Chapter 5 - The Decommissioned Ghost
The operative in the tactical gear pressed a hand against his helmet, trying in vain to reboot the dead systems inside his visor. Without the heads-up display, he looked strangely vulnerable, a man trapped inside a heavy metal shell. Miller watched in stunned silence, realizing that the old man in the brown leather jacket was not some petty thief, but the center of a storm much larger than anything the precinct archives had ever documented.
“Who are you?” the operative demanded, his voice now stripped of its synthesized filter, revealing a young, trembling cadence beneath. “Unit Zero-Nine was destroyed in the terminal collapse. I read the manifest.”
Arthur reached up, his weathered fingers lightly touching the silver animal pin on his lapel. The green eyes glowed steadily, casting a soft, pulsing reflection across his white beard. “Manifests are written by survivors who want to forget what they left behind. I was never destroyed, son. I was simply buried under a mountain of paperwork and corporate lies.”
Miller looked between the two men, his hand still resting on his empty holster. “Wait a minute. Zero-Nine? That’s an old municipal intelligence designation. That project was canceled before I even joined the force.”
“Canceled because it couldn’t be bought,” Arthur corrected sharply, his pale blue eyes locking onto the young operative. “Your masters wanted a tool that would look the other way while they gutted the transit lines and sold the city’s underground corridors to the highest bidder. They thought if they locked me away in the sub-basement archives, the truth would rot with me.”
The operative raised his rifle, though his hands shook visibly. “Orders are orders. I was told to contain any active anomalies in Sector Four.”
“Orders?” Arthur stepped closer, ignoring the barrel of the weapon pointed inches from his chest. “Look around you, boy. Look at the crumbling pillars, the dead screens, the rotting infrastructure of a city that has hollowed itself out from the inside. Is that what you’re protecting?”
The operative hesitated, his finger trembling on the trigger.
Miller took a cautious half-step forward, his eyes darting toward the emergency exit at the far end of the lobby. “He’s right, kid. The whole system’s a fraud. I found the ledger entries this morning. They’re erasing everyone who asks questions.”
May you like
Before the operative could respond, the entire lobby shuddered. A deep, mechanical groan echoed from deep beneath the floorboards, followed by the blinding flash of every overhead fluorescent light blowing out in unison, plunging the grand hall into absolute darkness save for the piercing green glow of Arthur’s lapel pin.
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