I never liked unplanned stops, especially ones at night. Used to be they were just annoying, a quick five minute stop to fix something on my ride before moving on. But ever since that one fateful summer four years ago, I had way more to deal with.
For example, the creepy old guy whose garage I was using for the night: his eyes wandered across me just like I wandered all across the Networked States. The only thing that made him stop was Century jumping on my back and hissing at him. Century was my companion drone, the size of a large house cat and the shape of a gryphon. Her claws could cut through steel and her wings hid blades that were just as sharp. The guy was trying to play it off that he hadn’t been staring at my ass for the past five minutes like someone parched stares at a bottle of water, and failing miserably at it. The good news for everyone involved was that I had finished fixing my ride and was ready to fuck off, but the moment I sat down in the rider’s seat with Century at my side, somebody I was really hoping to avoid stepped into the garage.
“Martin, good evening, sorry to disturb you, couldn’t help but notice your lights were on in the garage, so I decided to come by and see what’s going on.” The pig put his foot up on my front bumper and rested his arms on his knee. “And what do I find but a stranger in town; don’t you know it’s customary to say hi to the town sheriff when you arrive?” He was looking directly at me, so I gave him my best smile.
“I figured you’d be asleep by now, and I wasn’t expecting to spend more than fifteen minutes to half an hour in town anyways.” I clutched the wheel harder; Century had her front claw resting on the starter, ready to press it at any second.
“Are you giving me lip here, miss?” He moved over to be standing next to the door and resting his arm on the roof.
“No, sir, I’m giving you the peace of mind that you won’t see me again the moment you get far enough from my car for me to safely drive away.” I let my smile go, he wasn’t looking at my face anyway.
“Good, because I don’t want any no-good Journeymen making their way into my town and making an unlawful mess of the place. If I see you getting within a mile of the town again, you won’t be walking it off, understand?” He stepped away, patting his holster.
“Loud and clear.” I revved the wheels up while still to make a bit of a dust cloud before driving off, specifically to annoy the ever living shit out of the pig; seeing him cough was made all the more satisfying as I flipped him off and drove into the night. “Lawless he says, just because our communities don’t have cops, can you believe the cheek on that fuck, Cent?” Century nudged my arm, so I gave her some quick pets. “Thanks, you always know how to make me feel better.” She chirped in agreement as we drove onwards. “Okay, now where was the meeting point again?” There was a nudge at the back of my head, a familiar feeling of Century sending me information. With a quick thought, I accepted the data transfer, the exact GPS coordinates showing up in my thoughts as if they had been spoken aloud. “Oh, there, good job remembering, Cent, what would I do without you?” Another data transfer from Century, this time an image of cropped red-tinted slightly closed eyes. I shook my head. “Sometimes I forget how old you actually are and then you hit me with ancient memes.” The meeting point was off the road, so I turned to drive across the plains towards it, kicking up dust from how fast I was going.
It was an old abandoned farmhouse, with a hole through the roof and a missing door, the paint peeling off of it. Most surprising was that it was made out of wood, and that I could see some green in the greenhouse near it. A quick peek inside of it let me know it was potatoes. Century was at my side as we entered the farmhouse itself, to find a Latino dude not much older than me standing there next to a suspiciously sized box. “You Joseph?” I asked, leaning against the doorframe, Century deploying her claws and looking at them for the intimidation factor.
“Yeah, yeah, and you’re M, right? Journeyman, Bonded, all that stuff?” He rubbed his hands off on his thighs and extended one for me to shake, I obliged.
“Yup. So what’ve you got there that you want me to help smuggle into Dusklight?” I stepped towards the box; the size and shape was all too familiar.
“I, I don’t know, fell off of a Rainforest transport, looked big and important and not like a regular delivery of theirs, so I snatched it, figured I could smuggle it into Dusklight and then see what happens.” I looked him right in the eye; Century jumped up to stand on my shoulder to help with the effect.
“So you have no idea what’s in this box.”
“None at all.” He was sweating. Note to self, don’t let him be the face if we ever ended up working together again.
“Because this looks suspiciously like a gib.” I found the panel for opening it. “Cent, if you would.” She nodded and got to work cracking it.
“A gib?” Joseph asked, scratching the back of his next, gulping.
“G.I.B., Girl In Box. Not always a girl but they’re so common the acronym stuck.” The boxed hissed as it opened, and sure enough, there was a naked twenty something looking woman in there, in suspended animation, no hair on her and a pretty distinct barcode tattoo behind her ear, plus the lack of a belly button. She was definitely organic though. Century once again jumped on my shoulder, but this time she had spread her wings and taken up an aggressive posture. “Did you hire me before or after you checked the box?”
Joseph opened his mouth a couple of times, nervously trying to get the words out. Ashamed, he hung his head low and answered. “After.”
I tsked. “Typical. Fucking typical. People hear ‘Anarchist Community’ and think we have absolutely zero morals, that we’ll take on any job. Well, newsflash, Joseph, No Human Trafficking is one of our core morals.” I got ready to leave, I had one foot out the door when he spoke up.
“Hey, hey, hey, M, slow down, please, hold on. I’m sorry, okay?” Joseph jumped in front of me to stop me. “I should have been upfront, I… I want to rescue whoever is in that box. The Rainforest transport was taking them out of Dusklight to who knows where, I thought I’d be able to help, smuggle them back into town and then help them disappear. Honest.”
After a quick sigh on my part, I punched him in the shoulder. “You should have opened with that, dumbass. How’re we doing the smuggling?”
“The city border is guarded all across its perimeter, we basically have to go through the customs gate.” He pulled out a folder out of his jacket. “Not to worry though, I got legit enough looking papers that label the box as organs for delivery, so nobody will have to open it, and a scan will confirm there’s organic stuff in there.” I snatched the folder out of his hand to look it over; everything checked out at first glance.
“Border patrol might want a bribe, you got enough to cover it?” He answered my question with a nod, pulling a cash stick out of his pocket, the display showing twenty thousand. “How cheap human life is today.” I shook my head and pocketed it. “Alright, let’s get our passenger loaded up.” I had to put down one of the seats to make the box fit, but it had built in levitation to make moving it around easier. I got behind the wheel, and Joseph tried to get into the passenger seat right up until Century put on a threatening display. “Cent always rides shotgun, them’s the rules.”
“Alright, alright, no need to gut me, little bird.”
“Catbird. Gryphon. Joseph, please show respect to the elderly.” Joseph was sitting down in the back, resting his arm on the box, and Century sent me a middle finger through our link. “Oh come on Cent you could have been my great-grandmother had you had any gametes.” She was pouty, turned away from me, and so I rolled my eyes and scratched under her chin and all was forgiven.
“Do you really trust it?” Joseph asked, pointing at Century.
“I trust her with my life. I trust her to have my back and watch out for me. I trust her as much as any other Bonded member. I know what people think of AI, what they say, but those are lies. All lies.” I petted Century. “I wouldn’t be myself if not for her being in my life.” I shifted gears and drove off. “Well, I hope this works for all our sakes.”
Good start. =3 Thanks for the new story!
So many cyberpunk vibes wowie
This is a really cool start time to read :3
Nice! This site needs more sci-fi
Sad for the gib ;^;