The Seraphim: A Cyberpunk Novel

Five - Taylor

The traincar Taylor sat in rattled and creaked over every bump on the track. The peeling brick houses and blasted rusting shells of industry bolted passed the windows. The sun drowned the meadowlands in a harsh golden silk.

He reached up and fixed his black wool cap and tugged the edge down over his ears. He then pulled his mobile from his pocket and ran his finger over the glass screen to unlock it.

AUTHORITIES EVACUATE HERIETTE INTERNATIONAL BUT FAIL TO DISCOVER ANY BOMBS

Those headlines never bore any good news for the seraphim. The Captain released a long pent-up sigh and relaxed back in the tattered padding of the railcar bench. His rough fingertips scratching against the dark needles of his newly grown whiskers.

The railcar shook. The rails screeched underneath his boots.

"Okay, let's read a book," said the father in the row in front of Taylor. "Can you guys tell me what the cover of this book says?"

His three boys of strawy mops pointed and wiggled, guessing wildly at what the cover said. But a younger man with circular glasses and neatly maintained hair held one of the boys and advised him to be patient. To think first before wildly guessing like his siblings.

So the father walked them through it, letter by letter.

"The Fox and the Dates, correct!" he opened the book.

"Why can't we read something else? Something like The Bull and the Mice?"

The father lowered the book and shrugged. "Because that book is banned and with good reason."

"But why?" asked the eldest of the three. Taylor smirked.

"I'm not sure. Let us continue, shall we?"

Behind Taylor near the back of the car, a shae woman was shouting on the phone, impatient with a family member and some deadline they weren't able to reach. He could see her in the reflection of the door-window that lead into the next car. Across from him, a dark-skinned shae man in a faded and paint-flecked earthen coat was slumped against the window with his arms crossed over his breast. The yellow plastic bags with smiley faces saying THANK YOU, HAVE A NICE DAY swished every time the railcar shuddered.

Taylor's mobile trilled.

He swiped his finger across the screen again to see his D-Corp sponsored daily briefing.

SCIENCE - THIS EXTREME DIET REVERSED TYPE-2 DEPTIUS IN UP TO 89% OF PATIENTS.

NEWS - NIGHT NURSE SAYS HUMANS RAISING SONS WHO ARE RAPISTS AND KILLERS

SPORTS - ALDER TERRY REPORTEDLY WILL BE WAIVED BY NEW TRYIDIUM RAVENS ON ZWEIDYDD

CELEBRITY - EMPIRES OF CALDERRA STAR MALSHI STOVOY CHARGED WITH DOMESTIC BATTERY FOR ATTACK ON HUSBAND

NEWS - FORMER MINISTER OF DEFENSE WARS LIKELIHOOD OF SECOND GREAT WAR RISING

NEWS - PRESIDENT PARKER BLASTS AERSO PALLA ON CYBERNEXUS

Taylor had an itch in the back of his mind he just could get. Wilson had left an orgy of evidence for them to find, which it could turn out was an elaborate trap, but nothing happened. No actual bomb went off elsewhere or the police searching the airport weren blown. In his experience, none of that made sense to him.

The train came to a squealing halt. The boys jerked forward but the father and the younger man caught them in their wide arms with a laugh. The intercom announced their arrival in Ehret, New Serapha.