Kazin 

"Well, what do you think, Kaz?" Dad wipes the flakes of breading from his fingers with a napkin. "You think it's a good idea?"

I know he's already made up his mind--that he's only asking me so that I feel like I'm important here; so that I feel like I have a part to play in our moving out of the countryside and into this metropolis. Maybe it's a way of easing me into the family business, to get my foot in the door. Either way, I love him for it.

"I think it's a great idea, Dad."

He nods at me, chewing slowly on his biscuit. I smile.

He's explained his plan to me all throughout dinner, and I hope he doesn't end up thinking that I don't care due to the ambivalent demeanor I might have shown while gnawing on my chicken bones. Because I was actually listening to him with great interest.

There are nightlife districts all over the city, besides the one right beside our home in the Shirumo District. They are the lifeblood of the city. They're what people look forward to while they're stuck behind a customer service counter or inside their cubicles or at their desks; it's what makes them think that city life is worth it when Friday swings around, when all the clubs and bars and nooks and crannies are filled to bursting with the youngbloods, alive with ecstasy and hot with lust. The sparkly motels with flashy panels built right next to lounges or above basement nightclubs thumping away into the night are a complement to the guys and girls strolling through the streets while dressed their best and primmed to impress--when you walk the alleys of the neon jungle, you can smell the sex in the air. Layered over all of this is the sweet smell of alcohol and the musty dry of cigarette smoke.

This is where Dad comes in. Dad does dealings in nightlife. He's what you might call a broker--I think he has partners at the Docks and at City Center, and they help him to procure exotic and expensive alcohols at duty-free prices. These he then sells to his customers who work in nightlife, and he gets his cut of the commission. This is how he made his living in his youth; but then he married my mom. She didn't like the city life, so he moved her out to the country, where they had me. He was terminated from his company for that, so now he's venturing out on his own--a freelancer, he calls himself.

When I see the twinkle in his eyes as he talks of his plans, I realize just how much he’s sacrificed for us by moving out of the city.

"I think it sounds great, Dad," I say. "Will you be making a lot more if you expand?"

Dad nods. "Twice as much when we set up shop in Koboko District. Then, when me and Hazgal hire some more guys who can do the legwork, we'll expand into Byanza Quarter. That should increase our profits by more than a thousand percent."

"What about the guys in your old company?" I ask him. I need to be careful here, so I don't accidentally ruffle some of his feathers or reopen past wounds. Dad took his career pretty seriously, and the last thing I would want to do is to remind him of roads not taken. "Do you think they'd be willing to help you with the expansion?"

Dad shook his head. "Those guys are as good as dead to me, Kaz. That's how it is once you leave the sort of company I worked for." He smiles sadly. "The politicians and suits at City Center aren't as open to helping me as I thought they'd be. They're too tied to old loyalties." He gets a thoughtful look in his eye. "There was one girl though, a grunt the last time I left--Shora was her name. We used to smoke cigs together on weekends over beer while we complained about our bosses. She's Councilor Shora now. She's willing to help me." He taps his chin with a finger. "Akato might be able to help too. I was close with him at one time."

At this point, Dad is talking to himself, and I barely understand. So I only nod as if I do, without any input of my own.

Dad looks up. "But don't worry, kiddo," he says reassuringly. "We've already got a deal lined up and ready to sign, me and Hazgal, with the Shampai Group. They're a huge company with good production lines, and fingers in every sector of nightlife there is. Once we get this, you and I will be set for life, Kaz."

Even as he speaks this apparently great news, Dad looks worried. I decide to prod. "What's wrong, Dad?"

Dad shakes his head and smiles. He lifts his can of beer and beckons that I do the same with my can of melon soda. "Cheers, kiddo."

**********

The next morning, Dad shakes me awake like he always does before he leaves for work, and I climb out of bed to wash myself and get ready for school. As I throw a croissant in the microwave, I see a note on the table with a code laserPrinted onto it. When I register it with my cTab, one hundred links are deposited into my bank account.

Big day today! Will be back after important meeting. Buy yourself something good while you wait for me to get home. If all goes well, let's celebrate tonight, kiddo.

I stare at the note as I munch on my breakfast. I guess Dad's big contract signing is tonight. I realize that I really don't feel like going to school today, thanks to that confrontation with Sangsum and his buddies the night before. Dad insists my education is most important though, so I really don't want to disappoint him...

...I think to myself, as I make my way to the VR café. I decide that I don't want to deal with the real world right this moment, so a bit of time in the world of Melcophy is in order. As if fate declares its approval, I have a hundred links in my account too, on account of Dad. It's a sign that even the universe doesn't want me to go to school.

School is in the Minzyu District of town, a more upscale part of the city. The VR café prices are more expensive there, but I guess I'm not so shameless that I'll go totally out of my way from school. I'll still go to a VR café, but damn it if I don't go to one that's still in the general vicinity of Minzyu Secondary. A weird compromise of the conscience, if you will.

I plod into the fifteen-story building that is Mezi's VR. I know the owner, Mezi, by name. That says a lot about my class attendance, I suppose.

The girl at the front desk smiles at me as I enter. She reminds me of an older sister I never had--dark brown hair and brown eyes, like my mom. She looks like she could be an influencer if she wore the right stuff and did her makeup the right way, but kudos to her for going with her own style. She dresses and does her hair in the web comic fashion.

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"Hey, Kazin! How you doing? Don't feel like going to school today either, huh?"

I cringe, once again reminded that I've ditched more than my fair share of times. "Hey Ina. I'm pretty tired. Could use a bit of rest, but sleep is too boring."

Ina laughs. "Alrighty, Kazin, then a VR pod it is. How many hours?"

"Five."

"Seventy links."

"Seventy?" I say, confused.

She nods. "Vermeta Corporation's raised the tariffs for use of their pods, unfortunately. That'll reflect in the hourly rates. In the end, it's we proletariats who suffer." She shrugs apologetically.

"What about the kinetic VR? Have they raised the prices on those too?"

Ina nods. "A little bit more, not much, but do you really want to stand on a walkWheel and move, when you could just lay down in a pod?"

I grumble as I enter the amount into my cTab and get ready to scan it on the tPanel. I know it's not Ina's fault, but seventy links is almost twice the price it was last month.

"Here, I'll throw this code in too," Ina says. "It's a promotional for first-time customers only, but you can have it, as you are one of our best regulars." She types a few things into her tPanel from behind the desk. "It'll get you two hundred golden falcons and two random items in Melcophy."

I shrug. Not bad. "Better than nothing. Thanks, Ina."

She scans her hand on the surface of the lockbox behind her. When it clicks open, she reaches for a key and tosses it to me. "Room 702. It's a window room." She winks.

"Thanks," I say, waving. I walk to the elevator and push the button. It takes a while for even one of the four lifts to come down the tubes. I guess there's a lot of people here today. I step into it, and just as the door slides shut, I see a huge group of people shoving their way through the front entrance. They look like they just clocked out of a bCLab shift. I can tell from their yellow, orange, and white hardhats. I'm glad that I missed them. Ina looks distraught--it's always hard business explaining a price hike to a customer, and especially difficult when it's a whole group of them. No doubt they'll still pay, but she's bound to get a nice lashing with a mean word or two.

Finally, the elevator reaches the seventh floor, and I can hardly wait to get into the pod and just close my eyes to get whisked out into Melcophy. Just as I'm about to turn the corner into the hallway, I hear a familiar voice. I stop in my tracks and press my back against the wall.

"Yeah," the guy's voice says. "Some newcomer is encroaching on the Kargu clan's territory, so my dad was called in. My mom's on vacation abroad, so there's no one else to look after my sisters tonight."

I strain to listen, and I realize it's Vorin's voice. I suppose I'm not surprised that he's ditching school for a VR café too--after all, we did bond over Melcophy at first, when I thought he'd be my friend. I find that I'm curious as to who he's talking to. I creep closer to the corner.

"Yeah, he got tipped off," Vorin says again. When I can't hear the other person's replies, I realize he's talking to someone on his cTab the old way, pressed against his ear, rather than using the hologram method.

There's a slight pause and a little exhale as Vorin expires a bit of cigarette smoke. "By the same guys the newcomer thinks are on his side. You'll never guess who tipped off the Kargu clan, though." Exhale. "Yeah, Sangsum's dad's company. The cocky bastard's family sold this guy out to the highest bidder. Per my dad, Sangsum's family is in deep debt, and might need to declare bankruptcy soon. They need the money. Poor kid, though. You'll never guess who his son is." Exhale. "Yeah, Sangsum picks on him. What a little prick. Big ego for someone so deep in the hole. Got a bit of an inferiority complex going on." Exhale. "Yeah, no kidding. Tough luck. Should've stayed in the backwaters he came from."

I get this uneasy feeling that Vorin's talking about my dad—maybe I’m being paranoid. I decide to listen a little more.

"Yeah, sorry Vy. Just pull some B.S. excuse for me to Jerim and Sangsum, will ya? If they know that I know all this stuff about Sangsum, I'm out of the group"--Vorin snaps his fingers--"just like that. Then I'll have to hang with Kazin, if he decides to stay in Handata City after all of this. Which I doubt, of course."

I feel a deep fear grow like a shadow in my mind. My stomach turns in on itself from the uneasiness that takes ahold of me.

"And damn, don't let Sangsum know that I know all this about him, alright? Just keep it between you and me. Cool? Alright, bye." A few seconds pass, and the sound of a door swinging shut rings in the hallway.

I step out and try to find which room Vorin has stepped into. I rush down the marble floors, staring at each of the steel ashtray canisters in a frantic search for Vorin's cigarette. I find the butt, still smoking, by the canister of room 725. It's a master suite, a window room with every sort of amenity there is. The kid is rich, I realize. These rooms go for one hundred links per hour. A small part of me had doubted the things he was telling Vyvani--that he was just acting cool and badass to impress her--but now I think he may actually be from a family connected to all the things he was claiming.

But what's all this Vorin was saying about clans and territory, and Sangsum's dad's company? And why would his own dad be called in?

I hurry my way to room 702. I shut the door quickly behind me. The room is not that big, maybe fifteen feet across. The pod is in the middle, and a door on the right leads into a private bathroom. The window looks out onto Ginzuya Street, a bustling boulevard with towering buildings as far as you can see, filled to the brim with shops and eateries and high-class hotels. Pedestrians choke the streets and walkways, and hypercars zip by on every level of hoverlane, all the way up to the highest building, even soaring above them.

I whip out my cTab, and quickly dial Dad's number. The triangle light emanates above the screen, and I wait patiently for my dad's shape to take form.

Nothing.

I try again, begging someone, something, that Dad will answer.

The triangle of blue-green light flickers, and suddenly Dad is standing there.

"What's up, kiddo?"

I nearly shout in my relief.

"Dad, I just heard some kid talking. He said something about the Kargu clan, and how a newcomer is on their territory, and of how the company is the tipper, and..." Damn, I can't really remember anything else.

Dad is quiet for a moment. "You sure about this, Kaz?"

I nod frantically, hoping he'll believe me. "Yes. Also, the company was owned by the family of some prick in my class. Sangsum's his name."

Dad nods. "I did hear that their son attends the same school that you do. Minzyu Secondary." Dad looks thoughtful, as if teetering on the edge of believing some throwaway conversation his kid son overheard, and tossing out what might be his key to the future.

But I like to believe I know my dad. I stare at him hopefully.

Dad nods slowly. "Alright, kiddo. I believe you. We'll talk at home." He smiles at me. "And I expect you to return the hundred links, Kaz. You've been caught out of school, my friend."

I laugh. "Don't worry, Dad. I'll pay it back. I'll work my ass off if I have to. Just get yours home safely."

Dad winks, and the light fizzles out. I'm confused about everything now--about Dad's company, and the kind of work he does, and the shady stuff that I've overheard, but I can ask him all this at home. I decide that I've had too much for today to lay down restfully in a pod for several hours. The adrenaline has worn off, and I'm tired. I bid Melcophy and my seventy links goodbye for now, and I step out the door.

I press on the elevator button and revel in the tidbits of newfound information. All of Sangsum's behaviors are explained by what I've just discovered, thanks to Vorin. It's always the overly cocky ones who use their act as a ruse to hide some deeper issue--the distinct characteristic of a bully.

"What a loser," I whisper to myself. Maybe I'll tell Heyla about it when we meet up in the Forum tomorrow night.

When the elevator door opens, the bCLab hardhats from before are crowded inside the tube.

A big guy at the front looks down at his cTab, then back up at me. He smiles, and a chill runs up my spine.

"There he is."

I look them over, and to my horror, I see the bioEnhancement chips on their faces, hands, arms--all of these surrounded by tattoos that act as a sort of camouflage for the pieces of illegal technology. Suddenly, all the things I've read in countless web comics play through my mind, and I realize that these guys aren't really construction workers.

They're Joryoku mobsters.

I try to run, but they have me before I can take a single step. I'm no match for their bioCharged movements.

I'm out cold before I can scream for help.