Exa is deceptive.
Walking on the packed loud streets of the Top Tier, the lights of the ads on the buildings make it look like its daytime. Home robots that do everything for you, prosthetics that promise super strength, synthetic organs immune to diseases, body implants that turn people into freaking fairies, everything is a trap to make us forget about what is really happening.
This side of the city is very bright and reflective just like the people that live in it. The Top Tier is a disgrace, literally the worse place for a person like me to be in. There's so many cops it's a matter of time I get stopped by a patrol and that won't be good for me, so I better finish this scan fast.
Looking up I struggle to see the Tower, the floating holograms of massive hovercars keep crossing the only view I have. That was the only place where I could have a clear sight of the top.
With 200 floors the City Tower was the tallest building in the city and was probably the most important of the new world. Zooming I detect hundreds of surveillance drones flying around the isolated building. No windows, no connection bridges, it's just a dark reflective triangle.
Leaning over the parapet I look down. Straight below me there's a highway crossing from left to right, I was 100 floors above the ground entrance of the Tower and I still couldn't see the whole thing completely.
From that point upwards it was all private property, only authorized residents could use the passages between buildings and streets but I obviously wasn't one of them. Well, I could hack a pass for me but the Force is even more present up there so it wouldn't be worth it.
"I would need an army to get past the front door." I say pushing away from the parapet to face the crowd.
Watching clueless shallow human was a hobby for me. They lived inside their little heads while their soul is drained by ads and their bodies are altered by synthetic limbs and organs. With my hand computer I could hack their brains and they wouldn't even notice.
"Huh…" And idea crosses my mind and suddenly I have to get a look at the ground entrance. The clock on my HUD reminds me that I spent more time gazing at the Tower than I should have.
Didn't take more than a few steps for a Force patrol to show up. The robotic figures hide humans on the inside. Those reflective helmets are more creepy than the robust mechanic armor. It sucks to walk around the top tier because of the constant presence of the Force, there are more fucking agents than people here.
As second nature, I pull up my collar and look the other way while keeping casual. Before they could cross me, I head to the closest stairs.
Looking over my shoulder for a few flights, I only stop once I'm sure they aren't following. I release the tension and let go of the clean, illuminated rail. In the end, I was right where I wanted to be, facing the ground entrance of the City Tower.
After going around the Tower it became obvious that getting in from the top was a no go. That elevated street I was just in was the tallest observation point nearby, it only got to the 100th floor of the building and there were more 100 going upwards. It didn't help that the Tower was also isolated and surround by a roundabout which turned the whole thing into an island in the middle of the city.
"So the only other way inside this monstrosity is through the front door."
Running my eyes over the building it seems harmless and accessible, no gates, no walls separating it from the public, just three steps away from the sidewalk. But that's for the untrained eyes. Besides the two visible Force agents positioned on each side of the mirrored door, dozens of surveillance drones circled the Tower from top to bottom, plus fixed cameras on the lighting posts faced the entrance, and two synchronized patrols of agents walked around the building in opposite directions.
"Well, I faced similar odds before."
With only the occasional pedestrian walking by the stairs behind me, I stay for a while watching the guards and recording the drones patterns. No one got in or out of the building the entire time I was here.
About 15 minutes goes by and nothing happens so it's time to get the hell out before another patrol finds me.
As my eyes were leaving the City Tower a person crossed the street in a hurry. I turn my head back to watch the movement. It was the first civilian to step foot on that island. A woman, visibly disturbed judging by the reckless way she entered the round-bound without thinking twice.
Horns shook my ears and called the attention of the guards. A patrol that was passing by the entrance stops to receive the woman at the sidewalk. From that distance I couldn't hear what they were saying but I enhanced the zoom of my lenses, getting a better look at the scene.
The woman is agitated, arguing with the guard with tears in her eyes. The lack of alterations in her body indicated she was definitely from the slums. That just pokes my curiosity, no one from the Lower tier would get that close to the City Tower, it would be suicide.
With her hands together over her chest the woman was begging while the inhuman figure held one arm up, keeping her at a safe distance.
"Generate subtitles." I need to know what she's saying.
She keeps advancing while the agent retreats. Her movements become more urgent as she gesticulates towards the Tower, screaming even though I couldn't hear.
"(…) Please, I need to speak to the Mayor. My husband was a decent man!"
The subtitles came in right when the Force agent pulls out a gun. The outside world seizes to exist and I feel like I'm standing by that woman's side.
Opposite to her the Force agent retreats to the three steps that separate the sidewalk from the Tower perimeter. Behind him the other guards were positioned like a wall blocking the view of the front door.
"I have a child who's asking about her father and I don't have the strength to tell her… My husband was a worker. He was coming home that night… It's not fair!"
Taken by despair the ordinary woman took another step towards the building, her foot touching the first step of the smooth concrete staircase.
In a second the woman is surrounded by dozens of drones. Each flying black dot pointing their weapons at a harmless civilian.
"Fuck…" I let out with the air in my lungs.
Right after the drones, two pairs of Force agents showed up from behind her, surrounding the woman. Immerse in her pain, she didn't seem to care or even notice the danger she was in.
"Those agents were already sent back to work while I haven't slept a full night ever since it happened…"
Clenching to her chest, the woman brings her other foot up, daring to stand on the first step of the staircase. Still under the aim of countless weapons, she continues.
"He was just walking home after working a 14 hour shift and didn't hear when the Force officer called him. I need justice!"
Overwhelmed by grief, the woman closes her hands in fists, shouting at the endless Tower. On high alert, her opposers hid behind their masks as the woman wet the concrete floor with her tears.
"I want the Mayor to do make these murderers pay for what they did to my husband!"
As she demands to speak to our leader, her foot lifts off.
Alarmed. the agents gesticulate with their guns, telling her to get back but to no effect.
"We are real people!"
Before she could reach the second step of the staircase, a loud burst make the hopeless woman mute. Her fragile body shakes so violently that for a second I doubt she is human.
With the air trapped in my throat, I squeeze the rail as a wave of rage runs through me. I want to look away but it's just not possible. The image keeps playing in the back of my mind while I watch a lifeless body leak crimson liquid that slides down the concrete steps, staining everything from top to bottom.
It isn't until a holographic wall showing the city logo covers the entrance that I realize I had been frozen in time for far too long.
Force cars blocked the round bound and began to clear the surrounding area, removing the pedestrians and redirecting traffic. In the commotion, behind confused people a team of agents were coming in my direction, pushing everyone out of the sidewalk while blocking side passages.
As I became aware of the world again the noise and commotion hit me like a brick. High citizens were arguing with the cops as they refused to evacuate the street. Entitled assholes.
One more look at the Tower and it was completely covered by the official leadership hologram, the Eye in Pyramid looking down on us practically laughing at whole thing.
A passing person bumped into me and it dragged my mind back to real life. The pigs were very close, pushing people off the street. I can't waste anymore time and dive into the wave of people going up.
Among the artificial crowd, rumors were spreading like a virus, everyone wanted to know what happened. Even though the execution took place in plain sight no one actually payed attention to what was going on before the shooting.
In the end that woman's death will serve a higher purpose. The Mayor's omission will be my strongest weapon.
I have to get home, is all I think about as my legs move on their own to get me to the closest station.