Eden & Echo - A Gritty Cyberpunk Noir Thriller

I told her about how I had arrived via helicopter at 9:14 and gotten changed for bed. Then I had a beer by the pool and went inside to sit on the couch until 9:36 when I got up to do my rounds. I told her about the food wrapper I had found and where I threw it away.

"Wait, are these specific times?" Sapphire asked, suddenly suspicious. "How can you be so sure?"

I considered what to tell her. I didn't like people knowing how good my memory was or even that I was enhanced. But she was my lawyer and Simon picked her so I decided to go with the truth. "Because of the way my wetware works I have a nearly perfect memory." I cut a snippet of what I saw when Sapphire arrived and streamed it to the whiteboard.

"Holy shit. This is incredible." Sapphire said as she watched the footage. "You've even got the pattern right on my briefcase. Yeah, we are definitely not sharing this with the cops. Can you show me what happened tonight?"

I snipped the audio and visual data from when I came home and streamed it to the whiteboard. The file was too big to transfer easily and I didn't like the idea of someone else having my memories.

Sapphire scrubbed back and forth through the information, making notes on her timeline. "I've never seen anything like this."

"That is correct." Rook said firmly. "You never saw this and as far as you are concerned Eden is just a normal human."

"Her secret is safe with me." Sapphire got to the end of the playback. "Well, I'm convinced that Eden did nothing wrong. Now it's your turn, Mr. Rook." She started a new timeline below mine.

Rook streamed the tactical data from his wetware and weapon. She went through it, marking question marks at certain points on her timeline. "Can you explain why you shot the corpse upon entry?" She asked.

Rook pulled up a specific segment of video and I watched as the corpse's claws began to extend right before he fired. "The intruder was injured, but not dead. They were only pretending to be dead. Standard protocol when combatting enhanced individuals is to confirm kills with headshots, even if they appear deceased."

I ran my memory back and threw a clip up on the whiteboard. The katzen's claws had indeed been extended when Rook fired.

"Also, the camouflage suit they were wearing requires an active connection to the user's wetware. If they were deceased or in a comatose state it would have ceased to function. Based on what I know now, they may have been coordinating with their partner and preparing for an ambush."

"But at the time you were unaware of the second intruder." Sapphire pressed. "Is it possible you simply executed a helpless katzen who was no threat to you?"

"It is protocol to assume until proven otherwise that any threats found may be working as part of a team. The intruder had committed an act of violence and seriously wounded one person already. I smelled explosives and observed the intruder preparing to make a hostile action so I acted in defense of myself and my team."

"Explosives?" Sapphire asked.

"Yes." Rook pulled up an annotated section of his log. "Air samples of the scene taken upon entry showed the presence of RDX and ammonium nitrate based explosives. We moved the body outside to be safe and searched for any hidden explosive devices they may have left inside the building. We did not find any."

"Well I'm not sure how I am going to condense that into something short and sweet but I understand your logic." Sapphire paused. "If you smelled explosives why did you not say something to Eden or the rest of the team? Their lives were in danger."

"Sparky was notified as were the medical team. They chose to move in and save the patient as any delay could prove fatal. The smell seemed to be concentrated on the intruder so when we searched the apartment and found no explosive devices we decided to keep our distance from the body and continue to work."

"So you went into a place you knew could be rigged to blow?" Sapphire asked.

"That is the job." Rook shrugged.

She went forward along the timeline and stopped. "This here, when you shot through the door and walls without visually confirming your target. Explain your thought process."

"Sparky was in contact with me via wetware when the knock at the door came. He had found the body of the security guard and their weapon was missing. The intruder, who had just murdered a security guard in cold blood and taken their weapon, was attempting to make entry."

"How did you know it was them and not someone else? Say for example, a police officer responding to the call?" Sapphire prompted.

"The elevator, which is one of only two ways into or out of the apartment, makes a very loud and distinctive sound every time the doors open. No helicopters had arrived on the helipad so once I learned the fate of the missing security guard and confirmed Sparky's location. That just left the intruder." Rook explained.

"But how did you know they were armed? They could have tossed the security guard's weapon or maybe it could have fallen out of his holster. How did you know they were a threat requiring deadly force?"

"They used their wetware to mimic Sparky's voice in an attempt to bluff and gain entry by deception. This is not something someone who was friendly would attempt to do. Secondly, the sound of a pin being pulled from a grenade and the spoon flipping is very distinctive, as is the sound of the fuze igniting." He showed the annotation on his log where he had heard the grenade.

"I knew the intruders had access to explosives so I responded to what I perceived to be a lethal threat and acted in defense of my life and Eden's. Sparky was on the patio out of the line of fire and the windows facing the helipad are ballistic rated for safety. There was low risk of collateral damage from rounds leaving the apartment."

A video feed from his weapon appeared with areas of the door and walls to either side highlighted. "Given that they had one hand on the door to turn the knob it was most likely they were either behind the door or on the left hand side. I delivered rounds to the most likely areas then followed up by sweeping at knee height."

"Could you have simply fired a warning shot to let them know you were armed?" Sapphire asked, rolling her eyes as she asked the question. "Perhaps scare them off?"

"No. Warning shots are not protocol when engaging an armed assailant. I was protecting myself and the other person in the room with me from an assailant who had pursued us and meant us harm. An assailant who was known to have access to explosives."

"Did they really have access to explosives though?" She asked, pressing the point. "How could you possibly know they weren't just standing there with jeans and a t-shirt?"

"The first intruder outside on the patio by the pool had explosives on their person. The second intruder could easily have taken them. Also, I heard the sound of the pin being pulled and the spoon flipping on the grenade, which later detonated in the hallway. "

Sapphire consulted her timeline and made some notes. "I need Sparky now."