Prologue: Archie

The sky above was dark, speckled with stars and the chiaroscuro of hover drones and skyscrapers attempting to bite the sky with its jagged teeth. If the city was a mouth, the neon moon was its desert, ready to swallow it and everybody already within in one satisfying gulp.

Archie headed home, a little drunk, but also with a little spring in his step. The reason for the spring and the stagger was the same: the acquisition of the CityDev account. It meant revenue for Solstice QuantBank, but also meant that this city would finally get the orthodontia it so desperately needed. Archie was the man of the hour, and in the celebration of the account, was the subject of many free drinks he was too polite to turn down.

Stepping out into the cold night air, his coat cinched and puffed automatically, adjusting for Archie's preferred temperature. He was too tipsy to drive, but his phone was having trouble connecting to the Net. That, or he was having trouble connecting to his phone. Either way, he decided that instead of hailing a cart, he'd walk home. He fumbled around with it for a moment longer, trying to send a message to Dolly, but again, he or the phone was having trouble completing his task. He tucked it away into his pocket and ambled down the sidewalk.

He looked up at the buildings, ready to swallow him whole as if he was a caper. He thumbed his nose at them, envisioning the future buildings. Tene-mats would make way for deluxe high-rises with shopping on the lower level, business in the middle, and residency on top, like a delicious layer cake. The most delicious aspect would be that not only would CityDev be paying interest on the loan for the massive project, but SQB would be raking in a fraction of the rent on those three segments until the Eventree withered.

He looked up in the cool night air, his breath a bit of fog around the glowing neon lights that decorated the street. It whirled for a moment, then vanished. Beyond it was the local Eventree. Here, it was a massive maple tree sprouting forth from the center of the city. The branches were decorated with sparkling lights to commemorate the coming Event season. It towered above even the skyscrapers, and though winter was imminent, the tree still had a full set of leaves. In the ambient lights of the night, they looked almost silver, and for a moment, he was back in his youth, under a different Eventree.

He stood there for a moment, paused to let himself be amazed at how far he had come. He had picked a different path from Conor and Frank, and while riskier up front, the risk had paid off. Of course, he didn't realize until recently how dangerous Conor and Frank's business idea had been until Frank had been killed mysteriously, but now that Frank was back, everybody seemed to be fine with that.

Still, Archie didn't like the idea of dying. He looked at his phone, but things were still a little blurry, like he was walking through a dream. He put the phone away. He made a mental promise to himself that he'd never drink again, fully realizing that after a brief hangover in the morning where he'd wish he'd die, he would have no intentions of keeping said promise.

He looked from the Eventree to the buildings that CityDev would plan to demolish and rebuild. He added their layer to his visual augment, highlighting those buildings in red. To amuse himself, he let the augment simulate their destruction and rebuilding. Still, they would not defeat the Eventree for their height, they would still be magnificent. He admired the vision that currently only he could see.

A wind blew his hair and his coat and his tie. He blinked, sending the vision away. The wind grew more intense. Then, a bright light, right in his face.

“Arthur Tuttle?” said the mechanical voice of the drone that hovered before him.

“Archie,” he said, shielding his eyes from the spotlight, wondering if he had misheard it.

The drone flickered some lights, did some internal calculations, then, with the drone equivalent of a shrug, leveled a gun arm at Archie.

Archie saw the barrel of the gun pointed at him, and even in his haze and stupor knew the danger it meant him. “Wait,” he said. “What is it you want? Money? Batteries? If you'll be cool, I'll just get my wallet and slide it over to you. No need to get dangerous.”

The drone hovered lower, almost to meet Archie's gaze, if it had had a face. “What we want,” it said. “Is justice.” Then it fired the gun.

Archie's hand never made it to the wallet. Hey lay there on the ground, warmth leaking from his smartjacket, pooling around him. The teeth of the city closed around him, and then all was dark.