A neutral question, but asked in a tone that made the drunk turn round and look over the fearsome figure of our veteran. He started to back off, then turned tail and disappeared into the bushes. Maybe it wasn’t all about the tone; Hairo held a compact pulse cannon in his hand. The security officer watched the drunkard go, looked at me and pointed at his watch.
“Remind you of anyone?” I asked Big Po.
“Give a copper to uncle Patrick…” he drawled nasally.
We both laughed.
“Shut up! Let me sleep!” came an angry shout from behind the trees.
Hairo shook his head and tapped his wrist again:
“It’s time, Alex!”
I answered with a nod and turned to Wesley:
“This is our security officer. He’ll give you the mental contract to sign.”
Hairo offered Big Po a black bracelet with metal insets and brought up a hologram of the oath text from his comm:
“Put this on, wait for my signal and read out what’s written.” While Big Po put the bracelet on, Hairo turned to me: “If you’re done, head back. This place is getting dangerous.”
It was true; from all around came rustling, the sound of tent zippers, footsteps and hushed conversations. I caught the scent of marijuana. Someone was noisily sick. Someone plucked a chord on a guitar, tapped a tambourine. I heard singing from afar, but couldn’t make out the words.
“Alright. See you soon.” I clapped the fat boy on the shoulder.
“See you, Alex,” he answered.
“Roj will meet you,” Hairo told me. “I’ll be there in a couple of minutes.”
“I forgot to ask, Wesley…” I said, stopping and turning. “You still have the same nick? Polynucleotide?”
Wesley smiled widely and shook his head.
“Nah. Now I’m Polydeuces. So you can still call me Big Po.”
“Polydeuces?” I asked in surprise. “Isn’t that a moon of Saturn?”
“Or a son of Zeus. You know the Gemini constellation? Polydeuces is one of the brothers.”
“Wait, wait… Those are the two bright stars Castor and Pollux.”
“Yep. Pollux is the Roman name for Polydeuces. Learn your history, Sheppard.”
I smiled and walked away. As I moved off, I heard Wesley rapidly reading out the words of the mental contract, then footsteps and heavy breathing.
Wesley caught up to me, touched me on the shoulder. I turned around. Wheezing, he said:
“Thanks for meeting with me. I know the risk you took. I appreciate it. Sorry for everything that happened between us. For the threats… For the fact that I didn’t apologize right away.”
“The past is the past.”
“Good luck! It’ll come in handy.”
“Don’t worry, luck is on my side,” I smiled, remembering Fortune. “Don’t waste any time, go get started leveling up… Polydeuces!”
Chapter 2. Citadel
WE ARRIVED in Cali quietly. Yoshi parked the Barracuda in a specially built hangar on the roof. The hatch opened with a sigh.
“Welcome to the citadel of the Awoken!” Hairo announced with a certain pride, casting his gaze around the empty roof. “The whole building is ours. The builders are done with your section, boys. Now they’re working on the non-citizen floors. We’ll move them in as and when the apartments are finished. I see a silent question in your eyes; yes, the capsules have arrived. They’re all premium Altera Vita versions like yours, Alex.”
Hung raised his arms in celebration:
“Yes!”
“I need to log into Dis right away,” I said with a certain regret. I really wanted to check out the new place.
“You’ll have to wait for your capsule to be configured,” Hairo said. “Come on, I’ll show you around.”
That was even better; my curiosity would be satisfied.
Our first stop was my apartment. We walked through a door on the roof and down one floor via a metal staircase, then reached a lift.
My apartment was in the center of the building. Over ten normal rooms had been combined to make it, but on the whole it was humble and tasteful. Clean beige walls, a stone counter made to look like marble separating the kitchen from the lounge, and two rooms: a small bedroom and a game room, where the new capsule had been installed. Out of concern for security, there were no windows, but there were huge light panels installed in the low ceiling.
The floor was littered with construction debris and chunks of plasterboard.
“Been low on time,” Hairo shrugged. “Haven’t hired cleaners for you yet.”
“Doesn’t matter, I’ll clean up,” I answered.
“This is just awesome!” Hung said, grinning happily. “You could play football here! Not like back home, where there’s no room… But there isn’t much furniture. A little Spartan…”
It was true; the only furnishings in the apartment were a chair, bed and nightstand.
“It’s the same in your rooms, Hung,” Hairo said. “You can choose your own furniture and order it through Maria. I ain’t your mother! The main thing is the doors are armored and the walls are reinforced — they’ll withstand a targeted explosion of up to thirty-five pounds of TNT.”
He said that last part with pride.
Noticing a bottle of pills on the nightstand by the head of the bed, I asked:
“What’s that?”
“A course of radiation meds. Take one a day. Don’t forget, if you value your health. There’s heightened background radiation here. Not as bad as in the Guyana Cesspit, but still, not good…”
Yoshi sent me into the capsule, took some biometric data and suggested I take a walk while he set everything up.
The fast lift took us down to the first floor and we stopped by the deserted supermarket, where we bought some soda and hot dogs from the machines, walked past the row of other fully automated stores and cafes. Wide corridors, glass display cases, trees at the intersections, manicured flowerbeds and drinking fountains. It all created the impression that we were on the
