Extract from The Smoke in Death's Eye ©

Prologue – London – 2118 AD

I was close to him but despite the poor lighting I could see him very clearly. My TacScreen feed was fed to me by my built in AI, Artificial Neurological Analyser, ANA for short, to a chip resting against the back of my retinas. The TacScreen glowing pale green had the effect of being projected in front of my vision showed that he was much bigger than me. At least 6 foot tall, but sickly looking somehow. He was wearing retro style jeans and a fake denim jacket cut off at the arms with no t-shirt showing off the body art on his torso of a skull and cross bones which glowed fluorescent green. He had on jump boots fashionably unfastened with his jeans tucked at the front of his boots. His name was Demetrez, a young buck of mixed race. His dyed blonde hair was cut in a Mohican long at the back. He had pale grey eyes which I assume he wasn't born with.

"ANA", I subvocalised, "show me his add-ons". "Sure thing Lobinho" she caressed my old nick name with her soft girl like voice, her accent a sexy Portuguese which only I could hear. Ana streamed a list of enhancements both legal and illegal that he had done to himself. The quality of some of them left a lot to be desired obviously acquired from street docs in the black markets rather than the more expensive and better ones available from the cutting edge clinics in Chinatown. As I reviewed the list, I could see that I would need to overwhelm him physically very quickly before he has time to alert his brethren via the net. Ana showed me his neural pain limiters and standard built in firewalls, no surprises there. I activated my own little surprise, attack nanites designed to infiltrate his mal-ware and released them. They would work their way down to him. I had about an hour before I needed to make my move.

I was crouched on one of the balconies on the 23rd floor of the old No.1 Croydon building overlooking the spinner landing pads. He was about 3 storeys down from me and looking away from me. He must have sensed something because he started fidgeting and looking around him. I knew he couldn't possibly see me as I was dressed in my standard black jumpsuit, the opaque material, it's changing dark colours blending in perfectly with the urban landscape and able to withstand a field plasma rifle blast. My footwear were military grade jump boots. I also had on a heavier coat made of the same material but cut into a retro style Mac. I was carrying my blaster and an anachronistic 8 inches of Sheffield steel. He must have sensed something though probably because I was staring at him too much. That can happen, a sixth sense maybe, so I concentrated on unlocking my gaze and when I returned to him he looked less jumpy.

As I waited, I accessed the same cams that he was hooked into. I could see for quite a distance through those vistas. The multitude of people from a multitude of places all here in the Smoke. The buildings had grown into Arcologies since the mid part of the 21st century with it the number and types of ubiquitous CCTV. I looked up to catch a glimpse of the moon but I was surrounded by the buildings. I sighed inwardly and switched over to the Luna Vista views, a series of web cams dedicated to following the progress of Luna City. I could see the giant "G" logo glowing on the surface of the moon, a testament to the power of Google.

"Lobinho, the TacNanites are almost ready" Ana whispered to my consciousness. I sighed again and ran through a quick system check. It was 4am and my target would be at his lowest ebb. His trade had died off and he was probably looking to quit for the night. He had a place in the same building I was standing on but on the 5th floor which meant that it was under water. I had already prepared a place for our little chat also on the same floor. The water and age of the building making it more secure by reducing the possibilities of being overheard. This whole building was mostly derelict now and ideal for what was about to happen.

I made my way down the stairs, I wanted to be in place before he made his own way there. As I went I reached into my satchel and released my own network of 'sect cams along the route. They looked like little black spiders but with inbuilt audio and day/night CCTV sensors all controlled by Ana and fed to my built in chip at the back on my retina.

I waited in the doorway opposite the corridor leading to his suite, the low light conditions making it ideal for me to remain unnoticed. My plan depended on both tactical and strategic surprise. I was on the floor, pretending to sleep in the doorway. Most people relax when they are on their way home, that plus the time of night meant that I would be able to take him unawares.

I checked my cams and he was on his way, I waited, the seconds stretching out in front of me, each one an infinity of time, my mouth was dry and the adrenaline was beginning to pump its way into my system. I directed my gaze at the ground, my cams keeping me informed of his progress. I could hear him opening the door from the emergency stairs that led onto this level. His footsteps were echoing towards me.

An old pop song was going through my head, a remake of La Roux's "In For The Kill" as he passed me and turned into his corridor. I launched myself at him, my mind curiously blank now. Some instinct or small noise making him turn, his lips snarling. My initial blow aimed behind his right ear missing and striking his temple instead. His right hand blurring away from his body as he drew his gun but the blow had made him stumble. I stepped inside his guard and gripped his gun hand in my left hand while my right hand sliced towards his collarbone, the sound as it snapped loud, his gun dropping from his nerveless fingers. As the blood left his face, I followed through by hooking my right hand round the back of his neck and launched my left knee into his right ribs while pulling on his neck. I sidestepped as he fell forwards and gave him a phoenix hammer punch to his left ear as he fell, out cold.

The fight had taken 30 seconds from start to finish and although I felt an urgency to pull him out of the corridor before someone chanced to come down here, I took a moment to catch my breath. Well, I thought to myself, he isn't going to drag himself, as I bent down and picking up his feet, I pulled him over to the room prepared earlier.

The room was a 20 by 30 foot room, virtually stripped bare of almost all furnishings. The walls were a dirty pale brown with damp spots on the outer wall. There were no outer windows and I expected this room to have been an inner office before the floods and its abandonment.

I studied him as he regained consciousness, he was in a plasteel chair, his head taped to the pillar behind him, his legs and wrist also taped to the chair. His skin was goose pumped with cold as he started to struggle, his breath visible in the cold air of the unheated room. His eyes, widened in fear went to the table where I had all his clothes and property. He licked his dry lips and asked, “Who are you? Why am I here?”. I didn’t reply but began to go through his clothes, pocket by pocket, piling the contents on the table. I then carefully searched the inner lining of each garment, throwing them on the floor as I finished with each one.

Having finished, I turned my attention to Demetrez and activated my link to my TacNanites in his body, “ANA”, I subvocalised, “is he ready?”, “Si Lobinho, he has already tried to access the net but we have blocked that but it will take about 5 minutes to break through his firewall. I am also keeping his pain levels down so he has no idea his pain inhibiters are offline”. As she responded, ANA feed me his autonomous responses and interpreted them for me in a simple truth or lie overlay on his body. His emotional state of mind would be clear to me.

I spoke then, “I need to ask you a few questions, if you cooperate no harm will come to you.” He spat at the floor and replied, “me no talk to pigs!”. I wasn’t sure if he was referring to the police or to the Professional Investigators Guild or PIGs for short. Either way it made no difference to me as I was here in neither capacity. It was interesting though that he spoke normal English when he first spoke but now he was speaking in street gutter speech. He probably had never even been to the Caribbean but he thought it made him sound hard. Of course, I knew the street slang, I had to know it to get about.

The overlay indicated that while he was outwardly hostile he was actually experiencing fear and confusion. I continued, “What’s your name?” According to his file, his name was Demetrez Brown but his brethren called him “Dem”. “You know, I’m disappointed in you Dem.” I went on conversationally, “I actually thought you would be harder to take down”. His eyes widened as he realised that I knew who he was. He was shivering by this time from the cold. ANA broke in, “Lobinho, I have broken through and am downloading all his files. Some of them are encrypted though so we are going to need the encryption codes.” “OK” I replied, “Let all his pain come through now.”