If you like this excerpt, you can download the PDF in the “Novels” section of this site.
Chapter One
The cool night air streamed over my cheeks. It would have felt good if I could forget that I was falling to my death. There was a Blu-Ray disc in my left hand – its luminescent sheen reflected the lights of skyscrapers as I plummeted. I could hear police sirens over the air thundering past my ears. Hovering neon billboards blurred – I picked up quick snatches of the advertisements. One said, SkyAngel Jetpacks FOR SALE!
If I only had one of those right now…
I glanced up and saw police hovercars. They didn’t see me yet, but it didn’t matter. They wouldn’t need to arrest me when I became a street pancake. Headlights washed over me – a hovercar swerved to avoid me, nearly flying into the side of an office building. The cops saw me. Their headlights glared at me as they dove. They wanted the disc, but they wouldn’t die for it, so they pulled up and let me fall.
I felt the cold plastic of the disc in my hand, and I glanced at it. I wish it was a week ago and I could tell myself not to steal the damn thing. I closed my eyes. It had been my eighteenth birthday a week ago…
***
I was sitting on the roof of my apartment building in a fold up chair, looking out at the Philadelphia Underground District – we call it PUD for short. The lights of the city twinkled thirty stories below me. Hovercars wound around buildings in spirals – their red taillights looked like insidious eyes. Far away a glowing billboard marqueed the time and date, as well as the name of new movies that were playing.
They built PUD for people that can’t afford air purifiers. The air topside is so polluted that you need a gas mask to walk around. But if you put a purifier in your home, or on your balcony or whatever, it can keep the air clean for you to breathe. Some of the rich neighborhoods, like Society Hill, have machines that can purify miles of air. But that costs a lot of money, and the housing prices rise accordingly. That’s why poor people end up in PUD, where the pollution is naturally a little thinner. Plus, down here we’re only allowed to use fuel-efficient hovercars, fire-resistant buildings, and low energy quotas. And you better believe it’s enforced – not by just the cops either. If you drive some gas-spewing SUV around town, you’ll probably get pulled out at a stop light and catch an ass beating. There are kids around here, and giving them lung cancer because you wanted extra legroom and a badass thruster set just doesn’t fly.
The ceiling of PUD was carved out of the bedrock Philly was built on. They have a fake sky displayed on it, which changes from day to night. The only problem is that if you look closely, you can tell it’s not real.
That almost real night sky is what I was looking at as I drifted off to sleep.
I fell off my apartment building in the dream. Instead of landing on the street, I ended up falling through trees – I was in a rainforest. I ripped through the trees and landed on the soggy ground with a thump. I got to my feet – I was draped in mud. Rain and starlight wended their way through the jungle canopy. The chittering of insects, the screech of birds, the howl of an ape, and the thrum of dense life – all of these washed over me.
I walked through the trees, pushing aside wet, leafy branches. I shivered. My skin was buzzing with adrenaline. There was a glow about ten feet ahead of me. Twin blue circles. Eyes?
I froze.
The eyes blinked.
I wanted to turn and run, but I couldn’t tear myself away from them. I was paralyzed.
The eyes approached me, and the silouhette of an enormous creature – at least seven feet tall – materialized. It looked like some kind of cross between a praying mantis and a man. I couldn’t make out its face, but I could see that its skin was a glossy black.
I woke up with a start. I was back on the roof of my apartment building – cold sweat soaked into my shirt.
That was a weirdass dream, I thought, rubbing my eyes. I stood up and folded my chair. When I got on the elevator, I punched fifteen.
I stepped out of the elevator and walked down the hallway to my door. I leaned forward, and looked into a retinal scanner. I pressed my finger against the doorknob, and waited while it checked my fingerprints. I typed my six-digit passcode into the keyboard next to the door. Sometimes I get annoyed at all the steps I have to take to open my door – then I remind myself that everyone in my neighborhood has these security measures. It’s a helluva lot better than someone breaking in. I reached for the doorknob but stopped. Something wasn’t right. I looked back and forth anxiously. Living in the roughest part of Philly teaches you something: trust your instincts.
I punched a button on the side of my wristcomputer, which looked like your standard digital watch. I held out my arm and my wristcomputer projected a screen in front of me; it shivered in the air as my arm trembled slightly. I double tapped the screen a few times to start a program, then waved my hand over it and turned off the monitor. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a pair of wireless earbud headphones, putting them into my ears. I dropped silently to the floor, and carefully took off my writscomputer and slipped it under the crack of the door. I reached into my jacket and put on a pair of sunglasses. The sunglasses were linked to a small camera in my wristcomputer.
My heart fluttered. I heard breathing inside the apartment, and the enhanced nightvision image in my sunglasses showed a few pairs of shoes pointed at the door. They were waiting for me.
Who were they and what did they want? I stood up and reached into my jacket with both hands, pulling out two chromed pistols. Maybe I should run. I shook my head. If they managed to beat my security they would just chase me down eventually, they somehow had all my information. I would have to kill them, maybe leave one alive so that I could at least figure out who was after me. I looked down the hallway and considered running again. Instead I clicked the safeties off.
I took a few steps and waistbanded one of my guns. I walked to my neighbor’s door. I knocked and waited – he wasn’t home. I pulled up the data screen on my wristcomputer and started a new program – I reached out and tapped at its floating monitor.
“Initiate override sequence,” I said.
A few seconds later my nieghbor’s lock clicked open. I swung his door open and walked quietly into my neighbor’s house. There was no way I was going to use the front door of my own place when there were people waiting for me. Better to give them a surprise.
I walked out onto my neighbor’s balcony – fake starlight greeted me. I used my wristcomputer to access my home network – think of it as a universal remote that controls air conditioning, security settings, alarms, windows, and so on.
“Open my front door in ten seconds,” I told my network.
I ran a few steps and leapt – landing hard on the railing of my own balcony. I pulled myself up and stifled a groan. I stood and put my hand on the sliding glass door to my apartment. I gripped it tightly as I waited. I squinted through the glass door – I could see shadowy silhouettes in the darkness. My front door opened and light from the hallway poured in – it was a perfect decoy, and the three intruders had their full attention on it.
I pulled sliding glass door of my balcony open and exploded through it, guns ready. I aimed and my fingers brushed against the triggers.
“Surprise!” they yelled. “Happy Birthday!”
What? I thought. My hands relaxed.
“Where the hell is he?” my friend Tyron said.
“What’s going on?” I said.
They all turned around.
“What, did you think we were robbing you or something?” Elise asked me.
“I don’t know…I looked under the door and saw you. Thought you were…I don’t know, feds or something.”
I put away my guns and turned, shutting my balcony door. My pulse was slowing back to normal.
“Wow, man. I think you’re a little too high strung. I think you need to get laid, you jumpy mofo,” Daz said.
“Your Mom doesn’t think so.”
“You two pussies can have a catfight later – we’ve got a bus to catch in ten,” Tyron said.
I cocked an eyebrow. “A bus?”
“Yeah. We’re going aboveground tonight. And you’ve got a free ticket to Dave’s.”
I raised my eyebrows and smiled.
“We knew that you got off of work around now so we wanted to surprise you. We got transportation, food, the whole deal,” Daz said.
“You guys…thanks. This is going to be awesome,” I said.
A few moments later we were outside my apartment building, walking under the endless spirals of hovercar traffic that lit the sky like some frenetic tableau of shooting stars. We waited at the corner until a hoverbus picked us up.
Once we got on the bus, I couldn’t help but look for an easy mark. The bus was a great place to get some easy IP; all you need is to find an old person with weak security. I noticed one forty-something man with and ancient wristcomputer. He was typing with a pair of Vboard gloves on, tapping away at the open tray table in front of him. I couldn’t see the keyboard – only he could with his glasses – but I could imagine where the keys were as I watched his fingers moving. I waited until he typed in a security code. I smiled slightly and nudged Tyron.
“I got his code,” I whispered.
“How?”
“He was typing, and I watched carefully. Want to mess with him?”
Tyron shrugged. “Why not. You got anything in mind?”
I nodded and turned on my wristcomputer. In less than a minute I had hacked the man’s computer. I brought up the man’s desktop and watched for a few moments as his cursor moved. Then I took over. I turned up the volume on his external speakers. They weren’t very loud but they would work for my purposes.
A moment later a mechanical voice from his wristcomputer spoke.
“Would you like to purchase another six bottles of Viagra? Your auto-order payment has run out.”
The man turned bright red and frantically tried to mute his computer. A few of the people on the bus glanced over.
“Purchase accepted. You will be getting a bottle tomorrow. Would you like to buy penile enlargement medication? If the answer is yes, input how many…thank-you for the purchase of four bottles of Xaltex, the ultimate in male enhancement medication. Would you like to look at any related products?”
The man tore off his sunglasses and looked around the bus at the amused glances of the other riders.
“I swear I didn’t just buy any of that, my computer is malfunctioning. Really,” he stammered.
I buried my face in my hands to smother my laughter, and peeked over at Tyron. He was nearly crying.
“Automatic reminder,” the man’s computer said. “Your subscription to Playgirl Magazine has expired. Would you like to repurchase?”
The hoverbus came to a stop and a metallic voice said, “Sub-Broad and Sub-Locust Streets.”
The man stood up and strode quickly to the door. He took off his wristcomputer, burying it in his pocket as he walked. Once he was outside the four of us couldn’t hold it in any long; we burst out laughing.
Tyron said, “Did you see his face?”
“Hell yeah – that probably wasn’t even his stop. Betcha he bailed early.”
“How did you do that, Z?” Daz asked.
“I saw him type in the code, that’s all.”
“And you could follow that? Your eyesight is insane, bro.”
I shrugged.
“We’re going above,” Elise said.
The hoverbus had just reached the exit to PUD, and we could see up into the cool night air. Philadelphia. The buildings loomed around us as the airbus flew toward their glowing spires. The city was beautiful here, but also oppressive. There were so many people walking along the glowing, suspended walkways, so many hovercars whizzing around, their headlights cutting through the smoggy darkness. The airways were clogged tonight, and our bus was one in a long line. There were similar lines above, below, and to the side of us, and the route to the waterfront took a winding path through the buildings of Center City. I didn’t care though; a trip to Dave and Buster’s is well worth waiting in traffic.