Tevun-Krus #110 - Punk Wars 3

Something Street - A Story by @johnnedwill

Something Street

by johnnedwill

Hailey woke up to the sound of the alarm on her phone. She fumbled it from the litter of clothes on the floor, and held the screen close so she could read it without her glasses. There was a red dot on the group message icon - a sign that there had been some activity on the groups she had subscribed to. There was another red bubble on the direct message icon. Hailey thumbed this one and grabbed her glasses.

The message was from Jason, one of her fixers.

H - Got a job 4u. Up 4 it?

Hailey tapped in a reply.

Depends. What is it?

A row of flashing dots appeared at the bottom of the screen, showing that Jason was online and replying. Then:

Talk over b/fast? C u @ Macs.

Hailey checked the time.

Half hour - k?

A bright yellow 'thumbs up' icon appeared in the chat window.

Having dealt with this, Hailey turned her attention to the other messages that had accumulated overnight. Most of them were on the Something Street group - a message board for people who were interested in what went on in Something Street.

Something Street was an anomaly that cut across the city, appearing and disappearing seemingly at random. Some people believed that Something Street followed the strange geometry of some unknown spatiotemporal curve. Others thought there was some intelligence that controlled its manifestations. Whatever the truth was, Something Street would appear somewhere in the city - sometimes pushing the surrounding streets aside like an impatient patron elbowing their way to the bar; sometimes replacing entire neighbourhoods and their inhabitants, sending them elsewhere until Something Street moved on.

Hailey scrolled through the new messages, noting the few that had useful information: the locations of new interfaces between the city and Something Street; talk about traders and where to find them. All through this, Hailey kept one eye on the time. It wouldn't do to turn up for a breakfast appointment with Jason unwashed and still in her pyjamas. Satisfied there was nothing of importance in the rest of the messages, Hailey deleted them and put her phone down. "Time to get up," she muttered.

Twenty minutes later, Hailey was hurrying to Mac's - a diner that was within easy walking distance of her apartment. She was a regular, known to the staff, and liked to do business there. It made it easy for potential clients to find her, and the extra custom she brought in was always welcome. As she entered the diner, she nodded to the servers then looked around for Jason. He was in a booth at the back of the diner, a plate of food in front of him.

Hailey walked over to the booth and sat down opposite Jason. "Hey."

Jason raised a mug of fragrant breakfast chocolate in greeting. "Hey to you too."

Hailey gave her breakfast order to the server, then turned her attention back to Jason. "So - you said you had a job for me?"

"Krumm's back on Something Street."

"Krumm?" Hailey tried to sound nonchalant. "So what?"

"Well, somebody wants something."

The server returned with a plate of toast and scrambled eggs. Hailey picked up a fork and began to pick at the food in front of her. "Somebody always wants something."