Chapter 1
“你想要一杯茶嗎?”
Laine nodded her head pointing toward the display. Silently watching the calloused hands of the tea vendor lift a battered kettle. An antiquated oddity amongst the various brands of instant-machines. A styrofoam cup was placed on the counter steam drifted upward into the morning air. Encapsulated within her hand, the tactile sensors flared up her augment sending a facsimile of warmth to processed within the brain.
She made her way out through the alleyway that the vendor was tucked into, and crossed South Horizon Drive towards Aberdeen Harbor. The water hidden beyond the massive nest of rising towers each connected with rising glass bridges. The buildings rising every upward to meet growing populations demands. A large garbage truck lumbered along its interior already filled with the early morning run. A group of young woman dressed in identical business attire walked on, by talking amongst themselves in Cantonese. On their way no doubt to catch one of the early buses to the mainland to get to work.
The water’s edge came quickly passed the towers. A small strip of sand and loose gravel that quickly faded away into the blue-green of the harbor. Laine sat down on this small barrier looking out over the water towards Pok Liu Chau, and Korea itself somewhere beyond that; grey clouds hanging on the horizon heavy with promises of rain. Cupping her tea in both hands, she drank, the warm bitterness of the green tea filling her senses. It was the quiet probably that she appreciated most. The roar of the city melted away, leaving only the wind and the far off sounds of the men out on their sampans.The process having slowly transmuted into her morning ritual over the past five years.
“Guess this is the last time then” She mused to herself, her own voice jarringly loud amongst the silence. She crushed the now empty cup in her hand, the styrofoam folding inward easily against the pressure of the robotic joints into a small and misshapen ball. With an easy throw, she chucked the ball into the waters beyond watching it for a moment, bobbing up and down in the water; a flash of white against the blue-green.
She rose, brushing the sand off of her the black of her pants legs. Following the same path from before, she turned to the left as she hit the road. Following it as it curved away from the housing developments and the commercial sector, hugging the coast in a south easterly direction. Here the design of the towering buildings became less extravagant and more utilitarian in their design. Their hard right angles and concrete frames arising like a mesa from the ground. An old sign covered in rust still protruded along the shoulder of the road, the faded letters reading: Emergency Redistribution Housing.
Subconsciously, as she crossed the invisible boundary where one world had ended and other began, Laine had turned on. Submerging herself fully into the surroundings of the area, taking in every little sign of life and movement. The sidewalk was stained with vomit and the air tinged with smoke. The remnants of a cardboard bed lay propped against one of the buildings. Up the street, a stray cat plodded across the cracked asphalt, matted hair clinging to its slender frame. It stopped and looked at Laine, contemplating her for a moment then sprinting into a nearby alleyway.
She stopped in front of one of the buildings that stretch far into the sky. Paint above the door frame had chipped away leaving only two partially completed words: de ar mt sto e. The exterior was covered in a mixture of grim and graffiti advertising local gangs. Empty voids cut into the walls stood where windows may once have been. Its tall frame blocking out the morning sun and casting the exterior out front in shadow, intensifying the coolness in the air as the breeze began to crescendo with the approaching storm. From a backpocket she pulled out a crumpled blue-red box labeled Беломорканал. Pulling one of the cigarettes from the box, she fished around in her other pocket for a lighter.
Five minutes later, a off-white BYD van came down the street. Its box shape moving with a surprising level of grace as the electric engine quietly purred. Laine looked up, as she flicked the husk of her cigarette to the ground, grinding it into the sidewalk with a black boot heel. The van was unmarked, but she knew it as one of Loingsech's fleet of vehicles. It carried the rest of her team, ferrying them from the opulent five star extravagance that was the Kinmokusei Hotel. Laine didn't trust them enough to make their way alone. Trust was something you earned, and that process took much longer than the two days they had.
As the van came to a stop, her posture straightened as she pulled herself up to her full height. Crossing her arms she waited as the automatic doors slid open.
