/* hi guys. This is my first fan fiction. As you may tell from the chapter that I’m not that good in English. It’s not my primary language. Please bear with me. If you find any faults then please comment on it below the chapter. Constructive criticism is very much appreciated. I’ll try to correct as many errors as possible. The story may be slow at start but will definitely pickup pace afterwards. I will properly define the world the story takes place in, so don’t worry. Your comments and reviews will encourage me to write even more so do comment. I’ll definitely update it very quickly. Last but not the least……. ENJOY */

"And this is how the new kernel 5.0 from our company Excelsior achieves better performance and better graphics fidelity by any other software solutions out there... and I swear to God you can bet on that"

In loud cracking noise the CEO of the company made the announcement. One could almost hear the proudness in his voice. It was almost as if he wrote the code himself.

It wasn't long before that time that he found himself tied to one of the metallic bars of a newly constructing skyscraper. It was the 109th floor. High enough to not even make his body recognizable if he were to fall from there. Gagged and blindfolded, he could only hear the footsteps of another person beside him.

“As you can see from the slides that the new version allows you to directly get root access of any other electronic device you own from your smartphone. It gives you a whole another dimension of control. And you know….” (Cough…cough…)

As he expected, the ruthless punches to his stomach really did a number on him. It was a miracle that he was standing in front of more than 300 people giving a near perfect presentation. But as the time passed, he could feel his condition getting worse. Maybe it was the internal bleeding or maybe the fear itself that what happened to him few hours before will happen again. It was commendable that he was able to hold his composure much less string words together.

He continued “the best part is yet to come. We will be releasing the software for all of our smartphone models which were released after 24th July 2025. That means unfortunately the previous models will……. not be supported. But according to our statistics almost 95% of our customers…….. Are using the newer series with the ZX-2 in the lead with 56%. As a present for being so loyal for these many….. Years, we are giving you a present. The software will include the voice command technology that allows you to send your voice to your smart……. phone which will in turn automatically send your voice to our servers that we will securely process and in turn operate your gadgets. You can even name your gadget……like….for example…..”(Cough….).

Yeah, it was definitely bad. His mouth started to spit blood, but he was quick enough to cover his mouth with a handkerchief. He knew he had to end his part and transfer the control to the creative head of his company. Yet the only thing that could come into his mind was that time when he was tortured.

He was definitely a Syndicate. No other group could have pulled of this abduction. He tried to look up and get a glimpse at the face of the person who held him captive. But the place was dark, as the tower was not completely lighted because of the construction. Also the heavy rain made it impossible to get a clear view. Although he was able to make out a little bit of his physical appearance.

His kidnapper was wearing a black over coat covering from his neck to his knees. He had his collar up to hide his neck. He wore a cap which he overly tilted towards his face, as if saying to stay out. His face which was very minutely visible was covered with a mask which covered from his neck to his nose. The rest was so hazy that he couldn’t figure out. Also due to constant punches it was kind of hard. Though one thing that he did notice was that his mask had the symbol ‘-‘written on it.

“What do you want from me?!!” he asked. The person who looked down on him like some insect looked at him with contempt. “What do I want??” “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, No” “It’s not as much as what I want than what I have taken already”. The captive was surprised and shocked. “What do you mean?” he asked frightened enough to wet his pants. Although in this case it wouldn’t have been visible as he was already completely drenched from the rain.

“It might be hard to feel it due to the constant punches but try to sense your body…” when the kidnapper said that with a nonchalant the man had no idea what he was talking about. But after he relaxed a little he sensed a sharp pain from his left hand. He screamed with shock. “What did you do to me????” the man was now crying. “I don’t know what you want from me. If you want money, I can give you as much as you like. But I beg you, please let me go”.

The kidnapper sighed, his tone was calm as water in contrast to the victim. He didn’t appear frightened at all, neither from the height nor from the fact that he had kidnapped one of the wealthiest people of the world and if caught, well then death would be the least of his worries. Even if he was scared he surely didn’t let any of it show in his voice.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The Conference (8:30 P.M.)

“Let me show you a demo of this new voice control functionality that we boasted so much about the last two years….” The crowd laughed, it was certainly exciting to see this new leap in technology that would technically allow them to never even lift their fingers and get the job done. Throughout the whole presentation it was abundantly clear that they were very excited. Amidst the excitement the CEO quickly took a painkiller which subdued his pain a little. But the painkiller in no way could have lessened the mental stress he was under. “Now… (Cough…) this is just a quick demo from me. The full presentation comes after this by the creative head of our company, so stay tuned. Now I have named my wireless headset in my ear as ‘Loqui’. You can name every device you have and you can set it so that speaking that name will activate the device. So here we go. ‘Loqui connect me to the regional manager of Excelsior France division”

On the loud speaker there was a voice “connecting to Mr. Coreis, please wait” hearing this the crowd went nuts. They didn’t even wait till the call was actually connected. The phone call on the speaker started ringing. As the crowd as well as demo team expected the call should have been answered almost immediately, but for no apparent reason it kept on ringing.

What felt like almost a minute, after which the call was finally answered. “Hello….” The call was successful. The crowed clapped in appreciation. Although it took a while the call finally went through and even the late answer of the call was the mistake of the regional manager not the kernel itself, so all was well. “Yes Reux??? Its Ron here… currently speaking from the Discover Excelsior 2034, uh… we are demoing the new voice control functionality and it seems to me that its working as expected. How are you? How is the call on your side??” after the CEO stopped talking little static noises could be heard which generally is due to loss in connection.

But after few seconds the voice cleared. It could be heard that the wireless headset was picked up. “Hello…” voice on the other side said. “Yeah Reux??? This is Ron speaking. I’m current-“as he was speaking the intro once again, he was interrupted in the middle, “Reux is dead”.

The Rooftop (6:15 P.M.)

“(Pant…. Pant……) Please…. (Pant….. Cough….) I’ll do anything. You have to believe me…” Ron pleaded. He would have gone insane from the mental pressure.

“You know I almost would have bought your innocent act if I were a normal person, but I know that you are not!!”

Immediately after he said that, the demeanor of the victim changed. He like the kidnapper sat down calm looking into his eyes. It looked almost as if he had split personalities. It looked nothing like what it did a few minutes ago. What could have the kidnapper implied that caused this much change in the behavior.

“Seriously if you don’t let me go right now I’m gonna make sure that they properly take care of every one who even knows you. I’ll do that before I kill you with my bare hands. I’m gonna mess your life, if you don’t let me go RIGHT NOW!!!!” Ron was almost screaming now. “Oops… bad choice of words again….” Saying that the kidnapper opened the chains with a sword that looked a lot like a katana. It had immense sharpness and mobility. Ron who was connected to the metallic bar lost balance and slipped of the floor.

At this moment acceleration due to gravity seemed to work quite well. With every second passing, his speed increased. It was a sure shot kill. Even if Ron called his new Avionic Bullet car, it would never reach him on time.

On the rooftop the kidnapper stood watching the man fall as calmly as earlier when he was interrogating him. For some reason it looked like he knew something about Ron that he was willing to let him die without so much as a blink of his eye.

Suddenly a light flashed below and what looked like light photons emerging from a single point of space. Ron fell directly through it, and as he passed through it the photons started reacting to him, producing electric shocks and what looked like Ron’s speed was slowly decreasing, before he could crash onto the ground, the photons moved violently around him and in the next moment……. Ron vanished.

“Gottcha…..” the kidnapper who was watching it all from the rooftop smiled and suddenly faded into the night.