Shadow of a Dead Star by Michael Shean

Author:Michael Shean
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: dystopia, sci-fi, science fiction, future, cyberpunk, Wonderland
ISBN: 978-1-62007-000-0
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press

Chapter 16

When the marginal civilization of the Verge had gone entirely and the rickety towers of the Old City began to swim into view, Walken did not speak. He was the driver, the nerves, the muscle. He dug into his basket of old experiences, dug out old cop instincts with mental fingers. The Honda would be a target for any wrecker gangs or bandits that wanted to pick it down and he had to be absolutely careful.

Bobbi was plugged into the Honda's console. She had already demonstrated her ability to split awareness when she hacked the cameras back at Sea-Tac, so he wasn't going to tell her no when she decided to ride the car's computer. She was serving as two sets of eyes, scanning with the car's sensor along with her own pretty greens. "Got bingo on the scope," she would chime every now and again, arms crossed, her face again a mask as she divided her sensorium. "It's raining, though. People don't come out when it's raining."

"Don't see why not," he muttered. "Seems the perfect time for an ambush."

"Even Oldies get sick," she pointed out. "Ain't exactly any clinics around here ain't run by the Koreans or the Yak, you know? Hard to get yourself into a hospital for pneumonia when they got guns at the door. And that's only on the fringes. Past that, it's all Crazytown."

Walken nodded. "Yeah," he murmured, "Just didn't think about it, I guess."

"They ain't animals out here, Tom," Bobbi grumbled. "'Cept for the crazies. They just live like it, sometimes."

She was right, of course. Out here it was like another world, and the disconnect between the city zones could be incredible. The crazy ones, especially; poor corporate management and the broken free health system often resulted in the insane leaving institutions without suitable treatment. They always seemed to circulate back out into the Old City, where they formed gangs of psychopathic hunters. Ferals, they were called, and even though they might not be uncivilized as individuals their composite madness made them into a very dangerous whole.

"I'm sorry," he said, blinking out of danger mode for a moment. "I didn't mean it like that."

She didn't move, but he heard the shrug in her voice. "S’alright,” she said. "Folks just think what they wanna in the city, that's all. Whole different world out here."

Voice of experience, Walken thought. Must've come from out here herself.

"I get what you mean," he said and felt immediately guilty. "I know how it is. I came out here from the Eastern Corridor, you know?" Images of the megalopolis he had called home spread into his mind, the cordon of urban creep that had once been comprised of separate great cities now solidified into a monolithic whole. "Baltimore."

She made a soft 'ahhh' of understanding. "Charm City, sure," she said with a nod. "Nasty place. You a cop there, yeah?"

Memory pooled cold and damp in his stomach. "Yeah. Street, then Narco. Then the Bureau got me after I was part of this Wonderland case.

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