Interlude

Page 2

From his comfortable fugue Odep was abruptly jostled and barely managed to keep his feet. A young man running full tilt had collided with him. He shut off his randomiser and overlay at once, snapping back to reality. He grabbed the kid by the shoulders to steady himself as much as the other.
“What is it, chah?” he barked, unsure if he felt angry, annoyed or amused. Other people were running too, coming from where this fellow had come. No one so much as glanced at them.

“Gangers or terrorists...” came the breathless response. The kid pointed at the arcade building behind him from which terrified civilians were pouring. He broke free of Odep’s grasp and bolted.

Odep stood stock still and simply watched. Next to an old wall he judged he was in shadows, hard to see - the kid who’d run into him certainly hadn’t spotted him. He was ready to bolt at the first sign of real danger, but for now he was gripped by memories of past exhilaration and he hoped to turn it into the real deal, get his heart pumping. It had been years since he’d felt that way, and he felt his blood pump faster, desperate to prove to him that he was still capable of excitement. Here there were no hired security staff to whisk him away to safety, no legions of adoring fans who might surge forward to protect their idol. Here he was not the centre of attention but an observer, an optional. He felt giddy.

A courtyard stood between him and the arcade. It was emptying fast as pedestrians scrambled to the safety of away. In moments it had cleared out completely and in the absence of the crowd’s panic the atmosphere changed, became oppressive. A knot formed heavy in Odep’s gut. He considered leaving but didn’t budge, held fast by the hope of excitement to come. He had heard no shots or mortal screams, seen no carnage or blood. Just the panicked looks and fearful shouts of the evacuees. Clearly this was no random killing spree, but something else.

Electric blue light flooded the courtyard, followed by a powerful downdraft. The cavalry has arrived, Odep thought. Sure enough, the distinctive brushed carbon hull of a ZoneSec personnel carrier touched down in the centre of the empty space. The huge aircraft had navigated its way through miles of erratic architecture with military precision to get here, and in a response time that made Odep bite his lip.

He watched from his dark corner as a score of augmented Zone agents disembarked. The charcoal, armoured uniforms of the Zone Sec squad leeched the very light from the air by some cunning trick of applied spectrology, making it difficult to make out a clear outline. From this distance Odep could discern no detail except their formation. He inched a little closer, feeling for all the world like a naughty child, despite his three hundred and nineteen years.

The bulky personnel carrier lifted off, having completed its drop. He could hear no etherchat through his visor, but rather felt the presence of the Zone agents’ in the silence emanating from them. Communication suppressors built into their gear were operating at full force, serving the dual purpose of impairing any hostile communications in the area as well as reducing the white noise of civilian chatter. Odep clicked his visor into partial overlay and noted the stark absence of the usual ad- and spamware. It had all been knocked out by the Zone output, and the wallpaper posters advertising his concert suddenly seemed like a practical medium.

The arcade door had been left open after the last civilian had fled the premises. In a perfectly timed entry maneuver the ZoneSec squad swept inside to commence their engagement of whatever threat lay within. Odep imagined other units doing the same thing simultaneously at the other access points to the huge building.