Syn City: Reality Bytes

Bard Constantine Syn City: Reality Bytes

Other Books in the Havenworld Universe

❖ Havenworld

❖ Silent Empire

❖ The Troubleshooter: Four Shots

❖ The Troubleshooter: New Haven Blues

❖ The Troubleshooter: The Most Dangerous Dame

❖ Vigiclass="underline" Knight in Cyber Armor

❖ Nimrod Squad

After the Cataclysm nearly wiped out humanity, the remnants of humanity survived in Havens: city-sized constructs built to reboot society and usher in a new age of humankind.

However, the new age was not the type the architects had envisioned. The same greed and lust for power that existed before the Cataclysm resurfaced and the Havens quickly became quagmires of political and economic conflict, threatening to destroy the future envisioned by their founders.

This is the world of a pair of troubled individuals: Specter: a thief and hustler addicted to digital existence and targeted by government task forces and corporate watchdogs because of his extrasensory abilities. And Enigma: a former rebel turned slave soldier for Cyber Corp, an agency that specializes in tracking down the most dangerous threats in the world. They have little in common, but their paths lead to the same destination. A place where their talents can be utilized for good, or completely turned against them.

Welcome to

Chapter 1: 5P3CT3R

Tonight, I dine with the enemy.

Enigma sits beside me in the sushi bar. Brightly lit, crowded with the lunchtime rush of customers. Orders are placed via an interactive interface and delivered on a tiny conveyor to the appropriate customer at the counter. I picked the place because I don't trust her. There's less chance of things getting violent in such a public atmosphere.

"You're a hard man to find."

My order arrives. Spider and dragon rolls. Appropriate in the presence of predators.

I remove the tray from the conveyor and bite into a spider roll, savoring the taste of soft-shell crab, cucumber, and avocado. "Yeah. Well, when you're in the crosshairs of the HSSC and mega-corporations like Maximillian Industries you tend to take the necessary precautions."

Enigma has an angular face and silvery-white shoulder-length hair. Gray eyes glimmer her from sooty lashes like dirty ice. She sips water with lemon and ignores the rainbow roll on the tray in front of her studying me with a nearly unnerving intensity.

"You're a symbiont. A man possessing abilities that normal people don't. People fear what they don't understand."

"Sometimes they have good reason to."

Sunglasses hide my eyes, but I'm wearing them for more than the cool factor. They operate as scanners and threat detectors. I know Enigma is unarmed. I know she registers as human, not a synoid. I see no one else in the bar who identifies as a hazard. Which means she came alone as promised.

I still can't shake the feeling that something is wrong. I take another bite and try to appear casual. Just a man enjoying a meal with a beautiful stranger.

"What do you know about symbionts?"

She scoots slightly over and leans so that her face was only inches away from mine, lowering her to a near whisper in my ear.

"I know that at any given moment, there are upwards of fifty million synthetic humanoids operating in the United Havens and surrounding Territories, only distinguishable from humans by an identifying scan. They can do anything we can do but faster and more efficiently. Their only restrictions are unbreakable parameters that prevent them from physically hurting humans or allowing them to be hurt."

I give her a sidelong glance. The freckles on her face are barely visible up close, like raindrops on a pane of glass. For some reason the imperfections make her look more attractive. There's a sensual curve to her lips when she smiles.

"And people like you can hijack them."

I take a sip of ginger beer, unable to stop the wry grin that spreads across my face. "There aren't any people like me."

"Not many, anyway." Enigma leans back, studying me with a finger tapping her chin. Her nails are uneven. I suspect she bites them.

"You're one of the estimated.005 percent of humans that have the potential for extrasensory talents. Most go their entire lives without realizing their advantage. Others use their abilities subconsciously, developing the uncanny skill of 'reading' other people, guessing what's on the minds of others. They use their limited skills to better themselves, stay a step ahead of whatever pursuits they're engaging. But in the end, they attribute their gifts to simply paying more than average attention, being skilled at anticipating the thoughts of people around them."

"Congrats. You've done your homework."

She smiles. "Then, there's you. A true symbiont. How do you do it?"

I nearly break into an explanation when I catch myself. Enigma is good at disarming conversation, and there's the bonus of her being startlingly beautiful. She almost had me.

"Why don't we just cut to the chase, Enigma? We set this meeting up because you said you had a job for me."

Disappointment flashes across her face so quickly that I'm unsure if I actually saw it. She recovers just as fast.

"Look — I have to know if you're the real deal. A lot is riding on this. The stakes are astronomical, especially if we fail. I need to be sure that you're the man for the job."

"What do you want, a demonstration?"

"That's exactly what I want."

"Where?"

"Here."

I glance around. The bar is full to bursting with patrons eating, talking, laughing. Not one of them registers as anything but human.

Enigma follows my gaze. "Maximillian Industries just produced their latest models of synoids. Nexus 10. Completely undetectable by common scanners."

My eyes widen. "Wait a minute — you're saying that some of these people are synoids? No way."

"No. Not some." Enigma raises her arm, smiles at me, then snaps her fingers.

Everyone in the room stops in mid-motion. Expressions frozen, bodies stiff. The bar goes eerily silent. I can't believe my eyes. Just like that, I walked into a trap.

I leap to my feet, backing away from Enigma. "Who the hell are you?"

She raises her hands, showing me the cy-gear strapped to her palm. Her face is composed, her voice soothing. "It's a hack. A program I wrote myself. Calm down. I'm not a threat to you, Dean."

My heart nearly explodes from my chest. "How do you know that name? Are you an Agent? You're HSSC, aren't you?"

"Try not to panic, Specter. That's the name you prefer, isn't it? The answer is no; I'm not an Agent. I don't work for any agency trying to hunt you down. But I have been trying to find you for a long time."

I whirl around, looking for the armored stormtroopers or suited Agents. Outside the sushi bar, life continues undisturbed. People outside walk by, oblivious. Talk to friends, adjust their holovisors, sit on benches in the plaza and eat their lunch.

"You see, Specter? We're alone here. No one is coming to get you. I just want to talk."

I turn to her, a smile tugging at the corner of my mouth. My fingers clench into fists. "You want to see what I can do? I'll show you."

And as I speak, I core-jack the nearest synoid. There is a rush of white noise and blue light, then I achieve symbiosis and gaze out from my new host. My original body freezes in place next to Enigma; eyes rolled back in the skull. I lift my dainty little fingers and clamber out of my chair in the form of a nine-year-old Chinese girl. Enigma stares at me in shock.

I place my hands on my hips and speak in my little girl voice. "There are other symbionts, but I'm better than most. I've sharpened my skills so that I can project my consciousness into the brain core of any synoid in the vicinity."