Birth of a Legacy

An early meeting

"Chunhua?"

"Mmm?"

"What is the lead on that low-level runner you poached as an informant?"

"Sorry, I did not have time to follow-up on that. Let me check."

"Please do, the boss is riding my ass on this one."

Some old fashioned clicking and typing. 

"Well that is a suprise."

"What?"

"She wrote back. Well, I mean, her profile and her upbringing make her a likely target, but..."

"What did our AI predict?"

"Let me just pull the file for you. Paper copy or...?"

The deep leather groves around Rodolfo's mouth resembled his shoes when he smiled at her.

"The day that we at Zeity will start using implants to do our job..."

"...is the day we lost the game. Yeah, yeah."

Rodolfo's folds above his eyes now creased accordingly to his mood.

"It is true you know, and it is not just a game. It is a war, people just do not know it yet."

Chunhua spits out her gum in the bin next to her and holds up a finger whiles she gets up.

"Hold on, I will get it for you." 

Rodolfo waches the tiny chinese agent walk off, then he roles his chair backwards to take a glimps at her screen.

          From: YadaYada [mailto: Yada @ grr . la ]

          Sent: unknown

          To: Chunhua <CH1@zeity.org>

          Subject: Re: words on the street

          <YES> | <A>

A heavy thud made him look up.

"I told you she said yes."

A grunt.

"I need to know how she said yes. She seems like a clever girl. Let me read her file."

Chunhua points at the standard black and white clock on the dull brick wall, "you do that. It is way passed my bedtime. Hell, this is not even my time-zone. I see you tomorrow."

No answer. Chunhua shrugs her shoulders, closes her laptop and dangles her leather coat on one finger on the way out. It was unseasonally chilly in Miami this winter.

The next morning, rain flows in waves against the windows. Rodolfo picks his teeth while he stares across the street. She did not come out yet. He cannot blame her.

"Some more hashbrowns hun?" He never got used to the southern lingo. Though he was the son of cuban imigrants, his parents at least had the decency to fly to Toronto and plant their new life there. 

"No thank you, just some coffee please. Eh, decaf if you have it."

Then a bright yellow umbrella caught his eye as it hurried across the flooded street, a promise of the sun to come later that day, making everything sticky, humid and umbearable. 

He recognized Adisa from the picture in her file. Her back story was as typical as it was tragic, daughter of Nigerian intellectuals, who came to America to work at the university of Tallahassee on political sciences, and started their young family here, died in an uneventful car accident. A legal battle between the social services and the remaining family in Nigeria ensued, unknown to the two young children. Since Adisa was not yet registered as Nigerian, the state decided to keep the siblings together and place them in foster care. They never knew their family back in Africa.

She almost walked passed him, dripping wet with the sound of soggy socks in her sneakers. He looked up.

"Amari Chukwu?"

She stopped right next to him.

"Who wants to know?"

Rudolf smiled warmly, wrinkling up his deeply tanned face. Had the sun shone today, sure his white teeth would have blinded her. But it was raining still.

"Please sit down, we got your email. Now I read your file, we can offer you something."

Amari looked around for a second, then across the street, then sat down. The waitress came by with the coffee.

"Can I get you something hun?" Not even a critical glance. It was Miami after all. 

"Eh, a coke please. No ice. Thanks."

Rudolf turned his head across the street and thumbed in the direction of a parked car. 

"Should we invite you brother as well?"

"How did you..." Amari did not finish her sentence, "why are you here and what can you offer me?"

Rudolf took out a globular object from his pocket and put it on the table. It rolled slowly to Amari.

"Mmm, shoddy craftsmanship, the table is not level." 

Amari looked puzzled at the object, but did not pick it up.

"What is this? It looks a bit like an eye."

Rodolfo nodded.

"Close enough. At some very high levels we know that some special players have requested beta testing of what just put here on the table. Currently it is worth a fortune. Luckily we have been able to duplicate the technology. We would like you to have it, and use it during your time in Scramble."

"But what is it?"

"That my young and curious friend is an OpticOculus, Alpha Mark AA, and not even graded yet."

Amari whistled through her teeth.