Author: Miguel Ribeiro

“Junk is the ideal product… the ultimate merchandise. No sales talk necessary. The client will crawl through a sewer and beg to buy.”

William S. Burroughs

Dancers in the dark

Borges keeps her promise and drags Jana and Peter to one of her favourite filthy dens in the Crepuscule District to celebrate the rookies’ baptism by fire. The Küchenschabe is – as usually – jammed with a crowd of lower corporate workers and criminals drinking and getting high. Near the party there’s a small group of teenagers, looking less destitute than the regular customers. But what really stands out is that suddenly a girl collapses over the table. She’s drooling and seems to be having a seizure and her friends are frantic. O’Malley notices it and immediately yells “Is there a doctor in here?” but nobody seems to care. Borges explains to him that this is usual at the Küchenschabe and, besides, they aren’t working tonight. Suddenly the girl stops convulsing and her friends get even more hysterical. Jana decides to check the girl, who appears to have died. The ZoneSec psi immediately calls for an ambulance. O’Malley, has managed to get himself some electric equipment and approaches the young girl with a bare wire, to shock her heart back to life. Both Borges and Gibson ask him what the hell is he doing. O’Malley’s response is: “This usually works in vids!”. Alas, it didn’t this time. Borges checks the body for any signs of life. “She is dead for sure now!”, staring disapprovingly at O’Malley.

Meanwhile Jana approached the hysterical friends, and reassures them that an ambulance has already been called. When the screaming stops, she manages to ask some questions. The dead girl’s name was Chu Mei Feng and it seems she took some drugs. Jana looks over the dead girl’s pockets and finds a small vial with traces of a black liquid. “Was this it?”. The friends acknowledge it and show their own untouched vials. While O’Malley collects the vials for analysis they discover that one of the girls took half the dosage, but still feels fine. Regarding where they got the drugs, they claim the dead girl was the one that bought it, but they know the narcotic’s name: Dark Dancer, a new hot drug. While they wait for the ambulance, Marilyn, the one that took half a dose, says she’s starting to feel something, while giving O’Malley bedroom eyes and rubbing herself on him. Apart from that, she is fine and O’Malley just became very interested in the drug. Checking the web they discover some one else had an overdose tonight at the Blue Parrot. Borges reminds them again that this is their night off, but the rookies are in full operating mode. They inform the ZoneSec paramedics, once they finally arrive, about the occurrence. As soon as the stiff is gone, the team returns to heavy drinking.

Before going to sleep, Crowe is informed by Natasha that another death by Dark Dancer happened tonight at a dingy bar in the Crepuscule district. Agent Gibson and her teammates were at the place – actually they still are -, claims the personal assistant. Crowe is happy about the team’s dedication and immediately asks her to call agent Borges. Still drinking at the bar when she gets a call from her boss, Borges rolls her eyes and gestures to the other two: “You see, now I have the boss wanting to talk to me, while we are supposed to be off duty!”. She answers the phone with a deep sigh, and briefly explains to Aziz that it was by chance they called the OD in, they are off duty. Aziz tells her they are assigned the case and should start working on it the next morning. Meanwhile he also gets the information that the first dead kid, Kenji O’Hara, had eye implants, so images of the dealer may have been captured. Aziz orders Nastasja to take care of it. The personal assistant swiftly reviews the last 24h of the youngster’s life and finds the moment of the transaction. They now know the dealer’s face.

In the morning, slightly hungover, Borges get the case files and a new information: there were two other victims last night, at the Neon Dragon. One of them survived and is currently in the hospital. Back at the lab, O’Malley is analysing the drug samples. It’s an unknown formula, but obviously derived from LSD. O’Malley concludes that taken in the correct dose it should be as harmless as any other drug. In the spirit of science, he decides to take a quarter of the full dosage himself. When Jana and Eva reach him, the Dancer has just kicked in. Patrick sees the door opening and two shapeless shadows approaching and exclaims: “Ah! pink tigers!”, and starts petting them. He is actually petting Borges, who he’s exasperated when discovers the idiot took the drug. O’Malley gets excited with the fact the pink tigers can speak and starts a lively conversation about his experience and conclusions: the drug is made of rainbows and cotton candy! His trip ends with a sip of Nutkicker, provided by Jana and, suddenly, the pink tigers metamorphose into Gibson and Borges. As usual, the older agent is mad: the correct procedure for testing drugs in ZoneSec is using prisoners as guinea pigs… Now that O’Malley is back to “normal”, Eva updates the team on the new developments. Meanwhile, they are also informed by Clayton Reed that Doctor Leary – from Leary Pharma – would like to speak to them.

Their first step is going to the hospital to interrogate the surviving victim, Malcolm Green. With her best bedside manners, Jana interviews the boy, who identifies the dealer from the photo as Skinny Pete. O’Malley gets his address from the ZoneSec database but, before going into the Underworld, they decide to stop at Leary Pharma. Stan Leary receives them in his office and explains them the formula for the drug (now known as Dark Dancer) was stolen from the lab two months before. The thieves left no traces. The drug is a failed Leary Pharma project: when it works, it has very impressive enjoyable results, but the risks associated with the wrong dosage are too high to market it as a recreational drug. Dr Leary doesn’t want this story being traced back to Leary Pharma; that’s why he asked for ZoneSec to insure that all copies and traces of the formula are destroyed, as well as the people involved in it.

While on the way to the Underworld, Borges reminds the recruits that their mission is to retrieve information from Skinny Pete and not necessarily to kill him. Gibson and O’Malley both try to use their special skill sets to see inside the dealers apartment. Jana gets the feeling the suspect is on the second floor. O’Malley hacks Pete’s phone camera and shows the team the image of a skinny naked guy sleeping on soiled sheets. Borges forces the cheap lock easily. Inside they find Skinny Pete asleep, just like O´Malley had shown them. A big knock-off pistol is resting on the bedside table. The team moves slowly around the room, but Pete seems to be deeply asleep. In a fit of inspiration Eva decides to pick the guys big pistol and press it to his exposed butt hole. That gets some movement out of him. Suddenly he is awaken and scared, especially when they identify themselves as ZoneSec. They ask for his stash and he franticly tells them where it is, but no Dark Dancer there, apparently it sold out… Pete tells them the new drugs were delivered by a small group called the Drugstore Cowboys, but he’s hesitant about giving them away. Jana and Eva play their good cop bad cop routine, and finally get the info out of him. The Cowboys operate out of a warehouse in the Underworld running a small business. They produce, consume and sell the drug. Believing the small time drug dealer knows nothing about the Leary Pharma Connection, they let him be.

The warehouse is not far from Pete’s apartment. The agents survey the place, it has only two small windows and two doors. Gibson tries to sense how many people are inside. Though she cant get a clear picture, Jana knows that there’s a small group inside. They decide to trust lady luck and storm the place, sneaking through the back door. The door opens into a dark corridor full of junk and little visibility. Turning on the lenses sonar function, O’Malley detects a cluster of six people in the main room. Borges silently approaches the area where the group is and throws a concussion grenade. Unfortunately it does little more then attract the group’s attention. They come in the agents’ direction, dragging one unconscious body. O’Malley points the sub-machine gun and screams at them to surrender. Two of them do it immediately, the others just stop. The group looks frightened and confused, they don’t look like serious criminals, just pathetic junkies. The team starts to handcuff them, while asking about the Dark Dancer, and who is in charge. Apparently the leader, Rick Vargas, and Bob Smith, the chemist, are away. The agents decide to give a small dose to each junkie, and lock them aside in a closet, while they wait for the bosses to appear. They are lucky: O’Malley hacks the phones and sees they are probably coming back to the warehouse already.

The team hides in wait, but they don’t have to stay long. Minutes later, four people enter by the back door, two males and two females. They women look like cheap hookers, and are probably customers. Once the group is flanked, the agents jump out of hiding. Patrick screams, with his usual enthusiasm: “ZoneSec, put your hands up!”. One of the guys automatically pulls one of the women by the neck, trying to use her as a hostage. Coldly, Borges shots the woman in the head. Her shot isn’t accurate, but it’s enough to scare the guy, who accidentally shoots the gun he had pointed at the hostage’s back. The other woman starts screaming in panic, and both men surrender. Gibson takes charge of interrogating the dealers who, in shock from previous events, confess to everything. They went to Leary Pharma looking for formulas they could use and got lucky. Backup is called to remove the Drugstore Cowboys and the home-made laboratory is burned to the ground. Another victory for the team!

Once again Aziz Crowe and Clayton Reed are impressed about their efficiency. Borges has a side talk with Gibson: she is worried the psi agent is too soft for the job, and explains the younger woman that most ZoneSec agents are not very good people when they are recruited, and bad things for the greater good are expected from them. Jana answer is that some of them are good people, just look at O’Malley! Meanwhile, O’Malley is already thinking how he can safely add the Dark Dancer to his Nutkicker formula…

“I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I’m all out of bubblegum.”

John Nada, They Live

The morning after the fire… Nakatomi is waiting for the lab results for the strange soft drink: Orgone energy was detected among a regular mix of caffeine, sugar, caramel and spices. It’s clearly an energy drink, but since it contains orgone, could it be marketed as an aphrodisiac drug? After some sips, she decides to call James C and ask him out for lunch, but his Personal Assistant tells her Mr C is in a meeting with Mr Houseman.

Arriving at the office, Aziz gets a call from his good old friend Leon MacAarthur. A blond, muscular and extremely well combed Leo greets him in augmented reality. He smiles dumbly, as always, but looks concerned. The actor and businessman now owns a small Rollerclash team, the Mean Machines, and is worried about the recent incidents. Aziz tells him not to be concerned, ZoneSec is already on it. After getting rid of his friend, Aziz drops by Clayton Reed’s office to talk about the previous night’s events. He feels they have to be more proactive in searching for Lance Jones. This is an extremely dangerous individual who seems to have developed psionic powers. Clayton tells him that the spec ops team is working on the case.

And indeed they have been; O’Malley, powered by Nutkicker, spent all night trying to develop a program to detect Jones, based on power surges and facial recognition software. If the data is right, it is possible to pinpoint Lance Jones to an underworld quarter, close to Biddonville. The agents answer Reed’s call in a triumphant mood. Clayton sends them out to do some discreet reconnaissance work. The team prepares a van for a trip to the Underworld, a low-income, run-down, low-tech residential area inhabited by poor workers. Eva decides to look for one of her informants, Willy the Squid, a small time crook that lives in the area. After bribing him, Eva is able to squeeze the information out of the Squid. She shows him a photo of Jones, and Willy confirms he has seen him. The guy stands out in the neighbourhood, he doesn’t look the type, plus there are bodyguards with him. Borges presses the crook to show her the building Jones is hiding in, but the little shit walks out on her.

“Luckily” it seems they have parked the van right across the street from Jones’ building, and weren’t as discreet as they thought they were being; maybe it was the Fresh Body Parts Collectors advertised on the side of the van… Just when Borges gets back to the vehicle, three menacing goons come out of the building and walk towards them. While Borges reaches inside the van to get her faithful Hauser Arms assault rifle and Jana picks up her 9mm, focusing on her psionic powers for tactical leverage, O’Malley decides to pop out of the sunroof and fire up his Remminger sub-machine gun, just like a hero in an action vid. Despite barely knowing how to shoot, he manages to fire a clean burst that knocks down one of the thugs and kills him. O’Malley shouts “die, bastard!” sounding a like an excited teenager. Armed with her Hauser rifle, Borges efficiently dispatches the second with a shot to the head. Jana misses her shot, giving the third guy a chance to run for cover before trying – and failing – to shoot O’Malley.

Meanwhile, Jana’s psionic senses made her aware that a new hidden foe has joined the combat zone, through an open window, some floors above them. She nervously lets the others know. Borges is focused on the third man; although he was under cover, his arm was showing, and now it’s bloody gone! However, the sniper hits her on the leg, as retaliation. Borges moves to the sunroof, preparing to cover Jana and Patrick, while they run towards the building. She is able to hit the sniper in the chest, fatally injuring him.

The coast is now clear. O’Malley frantically climbs to the third floor, ignoring Jana’s warnings to take it easy. Giving up on a lost cause – testosterone fuelled Patrick – she tries to sense the apartment where Jones is: in the middle of the third floor hall, she identifies two shapes. Jane is able to get the attention of impatient O’Malley, and points to the right door. Excited, O’Malley runs and kicks the door. Nothing happens. He then remembers he should shoot the lock (better late then never). The door is now wide open, but Patrick feels a strange tingling in his right leg, followed by a shocking pain. He screams. Calmly and steadily, Jana points her 9mm to a perceived shape inside the room, and hits it four times. Getting closer, she recognises the man lying down on the floor as Lance Jones. O’Malley, still excited, although limping, is mighty impressed.

When Borges finally reaches the third floor everything is under control; the rookies are handcuffing the two wounded and unconscious suspects. She calls for backup to collect the corpses and prisoners. Meanwhile, Gibson raises a pertinent question: Jones can be dangerous if he recovers consciousness. Borges pulls out her 9mm and simply says “a shot to the head will solve that!”. Despite protests and shock from the rookies, Lance Jones is swiftly neutralised, ZoneSec style. Borges is proud of her rookies and, after a trip to the infirmary and a debriefing with a surprised and impressed Clayton Reed, she proclaims it’s a night for celebration. Clayton is quick in updating his boss, letting Aziz know that, against all the odds, the rookies took care of Lance Jones and four accomplices. A relieved Aziz calls Doyle to deliver the news: “Malena is now safe!”. The Blue Parrot owner and the singer decide to celebrate with another live performance. This time without special effects…

Meanwhile, Dr Nakatomi receives a disturbing piece of news: James C, the hunky Rollerclash star, was caught by Pandemonium Inc. security brutally beating up the company’s CEO, and has been detained by ZoneSec. This upsets whatever plans she was starting to have for James. Concerned, she calls Aziz, who promises to take a close look into the matter. Aziz has a one-on-one with James, who admits his guilt, but claims he was just trying to interrogate Houseman to get to the end of the matter behind the Rollerclash deadly accidents.

Later that night, the Blue Parrot is once again filled to the brim. Malena sings, accompanied by Doyle on the piano. The singer attracts a different crowd: tonight the Parrot is full of young people. One group seems particularly excited and, suddenly, there’s is a commotion on their corner of the room. Doyle, who had left the stage some minutes before to greet Aziz and Isabella, quickly jumps up to see what the hell is happening in his bar. A young Asian kid has collapsed on the floor. Nakatomi examines him. He’s gone and it was clearly an overdose. Doyle is beside himself: people don´t normally OD at the Parrot, it’s just not that kind of bar! He pushes the punk’s friends around and they confess he took a new drug: Dark Dancer, the hot fashionable narcotic on the streets of Avalidad. Crowe is called to intervene and, once again, Malena’s performance at the Blue Parrot ends badly and abruptly.