Issue #27 RRP $8.95 Rory Douglas Abel Aliette ... - Upgrade Systems

Random Acts of Destruction
After so much time in Downtown the center is a nice change of pace, almost a vacation.
In reverse I watch the battle between the police, military and what Roderick had
become. His head reappears and he grows back into the war machine, he puts Atanks
and beatwalkers back together, and reattaches an officer’s arm to his shoulder.
Wounds open and close all over his body like suckling mouths. Roderick’s new form
clearly came with advanced tissue regeneration. The army flees and so does the Blue
a moment later. The war machine is alone rebuilding stores and homes, uncrushing
shanties and junkies. He moves further and further back into Downtown. It begins
to rain, brown droplets leaping into the sky. The war machine begins to shrink, its
muscles deflating. Clothing reassembles itself. The face of the beast melts into the
face of a man who is sometimes a woman and sometimes also a machine. Now the
device makes sense — Roderick was a Trans. I have a pretty good idea where he is
heading. A few more minutes of backtracking proves me right. It looks like I’m taking
a trip to Downpour.
Starlight is in the district of Toptown. It is the city built over and on top of New
Clinton. It’s where money lives, where there are no have-nots. It’s where everyone
dreams of ending up but no one ever does. We’re all in Downtown for life. The neighborhood
called Downpour is directly below Starlight. Starlight is so big it generates
its own weather patterns. In Downpour it’s always raining.
I park the patrolpod on a roof and take an external elevator down. The rain kisses
me; it’s brown and orange, saturated with rust and oil. The lifeblood of Downpour.
If Downpour is the heart of Downtown then Club Blood, Cum & Oil is the heart
of Downpour. It’s a four-storey building made of brick and concrete. Its owner has
it rebuilt every so often but makes sure it retains the filthy, rundown appearance of
the original. I don’t know if any of the partygoers inside know that the floors they’re
dancing on are only a few months old.
Things are so low-tech here that the cover charge at the door can’t be paid wirelessly.
A person has to use a charge card or even, unbelievably, paper money. My
badge gets me in for free but just barely. The Blue is not welcome in Downpour and
even less so in Blood, Cum & Oil. I’m hoping that my civvies, implants and splicing
will camouflage me but it doesn’t. The first floor goes quiet as I enter. Everyone stops
what they’re doing to stare at the unarmored Blue who dared enter their territory.
On the walls Freaks With Leaks 8 is playing. It’s robot porn, well, cyborg porn really.
Everything’s mechanical except the genitalia. It’s illegal to show but I know who owns
the copyright and he also owns the building.
I try to use their focused attention to my advantage. “My name is Detective Ryan
White. Some of you know me. You know I do right by the hard-partiers. One of your
own was killed last night. Killed because he took something bad. Drug or program, I
want to know what it was.”
I’m answered by silence. Pack mentality is required studying to become a Plainclothes.
They’re probing me, looking for my weapons, searching for my armor. There’s
going to be a riot here in a minute. I have to act fast. Remind them why I’m a plainclothes,
why I can dare come here without armor.
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