Chapter 3

Dark Night

Alvaro Gonzales looked around at the little bonsai on his desk, the three years of hard work spent on the tree had developed it into a miniature sequoia, a minute replica of the mountainous sequoia’s that could be found in the north. The North American Protectorate border patrol office for the Fifth Region was practically empty, soon all the cleaners would be returning home after cleaning up the days result of a weekly roundup of illegal immigrants trying to cross the border into the state of Mexico. It was close to 5 am, the hours before dawn were always the quietest in San Miguel, Washington was another matter entirely, the capital was always hungry for information on the state of the border and telephone calls would be frequent, even at this time of the morning. Alvaro may have been the captain of this outfit, however it was his turn for the night watch and even captains had to respect the shifts. He looked out of the window and wondered when the sun would rise.

Twenty kilometres south, in the Liberated Southern America’s, or the Lawless Southern Anarchy as it was more commonly known, a group of military vehicles, ex Empire models made to withstand the heavy rainfall that would occur there periodically, passed through a sleeping village, bound towards the city of Rainer, the closest city to the northern border, a base for all kinds of illicit activities and a gateway even more clandestine citizens to enter the Northern protectorate.

Alvaro shut the door of the toilet, reminding himself to put less Chilli in the tacos next time, walking towards his desk he passed Miguel’s computer and saw a message alert flashing on-screen, the damned fool had forgotten to close the connection, security or no security, a digital attack was more likely to succeed if a connection was left unattended. Alvaro was going to have a few words with the detective; however before shutting down the machine, curiosity overtook him. Looking at the monitor, Alvaro noticed a few non-protocol files on his colleague, the usual files a person might keep to brighten up a computer, photo’s, music and other non-related files, this was not Alvaro’s concern for the moment. A much more interesting file had grabbed his attention; it was named TTT and looked to be a file full of charts, as he could see from the preview appearing on the desktop. The alert message popped back up as Alvaro clicked on it “DD: Ref 223” the nick which wrote the message was “Loopa9er”, Alvaro had no idea who this was, so he answered back “Hi, Miguel isn’t here at the time, want me to tell him something?” Alvaro thought about Miguel and how he was away for a few days, “following a case” was what he said when he had told Alvaro he was leaving. Loopa9er answered back “Leave the building now, security is compromised – Direct Danger – Leave now” Alvaro looked at the screen, he was wondering who this prankster was, he felt a thud to the head and wondered why the world had gone red.

The man behind Alvaro wiped the blood off the screen of the monitor, and pushed the chair the body was sitting on towards the left; he put a micro-drive into the USB port of the computer, and copied the TTT file onto the portable drive. Ignoring the flashing message he put his gun into Alvaro’s hand and walked away. Suicide from stress was frequent in the police force.


The vehicles had just left the main dirt roads leading to Rainer when they took a sudden turn to the left, towards the forest, a few minutes into it the stopped at a clearing. A Silent-Storm helicopter was hovering above it; the people in the cars hadn’t noticed it but knew it would be there. A line was dropped and two men went out of the second vehicle, the other two switched off their lights. The man that got out from the passenger side looked at his companion and nodded, his companion took the rope line and attached the suitcase he was carrying. The rope quickly tensed and then the suitcase was reeled up. The two men on the ground looked up, for a few minutes nothing happened, then another rope was lowered, thicker than the previous one, and a man abseiled down from it. The two men looked up, but they couldn’t see who it was. With a soft thud the man landed between them and went straight for the middle car. Without waiting the other two followed immediately whilst the remaining two cars turned on their engines, in half a minute all three cars were running out of the clearing and towards Rainer.

Detective Miguel Jonathan Caballero put his multi-focal binoculars away and lowered himself from the tree he was perched on, his information was correct, the exchange had taken place when his informant had told him it would. He didn’t know why, but an exchange had just taken place between two of the most important companies on the planet, Typhoon High-Tech and Typhoid Biotech, an exchange taking place in the LSA, 20 km from any kind of civilization these companies might be interested in, away from any of the drug fields which Typhoid cultivated in the LSA and away from any of the test labs that Typhoon owned in some of the LSA’s bigger cities. There was obviously something someone wanted him to find out about. Now the real problem lay in the why and who. Why, well, thought Miguel, a grudge, a business deal, a contract to secure… could be anything, could be nothing at all and he had been diverted from his work back in San Miguel, but no worry, if it involved the first of the two T’s in his TTT case file, Typhoon and Typhoid, then he was interested no matter what. Who on the other hand was a more relevant question at the moment, because of the who, then the why could take on all kinds of meanings. A Business rival? Miguel thought about this for a moment, both companies had their fair shares of rivals on the planet, but the corps, much like a nation, didn’t like interference, especially from the NAP police. So that could exclude SlyphTech and SoenjeGear, two of Typhoons biggest weapon building rivals and also NadrasG and Biolabs, Typhoid’s biggest rivals in the pharmaceutical field. So maybe it was a disgruntled employee, maybe a grunt that didn’t get paid, or a lieutenant that got left behind. There were too many options to contemplate without any proof, whoever this Loopa9er was he wouldn’t find out by standing in the middle of the jungle. Miguel put the thought aside and made his way back to his 4-wheeler. The night was ending and he didn’t want to get caught in the daylight. Not when the Silver was prowling.

20 minutes, too many bumps later, feeling his backside go numb, Miguel thanked God that he was back on a civilized road, which in the LSA meant a road which was at least two metres wide and didn’t have trees growing in the middle of it every metre. He also thanked God he didn’t meet the Silver along his way out, that machine gone wild, killing everything it gazed at, not a happy thing to meet in the middle of a jungle. 5 years out in the jungle now, it had replaced the old and possibly fake legends of the Chupacabra with something altogether more real, more deadly and definitely more vicious. Anyway, that wasn’t his concern now, let the Realterers deal with that, if they ever managed to find it. He looked back once just to make sure, then sighed and sped on towards a possibly tarred road.

It was about noon when Miguel reached the patrol office, that flat tire and the fact that he had to trek for 15km to the nearest Officina and back didn’t help him get back any quicker. He looked around and saw more activity than usual, sure there where hectic days, but this was definitely not normal, helicopters where flying in mid air, about a dozen or so he counted, a few black ones, NAP Internal Affairs, around here? There were a few Jeeps near the compound, and then as he entered the road leading straight to the office he noticed a mass of mixed border patrol officers and NAP Internal Affairs agents. Something had happened and it had happened while he was gone. Miguel looked up, the helicopters were hovering around the office, he spotted the local news network helicopter and wondered if his friend Antonio was up there, piloting the helicopter, he wouldn’t have missed a good chance to sneak a look inside the Border Patrol precinct, but then, he wouldn’t have missed a chance to see anything. Miguel parked the jeep opposite the precinct after weaving his way through the Internal Affairs vans.

Chapter 2

Flow – Chapter 2

Janus looked down, the man was still lying on the ground. Slightly tilting his head up, the light of a bleak sun hardly blinding his vision, he looked around for any onlookers. It would be impossible to tell if anyone was gathering at the windows of the building opposite them, these were not the typical windows found in any building but the reflective kind, the type of window you would normally find anywhere where people want to see but not be seen.

There was no police in the sky. Janus wondered if this was a good sign or not, you would expect police to be swarming around, the sirens of ambulances and police should already have been fast approaching.

He was sure that he wasn’t the only one to have noticed the falling glass, the people around him had screamed and dodged and everyone within sight had looked up to see what had happened. Was it possible that only he saw the body of the man? Something was wrong here, instincts told him that this was not possible, that something must be happening; he can’t have been the only one.

Looking down on the body of the man, Janus saw an image of the past.

5 Years Ago

“Hey Janus!” Kurt was climbing the stairs that led to the Grimnor Park, as usual Janus had already preceded his friend to their usual meeting place. “Hey Kurt!, Why do I have to always wait for you? Man, I got so bored I was going to start talking to the trees!”. Kurt made his way up the last couple of steps, his skateboard under his arm, the Umbrae Nocturnae sticker which he had put under his skate slowly disappearing one scratch after another. “My Mum made me stay home till my I did all my work”. Janus looked at his smiling friend’s face, for an instant a face flashed in his memory, warmth, comfort. Kurt looked at his friend; his eyes were not in this world at the moment. “Still having those dreams?” Janus answered, his usual warm hearted grin beginning to slowly spread over his face “No, no, Kurt, just remembering something, well trying to anyway” , Janus’s laughter made Kurt forget the moment, slowly the two turned around, the Park was all theirs.

The afternoon sun began to set, Kurt and Janus found their way to the rusted swings near the park’s entrance, the old rusty swings, the ones on which countless children had swayed, the light shining on them, the memories of summer days forever in their hearts. “Hey Kurt…” – “Yeah?”, “Well, have you ever wondered if, well, if you know, if something was out there, something that you though you lost forever, but maybe it wanted to be lost, that it didn’t want you to find it?” Janus looked at his friend, Kurt was lost in some daydream. “Huh? You lost something?” Kurt looked at his old friend, he knew something was bothering Janus, but whatever it was could surely be fixed by a big Ice Cream at Grandpa’ Fox’s Ice Cream shop. “No, nothing, never mind Kurt” – “Ok then, lets go get an Ice Cream at Grandpa’s!”

Walking Idly down the Imperial Stroll, Janus looked around, the families started to go out, the summer breeze making the humid air of the lagoon more bearable, this would be a wonderful night to go out. “Hey Kurt, whats it like to have a mum, you know a real mum?”. Kurt looked at his friend, this was the first time he asked this question, something was definitely wrong with Janus, Kurt increased his pace, it was definitely time to get that Ice Cream. “Hey Janus, you know, since dad died, my mum hasn’t been home much, she has to work, it’s for money. Grandma’ takes care of me these days” Janus looked at his friend, looking at the floor in embarrassment, forgetting that Kurt had also lost something, something which Janus never remembered having. “Its ok Janus, Dad is up there, somewhere, mum says he’s always looking at me, protecting me, your parents must be up there too, protecting you, it’s what mum always says”. Janus looked at his friend, for the first time, he could see that the little boy next to him was not the bold, rash boy every kid thought he was, he was Kurt, Kurt like himself had pain, pain which never went away.

Grandpa Fox’s Ice Cream Parlor. The neon light flashed wildly above the little tables set out on the Stroll, the customers, most of which children were already sitting down for the typical late afternoon ice cream. Kurt looked around to see if any of their friends were there, however it was just the two of them. “I wonder what happened to Alex and Dom”, Janus looked around, noticing that their two friends were strangely missing, the ice cream ritual being the one thing in the world that they would not miss. Kurt and Janus sat down; soon a pretty little blonde came over. “Hey Kids, is it the usual?” Kurt looked up, he was secretly infatuated with Melissa, however as usual, nineteen year olds still saw twelve year olds as cute cuddly little things. “Huh, yeah, huh…huh..” Janus Interceded his love struck friend “Yeah Mel, the usual thanks!” Melissa winked once and left, Kurt looking at her all the way until she disappeared behind the counter.

An hour later the two kids were walking back, the Monastery Janus lived in was along the same road as Kurt’s house. The two kids had met more my chance than anything, they went to two different schools, or rather Janus studied at the Monastery whilst Kurt went to the local Medium High School. One summer day Janus got hit in the face by a stray ball kicked by Kurt and the two were friends ever since. “Hey Look Janus, that man is in a hell of a hurry” Kurt was pointing at a man running towards them, well he was’nt running properly, more like staggering, the closer he got the more you could see the man was in pain, his hand was covering part of his stomach. The man got closer and closer to them, the two kids very curious, then he was onto them, falling over Kurt. Kurt fell down, the man covering completely, Janus was stuck to his spot, his mind telling him to run, but his body telling him to stay. Kurt got out of the man’s unintentional grasp; a pool of blood was slowly forming underneath the man. “One…One…The traitor was One….suitcase, stolen…..” Janus could hardly hear his words. “Ambulance….no police…help” by now Kurt looked petrified, “Come on Janus, we gotta get out of here…come on” Kurt kept tugging at Janus T-shirt, but Janus just kept looking, “We have to help him Kurt, he’s bleeding!” “No, no, let’s just go!” Kurt’s voice got the better of him, Janus followed Kurt in a mad run all the way to the Monastery.

“…about two hours later in the Augustus Memorial Hospital the Omnisah Manager died of the knife wound he received to the Chest, doctors say that if the ambulance had been called earlier the man could have been saved, so far no suspects have been identifi…” Janus switched off the TV. Guilt was flooding him, a feeling so intense he nearly vomited. Never, ever again, was he going to stand by and look whilst someone needed help, never again.

2005

Janus knew what he had to do “Come on Buddy, I am taking you home with me, lets get these wounds cleaned”. The unconscious man made no reply. Janus shouldered him and made for his home passing by the back allies of the City. No one was following him.

A shadow flicked by, Janus paid no attention, home was close.

Chapter 1 (Very Short)

Flow: Beginnings (Chapter 1)

Janus looked up to the sky. Just passing by, the urge to look was too strong, a magnet drawing his gaze up towards the very top of the Omniah Skyscraper.

A dark brooding man dressed in a grey suit stands near the window, looking down he sees the people pass by, unaware of what is going to be unleashed by his actions, unaware of the turmoil that will be caused. Every moment he spends here procrastinating is a moment more that the people will have to suffer, it is time to move on. “Do it” from behind him a soft voice distinctively female replies “are you sure?” a moment of silence “yes”…..

A gunshot from above…indistinct but nonetheless a gun being shot. Janus had heard enough of those throughout his life to recognize them, he was already looking at the skyscraper but now his attention is caught by the brilliant sparkles that are flying down towards him. Looking up he sees a dark silhouette fall out of the building at the very top, the silhouette takes shape as it comes hurtling down, down on to the roof of the opposite building. Janus runs towards the building, he is sure it was the body.

Just as he is crossing the road he realizes what the glittering shower was, whilst the rest of the window comes crashing down around him. Janus keeps running.

People start screaming near Janus, he quickly looks around, then sure that nobody is looking he runs into the building where the man has fallen, he takes the stairs to the roof, no-one is in the building, it looks like it has been abandoned for a long time, and finds the man, on the roof, lying on his front side, blood soaks out of the torn suit blazer and black shirt. Janus looks at the mans neck when a dark shape attracts his attention, a tattoo on the back of the man’s neck? Looking again he realizes that the man has a circular bar code and the number 5, on his neck. Janus rolls him over.

“Why? I’m …. Cough …meant …to…die……” blood spills out of his mouth and ears
“Sir, Sir?? Are you ok??” looking frantically around for something to stop the blood with
“ Run away..cough..danger…One….One …cough…..r..u...n…..now…cough”
“ Who are you? … What happened?” no reply.

The man fainted…but the blood has stopped.