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The City: 032: Maurice

November 11, 2014

hughjodonnell Free Fiction, The City , , , , Leave a comment

City Police Commissioner Maurice Jenkins was the first to press close to the body when it began to whisper.
“The hills, the bay, the valley, the tower.  The Bells!  The bells are sounding.  The clarion call is sounding, and He is drawing the threads together.  He’ll climb Jacob’s Ladder and ascend from fire as the Phoenix.  The City will know its master, and He will be the god of this place.  The bells are sounding…”  The cops all straightened.
“Some hacker messing with us,” Marcy said.  Maurice frowned.
“I’d like to speak with the hacker that made this.  Let’s go.”

The City: 25: Marcy

October 31, 2014

hughjodonnell Free Fiction, The City , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Marcy, along with Commissioner Jenkins and a delegation of IT and QA people met Julia and the corpse in the City Morgue.  As far as she knew, it was the first time it had ever been used.  After pleasantries, one of them played coroner and conducted a thorough examination.  Aside from its already missing head, the corpse remained intact.
“Well, it’s certainly malicious code,” he said.
“Can you ID her?” Marcy asked.
“No, her credentials have been scrambled.  This is nasty stuff.”
“Can we boot the user?” Jenkins asked.
“The eject code isn’t responding.”
And then the corpse sat upright.

The City: 015: Julia

October 16, 2014

hughjodonnell The City, Writing , , , , , , Leave a comment

Julia had been a cop in The City for over five years.  Some of her friends had chided her for taking such a safe assignment, but she didn’t care.  The City had rules just like anyplace else, and of course special care had to be applied in enforcing them.  But this was nothing she’d trained for.  She called dispatch.
“Marcy, this is Julia out in Commerce Station..  I’ve got one hell of a case here.”
“What’s up?”
“Jane doe jumped at a moving train as it was entering the platform.”
“That shouldn’t happen.”
“That’s not the weird part.  There’s a body.”