Excerpt - To Chase The Devil

[This excerpt is just a little bit longer than the previous ones. This is the first conversation between Deanna and Chen that appears in the novel. The man they're talking about is in fact Heiji, whose old code name was 'Akuma'—hence the title. As for Chen... I swear, this man would give me the creeps as well...]

The face that appeared on the large screen was no one else’s than Eric Chen’s, looking as alert as ever, his dark eyes gleaming with a satisfaction he didn’t even try to conceal. It sure wasn’t the expression she had expected to see him; in fact, she didn’t expect him to contact her that fast.

“Good evening, Deanna”, he started without even letting her the time to greet him.

“…Mr. Chen”, she nodded, quickly putting on a neutral expression to not show him that he had somewhat taken her aback.

Eric Chen, on the private Syzygy channel, past midnight, barely one hour after she had sent her report? Not good. Not good at all. That the man in charge of all the operations of the Townsend on the colony was to call her in such a way, himself still in his working clothes, denoted that she had struck the right chord, yet oddly enough, she wasn’t feeling very happy with this idea. Chen had always frightened her, sometimes more than just a little, although she wouldn’t admit it to anyone; he pulled strings that herself had never been able to discover, and working for him didn’t mean that she liked what the man had in mind most of the time. It was a blessing to not be in the Syrtis branch of the company, else she’d likely had turned crazy by now.

“I’ve finished reading your report. An eventful day, isn’t it.”

The alarm bells set off at once in her mind; when the conversation started on the bantering tone, it always meant she wasn’t going to like its outcome.

“Yes, Sir”, she answered, making sure that her voice wasn’t going to waver even once during this exchange. “We’re getting things back in control. Tomorrow, it’ll be over. I don’t think there’s anything to really worry about.”

“There is, my dear. For that matter, there is. But I know you’re doing what’s needed. What I want to talk about first is this recording of… what’s her name? The girl. McAran, that’s it.” He snapped his fingers in a casual move — another sign that she wasn’t going to like this call.

Deanna nodded in silence, placing her arms behind her back in a stance that much looked like the one she had been used to, back when she was a low-level Agent. Forcing herself to not fidget with whatever she had under the hand demanded her more focus than she would have thought. Chen’s presence always had this effect on her, she didn’t know why; one of the descendants of the Sino-American settlers who had come to Mars in the middle of the 22nd century, the man didn’t have anything special to his looks, with his regular features and neatly cut slick black hair, except perhaps this self-confidence that appeared in every of his gestures. A shark in a lion’s disguise, old Laraby once had said. He had climbed the complex, stiff hierarchy ladder of the Corporation that fast in barely twelve years; this was a sure sign that he knew what he wanted, and knew how to obtain it, whatever the means involved.

“McAran, yes”, Deanna said, her mouth dry. “The hacker.”

“Not much data available on her, right? They have such a way of covering their tracks, these little rats.”

“Jen McAran seems to be quite a talented one, indeed. Too bad she’s on the wrong side.”

She swallowed hard. She already knew what was to follow, and Chen seemed to have read her mind, for she clearly noticed the calculating smile at the corner of his lips, right before he went on:

“The man’s interesting, too. Much more interesting.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“We both know it’s him, right, Deanna?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“And all this time, we thought he had died in Syrtis. I’m not sure if this is a good or a bad surprise. If Laraby was still alive, I’d make an example with him, just for having not finished the job.”

For a second, only a second, Deanna closed her eyes. A part of herself wished she never had found this document, had never gone on Juno Street to question the reporters and lay her hands on their recording; the other part knew that had she dared to dissimulate this to Chen, her situation would have sooner or later turned for the worst. She couldn’t afford to be in the spotlight, not when it came to Eric Chen, not when they both knew she stood in the palm of his hand.

“I want him dead, Deanna. For good. No supposing and believing.”

The Security Chief opened her eyes again, staring at the screen, and nodded, unable to acknowledge the order in a loud voice.

“I don’t care what means you need to use, I want this man. I want to know how he managed to escape. How he fooled us for so long.”

“So you want him taken… alive?”

“Alive, yes. I want to see the look on his face when he realizes his life is between my hands. He’ll understand. And then, he’ll die.”

“I’ll do my best, Sir.”

“Of course, you’ll do. You don’t have the choice.”

His smile had vanished all of a sudden, his voice taken on a threatening tone. Again, Deanna nodded in silence, the barely veiled threat still echoing in her ears. Stay in your place. She kept on repeating the old motto in her mind, aware that slipping only once would mean her death too. There was another rule, an unspoken one — once an Agent, always an Agent. Trying to get out could only be done through one, unique door.

Tags: excerpt | NaNoWriMo | novel | writing

Excerpt - Fractal Dreams

[Meeting in a private chat-room of the Web between Jen/Tesla and Fractal. This chapter isn't funny per se, but Fractal definitely is, in a way. This is the first appearance of the rogue AI wandering in search of her server where she could rest her tired data. I must admit that her concept is funny, no matter how I try to think of it.]

“The Townsend, you say? Hm. Nasty ones. Yes, yes, very nasty. Never an easy server there. Comfortable, but never easy.”

The elderly woman in a long dark-green dress, her white and gray hair floating around her like a myriad of thin silky threads, nodded her head in a particularly funny way, and Tesla cracked a smile. Fractal tended to be a ’she’ more and more often, these days, and the young woman had started to consider him as a feminine presence as well. It had always had been hard to grasp him — her — it, but it usually wasn’t too much of a problem, once one got to know this odd presence better. Fractal wasn’t exactly human, after all.

“Well, I was just wondering if you’ve noticed… weird things around their firewalls, these days.”

The curvy silhouette shining of a particularly bright electric blue waved a long, slim hand in a casual gesture. Her eyes were the only spot of darkness in her, two black wells that seemed to open on the void only. Tesla liked this Avatar. Nobody had ever linked it to her physical persona, unless she told them, and it was perfect this way. Too many people lacked imagination, using versions of themselves that weren’t that hard to recognize, and things were even worse when connecting from public booths, that didn’t allow much customization. Although nobody could see them, in this private chat-room of the FYI Club that they had borrowed on the server to discuss quietly, the young Wizard had, as always, made a point of appearing with her own, home-made Avatar. Doing it any other way would have been a shame; she had her reputation to maintain, and a top-notch Avatar at all times was part of her way of envisioning it.

“What do you mean by ‘these days’?”

“You know, the… Nevermind. Anything special there? New programs?”

“Yes, well… There’s a new butler at the door of their public forum. Haughty one. Too simple a program, really. Isn’t that what you mean?”

“Er, not really, but thanks anyway.”

“You’re welcome. Is this Avatar good enough? I’m never sure.”

Tesla resisted the urge to mimic an exaggerated rolling of eyes — not that it would have reflected very well on her digitized face, anyway. Fractal tended to be pretty whimsical on certain days, and it seemed tonight was one of these. If she had been told, in days of old, that she’d one day give web-fashion advice to a rogue, homeless Artificial Intelligence, she would never have believed it. She would even less have believed that she’d also call and consider this very Intelligence a good friend and a mentor.

“Nice, but a little too old. I mean, most people go with young versions. The hair’s cool, though.”

“Oh.”

Fractal swirled on herself once, as if to show off her dress. When she faced Tesla again, her features were of a twenty-year old woman, with eerie gleaming silver eyes and hair. The changes were truly fascinating; as far as the Wizard knew, nobody was able to do that, not even herself. Once users had set with an Avatar, there was no way of changing it, unless they disconnected first and came back later with another one loaded into their deck or computer.

“Snazzy. I suppose I don’t need to wonder anymore about who this famous ‘lady in green’ is, eh?”

“Lady in green?”

“Oh, come on! You! Don’t you check the chat logs at H3xA?”

“Should I?” The AI looked around her with a pretty much unconcerned expression; a nanosecond later, a comfortable chair covered in orange fabric not exactly matching her dress color appeared behind her, for her to sit. There were still some efforts to do.

“Yes! They’ve been talking about you since last week. The Ghost in the Web, they call you. Or the Green Fairy. Pretty funny. By the way, keep the eyes. They add a very nice touch.”

“Why, thanks.”

Tesla smiled again. Fractal was always fun to talk to, in a way. Its former male Avatar had been a blast to roam the Web with, but this new version was so much funnier that the Wizard would almost have forgotten why she had come to see her in first place.

Tags: excerpt | NaNoWriMo | novel | writing

Excerpt - Faces On A Screen

[Chapter 7. An Agent working for Deanna has found a reporter having recorded scenes from the riot, and told her boss about it, given that Heiji and Jen are present on some of them. Faithful to her habit of checking things by herself, Deanna comes in person and ends up pretty much telling the reporters to piss off.

Featuring Aimee Zhong, Pit Lukander and Juliet Rin as the reporters, Eri Lomax as the Agent, and Deanna Shaw as herself. Ah yes—Evening One is the channel the three reporters work for.]

Deanna went on staring at the scene. One word was dancing in her mind, a word come straight out of a past that she shouldn’t try to recall. A code name. His code name.

“Akuma”, she whispered, still so low that only Eri did hear her. The Agent raised a quizzical eyebrow, but didn’t make any remark whatsoever.

“He’s supposed to be dead.” Another whisper. She shook her head, trying to convince herself that it couldn’t be true; this was already impossible. He looked older, harsher, but even after more than six long years, she hadn’t completely forgotten his face. To find him there, in the Underworld, was a major surprise. Agents weren’t used to allow their preys to escape.

“Are you done with our films?” Juliet Rin asked on a brisk tone, causing her to snap out of her reverie.

Deanna had almost forgotten that the three reporters were still here, and she found this way of interrupting her as quite rude and infuriating.

“I’ll be done in thirty seconds”, she snapped back in a voice that sounded just as cold as Rin’s.

Half a minute was enough for her to copy the files to her decoder, and to make sure that Evening One wouldn’t be able to use these views of McAran and the Maverick ever again. In front of her, Zhong had lighted a cigarette, casting nervous looks to her every few seconds or so, as if fighting with the urge to ask her something.

“Well, thank you for your assistance. It was much appreciated”, Deanna said before flashing another polite smile to them.

“What? Is this all? You kidding, or what?”

“Kidding? Why would I do that, Miss Rin?”

The reporter shook her head in an angry move, her white hair waving around her forehead. “You know very well! You Corpo guys are all the same. You come here, demand info, say it’s for your internal affairs or whatever crap you think you can get away with, and then you leave. Don’t you have anything to tell us? What or who you were looking for? Nothing?”

“Hmmm…” Deanna tapped a finger against her lips. “Well… No. Nothing.”

“Who was on this recording?” Rin went on, ignoring her words. “Are you after someone? A defection? Financial malversations? The public always wants to know what really happens!”

“Miss Rin, there’s another thing that you know. You know law is on our side. We could play your little game and let you demand an inquiry”, Deanna said, looking at the reporter from over her tinted glasses, “but this would be wasting your time.”

“But—”

“It’d be wasting ours, too”, she went on. “It wouldn’t get you any more results. And it would ensure you a few months of problems as soon as any of your broadcasts would be linked to the Corporations of this town. I’m sure we can find an agreement here. Can’t we?”

Rin opened her mouth as if to answer, but closed it the second after without emitting a sound. Her disgruntled look had turned to one of clear anger. Deanna gave one of her polite smiles again, satisfied to see that her threat had reached her goal. The media putting their noses into the Townsend’s affairs wasn’t something she would let happen.

Closing the connection with her decoder, she took Zhong’s data-chip out and gave it back to the reporter who snatched it from her hand with an angry look.

“It’s been a pleasure, Miss Rin, Miss Zhong, Mr. Lukander. Let’s go now, Eri. We still have lots of work to do.”

A single look cast to her Agent. Behind her, Lomax thanked the Evening One team briefly, informing them that the meeting was over, and both women went back to Deanna’s car.

“This was excellent work”, the Security Chief told her. “Make sure that the copy of this broadcast never leaves their studios again, will you?”

“Understood, boss.”

“Oh, and get out of here fast, please. Before they realize I’ve erased their original file.”

Deanna gave a wry smile, to which Eri Lomax echoed briefly. A simple sign to her driver, the car door closing on her, and she was gone.

Tags: excerpt | NaNoWriMo | novel | writing

Excerpt - Hunter In The City

[Chapter 6, the hunter who's laid hands on Miki finds himself in quite a bad situation. I've hesitated for some time about what POV to use for this one. Arlens, evidently, doesn't come back later on, but I found it interesting to present things his way to create a change. As for Miki, I'm not sure if I should leave her this way or make her act all frightened to death. She's easily impressed when it comes to the Underworld, but she's still a doctor above all, and I can eaily conceive that as soon as she sees something reminding her of her element, she may switch to "professional" mode. It doesn't mean she won't be impressed later on—in fact, she'll be, but not in the "everybody run!!!" way.

Funny thing is that I kinda liked Arlens' character. He just happens to die too fast, and I wonder if I shouldn't give him some more room in the second draft.]

This would be the chance of his life.

He had witnessed it all, after all, and a couple of seconds had been way enough to understand what was happening.

Lighting the Street and any of its bars and clubs on fire was never hard. All that was needed was a trigger, and in a place where leading an honest life was a complex task, anything linked to one or the other less legit activities could usually be used as such. As it happened, it had started in quite a banal way, with a simple brawl at a table of this drug and booze hole of a night-club on Juno, where he had met with an informer half a hour ago. Three drunk punks in leather clothes and chains, throwing insults at each other, before insults turned into hurled fists straight to the face or to the stomach. Brawls always attracted a small crowd, and this evening’s wasn’t an exception. When the movement of the crowd and the simple opening of a door brought him on the plate one of the newest bounties of the day, he didn’t hesitate.

Arlen Nathans had always been a man to seize an opportunity when it presented itself, and laying his hands on this woman was a hell of an opportunity that he would have been stupid to miss.

She was fighting, of course, trying to get away from his grip as he was dragging her toward Astra Avenue, perpendicular to Juno, to go back to where he had left his vehicle, not too far from the elevated railway station. Tougher than she looked, this little woman—a light weight with a surprising dose of energy, scratching his hands and forearms with her nails, his hand on her mouth fortunately preventing her from screaming. He wouldn’t hurt her. He shouldn’t. The bounty he had seen on the public panel on Jupiter Column specified that she was wanted alive and in good health, and this was how he would deliver the package in the end. The twenty thousand dollars Miki Kobayashi was worth weren’t a sum to spit on; in fact, they were almost beaten by the personal satisfaction of having snatched her from Raven’s arms, or almost.

Everything would be perfect now, if only this hell of a cough could leave him alone.

“You… ” he heard the woman say between his fingers. “The police…” He replaced his hand on her mouth, with more strength this time, muffling her gasp for air.

“Cops will do nothing, lil’ Miss. Too busy placing barricades. And I’m doing my job.”

She wouldn’t keep quiet, no matter what he could say to make her understand her situation, and he resorted to twisting her arm behind her back, forcing her to walk faster. A moan of pain escaped her lips, but she stopped wriggling at once, half losing her balance under the shock. He considered throwing her on his shoulder and carrying her this way; sure it would go faster. The only problem was that he knew she’d start screaming like an animal if he was to ever let go his hand off her mouth.

“Stay quiet, dammit. Ain’t gonna hurt you”, he said, before a coughing fit interrupted him, forcing him to stop right where he was. A couple hours, just a couple more hours, time to deliver the bounty and get the money, and things would be better. He would have the money. He would have options. Taking a short break from the job sounded like a sweet idea.

Another cough. There were spots of fresh blood on the back of the woman’s grey coat now, and it dawned on him all of a sudden that it was his own. A chill ran down his spine. Many kinds of diseases were running free at all time in the crowded streets of the Underworld, but there was only one he knew of that had such symptoms.

“…You caught it…”

Only then did Arlen Nathans realize that he had placed his hand on his mouth instead of keeping it on the woman’s, yet that she remained oddly unmoving, not even attempting at breaking free, looking at him with these slit black eyes of hers in which he couldn’t read anything. She didn’t seem afraid. There wasn’t even any horrified expression on her face, contrary to what he had seen in several people on Juno earlier on, when some punk had collapsed with a scream of pain that wasn’t the result of a hard blow, and had never gotten back on his feet.

“What are you—”

“Dilated pupils. You seem to be running a slight fever. Coughing blood. Your nose is bleeding, too. You know… what’s going to happen next, right?”

“Bullshit. Just need a break. You stay quiet, okay? If you scream, I knock you out.”

Kobayashi lowered her head, not saying a word. Strengthening his grasp on her arm, the Hunter hauled her toward a passage between two buildings. It wasn’t an alley, barely a dead-end in which the inhabitants used to gather their trash cans, but it would have to do. A stim would help, he knew it. Stims always helped. He needed to manacle her first, and after this, it would be time for a stim.

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Excerpt - Dying Streets

[Welcome to the little world of Chapter 5. One I consider "unfinished", in that I really didn't put as many details as I could in it, and wanted to get through it to jump to the next part (I'm also not sure whether I'll leave this in in the final version or not; it'll depend on whether I have enough material once I've edited the thing, I guess). After having met and discussed their seemingly common problem with the Townsend, our three old rogues are caught in a panic in the very place where they had paused to evaluate their situation. That's when Miki disappears, and it's not only because she was carried away by the crowd trying to get out.]

The word reached the rest of the club. The conversations could more easily be heard now, and even if it was still hard to make out anything from them, the unique syllable that came back on every lips was easy to guess.

“Hey, ain’t them from the Bolts gang?”
“Yeah, it’s them! They must all be infected!”
“It’s their fault! Their fault!”
“Kill ‘em!”

What arose from the back wasn’t a murmur anymore now. All of a sudden, a silhouette was thrown through the dance floor, crashing on one of the nearby tables in a mess of broken glass and spilt blood. Heiji felt Miki’s hand on his left arm twitch, her fingers diving into his flesh with a surprising strength, one second before the mob of insiders erupted into a complete panic. Bottles fell on the floors, knives were taken out of their sheaths, guns out of their holsters, and a wave of bodies rushed toward the door in the same move.

“Oh shit”, he heard Jen mutter behind him. He tried to grab both women by the wrists to keep them from being swept away by the crowd, but it was already too late. With a cry of surprise, unprepared and probably witnessing here her very first panic in a club, Miki was dragged away from him, her tiny silhouette disappearing among all the others. It was already hard enough to keep his hold on Jen, and in the end, he too had to let himself be thrown outside, barely managing to keep the young Wizard out of the way of the rest of the customers.

On a simple thought, a reflex more than a conscious one, the electronic lenses in his eyes were already adjusting their zoom level, scanning the crowd of customers, desperately searching for Kobayashi. There were too many bodies on the ground already, too many silhouettes fighting with each other, too much noise for his hearing sensors to properly isolate the length wave of Kobayashi’s voice. For a split second, he thought he had framed her face, heard her call his name from beyond the human tide, but without warning, she disappeared, and the last he heard was the sound of a scream suddenly muffled.

“Heiji, we can’t do anything to find her here! We need to get out!” Jen’s voice, trying to speak loud enough without shrieking. Like many of the others, like himself, the young woman already had her gun out, ready to make use of it it if needed be.

“Shit.” He had just noticed something else, someone else, rather, a tall shape he knew all too well. He was too used to things going awry to not piece this puzzle together.

The movement of the crowd was taking them outside now. His hand firmly maintaining Jen close to him, he dived in the middle of the screaming customers, in order to not find himself crushed against a wall or a door. Kobayashi wasn’t in here anymore, he knew it.

“Sheesh, that’s wild! Where’s she?” Jen said, wiping her nose with the back of her hand that held the PPK. She had taken a blow, and blood was marring her pale skin now, right above her mouth, but she wasn’t really paying attention.

“You can run fast, right?” Heiji said in turn, going on scanning the street. With a panic like this one, it’d soon erupt in other parts of Juno, and could turn into a severe riot.

“Hell yeah.”

“Great. We take a dash. A hundred and fourty-three meters.” He pointed a gloved finger in the direction he wanted her to take.”Ready?”

“Ready.”

Heiji grabbed the Wizard by the hand, and the two Mavericks started to run.

Tags: excerpt | NaNoWriMo | novel | writing