“That’s right we will be sending a few drones down to the first level to live broadcast the entire event this afternoon! Unfortunately, due to certain… complications happening on the first level, we are unsure if there will be a reporter to interview the party member Buck Boomer,” said Kommy.
“Here is a first look of the area where the event will be held!” said Fela in a chipper mood. With a wave of her hand, the holo broadcast switched to a live recording of one of their many news drones that were flying in the air.
A large white opaque privacy screen stood at least 100 stories tall and was in the shape of a square box. The faint shadows of a large building could be seen behind the massive privacy screen.
Arron turned from the news playing above the APC’s dashboard and looked out the passenger window towards the large opaque privacy screen that rose high up into the dark sky of level 1.
“We’ve arrived,” said Kix as he parked the APC on an empty platform of the new parking garage. This parking garage along with two others in the area had been built to support the new traffic that was expected to clog the local area due to the new building.
Kix and Arron got out of the APC and looked around the area not sure where to go. The platform that held the parked APC silently rose to one of its empty minor VIP spots reserved for police, M1, or special reporters.
“Tooth, who are we supposed to be meeting up with?” asked Arron.
Tooth’s haggard holographic face popped up on Arron’s visor and began talking quickly.
“Buck Boomer’s assistant should be waiting for you near the building’s privacy screens. Kix you need to take your PLE with you. That’s all the information they gave me. They didn’t even tell me what they want you to do, so you will have to ask them yourselves.”
With that, his screen minimized once again as he went back to dealing with the overwhelming Rage week festival calls.
“Typical politicians,” said Kix as he grabbed the somewhat heavy case and then started walking towards the building.
“The event is still several hours away so why is there a crowd here?” asked Arron.
A crowd of nearly a hundred people was in front of the opaque privacy screens.
“Isn’t it normal for something like this?” asked Kix.
“I mean with the Rage week festival going on, I thought everyone would stay inside and just watch the holo-broadcast,” said Arron.
“You’d be surprised what people will do or say when it has to do with a politician from Mother and Father.”
As they walked closer to the crowd, Arron was able to see that the people were all gathered around a small square holographic outline that had been placed on the ground.
Floating all around and above the boxed-off area were several security drones that were watching those who stepped inside the box.
Arron and Kix stopped to watch what was going on.
A man in his forties with black short hair and a grubby factory work uniform stepped through the holographic divider and into the small box, as he did the box’s outline turned green. The man turned to the other waiting people and began speaking.
“Don’t trust the silver tongue of Buck boomer! He has openly stated he is a staunch supporter of creating an even more strict social credit score. The current version of the SCS is already harming many people, making them a permanent second and third-class citizen!”
Click! Click! Click!
Hundreds of clicks and flashes came from the floating security drones as they took the man’s picture and continued to record him.
Ahnnn! A buzzer sounded and the green box outline turned Red.
The man stepped out of the box and a woman with long frazzled brown hair and large protruding eyes stepped inside. The box once again turned green.
“If Mother and Father don’t do anything right at this moment to fix the problem… then the world will end in 12 years!”
“I tell you the end is in 12 years! You all better prepare for the end!”
This went on for a few minutes before another buzzer sounded and the woman stepped out of the box. The floating security drones were silent as she left the box.
“What is this?” asked Arron looking at the growing crowd around the box.
“It’s one of the zoned-off areas where people can get a permit from Mother and Father to legally protest about whatever they want… as long as it does not break any laws or regulations, you can say what you want inside that box. It’s a way to keep everything contained and controlled. I bet that man from before will be getting a visit from agents of the Office of Reason soon,” said Kix, as they watched two people enter the box and start debating with each other.
After a few minutes of heated debating, the security Drones started clicking and recording the two as they exited the box.
The two who had been in such a heated debate walked away as if nothing had happened.
“Where is the assistant we’re supposed to meet? Isn’t this the area?” asked Arron looking around as more and more people were showing up outside the building.
“Hmmm… maybe that’s the person?” said Kix pointing to a sharply dressed person who was standing far away from the growing crowd.
“Let’s go see,” said Arron.
“Excuse me sir…?” asked Arron politely as they walked over to the man.
“Are you the M1 stooges sent here to help with security?” asked the man with a sharp tongue. He looked at Arron and Kix’s armor before speaking again. “You must be. What took you so long? I have been waiting here for over a minute.”
“Sorry, we were viewing the people talking over there,” said Arron, giving the man a short bow.
“Hmph! Follow me. We don’t have much time before my boss arrives.”
The assistant led them across the street to a new guard building directly opposite the privacy screen.
The several guards that were inside stood ramrod straight and saluted the assistant as he walked past them to a set of stairs that led to an underground tunnel.
The tunnel led them back towards the new building. At the end of the underground tunnel was a set of stairs embedded into the wall and spiraled upwards with several doors embedded into the wall every so often.
The assistant led them to the very top of the stairs where they exited the last door out onto a flat platform.
The sky above Arron’s head was blocked by an Opaque Privacy-screen that wrapped around the entire large platform. Arron quickly realized that he was now standing on part of the roof of the new large building.
There were ten or so other people already waiting on the roof, each of them wearing expensive flying suits that no one on the First level had access to.
“The boss should be here any moment,” said the assistant as he looked at the current time projected by his wrist datapad.
One of the well-dressed people standing near Arron was watching KNN’s event broadcast with a portable holo-tv and had put the sound on speaker mode and had the widescreen projected in front of him so that everyone else was able to watch as well.
“Ah! I think Buck Boomer the Party member under Mother has arrived! Look,” said Fela, pointing at something the viewers could not see.
Seconds later the view on the holo-tv changed to one of the news drones which had zoomed in to follow three red and yellow hover-copters that were now flying towards the top of the opaque privacy screen.
The news drone flew up higher into the air to get a better view of the hover-copters as they came to a halt above the privacy screen.
A small opening appeared in the Privacy-screen revealing the large landing pads, along with everyone that was waiting nearby for Buck Boomer’s arrival.
“Everyone, can you see it? This is a first glimpse of the new building!” said a hyper Fela.
“It looks like Buck Boomer will be getting a warm welcome from several dignitaries of the first Level,” said Kommy.
“If I’m not mistaken, it looks like they are also watching us for the coverage of this event,” said Fela.
The Opaque holo-wall above the landing pad closed up as soon as the hover-copters landed, blocking the news drone’s view of what was happening.
Arron and Kix were motioned to follow the assistant as he walked over to the loud whirring hover-copters.
As the doors of each hover-copter opened four people in red exoskeletons hopped out of each of the hover-copters. They quickly scanned the area for any threats and then walked to the middle hover-copter with half of them standing on the right of the open door and the other half on the left creating a short path.
Another 5 lightly armored people stepped out of the Hover-copters and joined the exoskeletons.
“What do they need us here for?” Arron quietly asked Kix over their secure helmet comms.
“No clue,” said Kix.
The last person to exit the Hover-copters was a tall man in his 60s. His hair was combed to the side to cover a large bald spot, and the special glasses he wore were perched on the end of his nose.
He straightened his expensive custom flying suit making sure there were no wrinkles before walking towards the waiting assistant and dignitaries.
The red exoskeleton guards followed him making sure that he was fully protected.
“Hey Kix… isn’t that the guy from last week?” asked Arron.
“Huh?” asked Kix.
“That drunk guy we saw in the streets near that sketchy bar. He was being carried away by others while he screamed about the world ending the next day.”
“If you want to have a normal life after this, I suggest you don’t mention that to his face. Act like this is our first meeting,” said Kix.
