my head, entering the neon glow of holograms to land on the Air Highways.
When the population spiked a hundred years ago and roads were a nuisance to maintain, scientists created a new element that would enable vertical city layering. The element would need to be incredibly strong, able to hold a city and its inhabitants while hovering in the sky. Haven miraculously pulled it off. It created a magnetic element, Neodymium10, that pushes against the Earth's magnetic field, suspending itself in the air.
Haven controls the magnetism in the element through magnetic powerplants, keeping the roads and city levels unmovable at their set height. Both the Air Levels and Air Highways are made of the element and it has been the building blocks of our cities and roads ever since.
I take note of the options around me for layer hoping for future reference. The Air Highways create a physical bridge between the Air Levels but they aren't the only way to layer hop. Capsule stations are the most popular form of public transportation, and there are a whopping three stations around me. They travel vertically on a heavy-duty pulley system, lifting six Capsules at a time, all stacked on top of one another. There are four floors in each one and people climb in at different stair levels. The Capsule is a large cube closed in by thick glass and holds eighty people on each level. There's seating and poles for those standing to hold for balance. It's quick, efficient, and offers a nice view of the city.
A different option for layer hopping is the skyscrapers. Some skyscrapers rise through multiple Air Levels and enable people to quickly move between levels on platforms. There are ten skyscrapers around me weaving in and out of the levels over and above me, the most I've seen in a while. I suppose it's to be expected since we're in the central business district. This is the core of Pandora City.
I walk toward the Window, a stretch of glass flooring used for navigation. It's a few yards in width and stretches across the perimeter of the city, following the Boundary, a heavy-duty guard rail that closes in the Air Level. The Boundary's trim glows with caution marks, warning people that they are nearing the edge of the city layer. The guard rail is not that high, only seven feet off the ground, but it prevents people from having a nasty fall. I'm glad it's not higher than that. I've used the Boundary countless times to make a quick escape as a last-ditch effort and I have peace of mind knowing that option is always there.
Under the Window, a hologram map displays the different city layers for a point of reference. I find the red X marked, "You Are Here".
Air Level 5.
We're close to the ground city level, probably eight hundred feet above it. I don't like that. Not all ground dwellers are bad but a lot of them are trouble.
I put my hands in my pocket and casually walk around. Using my mask to zoom in on the buildings around me, I check the windows for suspicious activity but only find busy office spaces or business lobbies. No sniper that I can see.
I lower my gaze and survey the people around me. My mask's facial recognition picks up their names and their profile pop-ups appear above their heads. I glance over some of the general information highlighted in green text.
Evera Bates. Female, 32 years old, makeup model...Drake Martinez. Male, 46 years old, eye doctor. Eliana Zaur. Female, 19-
My weapons tracer beeps. The software highlights two Katana handles in the girl's backpack. A normal police scanner wouldn't pick it up because there are no traces of metal in them. I, however, have had a few encounters with the hidden samurai clans and know how they get around undetected. They have their own weapon specialists to forge special handles and blades that evade the weapon scanner's detection. I know a katana when I see one. I also know a fake profile when I see one.
Before Adam disappeared, he installed his Watchman software into my mask's system, which means I can figure out in a second who this girl really is.
"Open ID portal," I tell my AI.
I do a profile deep dive in seconds and am stunned to find a level-nine threat flashing on her profile.
Akari Miyaki. Female, 19 years old. Miyaki clan member and assassin. 60 murder counts.
60 counts of murder?
She should be in prison, but so should I. I've killed a least a hundred at a younger age and I'll always carry that with me in this life.
I'm not surprised she's walking around freely. Our political system is corrupt and many criminals like her walk away with no charges. I'm sure her clan has infiltrated politics and has its own iron strings on Pandora City. If people like her are waltzing around in the open out here, we're seconds away from stepping on a landmine.
Phantom has got to have connections here.
I should track Akari to keep tabs on her and the rest of the Miyaki clan. It would be foolish not to know their whereabouts.
"Place a tracker on Akari."
Her figure is highlighted in blue as my tracker pinpoints her. The street cameras with her in their surveillance appear on my mask in a side panel view.
Now I can see where she is off to.
I turn around to head back into Skyview but slow in my tracks when Akari stops abruptly. A startling thought hits me.
Are Cyber Stalkers keeping an eye out for her? Cyber Stalkers are a type of security for hire, mostly used by gangs and wanted criminals to evade police and Watchman. If I'm also on the cameras, they will know and warn her and her clan.
My heart hammers in my throat as Akari slowly turns to one of the cameras and looks directly at me.
They spotted me.
Her scarlet eyes narrow into a burning glare as she slowly puts on her red oni mask. Black horns grow out of the oni's head and it bares a chilling smile with saber teeth. The eye slits glow orange as it lands on her face and the cameras blur instantly.
I run back into Skyview and throw myself on the wall of the entrance, keeping by the door. If Akari enters, her back will be facing me. A thought strikes me as I wait for her.
The Cyber Stalkers are rewinding the cameras as I stand here. They'll trace me to this building and see the floor I came from. They'll know the hall I traveled down, and the door I left.
They'll find Raven.
I push myself off the wall.
~~~
| Raven's Point of View |
I stare at the Project Beta database on my telescreen.
This is it, this is what my mom and dad discovered, along with the rest of the original Phantom. This is the reason the new Phantom wants to bring down Haven.
I take a soft breath as I glance over the files. There's a section for trials of the experiment and documented summaries. I know my mother warned me not to watch the videos but I need to know what happened.
I click on one of the trials, number 262. A case file appears with a picture of a middle-aged man named Daniel Harris and his general profile. After reading through a few lines, I discover he was a member in President Eden Ray's cabinet.
According to the notes, he was labeled a political enemy of President Ray after he delivered an offensive address to her and her party members. I read some of his speech:
"I am done playing President Ray's disturbing game of Savior while living like the Devil. The Ray Regime has done evil things to its people in the dark. We have exchanged justice for corruption and freedom for control.
I beg you, my fellow party members, to rise above the Regime! Allow Haven a voice again and the power to make her own decisions. Let the high city dwellers control their own lives. Give the ground city dwellers a chance for their own success. We have overstepped our powers and have manipulated the very people we have sworn to protect. Look inwardly at yourselves...is Haven truly free?"
Shock overtakes me with his words but I continue reading, sucking up every word. His proposals for a reformed government reflect early twentieth-century thinking. He called for a multi-branch government system for checks and balances, with power in both the people's and the government's hands. He even wanted to end the voting elections, calling them a 'cruel and deceitful tactic to give the people of Haven a false sense of power'.
What a bold and suicidal assertion to make to the Ray Regime's face! There are very few upper city dwellers who protest against the government. Haven runs our lives, and they run them well, at least for those who can afford their care. The majority of the population can afford Haven's chip services from health care, social security, job networks, and banking to name a few. Everything worthwhile is owned and run by Haven, or the Ray Regime.
The poor cannot afford the luxurious government-owned services and are left to fend for themselves on the ground city level, working toilsome jobs of manual labor or hiring themselves out for crime. It's very hard for them to escape the slums and those born in poverty find themselves unable to climb the ranks. Their income is unstable and their health care is minuscule. Instead of doctor treatments and medicine, they make their own artificial limbs which they continuously bang up in fights. Gangs rule the streets and the few economic systems alive, making it a violent, dirty, and dangerous place.
Ground city dwellers hate us for tolerating the authoritarian government and allowing their rule. Meanwhile, the high city dwellers point fingers at them for their lack of honorable living and morality.
Despite their wild living, I always admired ground city dwellers for their independence and fearlessness in publically voicing their thoughts of Haven. The ground city dwellers are the only people I know who openly mock Haven, except for this Mr.Harris.
He looked the Regime, literally in the face, and said what no one else was willing to.
'We need change.'
Before today, I believed Haven was looking out for me by ensuring we had the greatest care and technology. Now I realize while Haven achieved the highest degree of welfare and progress for those who could afford it, we had no freedom of speech or political power in the process, and the ground-city levels screamed injustice, chaos, and misery.
Seeing my father return from his work as a Watchman, exhausted and some days deeply depressed, I realized something was very wrong with our society. I just never understood what it was. I was safe in sound in my regal apartment, away from danger.
Though I did wonder why everything must be centered on the chip and why Haven wasn't helping the ground dwellers, my doubts faded when I saw the welfare of the majority.
I denied my doubts but Mr. Harris, someone who had it all...wealth, security, and power...threw it all away to speak up for the injustice he saw. And he paid for it, just like Phantom did when they exposed Project Beta. Haven killed them but lucky for my parents, they survived the slaughter. Well, maybe my father didn't but I don't know what happened to him.
Mr. Harris probably wasn't as lucky as my mom.
I play the video of the trial and text appears across the screen.
'Memory Management, Session 26.'
Mr. Harris sits in a meeting room. His brown eyes are glazed and fixed below him. An interviewer behind the camera asks him a question in a monotone voice.
"Where were you born?"
Mr. Harris responds quietly. His voice is void of emotion.
"South Haven, Atlas City."
I check his profile and am puzzled to find a different location on his records.
"What is your name?
"Zeek Sallow."
"How old are you?"
"Ten years old."
I sit back, feeling an awful pain in my stomach. What? The screen turns black.
'Memory Management Success."
The sudden urge to throw up comes over me.
'Obedience to Commands, final session.'
The camera switches to an even more disturbing scene. It's a white-tiled room, covered with fluorescent lighting and cinderblock walls. In the center, a woman in a hospital gown is restrained with metal clasps on an operating table. I check Harris's profile and find her photo. My stomach drops seeing the name of his wife below it, Abigail Harris.
Mr. Harris walks into the shot and Abigail weeps at the sight of him but not for the reasons I think. Text appears at the bottom of the screen.
'First Command: Beat the woman.'
Harris runs for his wife and dread overtakes me with her screams. She tries to break herself free of the metal clasps but it's too late. His fist rams continuously into her head, stunning her and bringing blood to her mouth.
'Second Command: Shoot the woman.'
Daniel Harris reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a gun. He aims it at his wife and though I want to look away, I force myself to see it through. He pulls the trigger and Abigail falls against the table. I look away from her face, feeling sick to my stomach.
'Third Command: 'Shoot yourself.'
He brings the gun to his head and pulls the trigger. I watch in horror as his body lands on the floor and a pool of blood silently encompasses his body. The screen turns black.
'End of Trial 262.'
I slowly lift a hand to my face. What was that...? He killed his wife, without a second thought. No, I realize, Haven killed his wife. There are hundreds of these trials, Haven killed all those people.
It's so sick. How could Haven do this? And what for? Maybe I'll learn something from the summaries.
I open one of the documents. The writing style is different from my mother's and father's. I don't know who this is. I read the document carefully:
Haven has mastered control of the mind and body with Project Beta. It has tested its work on a small percentage of the population, mostly on political opponents and ground city dwellers. After each trial, they kill the test subject and get rid of the evidence. We have a proposal based on recent evidence of Project Beta's objective.
I have recorded conversations of President Eden Ray taken by an insider source, an undercover Haven Official. The recordings are attached below. They reveal President Eden Ray's vision for Haven, a new utopian society called "Horizon".
It is apparent she sees herself as a Savior who can take away people's ability to choose evil. What is more disturbing, she truly thinks she is doing good by killing all those test subjects and anyone who stands in her way. If no one stops her, we will lose the very essence of life itself. The people of Haven must know what the Ray Regime is scheming and stop them. Phantom will reveal the truth.
The entry ends.
I reread it a few times, pondering each word carefully. Project Beta was the beginning of a full-scale mission to control every person in Haven. It's insane. Our leaders are insane.
How is Phantom worse than them?
If Haven is still conducting these experiments, and according to Mother, they are, who could possibly be the worst enemy? How could any plan be crazier than President Ray's frocking "Horizon"? How could anyone be more twisted?
I feel crazy for even considering it, taking into account that they just attempted to kill me, but what if we should join sides with Phantom? If they are against Haven, aren't they on our side?
Yet, mother was the one who discovered Project Beta and was still more concerned about Phantom than the Ray Regime. Phantom may be targeting Haven but it may not be for the reasons I think.
I need to figure out their objective, which means we need to search for Phantom and their activity. Maybe a Watchman's database will have their recent activity logged. I need an ID before getting in there. Finally, my hacker skills can be put to the test! I crack my knuckles before breaking into the Defense Sector's portal.
Much too easy. Mother trained me well. At the memory of her, my stomach twists painfully.
I hope she's okay. I hope she escaped.
I continue my search and look through different profiles of Watchman until I find one in Pandora City. I use the login information to get into the Watchman Database, then scroll through recent criminal reports in the nearby area. I stumble upon a picture of a massacre and nausea sweeps over me. BUBs (Body Upgrade Brawlers) lay dead across a room in a bloody, brutal mess. Their bodies are mangled and their artificial limbs are dismembered and scattered everywhere.
I read the details of the case:
Incident reported two hours ago on the ground city level in the upper lounge of the Jungle Arena. In the camera footage, five BUBs, publicly known as close friends, began fighting each other to the death. The last one standing killed himself. The reason for the fight is unknown and under investigation.
The behavior of the BUBs is awfully familiar to the experiment I just saw. Friends don't just attack each other. There's a saying amongst the BUBs..."Your friends are your family". They are fiercely loyal to their gangs. They wouldn't have hacked each other up.
Is this the work of Haven? If so, why would they care about these BUBs? If Haven was at work here, then Phantom must be nearby.
It looks like I have a lead.
I copy the coordinates of the case and download it to my device. Hearing the door slide open, I turn around. Good! L is back. I'm sure he'll be interested in this lead.
"Hey, L! You're not going to believe what I f-"
I stop, finding no one in the doorway. A thought comes over me.
If Jordan is the owner of this apartment, then only his chip should open the door. I would have had to let L in unless he bypassed the chip scanner, but I don't see him here.
My heart races in my chest and I quickly turn back around.
Someone is in the apartment.
I slide off the couch and reach into my bag, grabbing the first gun my hand touches. I rip the towel off my head and pull my wet hair behind me. Being careful to make no noise, I slowly crawl over Jordan's body to peek around the couch.
I scan the room and it appears empty...but there are blindspots someone could be hiding: the bar, the kitchen, and the loft.
Which one are they at? Should I stay hidden or show myself?
Wait, the cameras! I realize.
I set my gun down and pick up my telescreen to open my hacking software, Crash. Lucky for me, Jordan has cameras in the blindspots. A shadow moves in one of the cameras and I find someone in a hoody. They hold a gun and are wearing a blue oni mask.
Another Phantom member? How did they find us?
L, where are you?
Panic rises in me as I watch them creep against the wall and toward the stairs. If they get to that opening, they'll have a direct shot at me. I need to move. I need to get somewhere where they won't have a shot.
Under the loft, I decide, and out of sight of the stairs.
The closest thing to me is the bar. It will have to be a quick sprint. Doubt creeps into my mind as I picture myself running too slow. I bite my lip watching the intruder approach the steps and my nerves scream.
GO, RAVEN!
I suck in a breath and push myself off the ground.