In It in a Minute

Klon walked briskly through the mist up the dark cobblestone street. Each damp stone had a dull circle of light at its peak from the endless glow of traffic overhead. There was no wind, but he hunched forward as if fighting a gale.

He felt, rather than sensed, the emotional haptic notifying him that he had an update from the Seeker app. He knew what it was by the emotional signature but blinked to display it anyways. The extra, synthetic eyelid superimposed the girl he was on his way to meet walking towards him. She raised one hand in a dainty wave and in the other she pulled out a sawed-off shotgun and blew her head off which exploded like a firework display, complete with festive colors and resounding booms. The waving hand kept waving as he passed her. After about 10 paces he crammed his hands into his pockets and spun about, walking backwards away from the display.

“Too bad sweet heart! You don’t know what you’re missing!” The headless waving body and fireworks display disappeared without any more fanfare and he was left alone in the alley again. 

“Whatever,” he muttered to himself, turning back around. The Seeker app displayed his remaining matches for the night. They walked beside him. He looked from one to another, lightly chewing his bottom lip. Then, having made his decision, he walked over to the girl on his far left and kissed the hologram on the lips. She was unresponsive. The group had paused for this, but when Klon resumed walking they kept pace. After a few minutes, the girl he kissed took out an ice pick and stabbed herself through the side of the head and was gone.

“Goddamn it,” Klon said. He paused again and kissed the girl who had been beside her. She was dark skinned and had short, jet black hair that seemed to steel all surrounding light. Klon vaguely wondered if this was an actual representation or the result of some clever coding.

Almost immediately she winked at him and grabbed his hand, guiding him away from the others, who he waved away. They ducked through a side street and crossed the river Thames on one of the ancient bridges which was unsurprisingly desolate. No one walked these days. 

She led him down the steps towards the pulsing music of a local night club called The Tarpit he’d been to a few times before. He allowed the robot bouncer to scan the ID implant in his wrist and deduct 200 credits from his general account, but when he was admitted he took up post near the robot to inhale some centar. 

“You are admitted to The Tarpit. Enter,” said the Robot bouncer beside him.

“Yea,” he said absently. “I’ll be in it in a minute.” The hologram of the girl stared at him lovingly and he examined her for for her details. More than a few nights at this had taught him to never mistake one girl for another, even if it was their first time meeting. 

When he entered the club, the familiar den of chemical smoke and sex surrounded him, and he took a deep breath. The music was deafening. With a twisting motion, he attenuated the environmental volume to a modest 85dB. 

The hologram of the girl he was meeting had disappeared. Since she hadn’t made a display of killing herself in front of him, he took this as a sign that she was nearby and wanted to inspect him before he found her. She was probably watching him right now. 

He looked around. The place was pitch black and lit with neon tubes of various pastels that didn’t do much for his vision. He ran a scan, cross referencing the profile he had of her from the Seeker app. The scan ran for about a minute and failed, which he felt as the emotion of failure.

“Ok,” he said to himself. “Guess I’ll have to find you the old-fashioned way.”

He made his way into the room and pressed himself against the writhing mass of humid bodies that undulated in the center of the floor. He sank in and slowly pressed his way towards the bar on the other side of the club. As he did this he sent a live feed of his vision to the girl.

A feed of her vision popped up in his left eye. She was also in the crowd. He looked at the bar, still 20 meters away and pointed. In his left eye he saw her look at her hand and give him a thumbs up. As they neared the bar the vision in his eyes became more and more synchronous until the only difference was an altitude one. He felt her take his left hand just as her hologram had done. He turned towards her. Until he was seeing both her looking at him and himself looking back at her.

She was beautiful. As advertised. He spoke to her through the app, lowering the environmental volume down to Jazz room volumes.

“Fuck, you’re beautiful.”

She blushed. “So are you. Want to get out of here.”

“Sure.”

She waved her hand across the crowd and all but 10 peopled flickered and disappeared, leaving the remaining dancers disjointed raving by themselves in different parts of the room. They walked across the now nearly empty club and out the door.

“I’m so happy you finally found me.”

“I feel like I’ve been looking for you all my life.”

“Well here I am.”

“Where should we go?”

“Let’s go to The Lightspeed and grab a drink. They should be reaching critical mass around now.”

Just then it started raining. They ducked under an awning. He kissed her and she kissed him back with everything she had, pressing her whole body against his.

“The Lightspeed is across town.”

“It’s ok, I have a cruiser.”

“Ah, well maybe we should just walk.”

“Are you serious?” She gestured to the rain. “It’s across town.”

“I just hate the traffic up there,” he said with a glance towards the polluted neon glow above them.

“You’re aren’t scared you?” She asked incredulously. He gave her a look, and she gasped,” You are! You’re one of those… you’re afraid to fly- ‘grounders.’ You’re a grounder aren’t you?”

“Look I just think we should walk,” he said looking despairingly out at the rain.

“Hey,” she said turning his face towards hers. “It’s ok. It’s just a transport. Come on, your first time can be with me.”

She took his hand again and pulled him towards the elevator shaft that stuck out of the road. They descended several levels and emerged into a giant vacuum of blue and white striped concrete. She took him over towards her flex class cruiser. It was a blockier, older model with gull wing doors and cleverly disguised ruffles that were actually intake manifolds. It addressed her as madam as she neared it. 

“Hullo, Mantic,” she said. “This is…” she faltered here, and he begrudgingly picked up the slack. “Klon.”

“That’s right, Klon! We’re just going to pop over to Lightspeed for critical mass.” She said with a bubbly laugh. “Go ahead, Klon. Get in,” she said. A door opened in the center of the cabin. 

“I’m not getting in that thing,” said Klon.

“It’s ok, it’s just a cruiser! This is ridiculous Klon. You’re always doing this.”

“I’m sorry, but I’m just not comfortable with it.”

“Are you comfortable with always being stuck on the ground? Is that what you really want?”

“What I really want is to walk.”

“Well I’m not walking. I’m taking my cruiser like a normal person.”

Klon took a step backwards. She looked at him exasperated. Then slowly pressed two fingers to her head and pulled the imaginary trigger. “This is over. See you never loser.”

The parking hanger roared with Mantic’s engines. Klon reckoned he overdid it a bit for effect. Before the echoes had subsided Klon walked beside a handful of new matches. They all stepped into the lift and the doors shut.