Ghost Spark - Essence Engine

Five

"Ummm, what?" asked Becca.

"No one will suspect a stranger walking through this kind of neighborhood. Police presence will be negligible. Surveillance will be minimal if at all. We probably won't even be processed by city scanners until we get off the docks. Throw up the clock and let me know when I need to start paddling to shore," said Marcus.

"I should also inform you that Bacteria and other pathogens will be abundant in that area. Should I give you treatment now so your mission will not be delayed?" asked the suit's AI.

"Yeah, go for it," Marcus felt a pin prick on his left upper thigh.

"So if there is a hotel room waiting for you in San Francisco and you are already on the boards, why are we floating in the bay, after jumping out of a flaming re-entry pod?" asked Becca.

"No way to trace where I was last and no trail to follow. I thought you know everything I do?"

"Learning curve," Becca replied.

When Marcus got close to SF, he made for shore.

The fog was streaming down from the hillside, overlooking to breakwater shrouding the upper levels of the ships in fog. Coming from behind one of the breakwater ships, he could begin to hear signs of life, muffled and wet, carried by the wind.. Music, conversations, but mostly the sounds of ancient boats pulling against their moorings. The staccato tapping of sailing rigging against the mast was punctuated by the slow sound of four giant wind turbines mounted on the breakwaters; their blades traveling in a lazy circle cutting the fog with a distinctive slicing sound, sending the mist out into swirling vortices.

As he rounded the breakwater, he could see the massive concrete structure that acted as horizontal scaffolding for the area. Laid down in a grid pattern, the massive and wide concrete superstructure had wooden docks spurring off into all directions. A massive tangle of wires hung from makeshift utility poles that branched out from the central power junctions on the concrete piers. The end result was a tangled mélange of boats, shiplap and corrugated tin houses strung like Christmas lights out to the very end of the docks. People walked about, carrying lanterns at the ends of sticks or using flashlights to navigate their way in the evening fog. Occasionally, a flash of light would cut across his path as the lights seemed to dance unattended on the docks. Farther in toward shore, the LED street lights revealed wide avenues of slumping houseboats and four and five story towers of stacked cargo containers with businesses on the first floor and apartments above. Everywhere was the slight smell of kerosene. As Marcus guided himself through the breakwater, he aimed himself for a small wooden dock that spurred out from the main section. Occasionally, Marcus could hear a sump pump cough to life, expelling seawater from the bilge of a slowly rotting ship.

"This place smells," said Becca from behind his ear.

"Yeah, well, get used to it. We need to find a place to land."

"There is a gap between dwellings 20 meters ahead to port," the suit's AI said.

"I wonder if any of these places are unoccupied. Going to need to change into civvies," asked Marcus.

"According to records, many of the dwellings are uninhabited or are squatted by numerous people," said the suit's AI.

Marcus paddled up to an empty slot between houseboats. A few dinghies were strewn about. Some had motors but others just had oars. As he climbed from one dinghy to the next to get to the dock, he found that a few of the boats were inhabited.

Finally at the dock, he climbed a wooden ladder, heaved up his jump bag and walked across the narrow dock into a shack. The door opened with a push into a 4 x 5 meter room. A hallway was at one end of the small room. A small couch faced inward from the windows. A few faded posters were on the wall and peeling wallpaper rounded out the decrepit room. Using his tactical scanner from the suit, he could see that there was no one in the main room. There was too much ambient noise for acoustical sensors to register any local noises that would lead Marcus to conclude the house was occupied.