8 Trials Deep

CHAPTER 6: TRICKERY IS WHAT HUMANS ARE ALL ABOUT

A white impersonal ceiling greeted RF-13 as he disengaged from the virtual community.

He took a moment to let his consciousness adjust to his lighter body and regain full control of his fine motor skills. Only when he confirmed that he could probably almost imitate the dance of a pianist’s fingers as it flew through the piano keys did he attempt to stand up.

Disengaging from the virtual dimension usually had this sort of bodily hangover where the mind needed to adjust to the original physical state. Otherwise if one attempted to immediately standup and move just after the disconnection, they could very well be as graceful as a new born calf.

With a steady footing, the man grabbed his case and exited the gateway cubicle. RF-13 strode out of the gateway hub and passing through a few turns quickly rejoined the bustling crowd. He checked his MA for any incoming connection but it panned out empty.

I guess Leta will take a while longer to be back, he thought. He wondered whether he had teased her a tad more than usual.

The spitfire seemed to be immersed into the virtual community most of the time. RF-13 was skeptical about that person’s sleeping schedule. Still, in terms of energy, she was a derailed train.

She was spirited and talkative. But instead of finding her chatter like the buzzing of a hovering bee, he found it calming like a bubbling of a gentle stream.

She could talk a mile and he just needed to listen, well aside when he teased her. He liked fishing for her diverse reactions, the woman had quite an impressive range of facial expressions.

RF-13 found himself already strolling away from his destination. He actually crossed several streets engrossed with a Tomato. He gave himself a mental shake and checked what time it was. He had several hours before midnight.

He turned on a corner, he needed to pick something from the Commendo Bank. The entrance to the bank consisted of several security measures and equipped with the most high-end assessment technology.

“Leave all devices except your MA at the entrance’s temporary repositories,” a silvery voice broadcasted.”

RF-13 did not find the stringent security strange. It was because the bank was in fact more of a resource vault. It was everybody’s bank, everybody who engaged in the virtual dimension. Individuals who had purchased, treaded or acquired any resources that had a tangible equivalent in the physical dimension would find those items deposited in their vault.

The only reason why the public trusted the institution managing Commendo Bank was probably because it allied and connected itself with no one else. Not even with the giants of the Visus Alliance. All of their workforces also had cut ties with anyone outside the institution before they were assimilated into their service. They built a world of their own, like a hive.

RF-13 opened a repository and deposited his case. After closing it, he directed his MA to be scanned and heard a perfunctory beep as the vault locked.

He followed a white clad gentleman who directed him to an expanse of white wall. RF-13 pressed his hands against the cold wall and a horizontal green light quickly scanned it. Moments later, a portion of the wall slid off to reveal a room four meters long and 2 meters wide.

RF-13 stepped into his vault and without giving other items a glance, picked up the Magus coder and a set of clothes. As soon as he stepped out, the wall once again became a solid white wall.

He opened his repository and deposited everything into the case. Then he slid it out and closed the luggage storage.

After stepping outside the bank, he sashayed to Orchidarium across the street. It was a giant building in the structure of half a glass dome. Inside was a man-made forest. The park got its name from the thousands of species of orchids thriving throughout the utopian vegetation.

Originally, it was inspired by the Japanese practice of ‘shinrin-yoku’ or forest-bathing, a therapy method that involved immersing oneself with the forest or nature in general. A philanthropist built it as a response to the unprecedented rise of stress and anxiety level of the population of the metropolis. Now it became a tourist spot, a forest museum. It was perfect for checking out the ambush that had been staking him outside the Commendo building.

RF-13 was confident they wouldn’t go after him blatantly. After all, M-6 wasn’t that powerful a figure in the Regiis kingdom that he would cause a ruckus without heed. Besides, even if he were, RF-13 was skeptical M-6 would want to draw attention to his target. Most especially if that target was carrying something he wanted. They had waited until he went and retrieved the coder before they began to actively seek him. Their master really was a greedy monger who wouldn’t hesitate to steal if he could get it for free.

RF-13 spotted four people, but he wasn’t sure there weren’t more he couldn’t see. So he needed to draw them in. And he needed to blend in.

He went to the open food court outside the Orchidarium and chose a random food stall. He hadn’t realized it was a candy booth until he was right in front, of course. He had long been accustomed going to kiddy shops before going home whenever he was out of the academy. It became an ingrained habit. He didn’t have much interest whenever he was out with the kids, so they tended to go wherever the two wanted. The pair had a sweet tooth. He sighed and ordered the sweets he was familiar with.

The old man in the booth threw in a free mint gum saying there weren’t as many children like him still shopping for sweets as there were before. RF-13 smiled, there weren’t also many people who categorized a twenty year old person like him as a belonging to the age group ‘children’.

I guess to him, all people could be called children, RF-13 thought. The man was ancient with a head of pure white hair. RF-13 thanked him and added the freebie to the stash.

He gave the surrounding a sweeping glance. Families, lovers, and friends were dining in groups. Half a dozen Orchidarium guides were having their break at the side of the food court, nearest the entrance. The four tails he had spotted were closing in on him.

Seeing these, RF-13 briskly walked towards the entrance. As long as he didn’t run, the four also wouldn’t. He swiped a suit jacket draped on a chair, it was a standard clothing of the office drones around the area.

He slipped in between a group of corporate people while casually shedding his black denim jacket and sliding the suit on. Then he moved towards the front of the queue of people lining in for the Orchidarium entrance.

There seemed to be trouble, the line was not moving and people were getting irritated. RF-13 saw a mother earnestly pleading with the entry staffs. She was holding a toddler against her side while securing a stroller with the other hand. Another boy of at most 4 years old was crying at her feet. The baby on the stroller seemed to have been affected by his older brother and started crying too.

The couple next in line looked annoyed but stood indifferently.

The staff tried hard to explain over the bawling noise.

“Ma’am, I’m sorry but you’re going to have to step on the side until you’re husband gets here. We can’t allow children below 15 years old to enter unsupervised.” The staff was hinting to the fact that with a baby needing constant attention, the mother would have a hard time keeping her eyes on the other two.

“I understand but I’m telling you, my husband is already inside,” the woman pleaded helplessly. She tried to pacify her crying children to no avail. The people upfront had already run out of patience and started complaining and urging the staff to push them to the side.

“Then we’ll have to wait until he comes. Meanwhile, if you will please step to the side-,” the staff in charge was also beginning to get flustered. She understood the woman’s situation but they were holding the line and the other visitors were increasingly becoming irritated.

She was about to motion to one of the security to assist the mother towards the side when a young man came running, out of breath. He picked up the bawling boy sitting on the ground and held him while gently stroking the child’s back.

“Don’t cry now. Daddy’s here. Look, what I brought you,” the man waved a bear-shaped chocolate bar at the boy.

The child stopped crying and looked at the man’s face then shifted his eyes at the sweet on his hands. RF-13 gave the chocolate bear to the boy on his arms who began nibbling it silently.

He produced a handkerchief from his pocket and began wiping the boy’s snot and tears while giving the mother a meaningful look.

“Honey, where have you been? I’ve been looking everywhere inside for you. I even went to the sweet shop thinking the kids would have led you there” RF-13 hoped that she would understand.

The mother, who had initially stared at him, took the cue. “We thought you were already inside.” She was initially apprehensive of the stranger but when she saw how the baby on the crib stopped crying when the young man reached out and gently rubbed her miniature palm, she decided to trust him.

RF-13 relied on his ‘charm’, if you could call it that, to pacify the child. He had always found while babysitting his own siblings that he was unexpectedly good with children.

He turned towards the people behind and drew an apologetic smile, “Sorry about this, the children are pretty sensitive to tension. The baby tends to cry too when he hears his older brother crying.”

The couple and a few people behind them were gawking. They never thought the alleged husband and father of three was a man this young, just barely out of youth. His wife was at most a decade older.

“You don’t mind, do you? The kids can be a handful sometimes.” RF-13 looked towards the people next in line. The crowd, who had been stuck for some time unable to proceed, gave their unanimous assent. If it broke the bottleneck, this once they would allow someone cutting in line.

The staff seeing that there were no objections, promptly allowed the ‘family’ in, glad to clear the situation. The queue smoothly proceeded after.

The men who were after him were forced to fall in line at the end. They were given death glares when they attempted queue jumping. Some were left to guard the exit in case their target tried to escape. Anyway, there was only one exit as there was one entrance.

RF-13 handed the boy to the frantic father. It turns out he really was looking for his family inside. He lost contact when his communicator fell down a Koi pond.

RF-13 took the mint gum from the sweet shop bag before giving it to them. He was about to leave when he remembered something. He turned to the parents and said, “Teach the young ones never to accept anything from strangers unless you expressly allowed them to. Especially this one,” he motioned towards the boy whose face and shirt were already smudged with melted chocolate. “He gets bribed easily.”

“Be wary about this man,” B-652 voiced through his MA. It was connected to all of his subordinates. Their target may seem young but not unskilled or inexperienced. According to their master, he had taken out B-5687 and his men in the virtual dimension with only one companion.

He had also detected them early on and seems to be planning to lose them in this crowded Orchidarium. What he didn’t understand was why the man seemed to have deliberately led himself into a corner. There was only one exit in this place. He already had two of his people watching it.

Unable to figure it out, he told himself to focus at the task on hand. B-5687 was sacked after the incident with this man and B-652 knew M-6 was not a compassionate master.

He felt a prickling sensation on the back of his neck coupled by a wet smacking sound. He immediately turned around but found that he could not identify the culprit amongst the crowd.

He disentangled a sticky thing from his neck and found it was a gum, mint flavored. Moments later, he received the same reports from the others. Initially, they had thought that it was only a juvenile playing a prank but dismissed it when they realized that it happened to all of them, only them. There were no reports of similar incidents from the throngs of tourists.

B-652 had their medic agent immediately identify the gum worried it could be laced with poison or nerve agent. The medic found no inedible or dangerous chemical from it, in fact it was a popular flavor that they themselves consumed while on the job.

B-652 found their target’s behavior even more perplexing. They had been searching for him for past an hour already. He checked on the men assigned at the exit but was told he had not been spotted leaving.

He had to be here, B-652 was sure. It was hard to disguise that silver case the target totted around. The man had only let go of the case when he deposited it at the baggage repository of the bank. He had confirmed it with his own eyes. At that time, they had no way of intercepting. The bank had one of the best and tightest security. M-6 severely told them not to draw attention to themselves or towards the target. He saw that even when he carried the kid inside, RF-13 still securely held on to the case with the other hand.

Something flashy caught his eyes. B-652 turned his head to see the young man they had been looking for smiling at him. He waved his hand holding the silver case and without hesitation, threw it into the Koi pond. It sank rapidly into the bottom disturbing the array of rainbow colored carps.

B-652 began ordering his men to fish the case out and scrambled to descend towards the lower floor. He was not a fool, it was possible that the Coder was not there. However, he had quickly scanned the man’s body and found that he was not carrying it. The coder was too bulky to effectively hide in one’s body. B-652 also knew that RF-13 would not have hidden the coder in the Orchidarium where there was a high chance of people finding it. Besides, it was also extremely valuable to him. After all, he was going to trade it for his sibling.

Maybe he realized that he was trapped. And used it as a diversion, B-652 doubtfully thought.

Originally, the crowd had only been looking at the men curiously as they stepped on the Koi pond to retrieve a case that someone had rudely thrown in. However they began to be more interested when some of the security moved to apprehend the men citing damage of property and breaking of regulations. No one was supposed to throw anything on the pond, let alone step in with their leather shoes.

B-652 shook of one security personnel when he tried to intercept him. He had to know that the Coder was in the case. When the security saw that they resisted, they called in for back-up.

B-652 forcefully opened the metal case. Water came gushing out with a clutter of drenched paper, notebooks and pens. There was no Coder.

He scanned the crowd but instead saw the security personnel coming towards them with electric guns out. They were outnumbered. He urgently sent a message to the two on the exit to watch for RF-13 before raising his hands in surrender.

“We are after a fugitive,” he said while maintaining his non-threatening posture. The security still had their weapons aimed.

The one who, seemed to be in charge, looked at them guardedly. Indeed, they did not look like mere civilians or tourists. However, personally, the chief thought they looked more like mercenaries rather than military. He ordered his men to lead them away.

B-652 motioned for his men to calmly surrender. If they caused anymore commotion than this, M-6 would charge them with heavier consequences. The Visus powers must not be alerted on who and what they were after.

The staffs were working to keep the crowd calm and directed them to the exit in orderly fashion. They had apologized and cited emergency inspection of the damage as a leak in the water system of the pond could cause possible flooding. However, that was only to keep the crowd calm. Previously, as the men were fishing the case out of the water, a young man had approached one of the guards and reported the apprehended men as suspicious individuals carrying a doubtful package. Bomb case guidelines always dictated evacuation.

The two men at the exit were stunned by a river of people being guided out. They were on the lookout for their target but it was highly possible to miss him in this confusion. Though it was not a stampede, they were jostled black and blue as they sought to wade through searching for signs of him.

Ignoring a prickling sensation, one craned his neck and noticed that not one of their colleagues was being led out. They were also not receiving any responses from the other line.

Across the street, RF-13 looked at his MA,Things took longer than expected.

Before the disturbance RF-13 had planned to simply shout the word, ‘Bomb’ when his pursuers were going after the thrown case. However, when he remembered the earlier couple with their young ones he refrained himself from causing a stampede. Children were the most vulnerable in a crowd.

Once again he lined up to be inspected on the entrance of the Commendo bank. One of the officers recognized him, “Coming back too soon, made a new acquisition?”

RF-13 smiled. “No, just forgot to clear my repository.” Rf-13 was led in. He only went to the repository area and did not visit his vault again.

For the second time that day, RF-13 stepped out of the bank with a similar looking silver briefcase. Albeit this time no one was tailing him.