Liquidate

Chimera Heights - Hans and Mercy

Hans despised every visit he had to make to Vargos.

Back in Berlin, he didn’t have to hop into a flying car to avoid risking his life on the city streets. Moreover, back home, there was no degree of horrific poverty that even came close to what he saw in Vargos in passing. When flying from the airport to wherever his meetings were in the city, they always passed over the monstrosity of waste that locals called “The Roman Stacks.” It made his stomach turn to see the masses of people living their lives in what could generously be compared to a landfill.

The wickedness of Vargos really hit home for Hans when he first saw the luxury of the Downtown district on his initial visit, but even Downtown looked like a slum compared to where the car dropped him off this time. The district was called “Chimera Heights” on official city maps, but he’d heard it referred to in passing as “Eden.” It made some sense—the place was manicured to such a degree that, when he looked closely, not a single bush had a dying leaf on it, and the pavement didn’t have so much as a crack or a pebble out of place.

He wandered up to the sleek building he had been instructed to enter upon arrival—a silver tower that hurt the eyes when the sun reflected off its mirror-like surface. It was built in the new “Acus” style that left fields of thin, needle-like skyscrapers in its wake. The buildings were an eyesore to Hans, but the style was quickly growing in popularity among the global elite, especially where corporations like Violet held sway.

He entered the building’s lobby and was greeted by more blinding lights, made even more jarring by the crisp white of the furniture, walls, and tile flooring, interrupted only by the deep black of the sharp corners and the brilliant blue of the water in the lobby’s main fountain. He saw a massive glass elevator in the center of the lobby that led up to the spire’s peak; by rough estimate, at least seventy floors. He approached the circular reception desk and was greeted by a projected hologram of a woman’s face. This was the AI he’d read about on the car ride here: GHM’s “Ethera.” She scanned Hans in a split second and then greeted him in an uncannily human voice.

“Hans Becker. Violet Class A employee, Berlin Division. Employee ID: 186YR4L-9E. Welcome to GHM Eden Tower 2. Your appointment is scheduled for 9:00 AM with Mercy Ebrahimi, GHM Class A employee, Vargos Division. Employee ID: 999UG3W-7X. Would you like any coffee or water while you wait?”

Hans hated to admit when he was impressed, but he had to give it to GHM—this reception wasn’t bad.

“Espresso, please. Two sugars, one cream.”

“Of course,” the hologram shut its eyes for a moment, then opened them as a small glass cup of espresso rose from the reception desk’s counter, steam gently lifting from its top. He took the coffee and opened a program on his internal user interface, projected into his vision, and saw he had six minutes before the meeting.

“Is there a place to smoke here?”

“Yes, sir. Please enjoy your coffee and smoked product on the balcony behind this desk. Please say ‘Ethera,’ and I will arrive to help with anything you need.”

Hans wandered out to the balcony and took in its view. Chimera Heights was built on the only hill in Vargos that hadn’t been leveled during the city’s rapid expansion and construction. From the balcony, he could see what locals might call a “view” of the city, its smog hanging over it in an enormous black cloud that blocked out the tops of most buildings, interrupted only by the constant flashing of neon lights people seemed so fond of. He savored his espresso and cigarette and looked around the balcony to see only a lone woman in a striking pantsuit taking in the view just feet away. Taking a closer look, he realized it was the woman he was here to meet—Mercy Ebrahimi. He wandered over and gave her a kind wave.

“Hello! You know we have a meeting soon?” he said in jest.

She shot him a smile, then turned to look over her shoulder at the lobby. People walked across its white floor without giving the two of them a second look. She turned back and gave him a serious glare.

“Hans. We have five minutes now before that AI shows up to remind us of our meeting, and then we won’t be able to speak privately again. So when I say shut the hell up and let me talk now, I want you to nod and do exactly that. Do you understand?”

Hans was flustered. Mercy had always been gentle and funny when they’d met in Paris for meetings or other extracurricular activities in their hotel rooms, but she wasn’t showing any warmth here. Her arms were folded across her chest, and she was hunched over slightly, unbecoming for any executive. Hans nodded hesitantly then took another drag of his cigarette.

“When you walk into the office today for our scheduled meeting, Violet is going to liquidate you. They’re downsizing the Berlin office, but they didn’t want to risk you trying to escape the city if they let you go remotely.”

Hans felt his blood run cold. The cigarette slipped from his fingers as his limbs went numb, the sound of Mercy’s voice deafening beneath the noise coming from his pounding heart. He opened his mouth to speak but no words came out, just a strangled breath that hardly passed out of his throat.

“You need to walk back out the entrance door and use your ID badge to get a flying taxi from here to a district called Neon Heights. Do not look back. Do not stop for anything. Once there, you need to find a bar called ‘Benziz’ and ask for a white martini. They’ll take you into the back, and you’ll be given a new personal chit. With that, you should be able to get some work done at a salon to change your hair and face, and hopefully, that should be enough to get you on a plane to a city where Violet isn’t dominant. I recommend London or Tehran.”

She looked over her shoulder again. She’d said everything so matter-of-factly that Hans almost missed the urgency underlying every word. He checked the clock on his interface again.

Three minutes.

“Mercy, I don’t understand,” he said as he grabbed her hand. She didn’t pull away.

“I’m sorry, Hans. I can’t tell you who gave me the information, but you have to trust that it’s verified. If you can’t get out of the city, then you need to go underground, and I mean that literally. The district called Low Vargos is where most people run when they want to escape something.”

Two minutes.

“Mercy, I haven’t done anything to warrant this! My outputs are far above standard. I was part of the bonus rounds for the last five years. Why would I be liquidated?”

“I don’t know, Hans. You have to go right now. We can’t talk about this anymore. I’m sorry.”

“What will happen if I can’t leave? What is this Low Vargos like? ”

“I don’t know. I’ve never been. No Class-A employee would ever. But it’s that or you’re liquidated upstairs. You’ll have maybe thirty minutes after the meeting to get a head start, but then your ID will be burned in the system, and your name will be on a Wraith list. They’ll track you in minutes and you’ll be aethered, just another ghost in the system.”

She pulled her hand away and shot him a look that sent a chill down his spine. He remembered the times he’d seen her smile, seen her giggle coming out of the shower or waking up next to him, seen her tell a joke in a boardroom, almost fluffing her feathers with pleasure as the other executives laughed. She just looked worried and tired now.

One minute.

“Go!” she said, almost yelling as she looked over his shoulder again.

Hans didn’t hesitate. As jarring as this all was, he’d worked for Violet long enough to take it seriously. He walked back through the glass doors into the white lobby and headed toward the exit.

Ethera appeared again as a hologram on the desk as the clock hit 9:00 AM. Her eyes locked onto him but didn’t just register him like it had before, it was dissecting him, cataloguing every micro expression and movement he made. He could feel it running predictive models on what the slightest next muscle movement he made might be. He hustled to the door, his back almost burning as he felt the program’s eyes on him.

He took one last look back but didn’t see Mercy, instead he saw the hologram as it shifted from its brilliant blue to a deep and vibrant red. Its eyes remained locked on Hans as he hailed a waiting taxi, his clammy hands hardly able to rise to get the driver’s attention.