A gentle breeze traversed the labyrinth of servers, boxes and monitors carried in a makeshift magnetic trailer by one of the floating cubes. On top of the black flying box sat a bored Melina, who wanted to enjoy the free air. She suspected the job would be an uneventful, medial, irksome one, but a nagging voice kept reminded her something
Savan- “ If you want to ingrain yourself with the Playground, you should try and make more friends. Maybe reconnect with old ones”, said the annoying wisp, believing that Melina’s and Syna’s were old buddies because they worked on a few missions together.
Melina- “ Naive, simple, pesky, cute clopy…I own them at least to try, though.”
“Ding”, rang the earpiece. The bodyguard brushes her mint mane aside and cursed her impulse to let it flow with the breeze. The constant “ding” wasn’t helping either.
-”Yeah?”, she replied, a bit more aggressive than she wanted. ”Sorry… Nothing to report yet, unless you're interested in grass.”
Syna- “ Exactly the kind of observational skill I expected from a Zin”, joked the hacker in a sweet tone, sure to accentuate that it was a jest. “ While grass is an interesting subject, I wanted to ask if you can see something up ahead? Like a construction site for a roadway? My map indicates it should be in view.”
The bodyguard turned to her left, squinting to get a better sight. It was a few kilometers away, but she could discern a few concrete mixers, with a white line stretching serpentinely far behind until it was swallowed by the dark mouth of a forest.
Melina- “ Wow, you guys are really gunning it with those pathways, huh? I don’t get it, though, these cubes seem to work just fine.” Melina knew the actual answer, but thought it was a good way to chat with her old colleague.
Syna- “ Of course, but it’s not like we have a ton of them. They’re good for transporting people and goods, it’s just that there are not enough of them. And people still want to travel between places whenever they need, or feel like it.”
A few months ago, Melina wouldn’t have understood that sentiment; now, though, she can empathize with that desire. It took only a stare at her wrists as a quick reminder as to why.
Syna- “ What’chu doing up there, getting all quiet all of a sudden? It’s kinda weird, you know, seeing a Zin smile like that.”
It didn’t surprised Melina that the hacker had her spyware devices locked on to her; if the roles were reversed, the Zin doctrine would have asked for a cage, restraints and maybe a set of keys that could be thrown down a well.
-” C’mon, I smiled during the few times we worked together back home”, Melina said, forcing the curves of her mouth to stretch -” Right?” She didn’t expect an answer, but the lack of one dripped an unexpected tingle down her spine. It took a while for Syna to even say something.
Syna- “ This is the first time we actually talked.” The bodyguard gasped in shock.
Syna- “Actually, I think I’ll keep this line chatter free, in case of any emergency. Ok?”
The word prickled Melina, right in her chest, and she wasn’t sure why. “Confirmed.” She then covered her face and shame deeply in her palms.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Waiting patiently in the back, with the storage, Sovereign called out for their partner. “ That was incorrect, Syna. Didn’t you-”
Syna- “ I don’t need either of us to go down that memory lane, Reign. We’re better where we are right now, both me and that girl.”
Reign- “ Acknowledged…but you do need more friends.”
Syna- “ Listen, I said that while drunk, ok?”, she spinned her chair around, glaring at the C.T.D.
Unfazed anymore by her remarks, Sovereign pressed the nail even harder in- “ While out drinking with I, a being that can’t do that.”
Syna- “ Not my fault that everyone was busy. Chirani was out hunting, Priya barely leaves her room-cell anymore and the few times I get to see Savan and the rest is during our meetings…”
Reign- “ True…”, the C.T.D. agreed somberly, aware of the circumstances. “But believe me, I’ve seen the spoils of our work. It’s worth it.”
…
Their first stop was in a village built around a rock spire with a large, cavernous dugout at the base. A home mostly for those that felt nostalgia for the hierarchical structuring from their former city. Unfortunately, that also meant that some of them started to remember in tint roses the leadership of the CEO’s.
While she got used to the few spiteful looks she got, Syna still felt a few tingles walking through this village. Their leader, a merchant who used his suave voice and promises of wealth to establish the hierarchy, was the first to greet the hacker with open arms: and why not, since every visit meant free stuff and upgrades that he didn’t have to provide.
His smile was faker than Melina’s, and his poisoned honey words felt like a chore to swallow; but he was open to the council, and allowed investigators to interview the citizens, who appeared happy with their captain at the helm.
After installing their new server and the few desktops they could scrounge up, Syna’s team said their farewells and hopped for the next town. The bodyguard turned around, to take a last look at the village; the whole ordeal took only a few hours, but it left her with a deep uneasiness.
Melina- “ Is it me or does that guy seem familiar? In a creepy way?”. She forgot about their previous rule to keep the line open, but Syna relaxed enough to be open for chatting again.
Syna- “ We’ve done all we could to check up into him. But the people there respect him; apparently he was a successful parts dealer on the higher levels, which helped him gain some good credit with the villagers.”
After taking a second to think about it, an image popped in Melina’s face; the striking image of Zude on the holograms. “Won’t he be a problem?”
Syna let out a tired sigh, already having gone through the same thought-process. “ Honestly, probably. But we can’t just remove him because we don’t like him. Those people do, enough to let him deal with us. “
Melina- “ So this whole ~for the people~ is like a virulent message between you councilors?”
The hacker squinted. And kept quiet, while keeping her channel active, buzzing, as if she was trying to say something.
Melina- “ Savan seems to have it. Their partner, Vivar, also seemed like a nice dude. And Angie, don’t get me started-”
Syna- “ I won’t stop you. Continue.”
The bodyguard was a bit surprised, not sure if she was being tested or what; she didn’t catch any sign of malice in the request, though.”
Melina- “ So, whenever she would bring me and L-F…Fabius for our daily walks, she would have to make dozens of stops. Why? Because a kid threw their figurine in the middle of a swamp.”
Sovereign- “ She brought it back?”, asked the C.T.D. from boredom, and a bit of interest.
Melina- “ Wha…Yeah. Then the kid threw it again. Thought it was funny. “
Syna- “ What a prankster”, she remarked, with a healthy chuckle, scaring the others.
Melina- “ No, Syna…that kid could have killed someone with that prank.”
Syna- “ Nonsense, I used to that as well. In video games, but only as a joke” she puffed, while Sovereign covered half of their face from shame.
Melina- “ Yeah, if I ever did that as a kid, I wouldn’t have seen the outside of a dungeon’s cell for weeks. If I was lucky. “
Syna- “ I want to say that I wouldn’t see that happening…but I do. “
Melina- “Yap…no, wait. I think I was three and Marcos a few months old, but I did that to auntie at her pond. Now that I think about it, she egged me to do it; why, though?”
Syna- “ For fun, most likely. You know, play around, discover the buoyancy of a-”
Melina- “ Credit card.”
Syna, under her breath- “of course it was a fucking card… Anyway, did you have fun?”
Melina- “ Maybe… It's a fond memory, to be honest, so I guess I had fun. “
Syna- “ Good, then. That also means that my pranks were also done in good spirit.”
A stereo “no” came from Melina and Sovereign, who then both spent the rest of the trip on the moral and consequences of “silly pranks.”
