Aurablade

09

As the sun filters in amongst the piercing, electric city lights, so do more pedestrians begin to clog the streets. I arrive at the street corner where Talc and I met last time. A subway car rumbles overhead, sending vibrations under my feet as it zooms through the tunnel high above.

Down the street, Talc approaches in the same black hoodie as before. His dark brown eyes raise from the cement and lock with mine. I look to the side, then flick my head to the left before walking in that direction. I don't look back to see if Talc is following me. If he were smart, he would.

Several blocks down, I duck into a comic stand and lift a magazine from the shelf. The girl behind the counter barely notices me, flipping through a brightly-colored comic. Her page turns are punctuated by the snap of bubblegum.

I glance outside the window. Talc is hurrying down the street, just about to come to the shop. I place the comic back on the stand, then leave, headed for a staircase winding upward from the shop. Talc and I reach it at the same time.

"What's... up..." he pants.

"It's best not to meet in the same place," I say. "We don't want there to be a pattern of being seen together. Makes it harder if anyone stumbles onto what we're doing." I step up the stairs. Behind me, Talc's shoes clang on the metal.

"How would that even be possible?"

"Best to take precautions before the measures are necessary."

We stop on a slim, balcony ledge on the side of the glass high-rise. I glance around but spot no one passing through this way. The lights inside the high-rise are dim, so more than likely, the businesses inside won't open until later in the morning.

"I found some very important pieces of information. Well, one is information. The other is a map." He removes a pod from his pocket, powering the large screen on. His fingers grip the sides of the large screen, and the Gang One logo appears.

"Standard issue?" I ask.

Talc nods. "We have to trade them in every year. We're only allowed to work with the latest model. Even if it sucks." Several more seconds pass. "Seriously, this dumb thing is slower than my Grandma."

Another several seconds tick past. Finally, the lock screen appears. Talc unlocks his device, then navigates to a screenshot of the map he found. "It's a detailed blueprint of the CryoFuture's entire building."

Talc is right. The document he uncovered is a treasure-trove, depicting every detail of the building, from the voltage levels in each room and door to security camera locations to window positions.

"I can work with this," I murmur. "Send it over and give me twelve hours to come up with a plan. When's the best time to break in?"

"Funny you should ask. I also found the security guard postings. It appears that there is more surveillance at night than during the day. I noticed a few gaps in the guard changes around noon, during the lunch hour. That's when most people leave the building, too."

"Noted. Anything else?"

"Actually, yes. The computer I hacked into was actually the personal device of Emery Stands. It was actually sent to our group to be wiped and rebooted for future usage. And it was the most recent model, too early to trade in for a new one. You know what that means."

Either it wasn't working properly, or the organization had another reason for wanting to get rid of the device.

"I looked through the names of the people who signed up for The CryoFuture." A spreadsheet fills the screen. Talc through the names and pictures. The smiling faces blur together. Somehow, there's something sinister in the way everyone grins at the camera, like innocent lambs about to be butchered.