Chroma Eyes

The setting sun scorched the sky into a beam-blade wound, cauterized clouds over raw vermilion. N8’s Vendetta idled like a resting demon with him in it. He knew el-towns dotting Noman’s Land were criminal havens, but he had to eat something real instead of more K-unit rations.

Inside Gary’s Grillhouse, geometric phantoms haunted the worn carpet, and thick air clung to exposed skin like polluted sea-spray. N8 took a bite of his double synth-beef burger, and grease dripped onto his plate. He chewed slowly, savoring the mouth-feel of something other than K-units. Nobody else sat at any of the tables.

He’d nearly finished his meal when a woman ran inside. Her silver-white hair flashed despite the room’s unpleasant illumination. N8 watched her as she whipped past his table. His EVEs clocked her respirations and pulse rates as heightened due to fear. She bee-lined directly to the bathroom in back. She spun around when she reached the doorway. Iridescent eyes flashed emerald to cyan and met his with silver. A heart-shaped locket glinted, her turn jostling it against her pale throat.

She slammed her way into the bathroom just as the glass in the front door shattered. N8 dropped the last bite of his burger, and his right hand hovered over the beam-blade hidden in his gray jacket. The meat-modded thing that stalked in through the broken entrance hardly looked human. Surgically grafted muscle bulged against strained skin, and the dark scaffold of a metal exo-booster encased his spine like a cyborg. Double strength-boosting tech meant the meat-merc could lift a car.

N8’s finger twitched near his beam-blade handle. Don’t get involved.

The merc hulked to the bathroom door, seething. “Come out, or I’m coming in.”

He barely gave the woman a second to answer before his fist pistoned, snapping the door in two.

Fueled by urgent adrenaline, N8 dashed to stand behind the merc. N8’s eyebrows flicked up. “Nice exo-booster. Mind the external hardware, though.”

His beam-blade flashed blue fire as the laser edge carved through the wire box on the meat-merc’s lower back. A sizzle, a pop, and the stench of ozone filled the hallway. The exo-skeleton seized, trapping the merc in rigid nano-composite. N8 shoved him, and the merc hit the ground with a thunderous thud.

The woman stood against the far wall of the bathroom. Her ChromaSpec eyes glowed violet in the fluorescent light. “What do you want?”

N8 sheathed his beam-blade. “Need a way out?”

“Got a ride?”

“Yeah.”

She jerked a nod. “Let’s go.”

She slid her finger along the smooth curves of N8’s Vendetta, her ice-blue nail polish vibrant against glossy black paint. Inside, N8 pressed the fingerprint starter, and the demon roared to life.

The car settled into a steady growl as N8 drove. He looked sidelong at his passenger. “What was that?”

“A Copper Top.”

“Why’s he after you?”

“I have info.” She touched the heart-shaped locket.

N8 huffed. “I just wanted a burger.”

“Chill. We have time before that meat-grinder reports. We’ll be at the corsec checkpoint by then.”

“I don’t do corsec.”

She turned her ChromaSpec eyes on him.

N8 pulled over. The second he parked, she pulled a gun. His open palms shot up. He had a vehicle failsafe, but she’d still squeeze the trigger. Smooth ridges, jet black chrome, a death tunnel aimed at his chest.

She stated plainly. “Flechettes.”

The full moon shone through fractured clouds, a window-diffused haze painting her face metallic. Chroma eyes shifted color in the new light, ashes to amber.

N8 searched her face, then made a decision. “Alright, checkpoint it is.”

N8 knew the checkpoint. He’d avoided it when they left Copperton. He turned at the next street and passed an abandoned car. She pocketed her weapon in her white leather jacket. The temperature dropped, inside and out, as he drove in silence. Light flashed in the rear-view mirror. The not-so-abandoned car tailed them.

N8 grunted. “Follower.”

She twisted to see. Her hand gripped his seatback with surprising strength. “Can you lose them?”

He loosed a snort of pride. “Sure, hold on.”

She faced forward, hand on her pocketed gun. He floored the accelerator. Exhilaration flooded his chest, and he smiled. The powerful engine hummed, then growled. They launched up a rise, their bodies weightless until the tires touched back down. He shut off the lights, and his EVEs switched to night vision. He flipped a switch, and the engine roared. Speed forced them into their seats before they catapulted off another incline.

The tailing lights crested the first hill. N8’s tires hit the road with a squeal, and they bounced in their seats. He swerved off-road, and the Vendetta fishtailed. N8 rejoined the asphalt and crossed the road, fishtailing again. Back in his lane, he checked the mirror.

A dark wall of dust filled the night behind them. N8 pulled off into a cluster of abandoned trailers and parked. He cut the engine and pressed a button beneath the dash.

She stared and moved her hand to her pocket.

N8 relaxed as a hiss reverberated through the Vendetta. “FLIR countermeasure.”

She nodded and rested her hand on her lap. Coolant flooded tubes throughout the vehicle, chilling the air. The following car screamed past, curls of dust rolling in N8’s night vision. He waited a minute before pushing the button to stop the subterfuge. He restarted the car, leaving the lights off until they’d retraced their route over both hills.

The checkpoint loomed half a mile ahead when N8 pulled over again. “Okay, I brought you this far. You can walk the rest of the way, yeah?”

“No way.”

“Why?”

“Copper Top snipers.”

“This close to corsec? Doubtful.”

Her hand drifted into her pocket, to the gun.

N8 gestured to her. “I know you’ve got the gun, but I’m not sure we can do this. Copper Tops are one thing, but corsec is a whole other sitch.”

Her tone leveled. Ice coated her words. “I know who you are, N8. I knew before I entered the Grillhouse.”

He squirmed.

“My retrecs have been active since I first laid my Chromas on you. You’re worth ten mil to Zeryx. I could cash in right now. Get you picked up by a corsec team. Or we can go to the checkpoint. What’s it going to be?”

N8 stared at her. She had him. He could trigger the failsafe, but the localized EMP might warn the checkpoint.

She kept her hand in her pocket. “I really don’t want to kill you. I kind of like you.”

His jaw tensed. “I don’t know if I like you, but I don’t want to hurt you, either.”

Her other hand drifted up to enclose the heart-shaped locket. “I’m a Cor Adjustor, and this holds a data microdot exposing the Copper Tops for scamming a pair of cors. A wireless transmit isn’t secure.”

“Okay, where do we go from here?”

“Neither cor deals with Zeryx Group. I can cover for you at the checkpoint. You just have to trust me.”

N8 took a slow breath. “Trust the nameless Adjustor, who’s lied non-stop, not to turn me in for a ten-mil payout?”

“What other option do you have, N8?”

He knew. The failsafe. The EMP would blind her ChromaSpecs. They’d recover fast, though, and what if she had other, shielded augs? If she worked for a cor, he’d make another enemy. Not to mention the EMP would wipe the microdot clean.

He nodded. “You’re right. Let’s do this.”

The checkpoint consisted of four lanes. Passing through meant leaving Noman’s Land for one of the huge western sprawlscapes. A cracked green light signaled them into the rightmost lane. N8 eased the Vendetta over and stopped. A solid wall of concrete blocked the way forward, and another rose up behind.

Fidgeting, he looked at his passenger. Her Chroma eyes glinted lavender to violet as she smiled.

His grin wavered. “I could’ve tripped my EMP failsafe.”

“That would’ve worked.” She pulled up her sleeve. Copper lines traveled ivory skin. Augments. “Unshielded ModFlex+. Would’ve paralyzed me for at least fifteen minutes.” Her mercurial eyes flashed, unreadable.

A knock on the door startled him. He rolled down the window. A corsec officer leaned down, body armor bending with a creak, and she scanned the interior with mirrored shades. She set the top of her stun-rod on the open window’s edge. “ID, registration, declarations.”

N8’s passenger leaned across him, the warmth of her body contradicting her frosty appearance. “I’m a Cor Adjustor with evidence requiring immediate secure transmit.”

Her words flowed with ease. N8 had no doubt she’d been in this situation before.

The officer stiffened. “Step out of the car and come with me.”

She complied, opening the door and stepping outside. She walked steadily around the front of the Vendetta to join the officer. They proceeded together for several steps before she turned to the officer and spoke. They stopped. The officer doubled back to the car. N8’s swallow stuck in his throat. The Adjustor glanced his way, Chroma eyes gleaming black then red, cauterized clouds over raw vermilion.

“Come with me.”

N8 considered the failsafe. Two corsec MEGs stepped into view from behind the concrete wall. Gray body armor, helmets, and automatic weapons. They eclipsed his way out.

His boots clacked on smooth asphalt. He glanced at the Adjustor as she passed through the automatic door of the checkpoint building. Her white leather pants flashed in the dark interior before she disappeared.

“Stand over here.”

The officer’s voice resonated with command. He shifted to the side, between the MEGs. Would they arrest him? Sell him to Zeryx for the bounty? Or just kill him and put him in deep freeze for them?

Minutes passed. He resisted fiddling with his jacket under the officer’s gaze. He cleared his expression as if unfazed by the delay. His beam-blade weighed heavy in his pocket, but killing an officer and two MEGs with it was impossible. He wasn’t some razorbabe or merc. He was a wardriver. Built for speed, not suicide missions.

The automatic door hummed open. He expected another officer or MEG, but she stood there, silver hair, snow-white face hard as ice, soft blue lips, white leather jacket and pants. She waved as she approached, her augs’ copper glinting in checkpoint light, and her Chroma eyes shining cobalt blue.

The officer sighed. “You can go.”

N8 didn’t hesitate but employed every ounce of control to walk back to his car. He closed the door, buckled his belt, and took a breath. The Adjustor stood outside his passenger door. Her perfectly manicured, blue-lacquered finger pulsed for him to lower the window. He did, and she leaned in.

She smiled and held out a clenched fist. “Not everyone is out to get you, N8.”

N8 raised his palm.

She dropped the heart-shaped locket into it. “Thanks.”

His eyes roamed from the soft silver of the locket to her platinum ChromaSpecs, stopping at her lips. For the first time since they met, he wondered what kissing her would feel like.

“Thank you.” It was all he could think to say.

The concrete blockade lowered, and N8’s demon Vendetta thundered to life. He resisted the urge to slam down the pedal, crawling past the checkpoint instead.

He stopped a half mile away and opened the locket. A silver microdot nestled inside. He focused his EVEs on it, and the retdisplay showed him the data.

Her contact info.

A relieved laugh burst from him, loud and long. He closed the locket, slid it into his jacket, and gripped the wheel.

To the west, then.

He lowered his foot onto the accelerator, and when his Vendetta growled appreciation, he grinned.