Bring it Fools -- Science Fiction Smack Down

The Lucid Seer

New author's note: you are free to read this, but there is an extended remix of this story that I think is much better. Look for it in this book. This is the version that got through round two of the Smack Down, however.

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Albert Rao's gun barked four angry curses, spitting metal into the rain-soaked dusk. In reply, the neon sign above them exploded, and glass and sparks showered down. A bullet cracked into the concrete inches from his arm, ricocheting into the alley. He ducked back, reloaded.

'They've found us,' he shouted behind him.

'No shit,' replied Yonca. 'We're ready to move again. Cover us for ten, and then follow.'

Albert nodded; and then he crouched and fired another two shots across the dim road. The street lights flickered as if in sympathy, their ghostly reflections shimmering in the puddles.

There were more corpsec goons piling out. They were taking cover behind cars and bins, bringing bigger guns to bear. They wore black flack jackets, shouted orders at each other, spat onto the pavement. Above it all was the sound of a flyer, high above the dim city and bright adverts.

He finished counting, dropped back and sprinted down the alley towards the open manhole. Wei was waiting; Albert climbed down as quickly as he could, the wet metal rungs cold and treacherous; Wei followed him, pulling the cover back in place. What little light had been falling from the surface was blotted out like an eclipse.

Albert tapped his head torch, and the concrete blossomed yellow, the streaks and stains glittering with a bleak beauty. He forced himself to move methodically, foot after foot, hand after hand, the rain plunging around him. Luuk was muttering and Wei was silent, their breathing loud in the narrow space.

It was supposed to be easy. A raid on the tech building, break in, bust out Albert's little sister, run away. They knew there would be guards, corporate security thugs with arrogance and guns; but they hadn't expected this much resistance, this much firepower. Something was very wrong.

But Tina was worthwhile, and so far the plan was working, despite it all.

It must have been minutes, but it felt like a lifetime; then he was standing in the sewer, flexing his cramped fingers. The darkness was absolute, a wall that fled when they aimed their torches at it but sprang back when ignored, a plotting demon that hovered just out of reach.

Yonca pulled out a box, pressed a button. Even down here they could hear the crump as their van exploded.

'I'll miss that van,' said Wei.

'Wait until you see Donald,' said Luuk. 'It's incredible.'

Yonca waved them to be quiet. They started off down the sewer, going as quickly as Tina could manage.

Albert hadn't seen her since they had pulled her out of her cell. She had been enmeshed in wires, bound in a cradle of electronics that had bleeped and screeched as they unhooked her; red disks from the electrodes were still visible on her shaved head.

He hurried up to walk next to her, hugged her briefly. She smiled, gently.

'Hello, Bertie,' she whispered.

She didn't have a torch. She didn't need one; her eyes were just white orbs, no iris or pupils marring her perfect sclera. Her sight was external, a vision that swept around her, ahead and back through space and time, touching on the mundane and the divine. She had once told Albert that she could taste a raindrop as it fell, knew the smell of neon lights, could hear what the future said; but he still had to help her find socks that matched because they all felt the same.