Making their way into The Heights, John and Ben get out of a ride share. Around them are a series of repeating apartment complexes, all made out of concrete bleached and worn of bright colors that once were reflected onto the walls. Reminiscent of The Projects of Illinois.
Walking around they see kids playing on the streets.
They pass by the occasional concrete jungle, unmaintained messes of parks, vandalized with tags as a few guys play around a basketball court, the only thing relatively untouched.
A few ballers look at John and Ben as they point.
“Hey you guys looking to buy?” One of them asks them.
“Nah, just in the neighborhood.” John replies.
They nod as they walk by.
“Stay outta westside. That’s Gorilla Territory.”
John waves at them.
“Thanks.”
As they walk by, on rooftops people can be seen running across from platform to platform. Ben looks over at it as John glances at them.
“Edgerunners.” John says.
“What’s that?” Ben asks.
“They’re couriers, messengers, sometimes pizza delivery drivers.”
“Huh.”
Ben looks over at his cyberdeck which shows a GPS routing application on it as they slowly make their way towards one of the buildings.
“Looks like we’re here.” Ben says.
John looks around as they stop right in front of an entrance to one of the large scale apartment complexes. He takes a look around as he takes in a breath of air.
“Now we have to find the east side entrances and work our way from there.”
“Think the Gorillas have something to do with it?”
“Could be, too early to tell, there’s lots of gangs in places like this usually.” John says.
Ben follows John as they move east.
Making their way towards an entryway, John looks around. It’s a straight path down towards a street and sidewalk where more projects are lined up. Looking up at the powerline’s he sees several CCTV cameras on each of the poles.
John points towards them as he walks over.
“Hey Ben, think you can connect to these cameras?”
Ben looks over in the direction as he looks up, he thinks to himself as they walk over.
“Maybe. If we connect to the router it’s connected to we can see where it’s going.”
“So, do you need to like get up there to do it?”
“No, just need to see if the city left the router on its factory settings and hope that someone leaked the exact model somewhere online.”
John turns to look at Ben who’s already at work.
“What are the odds of that?”
“Pretty high. Manufacturers like to reuse passwords. Anddd… We’re in.” Ben says.
“Mmm… Looks like it’s sending the data to a data warehouse with credentials preconfigured onto the router. That’s just lazy.” Ben comments.
“I’ll just use their secret key to hopefully gain access to it.”
“Huh, there’s almost a couple dozen petabytes worth of space on this thing.”
“Probably for the entire district.” Ben says to himself.
Awkwardly standing around, John looks around and spots a bench as Ben stares at his cyberdeck and taps on his shoulder gently.
“Hey, come on. Let’s sit over there.” he says.
They walk over to the bench as they sit down together. The sound of crickets and frogs can be heard echoing across the concrete flooring. It’s a strange, eerie feeling almost artificial.
John slouches down as he thinks to himself while Ben works.
He looks around as he notices that no one else is around.
Taking out his phone, he checks the time. 12 AM.
Some of the lights flicker but he ignores it.
“Ah, they’re all formatted by time and date, but not location, it’s going to take me a while to find the files we’re looking for.” Ben says as John looks over.
“Take your time.”
John looks over down the street as he notices a black car drive by.
Thinking nothing of it, he turns to look over at one of the apartment complexes. All the lights inside are seemingly off as they seem to follow a pattern as more and more of them flicker off.
The sound of more cars passing by can be heard as John looks over.
A mixture of electronic dance and rap starts to shake the ground around them as more and more cars begin to drive by, the loud stereo of a car can be heard throughout The Heights. Getting louder and louder as it comes along.
Ben looks over too as people can be seen shouting from out of their cars.
They pass by as nothing really happens.
Ben looks over at John.
“Hyenas. Don’t worry, they won’t be back. Probably partying.” He says.
“Hey, I think you’re gonna want a look at this.” Ben says as he shows him his cyberdeck. On it, we see what looks to be a group of women saying goodbye to a woman who resembles Lucia as she makes her way out of the complex.
“Looks like her.” John says.
“Yeah.”
She continues along the street as Ben cuts to another camera screen. Continuing on for a bit, she makes it off the block as a van drives by suddenly, several presumably men come out with guns wearing baklavas over their faces as they run up to her.
“Get the fuck on the ground!” One of them shouts.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Hey man, nice catch right?” Another says in Spanish.
“Shut the fuck up.” The other replies in Spanish.
Quickly dragging Lucia, she begins to whimper in fear as they carry her into a van.
Just as quickly as they arrived, they shut the door as they drive off.
“Follow the van, see if it has a driver’s plate.”
Ben goes through a series of videos as they follow the van along, on it a logo for a construction company, they look around on it as Ben shakes his head as he looks over at John.
“It’s unmarked.” Ben says.
John sighs.
“What was that they said?”
“I think it’s Spanish. What do you think this means?” Ben says.
“I don’t know. Lots of people speak it.”
John thinks to himself as he leans against the bench. He takes his phone out as he stares at Jamar’s numbers, thinking for a bit, he calls.
“Any idea what we should-”
John puts his hand on his face signaling Ben to be quiet.
“John? It’s late. You know, you have a bad habit of calling whenever it’s convenient for you.”
“I’m sorry.” John says.
“It’s okay, just try not to do it so much. So, what’s up?” Jamar replies.
“Know of any gangs that do business in construction?”
“Can think of a few, why?”
“Found some footage of Lucia being kidnapped by some thugs in a van, no plates but a logo on it for a construction company, think it’s Japanese but the guys are clearly Hispanic.”
Jamar groans.
“Listen, it’s late. I can’t think straight. How bout I stop by tomorrow and we work on this together, me, you, and Ben. That sound good?” Jamar asks.
John looks over at Ben who yawns.
“Yeah, good idea.”
“Great, talk to you soon.”
“You too.” John says as he hangs up.
“So, what did he say?” Ben says looking over at John.
“Let’s take a break for the day. That good with you?” John asks Ben as he gets up.
“Yeah, I’m getting tired.” Ben says
“Okay, I’ll take you home.” John says as he looks over at his phone.
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Waking up in his bed, John begins to cough as he immediately heads for the bathroom. His alarm continues to beep outside as he fills up a cup of water while he opens up a bottle. A home assistant can be heard talking while he takes his medication.
“Your appointment for Chemosurgery is scheduled for 11 AM. In four days.”
“Thanks, Ava.” John says.
Music begins to play from a speaker system outside as John turns on the shower.
His morning coffee begins to automatically brew as like a rube goldberg machine the television starts as the news begins to play.
In the shower, John begins to sing along to 80s classic.
“In other news, another violent break in today at a highlands home, the burglary resulted in the deaths of the home owners after they were brutally shot after being held at gunpoint for likely hours on end according to police. We here at Neotokyo News always recommend our sponsors at American Home Security, help is only a call away.”
Getting out of the shower, John walks out with a towel as makes his way over towards his coffee maker, pouring himself a cup, he gets changed.
Picking up the cup, he takes a sip.
“Incoming call from JAMAR.” Ava says as the music suddenly stops.
“Put him on.” John says.
“Hey, got telling Anya about the situation, I’ll be on my way over after I pick up Ben from the scrapyard, okay?” Jamar says.
“Yeah, sounds good.” John replies.
“Talk to you soon, I’m driving.” Jamar continues.
“Alright, don’t get into an accident.” John jokes. The line ends as the music comes back on.
John makes his way over to a desk next to his television as he looks down at a notebook, in it he’s begun to write a bunch of notes on the case. As a knock comes from his door. He walks over as Katarina is waiting for him on the other end.
“Oh, hey.” John says.
“Ava, stop music.” He continues.
Katarina looks at him as if waiting for him to say something. John just stares at her.
“Can I come in?” Katarina asks.
“Yeah, yeah. Sorry.” John says as she sighs.
He holds the door open for her as she begins to walk inside.
“You find another job?” She asks.
“Yeah, looking for a missing girl, right now.”
“Missing girl? I’m talking about real gigs.”
“Look, it might not look that way, but it’s turning out to be more interesting than it seems.”
Katarina crosses her arms as she looks away.
“Look, she’s dead. Move on. Stop chasing after ghosts.”
Annoyed, Katarina begins to head towards the door. John chases after her. He stops her from leaving as she glances back at him.
“The hell is that supposed to mean?”
“I know, she’s a friend of a friend, but trust me, girls like this end up dead all the time. Stop wasting our resources and look for another gig, all you’re going to do is turn heads by continuing to go after this lead.” Katarina says as she moves his hand aside opening the door.
“You don’t know that.”
“After approximately 24 hours after a woman is kidnapped, they end up dead or never to be seen again. Stop wasting time, I didn’t think I’d have to say this to someone who’s literally dying.” Katarina emphasizes as she walks away.
John stares at her as she walks away dumbfounded.
As she leaves, he mutters.
“What a bitch.”
“I can still hear you, asshole!” She shouts.
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Sitting on his couch, John looks over at his notes, from his door the sound of knocking comes from it as he looks over. Walking towards the doorway, he can hear Jamar talking to Ben.
“You know, I could hook you up with a place like this too.”
“Oh, no. Want to help out in my community the best that I can.” Ben says.
“Besides, they're basically my family.”
“I get it.”
Opening up the door, John looks over at Jamar and Ben. Who look over at him, Jamar opens up his arms as he hugs John.
“Hey, how you been?” Jamar asks.
“Fine, Kat stopped by. Asked me to drop the case.”
“What?” Jamar looks up at him confused, letting him go, John looks over at Ben as he shuts the door behind them.
“Hey.” Ben says.
“Yeah.”
“So, we’re just going to quit because she told us to?”
“I think it was more of a suggestion.” John replies.
“So what did she say?”
“Waste of resources, find something else to do kind of thing.”
“Huh, sounds more like a suggestion to me.” Jamar agrees, Ben looks around inside as he makes his way towards a desk, looking through the notes as John notices.
“Looks like Ben’s a go-getter.” John smirks.
They walk over to the table as Jamar looks over at John’s notes.
“Huh, not bad. But I gotta say, for all we know that car could just be stolen.”
“It’s a good point, but it’s all we really have.” John replies.
“Recognize the logo?”
They stare at the logo as it’s written in Kanji.
“It’s Japanese, that’s for sure.”
“Well, if our bet is right, the guys we’re looking for are the Los Bajos. They’re ex-military, many of their upper members come from the special forces. Part of the Cali Cartel Alliance. They deal mainly in construction and building materials. Wouldn’t be too surprising for their members to be subcontractors for whatever group this is.” Jamar says.
John turns to Jamar.
“What if Kat’s right? These guys are part of the CCA, are you sure we want to stir up the hornet’s nest?” John asks.
Jamar waves his hands as he pats him on the shoulder.
“Nah, there's lots of these cholos. Messing with a couple of em isn’t going to be a big deal. It’s more like a name really, as long as we don’t cause too much of a mess. They aren’t going to give a shit.” Jamar continues.
John starts to think to himself.
“Ah, now we need to figure out where and how they’re taking these women.”
“Any ideas?” Jamar asks.
Ben raises his hand as the others look over at him.
“I think I have a plan.”