I don't have dreams, I sit there and it's just me sitting in a vast sea of darkness. I sit there and wait until my mind comes back to reality and the ray of sunlight rests upon my eyelids. Opening my eyes I see that I'm still in Urosov Tower, I sit myself up and my vision goes blurry and it looks as if I was looking through a tunnel. After my vision cleared I looked around, the bar was still out but Clara and Ahanu were gone.
I went over to Ahanu's door and knocked, no answer. I moved to Clara's and knocked, still no answer. They went out and didn't even leave a note. "They don't have to." I whispered to myself. I went into the entrance hall where a door slid open revealing the bathroom empty and unused. It made me realize that I still need to clean myself up before I go out and do anything.
The bathroom was cold and the lights were white, giving the room an almost ghostly vibe. I stepped into the shower, the walls and the floor were made entirely out of tile. The water that came from the shower head felt like rainfall and it was warm. After cleaning myself up I got dressed in a new set of clothes and headed for the door.
When I opened the door I could see other people walking through the hall over to the elevator, most of them were dressed in really nice clothing. It made me feel a bit embarrassed to go out but I wasn't just going to sit in the suite all day. What am I going to do out there? I pulled out my phone and checked how many credits I had from the job, four-hundred-thousand.
I decided to give that lady from the border guard a call. It rang a couple times then she picked up, "Hello this is Iona."
"Hey I'm the guy you gave your number to last night," I said, "You handed your number to one of my friends to give to me."
"I remember, what's up?" she asked.
"I was hoping you could show me around the city." I answered.
"Great, I'll come pick you up then, where are you right now?"
"Urusov Tower." I finished. I went over and sat on a bench and waited for Iona to come around. Many people walked on the sidewalk, some looked all natural until you looked them in the eyes to see them glow with red light showing they have infra-red, or they turned their back and you could see the metal lined at the base of their neck. Most people would pass by me and glance then keep going. I would stare back as they did.
Iona pulled up around noon, her car was sleek and silver. She opened the passenger door and I got in. The interior was mostly black and the windows were tinted so you couldn't look in from the outside. She was dressed up nicely, like we were going out for dinner at a nice restaurant. "What do you have to do to get this?"
"Reporting and arresting people like your friends," She replied, her voice was soft, "Don't worry though I'm not gonna arrest them or you." She giggled a little then put the car into gear and drove.
"Is there anything you want to see specifically?" She asked.
"Nope I don't have an idea of what is in the city or what to see." I answered. We arrived at a clothing store some time later. There were tuxedos and dresses in the windows on rotating manikins. Iona turned down a side road and parked in a parking garage. She turned to look me up and down and after she got out of the car.
"We're going to buy you a suit for later since I have dinner with my boss tonight," Iona explained. I followed along listening to her talk about some things that happened to her at work. The tailor that measured me came out with four different suits. One standard black suit, a blue one, a maroon one, and an emerald green one.
I looked at the green one for a moment, taken aback by how similar it looked to the one the man wore the night before. Iona tapped on my shoulder and shook her head, she didn't like it looked good on me. She pointed to the blue one and I complied, it was comfy and surprisingly easy to move in.
"I can pay for this suit myself," I said to Iona.
"Are you sure?" She replied, "Maybe the job you did last night got you enough to barely pay for this."
"Very funny." I replied. The tailor then brought out a bunch of ties. I was drawn to an orange one, Iona nodded her approval at my choice. The main suit helped me blend in but the orange tie would help to pick me out from the crowd. The tailor took both the suit and the tie. After a while the tailor returned and the suit had orange on the inner lining to go with the tie and the tie had been shortened to fit my size.
When I paid and left with Iona I looked over to her, "One helluva place to go on the first date." I said jokingly.
"Can't have you running around in a t-shirt and jeans while I'm in a nice dress." Iona responded. She gave a quiet chuckle and walked back to her car. I got a notification on my phone, I looked down and saw it was a text from Clara. It read out 'Where are you?' I took a picture of my suit and tie in the bag and sent it to her, 'Going out on a date, get ready to tell what bits you got for the vocal thing'.
She responds with mind blown emojis. I put my phone back in my pocket and caught up to Iona. "One of your buddies?" She asked.
"Yeah." I responded.
"I'm surprised that you don't have a feed implant." Iona commented.
"I'm from Deseret, they don't like cybernetics there." I answered.
" I know a man if you're interested in doing that, but it'll have to wait till tomorrow or the next day." She added. I thought of the idea of having a chip connected to my brain and a new eye instead of my organic one, does Iona have them? I buried the thought for later, instead I just kept walking with Iona to her car.
When we got back in she pulled out a little mirror and some makeup. She lined her eyes with mascara and put some blush on her cheeks. After words she looked directly at me, "How do I look?" She asked.
"Pretty" was the first word that came to mind. Really pretty. I decided to borrow her mirror after she was done and I combed my hair then tied it back so it wasn't just hanging down with frayed ends. Iona looked over and giggled a bit, What's going on? I wondered what ran through my mind just now, it made me feel self conscious. Is my hair still a mess?
She reached her hand over and messed with my hair to let it flow a bit rather than the tight brushes towards the back I'd done. I looked back in the mirror and my hair was a bit wavy, Iona pulled out some hair clay and ran it through my hair. My hair felt firm but didn't lose much softness. I was happy the way it was, I'll have to ask her where she got this stuff later.
"How about we go to a park I know down the way" Iona spoke.
"Sounds good to me, are we just going to leave our dress clothes in your car though?" I asked.
"No, we'll stop by my place to drop them off, and so I can change into better clothes for the outside." she answered. The car ride was pretty calm, we went in the opposite direction of Urusov Tower towards a different skyrise alongside the river. The side facing the river had silver mirrors so the light from the river reflected outwards. The other sides not facing the river were clear and open. The rooms you could peer into weren't real however, people need privacy.
When I entered Iona's place the first thing I noticed was how it was styled. The area around the door was lower with slippers and shoes while the rest was elevated with some wood floors. It was quite open too, her living room was filled with different colors and the walls were a warm, cozy brown. The contrast between Iona's place and the suite at Urusov was vast. I'd rather be here than that bright white and copper building.
"This place is really nice, how much did it cost?" I asked.
"It cost a bit more than my car, it took me like four years to save up for this place." She answered. I continued to look around and went into her kitchen. There was a small monitor over the counter and a phone underneath it, archaic. It reminded me of home for a moment since most advanced tech was banned from Deseret in general. I heard a door open and turned to see part of her bedroom.
It was a mess, with clothes piled up in the corner I could see, but her bed was well made and she had big puffy pillows. She closed the door and I went over to the couch facing the window so I could sit and relax. In front of her tv was a stack of movie cds and a cd player. I went over to look at the stack and saw most of these movies were either action, crime, and mystery movies.
I set down the movies and turned on the tv and the player to see it was on a movie about some under-dog police officer. Nice sense of justice. I turned off both before Iona came back into the room. She had jeans and a shirt with words across it reading 'Bang Macross'. "What's Bang Macross?'' I asked.
"He's part of the metal band Macross." She stated, "I think they might be performing at the Grave-Yard tonight if you're interested."
"Been a while since I've gone to a concert" I said, What's the Grave-Yard? I decided not to ask questions, Iona might get annoyed with me if I kept doing so. Iona entered her kitchen and started making sandwiches. I sat back down by the tv and watched as she made four and pulled out some water bottles from her fridge.
After she finished she put the stuff in bags and headed for the door, I followed along. We got into a less fancy car that was next to her sports car. It was a lot less fancy, you could see through the windshield, the tires were worn out, and the insides felt like a car from the last century. Classic was the first thing that came to mind when I sat down in the passenger seat.
Iona walked to the back of the car and opened the trunk to put away the food. "Don't we have that fancy dinner later?" I asked.
"The reservation is for midnight till two in the morning, we'll be fine" she explained, "Unless you have a small stomach?"
"Ha ha" I said sarcastically. She gave a wide smile and she put the car into gear. Iona mentioned she wanted to go to a park in the direction of the ExaCom building. The ride there was quiet and there was very little traffic. We stopped at a red light and a car that had been lowered near the ground pulled up beside us. The windows were blacked out and near the front windshield on the hood was a decal. A skull with a rose coming out of the left eye socket.
The window on the drivers side lowered and I saw a red glare, infra-red lenses, and a glint of something else, metallic. "Duck," I said. Suddenly the world went quiet and it slowed down. My neck felt like it was on fire and one of my right arm felt like it weighed a ton. I closed my eyes and the sound came back to me. The car was swerving and the sound of the other car was still close by. There was an odd lack of gunfire. I'd have expected them to keep shooting at us.
There was a loud screech and a crunch of glass and metal. I opened my eyes to look at Iona, she was still alive and had ducked her head low enough to hide her head and still drive. The front of the car had embedded itself into the side of a small shop and the other car had parked on the other side of the street. The area where the metal of my gun was pressing my skin felt raw. I pulled it out and got out of the car.
Iona had gotten out and pulled me into the shop. Her eyes had opened to reveal three different tiny optics. The outside ones were looking in different directions and the inner ones were staring right at me. "Your ligaments in your shoulder are destroyed, can't use it," she stated, "If you approach them now you'd be dead." Damnit, I could use my pistol one handed but the accuracy would be all over the place.
Iona pulled out a bag and opened it revealing two guns. A rifle and a submachine gun. "Take the rifle and prop it up on the hood to stabilize it and cover me." Iona ordered.
"Alright" I said. The rifle had a small magazine so if I had to reload it would take at least double the time it would take someone else to. Every shot counts. Iona's eyes turned to look at the car and she pointed to two spots on the car. They were hiding, the rifle could penetrate through the car. I nodded my head to show I understood what she meant.
She approached the car slowly and raised her gun to the driver side door, she sat still for what felt like an hour. One of the people in the car raised their head and Iona raised her gun inhumanly fast and pulled the trigger. There was a spray of blood against the window and I couldn't see into it anymore. One of the other men let out a yelp of surprise. Iona tapped a spot on the car and moved her hand away, fire.
The recoil of the rifle shooting the chambered round was immense. The round punctured the point Iona pointed to and it exited out of the other side embedding itself into the wall of the building behind it. The adrenaline rush from the new experience made my head feel light. I pulled back the bolt and the casing flew out the side, I pushed it forward feeling as the new round clicked into place.
The passenger door opened and one of the gang members sprinted out of the car. They went down an alleyway away from my line of sight. Iona shot in her direction but only scarred the brick and concrete around them. She gave chase and I got up to follow her. Before I could catch up the rear passenger side door opened up and an injured man came out holding a revolver looking weapon.
He pulled the trigger and the case holding the bullets spun with a whining noise. It unleashed a burst of bullets raining hell in my direction. Three of the bullets hit my bad arm. I tried gripping onto the rifle with it but I couldn' even move it or close my fingers around it.
Useless, I dropped the rifle and pulled out my pistol. I fired four rounds into the man and he collapsed to the floor. His blood left his body in little trails, rivers. I fell back against the wall and sat there for a while. I felt cold and my head felt so light and it hurt. My vision started to tunnel and I closed my eyes to the sound of footsteps.