(The Hood’s perspective)
The city. It never sleeps. It sees everything. An insatiable yet self sustaining beast, it always wants more out of everyone even when they are at their best. Or worst. It’s a utopia by day, a dystopia by night. You won’t see crime during the day. You won’t see benevolence at night.
Masked men and mercenaries own the city at night. A few are vigilantes. No one knows if they fight for themselves or for everyone in the city. Maybe they cannot distinguish one from the other. Maybe the vigilantes have forgotten the difference themselves. It is quite natural for such a thing to happen. At least in this city, it is.
It has been two years since my sister died. No one knows why. And the ones who knew have disappeared too. Some say she was about to reveal something that would change the world forever. Some say that the world had already changed and she was going to correct that. Others call bullshit on that and say that she was killed by thugs or mercenaries. I believed that too. That was the most logical explanation. What was strange was the way she was killed. She was shot through the heart. A rather civilized death if you ask me. But thugs in this city always killed their victims brutally. So the police department deduced that someone must have ordered a hit on her. They couldn't find out who.
I tried to dig in to it. But even with my hacking and investigation skills, I always arrived at a dead end. It continued for two years. Hours of searching and investigating has led me here. Two weeks ago I found one encrypted email. It was from someone called the Rainmaker. No idea who that is or was. I couldn't trace the source of the email. Bounced me off a thousand IP addresses and finally led me to the police department website. No use hacking it. I had already done it in the past and there was nothing there. The decryption took about two weeks. Whoever had encrypted it was good, really good. But someone in this city knows who he or she is.
I hear the police sirens blaring and moving away towards the 49th street, and three jets moving towards the company HQ. So, the Archangels are returning home after their manhunt sessions. Good. Time to start my own manhunt.
Detective Danica Mahoney’s Journal
Another murder in the Hills. For a place as posh as that, it sure has witnessed a lot of murders in the last six months. Thirteen people dead in the last six months. And what is weird is it is home to people who have better security than the governor. This city is taking its toll on me. I get back after two months of rehab and the crime rate is higher than ever.
It wouldn’t have made much of a difference even if I stayed. Vigilante and mercenary activities have gone up. Crime lords to corporate CEOs, everyone is in someone’s hit list. It’s a nightmare out here. The police department is trying hard to get a lead, any lead. But even our best hackers and tapping experts can’t deliver a thing. Even with the high end gear, our communications department cannot track almost anything. Someone is always masking the activities.
On top of that, the thugs have started to gain power. I suspect there is a new player in this shithole, someone who’s got the money and the influence to get the thugs under control. Drug dealers are not afraid of us anymore. The always pack a piece with themselves. And the strange thing is that these guns are better than the ones we carry. Surprisingly, there has been no activity involving the "mutants" or "abominations" in the past two months. That was a small relief.
I knew that something was seriously wrong the day I fractured my ankle. We were tipped off anonymously about a big “business” deal that was supposed to go down. A raid was planned. Three of the company’s elites, the Archangels were supposed to join us on the raid. It was supposed to be a routine run. Shock and awe was supposed to get the job done. Break in, bust the deal, arrest the HVTs and get out. Instead they were expecting us. They had packed some serious artillery. Heat seeking rockets, EMP grenades, flame throwers, powerful shot guns, they had everything. They blew up the whole joint. As if it wasn’t actually mafia business but a test-run of sorts. It was as if the gangs were planning on taking the city once and for all.
I asked my partner to hack into any and every thing that he found suspicious. All he found was porn. It is said that he is the best hacker in the department. I seriously doubt his capabilities. On top of that the company’s elites, the Archangels are also failing. A week ago four of them were killed in action. Four! A few years ago, that was considered impossible. You could take down 50 men with one Archangel. But I guess those days are gone now.
I know and I know it well that something big is going to happen in the following days. It might happen tomorrow, the next week, next month or next year. But it will happen. I always consider myself a bit of an optimist. And it is said that it’s always the darkest right before dawn. And I think dawn is approaching. At least I hope so.
Company HQ (Richard Miller’s Perspective)
My time in this world is nearing its end. I can feel that. I know that people are following me. Or maybe it is just one person. Whatever it is, the entity is studying me. He is studying my security, my routines and habits. It is searching for the perfect opportunity to strike.
Tonight as I look down at the city from my corner office on the 157th floor, it looks beautiful, decorated with the light from various buildings and skyscrapers. It is a beautiful view from up here. But this beauty hides a lot of ugly things. These things are not just ugly, these things are pure evil.
I’ve done some pretty terrible things during my 34 years in this company. I, along with my colleagues, have experimented on humans. Live humans! Captured and turned them into our test subjects. We have experimented on them with various chemicals. Along with my colleagues, I’ve tried to install various gadgets and machines into their bodies. The bodies of those who did not survive the tests were incinerated. The ones whose bodies were mutilated beyond recognition were euthanized. Many survived the tests. But their bodies were mutated. We thought we could control them. We erased their memories and tried to control them with the chips we had installed in their brains. But we couldn’t. They were in too much pain. So we transported them outside the city into some of our temporary facilities.
But they broke out, over-powered the orderlies there and took over the facilities. And eventually they made the slums. We never went back there. We were too scared for our own lives. We did not think about the ones who were in pain, not for one second. This was 32 years ago.
But even this did not deter us. We kept on experimenting. And 2 years later, we had a breakthrough. We were finally able to successfully bond man and machine. “Project: Archangels” was about to become a success. Now all that we needed to do was perform a live testing. And for that we would use them against some of the subjects that had failed to become an Archangel. It was unethical and the most heartless thing we could ever do. But we were ambitious and young and had worked too hard and waited far too long to back down. “It is for the good of this city. It’s for the greater good of humanity. This would be our greatest gift to mankind.” I kept telling myself. But deep down, I guess we all knew that what we had done would have grave repercussions.
Just as I turn towards the north side window pane, I hear a muffled footstep. The entity is coming near. Before I leave this world forever, I just want everyone to know that I regret each and everything that we’d done to those poor souls. And if I could, I would take back each and every one of those depravities that we’d performed.
Suddenly I feel a sharp, cold sting coming into my body from my back through my heart and going out of my chest. I taste a coppery substance in my mouth. The stars are fading and strange warmth is embracing me. And with that, I leave this world and enter the domain of the eternal slumber.
