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Brutalist Stories #56

Operation: CONCRETE

By Brutalist StoriesPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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Building inspiration: Tokyo Metabolism

She came outside, leant on the tilled wall outside the huge overhang of the Ministry of Cyber Affairs, and lit a cigarette. Holding it down, the smoke in her lungs releasing that kick of nicotine, three, two, one, and a long breath out. Her heart rate quickened with the nicotine and the feeling of relaxation swept through her, shoulders dropping their tension as she cradled one hand on her bicep and held the cigarette to her mouth with the other.

What’s a life worth, she thought to herself while overlooking the neon-purple dawn of the city from the high step vantage point that was the MoCA. They’d been hammering away at the case for months now, barely any sleep, living out of overnight bags and on every type of takeout she could imagine. She was growing tired of it, and she knew her team were weakening as well, getting sloppy, and when that starts to happen, shit can turn bad real quick.

“Hey,” McArdy came and stood beside her, lighting his own cigarette. “You okay?”

“Yeah, sure,” she said, huffing a small bit of air from her nose and taking another drag. “We’re all starting to feel the heat in there, you know? How long have we been at it now?”

He raised a hand to his eyebrows and pinched them together, shaking his head. “Months, right? Feels like a lifetime.”

“Yeah, I know, I have the same feeling.” She turned to him, flicked her cigarette end away, and watched his face as the sun rose over the city. The sound of the birds rising, the bustle of the morning rush hour seeping into the beginning of the day. “A lifetime, right? Well, if we don’t get this mess sorted soon, there’s going to be a whole lot of people without much life left at all.”

“Hey, look at me,” he turned her to him, his jaw flexing. She could feel the tension in his furrowed brow, almost see the sweat beginning to gather on his forehead. “We’re going to get this thing worked out, not too many lines of investigation left, we’re almost there.”

“Jesus, McArdy, every time we think we’ve closed one door, another hundred thousand open all around us,” she sighed and turned away, back to the view of the city below coming to life.

“Too many people are already dead because of this thing, Grace.” He lost her gaze and they both turned back to the awakening city. “We need to keep hitting this thing as hard as we can for as long as we can. We’ve got top priority on the A.I mainframe, more hours than any other investigation has ever had. We’ve got our best people working on it. We’ll bring those fuckers to justice, we’ll crack their infrastructure, and all this, all these people, they can go on living their lives. You’ve never given up on anything in your life, I better not be hearing quitting words from you now.”

“No, no,” she paused, lit another cigarette, closed her eyes, let the morning sun settle on her face for just a moment. “We’ve got eight of their operation behind bars already, we’ve got another six to go, and we’re getting closer all the time, each day we crack another line of their code, each day we’re a little closer and each day justice ebbs our way. That’s all I need, just the ebb. Let’s turn the dials up today, McArdy?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he replied with a smile, flicking his cigarette away and straightening his tie. “Yes, ma’am.”

Building inspiration: Tokyo Metabolism

Musical inspiration: Jon Hopkins - Open Eye Signal

science fiction
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About the Creator

Brutalist Stories

Short sci-fi stories in 500 words or less deriving from the stark style of the functionalist architecture, that is characterised by the use of concrete.

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