The F.O.X. Project

Chapter 8: A mission

Trent woke up. Wait. That can't be right. He didn't remember even going to sleep. He tried to move and discovered that he was tied up to a chair. With a crash, Trent managed to tip the chair over on its side. The second he hit the floor blinding lights turned the once dark room into a white void.
A man walked in with a lab coat and over to a small control panel. He pressed a button and the door by the floor to ceiling window he was looking through opened.
'Sorry to bring you here this way,' he said in a slightly gravelly voice. 'But we can't have you running away now can we?' Trent struggled to see him as he paced around the chair.
'We still need your help for the future. This is why we are going to put you in a stasis sleep for the next hundred years.' Trent stoped everything and stared straight at him.
'Oh don't worry. Look on the bright side, you won't have to look at my ugly face there.' Trent thought about what he had been through. No. But it didn't come out.
'Come on!' The doctor said enthusiastically. A claw came down from the ceiling and grabbed his chair. The doctor walked away and the claw followed with Trent, dangling in a chair, on the other end.

The white corridors gleamed as the claw holding Trent carried his chair along the corridor after the doctor. He stopped at an iron door and typed in a passcode. With a hiss, the door opened revealing hundreds of younger creatures like him in stasis sleep. The  pods swaying slightly with the inrush of fresh air. Carrying on into the darkness, the doctor pointed at a space.
'They said that you were a lost cause but I still saved a space for you.'
'How sweet.' Answered Trent with a sarcastic tone.

He felt a jolt and he was then lifted onto a gantry where the doctor started to untie his bounds. Trent acted. He saw this as his time to escape. But the second he got up he was brutally shoved into one of the pods, where the door closed instantly.
A cold rush of air blew through the pod and Trent felt himself start to lose consciousness. No. He fought the urge as long as he dared before the darkness grabbed him and dragged him into sleep.

♦️ ♦️ ♦️

Far out to sea, Max swam. He had been swimming for hours now it seemed, with a bit of driftwood as a float. Constantly defying the cold. Not giving in. He could see a sea of pins in the distance. Macropolis. Fuelled anew, he pushed on, kicking frantically with his feet. On and on. He swam and swam. No stopping. Not even from a second.

Then. He heard a sound that would make any Bounty Hunter's blood run ice cold. The all too familiar, echoey, sonar like bing of a Seeker on a kill mission. He frantically scanned the horizon. Nothing. How could something so big hide so well against nothing. BING. It sounded closer now. He saw it's searchlight wave towards him. Blinded by its deep red glow Max ducked under the water. It's a matter of life and death now.*
The water went dark as it passed over him. The creaking and groaning of metal echoing through the murky depths of the Macropolis coastline.
BING! His eardrums screamed.
After, and only after, he was absolutely sure that it had passed and was at least a mile away, He surfaced. His ears ringing as he gasped for the piece of driftwood.
His watch vibrated. A notification. A mission?! 'Meet: district 5, level 3.' It read, 'there's something I want you to do for me' Oh great. It's C. A guy that Max has owed a favour for a while. Looks like he won't be getting paid for this one.
With as much energy as he could muster, he dragged himself onto the quayside. It was night time and floodlights lit up the containers and abandoned vehicles littered around as the workers gave up and left for the day.

Busses don't usually run at night. Instead, train-like vehicles traverse the streets as they are more silent and there is less traffic.
Max waited as one of these pulled up, the blue neon strip on the road guiding it lazily along. It dawdled to a halt in front of him and he embarked.
The inside was dim and full of late night commuters heading to or from work. Most of them were asleep or frantically typing on their little laptops, trying to get that last bit of paperwork done before their stop. Max stood and held the overhead handholds, he was getting off at the next stop. He got a few weary looks from passengers as he was still soaking wet from his little ocean adventure.
A cheery ding and the doors opened to welcome the night.
Max disembarked and he trotted up a set of stairs to tier 3.
A man with a blue blazer, trousers, a red tie and bowler hat was leaning against a wall.
He sensed Max's presence.
'I have a job for you.' He said flatly.
'What kind?'
'An elimination mission,'
'Ooh, who?'
'A guy called Trent Derrewick.'
'The urban explorer?'
'Yes. He defected. Gone to the dark side.'
'Chaos??'
'Sshhhh! We do not speak of that name here!'
'Oh. Ok. I'll do it.'
'Good. You owe me a favour.'
Max and Mr C walked in separate directions down the alleyway.

Max thought about saying no. But he couldn't now. A deal was a deal. Even if he wasn't getting paid for it.

♦️ ♦️ ♦️
First thing Max needed to do was access a public computer to find out where the person he was tracking down was. Getting off at the nearest public electronics point, he hopped on a computer and searched the citizen files for Trent. This will activate his bio-chip and allow him to be tracked.
Max pulled the file up;

Name: Trent Derrewick
Status: suspended
PROPERTY OF DCC

Most of the data was redacted, including species. Weird.
This was going to be tricky. He would need to ask the right questions in the right places else DCC will be after his head to put on a shiny new plaque on Freddy Deare's office wall.
Max had run into Deare once before, it was in a dangerous time. They both hated each other due to Max's history with DCC's most feared leader as one of his officers. Until he started working with the Nova Corporation and helped to eliminate threats to the Underground Railroad.
He thought about this for a second. He was going off task. Focus.

Downloading Trent's live location onto his 'Wayfinder' software, Max disappeared into the shadows and headed towards DCC's headquarters known as 'The Obelisk'.

*Learn more about the Seeker in my upcoming horror book: Seeker (very original title I know).