The poisonous sterilising fog cleared from the city streets. An army of maintenance bots swarmed out to scrub solar panels and walls and to remove protective covers from FoxFire trees.
‘Nothing ever happens on night shift.’ Shuqba’s new Sapien partner, Officer Nguyen, pushed open the door of the guard booth.
Officer Nguyen was an older female with well-developed muscles and multiple augmentations. Even her gunmetal hair looked weaponised. She was pleasant enough though, and she treated Shuqba in a professional, even slightly friendly manner.
They walked out into the street to resume their shift.
‘How did you get stuck with a night shift?’ Shuqba asked.
‘I volunteered.’ The officer rolled her head around on her thick neck and cracked her knuckles. ‘The pay’s better and my husband needs a major HealthSentinel upgrade to fight an aggressive lymphoma.’
‘Oh. I hope he gets well soon.’
It was half an hour until their shift ended. Almost daybreak.
‘Since this is your first nightshift, let me buy you breakfast,’ Officer Nguyen said.
‘You don’t need to do that.’
‘Yes I do. It’s a night shift tradition.’
Shuqba followed the officer to an automated cafe not far from headquarters. A No Neos allowed sign graced the front door. Shuqba hesitated.
‘It’s not a problem. The Neo detectors in here make an exception for Neo SFOs if they’re accompanied by a Sapien SFO. Just swipe your SF ID after me.’ Officer Nguyen touched the biometric panel and the door slid open.
Shuqba wanted to say, Stuff this – if they didn’t want Neos in there then she didn’t want to patronise their establishment. However, Officer Nguyen had already gone inside and her stomach was rumbling. Her resistance would have to begin at another, more convenient time.
She was kidding herself. LeaderCorp were too big and the Sapiens hierarchy and way of life too well entrenched for her to ever be able to make a difference. She swiped in and collected coffee and raisin toast from the vending machines.
They sat across from each other in a booth. The cafe was empty and spotless, every surface bright with primary colours.
Shuqba took a bite of her toast. Officer Nguyen stopped, her mouth open and her sandwich halfway to her face. Her eyes glazed over for a minute.
‘A message from headquarters?’ Shuqba asked.
‘No. Only an alert to put my implant on standby or sleep mode while the scheduled update and Demi calibration takes place.’
Shuqba sipped her coffee. The sky was lightening. A lone cyclist sped past the window.
‘Some bright-eyed Citizen is already starting their day,’ Shuqba said.
Officer Nguyen gagged on her sandwich. Shuqba gave her a moment to recover. In her experience most choking individuals were able to expel the obstruction themselves. The officer didn’t cough and her hands didn’t go to her throat. They went to her head and pressed. Shuqba put down her toast and stood.
Officer Nguyen was frozen, not even breathing. Shuqba ran through her first-aid training. First check for danger. The officer’s whole body was a spasm, like she’d been shocked with an electropacifier. Perhaps she had accidentally discharged her own weapon. Shuqba pulled the electropacifier from the officer’s belt and clipped it to her own. Officer Nguyen toppled sideways onto the floor. Blood trickled from her eyes and nose.
‘Officer Nguyen! Damn it. Officer Nguyen!’ Shuqba fumbled for the OmniScreen in her pocket.
The officer’s face and body softened. Shuqba grasped for a pulse while trying to flatten out the folded OmniScreen with one hand. Shuqba tapped in the code for the Security Force emergency line and rolled the officer into the recovery position.
‘You’ve reached the Security Force emergency line. Please state your name, rank and Citizen or clone number,’ an AI said.
Shuqba gave her identification information and explained the situation.
‘A request for medical assistance has been logged and permission to commence resuscitation provisionally granted.’
‘What’s the ETA for the medics?’
‘An arrival time of five to ten minutes should be expected.’
‘Good, thank you.’
Shuqba turned Officer Nguyen onto her back and applied compressions to her metallic reinforced chest. Shuqba breathed in and out deeply, trying to keep panic at bay. She didn’t want the officer to be deceased. Officer Nguyen was decent. She had a husband who needed her. Also Shuqba couldn’t explain this death. She could be blamed and sent to medical research with Ferrassie.
Shuqba tried to clear her head and concentrate on the task in front of her. Between sets of compressions she opened the officer’s mouth and blew air into her lungs.
Shuqba tried for ten minutes. Officer Nguyen’s heart and lungs refused to move on their own. And still no Security Force medics had arrived. The officer needed to be in a proper medical facility where they could interface with her implant and restart her vital functions. Soon. Before her brain was deprived of oxygen for too long. Shuqba called the emergency line again.
‘There’s still no one here. Put me through to one of the medics or an SFO on duty at headquarters.’
‘As you wish, Officer Shuqba. Please wait one moment.’
Shuqba paced the room. Her knees and back were stiff from leaning over the body.
‘Officer Shuqba?’
‘Yes?’ Shuqba knelt and picked up the OmniScreen.
‘I am unable to make contact with any Security Force members at headquarters. I am transferring you over to the Building Intelligence System for further assistance.’
Shuqba shook her head. Someone was going to face disciplinary action for not being at their post when an emergency occurred.
‘Officer Shuqba?’ The distinctive voice of BIS came through the OmniScreen.
‘Yes, BIS. I have an emergency here. Can you send a medic out, or even a med droid? This officer requires urgent attention.’
‘Officer Shuqba, the Sapien Security Force Officers present in the headquarters building all ceased vital functions fifteen minutes and twenty-four seconds ago. All med droids are currently attempting resuscitation.’
‘What?’ Shuqba fell back against the toasted sandwich machine. The air whooshed out of her lungs.
‘Do you need me to repeat the information, Officer Shuqba?’
‘No, no. They’re all deceased?’
‘Correct.’
‘But … what … I …’ The Sapien Security Force Officers had all died. She felt cold all over. ‘I mean, why? What killed them?’
‘I cannot confirm the cause of death at this stage, however, no biological, chemical or physical dangers have been detected.’
‘Damn it.’ She had to get over there. She could assist. She could bring a med droid back for Officer Nguyen. ‘What about the other Neo officers?’
‘They are all well and maintaining border security or assisting with resuscitation attempts.’
So it was only Sapien officers then. Shuqba brushed hair from the officer’s forehead. Her hands shook and her toast was threatening to come back out of her stomach. ‘Can you request they report to headquarters?’ Together they could assess the situation.
‘As you wish, Officer Shuqba.’
Shuqba disconnected the call and went out into the street. It was almost full daylight. She set off for headquarters.
‘Officer, help!’ a voice called out behind her.
A Neo female with blood smeared along her forehead and down the front of her pink aged-care worker uniform ran towards her. Her face was as white as a Citizen’s teeth.
‘My apologies, Miss. I have an emergency to attend.’ Shuqba turned and ran. She could only deal with one situation at a time.
‘They’re all dead. All the Sapiens. They’re all dead,’ the Neo shouted. ‘I didn’t do it. You have to tell them I didn’t do it.’
Shuqba stopped. Usually by daybreak there would be pedestrians, cyclists and solar cars on their way to early work shifts. Delivery and advertising drones would be filling the skies and armoured trucks starting their journeys in and out of the city.
The cyclist who’d sped past the cafe had collapsed and lay unmoving further up the road, the wheels of his bicycle still spinning. Her breath caught. Something had happened to all the Sapiens.