1:42pm, Tuesday the 13th March, 2125.
The woman sat across from him in an old-fashioned grey suit, the kind of white shirt and sharkskin-coloured jacket that important people wore in old movies. She wasn’t ugly, but her professional demeanour and short-cropped silver hair weren’t to his tastes, and he kept getting distracted by the way her eyes changed colour in the light of her touchpad. The desk between them was a screen, a switched off monitor on which the woman’s high-cut features were reflected, and he looked away from it to peer through a slanted window.
“Is it too bright?” The woman asked, monotone.
Outside, the megalopolis was bathed in daylight, a claustrophobic wall of superstructures and great towers that, like black and silver mirrors, showed sun and clouds he would not have otherwise seen. That sun also shone through the office window, casting the interior in a light that soon became glaring, and he had been forced to shield his eyes with his hand.
“A little,” he replied.
She gave a nod, eyes still on her touchpad, then the window darkened just enough to paint the room in shadow. There was silence then, and nothing else to focus on except for a series of commendations framed against the wall; diplomas in political philosophy, appointments to the United Nations Security Council, and finally promotion to Deputy Recruitment Director for the local branch of the Intelligence Service. Most were holographic images, but that last one was on framed paper, and it especially caught his eye. There wasn’t much paper around anymore.
“I must say, Mr. King, your résumé is impressive,” the woman said, lifting her now green eyes towards him. “I see why you were referred to me directly.”
“Please, call me Aiden,” he said, shifting attentively in his chair and giving her a polite, if not slightly awkward smile. “Though I have to admit, I didn’t think I would be invited to an interview with someone so important. I’m very thankful for this opportunity – it’s been my dream for years.”
“You’re clearly a talented candidate, Aiden. Let me ask: these results, did you work hard for them, or did they come naturally?”
“Both, I think. I suppose I was born lucky, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have to work. I don’t think anyone can succeed without effort.”
She smiled. “And university? Does the prospect of a higher education and the possibility of a career in academia or science not appeal to you?”
“Well, yes, I suppose so. I won’t lie – I’ve had offers from most of the top universities. Oxford, Harvard, Johannesburg, Mombasa, St. Petersburg, Peking, Tokyo. Others too, but none as prestigious, but I don’t know…” Aiden paused, giving a small shrug. “It doesn’t feel right, if that makes sense.”
The woman tilted her head, crossing her hands atop the touchpad she lay down on the surface of her desk. “In what way?”
“I’ve always wanted to serve my home. My father was a soldier and saw combat in Iran and North Korea, and my older sister is in law enforcement. Maybe the call to enlist runs in my family? And I want to travel, I want opportunities beyond what normal university will provide.”
She watched him carefully, eyes slowly shifting from green to pale violet. “Well, Aiden, I’ll be blunt: the Intelligence Service would love to have you,” she replied. “Your aptitude test score results place you in the 99.98 percentile, which, as you know, opens essentially every role you could think of in our organization. Field agent, intelligence analyst, researcher – we could train you for anything. Based on that, your family history, and your background, I am able to guarantee you a position right now. If you want it, that is.”
Aiden sat back in his chair, blinking in surprise. “Really? That’s it? It’s that simple?”
The woman smiled. “It’s that simple.”
“Then I accept,” he said. “Do I need to sign anything?”
She shook her head. “Not at this moment, no.”
The recruiter looked down at her touchpad, switching off its screen and removing it from her desk surface to slot away beneath. Before long, Aiden felt the atmosphere of the room change based on nothing more than a sudden and subtle shift in her body language. It was tense, and something told him that despite her experience in her field, she was struggling with how to broach a subject that made her uneasy. She was looking down the faintest amount, trying to figure the exact sequence of words she would have to use to accomplish a task someone else had given her. She was cool about it, clearly trained to prevent her body language from betraying her, but Aiden could still see it. That had always been one of his gifts.
“Aiden,” she began to say, “I’m afraid to say that I have not been entirely honest with you as to the purpose of this interview.”
Aiden watched her closely. “Really? How so?”
“You are an impressive candidate, we both know that. But if we had no further interest in you, you would not be sitting here with me – another recruiter would have been more than adequate to handle this process. I was asked to meet with you today because your unique attributes have presented us, and you, an extremely rare opportunity. You said you wished to travel: have you ever wanted to go to Kanto?”
“Kanto in Japan?” He asked. “Sure, I suppose.”
She nodded. “The United Nations Intelligence Service, and the United Nations Security Council it falls under, are in the process of creating a new intelligence and anti-terrorism organization based there. It’s getting funding from both public and private sectors, and several of the most powerful countries and megacorps on the planet are cooperating to make it a reality.”
Aiden looked confused for a moment, glancing down from the woman’s eyes to the plain, grey buttons of her jacket. “Megacorps? I thought it was illegal to have corporate interests in U.N affairs? They used to call it lobbying, didn’t they?”
The woman gave a nod. “It’s not entirely the same thing,” she said, “but you are correct. This new organization will exist beyond both United Nations and corporate jurisdictions, and it will stay secret for the first few years of its operation. You must understand that this organization represents the possibility of peaceful collaboration between rival megacorps who have, unofficially, warred against each other for decades. It could serve to bring them under a single committee of oversight – a table which U.N.I.S, and by extension the U.N.S.C, has a seat at.”
Aiden had to stop and think. He had always been politically inclined, and he had never agreed with the idea of corporations being involved with government. For seventy years, many corporations had held more power than the states that regulated them, and it was no great secret that those regulations could not be enforced. Corporations had their own private security forces, military-grade arsenals, fanatically loyal mid-level employees, and competing aspirations that often brought them to violent confrontation.
The news feeds were always filled with suspected corporate murders, espionage, and Machiavellian schemes, yet it was rare that anyone was ever held accountable. Law enforcement agencies and regulatory committees lived at the mercy of their generous donations, and their C.E.Os were more like bosses from old mafia movies, or ancient warlords, than they were business owners and entrepreneurs. Was it really a good idea to include them in the creation of an intelligence service?
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“I’m not too sure,” Aiden admitted. “I don’t know if I would want to be part of something like that. Megacorporations working together could be a good thing, sure, but what about the harm they could cause? And even if the U.N is at the table, would they really have any power over a supposedly independent organization? With all due respect, it sounds like a risky, nearly reckless gamble.”
The woman watched him. “You’re right, of course. It is risky. But there’s always risk in this field, Aiden, and in this case that risk is vastly outweighed by the potential rewards. And you wouldn’t be alone in taking it; the Security Council are donating hundreds of employees to this endeavour, from scientists to analysts, from operatives to security guards. You would not be in danger and you would not be alone.”
Aiden looked at the way she crossed her fingers, frowning. “You still haven’t explained what it is you want me to do there, or why you want to send me at all.”
“Because of your test results. Because you came to us, because you want to work in this field. The organization we’re discussing is looking for a select few, for those with nearly perfect scores to spearhead its future as elite operatives in the field. You’re inexperienced and untrained, but that can be fixed. We want to shortlist you, Aiden, and put you forward as one of them.”
Aiden could hardly believe what she was saying. He also couldn’t help but smile. What the woman was telling him sounded almost too strange to be true, like something contrived specifically to massage his ego and tease a childhood dream. What young boy did not want to be a spy, to be the heroic secret agent sent to save the world and get the girl? That’s not what she was offering him, of course, but in the cold reality of his newfound adulthood, would there ever be an offer closer? Would he ever forgive himself if he told her no?
“What’s it called? This organization?” He asked, his mind made.
The woman tapped her finger down on the surface of her desk, and its screen came to life with bright, pale colours. “It has only a working name,” she said, already opening an application form. “But for now, it’s called the Research, Engage and Neutralize Division.”
“Rend…” Aiden said to himself, slowly and quietly. He looked out through the dulled window, imagining himself returning home to those streets as someone respected; mysterious, wealthy, not famous in the traditional sense but known as a man who had done something good, who had fought terrorists and saved lives. A man who had done something that mattered.
“I’ll do it,” he finally answered. “It’s an opportunity I would be stupid to pass up.”
“Fantastic,” the recruiter replied, typing away on the screen of her desk. “There is one more thing, however. What will you tell your family?”
“That I’m going to university.”
2:48pm, Tuesday the 13th March, 2125.
Aiden looked into the elevator mirror, running his fingers through light brown hair that had been combed into a preppy style that didn’t suit him. Behind him, individuals in smart dress stood in silence, giving attention to nothing but their own personal devices. The elevator was close to crowded and yet every member of it stood alone, and Aiden had to be careful not to nudge those around him as he changed his hair into something less formal.
He saw the reflections of artificial eyes; reds, pinks, violets, silvers, all as easily changed as contact lenses. Only his own were natural, the same pale blue as his father’s, and yet to see them suddenly made him unsure. Was he really making the right decision? Could he really be what they wanted him to be if he was forced to change them?
The elevator came to a halt and the metal doors opened behind him, the mirror’s reflective screen changing into a message of thanks. He turned, following the others out into a wide street of ten thousand people swarming beneath bright sunlight, flanked by a road of swift-moving cars. The occasional flying vehicle broke out in the air above them, swerving around trunks of glass and steel in near silence.
“Aiden, where are you?” A feminine voice asked in his ear.
“I’ve just come out of the elevator,” he replied. “I’m on level 0.”
“Turn off to where that burger place is, I’ve parked just outside.”
“Alright.”
He turned and followed a faceless crowd. He was in a rich part of town, where most wore smart suits, or clothing as strangely fashionable as expensive, but down each side-street there were a far more interesting variety of people. A thousand individuals from a hundred sub-cultures walked in those places, shrouded in shadow and yet brighter all the same.
He turned down one such street, passing a dozen small restaurants and stores, and entrances to inner-city apartment blocks where people sat at food stalls and ate. One woman screamed at her retro-phone while marching past him, and he found his eyes drawn down a nearby alley where men with mechanical limbs spoke around a portable heater. All of a sudden they began fighting, breaking into grapples and shoves and angry yelling, but Aiden only rolled his eyes and moved on.
All of a sudden, a woman stepped out in front of him. “I got you a b-“ she tried to say, but her voice cut-off as Aiden walked into her, knocking what she was holding to the ground. He panicked, rushing to help and to apologize profusely, but then he realized who it was.
“Damn it Sarah,” he said.
Aiden’s sister looked down at what she dropped, sighing. “Good thing they’re in foil, I guess,” she said, reaching down to pick two foil-wrapped burgers from the ground. “But no harm, no foul.” With a slight grin, she handed one to him.
“Thanks,” Aiden replied.
As he unwrapped it, Sarah brushed a strand of brown hair back behind her ear. “You need to watch where you’re going, Aiden,” she told him, turning to lead him towards a grey car parked nearby.
“Well maybe you shouldn’t just step in front of people?” Aiden asked, following her. Sarah moved around to the driver-side door and unlocked it with a press of her finger, then climbed inside. When his own door opened he climbed in after her, taking a bite of his burger to find Sarah already part through her own.
“Try no’ ‘o ma’e a mess i’ my ‘ew ‘ar,” Sarah struggled to say, her mouth full.
Aiden swallowed his bite and looked across at her.
“I’d be more worried about you,” he said, causing her to chortle. “Besides, I didn’t buy me the burger.”
After she swallowed, Sarah had a grin on her face. “Actually, you owe me for that.”
“Pfft, bitch,” he joked.
“Don’t call me a bitch, dick,” she replied, turning to punch him in the arm.
“Ow! You know the one who throws the first punch loses the argument, right?”
Sarah rolled her eyes. “Is that a quote from one of your philosophers? Because in my experience, the one who throws the first punch usually wins it.”
“I think it depends how hard the punch is,” he replied.
Sarah stared at him a moment, then laughed and leaned back into her seat. “Car, take us home,” she said. The car lit up as she took another bite of her burger, and soon it was pulling itself out onto the road and driving away. “So, how did your meeting go?”
“Fine, I guess,” Aiden replied between bites of his own.
“Still not going to tell us what it was about?” She asked. “Mum is starting to get scared you’re in some kind of trouble, you know.”
He looked across at her a moment as the car took a side road up onto a slipway above the street level, where it began to increase in speed until the view outside was little more than a blur. “Well… I guess I can tell you now. I didn’t want to say anything in case it turned out to be nothing, but it did, so… I’ve been offered a big scholarship to go to university. I think I’m going to take it.”
Sarah looked at him, her eyes wide. “I knew it! My genius brother is going to university! You know, I have friends who lived down near Oxford. I’m sure they can point out some great places for you to live.”
“Yeah, but… I’m not going to Oxford. I’m going to, uh, Tokyo.”
Sarah almost choked. “Tokyo University? You mean… In Kanto? In Japan?”
“Uh… Yeah,” Aiden answered sheepishly.
“Aiden, are you sure? That’s on the other side of the planet. I don’t even know how many kilometres away it is, and we can’t exactly pop down for dinner, can we?”
“It’s about 9400km,” Aiden replied. “And yeah, I know. But I want to travel, and well, it’s Kanto! It’s the biggest city on Earth. The freaking United Nations are headquartered there.”
“Do you even speak Japanese?” Sarah asked him.
“I speak a little bit, but that doesn’t matter. Everyone speaks English now.”
“I mean, if it’s what you want to do, I’ll support you. I’m sure mum will too.”
“Thanks, Sarah,” he replied. “It won’t be until September, so you’ll still have six months of me. The university is going to sort everything out.”
“Huh, imagine that,” Sarah said, scrunching up her burger foil and throwing it into a small bin by her leg. “My young, innocent, eighteen-year-old brother leaving this tiny, unimportant island off the coast of Europe to go all the way to another tiny, unimportant island off the coast of Asia.”
He smirked a little. “I could always not go, you know. I could stay on this tiny, unimportant island and do other things. Like join the police, maybe?”
“Ha!” Sarah exclaimed. “Please don’t. We’re trying to solve crime, not exacerbate it. You’ll do good though. Dad would be proud.”
“Thanks,” Aiden replied, turning to peer out of the window. Giant buildings flew past them in a blur, a thousand neon lights leaving a thousand trails across the glass. He wondered what Japan would be like, and all the ways it would be different from England. Would he even like it there? Maybe he shouldn’t take the offer after all, maybe he actually should go to university. Oxford was a nice place, he’d heard.
He finished the rest of his burger in silence, pushing those thoughts out of his head. He was an adult now, a grown man, and he had made a decision. There was nothing left but to follow it.