Below and Above 1

By M. A. Travis

The Neon City treads far into the night. 

It starts to snow. 

It is unusually quiet deep within district 67; with the the exception of quiet buzzing of the electronic billboards and humming of unit exhaust systems. 

Soft snow flakes start to fall; upon descent, occasionally lighting up in front of the neon signs as they make their way past the jungle of wires and clusters of mechanical equipment attached to buildings like barnacles. Only a few of them make it all the way down the urban abyss, beating the odds to just to melt between the shards of blown out storefront glass in front of the “Dollar Circuit” convenience store.

The typical nightlife city characters gathered behind the police barrier extending all the way to the centerlane of the street. Two police cruisers quietly lit up the adjacent facades with blue and red flickering lights. Persistent smell of burnt circuitry and hydraulic fluid lingered in the air and several witnesses covered their faces.

Low lights briefly flickered as a vehicle slowly approached bopping down and up over the potholes. The tires rolled slower as it got closer and eventually stopped after lodging several tempered glass shards between the treads. The rackety engine of a beat up 2077 Mustang stopped and a tall figure got out and closed the door with a hefty thud.

The figure walked with a purpose, not minding the debris under the soles and crossed the police line.

“Hold it!” One of the officers barked at the figure. The figure, without turning, lifted its hand flashing a cyber badge that read ‘DETECTIVE’. The officer tilted his cap and waved the figure through.

The figure stopped in front of a twisted metal storefront door and tilted its head to examine it. The crisp lines of a male face shifted as the man looked over the scene. Sleep-lacked malnourished eyes made their way across the burnt wires and the attachments of a security system.

“A bit too sophisticated for a simple convenience store.” He murmured to himself with dry lips and stepped over the blown out storefront mullion.

Treading through the smoldering goods and merchandise racks the figure made its way towards the officers mingling further within the store. One of the cops turned to the sound and pointed a flashlight towards the figure. Another one stood up from behind the counter and squinted trying to identify the figure.

“I’ll be damned! Detective Levi? You look like crap! I barely recognized you.” A seasoned cop with a classic mustache proclaimed in a surprise. The rookie officer looked at his partner and lowered his torch allowing Levi to recognize a familiar face.

“Harris?... Nobody looks good with an LED light in their face in the middle of the night; I’m peachy…Trust me.” He answered sarcastically and then produced a tissue and wiped his runny nose.

“I figured you’d retire by now.” 

“Yeah, I wish. They got me watching over the pups.” He nodded at the third young officer who was attempting to shuffle through papers in a metal cabinet with one hand with his nose buried in the fold of an elbow.

It was an obvious scene of an explosive blast that originated from within the store. The smell was of burnt plastic, circuits and oil was much stronger inside. Charred electrical fixtures were hanging down from the mostly blown out ceiling grid by the wires. Racks, shelving and merchandise scattered all over. Levi quickly dropped sarcasm after getting closer to the origin of the blast and seeing the calamity. 

“What you got?” He asked as he was looking at the two robotic bodies decimated by the blast in front of the counter and a deceased male in the back.

“These goons must have brought a bomb here and blew it up over the counter. Maybe they tried to rob the place” Harris growled and kicked the lifeless foot of one of the robots.

“Who brings a bomb to a robbery?” Levi replied questionably as examined the solid stone countertop. 

“This is Kaplin’s turf isn’t it?” He continued.

“It is, but a cheap parts junk store? Not their style.” Harris crossed his arms dismissively.

“Got any ID’s on them?”

“The old guy in the back is the store owner, Henry Lee. The two bots, who cares.” Harris shrugged.

“More dead bots, seems to be a lot of that lately.” Levi remarked.

“Have not noticed.” Harris wiped his mustache with a sleeve, obviously having no regard for silicone members of the society. Levi knew of this unfortunate side of the police department too well.

“Any connection to Kaplin?” Levi asked.

“No markings, seem to be civilian.” Harris replied.

Levi squatted in front of the bots and produced his own pen light. They looked fairly new, probably just kids; recently developed. Shame.

“Do me a favor, run a scan on them.” Levi pointed at one of the rookies who looked at Harris for approval and hurried along with a pad scanner after getting a nod.

“Min Do and Shin Do. Looks like they addressed to the store, must have been Mr. Lee’s helpers; Sir.” The officer read out the report on the screen and handed it to Harris.

“How long have they been working here?” Levi asked as Harris was looking at the pad.

“They are fresh off the line, only working here a few months.” He replied.

Levi stood up and walked over to look at the owner and examined him.

“This one was killed before the blast.” He mumbled.

“Huh?” Both Harris and the young cop turned their attention to Levi.

“Look at the body; it's not in line with the blast angle.” Levi pointed.

“If you say so.” Harris took off his hat and was scratching his head and then looked at his watch. Levi frowned.

Obviously nothing has changed; the cops of this dirty city have no care for the little guys in this forgotten neighborhood and even less for the bots. Levi walked over to the deceased old man. The body was laying face down, with arms straight out, jacket covering the face. He bent down to take a closer look and after a few moments rolled the body over.

“Hey! You’re not supposed to do that til forensics gets here!” The young officer barked at Levi who ignored him. 

The man’s face was pale. Half of it was altered with expensive cybernetics that looked like normal skin and barely noticeable if not for the black burn streaks coming from a small electric bug lodged into his temple. Levi reached into his breast pocket and produced a small plastic evidence container and popped the bug into it using the back of his flashlight pen.

The young officer moved to stop Levi but Harris grabbed him by the shoulder and shook his head.

“You can note it in your report if you wish." Levi remarked to the officer as he was looking closer at the bug in the container.

“Are we done here?” Harris said, crossing his arms again and obviously aggravated.

“Yeah I’m done, I’ll take this to the lab for analysis. Good seeing you Harris. Carry on, Lieutenant.” Levi put the container in his pocket, looked at Harris and gave the officer two finger salute and left the store. 

Definitely a homicide. Not uncommon; multiple cases happen on any given night. Nobody reads the reports, especially when news does not bother to run it. Forensics may or may not show up. Crime evidence typically may or may not end up in the lab. In this case it will eventually, but after a detour. Levi reasoned and drove off into the night.

-

The sun began to rise, warming the polluted atmosphere of the city. Thin level of ice and snow began to warm up and evaporate; creating a thin layer of fog on the road broken apart by the 2077 Mustang. Leaving the dense urban fabric it headed down the long stretch of the highway. Warm orange rays of the dawn breaking through fingers of scattered palm trees just past the shore.

The car zoomed by and rattled the aged bleach yellow “No Swimming, Hazard!” sign near the docks.

Levi was tired but he loved taking this longer route and it gave him much needed adrenaline to keep his eyes opened. He reminisced about his childhood when he along with other street kids would hang out at the docks and go for a swim down the beach.

Taking a dip in the water now would surely cause your skin to start peeling off. The corrupt city officials have ruined this once beautiful beachfront and then they did the same thing to the rest of the city. The dock now served as a rusty ship graveyard and a dump for criminals. Levi was sure if they were to dredge the place it would turn up a ton of murder weapons and likely several dozen corpses.

A moment of dread overcame his face, he closed the window, turned up the music and hit the gas. 

Pulling off to the ramp the car drove through a mid-rise neighborhood and pulled up to a shoddy looking apartment building. Definitely not high-end but rent was cheap and far from gang territory. Levi was also happy about having his own personal garage. He pulled up to it and hit the opener. The roll-up door struggled to open and finally jammed about two feet from the ground as the motor let out a few parks and released a thin line of smoke.

Levi signed, smacked his forehead on the steering wheel and then rested his forehead on it for a moment to take a breath. He was too tired to be angry and reluctantly got out of the car and proceeded to crawl underneath the garage door leaving streaks of mud and engine oil along the way. He opened the door with the manual chain, drove in and left the garage.

“At least nobody can hack the motor and steal the car.” He mumbled to himself in an attempt to be optimistic as he walked to the building entry, scanned his palm and entered. He walked towards the elevator; head low, inconspicuous by habit avoiding security cameras. Too tired to worry about the garage tonight he made a mental note to find the building superintendent tomorrow and pushed the elevator button. No movement, he waited another minute and pushed it again. Still nothing.

“Uuuugh” he grunted as he lifted his head up meeting the camera face to face shattering any state of anonymity. As his gaze went higher he saw a sheet of paper taped to the wall “Elevator out of order, use stairs - super”. Levi could not help but laugh at this level of misfortune and took the stairs up to his apartment. Levi enjoyed privacy, nobody walking over his head; and that meant an apartment on the top floor. It came at a hefty premium but did have its own drone pad for deliveries. 

He started up the stairs optimistically. 

“Could use the exercise! Specially after being plugged into the net for three days” he thought. This thought remained about half way up to the twentieth floor at which point he began to despise seeing another stair tread.

Finally getting to the top and out of breath he produced a key and opened a heavy steel door to his apartment. He opted on installing an old school mechanical door hardware; much more difficult to pick than hacking a cyberlock. Besides, the government has all the backdoor keys already and wont even need to run a hack.

Levi entered the messy apartment plopping his keys and the evidence container on the kitchen counter. Thirsty from the stair climbing he filled a glass with bubbly water from the filtration machine. Water did the job but Levi made a disgusted face.

“Must be out of flavoring” he murmured as he tasted iodine on his tongue and proceeded to kick off his shoes and tossed the coat into the closet which comically rolled back out to the corridor since the closet was already full. He completely ignored that at this point since his focus was on his rumbling stomach. Ramaging through the pantry and refrigerator he decided to make a seaweed and cheese sandwich. The cheese was synthetic but the seaweed was home grown and delicious. Levi grew the seaweed himself; the aquaponics tank he got from a yard sale was the best investment he has ever made.

As he ate the sandwich a shadow ran across the room followed by scratches and then a tiny pink nose with whiskers appeared on the counter through a hole in the drywall.

“Here you go Fred.” He broke off a bit of his sandwich and gave it to his roommate who was a tiny white lab rat. Fred proceeded to grab the piece with his front paws and began munching on it while sitting upright on his hindpaws. Levi smirked at the white whiskers dancing with joys and sank himself into an artificial leather recliner and signaled the screen to turn on. He grumbled a bit at the news as he finished the sandwich, switched the channel to a silly competition show and fell asleep.