Ignacio opened his eyes, taking in the view of Tokyo from high above one of its skyscrapers. A network of streets flowing in all directions with no discernible pattern. On the horizon, there stood Tokyo Skytree, with nothing near it surpassing its height. Am I really here?
The radio beeped, and a voice came over from the other end. "How’s your side looking?” It was Melissa. She had taken position atop a building on the other side of the penthouse skyscraper.
He barely had a view of her and she of him. Even with the binoculars, they would need to move to see each other. There was only one spot on his building with a clear line of sight to where Melissa was. It was away from the door and near two large and noisy a/c units in the center of the roof.
Ignacio pressed down on the radio’s button, “The window is definitely thick glass. My best guess is that it’s bulletproof. The corners appear curved from the inside, you know, the way tanks curve in aquariums.” He let go of the button and took a sip of coffee from his thermos. So far, the day had been cloudy with scattered moments of sunlight piercing through.
“Same on my end. There are a lot of glass cases inside. Looks like they’re just placed randomly around the gallery. Art, I guess. Also, a polished white marble floor? Spare no expense.”
As Melissa described what she saw on her end, Ignacio pieced with what he saw. Making an escape through the window was indeed possible but timely and noisy. The team could drill holes in a circle into the glass, fill them with explosives, and blow a chunk off the window. But then they would have to worry about the people down below. He thought they could make use of anchor points. Some on the window and some on the ground pulling on the window. Once the hole is blasted loose, the detached panel is removed into the room. With two people and the right tools, it could be done. Then a third could gather the relics and loot. If the whole team is in the room, Ignacio could see them getting in and out in at least 3 minutes. It wouldn’t be a quick getaway, but it’d be a way out. They would repel to a lower floor or zip-line elsewhere. Though someone would have to spend time setting up the lines.
There was also the option of having Curtis get a helicopter to the roof. The gallery already had rooftop access so, that wasn’t an issue. But getting a helicopter and flying into the city and out of the city carried its own complications. Such as getting a helicopter, for starters.
“You there?” Melissa’s voice was staticky.
Ignacio put the radio close to his face, “Yeah, you need something?”
“Sort of. We spent this morning in a rush to get our gear from the coin lockers, so I never got to ask – how’d you sleep last night?”
“Fine. Like always,” he lied. After what he experienced in the bathroom, he mainly kept silent the rest of the night. He hadn’t even slept, instead choosing to try and remember what it was it was he was trying to remember. Ignacio could feel that there was something there. Yet, every time he looked, it felt like all he was doing was turning around to face the same direction.
Melissa’s voice came over the radio again. “You sure? Because you were oddly still in bed last night. No tossing or turning, just still. Like you were trying not to move.”
Ignacio pulled the radio away from his face and thought about what to say. If he told her, he wouldn’t even know how to explain. Deflecting would probably only make her ask more questions. He brought the radio close to his mouth, “You know, you’re not really my wife; that may be just how I sleep.”
“You’re right. We did just get married. I don’t know all your ticks and tells yet.” Her voice cracked with the radio, and Ignacio heard a chime before the connection was cut.
Is she in an elevator? He snatched up his binoculars and moved to the spot near the a/cs where there was a clear line of sight of her building. Ignacio searched for Melissa on her rooftop. When he didn’t see her, he looked away, shaking his head, then looked back across the way. And then her voice came over the radio again.
“Ignacio. Do you ever dream of electric sheep?”
Ignacio froze. His body stopped moving. His lungs stopped breathing. His heart -it stopped beating. But his mind raced in every direction. What’s happening?
“I don’t think you can hear me anymore, but I’m sorry. I guess this is more for me than for you. But you’ve been thinking too much, and that isn’t good. I’ll be there in a few minutes to send you home.” The radio went silent.
A few seconds later, he heard the rooftop door slam open.
She said a few minutes. She said a few minutes. She said a few minutes. Something is wrong with me. Something is wrong with me. Something is wrong with me. I need to move. I need to move. I NEED TO MOVE.
Air rushed into his lungs as he took a deep breath in; his heart pounded back into motion. As bullets snapped the air over his head, Ignacio dropped low, pivoting towards the door. He lunged over behind a large air conditioning unit while removing the Beretta from his shoulder holster.
“No use in hiding, poser! You think you can kill Guardians and get away with it!”
Ignacio quickly peeked over the right edge and squeezed off two rounds, dropping the man who was yelling.
“Now’s not a very good time!” Ignacio’s heart stopped beating again. Falling to a knee, he punched himself in the chest while taking in deep breaths. By the time his heart restarted, a Guardian had turned the corners. Ignacio launched himself up to his feet. With his left hand, he took control of the weapon’s barrel, shoving it onto the side of the a/c unit. Before the Guardian could retaliate, Ignacio shot two rounds into their head. Instead of letting the Guardian fall, he grabbed them by the vest and held them up. Turning the corner revealed two more Guardians by the door. He rushed with the dead body up before him as the others fired their weapons into their teammate. Burning sensations scraped past Ignacio’s arm, leg, and neck. Waning to avoid getting properly shot, he fired off 7 rounds in quick succession, then dropped the body he was carrying.
With whatever Melissa said to him that made him freeze and the dead Guardians on the rooftop, he only had one option. Disappear.
Ignacio switched magazines and holstered his pistol. He walked to a Guardian and took their S&T Daewoo XK9 along with a dozen magazines from all the bodies. Ignacio looked down at the weapon that he was holding. Why do I know what this is? It was the first time he had ever held this kind of weapon. The texture of the material, the weight, how to use it; it was all familiar to his hands, but he could not recall when he had ever held a weapon like this. A wave of pain swept across his brain, sending Ignacio into a daze, but only for a few seconds. Worry about it later.
He returned to his bag and threw the phone on the rooftop floor. Ignacio looked over the edge of the building, then across to the penthouse in the distance. Forty-one floors. Slinging the bag over his shoulder, an idea of what needed to be done was realized. Exiting the rooftop into the short stairwell, he struggled to keep his balance. There were only 33 steps to reach the bottom, and he needed to steady himself with the handrail. The stairs led to an access hallway that led to a freight elevator. Before even reaching the bottom, Ignacio’s legs and arms gave out as another wave of pain swept his brain. Tumbling down 10 steps, he fell on his side. The XK9 dropped from his hands and slid towards the door. This brain felt like it was expanding and pushing against his skull. Control of his extremities returned, so he pushed up to his hands and knees only to puke. Blood dripped from his nose and eyes before the pressure subsided and all that was left was to get up, get his gun, and keep moving.
The hallway that led to the stairwell from the freight elevator had a wall on the right side and 3 doors that led to maintenance storage rooms on the left. Ignacio steadied himself with the right wall, still feeling dizzy and weak. He wasn’t even halfway down the hall when the whirring engine of the freight elevator echoed down to him. Has it been a few minutes already? Not knowing who was coming, Ignacio pushed off the wall, walked to the nearest door, and entered the room.
That space was occupied by old furniture from the building. Looking around for a good place to hunker down and ready up, the sound of the elevator's gate door screeched past the walls with a muffled eeriness. He moved close to the wall with a few desks and a couch. Knowing that moving the entire couch wouldn’t be feasible at the moment, he opted to only pull on a corner to liberate some space between it and the wall. The couch legs scraped against the old floor, and the sound rang in Ignacio's head like the earth was being torn apart. He fell to his knees and held his head as the sounds of the thundering footsteps, roaring breathing, and pounding heartbeats flooded every part of his brain. Ignacio pulled and clawed his way over the couch and crumpled on the floor. With all the might he could muster, he fought to keep his vision from fading but only succeeded in quickening the demise of his world.
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The life that Ignacio didn’t he had lived raced past him. Every emotion, touch, smell, sound, sight, and taste. As if a second life was being lived. One that had been sealed away. And then, there was only darkness. Slowly, everything around him began to fill. This time though, the sensations were calming. The air was cool, and the sounds of the city were distant and quiet. There was a moment of peace before a familiar voice spoke.
“How are you feeling?” Paloma said quietly.
Ignacio stirred where he was and opened his eyes. Though everything around was primarily dark, Paloma’s face was bright. It was lit up by the bright blue light of a laptop screen. She had on a black beanie and coat, this one a proper size. Ignacio could tell that he was on the floor from his sight level. It also felt like something on his head which leaned against a wall. There was an effort to stand, but the best he could muster was slowly raising an arm. He reached for the object on his head, and Paloma moved the hand away.
“It’s alright. I’m making some quick adjustments. I’ll be finished soon.” Her voice was calm but firm.
He groaned weakly, wanting to speak but not being able to.
Paloma ignored him and continued concentrating on whatever she was doing. Unable to get up or speak, Ignacio slumped where he was.
As the minutes passed by, his senses were registering in more acute and higher levels of stimulation in his brain. He was even able to move his mouth. A little.
Paloma inhaled deeply, closed her laptop, and exhaled. She set it off to the aside and wrapped her arms around his upper body, under his arms. With a grunt and a word of personal motivation, Paloma pulled and sat Ignacio up against the wall. Lastly, she removed whatever was on his head, and Ignacio got a look at it as it was held in front of him.
“I call it the card shuffler,” she said. The card shuffler looked like an electrode cap used to detect and record electrical activity on the surface layer of the brain. Except this one was thick like a skateboarders’ helmet, with a set of bundled wires and cables running down the back and connecting to the laptop. “You no doubt already have an idea of what this is, but I won’t ask you to tell me since your body still needs time to cool down and gather itself. In the meantime, I’m sure you have some questions.”
Ignacio blinked and furrowed his brow. He struggled to make his mouth make words, so he just looked at the card shuffler and squinted.
“Ah, this. It does what part of the name says. It shuffles. With this, I’m able to shuffle the information in our brains and adjust parameters to keep us in control, But I had to kill you first.”
Ignacio’s eyes went widened.
“Don’t worry, it was only for a minute and thirty-seven seconds. Once you were back, I dealt cards to only one person at your table, then I gave you control of the dealer.” Paloma smiled, “But enough with the card analogies. The short of it is that you’re not really – human. I mean, you kind of are, but you’re not. We were built by The Benefactor or Benefactors. I’ve been around since the early 1960s, and there was a Benefactor back then. Seventy-five years later, there is still a benefactor.” Paloma sat up straight and looked around the empty rooftop. She turned back to Ignacio, “As for you – you’ve been around since the early 80s. If you look now, you won’t be able to find anything. The dust in your mind is still settling. Might take you a day to have access to everything.”
That can’t be what’s wrong with me, he wanted to say, but his mouth just moved up and down.
He feared that maybe this was all a lie and that Paloma was working for the Benefactor. If she was here, then someone must know. Melissa was still her team leader, which meant that…
What does that even mean? If he was not human, then how much of who he believes himself to be is really who he is. What has meaning might only have meaning because it was implanted in him to be that way.
“There are a lot of things I still don’t know. I don’t know how long they’ve been making us or how many of there are. I do know that we have something in our brains that can receive and send out signals. They can’t track us, but it’s enough for them to give us instructions and know if we’re alive. Another reason why I had to kill you. Plus, you were already dying, but you were forcing your body to stay on.” Paloma smiled and looked at Ignacio, “You’re a tough bastard, but if you would’ve kept that up, you would’ve fried your whole body.”
It was comforting to know that whoever had this dominion over him failed to fully control him. Even if it meant possibly dying.
“Now, you’re no longer transmitting or receiving anything from The Benefactor. But everything you had received before you died is yours and only yours. I don’t know what all kinds of information you received, but I’m sure you’ll know what’s been unveiled.” Paloma reached over and put a hand on his forehead, then on his chest, arms, and legs., “Hm. You’re cooling down fast. When I brought you up here, you were steaming.”
Ignacio looked at Paloma, wondering why she was helping him.
“The Benefactor has been using us for decades, maybe longer, all for the accumulation of wealth and power. This isn’t life.” She balled a hand into a fist. “When we start to degrade, we start talking about retirement. About being unsure of the future and about wanting something more. We’re not supposed to want anything more, so if we do, we must be broken.” One could hear the fury in her words. “When we’re put into the world, we’re given a human chaperone to make sure we’re operating properly. When talking about retirement, we get a judge, jury, and executioner. In your case, you got Melissa. It’s up to her to decide whether you’re worth salvaging with a hard reset or decommissioning. Though the Green Guardians saw to the disruption of that plan.” There was a loud vibrating noise stemming from Paloma's pocket. She pulled the phone out, looked at Ignacio, then answered it.
He tried to overhear who it was and, at first, was unsuccessful. Then, like a stereo dial, the sounds grew until they were as clear as if the phone was in both ears.
“…ith the Green Guardians out on the loose, there’s a chance they can snatch you up too. Now come back.”
“How do you know the Guardians got him? The dead bodies were still on the roof. But if they did grab Ignacio, they’d take him to the underground station and easily escape. I could head down there and – ”
“Paloma. Do you ever dream of electric sheep?”
Paloma went quiet.
No, No, No! Ignacio wrestled himself to get up. To get somewhere safe. For the both of them. His legs, like anchors, moved to push up with both feet, sliding up on the wall. Paloma turned and shook her head.
“Come to my hotel room,” Melissa said. Then the line cut off.
Paloma pocketed the phone. “You can relax,” she smiled, “I’ve been doing this since the 70s.”
“How?” Ignacio was finally able to mutter.
She raised her eyebrows and exhaled, “An accident. I was working on the Voyager spacecrafts. We were trying to adjust the power conversions of the thermocouples so the plutonium we were using wouldn’t fry the systems. Things went sour, and I got hit with a strong dose of radiation and an electromagnetic pulse. I fell into a coma where I toured my memories and made some changes of my own. I discovered that we’re programmed to have most of our memories archived every 10 years. Plus, our internal clock is all wonky. For lack of a better term. That means we keep the skills and experience while not really knowing when and where we got them from and just being okay with it.” Paloma stood up and put a hand out to help Ignacio up.
“How long have I been around?” He asked, leaning against the rooftop wall.
“The 80s. We used to work together a lot.” Paloma smiled, a sadness in her eyes.
For Ignacio, it was a lot to take in. He took inventory of his body, looking at himself. His wounds had been bandaged, and his clothes were soaked in sweat. It was a curious feeling. He had doubts about his life for nearly a year, and now he knew the reason why. Now, those doubts were gone, and there was a clarity of mind in their place. Now, there was one question he wanted to be answered. Who made me?
He turned to Paloma, “ I need to know who they are.”
“So do I, but that’s one thing I have struggled to uncover since I took control of myself.”
Ignacio sighed, “What should we do next?”
“This job. The heist.”
“Is that really important now? What use is that artifact to us?”
“Hm. This heist served two purposes. One, to evaluate you and decide your fate. Two, to get the relic. One thing you should know is The Benefactor never does anything out of the goodness of their heart. They want the relic for a reason. Either that or there’s something else in that penthouse that they want.”
“If it’s that important, why take the unnecessary risk to bring me along?”
“My best guess is that it’s only a three-person job. If you made it through, then great. If you didn’t, then the job is still finished.”
“I guess they forgot to factor in the Green Guardians.” Ignacio looked over his shoulder at the dead bodies.
“Yeah, those guys are assholes.”
The pair smiled and laughed.
“Radical and well-funded environmentalists. Who knew that’d be such a deadly combo. In the meantime, take this,” she handed him a keycard, “it’s for a love hotel I rented. Anonymous and paid for in three-hour intervals. Leave after I do. I’m sure you’ll know how to get there.” Paloma grabbed her things and made her way to the door.
“Wait, what’s the plan?” He asked, keycard in hand.
“I need to report in. We’ll have limited communication, so get as much rest as you can and prepare for whatever comes next.”
Ignacio watched her leave. He stood alone on the roof now, looking across the city skyline lit up like a million tiny fires. Though the heat of his body was finally normal, there was a feeling of another fire being started.