Base City: Short Stories-ebook

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Police Chief Kahn rushed across the bustling intersection, the constant misting rain of Base City running off his black department-issued rain slicker. Vehicles on either side of the intersection pressed against the traffic lights, heedless of crossing pedestrians. Even in the neon-drenched half-light of night, the urgency was unending.

There had been a murder—so close to the precinct that he hadn’t even needed a vehicle to reach the scene. In Base City, murders happened by the dozen every day, sometimes more. Despite the relentless stream of holo-ads and glowing billboards plastered across the megastructures, all boasting that the streets had never been safer, Kahn knew the reality to be somewhat different: the police were losing the war on crime.

This incident involved an EXO—an enhanced person with modifications crusted onto their body. The killing was part of an ongoing war between rival underworld factions. The killer cast herself as a school-age girl, but with her extensive mods, who could really tell? She looked like a murderous child in geisha makeup, dressed in a short Lycra skirt, her synthetic black hair pulled into glossy ponytails. Innocent on the outside, a furious demon within. She wielded twin railguns, using them to rip the EXO apart before being gunned down by his friends.

Blood and viscera leaked from their ruined bodies, mingling into a ghastly red stream that flowed into a storm drain; the light evening rain was taking care of the mess for the street cleaners.

Some said, “Let the animals kill themselves.” If only it were that simple, perhaps he would consider it. But the fighting didn’t belong solely to the worst parts of the city. It spread among families, businesspeople, schoolchildren—anyone unfortunate enough to be relegated to life at street level.

When he joined the force, he believed he could make a difference. Educated and trained at the academy, and empowered by a badge and a gun, he felt he was the right man in the right place—now he knew it had all been a fantasy. No matter how many bad guys they locked up or how many crime rings they dismantled, there would always be more. That was the true export of Base City—an endless supply of criminals.

Kahn stepped carefully around a filthy puddle pooling on the sidewalk at an intersection. A large, hulking man lingered on the corner, waiting for a break in the flow of pedestrians. He glanced Kahn’s way, each sizing up the other. Kahn displayed no obvious signs of his occupation, but everything about him—his dark rain slicker, worn black shoes, and haggard look of responsibility, along with a partially concealed sidearm- revealed his identity. The man was no mystery either. With a fleeting glance, Kahn noticed the artificial gleam of red light in his eyes and the overly squared line of his jaw. Beneath the filthy, ragged cuffs of his long jacket, EXO hardware encrusted the man’s large forearms and hands.

He was either a murderer, a dealer, or something worse. At that moment, they were just two men trying to cross a busy street...