“darkness” is a web series based on the novel grydscaen: dark. It follows the characters and the storyline after grydscaen: dark ends. This web series will run a few weeks and post on the grydscaen blog. copyright (c) 2018 natsuya uesugi.
darkness – episode 8
Faid sat at the Packrat Sprawl in the Acolyte Forward Base. Rom was in there with him. It was late, Acolyte had already gone to bed. There was only one Acolyte hacker awake at this time of night monitoring services on the mainframe. Faid called out to Rom who was over on the back terminal by the psi synch device.
“Any traffic?”
“A few messages in the last hour. Nothing important. Wait a minute, something is coming in,” said Rom and switched windows onto a dark chat program. A message was posting, the typing icon showing someone was penning something now.
“What channel?”
“One of the more obscure ones. I have started looking at those recently. Most of it is innocuous.”
Faid came over and stood over Rom’s shoulder as the message came in. Rom highlighted it when it finished posting and clicked the link to open the text. Faid read the message and then wheeled over a chair thinking deeply. Someone was calling him out personally, by name.
“What do you think? Should I go?” asked Faid.
“Let me check where this is coming from. You don’t want to be chasing smoke…” said Rom and pulled up the profile of the avatar listed as only ‘Om.’ The profile came back with a single statement, no IP, location or distinguishing detail.
“So who is it?” asked Faid.
Rom hesitated and didn’t speak up.
“What is the problem?”
“See for yourself.”
Faid wheeled the chair over and looked at the message. His eyes got wide as he saw it. The message read ‘die in dead’ nothing more.
“I wouldn’t go if I were you…” remarked Rom.
“If it is what I think it is, I better deal with it before it gets any worse,” said Faid and looked at his handheld checking the time. It was three in the morning. Faid left the Packrat Sprawl. The message said he needed to be at an old abandoned warehouse. He left at 3:05AM and snuck in an open side door he had been instructed to take.
Faid descended the staircase into the basement of the warehouse, pipes and wires running above his head. He walked by large grey boxy machinery then grabbed the double hand rails turning around and climbed down the metal ladder. The hard churn of industrial fans buzzed in his ears as he entered the basement. He made his way down the long dimly lit corridor. Yellow lights behind grates were positioned on the wall every two meters. He passed a flickering light turning down the hall.
Suddenly the lights went out. Faid stood perfectly still.
“Yoo hoo…” whispered a voice from in front of him he couldn’t see.
Faid held as he heard slow footsteps in the dark.
“Come out and play with me,” came the menacing voice again advancing.
Faid took a step back as he heard a whistling sound sing out. The whistle was a children’s song about a monster that would come snatch you up and eat you if you were awake after midnight.
The light on the wall next to Faid flickered on. He blinked thinking it not a coincidence, he figured whomever it was had psychic power.
“Who is there?” called out Faid trying to see down the dark corridor.
“Die in dead….” sang out in the corridor.
Faid turned and ran. That statement was known in the hacker community. It had been the rallying cry of a killer who had been targeting hackers years ago. The killer had gone on a rampage when Faid was just a teenager then the killer just disappeared and stopped the attacks.
A whoosh of air flew past Faid, someone snatched him from the back leveling a knife at his throat, then a whisper by his ear. “Die in dead. Death in red. Session terminated…” Faid felt a flash of pain, knocked unconscious. He crumpled to the floor.
****
Faid woke up laying behind a large industrial fan, its low hum blaring as the blades spun. His hands were tied at the wrists with thick tan rope. He heard the clacking of keys near him. He sat up slowly shaking his head which pounded and stood up walking over. The person was hovered over a laptop. Faid stepped silently. He got close and the person whipped around and started laughing flicking open a switchblade.
“Its you?” wondered Faid surprised as he was threatened with the blade.
“Sit,” ordered Kaizen in his black hoodie and tan graphitti splattered pants. His head was buzzed, his eyes shined red at the corners indication he was on the recall drug doxin which made the taker relive past memories.
Faid didn’t move fast enough.
“SSSSiiiiittttt!” cried Kaizen crazed and launched out of the chair knife to Faid’s neck. He grabbed Faid’s shoulder and pushed him to the floor. Once Faid was seated he threw himself back in the chair, feet spaced wide leaning over. He waved the knife. “Faid, you play with me I retaliate.”
“I did not do anything to you, Kaizen,” yelled Faid.
“I though better of you. Thought you were my equal. But still we play child’s games.”
“Kaizen, what are you on about?”
“AYOR!” Kaizen screamed and snatched up the laptop bringing it over and slapping it down on the floor. He typed quickly then turned the screen to Faid. “This!”
Faid looked at the screen which gave detail about Kaizen working for the Corporation and that he had resurfaced. Faid scrolled the screen, hands still tied up. “I will handle AYOR.”
“He is offline. Already killed him,” chuckled Kaizen leaning over and putting his arms out to the side.
“This is Raven Allen doing this. It has to be. I can stop him…” remarked Faid.
“You don’t, you go offline.”
“Don’t threaten me, Kaizen!” Faid barked.
Kaizen launched forward and yanked Faid to his feet. He pushed Faid in front of him to a large dark window to a sectioned off room. He pushed Faid up against the glass.
“Kaizen what is this?”
“This is an industrial microwave,” snickered Kaizen and flicked on the light.
There were multiple bodies in the room, cut up and bloodied. Kaizen turned on the microwave as they watched on.
“Are they dead?”
“AYOR is in there,” chuckled Kaizen.
The bodies cooked and swelled and then exploded into guts and gore.
Faid backed up to the wall afraid. He turned to Kaizen as the microwave went offline and reset. Kaizen unlocked the door to the microwave then yanked Faid over who struggled with him.
“No!” cried Faid as Kaizen dragged him towards the microwave door.
Kaizen released him and slammed the door shut leaving Faid outside. “Don’t be crazy, Faid. You wrong me you fry. For now you live…”
“Arsehole, AYOR was on your side. It was Raven Allen that must have got to him.”
“Right, Faid. AYOR told me before I killed him. Raven ordered him to broadcast the Corporation detail on the gridscan looking to call me out. Now, you get to deal with it,” barked Kaizen.
They were silent for a moment then Kaizen walked over and slit the ropes releasing Faid’s hands. Faid rubbed his wrists as Kaizen moved back picking up the laptop and putting it on the desk. He sat down.
“Bring Raven Allen to me.”
“No, I will not bring him here so you can kill him…” insisted Faid.
“Then you are on your own. I will not help you anymore. We are even now. He is your problem.”
****
Rom left the Packrat Sprawl at 3:30AM and went to the Jester hacker guild. There were a few hackers there when he arrived, the place open all the time. He deposited himself in the back on Jester’s favorite couch after taking a tablet from a wall cubbie. He sat down and engaged.
Rom navigated to a dark list serv for hackers. There were rumors about AYOR not being online over the past 24 hours which was rare. He watched for ten minutes then engaged.
“Anyone seen Kaizen?” came Rom’s question from his avatar.
There was silence. Another message came in.
“die in dead….”
The channel went silent. All communication stopped.
“Who is this?” Rom cringed grabbing the tablet and leaning back in the couch putting his knees up, feet on the seat.
Rom hesitated then asked a few questions but none of them were answered. Then after four queries the same statement displayed. Rom continued on.
“Where is AYOR?”
****
Jester was monitoring hacker traffic at his guild. He watched code streaming on his machine in the back office. He could see all the activity that was happening. He checked a hacker writing code, another surfing a dark site, a third working on an enigma trying to decrypt some data, and then he came upon someone on a dark message board. He engaged that channel and watched the back and forth for a second. He scrolled down looking at the conversation, then he saw it “die in dead…” He waited another few seconds and then another response came in. It read ‘death in red.’ Jester jumped up from the desk and ran into the guild hall.
“Who is chatting?” he yelled looking out onto the four people who were in the guild at this time.
Rom raised his hand and spoke up. “I am…” Unphased, he glanced up at Jester who had a look of terror on his face.
“Get off the channel now! Shut it down,” barked Jester and yanked the tablet out of Rom’s hands. He set it on the table and closed the window turning off the machine. “Get out of here. Go to the Sprawl. Stay off the street. I need you out of here now.”
“Why?”
“Don’t ask. Just go back to the Sprawl and see Faid. He will tell you. Get going. You need to stay off the streets. It is not safe. Go now.”
“Fine, I’ll go…” Rom whined and picked up his tan trench coat putting it back on. He walked to the door of the guild and the bouncer let him out.
****
“We are done Faid,” whispered Kaizen as he grabbed the chair and sat down wheeling it over to the desk.
Faid just stood there looking at his back. He called Kaizen’s name to no response. He sighed and left the warehouse room. He got out into the hall and teleported back to the Packrat Sprawl.
****
Rom wandered down Drake street. It was cold tonight. The sickly yellow street lights threw splashes of illumination onto the sidewalk as he sauntered down the street slowly. There was no one out. It was too early in the morning. Rom passed a homeless person sleeping on the street as he walked by the Tram eatery. He pulled his collar up to warm his neck and then blew on his fingertips as he walked.
“I wonder what Jester was so spooked about…”
Rom turned down a dark alley unafraid of the night. He walked for a few minutes and then the hairs stood up on the back of his neck as he caught the silhouette of a person at the end of the alley come around the corner. The shadow was backlit by a street light. The person at the end of the alley pulled out a long knife and then suddenly ran towards Rom.
Rom turned around and took off blazing around the corner, the flaps of his long trench coat wafting out behind him. He took the next street off Drake past the Tram and turned onto Central. He took a step into the street and the shadow with the knife was already there. This time closer. Rom went back the way he came. He took the turn and was cut off by the shadow holding up the knife; black clothes, radiation mask over their mouth and nose, round goggles. Rom brought his hands up and took a step back slowly.
“Die in dead…” came the stranger.
“Who are you?” asked Rom.
“Death in red…” the stranger stalked forward slowly as Rom cautiously backed up.
“Why are you after me?”
The stranger didn’t speak. Rom’s back hit the wall. He was trapped.
“Session terminated…” came the whisper.
Rom vanished. He reappeared on the other side of the Red Light District in the Shizuoko ghetto and went into an abandoned building feeling safe.
“No one will find me here…” he whispered to himself. Rom took the stairs up to the next floor and went into a room full of people shooting up drugs and smoking pipes. He deposited himself in the back and pulled a vial of juice out of his pocket with a hyper inject syringe. He received it from the Packrat Sprawl. He filled the syringe and gave himself a shot. Immediately his eyelids fluttered as the drug overtook him. His vision got blurry.
He started to nod, leaning over hardly able to keep his eyes open. He heard a whistle that sounded like it was on the other side of the room. Then a voice. The dim light of the room blocked by someone standing over him. Rom looked up.
“Yes…” he droned out, psi sick on juice unable to focus his eyes. He raised his hand up over his forehead to shield the glare of the light forming a halo behind the stranger’s head.
“Session terminated…”
Rom screamed as a knife slashed the palm of his raised hand. He scrambled to his feet and slapped his back against the wall retreating slowly grabbing his hand. The stranger stalked him. Rom tripped over an addict’s leg and landed on his back. The stranger leaned over him raising the knife high above Rom’s head and plunged it down into his side. Rom teleported away.
