Нова Проспект / Nova Prospect: Phantom Battle (Адам)

When the video link was cut, Adam went over the footage from Daigun Square one more time, trying to find angles from which he could see the Tai Yun building. Finding none, he decided that while the world was going to hell, he might as well take a nap. The sound of hastily spinning blades cut through the air. Farida had carefully turned on the soundproof mode, but right now Adam would have fallen asleep even in a tank.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 17:08

Adam dreamed of masked men speaking with Scottish accents.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 17:07

* * *

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 17:07

They were already flying over Shaoxing when Adam was awakened by an Infolink message.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 17:57

+/"Contact David Lee."

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 17:57

Attached to Sharif's order was a portrait and brief biography of a man wearing old-fashioned glasses with hexes of newfangled hacker implants on both temples. Judging from his personnel file, he'd been hired for corporate espionage and provided with an apartment with a nice view of Daigun Square.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 17:58

Any attempt to contact David Lee was unsuccessful, which determined the future route. Farida remained silent, but her appearance made it clear how desperately bad she thought the idea was.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 17:59

Evacuation chaos reigned on the borders of Hensha Island. Emergencies are the best catalyst for social Darwinism, and the island was being abandoned in order of bank account size. Non-celebrities had to descend from their ivory towers - or fly away - depending on funds. Those who couldn't get private jets crowded into ports. Those who couldn't get a seat on ships and yachts stood in kilometer-long traffic jams.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 18:00

Adam hoped that getting to the place everyone was running from was a lot easier than the other way around. At least, he was the only one on the southern cordon. The border guards had been working hard for the past three hours, doing their best to hold back the frenzied crowd.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 18:01

Adam analyzed their faces with CASIE, picking out the most fearful and weak-willed. One of them, wiping sweat from his forehead, fit the psychological profile.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 18:02

"Frank Prescott," Adam introduced himself in a tone that brooked no objection. "The security department of Tai Yun Medical."

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 18:02

Good luck with the database check. The border guard's eye twitched at the mention of "Tai Yun," but he still dryly demanded identification. Adam obediently showed a hastily fabricated identification card. He did not doubt that the border guards were forbidden to admit that the facial search system was down. The guard was clearly figuring out if he could work for Tai Yun Medical - Adam defiantly crossed his arms over his chest and covered his eyes with his lenses.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 18:03

CASIE detected doubt and fear in the guard.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 18:03

"Look, buddy," Adam added a little more anger to his tone. "We've got an emergency here, and we certainly don't have time to chill. What's the problem?"

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 18:04

"I..."

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 18:05

Adam didn't let him finish. A barely perceptible tremor at the corners of his eyes, his breathing quickening, his gaze running. He gotta strike while it's hot.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 18:05

"I'm supposed to be on the scene in half an hour, and if I'm not there..." Adam read the name off the nametag slowly and expressively, "...Mr. Lin, I know who to blame."

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 18:06

"If you at least give me a contact person..." the man muttered.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 18:06

"Roy Jones," Adam replied calmly. "Belltower."

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 18:07

Hell knows where he'd gotten that name from. If "Tai Yun Medical" didn't work, the combination of "Belltower" and "Tai Yun Medical" was unmistakable. With a languid smile, the border guard glanced at him, clearly wishing him to fall into the same abyss in the middle of the city.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 18:09

The city lay in semi-darkness under a shroud of drizzling rain. The clear skies on the island were a phenomenon their fathers and grandfathers had told their children about.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 18:12

If the news was to be believed - which Adam had never done in his life - Hensha's second level was in danger of collapsing in less than a couple of days. Unless, of course, teams of highly trained engineers and construction robots, courtesy of Tai Yun Medical, VersaLife, and Sumimoto Keiretsu, could save it from that fate.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 18:13

Judging by the few who were trying to get into the city rather than escape it - these engineers looked suspiciously like scientists, and Adam strongly doubted that the scientific community was so interested in the ground collapse. Even more doubtful was the fact they would need an army in their research.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 18:14

The visual interface in front of his eyes was covered with a grid of streets. A red cross marked Lee's apartment. Adam had descended into Henscha's automated underground transportation system, following the orange neon arrows, when Pritchard once again felt the need to chat.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 18:15

"Jensen, there's one question that's been bugging me," Pritchard sounded like he hadn't gotten much sleep. "Who did Wintermute turn out to be in the end?"

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 18:15

Pritchard had a weakness for cybercriminals. He flew halfway around the world to listen to Mitnick's lecture.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 18:16

"A crazy lunatic," Adam disappointed him. "He wanted to destroy Red Bank to spite the Illuminati. Yeah, the freemasons who control the world."

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 18:17

Adam expected at least a chuckle from Pritchard, but for once the latter dispensed with the sarcastic comment.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 18:17

"Do you know, Jensen, how many people didn't believe in MK-ultra (2)?"

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 17:55

Oh, God, not this.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 17:56

"Yes, Pritchard, and 9/11 was the work of the FBI. Seriously, I'm having an extremely hard day." Adam signaled the topic was closed and asked the question really bothered him: "What was that alert on Sharif's screen? Are we expanding the staff?"

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 18:19

The very moment the head of security is unable to vet anyone.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 18:19

"Um?" Pritchard asked without interest. "Yes, specialists in the new department. Genetics and biotechnology. Why? Are you afraid you'll be left without a year's bonus? Don't get your hopes up, you won't get one."

Camrad_RIP 18.03.24 в 22:50

Sharif has serious stakes in the outcome of this mission. On Ciri. The couple of days in the lab that Adam had promised her now seemed an extremely optimistic prognosis. Catching the oppressive silence, Pritchard decided to inquire:

Camrad_RIP 18.03.24 в 22:51

"Jensen, do you seriously think Sharif is paying for you to run around to show Supergirl the beauty of Detroit?"

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 17:56

Adam hasn't been that naive for about ten years now. The market is the market - times change, and the market is always alive.

Camrad_RIP 18.03.24 в 22:52

Finishing his session, he walked out a couple of stations away from Daigun Square.

Camrad_RIP 18.03.24 в 22:52

You can make post-apocalyptic movies in Hensha now without much expense. There's nothing on the streets that doesn't run on batteries. A pamphlet with Taggart's "It's not going to get any better" lecture stuck to Adam's shoe. He's not a bad marketer - the lettering is in an archaic font that's supposed to remind him of computers from the eighties. Luddites are unkillable.

Camrad_RIP 18.03.24 в 22:53

Adam had never felt so uncomfortable in his life. In the dust-polluted, hot air of the deserted concrete jungle, a premonition of something terrible hung in the air.

Camrad_RIP 18.03.24 в 22:53

David Lee's apartment was in a narrow, tall building squeezed between corporate giants. The price per square meter was beyond the financial means of mere mortals, and the interior furnishings were so ascetic that the inattentive would have thought it had been skimped on. The robot butler cheerfully greeted the only guest.

Camrad_RIP 18.03.24 в 22:57

Adam went up to the twenty-eighth floor. The apartment had been left in a hurry, leaving behind top-of-the-line industrial espionage equipment: wiretaps, GSM trackers, and terminals whose purpose he didn't immediately understand. David Lee had left a pile of papers on the desk, and on a white sheet at the top of the pile was a schizophrenic inscription in sprawling hieroglyphics-"THEY EXIST." It seemed to Adam that the number of lunatics per square meter had increased dramatically lately.

Camrad_RIP 18.03.24 в 23:07

At least Lee had a nice collection of Scotch in the bar. We're gonna have to go looting after all. Adam could afford one glass of Glenlivet before he tried to extract anything of value from the spy's findings.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 17:49

The panoramic window offered a stunning view of the abyss in the middle of Daigong Square, the black cube of Tai Yun Medical, and the elongated tower of the VersaLife Clinic. The latter was projected with plump lips encircling a round pill and the inscription "EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE".

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 17:43

You couldn't be more accurate.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 17:44

//"We thought we were alone," Adam contemplated the neon desert, "and omnipotent. That we knew everything there was to know."

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 17:43

In the blackness of the abyss, Adam caught a barely perceptible stirring, like bubbles rising to the surface of someone else's soup. It was the shape of something not quite human and not quite animal, a slimy, shapeless mass.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 17:42

//"It can't be," Adam thought. - The ravings of an exhausted mind. Or the malt hitting him sharply in the head."

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 17:42

"EVERYTHING is possible," VersaLife contradicted him.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 17:41

Darkness was coming over the city.

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 17:08

* * *

Camrad_RIP 17.03.24 в 17:08