Thunder

Chapter Three - 1

Z9 strode down a long, plush hallway inside the Headquarters of C.A.T, Celestria Agent Taskforce, grumbling under her breath as she went. Of course that dress was her favourite. Of course she wanted to wear it again, even if there were still bits of blood and DNA in it. No she didn't care that it was now classified as evidence. That had been her favourite, damnit, and she wanted it back.

She waved her hand over the Halo-Core mounted to the side of the door. Banged in the digits as hard as one can hit a hologram. The door clicked and she swung it open.

The interior was tastefully modern, furnished with tables of cut glass, edged with neon of Celestrian-Blue. She was sick of that colour, and often wondered how the entire population didn't get sick of it. The rest of the room itself was sparsely decorated, a shelf of knick-knacks, a cabinet with drinks and glasses, the main desk with everything built in. Behind it, a woman in her thirties was standing up, reading facts and figures on a Halo-Skreen, compiling faces and files together, pinching and projecting everything before her.

'Seems you've gone and caused quite a stir, Selene,' she said without looking up. The table brought up a hologram of a head,, and the woman touched its floating nose and swiped left, swivelling the face towards Z9. It was the man in the black coat. 'Recognise him?'

'He's in remarkably better condition than the last time I saw him,' Z9 said.

The woman raised her eyes, piercing and green. She had short hair, a flawless face without a single blemish. Her sleek black suit almost transformed her into a pair of floating eyes.

'Quite so. Gave you a run out, at least, like a dog that needs to be exercised. Take a seat.'

Selene closed the door quietly. The floor softly glowed under her feet as she walked across to the desk and took a seat. The woman's silhouette was perfectly framed against the Celestrian skyline that was coming through the high glass windows behind her, probably a deliberate intimidation technique. A Magna-Train shuttled a few miles away past the towers and skyscrapers. Halo's new headquarters, a large spherical structure nearly a mile in diameter at the base, pulsed a lighter shade, then darker, and back to light again, so that none forgot it was there.

The woman tapped the side of the table and all activity on its surface blinked out. She sat down and put her elbows on the table and folded her hands together under her chin. 'I've got an apology to make,' the woman said. She sighed and sat back in her sleek chair. 'I put you in there on a false lead. It's a minor miracle you're still here to tell us how much we cocked up.'

'Blame the agents that got themselves killed getting that information to you,' Z9 said.

'Those are your colleagues, Z9. Blame us, that's fine. But do not put this on them.'

Z9 nodded. Sarcasm sometimes bit her back.

'We've underestimated our opponents,' the woman continued. 'It seems like there are more cogs involved with this machine than we initially realised.'

'Well there's three parties already, surely.'

'Us, the people you went after and the people who actually have the box,' the woman listed. 'Yes, it would appear so.' The woman sat in silence for a second. She tapped the side of the desk again and set the man's face to constantly rotate.

'Zarch Raoul. Gun for hire. Last seen two years ago, leading a bank-heist over in Guggurios on Androssios V. He's a feisty bugger.'

'Tell me about it. What about the man who's wallet and gun I pinched?' Z9 asked. The woman dissolved Zarch's image and pulled up another face.

'Well this is what he looks like, though we've no idea what his name is. Probably born off-Celestria. My guess is one of the outposts, maybe down towards the Granthor Streak. We've got people running it, but nothing so far.' The woman held the face for a few seconds before dissolving it. She reached into a drawer in her desk and pulled out a battered wallet; the one Z9 had taken from Skull man. She opened it up and plucked out a tatty, ragged business card. 'This, however, is of significance.'

Z9 took the card and looked it over, feeling the fraying sides and moving it around to see the writing more clearly.

THE WORLD HAS COME TO BLOOD

THE WORLD WILL END IN THUNDER

'What a nihilistic bunch they are,' Z9 remarked. 'Whoever they are.' She looked over the card for a few seconds more before handing it back.

'We've run checks on this, trying to find quotes and references. Algorithms and all sorts, but the best we've got is an allusion to the earthen novel, Moby Dick, and we're fairly sure it isn't that. So we haven't got much, but we have some rudimentary ideas.'

'Such as?'

The woman tapped the desk a few times, a map beginning to rise out of the table. The blue outlines seemed a blur together at first, but they soon solidified, and after a quick mental check, started going through where it could be. Definitely a section of Celestria, and not some other planet or outpost. The large blue snake trailing its way through the centre was undoubtedly a section of the Celestrian Thames. Which one she didn't know, but she guessed a region somewhere in the 30s. Scratched her cheek. Yes, that particular meander, the horseshoe. Got to be near the end of the thirties, no? A large building on the edge. A dock of some sort. Mentally zoomed in. She recognised the flailing arms of the Morbed Advertising Agency's main building. 'Region 41,' Z9 said.

'Good eyes.' The map stopped rising. 'We looked along the Thames for something; due to the vaguely watery thing going on with the little riddle we were left. There's a load of stuff going on around the Thames, always is. Good place for film locations. However...' the woman zoomed in on a warehouse three streets away from the river, about two miles from the horseshoe.

'Trawled through security footage looking for either of the two dead you so recently dispatched of. Both were seen going into there, three days ago. Five times in the day. Went in, stayed for fifteen minutes, and went out again. Back an hour later, and repeat.' On the side of the map, a small window opened. Hologram footage of men entering a side door, one of them undoubtedly Zarch Raoul.

Z9 studied it, and then when she'd burned it into her brain, and the woman didn't seem like she was going to say anymore, she got up. 'I'll get going then.'

'Go down to see Mark Twenty-three first, Selene,' the woman said, turning off the desk. 'I believe he has a few things for you, and one or two you might enjoy. One especially.'

'Of course, Gina One. Whatever you say.' Z9 turned and left Gina One's office, closing the door quietly behind her.

She began to walk down the corridor, catching a glimpse of the dress she was wearing. Still that awful blue; it hadn't magically changed when she wasn't looking. The rage came back. 'He'd better have something really fucking good.'