I knew people were looking at me funny. But I was finding it hard to care, I had work to do. My fingers were vigorously tapping out the next line, and man, I was on fire today. I knew I cut an odd figure riding the bus, headphones, glasses, hoodie, nodding my head to a beat as my fingers furiously tapped the air. All the old people on the bus probably thought I was some kind of music junkie, but right now I had hit a rhythm and I needed to get this line of code out while it was fresh in my mind. I imagine writing code is similar to making music, when inspiration strikes everything starts falling into place and sometimes ideas cannot wait. Not that I would know… I’m about as musically untalented as one can get.

Nestor Brogan, NeoScala+ Nugget-AI developer, age 25, comfortably single, alone in this city and in my own world as I scrambled to finish this next gen AI. I was on my way to meet a client who two months ago I promised a specialized AI for managing his threat assessment and emergency response security teams. I didn’t start his AI until two days ago and I only had a few finishing touches to write before it was done. There is no denying I’ve always been one to perform well under pressure, I am a proud professional procrastinator.

I’m nearly finished when I notice some kid a few seats over peeking at me from around his mother, his mother is trying to push him back into his seat. No doubt trying to keep him from staring at the strange stranger on the bus. I tie off my last line of code, save to my atmos drive, and closed out the OS. My glasses once more turned completely translucent and I looked at that fidgety kid. I make eye contact and quirk an eyebrow at him.

“What?”

Poor kid ducked back behind his mom with an almost inaudible yip. This kid’s mother gives me an annoyed look and turns back to her phone. Whatever… freaking people man… This is just one reason why I hate taking public transportation. But I knew traffic was going to be a bitch downtown and I needed to work while I traveled so I had little choice today.

I removed my interFACE glasses and slipped them inside my jacket, leaned back, and let my gaze wander as the bus cruised downtown. Kansas City was a beautiful city, and today was an especially beautiful day. It was very sunny and the light glanced off of the cityscape’s many tall glass buildings. You could hear the bustle of traffic in the background as some new pop song floated out of the bus’s speakers. It was spring but after a long winter everyone thought it felt like summer, people were very energetic and there were many smiling faces to be seen.

There is fairly light delivery drone traffic today but the overhead hov lanes, with busy and important people cruising to their next thing, are as busy as always. Even these mundane paved streets were packed with all kinds of vehicles, everything from electric cars and hydrocell vans to the occasional archaic gasoline vehicles, if not for the bus priority lanes it would have taken me hours to get the handful of miles to my meeting today.

Kansas City had gone through huge changes over the last century. It all started with Provider Fiber back in the early 2010s. The cheap gigabit internet had attracted a huge variety of businesses and entrepreneurs. Over the years it became a hub of creativity and new developments that led to KC being recognized as the tech capital of the US. I could not think of a place I would rather live, right in the middle of everything with my finger on the heartbeat of the ever growing technology world.

“Next stop: Grand and 17th”

The bus PA pinged and let me know my stop was on the next block. I got up, grinned at the kid and his annoying frowning mother and walked up to the front of the bus to let the driver know this was my stop. I thanked him as the bus came to a stop and I stepped off, I turned and watched as the door snapped shut and the bus took off down the street. Turning back I looked up at the glass pinnacle that was CityScope. It was an impressive building, befitting of the massive conglomerate housed within. I walked up their steps and after presenting my ID at the security terminal I made my way to the front desk. This was far from my first time here and I steered towards a familiar pretty face behind the desk.

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“Hey Reb, how’s it going?”

“Mr. Brogan! Welcome back, here to see Mr. Smyth again?”

“Indeed, am I cleared to head up?”

“Let me check... one second… yes he already sent word. He is ready for you, you can go on up.”

“Thank you!”

I gave her a quick smile and a nod as I accepted the visitor badge from her and headed to the elevators. I slid the badge past the terminal at the elevator, stepped in, and let it glide me up to my meeting with Mr Smyth. He had been one of my primary clients for a number of years and sometimes I wondered if that was his real name, but despite being smart he always struck me as a rather boring and straightforward person so I doubted he had reasons to assume a fake name.

*Ding*

Having arrived I nod at Smyth’s direct receptionist as I walk into his office. Smyth is an alright guy, perhaps a tad boring and over-professional. His office reflected his personality with its quality, but spartan, furnishings and large open spaces. He had a magnificent view through his massive floor-to-ceiling glass walls overlooking the south side of the city. I greet him warmly with a smile, I mean… it was an awesome spring day and that shits infectious.

“Smyth! Good to see you! How have you been?”

“Well enough, and you Mr. Brogan?”

“Alright, alright, you excited to see this new nugget I have for you?”

“The project is completed I presume?”

“Oh! I’m hurt, of course it is, I always deliver. Let me load it up for you so you can take a quick peek.”

“Please do, and I do apologize, I know your process can be somewhat… erratic, I meant no offense.”

“None taken my good sir, I actually had a small fit of genius on this one, if I do say so myself, please let me show you.”

“Indeed? Let me load up the simulation, please input your credentials and load your AI.”

….

We proceeded with the demonstration, running various simulations, and Smyth was extremely pleased. The end result was a generous paycheck and a satisfied customer. I don’t consider myself a particularly proud person and I’m not against doing a little boot licking to ensure good future business relations. In the end, the Nugget-AI, or specialized self contained mini AI, I built performed above what he expected and he was happy to pay my price.

Such was my life. I would seclude myself while I coded after winning a contract and then I would come in person to present my work to my client. I am of the opinion that the best way to maintain my contacts was to have a face to face connection, and of course a high quality product. I am a very well respected contractor who has had many clients over the years. I have received various full time job offers during my career but so far I have turned them all down. I liked working on my own schedule and hated to be on someone else's leash. I was on the cutting edge when the NeoScala+ framework first came out, one of the first to learn the new language. But the world was catching up and it was becoming increasingly difficult to land contracts amidst larger corporate competition. Luckily I had grown my network and specialized in highly adaptive AI which was still a bit of a niche market.

Home for me was an out of the way but relatively nice small apartment building owned by a very old fashioned and somewhat grumpy old lady named Betty. I loved Betty, she may appear grumpy but she was a very kind hearted person who had a hard life in the past. The apartment was just outside town but right on the main T line resulting in absolutely fantastic internet speeds. I had rented out the entire top floor of the 6 story apartment complex and had it remodeled, with Betty’s permission, resulting in a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom setup. I had a large room for working and a separate server room that was liquid and air cooled. A server room in this day and age was slightly esoteric but I like being 100% sure that what I was working on was secure and independent. I may also have a pension for designing experimental and sometimes somewhat… aggressive AIs so it was also good to know that I had physical access to their housing just in case. There are few things that scream lawsuit like a rampant unregistered AI getting loose. I also had rooftop access, the only access actually, and I had intended to set up some kind of garden up there. You know, the kinds of things you see in movies and magazines, but really I never had the time, I basically went up there to smoke, on occasion, and to enjoy the view of downtown. I also had a little garage space in the basement where I kept my super old, somewhat rusty, but totally trusty, gasoline motorcycle. This was the one luxury hobby I really enjoyed and was willing to upkeep in my life. A heirloom from the family I ride more for pleasure than as a means of transportation.

Over all… life was not so bad. Just needed to find more work, that was my last open contract. Shit.