Noir, City Shrouded By Darkness Read online

  "Still? After all these years?" She thought a moment and asked, "By whom? Noir Civil Police Force or Sphinx Corporation Security?"

  "The N.C.P.F. and Sphinx Corporation Security."

  Kim fisted her hands, controlling the rage that wanted to scream at her father. "What leads do they have? Who do they suspect? I want answers!"

  He gazed at the picture on his desk and picked up the frame. "Your mother was so lovely." He faced his daughter. "How you look like her. See." He turned the frame, so she could see the picture. "You have her blue-green eyes."

  The photo was of Theresa holding a music box. It was the same picture as the one in the album from her mother’s hope chest. Kim looked at it more closely. There was no shorthand scribbled on the photo.

  "Your mother loved that music box. It played some old melody from around 500 B.D.C." He wondered out loud, "Who was the composer? His name was... Was..."

  "Ginn L. Irynkissgthie," she answered.

  "Yes, it played his Unfinished Melody."

  Kim stared at the music box, pulled on her left earlobe, and questioned, "Where did she get it?"

  "Get it? She made it." He turned the frame around and gazed at the photo. "One of a kind." He glanced at the phone again then back to the photo. "Something your mother was working on in Research and Development. It was more than a music box. It was a data storage unit."

  "One of a kind?" A bad feeling rose from the depths of her stomach. "What happened to it?"

  "I don’t know. I assumed it was destroyed in the fire. I looked through all her things, but never found it. I think she would have wanted you to have it."

  "May I?" Kim held out her hand for the photo, and her father handed it to her.

  "Why does Katharine have the Music Box?" she wondered, examining the photo. "I’m sure it’s the same one."

  She handed back the frame and asked, "Who would I speak to about mom's murder?"

  "Detective Moore at N.C.P.F. and Orthos. He’s head of my security."

  Kim nodded and stood. "I’ll want to talk to you later about this."

  "My door is always open." He walked his daughter out of his office and down the hall to his secretary's desk. He watched as Kim entered the elevator then he turned to the secretary. "Cathy, hold all my calls and cancel today’s appointments."

  "Yes, Mr. Griffin."

  The Chairman returned to his office, sat, and stared at the phone again. He contemplated his next action and picked up the receiver. "Get me Head of Security."

  "Yes, Mr. Griffin," Cathy replied.

  Within a few minutes, a man’s voice came over the phone. "Orthos here."

  "We have a problem." The Chairman leaned back, staring at the ceiling. "My Kimberly has remembered the night of the fire and will most likely investigate Theresa’s death."

  "What can she find out? The N.C.P.F. have nothing."

  "Kimberly can be very resourceful."

  There was a pause, and Orthos asked, "Do you want me to take care of this?"

  "No!" the Chairman blurted. "She's my daughter." He composed himself. "For now watch her. I don’t want Kimberly to complicate things."

  * * *

  11:29 A.M...

  Hellenistic Sector, Residential Vicinage...

  Nexus Apartments...

  Kim returned to her apartment and sat at the small round table. She drank a tall cup of Spiced Chai tea she’d bought from the local coffee shop. Kim still had the bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. She flipped through the photo album, till she came to the picture of her mother holding the Music Box. She read the short hand again, "Glimpse with scrutiny. Gaze with light."

  "I’ve already glimpsed with scrutiny." She removed the eight by ten photo from the album and looked on the back. It was blank. "There's nothing else on the photo. So what does she mean by gaze with light?" Kim walked over to the couch, turned on a torch lamp, and placed the picture in front of the light. "Nothing." She flipped the photo over and examined the back. It was still blank, but then a K appeared and more letters till it read, "Kimmie, find the Music Box. It will lead you to the Key." Her bad feeling was confirmed.

  "The Key?" Kim sat on the couch and looked to the kitchen’s counter where she had laid the hope chest key. "Mom couldn’t mean that one. So what key does she mean, and what does it open?" She hit her fist on the cushion. "And the Music Box! Hades! It was right here, and I let Katharine leave with it!"

  She stood. "For Ares' sake! This means I’m going to have to find her. And I wanted to wash my hands of Katharine." Kim returned to the table. "Where do I begin?" She turned and stared at the empty chair across from her. "Did Katharine tell me anything I can use to find her?" She rubbed her forehead. "Think. Think." Kim looked up. "Etna Toys Plant and Warehouse. She said she awoke there a year ago." Kim stood again. "Well, at least it’s a place to start." She headed for her bedroom. "I’ll slip into my working clothes and go there now."

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Etna Toys Plant And Warehouse

  11:59 A.M...

  Hellenistic Sector, Industrial Vicinage...

  Ding... Ding... Ding...

  The noon hour tolled in the bleak abandoned warehouse district.

  Ding... Ding... Ding...

  The wind dried the remaining Tainted Rain as a cold front moved in, chilling the already cold air.

  Ding... Ding... Ding...

  A black cat scurried down the deserted street in front of Etna Toys Plant and Warehouse.

  Ding... Ding... Ding...

  Within the warehouse, florescent lights flickered, lighting the rundown building.

  Kat stood in front of the overturned cot she awoke on over a year ago. She rubbed her temples as her head pounded, still feeling the side effects of the Ultra-Epi. Kat refused to use the Music Box to come down from the genetically altered epinephrine hormone since leaving Zeus Park. She was too afraid she’d be caught by the Council or the Factory.

  Anxiety pressed against her chest, and she looked at her shaky hand. "Why? Why would the Council do this to me? I don't understand. Why create something that causes such problems? What do they want from me? I have to find the answers." Kat searched the warehouse.

  Hours later...

  She placed her backpack on the floor along with the AK-47 then set the metal bed and table upright. Kat still felt tired after getting very little sleep the day before. She undid the Velcro of her Ravlek and positioned the vest beside the cot. Kat put her empty Beretta on the table and lay on the mattress, staring at the ceiling.

  "Nothing. I’ve found nothing." Kat had searched the warehouse and plant for more than three hours. "So why here? Of all places, why did the Council put me here to start the tests?" She removed the items from her pocket, studied each, and laid them on her chest. Her eyes grew heavy and her body was beyond exhaustion. The warm cot and soft pillow felt nice against her cold skin, so she closed her eyes. Her body felt light and unreal as she drifted asleep. Even the headache lessened. Minutes passed, and the wind kicked up outside, howling across the old building. For a moment, Kat was at peace.

  lub-DUB... lub-DUB...

  Her eyes flew open as her body prepared for battle and she wondered, “How long can I go without coming down from the Ultra-Epi? What's my breaking point?”

  Kat sat up, and the Music Box and the Note fell to the cot. She picked up the AK-47, grabbed her backpack and Beretta, and rushed to a dust covered front window. In the distance, six Un-Men unloaded from two black vans and stood at attention on the sidewalk. Peters and Maxwell along with two Factory S.C.Ms. exited the vehicles.

  Outside...

  Peters retrieved a modified H.H.C. from his lab coat pocket, and passed it over the six Un-Men. "Readings within parameters." He pushed his glasses up his nose. "We’re good to go."

  "Excellent." Maxwell typed a few notes. "Let’s upload the new targeting program into this batch." He looked up as the two S.C.Ms. spread out and secured the area. He turned to an Un-Man and commanded, "Team Leader, this is Ma
xwell, Tech One-twelve. Prepare for uplink."

  It said in a South African accent, "Voice identity confirmed, Tech One-twelve. I comply." The Team Leader turned its head and faced the tech.

  "You know what?" Peters rubbed his stubbly face.

  "What?" Maxwell uploaded the targeting program to the Un-Man, using the H.H.C.'s laser located at the end of the small computer.

  Peters leaned against the van. "This is becoming boring."

  Maxwell finished the upload and commanded the Team Leader, "Uplink with your unit and transmit the new program."

  "I-Link established. Transferring data," the Team Leader relayed.

  Maxwell turned to him. "What do you mean boring?"

  "For the past year, we’ve sent Un-Men after Pandora,” Peters said. “They fight, she disables them, we take notes, improve on the models, and start again. Now don’t get me wrong, Pandora has been beneficial to our upgrades, but when does it stop? When will the Un-Men be ready?"

  "Transmission completed," the Team Leader stated. "Disconnecting I-Link."

  "The Un-Men will be ready when they eliminate Pandora. This might seem tedious to you, but we've improved their programing. Soon, they'll be able to overcome Pandora."

  "What if Pandora is also learning and adapting? Is there any possible way to create an Un-Man that surpasses her?"

  Maxwell thought a moment. "That's a good question. I guess that means we need to program the Un-Men to anticipate Pandora's upgrades." He opened the side door to one of the vans and stepped inside. The vehicle was full of monitoring equipment. Maxwell sat at a table bolted to the floor. "You sure are full of questions today."

  "I’ve got one more. Aside from the Rogue, why do you think the T-3 malfunctioned? None of the techs can find anything wrong with its programing or any of the other T-3s." Peters moved to the side of the van and peered in. "I’ve been working on them at the Factory, and they’re starting to wig me out. I’ve never felt this way around Un-Men." He removed his glasses and cleaned them with his lab coat. "It’s like the T-3s know they’re different and don’t want us to change what they've become."

  "Become?" Maxwell pulled up a monitoring program wirelessly connected to a small satellite dish. "You make it sound like they’re alive and that they're evolving." He grabbed the dish with one hand and exited the van.

  "Isn’t that what we’re doing? Are we not trying to create a better killing machine?" Peters placed his glasses back on and got out of his partner’s way. "Isn’t that evolution?"

  Maxwell climbed a ladder on the back of the van and fastened the satellite dish to the top of the vehicle. "Remember they're only machines. They are things trapped in the parameter of a program." He turned to his partner. "I wouldn’t worry. All that's happened is someone has tampered with the T-3's programing, and no one has stumbled across the implanted code." Maxwell grinned mischievously. "Or maybe we’re dealing with a ghost in the machine."

  "Don’t joke about something like that! You know I freak out easily." Peters watched as his partner climbed back down. "Whatever it might be, I’m glad the Factory decommissioned all of them. I could swear some of the other T-3s are looking at me the same way as the malfunctioning one. They're looking at me with disgust."

  Back down on the sidewalk, Maxwell focused more on the mission ahead. "Whatever you say. Let's get this job done. I'm starved and want to go eat at Joe's Diner." He moved to the Un-Men. "Team Leader take your unit in."

  It looked to Etna Toys, honing in on Pandora's tracking beacon. "I comply."

  The six Un-Men marched toward her position as if they were one creature bent on destruction.

  Inside the warehouse...

  Kat hurried and put her Ravlek Vest on. "How do they keep finding me?" Cobalt current flashed from her eyes as she placed the Beretta in the backpack. She slung the AK-47 over her shoulder and grabbed the backpack by the top handle. Kat ran for the center of five boxing machines in the middle of the warehouse. She slid to a stop and took cover behind one of the conveyor belts.

  The first two Un-Men entered the warehouse through the front door. They were Pretty Boys. Kat fired twice with the AK-47, hitting each in the forehead. They fell as two large muscular T-5s entered behind them.

  "Why do they keep filing through the front?" She shot the T-5s. "Are they decoys? Where are the last two?" Kat calmed herself so she could use her ability. "There. I sense one."

  A fifth Un-Man entered from the side door. She caught a glimpse of the T-2 before it raised a rocket launcher. She fled from her position as it fired. The rocket flew, hit a large boxing machine, and blew it apart. Kat fired the last round of the AK-47 into the T-2 and removed a partial magazine from her pocket. She placed in the last of her ammo.

  The last of her enemies entered through the front door and walked over its fallen brethren, wielding its own rocket launcher. The Team Leader paused and fired as Kat dove to the floor. The rocket whooshed by her, blowing up a boxing machine near the cot. She panicked, realizing the Note and Music Box were still there and rushed to the fire. Kat watched in horror as the flames devoured the Note. She quickly reached her left hand into the fire and snatched the Music Box from the small inferno. The lid burned her palm. She threw the glowing red Music Box across the floor to safety and shook her hand in pain.

  The Team Leader retreated before Kat turned the rifle on it. Her heart stopped beating the bio-mecha warning, and the Ult L-E dimmed. She turned back to the fire. The Note was no more than ash. It had been destroyed along with a little part of herself. Only one of her hopes remained. Her hand burned as if she held a hot ember. She glanced at her throbbing left palm and saw a star shaped burn. Kat ignored the pain and walked to the Music Box. She sat crossed leg in front of the ashen chest, afraid to pick it up.

  "What if it no longer plays?" She rubbed her temples again as the headache worsened.

  Using the sleeve of her jacket as a mitten, she picked up the hot Music Box, carefully wiped the soot from it, and opened the lid. A mountain of relief washed over her as Unfinished Melody played as clear as the first day she heard it. Her body relaxed. She thought about closing the lid and keep herself from entering the trance, but that thought and her fears faded along with everything else. Kat entered the Drifting Time.

  Her anxiety and headache vanished as the tune reestablished the electrical balance of her body and made her vulnerable to attack. The Team Leader headed back to Maxwell and Peters to receive its next orders.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  The Return

  The three o’clock hour tolled outside Etna Toys, pulling Kat from her induced sleep.

  Ding... Ding... Ding...

  “Crap! What did I do?” She searched the warehouse and found that she was alone, at least for the moment. "I can’t believe I let myself fall asleep. Sheez! Do I want to die?"

  The fires caused by the rocket had burn themselves out. Pockets of smoke filled the large building, and the temperature had dropped ten degrees after a cold front had moved into the area. She closed the Music Box, stood, coughed a little for the smoke, and shivered. Her headache and anxiety were gone, but her upper left palm still throbbed. The raw skin blistered from the burn, and she grimaced for the searing sensation.

  In an area still smoldering with light gray smoke, Kat noticed an elevator. "Why didn’t I see this before?" she wondered as she moved toward it. "I see now. Boxes were stacked in front of the elevator." Kat walked over the smoking cardboard ash, stopped in front of the cab doors, and looked for a call button. There wasn't one. She examined the elevator and noticed it look like no one had used it in ages. Kat stared a little longer, hoping to find something. She didn't find anything and moved to the Un-Men to recover weapons.

  Kat quickened her pace as she searched their pockets twice and found no clips or rounds. "Odd. Are they purposely leaving me without ammo?" She ran her hand through her hair. Dried Tainted Rain caked it and her clothes and reeked of petroleum. "If so, does that mean they’ll attack again?"


  She stretched out her senses, finding the one remaining Un-Man had moved back to the front sidewalk. “No. They haven't started their next attack. They must be waiting on reinforcements. I need to hurry.” Kat checked the AK-47 and found four rounds left. She went to the dust covered front window, peered outside, and noticed two more vans pulled in as the other two left. "The one surviving Un-Man has gone. Six more have shown up. I don’t have much time before they send them in." She glanced around. "There must be something here I can use as a weapon." She searched the warehouse and found two screwdrivers, a lead pipe, and a metal chain. Right next to the boxing machine closest to the front door, Kat made a barricade with old crates. She set up her little fort beside the machine’s conveyer belt and waited.

  The fourth hour tolled on the clock outside.

  Ding... Ding... Ding... Ding...

  The chimes startled her in the otherwise silent warehouse.

  lub-DUB... lub-DUB...

  Her heart pounded so hard it resonated through her body and triggered the adrenal gland to produce the souped up epinephrine. Blue Ult L-E surged as she tensed, waiting for the Un-Men to enter the warehouse. "Will this bleak existence ever end?" she wondered. "Or will it only stop with my death? I'm tired of this. So freaking tired! Sheez! Do they think I'm some sort of bio-mecha? Do they think I don't have a breaking point? Or is that it? Are they looking for the point I'll give up or make a game ending mistake? Crap! I'm doing it again. I'm letting them beat me in my mind. I can't think this way. It won't help. I need to calm down and focus on surviving. I can't let them win this battle before it's even started.”

  A half dozen T-5s stormed in, tracked her, then in unison shot at her position as their shades reflected the burst of gunfire. She ducked behind the crates as bullets splintered boards, creating shrapnel. Kat shielded her face with her arm and stayed hidden till she heard the Un-Men’s metal clips hit the concrete floor. She stood, fired twice, and disabled two of them. She leaped over the crates, finding cover on the other side of the conveyer belt. Four T-5s moved toward her, releasing another barrage.