Maple Valley Syndrome - Chapter One - Excerpt One

I don't know if I'm going to continue this story. Baisically, it's the workings of what could be a cliche cyberpunk novella.

_{The monitors were stacked haphazardly in piles that neared touching the pitted white ceiling. Some had cracked screens or were stripped down to nothing but a few wires jutting from behind, but all were functioning. Hundreds of code rippled across the screens in fluorescent green font. Every so often a strip of code would blink bright red for three seconds before vaporizing from the sequence; a virus.  The virus’ weren’t much of a threat unless they were smart enough, or large enough, to bypass the initial checkpoints of the system. This had never happened, naturally, or the system would no longer exist.
A pale left hand clutched a half empty mug of cold tea loosely while the left hand worked the keys of something far to vast in number to be a household device. Smoke wafted up in a curvaceous line as a thin mouth sucked on the butt of a fresh cigarette. Stunning blue eyes were wide, capturing and analyzing each piece of information that dared roll across the screen before them. The pale face that nearly matched the tone of the hands was riddled with stubble after two days of neglect, but grooming was the least of this mans concern.
Colton Rudiger Fitz was no longer welcome to travel from the depths of his cramped, half bedroom apartment. Not that he ever really was. It was just that at this particular moment he had no possible way of slipping in and out unnoticed. PHUSE had been compiling a sweep of the city streets, dispatching or bringing in anyone they thought associated with the unwashed criminal underbelly of Maple Valley. Colton didn’t quite understand why they would even bother, knowing how things went the old would be replaced with the new in no time. Crime was the most beautiful mistress to a city whose heart was black and feted.
Colton sniffed, raising his left hand to pull the cigarette from his lips. The code had stuck on his screen. He turned in his swivel chair slowly, eyes narrowed as he examined each screen. Frozen, all of them.
“Joshua you dog.” there was a smile in his voice which did not reflect upon his features. He could spot the dirty work of Joshua Walker through a smog cloud from a mile away.
The man was intelligent, but not enough to keep himself undetected in the most vague sense of the term. In a way he was undetectable physically, Colton had ran scans on him countless times and had never turned up anything remotely valid. Hell, he didn’t even know if Joshua was his actual name.
The rustic loudspeakers Colton had strung up above his main monitor crackled in an obviously conjured snicker. “Don’t worry Colt, I still don’t know where you are, just checking in is all.”
“You’re still after that reward? Don’t you know there are bigger better things to get to out there?” Colton was smiling now, dipping his cigarette in the ashtray that sat precariously close to the edge of his paper sprawled desk.
“What you haven’t heard?”
“Heard what Joshua?”
“They upped the price,” No, he hadn’t heard that, so now he was listening.
“How much?”
“Two million and full access to a private transport vehicle for three years,”
“Hmm, impressive, I wonder what perked their-”
“I’m not done yet.” there was feigned chagrin in Joshua’s crackling voice. “They’re also offering up free lifetime priority medical access and a one way flight to Dockside when it’s up and running.”
Colton grimaced. “So then they’re desperate?”
“I would say. Fifty more PHUSE have been added to the search team and there are at least ten big names on that list.”
“They offered the list up to the public?”
“Like hell they did! I hacked it from their system, they’ll probably track it back to me eventually but the information I got was worth it.”
Colton shrugged; his fingers had been working the keys silently through their conversation and the code finally blinked to life, beginning to scroll down smoothly again.  “So you’re telling me that you hacked the latest technology and accessed top secret information that no man has ever witnessed before?”
There was a long pause and then. “Uh, maybe. How long this time?”
“I got you out in two minutes Joshua, not to mention on a two bit system I junked together from dumpster salvages.”
“Damn. Okay, so maybe I just got the lists from the top coding layer, but that’s still something right?”
“Sure is. So you gonna send me those names?”
“Not a chance.”
“Goodnight then.” Colton switched the loud speakers off, leaning back in his seat.
Despite his trying to feign relaxation he could feel the rigidness of his body working it’s way to the ends of his arms where his fingers curled into tight fists. They were hunting him again, that was why he couldn’t leave, it had always been why he couldn’t leave. He had wrongly assumed that their passion was waning though, that they had found new pets to pursue. It appeared as though they had gone from lurking through the shadows to a full frontal attack.
A draft coming from the open window hit his face just before the sound of a dumpster being dragged to its side rang out. He leapt to his feet, striding softly across the unstable wooden floor to the one window in the entire apartment that had not been boarded. He had left it open, despite the winter chill that hung in the air outside, the system always radiated enough heat to strike up an unbearable sweat.
Colton crouched halfway down on one knee, peering over the windows edge into the alley three storeys below. A group of people were huddled around an overturned dumpster, a man in a black coat kicked at the fine grey powder that had spilled out. The PHUSE had ordered the compression of all useless items into dust after they discovered that hackers and other such criminals were salvaging useful material from what had once seemed useless. “It’s always the same damn thing!” someone in the group scoffed, a stout woman who had a bright orange scarf wrapped around her thick neck.
“We’ll find something eventually, we just have to keep searching.” Black Coat muttered, turning away.
Colton, at a time, could have felt their pain. No longer though, now he had joined the ranks of smugglers. Though unable to leave the city due to certain security issues that directly and indirectly related to him, he was able to supply a safe hiding place for any goods that were brought in from the ruins that lay outside. For a price of course; everything had a price these days.
Colton backed from the window, easing it shut before drawing the thick red curtains in place. The room was black now as he turned back. All that remained was the dim green glow coming from the monitors. He scanned the numbers one more time, still uncertain of what he was searching for in this tangled web of information. It would be easier if he could connect to the cyberspace and truly engage into the world of information. Joshua didn’t know how blessed he was with the ability to still do this.
Alas, the danger was too great. That was the first place the PHUSE or anyone else who may be hunting him would look. What better place for a piece of technology to be if not immersed within one of the greatest inventions.
He shook his head. No, he couldn’t accept that. He wasn’t just hardware, he wasn’t a robot. He was still a human, he could still live and breath. All of his limbs were natural born. He still needed to eat and drink. He still desired companionship. The Talkota program was the only thing amiss within his persona, and even then it was hardly noticeable. A computer chip in his brain. It was a work of art really, like a tattoo except more lasting then that. Something everyone would remember.
“Colton...“ the voice was loud but silent. He closed his eyes.
It was in his head.}

 

Author's Note

From what you've read thus far, would you like to read more?

Reviews

[oscar]

Dude good s**t, your story has me very intrigued. I'm looking forward to seeing the next chapter if you so happen to deem it worthy of continuing.