OFFICER’S LOG 07:15 15/7/2063
Sleep was elusive during the arctic summer and our Captain knew this better than anyone. During the summer he made a point to regularly engage in a face-to-face conversation with each of his officers to determine if they needed to be put on exhaustion leave. I got the reasoning behind it but it still sucked. The Captain was walking towards me and I knew he was going to fail me.
“Logan, can I see you in my office please.” He said it without emotion and without stopping as he marched across the precinct to his office.
‘Fuck,’ was the only thing my brain could conjure as I mustered the energy to get up and follow him across the floor. He usually had his face-to-face out in the open, but this was something else.
I peeked around his door, to meet his intense gaze already drilling a hole directly into my head. It hurt to look directly at him, like looking into the sun. He was just, too awake.
“First, you look like death. I don’t even have to talk to you to know you haven’t been sleeping.”
“But…” I tried to defend myself.
“Please, I’m not finished.” He raised a hand to silence me. “I know what you’ve been doing, you still have lipstick from your costume halfway up your face.” He moved a set of files to the side of his desk and pulled a new one from one of his drawers.
I started to self-consciously rub my face having forgotten to finish cleaning
30.
myself up.
“The inter-precinct drug task force has commended you again, for violating my curfew and getting your collection of samples over the past weeks. They have inquired about putting your name in for one of the upcoming medal ceremonies.”
I perked up, all captains and chiefs in the Longyear Police Department had earned a number of medals and commendations as detectives and officers.
“I’m denying the request.” He said flatly.
“What!?” I felt betrayed, “You…”
“Again. Please refrain from interrupting me, detective.” His frustration was becoming apparent.
I recoiled into as small of a space as I could manage to condense myself.
“I want and will give this medal to you, but at the moment I can not reward your reckless behavior and disobeying my direct orders not to go out after you have already worked a shift. That clean up was hard labor. You know how dangerous sleep deprivation is, especially while you are engaging with known killers. I’m putting you on exhaustion leave effective immediately for at least two days. I will be sending my concerns to the Chief about how strenuous this drug task force is on its people, this afternoon. You are first and foremost my detective and I need you to be functioning when you are working for me, I am also giving all of your cases to other detectives.”
“I was so close on so many sir,” I begged.
“Tough, I can’t trust your judgment with this level of exhaustion, go home
31.
Logan.” He pointed at the door. I got up and made for the door, my tail between my legs and my head dangling by a thread. “I can’t bear to see you get hurt, I watched your father go headfirst into his grave, and I can’t watch you do the same.” He called after me.
I shook my head and said nothing, turning away so he couldn’t see the tears begin to stream down my face. It had been a long few days.
I’d gone home and passed out. My body let me do nothing else. I slept away the whole day like a corps. And even after waking up I still felt immobile and laid in bed for another few hours letting my mind wander. Until the need to go to the bathroom finally drove me out into the cool air and onto the cold seat that would make me long for the warmth of my bed again.
On the way back to the warmth of my bed I opened the blinds to finally let the ever-persistent light pour into my room. I took a moment to look out at the sliver of a view this apartment offered. I lived on the 82nd floor, out of 125, and despite the height, my view consisted of the building next door.
Looking up I could see the stream of air traffic like a whole other road in the sky, made of varying shapes and sizes of drones and quads. Occasionally one would drop from the river of black dots overhead, zooming down to complete a delivery or pick up a package before lifting back into the sky.
I thought about getting back into bed one last time, but the city doesn’t sleep and it was only a matter of time before my cover will be fully blown if anyone saw me come out of Torsk’s office. The thought rushed into my head like a bull, charging in and
32.
destroying any ounce of comfort and relaxation I had achieved on my day off. I’m sure the Immortal Dawn talked to each other and Vet would know I was a cop soon if he didn’t already.
My blood pressure rose, tightening my chest. I still had another day of leave before I would be allowed back out into the Goliat. It was way too long. Vet was already making me uncomfortable, and hell only knows what he would do if he found out my identity.
I turned away from the window and walked back to the wall of family pictures. A collection of photographs I’d made near the bathroom after I began living by myself. My favorites were the ones of me and my cousins the few times they visited while I was growing up. They lived on mainland Europe and I hadn’t seen them in years though I did keep in touch.
Next to those was the fame of family policing that my mom made for me as a graduation present. It was mostly men in uniforms. Policing in my family went way back to the old world USA. My Great, great, grandfather, the center top picture in the frame, was an officer of the Miami Police Department before he was forced to migrate to Svalbard after the city was submerged.
At the Academy, any connection to the USA and its classic depiction of policing was praised, despite what our history classes taught us. The movies from the past were revered by us cadets. My grandfather was like having direct lineage to ancient mythology. And with my family history, the obvious film of choice was Bad Boys 1995, I
33.
must have watched it 10 or more times in the dorms. It didn’t help that my last name was Laurence, so I had the nickname, Marcus, after Martin Laurence’s character.
I loved it. I even wore a fake badge with Marcus on it at graduation, much to the dismay of my professors and senior officers.
I was just happy to have a badass nickname, unlike Seven whose nickname was Clouseau because he let slip that his grandmother was actually French. You never can tell where a nickname will arise from, but even his nickname wasn’t the worst.
I looked at the portrait of my dad standing with his long-time best friend and partner Dawn Hershey, my current precinct Captain. They both had big smiles on their faces, after winning some award. It was my favorite photo in the collection.
I thought about the few memories I had of my dad. The only thing I knew for certain was he wanted me to follow in his footsteps. He helped make that dream manifest. By the time I was five, I had a little uniform costume, plenty of books, old cop movies, and an action figure, it didn’t look anything like my dad, not even his skin color, but I believed it was him with my whole heart.
I wanted to be just like him. Until he didn’t come home. I was only six and I didn’t understand for the longest time why he never came back. I held it against him for far too long. I didn’t learn about the horrors of Operation Light Bringer until I was in the Academy, most of the details are still hidden from the public. I cried for days when I realized what he had been through. I remember his funeral, there was no casket, and we just buried the thought of him.
34.
Nathanael Haugen was one of the survivors who witnessed it, I asked him about it once.
“You have access to the file.” That was all he said and he never mentioned it again.
Now I do what I can to help my dad rest easy. Hoping I’m the woman he always wanted me to be. But it was hard work knowing what I was living up to. My father had his own frame, at my Mom’s house, just for the chest full of medals he had earned, including 2 Medals of Valor, the highest honors an officer could receive. Granted the second was awarded postmortem, but he had earned all of them in roughly the same amount of time that I had managed to earn little more than general experience commendations that everyone got with their time served.
I will be the same age he was when he died, next year and it’s giving me anxiety. I have so little time to catch up.
I got dressed, grabbed my backpack of files, and made my way down into the world. I had to keep working. I had to make him proud.
35.
VET’S EXTENDED MEMORY MODULE - HOME.MME 18/8/35
Twins Death and Loan
You’re Worth Something!
Especially as Scrap
twins.loan/scrap
I stared down at the business card Gader had flicked at me. I focused on the hand-scribbled address on the back of the card. 2212 VEI400, Grumant, Svalbard.
I had hardly made eye contact with Chaz and she said nothing to us the whole boat ride. When we finally docked in Longyearbyen I mustered the courage to open my mouth.
I got out and put Mat’s arm around my shoulder, he could hardly walk. Medder had almost gotten his way but Gader took pity on us and just told us to leave and never come back.
“Well, I’m not an urchin anymore. Do you think you could make time for someone like me?” My stomach dropped as the words came out of my mouth. What a fucking awkward way to put it. I should have just... But before I could finish the thought I saw the smile creep across her face.
“I think I could find time for someone one like you, but you’re banned from my home.” Her face was sad even though it kept the smile.
I put my free hand over my face pressed hard and pulled down dragging my skin as far down as possible. My other hand still supporting Mat.
“I’ll find a way. Just give me some way to contact you and I’ll find a way. I’d risk
36.
my life.” I said it with an amount of desperation that caused Chaz to recoil slightly. A fire of nerves rumbled in my gut, just chill the fuck out and shut the fuck up! My inner voice was getting pissed.
“You know how to find me.” She gestured to her boat and the number on the side of it. I knew the number but it was her business phone only answered when she was on call.
“Do you have a neural or anything I could message you on?” I wanted a better way to contact her.
“I don’t have augmentations like you guys. I can’t afford them and to be honest I don’t want them especially if that means becoming, well, like you.” She turned away as she said it. The words cut deep and reinforced the limited nature of our relationship. She wouldn’t ever be sexually attracted to a fucking techno zombie. I let my thoughts spiral into self-hatred.
“I will find a way, you just wait for me,” I said with a confidence that I was just making up. She blushed and put her hand on my arm.
“Sounds good Vet.” She took her hand off my arm and began unroping her small boat from the dock. I let the feelings I had engulf me. I’d never felt anything like this. I wanted to keep this emotion. I wanted to have it forever, it was like the best drugs I’d ever had. The feeling that someone wanted me, like I was finally given a reason to be here on this Earth.
As she pulled away from the dock Mat whispered into my ear.
38.
“Nice.”
I felt my face turn red. I’d forgotten he was listening to all of this.
Chaz had dropped us off at the small boat docks near the Longyearbyen airport and Grumant was just over the mountain. It took us hours just to reach the summit behind the airport. We passed Gruve 3, an abandoned coal mine, and I was tempted to take shelter within until the next day. I had spent some time snooping in the fascinating warehouses and tunnels while I was supposed to be harvesting for the Dawn. It was a cold unforgiving catacombs adorned with cautions that it would become your tomb.
The sun was still up and we trekked onward, Mat hobbling at a fraction of walking pace.
I wasn’t sure what I expected to find at the loan shark, but maybe it would be enough money to find a warm place to stay instead of some cardboard box lined with aluminum foil on the side of some mine cart tracks down in the Gruve.
When we finally reached the location of the scribbled address, my heart sank. The building was unfinished, only half painted with boarded-up windows. I think it was supposed to be a gas station originally by the strange parking lot shape. It had no markings and no signs of life. I realized that I only trusted the address because Gader saved me. Why did I expect him to save me twice?
Scanned the area thinking I might be at the wrong spot, the plateau between Grumant and Longyearbyen had few buildings. Across the street was a chainlink fence around a massive communications array. I walked out behind the 2212 building to see the
39.
view of Isfjorden.
I let Mat slide from the support of my shoulders. He had fallen asleep not long ago. I propped him up on the side of the building and I walked down to a maintenance path. It followed the railing that blocked the cliffs at the edge of the fjord. The cliffs descended into the water like the ribs of a giant’s skeleton.
To my left was the city of Grumant. Built out of countless shipping containers stacked up the sides of the valley. It was bigger than the city of Longyearbyen. And not even 10 years old.
I put my foot on the railing and lifted myself up to get a better view of the city without leaving Mat by himself.
“Oi! Skinhead! You’re about to waste a lot of good parts. I’d pay good money for something like that.” A short round fellow, in a gaudy bright outfit, came bursting out of an emergency exit door along a parallel walkway above me. “I’ll make your death pleasurable in return for your body, how’s that sound? Enough drugs to go night-night in the most euphoric way possible?” He was leaning over his railing, on his tiptoes, looking down at me.
I stared at him blankly for a moment processing what this strange little man had just said to me. I was still standing on the lowest bar of the railing and it dawned on me that he thought I was going to jump into the fjord. I tried to come up with a good response.
“I wasn’t, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m currently still worth more dead
39.
than alive.” I was now facing him getting down from the railing.
“Ah shit, you’re right I’m not trying to promote offing yourself but I saw your parts we can always make a deal. The name is Left and in my business, trust me, you are always worth something, especially as scrap.”
“Yeah, you sound like the insurance commercial that sponsors the MMA fights, your parts are still worth the scrap! Call to get your estimate today!” I was rocking my head back and forth mocking the ad.
Left laughed, “Yup, not my advert but it’s the same business. Are you gonna at least hear your estimate?” He had this weirdly big smile plastered across his face. I rolled my eyes and hopped down from the railing turning to look at the plump ball of a man.
“Gader sent us.” I pulled out the business card.
Left, confused, was still leaning over the railing and now holding his hand out to me.
I gestured to the ladder a few feet away. “I’d rip your arm off if you tried to pull me up.”
“True, I bet those old parts you’re made of weigh quite a bit, what’s your name kid?”
“Vincent but the few who’ve known me call me Vet.” I walked back to the 2212 building where Left stood.
“Where’s a guy like you get a nickname like that?.” Left walked over to meet me at the top of the ladder.
40.
“I’ve had synthetics my whole life, never known a second without them.”
“Damn, how many surgeries did that take?” Left was now leading me toward the door he had burst out of. He stopped in front of Mat who was sitting next to the door and turned to look at me.
I shrugged, I’d long forgotten many of the surgeries, both from the Dawn and wherever I came from before.
“I know Gader. We used to work together before he joined that Dawn cult. I assumed your friend here is a classic example of an Immortal Dawn reject. Beaten half to death then kicked out because they beat him half to death. But what happened to you?” Left didn’t turn around and continued into the dark storage room.
“Fuck, I don’t even know anymore. I opened my mouth at the wrong time. Some guy named Medder was being a jackass.” I leaned down to help Mat to his feet.
“Interesting I’ve heard about Medder, estranged playboy son of a synthetic augmentations manufacturer. I know about his father Has. His company is a pain in my ass.” Left said with disgust.
Mat groaned as I lifted him.
“Is he good?” Left asked gesturing to Mat.
“No... No, he is not good in any way, shape, or form.” I said. “Like you said beaten nearly to death.”
We walked into a room that I could see used to be a convenience store. Glass-doored refrigeration lined the walls, with leftover signs above them labeling the different
42.
sections BEER, ENERGY, and HYDRATION. But looking closely behind the glass were feet with tags dangling from the big toes. This was some sort of makeshift morgue.
In the middle of the room were a bunch of clean metal tables, and one of them was surrounded by 6 people. Left announced our arrival.
“I need some medical attention over here! Also, I found us some new talent.” Left had his arms in the air and the whole table of people turned to us revealing the body that lie on the table mostly dissected.
The man doing the dissection had no face. His whole head was synthetic and made from carbon fiber. Even robots had fake faces but this guy was out here raw.
“I’m Høyre.” The faceless man introduced himself. He stuck out his hand to shake. There was nothing to shake but a collection of medical instruments protruding from his wrist including a scalpel, multiple detachable forceps, a stapler, and a medical adhesive tape dispenser. It took a second but he finally realized the state of his hand. The medical instruments receded into his wrist and were replaced by metal bones that formed a functioning hand.
I just stared at him. He was so inhuman looking. So incredibly terrifying.
Høyre cocked his head to the side lifted his hand in front of his face and did a circular wiping motion. “Is it this?” The gesture towards his own face made some of the others laugh and it snapped me out of the trance. I shook my head to clear it.
“Yeah I have that effect on people, but when you work on yourself.” He shrugged and walked over to a Doc-chair and gestured for me to lay Mat down. And I stood over
42.
Høyre’s shoulder trying to see what he was about to do to Mat.
”He’s got this kid.” Left put his hand on my shoulder and pulled me away. “Now we need to talk about your place with us. You said you were learning how to harvest. First, we call it cleaning here, we are just cleaning your body of tech. Second, you got any questions?” He gestured to the surrounding room.
“I have all the questions,” I said still processing what was going on.
Left smiled, “Welcome to Twins Death and Loan, I wasn’t kidding when I said you are worth something as scrap and I’ll give you a loan based on that worth. You either live long enough to pay it off or you eventually die and I get to chop you up and sell you. And them,” He nodded toward the table of people surrounding the dissected body Høyre was working on before he went to help Mat. “They are looking for more ways to profit from the meat. The synthetic bits always hold value, hell most of our reclamations are bought back by the manufacturers themselves. But what do we do with the rest of you?” Left’s exited demeanor about profiting off humans was off-putting.
43.