Chapter 3: The Streets Are Rivers

Seven perpetrators, all Private Security operating out of their territory. The victim, the son of an influential member of the Old Nobility that ran most of the Corps property at the Cebu Dome, the location of the crime was a platform block held by two corporations that had no interest with the politics of Cebu Dome. Or at least it seemed. It didn’t take long for him to finish the burrito, giving a low wave to the Cardos stall owner before igniting the Helium Banks in his bike as he flew off towards one of the Arbiter’s holding towers.

By now, most Arbiters would have been shutting down at the Herald for their sanctioned rest periods, but H-6 had a sleep implant that allowed him to hold back fatigue for a significant amount of time before needing actual rest. He could feel the balancing of chemicals flowing through his brain as he lost the creeping desire to rest. The Arbiter Tower he was heading to was situated situated in the middle of one of Manila Pacific’s flood zones.

That way entrances could be easily monitored. He activated his call signs before entering the tower’s airspace, preventing the sentries from gunning him down on sight. Each Arbiter Tower was held in sectors where the security teams had a full view of all their surroundings. By law no other entity was allowed to build any structure from within a 6 Kilometer radius. The tower gleamed as small traces of light dotted its imposing Cylindrical structure, Arbiters and Auxiliaries departed her roads in bikes and hover craft as they began their patrol of their district. More of a prison rather than a precinct, Delta Zero Tower contained mostly Auxiliary personnel. Loyal soldiers and police investigators who served under the Arbiters.

“Arbiter Hotel-6, you are clear for landing. Settle on Deck 5” the radio piped in, signalling an augmented reality trail that led to his landing site. Once he landed he was greeted by an Auxiliary wearing a plain trench coat over a Court uniform.

“Arbiter H-6, Chief Inspector John Luther. I’ve processed the seven perpetrators you took in earlier”

The Arbiter shook the man’s hand lightly as he began walking towards the interrogation room.

“Have they cracked, Chief Inspector?” H-6 asked.

“No, and I doubt they will.”

“Why so.”

“These Corpsmen. They’ve been working in the business for awhile, never having to deal with an Arbiter’s judgement. They are after all from Ejercito Corp, that’s a Tax Haven institution. Not a place heavy with our presence since we are all dealing with violent crimes”

“Thelma-Dionis?” “The other six are registered under them, but they have served Ejercito Corp before during one of the territory scuffles in the Southern Pacific Wars”

H-6 pulled a reference to the Southern Pacific Wars, a lengthy conflict between Megacorps alliances and anarchist resistance groups over vital algae reserves. Thelma-Dionis had the infantry for fighting but lacked the logistical infrastructure to sustain a war, on the other hand Ejercito did, and working together in that war had cemented their alliance.

“Good work Inspector. Now. What do you think is going on?” The Arbiter was relatively young, not even the imposing helmet could hide that.

But the Detective on the other hand was older. Somewhere in his mid 40s perhaps even older if he had taken cybernetics. Elements like him didn’t wield the absolute authority of the Court, but they knew the city well. Considerably more than a relatively young Arbiter such as himself. H-6 faced the one way glass of an interrogation room, data reports on the details of his perpetrator danced on screen.

Agent Joseph Nara, of Thelma-Dionis. Born 2092, Border Districts, 26 years old. Parents were fully employed Factory Workers for Thelma-Dionis. Educated in Corp sponsored schools and trained in the City Militia. Corp sponsored division as well.

He’s gone through the file for a considerable amount of time, Nara was here for a reason. “I will begin.”

Entering the interrogation room he keeps eye contact on Nara. Who for a second looked away in form of held back fear, which he then seemingly cast aside by staring back at the Arbiter’s black visor.

H-6 took a seat and bent over, leaning his elbows on his legs. He scanned for any changes in his target’s demeanor. None were present.

“Who was running that show Mr. Nara” the Arbiter asked. The agent didn’t respond.

“Joseph Nara, born 2092. City Militia for 3 years, participated in the Sector 337 Food Riots as part of a response detachment supporting a Thelma-Dionis security team protecting the Associate Manager of Corporate Affairs Wilson Torrance.

Sector 331 you cleared out residents in Gorlack Apartments after they demanded a better price for their land. According to City Militia records the Gorlack Apartments were all housing illegal immigrants, and a black market that your commander Kiefer Williams says was ‘Directly harmful to the local businesses of Thelma-Dionis’ Complete bullshit mind you, that man is in the Deep Cells for abuse of power one of the unlucky shits who think they can be blatant in front of the Court.

We here all assume he took the fall for the Corp. That’s how the Pacific Capital works after all. The Corp gets what it wants. Now tell me. Why were you arresting the son of the Villalobos clan?” The man had a longer data sheet than what was expected,Corp Private Security always had relevant experience.

“Kidnapping. I intended to ransom him for ten million credits. The boy is loved by the family” Nara replied

“Actually he’s just liked at the middle levels in the old family emotional scale. didn’t take a business path unlike the rest of his family so his practical value has somewhat dipped.”

“Doesn’t mean he isn’t loved”

“Love? That’s too deep an emotion for Corpos isn’t it? Come on Nara. You’re lying.”

“Why would I lie to an Arbiter?”

H-6 felt the need to draw his gun and fire a couple of armor piercing shots at the guy’s leg. It wouldn’t kill instantly but it’d shatter a ton of bone and he’d bleed slowly to death. He didn’t take pleasure from torture, but everyone had a tipping point, fortunately today wouldn’t be that day.

“A Corpo agent acting out of the interests of their Megacorp, and arrested by an Arbiter. Remarkably unlucky to be you Mister Narra. I hope you enjoy your stay at the Deep Cells” the agent didn’t show any fear at the Arbiter’s judgement, he remained stoic as he kept his eyes on the Arbiter’s pale black visor. H-6 left the room and met with the Inspector at the observation quarter, “you’re not convinced are you?”

Luther asked “In all our years of handling crime in this city, has a convicted Megacorp asset ever told the truth?” Luther pauses for a moment and sighs, “Never. What now?” H-6 scans a few more crime reports, maps and even draws a trail around the crime scene.

“That man led a team on a corpo sanctioned operation, it would be a waste of time for me to interrogate the rest. They’ll all repeat the same lies and I can’t sentence them on anything but the attempted kidnapping and assault. You may continue the interrogation, I’m returning to the crime scene. Hopefully Priv Sec didn’t clean it up too much” H-6 left immediately, giving orders to send his catch to their respective sentences. With luck he could pull them out again for more questioning, till then the process had to run its course.

…

H-6 hovered his bike over Sector 7’s skyline, he read every crime scene report available. From the Dizone’s Priv Sec reports to the Auxiliaries and a fellow Arbiter’s own assessment, nothing new came up. The story was the same, seven individuals in plain clothes claimed to arrest an innocent man on made up charges of assault and robbery. Dizone confirms the falsification of the charges, Thelma-Dionis and Ejercito Corp would still need their clearance to conduct such a public arrest. The latter two had already denied any connection with the perps, but then Megacorps always lied to protect their asses. Fatigue crept into his eyelids, his sleep implant was no longer viable and he needed actual rest. Perhaps it would clear his mind. He turns his hoverbike towards the North, where his home the Herald conducted its vigil over the storm drenched megalopolis of Manila Pacific-Capital.

...

Solus, awoke from the blaring of the morning radio. Her companion for the night had just quietly left the room with only a smile as an acknowledgement of their coupling just some hours ago. She drags her feet towards the food printer, pressing the logo for coffee. The machine dropped a can of espresso, she downs the can, taking in what was perhaps mostly pure white sugar and some black food coloring. Most corps weren’t obligated to tell the truth when it came to cheap crap. “Hey Sol, you up?” The augmented reality feed spat out the roughed up jawline of her partner Leyland onto the corner of her eye. “I answered the call didn’t I?” She grunts, as she scrambles for a toothbrush. “Yeah so a bunch of big shots heard about our rescue mission we hauled in last week”

“Well if screwing over a gang of gene scavs isn’t supposed to get Dome 26 talking I don’t know what would”

“So who are the big shots then” she asked, her mouth full of toothpaste and dissolved booze. “East 26D Netrunners, their top fixer. Carlson Wade”

“Shit”