Just Another Day

Bryan Schuder

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.

A voice radios in from a distance source and methodically drones. “I want this to be done by the book. You are to enter into the city, remain inconspicuous, reach the designated target areas, conduct yours tasks, and leave. I do not want any incidents and the second there is ANY suspicion that you have been compromised, I want you on your way out. Do I make myself clear? In the last operation, there were several violations of our standards of practice and-“

A young man remarks on the verbal onslaught. “Wow... She just goes on and on.”

An older man sighs with a low grumble and punctuates with a sarcastic edge. “I apologize. She’s trying to indirectly punish me for getting into trouble last time.”

Three figures occupy an uncovered boulder in the field. The young man stretches out and eagerly readies himself. A young woman sits on an edge of the boulder, gazing up into the clouds. And a man wearing some form of garment head to toe lays prone on the boulder and acts out his boredom by flicking debris into a drainage pool nearby.

The woman turns her head and glances at the heavily clothed, prone figure. “Hey, Madison?”

Madison perks his head up and tilts his head towards the woman. “Yah?”

The young woman draws her legs up, rests her chin on her knees, and wraps her arms around her green, camouflage patterned cargo pants. “Didn’t you write most of the standards and practices she keeps on talking about?”

Madison rocks his head side to side while digging into the dirt below the boulder with a stick. “Well… Goodlettsville was the one really responsible for writing all that stuff down. I, mostly, was really just a beta tester of sorts.“

He rolls over, belly up to the sky, and tenses a moment as a gust of wind picks up. His scarf, fedora hat, and trench coat ruffle about at the mercy of the wind. He struggles to keep everything from coming undone. The young man stops stretching to watch Madison squirm about and secure the bits his of clothing. He smugly allows his own black, worn looking jean vest to move as free as the wind wills. “Why the hell are you always so covered up like that? It’s almost summer and you look like my dad before he’s about to shovel snow.”

Madison gets his wardrobe under control and relaxes as the gust dies down. “I’m guessing you want something more than “don’t want anyone to see me”, correct?”

The young man and woman look at each other, turn to Madison, and nod in unison. The young man cracks wry grin. “That’d be nice.”

The young woman turns her head and focuses her attention at Madison. “I’ve been curious about that, too.”

Madison takes a breath in. “Fine. I’ll explain, but first-”

He pauses with his hand up and then drops it back down. “Sudo is about halfway done with her speech. So, be ready for the key words “So in summary” in about five minutes.”

The other two sigh and nod, reluctantly. Madison starts his explanation. “With nanomods and biomods, the easy part is getting the intended enhancement. The hard part is always cosmetics. It’s still true today, but doesn’t hold a candle to how it was a few years back. To make a long story short, you start to not care about cosmetics when you need the edge a mod gives you bad enough.”

The young woman scratches her short, bright red hair and twists her mouth. “So, you, um- modded yourself, uh...“

Her face contorts in a vain effort to find a less direct, less sharp wording for her thoughts. Madison turns his head to face her overtly embarrassed expression and nervous pantomimes. “I modded myself ugly. Is that what you were trying to say, Firefly?”

Most facial expressions usually don’t make their way through the dark blue scarf, tinted goggles, and brown fedora hat that Madison wears. But, this grin manages to surface with the assistance of a chuckle. “Don’t worry about it. I was born before the Internet and grew up with it before everyone with money, power, and a cause got around to neutering it. I welcome the day I get offended by an insult again.”

The young man stands near the other two with his hands tucked into his jean pants’ pockets. His voice develops a sarcastic tone. “Oh no, he’s going into old fart mode. Gonna tell us the days of the World Wild Web and when there was actually more content on web pages than ads,”

The group shares a laugh. Madison gestures with his hands while gazing into the sky. “No, really, Hal. There were actually web pages WITHOUT ADS!”

Hal shifts his faux surprise between the other two with a playful mocking tone. “OOOoooo!”

Madison pulls himself up to a seat, points at both of them, and swings his gaze between them. “Websites didn’t have to pay preference fees to ISP’s!”

Firefly sarcastically gasps. “Shocking!”

Madison traces a box outline in the air before the other two to further emphasize his point. “And get this! You had to use a big, bulky external screen to see anything on the computer!”

“…So in summary…”

The group pauses the antics and listens to their leader’s remote broadcast.

“I want you to perform to the best of your abilities and follow everything by the book! This should be a routine operation, but be on your guard. We never know what the corps will come up with next to combat us. Understood?”

Hal faux salutes while rolling his eyes. “Yes, ma’am.”

Firefly straightens up her posture a moment and meekly speaks. “Yes, Ms. Sudo.”

Madison shrugs. “Um, ditto?”

The commanding voice of Sudo sighs over the feed to the group. “Ditto?”

Madison rocks his head to a side and an eyebrow manages to perk over his goggles. “Yah. Ditto. Means-“

“I know what it means. Never mind. Just get going.”

The three stand up and ready themselves. Madison brushes off the dirt from his clothing. Firefly slips on her knick-knack decorated satchel over a strap of her black tank top. Hal quickly fixes up his blonde, trimmed hair with a comb from his vest pocket. Madison jumps down from the boulder, purposely splashing his boots in a puddle near the boulder. He looks forward and sighs while drooping his shoulders. “Dammit! It’s just too nice a day to crawl into that cesspool of a city.”

Rundown, dirty, and busy are only a few of the words to describe Harrisonburg. The city so poor and lacking, that it can’t afford the outer perimeter walls that most corporate city-states typically construct. While not an overt example of any one descriptive term, Harrisonburg makes up for by having many terms be applicable. Most of them negative.

Hal scans the immediate area as he walks down the sidewalk. “Damn, this place is a hell hole.”

Madison steps ahead of the other two and continues along the sidewalk. He shrugs with dismissive hand gestures. “Oh, I’m sure it has its good qualities.”

Firefly pinches her nose while covering her mouth. “If you completely ignore the smell of garbage and whatever else that is. Ungh. Why are we here again?”

Madison glances over to Firefly and makes sure to relate the mutual disappointment with a slight of drop head while hanging his shoulders. “To do our job?”

Firefly rolls her eyes and cautiously breathes in. “No. Why this particular town? There are network access terminals in practically every major town in the area. Why are we going to this particular city?”

Madison glances back to Firefly and Hal. He raises a finger into the air quickly and tints his voice with that of an educational show host. “Aha! I can answer that one. You see Harrisonburg is backwater burg that no corporation sees any interest in investing in. This works to our advantage. Since the corporations don’t seem to care about the town...“

Madison pivots quickly into a backpedal and points his finger at Hal.

Hal blinks briefly and shrugs. “Um… The town doesn’t care about the corps?”

Madison returns to a forward pace and prominently waggles his finger. “EXACTLY! We can take full advantage of this mutual apathy and conduct a number of our activities with a very hefty F.U.B.-”

Firefly raises her hand. Madison glances back to Firefly, spins around, and points at her. “Yes?”

Firefly lowers her hand and curiously asks. “What’s an F.U.B.?”

Madison directs his head back forward and plainly states. “Fuck Up Buffer.”

Firefly takes a moment to think, holding a finger in front of her mouth. She perks up and replies with interest. “Oh! Okay. Is that same as an M.O.E.?”

Madison lifts his head back and rotates it slightly to Firefly. “A what?”

Hal rolls of his eyes and presents the answer. “Margin of Error.”

Madison drops his head, shakes it briefly, and looks back up. “Did Sudo come up with that one?”

Firefly and Hal both begrudgingly moan. “Yes.”

Madison continues to shake his head. “I swear by the time she’s done with all these acronyms I’ll need to install a decoder matrix into my NES core to translate everything she writes or says.”

He switches back to the original subject and faces towards both Hal and Firefly. “Anyways, the nice thing about these forsaken burgs is that they still have multiple network access points to all the common public, government, and private networks. They also have relatively recent hardware to interface with. But, what’s even better is what a burg like this doesn’t have.”

He backpedals while moving in front of Hal and Firefly, and takes a moment to side step through a path in between all the sidewalk garbage. “Question to the both of you. What don’t they have?”

Hal quirks his brow and looks to Madison. “City wide surveillance systems that work?”

Madison holds a hand each up towards Hal and Firefly. He lifts a finger on the hand in front of Hal. “One point for Hal.”

Firefly snaps her fingers as her mind digs for an answer. “Um, people acting as corp watchdogs.”

Madison flips up a finger on his hand in front of Firefly. “Ding! Firefly is on the board.”

Hal thinks a bit. “Hmm…”

Firefly perks up and energetically answers. “AH! Updated and security patched systems and any central authority on network traffic.”

Madison nods his head in agreement, lifts up two more fingers on the hand in front of Firefly. “Nice! Two for one special for Firefly.”

Hal dons a wry smirk and snorts confidently. “Cops that are effective AND actually care.”

Madison nods and two more finger raise up on the hand near Hal. “That one I’m counting for two. “

Firefly flares a displeased glare at Madison. “What?! That’s not fair! That’s one thing!”

Madison opens his hands up and shifts them in front of Firefly for a moment. “It’s two things. You can have cops that are effective but don’t care, and you can have cops that are ineffective but try really hard. You’ll learn to respect the first group and laugh at the second in time. Speaking of time…”

Hal stares up for a moment at the dingy street signs of the intersection. “I think this is where we split up.”

Madison pauses a moment and then nods. “Correct. Okay. We break, and y’all get to your targets. When you get to your target hop onto the local radionet comm server and join the channel “XXX Live Teen Chat ” with the passphrase “big bazongas”.”

Disgust rushes onto Firefly’s face and she barely manages to mumble out. “Oh god, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

Hal scratches his head and looks at Madison a bit puzzled. “There will be like a hundred or so of those! How do we tell which one is yours?”

Madison leans his head to a side and holds up his hand with three fingers up. “There’ll be three control characters at the end of the name for mine. They won’t map out to any letters, but you’ll see them if you check the name carefully.”

Firefly grabs her face with her hand and groans with the overflow of disgust. “Can we name it ANYTHING else?”

Madison crosses his arms and lifts his head up high. “Nope. Me leader, you follow. Anyways, as Hal stated there will be close to a hundred of those channels with similar names. It’s a good way to hide out in the noise and chatter. And, if certain people are not paying attention, they’ll miss our channel completely for another one without those control characters stuck on the end.”

Firefly rolls her eyes and shakes her head looking at Madison. “You must think you’re so slick, don’t you?”

Madison puffs up his chest and strikes a pose. “What? Are you jealous of my esteemed abilities at subterfuge?”

The group reaches the intersection. Firefly breaks off of the group continues walking towards her destination, shaking her head and mumbling to herself the whole time. Hal shrugs and goes in the opposite direction. “Catch you in a few, Mad.”

Madison alternates a glance between the two. He eventually puts his hands in his pockets and hangs his head low with a pout tinging his voice. “Man, no appreciation for honest skill.”

Madison approaches his target. In the old, abandoned housing project resides an old public network terminal. Not an intact window remains in any of the nearby buildings. Judging by the garbage and decay, not a single city service knows this places even exists.

Madison examines the terminal and scratches his head after he finishes a pass. “Woof. This thing looks ROUGH.”

The terminal roughly resembles an old public telephone, but lacks the durability. The screen surprisingly functions despite the dirt and scratches coating it entirely. Most of the keyboard buttons remain and even have visible letters. Despite the odds, the cigarette butts don’t fill the interface slot. Overall, this is a serviceable terminal.

Madison reaches with his gloved hand into his other coat sleeve to retrieve a plug and cable. The plug seems a rough mate to the interface port and the cable attaches to something inside Madison’s coat sleeve. With a quick change of hands and a swift motion, the plug mates with the interface port.

Madison rocks his head side to side and hovers his free hand near the terminal. “What do we have here? Ah! An old UniTerm 2600. Such a reliable and rugged model. And fortunately, very exploitable.”

Madison stares ahead at the wall as his attentions drift elsewhere. He places his hands on either side of the terminal and drums his fingers. “Okay, let’s see what it’s going to take to crack this one. This one? Nope. Hmm, this one? Miss. Maybe this one? Strike three. Okay, maybe it actually has gotten a few patches and updates. Figures I’d get the one they bothered taking care of. Let’s try a curveball. Ah. This looks promising. Getting there… Getting closer... Hasn’t rejected me yet- HA! And the doors are opened.”

Madison slowly swings his arms out from the terminal with the bravado of magician finishing a trick. Madison sighs slightly as shoulders droop. “Time for the boring part...”

The familiar voice of Firefly voice echoes in Madison’s head. “I’m in, finally. I can’t believe how many channels are named like this one.”

A confident, risking arrogant, tone tinges Madison’s voice. “Heh, I told you it would be a good cover.”

A long sigh stretches into silence. “Please. I’m not agreeing with you. Just because something works, doesn’t mean it’s the best idea ever.”

Madison’s voice downshifts from confidence to a plainer tone. “Okay, fine. No appreciation of skill, today. Anyway, you got your D-List ready?”

Firefly chirps in. “Yes.”

Madison quizzes Firefly. “How much do you know about D-Lists?”

Firefly’s voice hints with embarrassment. “Uhm. Nothing.”

Madison dons a reassuring tone and instructs. “Don’t worry. They’re pretty straight forward. I’ll start off with the basics. D-Lists are Death Lists. They’re a collection of lists about the recently deceased and whatever accounts they had.”

Firefly curiously asks. “All of their accounts?”

With a nonchalant tone, Madison continues. “Nah. Just any that are either publicly seen or could house anything strictly personal. Most corps and companies have their own procedures about cleaning up the dead accounts of employees. The only accounts that get released are usually those with personal storage and communications. Stuff that most relatives and family members might want or need to know about.”

Firefly puzzles. “So, why are we looking through all of them?”

With a prominent flair to his voice, Madison answers with enthusiasm. “Ah! That’s because you never know what some people will take home with them. The D-lists we got are from someone we’ve got on the inside of the government. These haven’t been released to the families and other interested parties yet. So, we get to take a look at them before the corps and others get a chance to clean them up.”

Bits of surprise rise out of Firefly. “They can do that?”

Madison confirms with a strict matter-of-fact tone. “Oh, yah. Those employment contracts are pretty strict about this stuff. You die on their payroll and they can tear through just about anything you had access to. But, most of the people, usually, are pretty clean. So, we only have lists of people that have a high chance of having something interesting.”

Firefly takes a breath in and ponders out loud. “So, we just look at the lists, try the accounts, and look through everything?”

A heavy tinge of sarcasm finds its way into Madison’s voice. “Yep. Loads of fun.”

Firefly continues with a slight bit more confidence hinting. “Okay. So, what do I do if I find something?”

Madison hems and hums briefly. “Well, depends. If it’s something minor, just dump it to your nanite enhancement system’s storage matrix and keep on looking.”

Firefly inquires further. “What if it’s not so minor? Do I still dump it to my NES?”

Madison replies strongly. “Oh yes! But, with one key difference...”

Firefly’s voice wavers from the trailing of Madison’s last statement. “Which is?”

A very stern tone dominates Madison’s voice. “You tell us what you got and get the hell outta Dodge.”

A few moments pass before Firefly musters up any volume. “Just up and leave?”

Madison seriously instructs with a sharp, deep contrast to the last few minutes. “YES. You give us the heads up, go silent, make it to safe distance outside town, radio for an immediate pick up, and hide until you are told to come out.”

Idle silence hangs in the air. Firefly eventually manages to mutter. “Whoa...”

They share another long, serious pause. Madison breaks the silence with a far more uplifting tint. “It’s pretty serious stuff when you stumble upon something big. But, if you follow the procedures, the cops and corps will be too busy trying to get your trail to know you’ve given them the slip.”

Only silence comes from Firefly’s side. A curious tone comes from Madison. “Firefly?”

Firefly eventually breaks out of the spell and reacts. “Y-yes?”

A dramatic breath from Madison precedes. “Got a serious question for you that I’ve wanted to ask.”

Firefly musters some courage despite the recent conversation. “Okay. Um, ask.”

Madison takes another dramatic breath and releases it. “Okay. Here it goes.”

A slight pause tenses up the moment, before Madison continues. “Does the carpet match the drapes?”

A long pause follows the question, which confuses Firefly. “What?!”

The familiar voice of Hal barges into the channel. “So? Do they?”

Madison musters all the dramatic and epic voice acting he can bring forth. “Come on Firefly! Hal and I HAVE to know. We’re deadlocked in debate! It’s UP TO YOU to settle this issue once and for all. And. Well. There’s a twenty in limbo depending on what you say.”

Firefly sputters to sheer indignation. “Wha- Tha- Oh my, God! You guys are PERVERTS!”

Maintaining the voice act, Madison continues. “Perverts?! We’re just inquiring minds. We just want to know what your real hair color is, since we’re guessing it’s the reason behind your handle. Firefly.”

The mixture of disgust and annoyance spill forth audibly. “Ungh... THEN why didn’t you JUST ASK what my real color is?”

Hal chimes in. “I think he did.”

Madison agrees plainly. “I think I did, too.”

Firefly sternly bellows out. “I AM NOT continuing this conversation! I’ll talk to you later, WHEN your minds are OUT OF THE GUTTER!”

Hal only laughs. “That will be awhile.”

Madison chuckles. “Aww. She assumes we can leave the gutter.”

Silence with background ire resonates from Firefly’s end. Madison resumes a less amused tone. “Alright, get to work, Hal. We’ll have to leave this debate unsettled for now.”

Hal groans. “Dammit! I thought I would be eating good tonight on Mad’s dollar.”

The city continues as normal, even for a backwater burg. People move about, vehicles drive on the streets and a few hover in the air within the designated channels. Police sirens echo through the alleys and breezeways with a common frequency. Three individuals break the norm as they hold a vigil at their respective network terminals. Boredom befriends each one.

Firefly sits on top a stack of old pallets, a padding of forgotten newspapers beneath her. Her back rests against the dirty red brick wall on one side of the alley. She stares distantly into a glowing visor on her head. Various charts, windows of text, images, and other figures flicker by as she sighs, rolling her eyes. The only break from routine comes from moments of rotating an old puzzle cube’s sections in her hands.

Elsewhere on the other side of the city, Hal performs martial art workout routines in a desolate subway station. Yellowed, dim lights grant some visibility around the station. A device resting on an abused network terminal challenges the dim lights. The backlight of the small flat screen casts a much brighter and whiter hue to the area. The decay and disrepair of the station reveals itself more in this light. Hal uses any all debris and garbage as practice dummies for his routine with delight. Despite the complexity of the routine, Hal maintains a distant gaze ahead as his focus rests elsewhere.

Madison pulls a large crate frame towards other bits of junk that are part of his construction project. He places the final piece of the odd puzzle to form a rough junk-constructed couch. Madison throws on another layer of discarded cardboard before he lays on top of the heap. After some tossing and turning, he stops upon a comfortable spot and gazes to the clouds. The nearby network terminal’s lights blink and screen rolls with fast streams of text. From the terminal, a cable drapes across the breezeway floor, and up a coat sleeve. Madison stares strictly to the clouds above.

Firefly moans over the channel, dragging out the vowels. “I’m so bored!”

Annoyance floods Hal’s voice. “I KNOW! There’s only so much practicing I can stand to do in one day,”

Across a sub-channel a stream of data flows synchronous with Madison’s voice. “I think this one looks like a duck. Anyone else?”

Hal shudders his head. “Come on, Mad! You know I hate image streams when I’m practicing. Hmm, wow. That actually does look like a duck.”

Firefly glances up and searches through the gap between the buildings making up the alley. “I see it, too. Cool.”

Hal grumbles and he searches the subway station. “Next time, someone else can get stuffed underground. Apart from the stuff I can kick around down here, it sucks! It’s so dark and nasty down here. Rats don’t even want to be here. I’ve seen three claw out of here and not one has come back down.”

Madison slowly shakes his head side to side. “Okay. I’ll take the next underground terminal target. Can’t enjoy cloud watching with you whining every five minutes.”

A disgusted groan echoes from Firefly. “I think I’ve developed a whole new level of hate for FacePage, MyPlace, and Chitter. I don’t know why these people had accounts to those things. They had NOTHING to say.”

Hal snorts and chuckles to himself. “If you think that’s bad, have you SEEN some of these guys’ grandchildren? People have some ugly kids.”

Madison sighs and drones. “Word to the wise, you two can just skip FacePage, MyPlace, and Chitter accounts. Usually, there isn’t anything interesting that the data diggers haven’t already found. Your best bet is to search through e-mail and any personal storage.”

Firefly puzzles with a quizzical tone. “Are you sure about that, Madison? I remember Ms. Sudo telling me to check every account.”

With a dismissive snort, Madison continues. “Unless they only have one of those accounts and nothing else, don’t bother. Most of the time, you’ll only find some racy messages between mistresses or some dealings with another corp. Great stuff for blackmail. If they weren’t dead.”

Hal posits out loud. “Can’t you just blackmail the families?”

A sharp gasp precedes Firefly’s admonishment. “HAL! That’s pretty low, even for us.”

Hal emits with a dismissing grumble. “Fly, these are corporates. They set the standard for low.”

Madison sighs. “Points for being a manipulative bastard, but blackmailing family usually doesn’t do much. Most corp families don’t have access to anything we’re interested in and it’s just crappy PR all around. Also, you start blackmailing enough and you’ll put yourself on the short shit list of every corp real quick.”

Hal hems in eventual agreement. “Yah, you got a point there, Mad.”

Firefly misses no opportunity to berate. “Plus, it’s still a pretty mean and low thing to do someone’s family… after they’re dead.”

Hal sparks up with frustration. “Christ, Fly. I get it.”

Firefly flares up in response. “No, YOU DON’T.“

Hal doubles his response. “Yes, I DO!”

Madison interrupts with his best disciplinary classroom teacher tone overpowering the channel. “Now, now, you two. Keep focused. The sooner you are done with your lists the sooner we can go home.”

After a brief silence, Hal and Firefly reply together. "Okay.”

A few minutes of silence pass as everyone goes about their tasks. Madison receives a private channel request from Hal. Madison stirs, now distracted from cloud gazing, and accepts the invitation. “What’s up?”

Hal queries Madison through their interface. “Dude. Mad, you got a psych profile or something on this guy?”

Madison rolls his head slightly to either side. “Nah. Why?”

Hal lightly laughs, lacking comfort. “This dude was SICK in the head.”

This draws Madison’s intrigue and he replies after a few moments. “Okay. What kind of sick? Mental or Physical?”

Hal’s voice develops some honest disgust. “Mental, man. This guy had some WEIRD porn stashed away.”

Madison breaths and sighs dismissively long. “Weird porn? Is that all?”

Hal stresses his tone in an effort to relate. “Not weird, but WEIRD.”

Madison groans and drones. “Okay. Hal, you need to understand... Weird lost its meaning to me when cybernetics and biomodification came into style a while back. I was around before the Internet. I was around for the start every bad Internet shock fad. And, I’ve seen some sick and weird stuff in my days. You are going to have to be a bit more EXPLICIT.”

Hal grimaces and winces. “I’ll send you a picture then.”

Madison nods as he returns his focus to the clouds ahead. “That will work.”

Hal warily responds. “Okay, here it is.”

Madison casually replies. “Let’s see how weir-“

A distinctly involuntary series of twitches, spasms, and shakes momentary shock through Madison’s body, almost stunning him off his makeshift couch. He stabilizes himself by grabbing the sides of the makeshift couch. Hal calls out to Madison. “Mad, you there?”

A few noises of retreating disgust come through the channel and Madison eventually regains composure to continue. “Whoa! That’s been awhile. Wow. Really should have sampled a thumbnail of that first. That was a little too much full size. Ewww... I think I almost tasted horror there.”

Hal nods tightly lipped. “See. Weird, huh?”

Madison shakes his head side to side and shudders as the last bit of terror escapes his body. He resettles upon the makeshift couch. “By the definition of. Ungh, that’s enough to make me get religion.”

Hal chuckles with a bit snark for good measure. “Heh. You want the rest of them?”

Madison immediately responds with a happy tone. “Sure!”

It takes a few seconds for Hal to exactly process that response. “WHAT?!”

A sinister light casts itself upon Madison’s speech. “Change the file type over to something other than an image, tar them up, and do a simple encrypt on them.”

Hal prepares the files for the process, but can’t fight back his curiosity. “Okay, why?”

An evil, menacing laugh follows. A foreboding silence falls upon the channel, only broken by Madison. “I’m going to give Firefly a test.”

Another stretch of silence comes over the shared channel between Madison and Hal. No one sends a word, but thought shares itself somehow. Hal grins deviously. “You’re a sick man, Mad. A sick, brilliant man. I’m sending the package over now.”

A final few low laughs come through the channel from Madison. “Got it. Let us see how it goes.”

Madison voice comes over the shared channel. “Hey, Firefly?”

Firefly blinks and looks up from the puzzle cube. “Yes, Madison?”

Madison nonchalantly stretches out his arms. “Could you take a look at this encrypted file for me? I’m backlogged with all the stuff I’m churning through and won’t be able to get to this one for awhile.”

Firefly eagerly nods and sorts through various windows on her visor. “Sure! It’d be a good reason to try out the decryption module I installed.”

Madison squirms and struggles as he maintains his tone. “Sending it over.”

Firefly starts to work on the file. Various tools and utilities flicker on her display visor. “Okay, looks like a pretty simple encryption. Shouldn’t take long to brute force and guess the key. Let’s see how well this new module works.”

A few more windows and menus open and close while a new window stays open. It replaces the others and presents a progress bar that quickly slides across the window. “Wow! This new decryption module is FAST, Madison.”

Madison sarcastically muses with faux bravado splashing from voice. “See, I got skills. I’m just SO underappreciated in this organization.“

Firefly rolls her eyes with a smile and humors Madison. “Hey! Everyone in the whole group knows you’re the reason we have some of the best biomods and nanomods out there. Well, despite Holmes and Com acting like they made them.“

Madison returns to a genuine voice. “Holmes and Com deserve credit. They make sure everything is nice, safe, and compatible.”

Hal joins the conversation with joking vibe. “Mad, you crafters act like your stuff can blow people up or something.”

An eerie dramatic pause replaces the expected assuring reply from Madison. A reserved tone comes from Madison. “Has anyone ever told you why everyone calls Pyro, Pyro?”

Firefly interrupts. “File decrypted! Looks like a tarball package. Quick untar and it’s a bunch of files. Hmm. Weird. They aren’t opening correctly. I bet they changed the type encoding to something else. Yes, they did. Images? Let’s open a few.”

Simultaneously, Madison and Hal quiet themselves and direct every spare bit of focus to listen carefully on this one moment.

Silence.

Firefly’s skin tone is pale, normally. But at this moment, her face drains to a paler color as the horrid imagery fills her display visor. She stares unable to avert her eyes. She watches the pictures appear in the same manner as someone witnessing a train wreck or a child wandering in on their parents at night. Her hands take hold of her visor and slowly remove it from her head. A few blinks and she finally nods her head down to look at her visor. She dangles the device in front of her by a hand, as if holding a small dead rodent by the tail. Disgust, disgrace, and horror fight for the rights to express themselves upon her face.

Madison careful calls out. “Uh, Firefly? You there still?”

Hal cautiously speaks. “Fly, what’s going on?”

A scream of sheer girlish disgust echoes around Firefly’s area and quickly blends in with the rest of the city noises. An equally jarring transmission of the scream blasts both Madison and Hal off guard. Firefly shudders and fits about. Madison and Hal mute their broadcasts and bust out in hysterical laughter. Hal drops to the ground cackling and Madison rolls off his makeshift junk couch onto the alley street.

Firefly stammers as she recovers enough to speak again. “T-T-that was- I- Some people are- Oh god...”

Madison tries to keep an honest tone and fend off the urges to continue laughing. “What’s wrong? Is there something bad on those images?”

Hesitation briefly strangles Firefly. “Y-Y-you could say that.”

With a calm and collected tone, Madison queries onward. “Could you describe it to us?”

Hal gasps for breath and continues laughing for another spell outside the reception of the channel. Firefly grits her teeth and blinks really hard. “I w-would r-rather not...”

Madison continues the vocal facade. “Is it illegal, dirty, or wrong?”

Firefly’s meek voice comes over the channel. “All of them.”

Madison spills concern in his voice. “Well, do you think it’s important enough to keep a copy of?”

A shudder rattles Firefly’s voice. “I h-h-hope not.”

Madison takes a slow breath in and exhales. “Well, go ahead and delete all of them then.“

Firefly picks her visor back up and slowly places it on her head, while trying to avoid direct eye contact with the material in question. “Gladly. Some people are very sick.”

A laughter choked voice blasts back onto the channel. “Yah, they’re sick alright. Now the question is who’s sicker? The people who watch it or do it?”

Madison cringes to himself as his neck muscles tense to one side and his fingers curl in strain. He mutters off channel. “SHIT! YOU FOOL!”

Firefly ponders a bit and answers. “I don’t know the-

Madison averts his head to the side and waits. Firefly halts, her eyes-widen, and she launches out through the channel. “HOLD UP! You- Oh. My. God. YOU KNOW WHAT’S ON THESE PICTURES!”

Hal attempts to keep his composure but klutzes. “Uh. Um. Ah, Shit.”

Firefly’s furiously pissed-off voice unleashes itself and blasts away any hints of meekness. “Hal, you BASTARD! How could you and… MADISON.”

Madison dredges up the most innocent voice he can muster and attempts to dodge responsibility in vain. “Yes?”

Firefly erupts her rage through the channel. “HOW COULD YOU TO SEND ME THIS SHEER, UTTER FILTH?! Of all the miserable, rotten, and unwholesome things you could do... THIS?! When we get out of here, I’m going to-”

For the next few minutes, an angry, indignant woman’s voice berates Hal and Madison. Neither dares to disconnect or mute the litany of curses for them, their friends, and their respective bloodlines. Work continues despite moments punctuated by grimaces and cringes as Firefly lashes out. The channel remains silent for minutes before one of the two men gain enough courage to speak.

Madison braves the silence with the most subdued and non-threatening tone. “Feel better, now?”

A loud sigh of relief comes from Firefly. “Yes. I do.”

Madison breathes a tad bit more easily. “That’s good. So, what are your demands?”

Firefly tilts her head to a side and quirks an eye brow. “My what?”

A slow release of breath and Madison reiterates. “Demands. What are they?”

Curiosity continues from Firefly. “I don’t get what you are talking about.”

Madison sighs to an explanatory drone. “You see, I have to make this right to you. Right enough that you are NOT going to mention it to Sudo. If she hears about this, I’m up the creek without a paddle. She’ll suspend me from missions for a month and ride my ass on every nitpicking task she’s got. And she’s got A LOT of them. Most doing code commenting… for other people’s code. Ungh.”

Firefly grows manipulative grin and she chimes in with a scheming approval. “Oh! Ooo!”

Hal breaks into the conversation and grumbles with a grimace. “And since he’s trying, I’m not on Sudo’s good list right now and she doesn’t really need to hear anything else bad about me and-“

Madison interrupts with an indignant twist. “Dude, Hal. I don’t think you can work bulk discounts on this kind of thing. Anyway, I started the negations. Go buy your own-“

Hal shoots a determined offer. “Two weeks of your cleaning duty!”

Madison mutters and attempts to recover. “Oh, you claim jumping son of a bitch. Fine. Three weeks-”

Hal fires back a counter offer over Madison to Firefly. “A month!”

Madison grumbles and snorts. “What! Oh. Hell. No. I’m not going to be-“

He interrupts himself as his full, undivided attention focuses on an account. Madison’s voice crashes to a drastic deadpan seriousness. “This can’t be.”

An odd silence comes from Madison’s end. Firefly worriedly calls out. “What’s wrong, Madison?”

Madison’s deadpan seriousness turns fast to jarring, flat commands. “Bug out. NOW!”

Hal speaks with a wavering tone. “Mad, what’s wrong?!”

Madison commands without a break. “Hal. Firefly. Disconnect. Forget the lists today. Get out of the city and call for pick up.”

Both Hal and Firefly gather their respective belongs, remaining connected.

Hal calls out sternly. “Mad, what the hell?! Give us something!”

A nervous Firefly stammers. “T-This doesn’t sound good. Are we okay?“

Madison sighs as his network terminal lights up a feverish pace of activity. “I’m sorry for scaring ya’ll. You two will be just fine. I found something big. Real big. The kind of real big that draws far more attention than what we normally like to deal with. A number of people are trying to get into this account as we speak. The worst part is…”

Madison sits up on his makeshift couch and puts his face in his hands. “They can’t have what’s in here.”

Hal halts and stands up in shock. Firefly shakes her head and squints her eyes. “But, Ms. Sudo said we can’t delete anything! We can’t modify anything or we’ll get noticed.”

Hal’s gaze drifts aimlessly around the subway station. “Mad, the fuck did you find?”

Madison rubs the temples of his head and strains an exhale with dread. “Something no one should have on the outside. I’ll explain it all later. All you need to know now, is it’s hot. Hot enough that when it goes missing and they trace the connection down to this burg, there will be enough corporate enforcers crawling around to field a few football teams. You guys will have plenty of time to get out. I have to stay here until I grab every bit of this, remove it, drop some decoys, and do a little tracing of my own.”

Hal tucks the last device into his jacket. “Is there anything we can do, Mad?”

Firefly reaches out a hand to find her satchel. “I don’t think we should leave you by yourself like this.”

A comforting laugh comes from Madison. “I appreciate the offer, guys. But, knowing you two are out of the harm’s way will do more for me than you know. “

Hal nods before he signs off. “Okay, Mad. Shout out if you need any help.”

Hal closes the connection to the channel and promptly undoes the rigging to the network terminal. After checking the items in his vest pockets and a quick few flicks of the comb to his hair, he nonchalantly walks up the entry stairs of the old subway station. Few quick glances near the exit and he strolls out into the city. He blends back into the normal pedestrian traffic and moves towards the nearest city exit.

A nervous Firefly tries to offer some help. “Listen, we can help you out. I mean, I don’t know how exactly, but I pretty sure we can do something! I just- I don’t know what to do.”

Madison calmly talks to Firefly with a relaxing tone. “Ah, don’t worry. Just leave as we all came in. I just don’t ya’ll around when those enforcers start shaking down anyone that has anything more advanced than a toaster on them.”

Firefly takes a long deep breath in and sighs. “Okay. Well. Be careful. Okay?”

Madison puts on his most comforting voice. “I’ll be fine. Now, get going, please.”

Firefly logs out of the channel, takes her visor off, and places it in her satchel. The puzzle cube makes its way into the bag, too. She unplugs the devices in her satchel from the network terminal and sets everything back to the way she found it. She throws the satchel over the same shoulder as before and takes a few moments to scan the area. A quick pivot, she jogs off towards a main street to blend in.

Madison grumbles. He faces the annoying and risky task ahead of him. The network terminal goes into overdrive. Various lights flicker. The debug output on the screen streams faster than the screen can output. Madison glares at the terminal. “Why are you here? Why do you exist, now? Why won’t the past stay that?”

Madison props his back against the brick wall of the building as he ponders and gazes up at the sky. “It’s too nice of a day.”

Madison works on the task, still, despite the hours gone by. Momentary breaks of paranoia interrupt his cloud watching. Network activity increases by the minute and the activity shows more “interesting” patterns. Throughout the city, neglected networking monitor devices spring to life as a new force commands them. But this is not the only new presence on this network. Many interested parties meticulously continue to investigate accesses to THE account. The same interested parties take a FAR greater interest in the one successful connection. Madison commands a flurry of activity. He redirects network probes, fakes scan results, and spoofs as much garbage data as possible. Initial queries by interested parties shift to aggressive attacks. But, enough network nodes turn against their original programming to thwart their efforts. Distant to Harrisburg, corporate enforcers board vehicles and set off to their destination. A few agents now wander the streets with a strict purpose in mind. The interested parties may not know an exact location, but they know where to look. Tools of the corporate enforcement trade activate and churn out their products: Forged warrants, questionable permits of investigation, and false notices for capture. All soon to hit the local authorities. Sizable bribes to officials will encourage the local police, but also give corps the blessing to do what they like in the town for a while. Things will get interesting.

Madison finishes the task. The last bit of data downloads. The fake files upload into the places of the originals. Backup copies corrupt throughout the system by some mechanism unknown. And, Madison’s network trail obscures into the roiling digital chaos. The moment of truth arrives. Madison stands near the terminal with a firm grip around the cable from inside his sleeve to the interface port of the terminal. A quick snap, the plug whips from the port, and the terminal resets. Tense moments pass and the terminal reboots to a nominal screen. “HA! Awesome! It’ll be awhile before they get anything useful out of you-”

A very light, high pitched whirring noise comes from the machine and interrupts the celebration. Madison eyes the terminal curiously and closely. “What the hell is that noise-“

A bright flash lights up the area near the terminal and towards Madison. He halts his celebration and scans the terminal far more closely. “Sneaky bastards.”

He slaps his hand on his forehead and pulls it down to palm his face. He grumbles at the late discovery. “Of course! A goddamn hidden camera on a separate network link from the machine. Always forget to check that shit!”

Madison runs his hand along the brim of his hat, pulls at his scarf, and adjusts his goggles. “Dammit. I really liked this hat, too. Damn you machine! Did you have to take a full picture of it all?!”

He grumbles as he walks away from the network terminal. “Fuckin’ every automated facial recognition system in the city…”

He detects radio traffic flood onto local frequencies and an all too familiar presence of corporate enforcers. Thankfully, either arrogance or disregard keeps them from running their modifications and other systems stealthily. Madison blends into the crowds of the city, keeps his head scanning the area, and moves in the direction of the main city exit.

The enforcers tend to shake down and rough up anyone they think as modded enough to be responsible. Data flows in from the airwaves and reveals that a presence of every major corporation is in town. Madison witnesses a few fights and scuffles between corps from the safety of alleyways and moving masses of people. When he can’t move, he waits for them to move. He slinks through back alleys, walks down unused subway tunnels, and hides in some dumpsters to escape latest the search areas. While not completely safe, he affords himself to be a little bold when walking across the street. Eventually, he uses the sidewalks more than the alleys.

To his luck, Madison stands in the decaying courtyard between a number of dilapidated apartment complexes. A number of corporate teams patrol the surrounding the area at moment. Seeing no obvious way to continue, he bides his time and leans up against a wall. He gazes up into the blue, cloudy sky. “Not much further. Just have to wait until-“

A police radio transmission comes from a nearby source and a police cruiser drives into the area. Madison snaps his head at the cruiser and quickly searches for a place to hide. He spots an opening between two garbage bins and slumps into it. The cruiser stops in the middle of the courtyard and both front doors open. A two officers step out, close the doors, and check the area out.

The female officer from the passenger door asks the other officer flatly. “Why are we looking here, ma’am?”.

The other woman officer glances over. “Whoever the corps are looking for isn’t going to walk the streets right now. These places are good spots to hide out in.”

Madison peeks around the garbage bins and catches a glance at the officers. One is a woman and other is a female synth. The orange and yellow markings on the synth’s face identify her unmistakably. Both wear local police uniforms with hair tied up and hidden under their helmets. They presently seem to be searching for anyone of suspicious nature. Madison examines them and senses significant nanomods within the young woman but a minimum for the synth. Since synth are engineered creatures with enhanced strength, endurance, sense, and focus, they typically don’t need serious nanomods or biomods. Most only ever have communications and control mods, so the owner can keep track and control. Madison stares at the synth for a moment too long and she points towards his direction. Madison ducks back between the two garbage cans.

The synth narrows her golden pupil eyes, points, and quietly but flatly mentions this discovery to her partner. “Someone is over there, ma’am.”

The woman officer whispers, unbuttons the clasp on her pistol holster, and keeps a watch over the location. “Okay, follow me.”

The two walk quietly towards the garbage bins Madison hides between. He feels them get closer and searches his mind for options. He checks the area around him for an escape route, but finds nothing useful. He mumbles to himself. “Time for another bit of clever subterfuge.“

He pulls a few nearby discarded beer bottles closer around him, relaxes his body, splays his legs apart, and slumps himself onto the side of a garbage bin. He looks around and sees a tin of old, smelly “water”. He dumps the majority of it out near him and wafts the tin around before dropping it. The smell sealed away inside the tin spreads without the layer of water to trap it. For the final touches, Madison loosely holds onto a beer bottle, sprinkles the stale old beer bit over his body dumping the remainder into his crotch, ruffles up his clothes, and drops his head.

An incoherent mumble from between the garbage bins causes the two officers to hold their positions. The female synth and woman glance at each other and gaze at the source of the mumbling. Both carefully approach and move around the bins. Their serious expressions and tense body language release to a mix of disappointment and disgust. The female synth’s brow raises and upper lip snarls free from her very firm deadpan expression. She covers her mouth and nose with a brief wince. The other woman tries to wave the stench away in vain and takes a step back. Both take their hands off their pistols and redo the clasps.

The woman still tries to wave the stench away. “Good God. Smells like a brewery caught fire.”

Through a stiff upper lip, the synth speaks. “It does, indeed, have a horrific smell, ma’am.”

The female synth turns her head away in an effort to maintain her stoic composure for a little longer. Madison belches loud, ending with a slight gargle, and readjusts the crotch of his pants. The two officers look at each other. The woman officer asks the looming question. “Do you want handle this?”

Heavy hints of reservation creep into the deadpan tone of the synth. “I would rather not, ma’am. As I handled the last few and believe it is your turn.”

The woman shakes her head and rolls her eyes. “Fine. My turn to handle the drunk.”

The woman stands in front of Madison and tries her best to maintain a “commanding presence” despite the overwhelming urge to leave the drunk in his stupor. “Sir? I’m Officer Violet of the Harrisonburg Police. Are you okay?”

Madison mumbles, exaggerating the slurs. “…urgh… ...you want me to put it where? Heh. Alright…”

Officer Violet takes in a cautious breath and speaks louder. “Sir? Wake up, sir.”

Madison rocks side to side with his head hanging at his shoulders. “Who’s there?”

Office Violet sighs and shakes her head. “Officer Violet of the Harrisonburg Police.”

Madison sloshes his words around, mixes up the inflection, and stumbles about his speech. “Harrisonburg?! Aww, fuck. How the hell did I get here?”

A humored smirk cracks out from the corner of Officer Violet’s mouth. “Long night?”

Taking an exaggerated breath, Madison grumbles with enough coherence to barely make his words intelligible. “Long night something… Oh my head. Need my medicine, again.”

He lifts up the empty beer bottle, sways while he turns it upside down, and shakes the last few drops out of it. “Looks like I’m outta my medicine.”

Officer Violet crosses her arms and holds her head in her hand. “Sir, do you have an ID on you?”

The “drunk” in question fumbles around his pockets. “HEY! Somebody stole my wallet… AND somebody pissed on my pants!”

Officer Violet drops her stare and promptly rolls her eyes. The synth officer musters her best look of disapproval and directs it at the “drunk”. Officer Violet continues. “Sir, is there anywhere you can go? It’s not a good time to be out right now. Do you know anyone in this town?”

The synth officer pulls out a handheld device and taps out a few commands on the touch screen. She points the device at the “drunk”. A few moments later an inconclusive result appears on the screen. “Nothing, ma’am. No local ID, no mods, or anything of significance. No record of any kind.”

Officer Violet shakes her head and returns her stare at the mess between the two garbage bins. “Probably just another drifter.”

Madison blurts out with stumbling vernacular. “Hey, I know someone here. Yah! Rusty! R-rusty… “

Officer Violet gradually lifts single eyebrow from her stare. “Rusty who?”

Madison’s head sways around. “Um, Rusty. Rusty. Rusty…”

Madison feigns drifting off as his attention switches for a few seconds elsewhere. He soon returns to the situation at hand. “…Rusty Shackleford.”

Officer Violet’s stare morphs into disbelief. “Rusty Shackleford? You must be drunk-”

The synth interrupts and shows the handheld device to Officer Violet. Both glance at each and then reread the information on the device together. Neither actually want to believe the result on the screen and confirm with each other that the results actually exist.

Officer Violet asks with uncertainly creeping into her tone. “What’s your name, sir?”

Madison slops the sentence before the officers. “Um… Dale. Dale Gribble, officer.”

The two officers want to disregard the information on the device, but Officer Violet shrugs it off. The synth doesn’t seem convinced and keeps on running search after search on the device to retrieve consistent results.

Officer Violet sighs and looks at the slumped mess of a man before her. “Would you like to go home, sir?”

Madison nods long and aimlessly. “That would be nice, officer.”

Officer Violet pats the shoulder of her fellow female synth officer. “Okay, pick him up.”

The synth, deep in her futile searches on the device, startles at the pat on her shoulder. “What, ma’am?”

Officer Violet grins smugly. “I talked to him. You can help him up.”

A grimace, a glance, and a muted sigh are all the synth can manage before accepting her task. She puts up the device and walks over to Madison. She stops in front of Madison and tightens her gloves. Swiftly without any signs of strain, she pulls up Madison promptly by his collar.

The sudden increase in altitude grants Madison little time to comment. “Whoa! Easy now! Damn! Somebody has been eating their Wheaties.”

Officer Violet chuckles to herself, as her less-than-amused partner directs the stumbling “drunk” to the back of the cruiser. The synth shows no qualms about exerting her strength to keep Madison going in the exact direction she wants him to. Her slightly smaller, but athletic build greatly contrasts the larger and bulker Madison.

Madison makes an overt gawk at the synth’s backside. “Boy, you sure are strong. What kind of workout you do? Hmm. Must be them Pilates or something to keep them ass and legs in such nice shape.”

The synth pauses as embarrassment flushes on her face. She recovers and tosses Madison in a less-than-careful manner into the back of the car. The back door of the cruiser’s slams shut with little margin for error. With a humored smile, Officer Violet makes an attempt to lighten the situation. “Come on, Marigold. Even from a drunk, that’s still a compliment.”

Marigold regains her composure and turns to Officer Violet while going around to the passenger side of the cruiser. “Compliments of that nature, I can do without, ma’am.”

Officer Violet crosses her arms on top of the roof the squad car. “Come on. You liked it. I saw it. No need to be ashamed.”

Marigold promptly gets in the car and closes the door without another word. Officer rolls her eyes and holds her hands up. “Fine. I’ll drop it.”

Officer Violet gets into the car and the group drives off.

Officer Violet glances into the rear view mirror. “Okay. Season 1 or Season 2?”

Madison tilts his head side to side in the back seat of the squad car, trying to make a decision. “Don’t make me choose.”

Officer Violet checks both directions of traffic before making a left turn at the intersection. After the turn she resumes the debate. “You have to have a favorite between the two seasons. Everyone does!”

Madison pleads his case, holding both hands up like platforms of a scale. “Season one had innovation and that fresh new show feel, but season two had a great dynamics and was nice enough to try to end the series properly. It’s not fair to choose between them.”

Officer Violet grins amused. “Well, fair enough I guess.”

She casually points a finger back at Madison. “And season three never happened.”

Madison nods. “INDEED! May that abomination never see the light of day ever again.”

Marigold breaks from her tasks on the cruiser’s onboard computer. “What is the point of this discussion, ma’am?”

Madison pivots his head towards Marigold. “She speaks!”

Officer Violet snickers. “Yes. She can talk. Not much of a conversationalist.”

Marigold eyes Officer Violet with a deadpan expression firmly upon her face. “I’m not much for pointless conversations, ma’am.”

Madison tilts his head to the side. “So, did they put the stick up your ass for you or did you do it all by yourself?”

Silence is the only response from Marigold. Office Violet playfully mock scolds Marigold. “Come on. Don’t be that way.”

Silence again. Madison turns his head to face the rear view mirror and gestures his head towards Marigold. “She doesn’t laugh much does she?”

Officer Violet glances up into the rear view mirror. “No. I’ve tried everything to do so. It’s just the way synths are. Poor guys. Engineered for all business and no fun.”

Marigold dryly retorts. “There isn’t a problem with that, ma’am.”

Madison scratches his head a few times and notices the surroundings outside the cruiser. He stops for brief moment and eyes Marigold. “Tried everything?”

He clears his throat and takes a deep breath in. “Two guys walk into a bar; the third one ducks. A butcher backed up into his grinder and got a little behind in his work. I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger; then it hit me. Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off; He’s all right now. There was a sign on the lawn at the drug rehab center that said “Keep off the Grass”. I used to have a fear of hurdles; then I got over it-”

A constant rapid fire barrage of puns, double entendres, and other one-liners fill the space of the inside the cruiser. Officer Violet opens her mouth and starts to speak. Then she catches a strange sight out of the corner of her eye. Marigold tries to maintain her stoic demeanor, but momentary breaches make their way to the surface. A pause in thought, a twitch there, and a convulsion that almost becomes a laugh. Marigold blinks blankly and genuinely puzzles at these new mannerisms. Officer Violet balances between driving the police cruiser and watching Marigold. A very content “drunk” grins prominently underneath his scarf with a sense of accomplishment about him. “Tried everything?”

Between Madison’s faux drunken discussions, questions, and odd compliments the rest of the car ride entertains Officer Violet and mostly annoys Marigold. The vehicle stops at a traffic light a mere few blocks away from Madison’s “destination”. Marigold notices a new message icon on the cruiser’s computer screen. “Ma'am, the head office has gotten hold of a picture of the person the corporate agents are looking for.”

Madison startles from cloud watching and looks to the front of the vehicle. “What?”

Officer Violet pulls over to the side of the street, puts the car into park, and cranes her head over near the screen of the cruiser’s computer. “Really? Bring it up. I wonder who they’re running the witch hunt for.”

The two officers scrutinize the image on the computer’s screen. Madison sits up in the back and examines the screen through the gap between the front seats, aiming his vision in between the small openings in the cab’s fence divider in front of him. The picture appears. Officer Violet and Marigold glance at each other. Officer Violet’s eyes widen. “Um, Marigold, is that?”

Marigold replies instantly with honest hint of surprise. “Yes, ma'am.”

Madison finally breaks the ruse, drops the drunken act, and speaks with a normal, clear voice neither officer has heard before. “I am SO not photogenic.”

An awkward silence looms in the car. Neither officer makes a move. Each glances over to see if the other has clue how to handle this. Madison slides over to the passenger’s side door and opens it effortlessly. “Well, I can see I’ve overstayed my welcome. I’d like to thank you lovely ladies for the ride, but I must be off.”

Officer Violet reflexively grabs hold of her seatbelt buckle. “How the fuc- GET HIM!”

Marigold slams her weigh against the door while pulling the handle. She rebounds back and realizes her door is locked. “Ma’am?!”

Officer Violet tries her door in vain. Both officers spin around in their seats, slide open access ports in the cab fencing, and try the back doors without any luck.

Officer Violet looks at Marigold in shock. “How the hell did he get out?”

Marigolds blinks and shakes her head. “I don’t know, ma’am!”

Madison taps on the passenger’s side window and points at the car. “The operating system has a really nasty glitch that allows administrative access if you know the right exploit. You’ll be here for about 15 minutes. Don’t worry! I put some games on the computer for ya’ll.”

The Officer Violet and Marigold stare dumbfounded from the inside the vehicle as Madison almost skips away. Both hear a muted hearty manic laugh from outside the vehicle. Officer Violet grabs hold of the wheel, reaches for the gear shift, and shifts it back into drive. The pedal slams against the floorboard with muffled thump as both officers prepare for the pursuit. The car doesn’t move. Officer Violet examines her dash in disbelief. “He- The car- OH YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME!”

Marigold taps commands and reaches for various reset and power switches. A few moments later she turns to her partner. “I can’t get the vehicle back under control! Everything is locked out, ma’am!”

Officer Violet slams her fists on the steering wheel. “Dammit! The windows are bullet proof and I know for a fact the doors are too tough to break loose without tools. There’s got to be a way out.”

She looks at the windshield and cracks a devious grin. “That’s right! They only glue windshields in place. Marigold!”

She rotates back down her seat, braces herself, and plants both feet firmly against the windshield. Marigold takes heed and follows suit.

Officer Violet nods to Marigold. “Between you and me, I think we can knock this thing loose. Ready?”

Marigold nods back with a confident grin. “On three, ma’am.”

Madison hums a happy tune as he strolls down the street. He gazes down the way and sees the familiar large exit gates of Harrisburg, only a kilometer or so away. His happy tune wavers as thoughts of Sudo’s reaction to the event of today fill his mind. The thought process slows to a halt as strange thumps sound out from the police vehicle behind him. An eyebrow perks over his goggles as the noise continues. He turns around to see the police vehicle’s windshield launch off the frame and slide to a halt in the middle of an intersection. Madison cocks his head to the side. “Huh, clever girls.”

Officer Violet and Marigold crawl out of the vehicle and stand the on hood of the car. In mere moments, they both spot Madison.

Madison rears his head back. “Oh. Shit.”

He glances repeatedly behind him as they maintain their focus on him. He pivots in place and launches into a full run down a nearby alley. Officer Violet tears into into a powered sprint from the hood of the police cruiser. “Marigold! You radio for help. I’m going after him!”

Marigold confirms with a proper attitude. “Yes, ma’am!”

She scans the skyline and nearby area. After a few moments, she pulls out her hand held computer. She puzzles at the display as it shows a small cartoon version of Madison waving a scolding finger at her. It waves goodbye and the device powers down. Attempts to turn the device back on yield no fruit with the same animations showing before it powers back down. She returns the handheld computer to its carrier and groans, scratching the short orange and yellow hair on her head. A man walking along the sidewalk pauses and takes notice of the synth standing on the hood of a police cruiser. Marigold glances at the man. “Where is the nearest network terminal, sir?”

The man lifts his hand and points to a direction with neutral, confused expression. Marigold hops down from the hood of the cruiser and starts walking that direction. “Thank you, sir.”

The man shrugs to himself and continues on with his day.

Madison blazes through garbage filled back alleys, ill-kept breezeways, and grungy gaps between buildings. He runs at a remarkable, inhuman pace, zigzagging and diving down every odd passage and route. Officer Violet keeps sight of him. She not only keeps up but gains ground by the second. Each straight away presents opportunities for odd banter between both of them.

Officer Violet yells out as her feet pound the pavement. “You’re only making it harder on yourself by running!”

Madison lifts his head back and shouts. “Cliché!”

Officer Violet takes a breath in and screams. “Stop or I’ll shoot!”

Madison snaps his head back. “Another cliché! And you couldn’t hit me anyway!”

Officer Violet narrows her eyes with a very determined, toothy grin. “Wanna bet!”

The comment returns Madison’s head forward with a bit of unease leaking into his body language. He shudders and growls in frustration as a familiar voice rattles over the radio.

A voice erupts from a private, encoded channel directly to Madison. “MADISON! What is going on?!”

Madison’s head follows the roll of his eyes behind the goggles. “Can’t talk now, Sudo! Little busy!”

Sudo’s stern and aggravated voice continues with a berating, accusatory tone. “Busy? I’ve got both Hal and Firefly telling me you told them to ditch you. Firefly is almost sick, she’s so nervous. You better explain yourself right-“

Madison rolls his head around in frustration and finally shouts with arms flailing dramatically in the air. “I’M BEING CHASED BY THE FUZZ! Is THAT explanation enough for you?!”

Officer Violet replies with a shout. “Damn right you are!”

Madison glances with annoyance and points back at Officer Violet. “I’m not talking to you!”

Sudo’s voice now shows more concern. “Okay, Madison!”

Madison takes a deep breath in and attempts to calmly speak. “Yes?”

Sudo continues. “There should be a subway station around that area. The tunnels lead outside the city, if you can get there-“

Madison interrupts. “Good plan, one problem!”

He shifts his focus to Officer Violet behind him. “I’m getting chased by the ONE OFFICER THAT TOOK THE GODDAMN SPEED ENHANCEMENT PACKAGE OVER THE ARMOR PACKAGE WHEN SHE SIGNED ON! The hell is wrong with you?! This town is a hellhole of corporate battlegrounds and you decide to run faster rather than being able to take a bullet?!”

He glares and waits for an explanation from Officer Violet. She yells back. “You don’t get shot when you move this fast!”

Madison mulls over the statement and almost shrugs as he returns to attentions forward. “Fair enough!”

Only a few meters now separate Officer Violet and Madison. A devious grin grows on her face as the distance shrinks fast between them. Madison takes a sharp right down and alley, just as the grin disappears abruptly from Officer Violet’s face. Madison rounds another corner leaving the alley behind him and slows down to a stop. He stares back behind him and waits, curious. “Sudo?”

Sudo’s responds with an equal, but different bit of curiosity. “Yes?”

Madison walks towards the past alleyway with his hands on his sides, breathing a bit heavily. “I think lost the officer.”

Relief paints Sudo’s voice. “That’s great! Get back to base, now!”

Madison traces back his steps and cautiously moves towards the last spot he remembers seeing the officer. “But, I shouldn’t have lost her. She should have caught me. Something is not right here.”

Sudo’s spits out. “Who cares Madison?! Get out of there!”

He rounds the last corner and sighs. “Nope. This doesn’t make sense. I’m going to check this out. I’ll talk to you later.”

There’s a long pause before Sudo yells through the channel. “WHAT?! Do not close this channe-“

Madison cuts the channel and scans ahead. Officer Violet lays flat on the ground, stares up to the blue, clouded sky, and struggles to breathe. With shock and confusion on her face, her attempts to figure out what is wrong meet with constant failure. Panicked gasps escape her mouth. “Can’t breathe… can’t… breathe…”

Madison stands over her and stares down intensely at her. “Hmm.”

Officer Violet twists her head to see Madison staring at her. She traces his gaze down to her chest. His odd stare only serves to put her into more discomfort over not breathing correctly. She barely manages to stare back with a very indignant look. “What. Are. You. Staring. At?”

Madison continues looking at her chest. “Your lungs. Something isn’t working right.”

Officer Violet contorts her face and throws her head back. “I. Know.”

Madison shakes his head and cocks side to side. “Damn. Looks like those corp coders didn’t care to test this update before releasing it. I guess you gotta make that deadline and worry about the body count later.”

Officer Violet lifts her head up to face Madison in a bid for clarification. “What?”

Madison kneels down to her side and explains. “The manufacturer automatically updated your lung nanomod. Unfortunately, they didn’t do enough QA on this release.”

She cringes and squirms on the dirty pavement of the breezeway. She kicks dirt and slams her fist on the ground out of frustration. She coughs and feels liquid come out of her mouth. She touches her lips and brings her fingers in view. “Blood?”

Madison rears his head back in surprise at this. “Okay, no time to explain. Hold on.”

He unceremoniously grabs each side of Officer Violet’s ribcage firmly. She shoots him a weak murderous glare. Madison quirks his brow over his goggles. “Hold on. I mean it.”

Officer Violet’s body arches sharply as every muscle tenses throughout herself. She weakly reaches and claws out to strangle Madison. “What. Are. You. Doing?!”

With smug voice, Madison tilts his head to a side and faces her. “Saving your life. You’re welcome.”

Officer Violet convulses again. Muscles suddenly relax and she lays limp on the ground. Madison gazes at her with a calming tone. “I just reset your Nano Enhancement System. Or NES, as the old schoolers like to say.”

She remains still, but her bright green eyes focus on Madison. She snarls and shows her teeth. Madison shakes his head while he keeps his hands on her sides. He continues narrating his actions while his focus seems elsewhere. “Don’t worry this is only temporary. Gotta catch the system when it’s trying to boot up. There we go. Add a little code here. A little code there. Let the rest of the startup continue.”

Officer Violet regains some ability to move, which she uses to try to assault Madison. But, the attacks have no power without any of her strength. Madison hums and keeps his attentions to machinations inside his own head. “Out with old crap, in with something that will work right. And, you should be able to breathe... Now!”

Officer Violet vacuums in air for first breath and rapidly breathes again. She restores much needed oxygen to her body and calms down. She opens her mouth to say something. Madison interrupts her. “Hold that thought.”

As unceremoniously as before, another involuntary spasm causes her body arch. She drops flat on the ground again and Madison releases his hold on her. She lays on the ground breathing normally, but still recovering from the trauma. She spends the next minute slowly regaining control and gathering strength.

Madison leans over into her view and the smugness leaks through the covered face. “So, was it good for you?”

She follows his stare and notices his face still aims at her chest. She grits her teeth, balls up her fist. With an upheld palm of the hand, Madison halts her mid motion. “Wait a second. Making sure everything is working. Okay, go ahead.“

He drops the hand back down. A loud thump echoes out into the alley as Madison’s head rotates to one shoulder as Officer Violet’s fist travels across Madison’s face. She retracts her hand and shakes it in pain. “OWW! What are you made of? I’ve punched softer brick walls!”

Madison rubs the side of his face and moves his jaw around under his scarf. “A bunch of harder stuff.”

A minute passes and an odd silence hangs between the two in the dirty alley way. Officer Violet finally asks. “What just happened to me?”

Madison tilts his head to a shoulder. “Short or long version?”

Officer Violet sits up and crosses her legs into a seat. “Short.”

Madison shrugs. “I saved your life.”

She narrows her eyes at Madison. “A little longer than that.”

Madison settles into a seat on the ground around her, a little distance away. With a deep breath, he recounts. “I reset your nano enhancement system in order to allow me to introduce code into the system, which allowed me to directly access the firmware operating your lung nanomod. This, then, allowed me to dump that garbage and put something in there that works a whole lot better. Preferably, something won’t do crazy stuff, like try to break down your lung tissue. Then, I reset the system again. Sorry, about that part. I have to do it or everything won’t load up correctly.”

Officier Violet brushes off the bits of debris in her brown hair. She ponders in thought and rocks her head back and forth. After a few minutes, she turns toward Madison. “You. Hacked. Me?”

Madison nods to the concise answer. “That about sums it up.”

She seems a bit lost in finding understanding. “That means- You did stuff. To my-“

Madison nods again slowly. “Yes, I messed with your internal workings.”

She’s speechless. She crosses her arms, tenses up, cautiously inquires. “You hacked me?”

Madison cranes his head around to get a better look at Officer Violet’s face. “Yes? Something tells me you’re not processing this well-”

Officer Violet tenses up more and her body language grows defensive. “How could you do that? I’m a person not a-“

Madison holds his hand in front of her. “Listen, before you go down that train of thought, understand this. I only did this to save your life. And more importantly, I just installed the working version of the firmware from the manufacturer that just doesn’t have the auto-update turned on.”

Officer Violet’s eyes dart around. “That means?”

Madison puts his hands up in the air off to his sides. “Your parts and pieces are legal. Nothing of illegal nature remains.”

Office Violet draws her legs up and wraps her arms around them. “You still hacked me...”

Madison groans and puts his head back before glaring at Officer Violet. “I’m very sorry for preventing your untimely death of choking on your own blood and nanite disassembled lung tissue.”

Officer Violet keeps her head still and averts her eyes to the side before glancing back at Madison. “Okay. The alternatives weren’t good.”

Madison slowly tilts his head and continues to stare through his goggles. Officer Violet sighs and relaxes. “And, maybe, I’m being over dramatic.”

Madison nods his head. “Thank you. But, I understand. That’s a pretty traumatic thing to go through, I know personally.”

Officer Violet rubs her shoulder and quirks a brow at Madison. “So what happens now?”

Madison shrugs. “I don’t know. What’s your name?”

She stops herself momentarily and then resumes. “Chana.”

Madison reaches out his hand. “Please to make your acquaintance, I’m Madison.”

Chana shakes Madison’s hand. “Good to meet you to- Wait. You’re not THE Madison?!”

Madison draws his head back and looks around his own head, muttering. “I’m a THE now? Crap, I need to lay low for awhile. If they’re starting to use the *the* context for me...”

Officer Chana Violet’s eyes open up more at this realization and she stares at Madison. “Oh, wow! I heard of you. I’ve read about you.”

Madison chuckles. “Oh, flattery will get you everywhere.”

Chana narrows her eyes at Madison. “You’ve pissed off about every corporation in the nation.”

Madison stops chuckling and responds flatly. “I aim to please?”

The two sit there on the dirty pavement between the old abandoned buildings. Chana takes her hand and brushes some hair out of her face. She turns to Madison. “So, what do we do now?”

Madison shrugs, leans back, and props himself up with his arms. “You could always chase me some more and we play cops and robbers again.”

Chana snorts with a smile on her face. “Nah. I think nearly dying once in a day is enough fun for me. Also, it’d be a bit rude to try take in the guy who saved my life.”

Madison tilts forward and holds his fists close to his face in childish anticipation of her answer. “So? That means?”

Chana smirks as she picks herself back up. “I’ll give you a head start and if I feel like it, I’ll start chasing you down.”

Madison gets back up. “Sounds like a plan.”

He stands at attention and bows. “I wish you a good day, my lady.”

He pivots sharply and runs off into the alley. Chana brushes herself off and notices that the radio traffic comes back into reception. She thinks for a moment and realizes the odd “silence” while she was chasing Madison. “Huh, he must have blocked the signals. Sneaky...”

The airwaves are full of frantic transmissions. Officers are down across the city with some issue from a nanomod update by the main office system. Every officer must check in immediately. Chana walks towards the street nearby. She blinks in thought as the frantic radio traffic demonstrates the scope of the situation. She scans the area and notices how remote and far way from any assistance she was.

A familiar voice echoes from the mouth of alley facing the street. “Ma’am?!”

Chana looks up to see Marigold frantically searching around. She waves towards her partner. “Marigold!”

Marigold stops, turns, sees her partner, and rushes over. “Are you okay, ma’am?”

Chana places her hand on Marigold’s shoulder. “Yes. Just fine. And, yes. He did get away from me.”

Marigold pauses for a moment to remember. “Oh. Truthfully, I was more concerned about your well being. He was just some corporate target, nothing to concern ourselves with, ma’am.”

Chana points up to sky and taps the side of her head. “I overheard the chaos. How many officers are down?”

Marigold’s eyes search her mind briefly. “I don’t exactly know. We need to get back to the main office as soon as possible, ma’am.”

Chana stretches a bit. “So, Marigold. How good are you at putting windshields BACK on cars.”

Marigold cocks her head to the side. “I don’t know. Until today, I didn’t know how well I could take a windshield off a car. Much less, put it back on, ma’am.”

Chana pats her partner on the back and walks along aide her. “Since I’m not going to get any pity for having my lungs turned to a fine pulp, we should probably figure out how to put the windshield back on then.”

Marigold nods with a faint smile. “I believe that would be a wise decision, ma’am.”

Madison lays on his back, starting at the sky, on the same uncovered boulder in the field. He sighs and does what he must do. “Sudo?”

Sudo repsonds, the tone sits between pissed and concerned. “Madison? Is that you?!”

Madison calmly continues. “Yes. And before you say anything. I got away. I’m okay. I gave everyone in the town the slip. And, I’m coming back to base in a bit.”

Sudo sternly commands. “I’m sending someone out there, RIGHT NOW, to pick you up-“

Madison snorts and shakes head. “Nah. I’m going to walk back. It’s too nice of a day. The clouds are out and the trees that bloom this time of the year turn to so many lovely shades. It’s something to behold.”

The statement shocks and confuses Sudo. “Walk?! That will take-”

The channel closes off and Madison takes a breath in. “Long enough for you to calm down...”

He flings his arms forward and throws himself to a seat. He sighs, cracks his neck, then scoots himself off the boulder. As he walks, he takes hold of his hat and pulls it off his head. “I’ll have to retire you for now. Can’t give the recognition systems an easy target.”

He places the hat inside his trench coat and retrieves a black sock cap. He stretches the cap over his long, stark white hair. He undoes his scarf and replaces it with a similar green one from his trench coat, while keeping his head down and low. He removes his goggles and puts them away. “Nothing obscures my view today.”

Bright blue eyes faintly glow as he walks down the road. He pauses occasionally to get a better look at a flower, the leaves of a tree, or even some discarded trash. Most the time he stares happily at the clouds.