The Deep 6
The evening nurse smiled at Jiang again today. It was always the same. Every day she would spoon feed him cheerfully as she chatted cheerfully about things that meant nothing to him. At the end, she would wink at him, and flip her hair flirtatiously as she turned to leave.
Jiang knew exactly what this meant. He thought about it as he lay awake in his cell at night, staring up at the ceiling. Lying on the floor, shifting uncomfortably in his straight jacket, Jiang wondered what his purpose was. He had no idea who he was. All he knew was that he was in a coma for 6 years, and that for some reason, they were holding him there indefinitely, in his own private ward inside the hospital. The doctors refused to tell him anything, and would only laugh in his face when he asked to be released. The only thing Jiang was certain of was that he had awakened for a reason. And although at present he didn’t quite know why, he somehow understood that his purpose was elsewhere, outside the medical center. He had to be free to pursue his purpose. The only thing left to do was escape. This young nurse presented him with an interesting opportunity. A relative weak spot in the system. An idea blossomed in Jiang’s head that night.
Jiang swore it was fate that made the nurse arrive late the next night. It was so late, that all the guards had gone home, except for the fat one that liked to watch sitcoms deafeningly loud. When she unlocked his door, Jiang’s heart skipped a beat, and he was so excited that he had to look away to keep from smiling.
“I’m so sorry,” the nurse began as she scurried into the room frantically and laid the food tray down on the floor. “You must be so hungry.” Jiang watched her as she turned around to close the door.
“Really, its ok,” were the first words he ever spoke to her. Then he paused, “Besides, it’s not like I’m interested in the food anyway...” The nurse froze. She turned around slowly to look at him. He winked at her. She dropped the keys. Within seconds she was on top of him, and he was pushing his tongue into her mouth. The nurse’s hands were all over him, so that it seemed almost natural when he uttered, “Untie me, untie me.” The nurse suddenly pulled back, studying his face excitedly. Jiang stared back at her as innocently as he knew how. Without further hesitation, the nurse began to undo the restraints on his straightjacket, one by one. Jiang could not believe how easy it was. He sat there rubbing his arms back to life for a moment. The nurse appeared in front of him again, her eyes half closed, smiling.
From here on, Jiang’s body functioned on auto-pilot. “Thank you.” he murmured, and without further hesitation, slammed her over the head so that she fell to the floor unconscious. Peering out the tiny window on his door, Jiang could see that the guard was fast asleep at the TV. Nonetheless Jiang crept up silently behind him, and violently bashed him over the head with the fire extinguisher, so that he too lay unconscious on the floor. Jiang watched the guard often enough to know where he kept his stash. The third key he tried unlocked the bottom drawer of the night watch desk, which yielded a half full bottle of vodka, some cigarettes and a lighter. Jiang confiscated all three. He then went to the kitchen and turned on every gas burner and oven in the room.
The young nurse was easy to drag outside, but the security guard posed somewhat of a problem. Jiang struggled to drag the overweight middle-aged man down the corridor. His muscles were so withered from the coma, that he had to take breaks every two or three minutes just to catch his breath. He laid the guard down momentarily in the middle of the hallway, and suddenly he felt as though someone was watching him. He looked up and noticed a poster of a man standing behind a podium, orating passionately to a crowd. Jiang recognized his father, instantly, although he was almost sure he had never seen this person in his life. He stared up at it a moment longer and shuddered. Then he continued dragging the guard towards the door.
After he dragged the nurse and the security guard outside, he laid them in the grass. Then he tore a piece of fabric off from his shirt and stuffed it in the vodka bottle. Finally, when he felt the time was right, he ignited the rag, and heaved the bottle as hard as he could at the closest window to the ward. There was a flash of light which caused him momentary blindness, then a wall of heat. He stepped back, way back, until he had climbed a safe distance away from the ward. He stood there for a long time, watching the inferno as he casually smoked cigarette.
* * *
Ichime stares down at her pocket pc for a moment longer, then closes it and stores it neatly in her pocket. She makes her way along the deserted street to the subway entrance. On this particular evening, Ichime passes a tall shady character on her way down the stairs. But she pays him no mind, and he soon disappears into the night.
Inside the tunnel, Ichime casually makes her way to the train. She pauses for a moment to read a tattered newspaper on the floor. The headline reads Heifong Hacker Strikes Again: IMF and World Bank Databases Raided in Tuesday Night Guerilla Offensive. The article is accompanied by a faded yin-yang. The caption explains that it is the hacker’s insignia, and the only known lead the authorities have. Amused, Ichime reads a snippet of the article. Then she looks up from the paper, suddenly aware of her surroundings. Ichime looks over her shoulder nervously, her eyes searching the empty tunnel behind her. She turns back around but there’s no time to react, Jiang viciously knocks Ichime out with the gun.
Ichime awakens inside of a cramped cockpit, her hands cuffed behind her back. Jiang is sitting across from her at the pilot’s seat. He is hunched over in front of the ship’s elaborate control panel, absorbed by something on the screen. He barely takes any notice of her. Ichime studies his profile, recognizing a tiny electronic input under his jaw. She follows the wire carefully with her eyes. It runs from his jaw onto the floor, across the cockpit, to an panel right next to her. Ichime stealthily removes one slender hand from the handcuffs. She waits for the right moment, then yanks the wire from the wall and replaces in into her tiny pc. All of a sudden, Jiang chokes. Ichime looks up at him innocently. Behind her back, she strikes a key on the laptop. All of a sudden Jiang is completely paralyzed in his chair. Ichime stands up and slowly approaches him. She strikes one final key on her pc, and Jiang goes completely limp in his chair. Ichime stares down at him with contempt.
Jiang feelbly lifts himself from the keyboard. Everything around him is shaking, and the computer is issuing a warning in the background:
“Drop ship deployed. Main stabilizer-command-prompt-disengaged, LCL-support-systems disabled, engine output reaching dangerous levels, errors-in-Newton-reactors 2-4…”
Jiang started up at the winshield. There us a faded yin-yang tagged on it. The same symbol on her back…Jiang sits there puzzled for a moment, his vision still quite blurry. Then suddenly, a huge red dialogue fills the windshield.
DANGER!!— Collision course set for class II moon Aeschylus. Unable to disengage course. ETA: 6 seconds. Prepare for impact in 6, 5, 4…
Jiang collapses onto the control panel.
* * *
There’s a fleet of X-11s flying in perfect formation. Then, a mushroom cloud. Now a stage. There’s a man orating passionately to the huge masses of people. He’s smiling at you, slapping your back. Smile for the TV cameras and photographers. You look into the camera and smile. You look back, and the man next to you I still smiling hideously. You’re looking out into a crowd of charred shadows. You look down just in time to see the cooked flesh slide right off your fingers. Bzzzzzzzrrrrrrrtt.
Jiang jerks his head up from the keyboard, suddenly aware of a buzzing noise to his left. Scratching his arm underneath the cast, then reaches for his cell phone. The screen is the only light source in the underground XPS club basement, home of the deep 6. He presses a key, and Motz appears on the screen.
“Boss you gotta check this one out…”
“Motz, I’m fucking busy. I don’t have time for this shit.”
“No, no this one is really something. I promise.” Jiang hangs up on Motz frustrated, but gets up and ventures upstairs to the club anyway, half intending to lecture his men in person about how they shouldn’t bother him with petty gangbangs, and half slightly curious.”
Jiang’s five loyals are crowded into a small corner of the club, obscuring his view of the “catch.” He shoves his way through them, and suddenly he is face to face with a pretty teenage girl, no older than 15. IT’S THE HI-JACKER! Ichime’s face drops. They stare at eachother stunned for a couple of seconds. Ichime takes a huge step backwards, eyes searching wildly for an escape route. Jiang pulls out a 9mm and points it directly at her face. The gangsters around freeze. The music is throbbing but nobody moves.
Before anyone can react, Jiang pistol whips Ichime, letting her fall to the floor. The other gangster’s are stunned.
“What the fuck is everyone looking at?” Jiang screams at them. “Get the fuck out of here.” The five gangsters exchange confused looks, then reluctantly disperse.
* * *
Ichime wakes up in the basement of the club, tied to a chair. It’s dark and there’s nobody around.
Jiang is sitting across the table from her, polishing the 9mm. He puts the pieces back into place and begins loading the rounds into the magazine.
“Do you know who I am?”
Ichime just stares at him defiantly. “No.”
Jiang suddenly puts down the gun, and leans way back in his chair, lighting a cigarette. He exhales and drops the lighter on the table. Ichime stares at it.
“Do you know the deep 6?”
Ichime looks up at him, her eyes widening. “No way…you’re not a deep 6. Prove it”
Jiang stands up and takes off his shirt, showing her the giant tattoo on his chest of the deep 6 insignia. Then he turns around and shows her the 6 healed bullet wounds on his back.
Ichime chokes. “No way. You’re Xiao Wu… You’re …a legend. You’re the guy who can’t die. Hit 6 times with an SF positron rifle and still alive. You’re their leader, the one everyone talks about... ”
Jiang sits down and leans back again, putting his feet up on the table. “So you do know who I am.”
“The deep 6…Wow…Didn’t you guys hi-jack that SF train a while back?”
Jiang nods.
“What about the recent Ningxia hacking?”
Jiang nods again.
“I knew it! Wow…the deep 6. I really admire your work...” Ichime trails off, studying the tattoo for a couple of seconds. Jiang sits across from her smoking silently.
“But wait a sec, if you’re the deep 6 leader, and I hi-jacked your ship, then that means I’m more powerful than the legendary deep 6!!! Wow, I’m AWESOM--.”
Jiang suddenly sits up, puts the cigarette out and grabs the gun off the table, pushing it into Ichime’s forehead. She quiets down immediately. Jiang pushes the barrel into her head,
“The 6 don’t like competition very much.”
Ichime swallows, closes her eyes. He takes the safety off, and she flinches.
Jiang stares down at her knowing perfectly well that he can’t shoot her. He finally lowers the gun. Ichime opens her eyes after a while, looking at him curiously. Jiang is rubbing his temples. They sit there in silence for a few minutes. He finally looks up at her.
“…But to waste you would be a shame...”
Jiang gets up and walks over to her chair. He begins to untie her slowly. Ichime is confused. Then Jiang puts his hands on her shoulders.
“Especially when you could be of service to us...” Ichime is horrified and disgusted at the same time. A few seconds pass, but they feel like hours to her. Oh god, not me, she thinks. Why is this happening to me? Oh god, I’m only 15! Suddenly Jiang spoke.
“You will work for the deep 6’s as a software engineer. You will build the 6’s ship a new operating system to replace the one that you destroyed. When the system is complete, and only when the system is complete, are you free to go.”
Ichime blinks twice, then exhales, rubbing her wrists. Jiang walks back around the table and extends his hand, “Do we have a deal?” Ichime stares at his outstretched hand for a few seconds.
“Deal.”
Jiang smiled at her for the first time, revealing his pointy crooked teeth.
“In that case. Come meet the boys.” Jiang whistled very loudly, and soon there were 5 guys in the room with them. Jiang introduced them to her one by one.
“This is Motz,” he said, pointing at a lanky blonde next to him. Motz winked at her. “That’s Shonen and Ace,” he said pointing at a pair of pouty looking twins. “And that’s Dino, and Soren.” Dino was a very handsome, but shy mop headed guy. He gave a weak smile. Soren stood silently in the corner with his arms folded across his chest. Jiang continued. “Boys this is our hijacker.” They all exchanged furtive looks. Jiang continued, “She’s going to build me a new OS to make up for it. Right? Uh-?”
“Ichime.”
“Ichime...yea.”
“So this is the deep 6?” Ichime studied them one by one. “You guys just look like regular people.” By looking at them, you would never know they were the most elite group of thieves in the galaxy. Motz laughed at her.
“Well you look like a regular kid—not the Heifong hacker.”
“So which one of you hacked Ningxia?” The room suddenly fell silent. All the gang members looked toward Jiang. He looked annoyed.
“What? I don’t care..”
“We actually have a 6th member of the clan, who isn’t around very often. She hacked Ningxia for us.” Motz explained quietly.
“Oh wow. A girl?” Motz nodded.
“But I would steer clear if I were you. When she finds out you’re working for the boss she’ll most likely make you an enemy.” Ichime looked to Jiang, who was fairly irritated by this comment. Ichime took the initiative.
“Well…it’s nice to meet you guys...” Soren cut in.
“Are we done here?”
“Dude shut the fuck up and go get laid or something.” Jiang was annoyed.
“At least I lay people my own age…” Soren mumbled under his breath.
“Fucken, at least I get layed..” Jiang mumbled even lower.
“I guess we’re done here.” Motz grinned at Ichime.
“Motz, take her to the ship and show her around.” Jiang ordered.
Ichime stood up and and Motz escorted her to the door. Jiang watched them go.
Under
the gun
Ichime pauses in front of the door to her apartment. She can hear voices within. She presses her ear up to the peeling door and hears her roommate complaining about Ichime’s rent being overdue. Ichime pulls away dejectedly and stands there for a moment, biting her lip. She sighs, and then proceeds to work the lock without a sound. She opens the door and is tiptoeing stealthily past her roommate when all of a sudden, her phone goes off. Her roommate looks up and finds Ichime frozen mid-tip-toe.
Ichime dashes off into her room and slams the door. Her roomate follows her and starts banging on the door violently. “Yo punk! Where’s my money?” Ichime leans back on the door and sighs. There is a pile of overdue bills on the floor. On top is a yellow sticky note. “Tang was here to see you.” is scrawled in messy handwriting. Ichime’s heart skips a beat. Her mouth goes dry and her stomach sinks. He found me. Impossible. How. She stares down at the note in horror for what seems like an eternity. He’s toying with me. Suddenly her cell phone starts ringing again, startling her back to reality. She checks the screen. Jiang is calling. She pauses to compose herself, then picks up the video phone. Jiang’s supremely irritated face stares back at her.
It’s been three days since you went to gather “parts”. I almost sent the 6 after you. I thought you ran away.”
Ichime, “Me? Run away? Never!” Ichime’s roommate is still banging on the door behind her, yelling about the money.
Jiang, “What’s that noise behind you?”
Ichime, “What noise …?”
Jiang is picking his nail, “…Look, I thought we had a deal. No more bullshit. If you don’t show up today you’ll pay what you owe with your life.”
Ichime’s mind is racing. Her roommate is still banging on the door behind her. All she can do is stare at the yellow sticky note at her feet. Jiang looks up at her impatiently from the phone.
“I’ll be there by sundown.”
Ichime hangs up on Jiang before he can say anything. The house is now quiet. Ichime gathers her meager belongings into a backpack, and in a matter of minutes is heaving open the window and climbing down the rickety black fire escape.
On the train, Ichime just stares down at her feet. They look very alien to her, as though they belong to someone else. I can’t escape the 6..I have no choice. The train comes to a screeching halt, and the doors jerk open.
“Onokashima Shipyard. Last stop.”
Wildcard
Jiang had forgotten what it was like to live with a female. The ship was a complete mess with her shit everywhere. She always left a mess in the kitchen and the bathroom for him to clean up after. Fortunately Jiang was willing to overlook a lot of her annoying habits because of the incredible progress she had made with the ship’s new operating system. In just three short weeks, she had already established a solid foundation for building a state of the art system. Each day he would come home from XPS and she would go over with him the progress she had made that day with the operating system. Overall Jiang was very pleased with her work, and secretly very impressed by her talent as an engineer.
One night, Jiang comes home from the XPS and finds Ichime missing from the desk. He heads to the bathroom, but to his surprise the door is locked.
“Ichi get the hell out of there, I have to take a leak.”
“I’m taking a bath.” Is her only reply.
Instead of protesting, Jiang steps outside. After countless un-winnable arguments with Ichime, Jiang has determined that arguing with a 15 year old girl is not only pointless, but also an absurd waste of time. He soon mastered his anger towards the girl, and would do almost anything to avoid unnecessary confrontations with her. He temporarily sacrificed his pride, if only for the sake of the new system.
While taking a piss, Jiang notices someone watching him from the control tower. That’s creepy, Jiang thinks to himself. He finishes up and stealthily returns to the ship. Once inside, he puts on his goggles and climbs up to the crow’s nest of the ship, where he can see the control tower clearly.
Ichime steps out of the shower and notices that the room is dark and empty.
“Hello?” she calls into the darkness. Jiang hushes her from the crow’s nest. Ichime walks over to the ladder and looks up at Jiang curiously. He continues surveying the control tower. Ichime begins climbing the ladder. When she reaches the top Jiang helps her up.
“I think we’ve got company…” Jiang takes off the goggles and hands them to Ichime. She surveys the tower for a moment.
“SF. No big deal. We’ll just report the ship stolen."
“It’s not SF.”
Ichime lifts up her googles and looks at Jiang sharply.
“SF doesn’t have toys like that...” They watch as a state of the art X-11 takes off from the control tower. Within seconds it’s gone, and they are left watching its smoke trail. Ichime takes off the goggles and looks at Jiang. Jiang just stares out the window at the control tower. Suddenly he snaps back to life.
“Ichime, what’s the status of the launch module.” Ichime is startled,
“Well, building a launch module is pretty complicated. I just started writing the basic code yesterday. I figure I could spend an entire week on it. And that’s not even including all the safety measures, manual overrides, and performance monitoring tools. And even if I did finish the foundation, after that I’d still have to--”
“Can we take off?”
Ichime stares at Jiang. She has never seen him so nervous. It makes her uneasy.
“W-well, I suppose we could take off in safe mode...But it’s not recommended. The chances error upon takeoff are--”
“Prepare for takeoff.” Jiang wasnt’t even listening to her. He was already climbing down the ladder. Ichime looked up at the tower and then down at Jiang. She climbed down and watched Jiang begin typing a message furiously. Suddenly he froze, and swiveled around to face her. His eyes were wide open.
“I have to go to XPS.” Ichime just stared at him.
“Jiang you’re acting crazy.”
“I have to go to XPS,” he repeated. “Ichime, prepare the ship for take off. I’m going to XPS. I’ll be back in exactly 20 minutes. When I return we’ll take off.” Ichime had never seen him like this. He was always calm and collected, and never in a hurry. She watched as he got up, grabbed the 9mm, checked to see if it was loaded, and then left the ship without saying another word to her.
That
was three days ago. Ichime was scared, but not sure
what to do. She couldn’t call the police. She wanted to contact the other deep
6 members, but she didn’t know how. Their frequencies were highly classified. Jiang always took care of that. There was nothing she could
do except wait for him to return. In the meantime, she decided to search the
ship for information. She hacked into Jiang’s email
and read through several messages. Mostly normal stuff about
upcoming gigs, and some intergalactic bounties. Except there was one
message from Charlotte, the only female member of the deep 6, and the only
member Ichime had never met.
Jiang,
I just thought you should know, a pretty sketchy character by the name of Neon dragon was
poking around club Panic the other night looking for you. Definitely
not SF. He looked to me more like a ban pirate, but I couldn’t tell for
sure. I know you can’t be killed, but I would watch your back anyway.
-C
P.S. The boys tell me you’re living with a
teenage girl now. I guess you always did like em
fresh..
This made Ichime cringe. She wondered about Charlotte and Jiang. Now she was almost certain they had a history together. The next message was from Neon Dragon. It was very vague.
“I have information on project Unite. Come
to club XPS at
Ichime checked her watch. That was exactly three days ago when Jiang left. She wondered if he would ever return. Just then Ichime heard a crashing noise off to the back of the ship. She turned on the outside surveillance cameras just in time to see a disgusting blurry figure stagger by.
“Oh my god, what is that?” She watched it move across the screen for a couple of seconds. “Its coming!” She turned around and looked towards the door. Someone was already punching in the security code to get inside. “Oh god! Hide!” But there was no time. The door flew open. Ichime gasped.
“Jiang!” He was covered in blood. And he could barely walk, leaving a trail of blood drops behind him. His eyes were half closed. When he saw her he shouted,
“Ichi, we’re taking off!” Ichime’s jaw dropped. She didn’t move.
Jiang sat down and began pushing controls and levers furiously around her. The ship came to life. Ichime couldn’t stop staring at him. He was bleeding all over the control panel and the floor.
“Jiang--”
Jiang looked at her and screamed, “Didn’t you hear me? I said. Prepare for takeoff!” Frightened, Ichime began preparing to launch the ship in safe mode, typing furiously at the keyboard as Jiang readied the cockpit to exit the Mars atmosphere. Jiang radioed the control tower to say that if they didn’t move their dock in 2 minutes it would be destroyed. Then he put his goggles and began warming the engines. The entire ship shook. Ichime was terrified. She secured her safety harness and then glanced over at Jiang who was still bleeding profusely, but who seemed not to notice. His only concern was taking off. He turned to her,
“Ready?” She nodded meekly.
“Begin countdown to blastoff.” Ichime struck a key on her left, and the countdown began on the screen in front of them. The control tower was screaming at them to postpone their blastoff, or they would be arrested by SF police, but the radio could hardly be heard over the deafening roar of the engines. Jiang simply stared straight ahead, gripping the controls firmly and watching the numbers on the windshield count down. 3, 2, 1, 0. Suddenly they were rocketing wildly into outer space. Jiang pulled the control deck as hard as he could, spattering blood all over the cockpit. The ship was shaking violently, but Jiang pulled even harder. Ichime shut her eyes tightly. Oh god. She wanted to disappear, but Jiang shouted to her. “Ichi, ETA to Mars gate.” Ichime snapped open her eyes. She was still alive. Jiang was looking out the windshield.
She leaned forward towards the computer.
“ETA is 157 seconds. 156, 155…”
“Engine output..” He trailed off. She glanced around the control panel.
“Engine output is at 79.67% Reactors 1-4 are all green.”
Jiang nodded and pulled the controls even harder. The ship lurched forward violently.
“ETA..”
“ETA is 43 seconds.”
Jiang nodded and kept on. The Ship was trembling so violently that Ichime thought she was going to be sick. She shut her eyes tightly.
“Hang on.” Jiang said softly. “We’re almost out.When we get into space we’re heading straight for GuangZhou.” Ichime wasn’t sure if he was talking to her or himself. He sounded delirious. She kept her eyes shut tightly. After a moment she felt the ship slowing down. She opened her eyes. They were in outer space now, the mars gate a ways behind them. He had released the control deck, and now the ship was slowly coming to a halt. She looked over at him. He was slumped back in his chair, staring up at the ceiling.
“Jiang?” He wasn’t moving. Ichime undid her harness and stood over him. “JIANG.” He didn’t react. Ichime shook him and he groaned. “No you can’t! Wake up!” Ichime looked up at the winshield.
“Compuer, set a course for GuangZhou.” The computer chimed back.
“Couse set for
“Jiang, you know, I just realized I’ve been living with you for a month and I don’t know anything about you! Where did you grow up?”
Jiang was slow to reply. “I don’t know… You should relax...” Jiang was delirious now. Ichime froze.
“WHAT?”
“I’m going to be with Devo now..”
“Devo?”
Jiang was silent.
Ichime shook him back and forth, “Devo. Who’s devo?”
“Too young.” He wasn’t making any sense. But Ichime kept talking to him anyway in the hopes that he would stay conscious. He was bleeding all over the cockpit floor. Ichime looked at the ETA on the screen. 5 minutes to arrival.
To be continued….