The Eyes Of The Future

Chapter 3

They had reached Winstill's office, but Charlie felt a bit nervous. He hadn't seen him in a while, so he had no idea how he would react to seeing him. God, I hope he doesn't call me by my nickname, Charlie thought. Back when he was working as a Synthesizer, he had a nickname or a "Special Identity" if you will. His special identity was "Divinorium," for that was his ranking within the units. They walked into his office and Charlie's heart was beating out of his chest. "Heya Charles. It's been a while," said Capt. Winstill. Capt. Winstill was a very large white man. He was old, about 65, and his face could give away his age easily. He had round glasses that sat perfectly on his fat face. He was balding on the top of his head but the rest of his hair was at the sides of his head perfectly slicked back. "Sit down," Winstill said. "Let's discuss why you're here."

"What's with the phony arrest?" Charlie asked.

"Ya' wouldn't have come if I just asked you nicely."

"You never try a nice way, to be honest."

"But that's not why you're here. You're here because I need my old gunslinger back, Charles."

"Can't. I'm retired. Don't you remember what happened three years ago? I barely walked out of there alive and not full of holes!"

"Please, ya' know that Thomas died and he was as good as you! C'mon, you're our best one, no offense Daffy."

"None was taken," Daffy said. "I don't care, you're right. He's in the hall of fame." 

"So they did keep it there."

Then Winstill drew a frustrated face and then said: "Let's get back on track here, time's running short."

"Alright. What do you want?" Charlie said.

"Come this way. You need to see who you're dealing with."

The three men in the room left Winstill's office. They went to a dark room but it had a screen and a projector. "Turn the projector on on Daff," said Winstill. "He needs to see who he needs to find." Then Daffy walked over to the projector and switched it on. The light from the projector lit up the darkened room, exposing everything within it. In the room, there were three gold and velvet chairs, so the men sat down in each chair. The projector was loading up the presentation and Charlie was humming a tune while it was being loaded. After about a minute or so of the projector loading up the presentation, everyone's attention was averted to the screen. The image on the screen was a photo of a rebel Synthetic. That Synthetic was none other than Thomas's killer, Shepard. "This here's the one that wasted your replacement," Winstill said. Then Charlie asked, "What's his name?" Winstill pointed towards the description of him, and Charlie found out his name.

"Shepard, huh. Nice name."

"You need to find him and bring back his head, literally. He has inside knowledge of the gang's weaponry. We can access those memories by extracting the data logged in that computer-of-a-noggin of his."

"Bring back a machine's head. Sounds easy enough."

The projector then cuts to the next picture. This time, it was a rebel Synth within the image. The Synth was female. She had white skin and black hair with highlights at the ends of her flowing hair.  Her nose was skinny and round and her lips were velvet. She had deep blue eyes that would shimmer in the light. "This here's Kessella. She's a Synth that was originally a hooker but was repurposed to be a combat model on the off-world wars. She took the test and passed it," Winstill explained to Charlie. 

Then, Charlie said: "Wh-why are they coming back to Earth? Is there something wrong with them?"

"I have no idea, that's why I'm asking you."

"Does she need to be expired?"

"Yeah. She does. She's got a lot of communications set up that's giving her knowledge to what's going on and then she gives that info to the leader of the gang. No Kess, no communications."

The projector then cuts to the next image of the presentation. This time, it wasn't a rebel Synth or Synthetic, it was a defective Synth. The image showed a tanned- skinned Synth wired up to several life support machines. The Synth had no eyes, his eyelids were stretched down over his eyes. His mouth nearly sealed shut, was bound together by strands of skin and flesh.  His nose was split in two, revealing his flesh and skull, along with the life support wires inside his body. His arms were horribly disfigured, in fact, he had one of his arms on his chest. He had no legs at all, which made his situation even worse. With this image, Charlie got a chill down his spine as he cringed at the sheer horror of the photo. What made it even worse for him was the fact that the Synth in the photo was a child, less than 7 years old, maybe 5 years of age. The image made Charlie think of the life that the boy in the photo will never have, or the future he could've lived. This constant thought drove him to the brink of sadness, several tears began to run down his face because of the terror in the photo. "Quick...quick and p-painless... right?" said Charlie in a sad tone. Winstill reached into his pocket only to pull out a handkerchief and handed it to Charlie. "I know this is hard to look at Charles, but you have to do it. You'll be saving him from all that pain the poor boy's in. Remember: it's not an act of aggression, it's an act of kindness," explained Winstill. "Now there's an undercover Synthesizer down at the Edsel Corp. HQ. I need you to go over there and pick her up. She has a ton of knowledge of the gang. Once you get her, then you can take care of your list. Also once you pick her up, she'll be your new partner on your mission," said Winstill. "So I get a partner now. Huh. I'm so used to being alone," explained Charlie. "Well, I guess I better get going. Nice seeing you again Captain." Charlie and Winstill shook hands and Charlie went off to the garage where his Sky Speeder was parked. Well, I guess it's time to meet my new partner, thought Charlie. The platform that the Speeder was parked on lifted it up to the roof of the police station and Charlie took off into the sky.