The kid's scream, as the neon bullet slammed into his chest, was drowned out by the cacophony of breaking glass, as the bullet's impact slammed him backward, through the window. Around the board room there were other flashes of gunfire, short screams, pleas for mercy.
And then silence.
"Count off." The CO's voice was a rasping buzz in my earpiece.
The squad obeyed.
We'd lost no one.
I moved toward the kid-shaped hole in the window. Beyond the jagged glass, I could see the city sprawling to the horizon, a colossal black mass illuminated only by the saccharine glow from the other towers.
It was raining out there. I could see beads of black carcinogenic water sluicing off the remaining glass, dampening the carpet.
A wind blew through the opening. It was foul and wet, and I drew back, placing my hand over my mouth to stifle a sudden bout of coughing.
The CO's voice barked in my ear. "555, get the hell away from that window!"
I obeyed, moving to stand with the rest of the unit as the cleanup crew arrived and began to bag the bodies.
An executive arrived from upstairs. She was dressed all in white and radiated cold cruelty. The executive was flanked by a pair of augmented dogs, their LED eyes glowing red.
"These were the last of this dissident group," she said to the CO. "Did any escape?"
"No, ma'am."
The executive nodded. "Good." Her gaze slid across the squad. "Well done, soldiers. You'll be rewarded for your work here. I'll see to it personally."
We all stood taller, shoulders squared, chests puffed out. It wasn't every day you got an attaboy from an executive.
The woman left with the CO. We were dismissed, ordered back to station for debrief and decon. As I was leaving, I watched a pair of workmen enter the room with a fresh pane of glass. By morning, that board room would be back to normal. All traces of the firefight would be gone, as if it had never happened.
But I would remember. Not the action. Not the deaths. Those blurred. I was already having a hard time recalling the kid's face.
No. I would remember the view through the shattered glass. The tantalizing glimpse of the world outside the tower. A great dark city stretching as far as the eye could see. The other towers, standing like islands of light in a black sea. The sight of black rain and the stink of the wind.
I'd spent my entire life in the tower, without so much as a glimpse of the world outside.
Now, I'd seen the outside world, and it was an image, an experience, that I would take with me to my grave.
And, God willing, I'd never set eyes on it again.
