Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Totalled ❯ A Blast from the Past ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter 2: A blast from the past

 

The lowest floor, level six was the Red Security Zone. In the heart of it, were the extreme criminals, those who posed a danger to the State. The DNA flagging, the injection of tiny tracking devices, left me dizzy as the internal defence zinged around my body. They said that you wouldn't feel a thing, but I could feel them ripping across my arteries...invading my body..then the burning as they returned to their point of entry. It was akin to someone pressing a smokestick into flesh. I didn't flinch...much. The flaggers looked at me strangely while they were working....I rubbed at my face and my hand came back smeared with blood. No one even tried to make eye contact. You could read it on their shoulders....retirement party. A vicious reminder that everyone is expendable.

 

*You*re cleared to High Red Agent Hacker. Proceed.*

 

I took three steps forward and stumbled to a halt. Frag this....What I saw there that made me sick to my stomach. The entire room was the colour of vein red. A rich deadly shade running from the floor, ceiling and walls. In the centre, showcased by an intense white light, the hacker lay stretched out spread-eagled on the Table. He was an skeletal youth with ribs easily counted beneath the stretched skin. I stepped closer and discovered red puckered burn welts around his sensitive areas. His hands and feet were misshapen from the shiny metal vises clamped to them. He couldn't have been more than 16 years old.

 

The RD Interrogators were sitting around him, calmly eating lunch and playing cards, "You the Specialist we asked for?" A red coated man gestured toward me.

 

My mouth was dry and my stomach rolled. I nodded, not trusting my voice.

 

"Took you long enough." He wiped his mouth on the back on his hand, tossed his cards on the metal table and stretched, "Come on boys, let's get back to work."

 

The red man tossed a scarlet hand towel at me, "You look like something the cat died on. You got blood all over you, man. Here."

 

I caught it and pressed my eyes back into my head, forcing geometric shapes and colours to dance around. I wiped at my face trying to control the panic and nausea threatening me. I don*t want to be here...I don*t want to be here...I DON*T WANT TO BE HERE!

 

"Interro?"

 

"Retirement." My voice was even and calm.

 

“Well, one thing's for sure. When you're in Internal, you don't have to worry about old age pension." He laughed, slapped me on the back, jarring my bruises and sanity, then headed over to a monitoring station. "We're ready whenever you are."

 

"I thought I would be reviewing logs."

 

"Boy's we got ourselves a virgin! Twenty credits he won't last two minutes." He laughed and flipped a couple of switches that began a low whine somewhere behind the walls. The hair on the back of my head stood on end and my throat tightened.

 

{I'll take you up on that.} A disembodied voice floated in from the hidden room speakers.

 

"The DC said that he had talked already." I didn't want to move closer toward the Table.

 

The man snapped a red cap down over his black hair as he walked past me, "There isn't any recording devices down here, except your writing pad. We don't have the facilities to store all the interro's we do. We'll make him talk, you ask the right questions. Don't know how long he'll last. I requested the DC for a computer specialist six days ago." The head technician said, dropping into a chair behind a large computer console. "Ready to begin."

 

There was an ominous sound as the interrogation Table powered up. The boy began to whimper. I swallowed down my nausea. "What's his name?"

 

"Alan Terrance. Disappeared from his home last year. Didn't you even read the prelim?"

 

"I'm Investigation and Compliance."

 

"A Boomer boy. Alan here was caught hacking into the State Bank sealed records. The Investigator traced back his connection to three relay points but that was it. We know that the signal originates in the fringe borders and the system is stronger than something this little shit can afford so he's got to be connected to some group. You're filled in.he isn't gonnea last much longer. Get what you can."

 

The Table was humming with power. Walking toward it was like walking in a swift moving current with blocks of cement on my feet. It gave off it*s own charge -- it*s own life. Feed me...feed me...Give me more...you*ll do little one... The hairs on my arms stood on end. There were a hundred other places I wanted to be but Siren's look of dispassionate disdain as she pressed the muzzle of the revolver against Rex's temple was something more soulless. Failure was not an option.

 

"Alan..."

 

 

"...stop..," The voice was young, cracking with the agony of his torture and with his hormonal change. I fixed my eyes away from his face to the Table... the Table. A wash of terror rose from the very depths of my feet...the Table. I could feel my heart beat pounding wildly, throbbing at my neck and temples. I swayed. My hands touched the cold metal. A cold burn seared my palms. I jumped away from it. The helpless terror of having hands locked into the solid metal cuffs above the head. The stinging cold in the small of the back. I DON*T WANNA BE HERE!

 

"Ready when you are."

 

I stared at the red coat. "You all right man?" A face appeared above the coat. The technician was looking at me. "Nothing to worry about man. It takes a while to get used to it down here."

 

I wiped at the sweat on my forehead. "No, I'm all right. Let's get on with it."

"Standing by." He returned to the console. I clenched my teeth together and swallowed hard. My hands curled into fists at my sides.

 

"Alan."

 

"....stop...make it stop..." The answer was a whimpering mewling.

 

I leaned into him, close so my voice didn't carry. "My name is Agent Harry Milton. I can make the pain go away. You just have to give me some information. What were you looking for?"

 

"I don't know...” He screamed and bucked as the table was kicked into life. The force of directed electric charge ripped through his body. The charge zinged past me, making my hands tingle. No..no...no....NNNNOOOOOO

 

"Stop it now!" I turned on the technician, "He's too far gone to take much more of this!

 

*We*re following procedure...when we get the indication of a lie he gets a shock. The request was made 6 days ago, Boomer. It ain*t our fault if you don*t get anything.*

 

The thing that once was a boy was bleeding from the ears, the flattened nose; something yellow and crusty almost held his eyes closed. He wasn*t going to last long. I leaned close; somehow keeping my horror out of my voice, *Give me a couple of names, some of your friends. They're probably worried about you. You got a girl worrying about you? What's her name?"

 

“.... I'm so thirsty...", his voice cracked.

 

"Water." I kept the shock off my face and my voice level.

 

"Not good for the Table." The answer came back through the loudspeaker.

*

“Have you got a girl?*

 

A whimper was my reply.

 

*Isn't there anyone you wanted to be your girlfriend?*

 

*...Tesa...*

 

I froze. "I used to know a Tesa, I used to be her partner when we were Troopers together, I whispered, *Maybe she told you about me.*

 

"Hal... you won't hurt her..."

 

My stomach clenched. Nobody ever called me Hal but her. She didn't*t die in that explosion... "Why would I want to hurt her, she hasn't done anything wrong. You were the one caught hacking into sealed files." I leaned closer pressing my lips close to his ear. The stench of his fear was hanging on him like a shroud, "They are going to keep torturing you until you die."

 

He began to whimper in earnest.

 

"Answer my questions and I'll make all the pain stop. I need your access codes."

 

"...no codes..."

 

"Password?" He nodded weakly, "What is it?"

 

 

He looked up at me with the eyes of an old man, "Tesa said to trust Hal -- Atlas."

 

Back in the days when I was on the mean inner streets as a Trooper, I had to learn the hard way to carry a concealed weapon after losing my needlebeamer in a gang attack. Bare hands and Trooper basic training wasn't enough to stop a crowd of baseball bat wielding maniacs. Six weeks in traction forced a lesson into me. Carry a concealed weapon. A thin metal spike was firmly strapped to a hidden forearm sheath. Twitching my wrist, it slid down to my palm.

 

"They can Re-Educate you, send you back to your parents."

 

"No, no...I*m Alan, be Alan...stop..."

 

"Close your eyes, Alan. I'll make sure they'll stop hurting you." I shoved the rod up his nose until the crack of breaking into his brain sent him into a spasm. Pulling back the rod, I hid it back in my forearm sheath. The stickiness of fluids coated my wrist. I swallowed hard and stepped back. "I think he's dead."

 

"Frag!" The technician jumped up from his console, "Oh, shit. I don't want to fill out all this paper work.*

 

"What happened?" I could now feel the beads of my fear soaking my shirt. The scent of death hung on me.

 

"He fraggin' died." The technician threw up his hands, "I'll have to file a report. Hey, where are you going?"

 

"I can't interrogate a prisoner if he's dead." The elevator was my only place of solitude. My hands were shaking so hard. Back in the inner city death came quickly to the unaware and the chosen marks and once I was used to it. Once I could have walked past a dismembered corpse and not have given it a second look because I was concerned with what the living did. But that was when I wore Trooper grey. The black of the IA made me a minor demon for the devil incarnate. For the past three years I had sent lawbreakers to the red room and the silver Table. I killed the person that I was and the IA created a new one in its place. I knew that was what happened but seeing it first hand was something else. My stomach roiled. I kept my emotions in check until I could deposit fresh vomit in the semi-privacy of the elevator.

 

 

I had access to every computer grid in the sector and my skills could get me into the few more that I didn't have clearance for, so there was no reason to stay at HQ. I drove out of my way and dumped my spike in a recycler. It would do me no good to keep it - the boy's genetic pattern would still be imbedded there if there were an autopsy.

 

I was numb. There had been flashes of pure terror when I touched the Table. No memories but sensations. I knew I had undergone Re-Ed as a kid but to have it start coming back now.... I drove toward my favourite store then headed back toward my lodgings.

 

The door slid back to my voiceprint and I stepped inside. The place was spotless. The bed was made, clothes were neatly folded away. I turned my aching neck and saw the dinner table set for two, candles ready to be lit. My stomach rolled again. The telcom was flashing - a recorded message was waiting for me. "Playback"

 

 

Rex's face glowed in the white light, "Milton.... Harry…babe, I don't know when you'll get back or if I'll be here when you do - I've been given a Priority One as well. I know I've been hurting you lately, and I'm sorry. I can't get the fine-tuning down right yet, but I promise to work on it. I don't intend to get rough with you but.... no, no more excuses.”

 

“I know you're thinking about someone else and it rips me up and I want to hurt you, because I know when I do, I have your full attention. But it's getting worse - if Siren didn't call, I would have raped you. I'm not proud of that, babe. You don't deserve that type of treatment from anyone - and you know that if anyone else did that to you, I'd kill them.”

 

“When we're back together, babe - just give me one week. If you don't want to be with me after that I'll let you go - no protests. Keep the home fires burning for me, babe. Be home soon."

 

I closed my eyes and saw the shock and pleading in the pale blue eyes as Siren pressed the muzzle to his temple. "Delete."

 

It didn't start out this horror show. Rex used to be human. Once you get to forty percent of your body replaced, you're considered a Mech. Rex used to write poetry - not that great, but he was interested in more than jamming his erection up my hole and pounded me into oblivion. And you couldn't fight him off. I had a standing weekly appointment with the Regenerists to repair was Rex tore asunder.

 

I headed for the kitchen and grabbed up a warm bottle of Smooth. I popped the cap and took a deep drink letting it bite at my throat all the way to my stomach. Another, eased its' way down. I walked to the bathroom and started stripping off my armour. Blood fletched my face and was still in my hair.

 

I stepped into the shower fully clothed and turned it on. Sobs ripped through me. I slipped down the wet tile to the floor, my bottle of Smooth tipping over and discolouring the water to a golden hue as it filtered down the drain. Clutching my knees, I rocked back and forth. My throat tight and my eyes weeping. I was not meant to do this. I was a TROOPER. I enforced the law. I didn't want to make it. I didn't want to be the executioner. Not any more. I was becoming an IA poster boy. I sat still in the shower, letting the warm water rain over me as I let six months of frustration seep out of me. Frag...my face hurt.... nobody in the red room was going to touch me again...nobody.

 

The telcom was ringing when I had gathered enough of my psyche back together to stagger out of the bathroom.

 

"Answer," my voice was still raw. Tesa Anderson's face filled the screen. Her brown tresses hung in one long braid over her right shoulder. The sun had kissed her skin a deeper hue of brown and she looked even more muscular than when I was partnered with her. She looked so * alive.

 

"Hal, you look like hell. What have you been doing?"

 

"I'm going to clear this channel...” I reached for the end button.

 

"No! I*m calling about a friend of mine."

 

"Alan*s dead." I stared directly at her image. She looked so familiar but it was her eyes though...it was her eyes that gave her away. She was not the Tesa Anderson I had known. She was now a whole person. Before, her blue eyes were flat and cold - only on an assignment when danger was upon us, did her eyes sparkle like topaz jewels in the natural sunlight. But now, even as she stared at the bruises and the wet uniform, they sparkled with emotion. She was even more beautiful than I remembered.

 

"They killed him?"

 

"I did."

 

Tesa's face saddened, "Thank you. Hal."

 

Anger rushed through me, "What are you thanking me for?"

 

"You did what you had to do. Do we have operatives in danger?"

 

"I*m assigned to hunt you and I will, Tesa. This is what I am now. Don't contact me any more." I reached to sever the connection.

 

 

"If that is what you want, Hal. I can see IA is ripping you apart but you're going to stay loyal to them. You are one sorry sonofabitch. The offer still stands, * Tesa held up a thin disk, the medical markings were smudged but the name was clear...Harry Milton. *When you're ready, come to the Fringes. We can make you whole again. We can give back what they stole. Good-bye, Hal."

 

I flipped the com-vid off and stared at the darkened screen aware I was dancing a thin line. Something was going to break...I just didn't want it to be me. She had gotten her memories back. No more than that. Her personality. Trooper Anderson would have kicked my ass for getting hammered on duty. She would never have looked at me with such.... pity. I took a sleeper then lay out on the bed still in my wet uniform. I just didn't have the energy to pull it off me.

 

My dreams were disjointed and frightening. It was as if I were locked behind a glass cage and forced to watch a stranger in my face as he sat hunched in front of a telcom punching in keystrokes designed to take mess with the emergency response in section 8. His face was a glow with life as the dim blue screen shone in the darkness. I pounded futility on the glass. "Get out of there! Run! They're coming for you!" My younger self didn't notice, didn't*t care. I was invincible then. I didn't*t know about the Red Room or the Table. I was a god. Shapes formed themselves out of the blackness around the telcom screen. My hands ached from slamming into the unbreakable glass. The boy was ripped out of his chair and carried into the darkness. Then a red room - red people - the icy shock of cold steel on my naked lower back then pain like I have never known. My throat getting raw from screaming.... screaming...screaming

 

My voice was loud in the darkened room. Sweat clung to me, my uniform was clammy against my skin, fear filtered into my nostrils. I could hear my heartbeat pounding hard in my chest, the blood pulsing through my veins. I was coming apart. The almost empty bottle of Smooth was still in the shower. I stripped naked and took another shower, scrubbing hard on my skin. The golden liquid called to me as I carried it back into the room but I needed to do other things first.

 

I cleaned off the table, packed up Rex's private belongings and dropped them into the incinerator. IA would reclaim the uniforms and explosives gear - and I only need to wait for that to be cleared out. A pack of his smoke sticks laid on his night table. I flicked the end with my finger and let the self-starter flare to life then drew on it deeply. The smoke filled my lungs...I coughed and gagged but drew on it again. It seemed a familiar ritual. I set the bottle back in the kitchen, dressed in a clean uniform and set to work.

 

I opened my links to the State computer. "Access code name Atlas."

 

{Denied.}

 

"Clarify."

 

{Restricted access: Priority RED clearance only.}

 

"This is codename Hacker, scan and identify."

 

{Identity confirmed.}

 

"What is my clearance.”?

 

{RED.}

 

"Access code name Atlas."

 

{Denied.... call be being re-routed...}

 

I tried to cut the channel but Siren's face flickered to life, "You are requesting a restricted file, Hacker. Explain yourself."

 

"This is the only code I got from terrorist before he died."

 

 

Shark eyes regarded me for a moment, "This is a dead file."

 

"There might be something there that will lead me to the faction."

 

"Hear me, Agent Hacker, Atlas is a restricted file, priority alpha red security. Any attempts to retrieve it, will be met with stern reprimand."

 

"Retirement?"

 

"Definitely. I suggest you follow another lead, Harry." My heart stopped beating at the sound of my name.

 

"The subject died on the table. This is all I got." My voice sounded even and controlled as I answered.

 

"Then schedule a full autopsy, you'll be able to get environmental trace elements from his hair and skin. Retrieve his cipher and run it through diagnostics. And Harry, you will be at my address." number and letters ripped across the screen..."at 1800 hours. I see that you didn't*t get to the medics yet; you seem to like a bit of pain in your life. I am glad to see that our sexual tastes are compatible. I am having something delivered to your address. Wear it and don't be late. I punish for tardiness." The screen blacked out as she severed the connection.

 

My headache just intensified Frag....

 

I scheduled the autopsy and ordered the check on the cipher then went about my normal on-line patrol. Minor break-ins on the system. I gathered the ciphers and the evidence then wired it to the appropriate Trooper stations. A knock sounded at my door. The courier blanched when I opened it, his eyes affixed to the silver death head skulls on my collar. I pressed my thumb to the plate and took the package. Inside were black leather straps and metal rings. The only thing I could identify was a spiked dog collar. Frag... I went to the kitchen and grabbed the bottle of Smooth then waited for the call to come back from HQ about the cipher data.

 

I was well tanked when the data began to swim across my screen...minor file names - a few passwords that lead to blind alleys and then that name again Atlas. And again, and again. I flipped the screen closed, leaning back into my chair. Access from this terminal was denied. There was a possibility that Alan lied but with the cipher repeatedly showing access to that file, it couldn't be. Siren had to know about it otherwise why would a simple inquiry end up in her office. Any attempts on my part to access those files would be immediate termination of linkup, I needed a scrambler, I would have to bounce it off a couple of satellites, and around the different grids, which should give me enough time to download the file. I needed an unlicensed site. It was time to visit my old stomping ground.