The Dark of the City

[Moreno] Sometimes the greatest fear we have is fear of ourselves.  Fear that, when thetime comes, we’ll be unable to do what must be done.  Fear that we’ll be unableto protect what’s ours

[Moreno] My name is Olivia Moreno.  I work for N­Division, a unit that exists for onepurpose ­ to hunt the creatures called Necrals that have begun to infest CarsonBay.

[Moreno] For the past three weeks I’ve been chasing the hate­filled monster that killed mypartner and threw my life into chaos.

[Moreno] It’s out there in the streets, hiding in the dark of the city.  Somewhere.  Trying toassimilate, trying to make itself invisible. And it wants me dead.  It knows I’m afterit.

[Moreno] There have been hours, ?days?, where I’ve thought this pursuit might destroy me,that I wouldn’t have what it takes to follow through. But I have to find it, and Ihave to put it down.

[Moreno] My name is Olivia Moreno, and I’ll make this right.  I’ll make this right.

[Moreno] It’s a warm night in Carson Bay.  Above the city, iridescent rocket trails glimmerin the sky like a patchwork of falling stars.  As I watch, another starliner burststoward the heavens, pulsing light as it arcs into the infinite.

[Moreno] Around the skyscrapers, patches of fog have begun to roll in, blanketing parts ofthe highcity in a neon haze, a wash of reflected pink and powder blue.  A shuttledrifts overhead, throwing shadows across the street and stirring dust and trash inits wake.  I lift a hand and shield my eyes from the grit but I don’t slow my pace.  Ihave somewhere to be.

[Moreno] Around me, the denizens of the alleys and the sidewalks are busy.  Down hereyou can buy and sell anything you want.  Tranq, bio­mods.  Guns, flesh.Everywhere you turn, there’s someone waiting to take your creds, whether youwant to part with them or not.

[Moreno] For many of these lowlifes, Necrals are nothing but rumours.  Ghost storiesspread by ControlNet to sow fear among the populace. They don’t know theawful truth, like I do.

[Moreno] The Necrals look just like you and me, hiding in plain sight.  And that score youjust picked up, that flesh you just tasted ­ that could’ve been a Necral.  A monsterlurking under human skin.

[Moreno] Sometimes I just want to pick up and leave this all behind, but I know I can’t.  Notyet.  Not until I find the one I seek.

[Moreno] Out past Midtown I see movement on the sidewalk.  Then I hear his voice.

[Trask] (shouting) “Hey, Moreno!”

[Moreno] I turn to see my partner Trask stepping out of Starfall’s boxcar diner, a perplexedlook on his face.  He’s a hardened street cop, like me, and there’s an intensity about him that radiates from eyes of cobalt blue.

[Moreno] “Trask.  What are you doing here?”

[Trask] “I couldn’t sleep.  Came to grab a bite to eat.  What about you?”

[Moreno] “I have work to do.”

[Trask] (playful) “What time zone are you running on, Moreno?  Our shift isn’t due to startfor another six hours.”

[Moreno] “You’re new.  Give it time and you’ll learn that, over here, we don’t always dothings by the numbers.”

[Trask] “Well, I’m coming with you.”

[Moreno] “No, that’s not­”

[Trask] “Lead the way.”

[Moreno] (sighing) “Okay.”

[Moreno] Trask has been my partner for only two weeks, but we have a history that goesback much further.  We got involved a few years ago at the academy.  For a while I thought we might have had something going, but it didn’t work out.

[Moreno] Even so, there are times when he looks at me... and I feel something there.  Like we’ve left things unfinished.

[Moreno] ControlNet doesn’t know about it, of course.  They would never have made uspartners if they did.

[Trask] “Give me a second and I’ll look up the target list we were working on yesterday­”

[Moreno] “Forget about that.  I’m going after Target Two­four­seven.”

[Trask] “What?  Again?  Why are you obsessed with that thing?”

[Moreno] “It killed Tom.  Remember him?”

[Trask] “We’ve been over this.  Two­four­seven skipped town.  It’s gone, Moreno.”

[Moreno] “No.  It’s still here.  I have a new lead.”

[Trask] (exasperated) “Yeah.  Of course you do.”

[Moreno] “Just come with me.  Watch and learn.”

[Moreno] We board the closest shuttle and head out toward the east side.  The cabin isempty apart from one late­night commuter making his way home.  Trask standsby the window, watching the darkened buildings slide past.  A shaft of yellow lighttraces the edges of his face as a starliner lights up the sky in the distance.

[Trask] “Remember when you and me used to talk about getting on board one of thosethings?”

[Moreno] “The good old days.”

[Trask] “We always planned to leave this place.”

[Moreno] His smiled fades.

[Trask] “I’ve been wanting to talk to you about how it ended between us, Liv.  At the timeI thought I was doing the right thing­”

[Moreno] “Not now, Trask.  We’ll talk about it later.”

[Trask] (reluctantly) “Yeah.  Okay.”

[Moreno] We get off the shuttle at Fifty­Second and reach the sensor not long after.  It’s an innocuous­looking box attached to a corner lamp post, but it serves an importantpurpose ­ detecting the passage of branded targets as they move about CarsonBay.  I hook into the bus port with my cyber­clip and use my ControlNet credentials to access the system.

[Trask] “What are you doing?”

[Moreno] “I tagged Target Two­four­seven when we fought three weeks ago, after it nailedTom.  Injected it full of nano­transmitters.  But this one is clever.  It figured outhow to scramble the data, and it’s been masking its movements ever since.  I’monto it now, though.  I tweaked the sensor to compensate.  Looks like it came thisway just this morning.”

[Trask] “So where did it go?”

[Moreno] “This way.  Follow me.”

[Moreno] We follow a network of dank alleyways on our way to the waterfront.  Apart fromthe iridescent glow of the nav screen on my cyber­clip, this part of the city is litonly by the glimmer of neon signs that loom like beacons out of the darkness.Discarded Tranq capsules shimmer dully in the gloom and crunch under our feet,and junkers lie sprawled against dumpsters and under stairwells, too far underthe thrall of narcotics to notice our passage.

[Trask] “I feel weird.  A couple of weeks ago I’d have been arresting these scumbags.”

[Moreno] “You’re not in C­Div anymore, Trask.  Your job is to focus on the Necrals now.Forget about everything else.”

[Trask] “What are we going to do when we find it?”

[Moreno] “We put it down.”

[Trask] “Just the two of us?  Is that possible?”

[Moreno] “Why not?”

[Trask] “The only other time I saw one of these things taken down was over at the Cross.It looked human enough.  A woman, young and pretty.  Innocuous.  But it tookabout ten shots to knock the damn thing off its feet.”

[Moreno] “Sure.  They’re tough as hell.  That’s why we shoot on sight.”

[Trask] “And its blood was black.  Like oil.  What’s that all about?”

[Moreno] “They’re different on the inside.  Inhuman.”

[Trask] “This might be a weird question to ask, but... what ?are? they?  What are they really?”

[Moreno] “Some say they’re xenos, others that they’re the dead come back to life.”

[Trask] “A guy back in C­Div told me they’re a government experiment gone wrong.  That they’re machines built to mimic humans.”

[Moreno] “I’ve heard crazier theories.”

[Trask] “Surely someone knows.  Up in ControlNet, I mean.”

[Moreno] “Don’t worry about that now.  Just make sure you’re packing plenty of red­tips.Otherwise we’ll never bring it down.”

[Trask] “Huh?  Red­tips?  No one told me about those.”

[Moreno] “Let me guess, they skimmed over your training when they brought you on board.Here, give me your piece.  I’ll lend you a few of my spares.”

[Moreno] I empty his clip and load up the replacement rounds, then hand the gun back tohim.  Then we get moving again.

[Moreno] I lead the way down toward the pier.  It’s deserted at this time of night, and thefog has thinned out across the water.  Out on the bay I can see the undulatingyellow lights of shipping lane markers, and above, stars faintly glimmeringthrough the haze.

[Moreno] This is as close as Carson Bay comes to peacefulness.

[Moreno] “We’re getting close.  Wait over here.  I’m going to try to flush it out.  Make sureyou stop anyone from going past this point.  We don’t want innocents getting hurt.”

[Trask] “Moreno, wait.  We should call for backup.”

[Moreno] “It’ll be gone by then.  We have to do this now.”

[Moreno] I leave before he can say anything more.  I can’t help but feel that he’s seensomething in my face, that he senses my unease.

[Moreno] I leave him behind me in the darkness.

[Moreno] Down under the pier, things are quiet.  It’s almost as if a lull has come over thecity, like it’s watching me silently, in expectation of what is about to happen.  Iswing my flashlight across the sand, see discarded beer bottles and more emptyTranq capsules.  No people.

[Moreno] Maybe the target has cleared out the area already.  And yet the triangulatedsignal from the sensors told me it was here, somewhere close.

[Moreno] A strange thought occurs to me.  As I stand there listening, I begin to wonderwhat will happen to me when this is done.  Where will I go?  And what willbecome of me?

[Moreno] Then I glimpse something in the shadows.

[Moreno] I see the glint of something spinning through the air, and before I can take coverit smashes against my chest and then drops at my feet.  I realise it’s a rock ­wickedly sharp ­ and the pain sears against my skin.  As I reel back I see themonster running, trying to escape once more.

[Moreno] I give chase, weaving between the pillars with my gun at the ready, but I can't geta clear shot.  Then it changes course, and I get my chance ­ a split second,nothing more ­ and I take aim.  I pull the trigger.

[Moreno] The creature stumbles, and I close in.  It’s down in the sand, and I keep shooting,round after round, until it stops moving. I begin to believe that the nightmare might be over.

[Moreno] I turn at the sound of something behind me.

[Trask] “Moreno?  Are you okay?”

[Moreno] “Trask.  Dammit, you were supposed to wait outside.”

[Trask] “I heard screaming.  I couldn’t leave you in here with that thing.”

[Moreno] His flashlight drifts across the sand.

[Moreno] “No!”

[Moreno] I try to put myself between him and it, but I’m too late.  He sees.

[Trask] (wavering) “Moreno?  Why does it have your face?  Why does that ?thing ?have your face?”

[Moreno] “Trask, listen to me­”

[Trask] “It bleeds red.  I thought they­”

[Moreno] He turns the flashlight on me, sees the oily blackness oozing down my shirt fromthe wound in my chest.  He brings his gun up at me.

[Trask] (frightened): “What the­?”

[Moreno] “Just listen to me for a second­”

[Trask] (louder): “What the hell ?are? you?”

[Moreno] “I don’t know.”

[Trask] “What do you mean you don’t know?”

[Moreno] “I don’t know where I came from.  I woke up three weeks ago, with ?her ?memories.Her face.  I don’t know who put me here, or why.”

[Trask] “You killed Moreno’s partner.  You killed Tom.”

[Moreno] “I went to see him.  I wanted his help, but the other Moreno was there.  Shescrewed everything up.  I had no choice.  It was either them or me.”

[Trask] “You branded the real Moreno with the nano­transmitters.  You made ?her ?the target.”

[Moreno] “It was the only choice I had.  She was trying to kill me.  I was just protecting myself.”

[Trask] “And now you came to tie up the loose ends.  That was why you didn’t want mefollowing you in here.”

[Moreno] I take a step toward him, but he moves first.

(Booming sound of Trask’s gun)

[Moreno] I keep coming, and he keeps firing.  As he empties the clip, I stop, unharmed.

(Trask grunts in desperation)

[Moreno] He looks down at his piece, and realisation dawns.

[Trask] “Blanks.  You didn’t give me red­tips at all, did you?”

[Moreno] “I wasn’t sure I could trust you.”

[Moreno] He tosses the gun in the sand, defeated.

[Trask] (bitterly) “So I guess this is it.”

[Moreno] “That depends.”

[Trask] “On what?”

[Moreno] “On what you’ll do if I let you walk out of here.”

[Trask] (scornful) “You know ?exactly ?what I’m going to do.”

[Moreno] He holds firm, doesn’t turn and run ­ even though I can see he’s afraid of me.There’s something else in his eyes ­ a sense of betrayal, and worse, disgust.

[Moreno] “I was never given a chance, Trask.  From the moment I came into this world I’vebeen fighting to survive.”

[Trask] “You expect me to feel sorry for you?  After what you’ve done?  Forget it,Moreno.  Or whoever you are.”

[Moreno] “Trask­”

[Trask] “Go on.  Pull the damn trigger.”

[Moreno] From the moment I awoke into this existence, I only wanted to be treated as ahuman.  Treated as though I’m not a monster.  Maybe this is my chance to proveI’m worthy of that.  But if I let him go, he’ll tell them about me.  They’ll hunt me,and one day soon, they’ll kill me.

[Moreno] “Why don’t we leave here?  Together.  Just like we always planned.”

[Trask] “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

[Moreno] “Then you leave me no choice.”

[Moreno] His expression softens, and a look of resignation comes over him.

[Trask] (little more than a whisper) “You said you had her memories.  If that’s true, canyou tell me why she never came after me when I walked out on her?  Did sheever even love me?”

[Moreno] “I... it doesn't matter now, does it?”

[Trask] “It does to me.”

[Moreno] I want to answer, but I can’t.  The words won’t come.  Instead, I raise the gun.

(Sound of Moreno walking away from the pier, alone)

[Moreno] Sometimes the greatest fear we have is fear of ourselves.  Fear that, when thetime comes, we’ll be unable to do what must be done.  Fear that we’ll be unableto protect what’s ours.

[Moreno] I don’t understand what I truly am.  I don’t know how I came to be here, or wherethis path I’ve chosen will lead me. The only thing I do know is that I have tosurvive.  I have to hide my nature from those who seek to destroy me.

[Moreno] My name is Olivia Moreno.  If I keep telling myself that for long enough, one day Imight begin to truly believe it.

[Moreno] And if I ever stand in judgement of the ones who put me here, I’ll tell them thesame thing I tell myself every night.  The same words that bring comfort when the dark of the city closes in around me.

[Moreno] I don’t know any other way.