Ro (A Cyberpunk Retelling of Romeo and Juliet)

25

RO MONTAGUE

"I'm tired." I point the gun lazily at Lawrence Fry. Jules screams, springing away from me. "I want answers, Fry."

Fry just smiles, like the fool he is.

"We don't need to be violent."

"Maybe Fry set us up." I shrug, not caring much anymore. "Jules nearly got mugged trying to get here. Now Lawrence Fry has the two children of the most powerful families in New Verona in the same place. That doesn't sound suspicious to you?"

"Ro, please..."

Fry holds up a hand. The rest of the complex is eerily silent. Faces hidden beneath dove-gray cloaks, shadowed by tattoos of camera lenses in their foreheads. One with tech, ascending to some other strange plane of belief I couldn't comprehend.

"I'm not lowering this weapon until I get answers."

Fry smiles, snaps his fingers. A string of code across five of the wall monitors, half the complex goes dark. My weapon screeches in my hand. TECHNOLOGICAL SYSTEMS FAILURE. The solar panels misfire, and I drop the weapon as it singes my skin. I scream from the burns.

"Young Ro, you grow impatient. Attacking a man of the gods right in his house." Jules helps me up. I don't take my eyes off Fry. "I forgive you for it. I understand how this looks but trust me when I say I don't want to cause you harm. Why would I harm my allies in this war?"

"What war?" Jules speaks this time, inspecting my burned hand, peeling back my fingers, curled in pain.

"The war where New Verona falls under Jack Paris's crushing fist." Jack Paris mimics this by bringing his hand down against his open palm, the echo reverberating through the eerily quiet space. "Too long. Too long have the Montagues and Capulets been fighting. Even Emir Prince has gotten involved, and the law doesn't know what side it's on. But the youth..." Here, he moves forwards. Surprisingly quick for how malnourished he seems. I wonder if he eats at all, or if he lives off the code alone. "The secret is in the youth. You can unite your two families, unite against the onslaught of Jack Paris and Eye-Lens."

"Impossible," I spit. "They're the largest corporation in the world. They could buy this city if they wanted to."

Lawrence scoffs. "Money can buy loyalty, for a time, but what use is money if the city rots? Brothels. Violence. Screams in the night for one sector, while the next cowers in their homes out of fear of the poor they've wronged. What use is gold if it's bathed in blood?"

I don't buy it, but Jules is caught up in this. Funny, I never pegged them as the religious-fervor type. "What do you suggest we do?"

He makes a star-shaped sign, and the wall monitors flicker back to life at his hand-signals. Strings of code emerge, forming a pattern. Two rings, interlocked. Infinity symbols. Two cards, half the size of my pinky, rest in the shape of tiny, silver bolts. Fry opens his palm, bringing them nearer to me and Jules.

I stumble back. "No. Those are infinity implants."

"Infinity implants?" Jules wrinkles their nose at them.

"Infinity implants," I release a shaky breath. "They're black-market deals. Illegal tech that merges two people's conscious beings. If they sign any contracts, they sign as one entity. Everything that makes them human, their emotions, their heartbeats, even their lives if the link is strong enough..." I peer into Fry's face, but it remains carefully blank. "It's a blood contract."

The cloaks detach from the wall, bearing tepid water on flat trays. Lawrence places the infinity implants beside the cups of water, waiting for us to take them. Alter our conscious state forever. Become one.

"These implants are my life's work." Lawrence places the makeshift pills into both our palms, closing our fingers over them to shield the precious cargo. "Think of it. A dream world where everyone is connected as one. No more war. No more hurt. If we all just understood one another, truly stepped into one another's lives, who would murder, steal, or cheat? Peace, that's my end goal for New Verona." He takes me in, the storm residing in my eyes. I see it, the murder, the need for vengeance in his camera's reflection. "Is it yours?"

***

Hey, it's Ro Montague here. Don't forget to vote and comment... or else.

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