Illustrative Story Examples!

A Ripple on the Surface

Erasmus picked his way through the trash covering the street, kicking aside a mountain of plasti-form meal boxes. Something brown and greasy attached itself to a leg of his suit, and he sighed. His fingers twitched as he tapped a few quick commands into the palm pad strapped to his hand, watched the data scroll by in the lens of his glasses, reviewed the details in the Ministry’s case file. His target was a 14-year vet at Ministry of Social Progress, 3 years as a Liaison serving Ward 3, hadn't pinged his Leader in 2 weeks, no reports sent in. Erasmus’ job was to track the guy down, or else declare him officially AWOL, so he’d arranged a contract with a local guide.
Erasmus struggled to keep up with the girl ahead of him, but she was already pulling ahead. Despite being decked out top to bottom in retina-scorching colors, she didn't seem to have a spot of dirt on her. Maybe she'd had herself treated with a chemical coating...

"Charming neighborhood you have here..." he muttered as he ducked a stream of worrisome gray liquid splashing off an awning. He punched another command on the palm-pad, brought up the info on the girl. Very little stuff there, very very little. Had a rep as a good guide, she'd done Ministry work before, but she claimed a lot of contacts in the "Punk" scene...

The girl, Kymera, turned and called back to him over her shoulder. "Don't come down to Sacktown much, do 'ya?"

"Ward 3..." he corrected her, as he caught up to her. She shrugged, and started moving again. "Nobody who lives here calls it Ward 3, pal. Get out of your tower sometime, live life, huh? Or is your head crammed too tight up some no-face manager's ass..."

"If you don't want this contract, say so," Erasmus huffed. "If there's a moral objection, there are 100 more constituents just like you who have no such concerns."

She threw her hands up, but picked up the pace and walked on. "Cash is cash. Your life is your problem and mine's mine, you don’t like the commentary that’s your call. Anyway, you came for me..." She stopped, held up a hand, stared at something in the distance. Erasmus gave her a casual scan to see what she was doing, and he wasn’t surprised when it came up blank. Of course, if her wet-ware tech was as good as he'd heard, he'd never be able to get a read on her. He thought of what tech might be under her skin, shuddered at the thought of it, the insane things these people did to their bodies in the name of...something. "Kymera...?"

"Shut up shut up, hang on..." she muttered as she waved her hand at him. "Ok... yeah. Good. Good." She smiled, looked over her right shoulder, and nodded. "Yeah. Do it."

"Do what?" Erasmus asked, but she waved him off. A second later, down the street a metal grate rolled up, a thick security door opening up behind it. "Is this your place, Kymera?"

She shook her head as she walked to the door, waving at him to follow. "A guy I know, named Ferret. He sniffs out info for me, I bring him stuff he needs, it's all cool. He pinged me to say he found something, I should come in and check it out. He’s not home, so I hacked it." She shrugged. "No worries, for me anyway. I know where he keeps his stuff. I’ll get what he found, be back out in a minute. You wait here.”

Erasmus watched from the doorway as she strolled in, and saw her instantly freeze. "Oh, shi...." she choked out, before doubling over and clamping her hands onto her head. She moaned, frozen a couple of steps inside Ferret’s studio. Erasmus was moving before his brain caught up, and he threw an arm around her waist and dove for the door. He had time to notice the data display in his glasses blink out before the world went white. He felt the explosion in his gut, but he never heard it. In a moment of clarity, he wondered how much it must hurt to get zapped with an e-mag disruptor when your head was filled with sensitive tech. Then their bodies hit the pavement outside, and his consciousness drained away.