Sci-fi Short: Jump Start - Part 4

Henry Fango was an impressive man he stood at around six and a half feet tall, had broad shoulders, wavy red-brown hair and piercing blue eyes. He was one of those people where it was quite hard to tell what augs and upgrades they had, with people like Fango they could just as easily have been born that way.

Pullman observed Fango as he stepped out of the gloom to greet him, he had what Pullman liked to call, the air of an executive. It was that calm assuredness that not only were you superior to most people on the planet, but also belonged to an industry that was shaping the world.

Fango in particular had this air, without the work of FabTech, most of the advances made by companies like Cybertec would be made almost entirely useless. As it was FabTech created the biological framework on which to place the synthetic augmentations that had changed the face of human evolution.

As usual Henry Fango approached and greeted Pullman as if they were meeting on the hundredth floor meeting room at one of the plush 'scrapers downtown. He did this so smoothly that Pullman half suspected that Fango was running some kind of Controlled Synthetic Hallucination program allowing him to perceive their squalor as the shining offices of Fabtech or any other gleaming biotech company offices.

“Jason, I’m glad to make your acquaintance at last.” Up until now they had spoken in code through various intermediaries, Pullman wondered briefly if Fango had even bothered to look up what he looked like.

“And I yours, did you bring what I asked for?”

“Yes, it’s had all the necessary adjustments made.” Fango handed Pullman a small silver-grey box.

“And the blanks, you’re sure you can insert chips into the blanks with no trace back to me?” Fango smiled the smile a crocodile gave before eating its prey.

“Don’t worry about being traced; I have assigned enough resources to make sure that won’t happen. What I’m most worried about is; can you get access to the merchandise you say you can? After all, no offence but you’re a fairly low level employee.”

Pullman knew he was bringing this up now just to remind him how easily Fango could have him crushed at any given time should Pullman decide to double cross him.

“All of what I’ve told you is true, like I told you with my modified C-chip, and without my signature the blanks will be able to gain access to the aug-labs.”

“OK, once the chips are ready contact me through the usual channels and I’ll have the blanks in place.”

Pullman noticed Fango’s demeanour change almost imperceptibly, he felt the implicit urge to concentrate on everything Fango was saying. The effect was so strong Pullman wondered if Fango was using a new pheromone upgrade that he hadn’t heard about, though not for long, as all thoughts contrary to the meeting they were having simply evaporated.

Leaving Pullman in a state of naked concentration that might have panicked him had he been in different circumstances. After what seemed like a full minute to him, but in reality was less than three seconds, Fango continued speaking.

“Listen Jason, you seem like a nice guy, so I feel I have to make this entirely clear to you, I wouldn’t want you getting into something without being exactly sure of what will happen should things go wrong.”

Pullman felt like a puppet on a string as he slowly nodded, indicating Fango to continue.

“Nothing will happen to me of course, there are zero records that can tie the two of us together, from the log of your auto-taxi to the comms logs between us, all of them are, or will be gone before you return home. The blanks I’m providing, if examined will appear to be standard issue government blanks.

So that being said, I will be fine if it all goes wrong, there will be no comeback for me at all, even if you decide to sing from the rooftops about my involvement. You on the other hand will be caught and punished, I must confess that seeing as our little . . . endeavour is so unique I can not predict with any accuracy exactly what that punishment will be. Rest assured though, that whatever it is, it will not involve me. In other words, after this point you’re on your own kid.

So if you want to back out, speak now or forever hold your peace.”

As Pullman looked at Fango he found himself thinking of Angela Ladbury, Fango was just the sort of person she would probably go for, and even though she was a few rungs down the social ladder from him. Her status as a bioengineer would probably mean he would go for her as well.

If Angela was a few rungs below Fango, Pullman himself hadn’t even got onto the ladder yet. If they ever met, she would look at Fango as a potential mate, Pullman she would view as someone who could fix her terminal.

“No worries Mr Fango, I’m fully aware of the consequences of my actions, there’s no going back now.”

Fango smiled the smile that had sealed a thousand deals.

“Excellent! Your taxi’s log has been wiped so don’t be surprised if it acts as if you’re a new fare. Goodbye Jason, perhaps after all this when you’re fabulously wealthy I’ll see you at some club or another for a game of tennis or drinks.”

That winning smile again.

“Thank you Mr Fango, goodbye.”

I’m fully aware of the consequences of my actions, there’s no going back now.

But he hadn’t been, how could he have? Now more than ever, as he listened to the distant footsteps closing in on his position, did he wonder how he could ever have thought he understood the full consequences of his actions.

He had created five clones of himself in order to pull off the crime of the century, and now one of them was almost definitely going to kill him. What scared Pullman the most after dying itself, was the fact that with not too much effort the clone would be able to slip into Pullman’s life like nothing had happened.

Once the deed was done, it would be like Pullman had erased a part of his own history and absolutely nobody would be any the wiser, and for some reason that scared him more than actual death itself.

Title image: Alex Iby on Unsplash

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