some?”
“What if there’s none?” Krog asked.
“What if there’s none? Exactly,” Cerrun smiled, “you were right Qev, smart kid. He has understood something that many have missed. Everyone can search but not everyone does.”
“Not everyone needs to,” Melec said, “Look this is getting old fast, let’s go do something or I’m splitting.”
“If we cannot find meaning, then I ask, are we able to find something semantically similar?”
“Semantically similar?” Melec snorted, “what does that even mean?”
“Exactly,” Krog said
“Exactly,” Cerrun agreed, “Krog is learning fast.”
Qevon’s HUD flashed with a new inbox alert.
“Let’s go hunt for meaning, I’ll get my gun,” Melec had turned his attention to watching the magtrain rumble along the elevated track. Silence fell upon the four, the noise drowned out all discussion.
“Just got a message from Rik-” Qev broke off, he waited for all attention to return from the passing train. A few people passed closer that Qev wanted, he kept his voice low then said “from Gnir.”
Cerrun’s attention was piqued.
“Who’s that?” Krognar asked
“Another friend,” Qev said.
“Another trouble maker,” Cerrun said.
“He’s one of Cerrun’s long time buddies, but trouble for sure,” Melec said.
“He’s down by 23-18,” Qevon said, he was still looking at the message discerning meaning from Gnir’s convoluted speech, “he won’t give anything more specific, no plans, nothing.” Qevon typed into the comp-pad at the end of his real fingertips. He grabbed a stale bowl of nachos and washed them down with his beer. The seat always gave him a sore when he sat in one position for too long, the reclining computer chairs were comfy but the blood wasn’t flowing as it normally would. Qev felt that sitting down so much would be the death of him.
“That’s all he said?” Melec asked.
“He didn’t say much, just asked us to come to 23-18. I pinged back a message asking for his locale but he hasn’t replied.
“And he won’t, you’re bleeding heat,” Cerrun added, he sat adjacent to Qev in the reclining chair while his TGN profile stood in opposition. His beer had warmed from sitting too close to the computer. He removed his visor and whacked Qev on the arm, ‘you think Sel will fetch us another beer?’
“What?” Qevon announced to the party.
“What what?” Melec said.
“Nothing, Cerrun just removed his visor, he wants another beer. Hold on.” Qev said then removed his own visor, ‘I’ll sort it. Gonna take a bathroom break.’
“Ditto” Cerrun added.
The pair of them returned refreshed, Qev placed two opened beers into the chairs’ cup holders. ‘I spoofed the pad’s reg in the TGN,’ he said to Cerrun.
“That’s not enough, Gnir will backtrace your pad and he’ll see that the reg is spoofed, but it won’t match your profile. He knows that will throw up tracebot alerts. At least, it will as far as he is concerned. If he’s playing it that safe then the location he gave isn’t real either.”
“You women took long enough,” Melec complained once he saw Qev’s profile move again.
“We’re trying to figure out Gnir’s location, he sent another message asking us to come quick,” Qev said.
“23-18?” Melec said then before Cerrun could berate him he added “but that’s a spoofed address.”
“Spoofed address? What is this guy up to?” Krog asked.
“Too much, that’s the problem. He could be doing anything now.” Melec said.
“Gnir got Melec arrested the last time they met,” Cerrun added.
“Spent 48 hours explaining to the cops why they had the wrong guy. Gnir’s an idiot if he thinks he can lift government files with a kids percolator,” Melec said.
“A kid’s what?” Krognar asked.
“A type of file catcher,” Qevon said, “sorta.”
“Just steam him some fog and find out where he is,” Melec said.
“You really want to know?” Qevon asked, “I thought this would be the last thing you would want to do.” Qevon tapped at his comp-pad again, “I’m routing my message in a steam packet.”
“I think I know where he is,” Cerrun said.
“Where?” Melec asked.
“53 and something, just trying to pin him down. He still appears in the TGN live search, except he’s cloned his location and tried to hide where he came from but... well, after a few tricks I’ve managed to find his location.” Cerrun said.
“Ah, I just looked at the search results too. He’s running a two-state location mask, that’s pretty cool but has to raise suspicion with the autos.” Qev added.
“Definitely raises suspicion with the autos,” Melec added.
“He could be baiting the government autos,” Cerrun said. “23-18 is his beacon that search will take you to by default when you jump.”
“So this guy is pretty special? Sounds like he can do alot.” Krog said.
“Sure,” Melec laughed.
“Ok, he’s by 53-06 and... I think 7 too.” Qev said.
“Let’s go?” Krognar said.
“Wait... Krog, you need a callsign.” Melec said, “how about Kid Wonder?” Melec belly-ached at a joke only he understood.
“Kuriosity it is then,” Cerrun said then search-jumped into electronic oblivion. He was gone.
Qevon tapped at his comp-pad and entered the queue for his profile to be taken to 53-06. He tapped Cerun’s shoulder who had been silent since making the jump, ‘have you landed in 53 yet?’
“Yep, I’m having look. Most of the buildings are empty. Nothing obvious, I’ll take scout around before you get here.”
Qevon’s profile landed, he couldn’t remember if he had been here before. Night had come to this sector, the darkness was barely marked by the pinpoints of light that dusted the skyline. It was a semi-industrialized area that looked like any other. A factory tower dominated the skyline here, in the near distance were residential towers for the probable workers. Qev figured he might have passed here as a kid whenever his dad carried him around while on duty. The info-plaques listed a few companies designated as small manufacturers and machine servicers. What was Gnir up to?
Melec and Krognar appeared moments after Qev. Cerrun had already wandered off to look for something, he hadn’t said what. Qev noted the eerie quietness of the sector. No pedestrians, no trains, no hover cars, no magtrucks. The towers above the 30th buzzed with life yet the base was deadly silent.
“Either of you been here before?” Qevon asked.
“Nope,” Krog said.
“There are a lot of places I haven’t been to but this place is unusually quiet, even for an industrial centre,” Melec said.
Krognar didn’t appear focussed, Qev didn’t think the youngest member of the group was in touch with the situation. Last time Melec met Gnir he was arrested, Cerrun’s words echoed in Qev’s head. This time might not be any different. Melec’s body had stiffened, the silence didn’t feel right for Qevon either.
All the light-hearted humour had to stop, this was no longer a game. Let’s not get arrested, Qev said to himself. His heart pounded faster. He had been friends with Gnir for a while but Krog had never met him before. This could be his first taste of trouble and he wasn’t even aware of it.
“Where is Cerrun? And how did he get here so quickly? He’s around here, somewhere, right?” Krog asked.
“Forget about him, just stay alert,” Melec said.
“The silence... what... how... isn’t there something wrong here?” Qevon asked. The lightest of breezes spun its way around their feet and across the metallic walkway.
“It’s just a pattern null,” Krog said.
“What is? The silence?”
“All neighbourhoods have quiet times, especially at night. You can’t predict when we people will come or go as schedules change plans go awry. So this means
that an area can be busier than expected for a given time of day, or quiet as the case seems to be,” Krog said.
“Smart kid,” Melec said, although Qev believe it was a mock as he had been the first to observe it earlier. “Is more likely that Gnir had something to do with this.”
“Over here,” Cerrun’s familiar voice was a welcome interruption, he waved them over, “I think he’s in this tower. I suggest we try this door.”
“Do you know what he’s looking for?” Qev asked.
“Not yet, probably government files.”
“Must be important to be so secretive,” Krog said.
As the team approached the door Krog pointed to a road block sign that prevented traffic from passing close to the tower. Had it been Gnir? Qev looked ahead at the closed door, he wondered if it was locked. Surely Cerrun can figure out how to break it.
As the four of them crept towards the tower they tried to dodge the natural light and cling to the shadows. Finally they reached the wall of the tower, the texture felt as real as it always did, his perspiration was real but he knew this reality was not wholly physical. This felt wrong, they shouldn’t be here.
Cerrun played with the door-lock, he worked in silence and kept his hand motions shrouded. Qev couldn’t see what he was doing. Devices that kept everyone else out were merely a hindrance for Cerrun. The locking system bleeped and lit up with reds and greens before going silent. Cerrun pushed the door wide open and lead the group inside.
“What is this place?” Krognar asked.
“Some place illegal,” Melec said, Qevon hummed his agreeance. The intermitant glow from the lights revealed that they had entered a long hallway of ill-repair.
“Krog, keep close.