Chapter 0001

After thirty minutes of waiting, Hernan finally showed up. I'd tried to save a seat for him at the bar, but, fifteen minutes into the wait, the small Asian owner began yelling at me.

"You're bad for business!" He screamed. "You can't save seat! You go away!"

With a little work and a little cash, I convinced him to let me stay, but had to give up the chair.

When Hernan walked in, his presence was immediately known throughout the small diner. The sheer size of the man was enough to intimidate even the hardest of gutter rats.

He had some of the broadest shoulders that a man could possess and stood at an impressive six foot ten. He was a thick man, but I wouldn't go so far as to say he was fat. There was a beer gut that had started to develop, but he was still shy of being overweight. The best way to describe him was 'solid'.

He kept his head shaved to show off the prison tattoo that he had wrapping around his skull, but his skin was so black that you had to be right next to him to even notice that there was a design, and even then it was difficult to make out what it was.

He told me once that it was a dragon, but I'd always thought it looked more like a snake.

Hernan looked around the place for a moment, his eyes darting from person to person until he noticed me. His mouth turned to a giant, gold grin, and he made his way over.

"You couldn't even save me a seat? Call me all the way down here, and I ain't got no where to sit. Ain't that a bitch?" He said as he came up to me. I could feel his shadow cover me.

"If you'd have shown up on time, we wouldn't have this problem." I replied.

"You know another way that we could have avoided this unfortunate sitting situation? You could have known the damn answers to your questions and left me the hell alone. But no, you can't let a brother enjoy his little bit of time off."

"You're not working any cases?" I asked.

Hernan was a fellow private detective, but, more often than not, he stretched over into the bounty hunter category of things.

His specialty wasn't to find, follow, and report. He was much more of a find, assault, and return. He was damned good at it too.

There were days that I truly felt bad for the people that he is hired to retrieve.

None the less, he'd done a short sentence Lansing Correctional Facility. This gave him a certain edge that I did not possess, and not to mention the contacts that he'd made.

He had a plethora of resources when it came to people that knew people. He could put out his feelers for a person, and he wouldn't have to do any leg work half of the time. He just let his network of people find the guy for him, and then he'd go in to get the prize.

"Let's go outside, it's too stuffy in here. We're not going to get another seat for a while anyways."

"You told me noodles. I had noodles on my mind all day after you said that shit." His golden grin turned into more a snarl. If we hadn't been friends, I might have been worried about what the monster of a man was going to do to me if he didn't get his noodles. "Shit ain't right, man."

He followed me outside anyways, and I could see lightening on the other side of the upper district. I prayed for rain, but knew that it was wishful thinking.

"So what you got, Kaiser?"

We took a left out of the shop and moved with the crowd towards a little known bar. It was my favorite place because it was one of only a few taverns that had sitting room, quiet music, and the crowd wasn't too rough. That would be where we could talk.

I led him in silence for a moment. I never had cared for discussing a case out in the open. You just never knew who might be listening in on your conversation, and just like that, your case could be ruined. The guy that you were hoping to find would be well out of the city before you ever knew what had happened.

After a few minutes, we got to the bar. It had an inconspicuous black door with no label. I'd only learned about the joint because I'd followed a suspected water thief inside once.

I'd brought Hernan there a few dozen times, so he already knew where we were headed

"Black door, again? Really, Kaiser?" He said jokingly, but he knew as well as I did that we both loved the bar.

In the whole tavern, there were only four costumers and one bartender. The lights were dim enough that you couldn't fully make out what someone was doing on the other side of the room, but bright enough that you could see what was going on in your lap. That was what this place was usually used for, but so long as you minded your own business, it wasn't so bad.

We sat down at a table in the middle of the room and ordered a couple of pale ales.

"I'll get the beer if you'll forget about the noodles", I offered.

"Damned right you'll get the beer, and I'll think about forgetting the noodles."

For the first twenty minutes we caught up on what had been going on in our lives. I told him about Monique Holsiner and he told me about a guy that had run up over a million dollars in gambling debt and tried to skip out on the bookie. From what I gathered, Hernan made sure that it didn't end well for the gambler.

I really, really would hate to be on the receiving end of a Hernan Smith bounty.

After we did the 'long time, no see' bit, I told him about my case. I spent well over and hour telling him about the whole thing; right down to every detail.

I explained to him the building and the cold secretary. I told him about how the senator was mostly machine, but his human brain kept him in the transhuman category. I filled him in on the Thinker situation and had Paige put his picture in a folder so that I could share it with him.

We synced, I shared the folder, and then I disconnected.

"You still have a fear of syncing?" He asked as if he thought my reluctance to sync was going to go away.

I told him just about everything there was to know about the case, but I left out the death threat on the senate. That was more for his own good than anything. Knowing too much about the senate's business wasn't good for business.

And I left out how much they were paying me. There was no reason for Hernan to know that I'd got a big score. We were friends and all, but I wouldn't put it passed him to go to the senator and ask for the job himself.

We finished a couple beers and he leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, and got a serious face. This was the part of Herman that I liked; his business side.

"Tell you what I'll do; I'm going to ask around to a few people. I know some guys that were hackers back in the day, and they might know if there are any active computer thieves living in the area. 'Cause I know how much you don't like to log into the public domain, I'll go ahead and use a search engine to see if I can't find anything about this Ed Shulister and I'll forward you anything that I get."

"Thanks, Hernan. I owe you one." I stood up from the table.

"No, you owe me a goddamned bowl of noodles, is what you owe me. Now get your little white ass out of here before I hurt you." The last part made him grin and got a smile out of me too.

"Don't drink too much." I said as I headed towards the exit.

"Hey. One last thing." He shouted. "Hold your hand out."

I kept my back facing him, but turned my head and looked him in the eye. I was trying to hold back the look of shame, and tried to mask it with a look of apathy, but I knew that it didn't work.

"You got the shakes, don't you?" He asked.

"Goodnight, Hernan."

I turned back around and walked out of the bar.

The street was getting busier as the night dragged on. People movrd up and down the streets, aiming towards only god knows what.

I held my hand out and looked at it, trying as hard as I could to keep it steady.

It was another losing battle.

The tremors that affected my hand were some of the worst that I'd ever had. The four lines of purple powder during day were taking their final effect on my body; the withdraw.

I started to walk back to my office, knowing damn well that I needed to flush the boost down the toilet. I needed to just get rid of the bag, lock myself in room, and ride the pain until it was out of my body.

I knew what I needed to do, but I also knew what I was going to do.