Information, Energy

Information, Energy

"For fuck's sake how many more are there?" Sol complained.

"Well, if you would've just taken care of these as they came to you instead of letting them pile up like that, you wouldn't have so many to sign."

"I don't even know what the hell this stuff is I'm signing."

"You could always…you know…read them." Anna smiled.

She was a faithful whore, he'd given her that much. At least, faithful to one man anyways. Strangely the only one she couldn't fuck.

"I'm skimming them."

"Well, you'll have to teach me how you do that some time when you're looking at the ground instead of the paperwork."

Sol lifted his head from the desk.

"Don't you have something better to do?" He asked, not having the energy to smirk with insinuation.

"Fine, I guess I'll just leave you to it then."

She headed out the door, taking the small stack of signed papers and making very certain to swerve her hips in a very deliberate way before closing the door behind her.

He shook his right hand a little, getting some circulation going, then returning to copying his signature on the tablet, he stared out the window. He sighed, tapping his foot to each sound of the tablet ejecting the paper form of what he was signing. What was he doing?

Sol made such a bold statement. Hunt down the people responsible for his father's death. More to himself, he swore also to make a real difference now that he was in a place to really allow it. What's he done? Nothing. He was already caught up in the corporate life his father laid down. He was following his footsteps loyally, faithfully. He felt like throwing up.

"Fuck this."

He deactivated the tablet and forced it back into the top of his desk, then spun around, pressing a button on his arm chair. The room dimmed as the glass began to darken.

"Begin feed."

Images began to flicker to light all across the glass that made up an entire wall of the office. One pane remained slightly different in tone as the others. Sometimes looking at that section, he thought he saw Shade displayed on it.

"Simulcast news."

The first set of images changed dimension slightly, growing smaller to allow the images of news channels at the far left end of the display.

News was of course nothing particularly new. Death, life, protest, crime, destruction, movies, music, whatever. He heard mention of DayNight only once or twice. Some comment about him being a recluse, hard at work investigating, while trying to uphold the dignity and blah blah blah of his father's corporation.

"Idiots. End news."

The news images shrunk until they vanished, returning the first ones to their original sizes. He wasn't sure what he was looking for, if anything. But he'd been staring at these screens every day for the last three since he discovered what they could display. For that matter, the thing he saw on that first was enough to keep him coming back to look over and over again. A crackling noise interrupted his searching.

"Just wanted to remind you squirt, that you have a meeting with…"

"Not anymore, I canceled it."

"What? When?"

"Just now, as soon as you mentioned I had a meeting. It's cancelled, though you might be a dear and tell them that for me."

"Bryan, you can't keep putting off work like this. It's not going to look good."

"I never would have guessed you had such a head for business. I always figured it was preoccupied with my father."

"Wh…what did you just…"

"Listen sweetheart. I'm working on some very important business related stuff right now ok? How about you go ahead and just take the rest of the day off? Don't even bother calling whoever it was I had a meeting with, I'll do that myself alright? For all your hard work. Half day. Enjoy."

Silence.

"Anna?"

More silence.

"Jugs?"

After enough time had passed with no reply, Sol figured he was finally left to himself. A handful of minutes passed as he was engrossed once again in the details displayed across the glass, when there was a knock on the door.

"God dammit." Sol grunted, shutting down the feed.

"I told you already to go home! I swear, if you weren't banging dad he would've put your ass out on the street. And not in the fun way."

He pulled the door open and stopped before letting anything else escape his mouth.

"Hey. She, let me in. I was on my way in, and she said it was ok. Leaving kinda early though isn't she?"

"Oak? What the…oh, well, she wasn't doing anything anyways. What are you doing here?"

"Well, I haven't seen you in a while. Is it that weird that I'd want to see my best friend?"

"Course not. Just would've expected it a little sooner than a week after my father dies that's all."

"I…"

"Forget it. No big deal."

"It is, and…you're right. I should've been here right after it happened, but somehow…you know, there was that thing going on with Gaia, and Sky, and now…"

"Jason."

"Yeah…how'd you know about that?"

"How did I know about that?" He laughed. "Come in, lock the door."

Sol walked back to his place at his desk, and began activating the feed once again. When Oak turned around from the door he saw the window let in less and less light, then emit some of their own. Images began to appear across it, but not clear, not like it was a movie or anything. Something very different.

"What…is this?" Oak asked, watching the images as they bent across the screen. It wasn't like seeing a home video, or some foggy footage, but something else. Each large image was almost like looking at millions of smaller screenshots being pieced together every second to form a single frame, over and over so that it also looked like it was a moving picture.

"What you're seeing right now, is something you've seen almost every day of your life out there on the streets. Only, when you look at it, you don't see anything really. Just a light. But when it looks back, it sees you. You, and everything else."

"Ummm…"

"The IE lines. Or more precisely, the thing that rides them. Those pulses you see, are what is feeding me these shots."

"That's…wow…"

"Wow indeed. Courtesy of my father. I don't know if he's technically supposed to have access to the information the lines provide, seeing as how they all feed our great master Gates, but he found some way to jack into the link on a few of them. To what end, I have no idea. Could've just been curious. As curious as I was when I first found out about the thing, so I did some digging."

"Do you think that's…I mean…a good idea?"

"What I found out, is that those rings of energy, those little traveling pulses, are actually giant clusters of nanobots. They collect information in much the way you see right now. Visually taking millions, maybe billions of photos on their trek across the lines, some from the very edges of The City to here. I don't have access to the other information they must gather on the journey though, whatever it is, it couldn't be as simple and as limited as photos. Not that they don't serve another purpose entirely already."

"You mean energy."

"That's right Benny boy. The E in the acronym. Tons and tons of the stuff. From where though…I have no idea. I thought at first it was just a mass transit system for energy to travel across and disperse evenly over the zones. Now, I'm not so sure. I'm not sure at all."

"Sure about…"

"The zone walls have something to do with it maybe? Not like I haven't been around. I never felt that big of a deal passing through them. But, maybe that's it."

Sol got up from his chair and inspected some of the images a little more closely.

"Um…so, it's good to see you, and see that you're doing…ok. Um, but, the thing is Sol. I also came here because…well…there are some concerns. Pyre's gone missing."

"Missing? Is that something totally unlikely for him to do from time to time? He can fly after all. Hell, if I had those implants…"

"Well, he does leisure fly a bit…I guess…but, well, usually not for so long."

"How long has he been gone?"

"Almost four days. You know somebody hears from him in at least a day. It's got Sky kinda worried. And of course that has Gaia worried."

"And Violet and so on right?"

"Well, strangely enough, Violet hasn't really seemed to notice as much. We haven't seen her that much in the last few days either. Even Shade's pretty more scarce than usual…even less social too if I ever thought that possible. Don't get it. I mean…"

"Oh I'm sure she's just finding some body's to help her wrestle with some things. She'll be fine."

"I guess. She's a tough one that's for sure."

"You have no idea Ben. Actually, none of you do. None of you know a whole hell of a lot about her do you?"

"Well, no not really I guess. I was told, that you brought her in kinda like you did me."

"Hmmm…yeah."

Oak noticed Sol's head tilt to the left a little bit. Looking at the furthest pane of glass. Nothing any more interesting appeared to be displayed over there than on the others. Buildings, people. Mostly all the same.

"So. You came all the way out here to ask about Pyre?"

"No! Of course not, I really did come out here to see you too Bryan. I just thought…you might…want some time with it all. That's it."

"So it had nothing to do with how you didn't like my father?"

"What? I never…"

"He never liked you much you know?"

"What?"

"He always kinda saw you as a leech, or parasite really. Oh, he humored you when you were around, but when you turned your back…boy, if you and I weren't acquaintances how quickly I'm sure he'd push you aside just like so many others. So many others."

"I don't…why are you…"

"In any case, as you can see I'm doing just fine. If I ever receive any word about Pyre or his whereabouts, I'll be sure to forward them to Sky, or Gaia. Since you're not going to be available for the information in the meantime."

"What…are you talking about Sol. Why are you talking to me like this?"

"Like what? Truthfully? Aren't best friends supposed to be able to talk to each other without inhibition?"

"There's a difference between inhibition, and just being malicious Bryan."

"Maybe…maybe not. All I know for sure is that my father could always talk truthfully to everyone, and nobody did a thing about it, but me. That tells me something. That tells me that nobody else could say anything. After all, second most powerful man around next to Gates himself virtually right? They were basically all just ants under the boot, avoiding it coming down. Despite what he said, they'd say nothing back. It's starting to look that way right now Oakley. I'm starting to see what my father did."

"You…don't mean that Sol. I know you loved your father, but…"

"Love? Are you fucking serious?"

"Yes! Don't deny it Sol. You would never have said that stuff, at that conference about finding his killers if you didn't. Not with such passion. I saw you, I heard you."

"God, Ben. You are so very, very, simple. So clueless. You move out of that little podunk zone, but you never left the podunk mentality where it needed to stay." Sol pulled something out of a drawer. "You never even learned to stop with the fucking snail mail."

He threw an opened envelope at his friend, the content slipping out slightly and sliding a little further than its carrier. Oak recognized the lettering at once.

"What…what are you doing with my mail?"

"I'm sorry, your mail? Technically, that mail is mine. It's addressed to you, through me, considering you have no place on the lease, what with not paying for the rent and all. That mail came to exactly whom it should have considering you weren't around to pick it up."

"This is a letter from my mother!"

"Oh, I'm aware. Big news too. That's why I said you won't be in the loop for some time soon."

"What…"

"You may want to read it Ben. It's pretty important."

Sol turned his back and studied the screen once more, particularly when it flashed over the image of a once colossal tower, now tipped clear over. Oak opened the letter and began reading. Sol repeating the words to himself as Oak read over them silently.

"How…when did you get this Bryan?"

"Yesterday."

"And you're only giving it to me now!?"

"If you were ever really all that concerned about keeping in touch with your folks, you'd do more than the occasional foot letter, taking your days to compose a lie to tell them about life in the big zone. For fuck's sake, they already come here weeks later than when they get written in the first place. It wouldn't surprise me if that letter were a month old by now."

"All the more reason to get it to me sooner! Dammit Sol!"

"Whoa, now he's getting a little uninhibited. Now the question here, is are you really pissed at me, pal, or yourself? Surely you must've seen the day this letter was going to come to you. I mean, nobody knows better than you what…"

"You want the truth so badly Sol? You want to know the thing that nobody wants to tell you? It's not fear that keeps them from it. It's pity." Oak said unlocking the door. "The truth is, you're more and more like your father every day."

"Well, I guess that means I have many bright and successful days of supporting you to look forward to don't I?"

"Yeah, and the darkest loneliest fall to follow."

The door slammed shut. Sol exhaled deeply then took a drink from whatever alcohol was sitting on his desk for the last three days.

"Three days. Three…Pyre?"

Sol quickly arranged to have the first feed he recorded from three days ago play back. For several minutes it played as it might anywhere else, but then, towards the outskirts of the zone. There was a bright flash on a random rooftop. He could see a tiny figure framed in white. Blackness, almost like the bots were either fried or went blind for a moment. Then, fire.

"I'll be damned."

He touched a little insignia on his desktop displaying a list of contacts. He chose one.

"Speak." A hollow voice answered.

"Yes. This is Bryan Day. Regarding a request from Mr. Gates."