I, Spy

Wylan could count on two paws the amount of times he had been bested, outsmarted as an operative. That is, before this time. He panted, out of breath from the marathon he had just run through the dank alleyway’s of the A.K.’s Marine District. The entrenched canals had been an advantage to his escape, but the corporate agents were still close behind him. He had only a few moments to catch his breath, and he raised his wrist comp, typing on the holokeys rapidly.

“You there, Iggs?” He broadcasted though his comlink.

“Yeah I got you here, T.K.” Iggy chimed in. “Managed to tag those corporate agents as well. Trackings got them closing in on your position.”

“You got a Plan C for me?” Wylan said deflated.

“Working on that. In the meantime, maybe start making your way to the docks. Pinging in the coordinates to you’re holomap.”

Instantly, his HUD projected the coordinates, calibrating to his terrain and projecting the fastest course. He had custom tailored his software with a par-core program, which was able to rapidly adjust scalable objects. With one last slow breath, he dashed off along the projected path, the rest of his HUD fazing out.

As he bound through the interwoven canal system, he caught momentary glimpses of the evening sun as the oceanfront became closer. His muscles screamed with exhaustion. For most raccoons, though he certainly was an exception, physical exercise wasn’t typically a strong suit. He had gotten to where he is now through intense training, though to be honest he really had begun to slack off when it came to going to the gym. Also typical raccoon behavior.

Try and remember that for next time. He thought.

Behind him, a pack of dogs erupted into barking, alerted to some commotion from the path he had just come from. They were closing in.

He quickened his pace and vaulted over retaining walls, followed by a quick scaling of vines to a second story balcony, which he then proceeded to jump from balcony to balcony, per the programs request. Finally, he landed on the other side at the loading dock for the S.S. Neptune, an elegant cruise vessel.

As it’s engines spun up churning the water below, it was clear that it was preparing to depart.

“Sooo…here’s the thing” Iggy said over the com link. Wylan could almost hear him shrink into his shell. “I was able to remotely hack and add you to the registry…” He paused. “But-“

“It’s leaving now” Wylan interrupted as he watched the ship bubbles intensify underneath the main engines.

“Your gonna have to-“

“Already on it!” Wylan responded, jumping into action. He dashed for the bow of the massive sea vessel, passing busy workers who momentarily turned to watch the raccoon with a holo visor scurry past them, clothes tattered and soiled from the pursuit.

From behind him, the two agents burst from his previous path, equally weathered and tired. The three locked eyes in a standoff.

On the left, a ferret nursing an arm that Wylan may or may not have spin kicked earlier. On the right, a blood hound, with an large pronounced schnozzle. Both wore typical corporate suits, stacked with high grade holo visors and sleek wristcomps. Complete with Teckatanas, corporate grade cyber swords saddled at their hips. The bloodhounds nostrils flaired.

That explains why they’ve been on my tail this whole time.

Despite Wylan trying to loose them in the waterways, the blood hounds scent is superior to any tracking program at this level.

The three stood at a standoff for what seemed like an eternity. From here, Wylan could see the wrinkles on the bloodhounds face, etched into a deep scowl. And as if time had just unfroze around the three, instinct returned, and the two took off towards Wylan.

He sprung into action, darting towards the front of the ship. Ahead was a giant chain link connecting it to the dock. The raccoon jumped over a railing to a lower dock area, with his two pursuants stopping regain a visual.

Wylan hugged the walls of the dock, sliding along the shadows until he was directly underneath the metal linkage. The ground shook as the anchor began to retract.

Quickly, he typed on the projected interface of his wrist comp and enabled his cloak. A shimmery bubble forming around him as he vanished from sight. As the chain continued to retract, he closed his eyes, concentrating on the rhythm.

1…2…3…

JUMP

And he landed, claws digging and clutching the wild chain as he tore off through the air towards the ship. He was able to scrambled and get some leverage, and he held on for dear life as the wind whipped through his fur.

Back on the shore, the two disgruntled agents watched in disbelief as the they could make out the silhouette of the raccoon’s cloak shimmering in the evening light. When in motion, a cloaking device emits artifacts that distort the space around it, hence why it is typically used in situations where you are completely still. While it didn’t necessarily make him invisible, he was rather undetectable to everyone outside his opponents.

The ferret squinted, and could barely make out the two fingers formed into what appeared to be a peace sign.

“What do we do now boss?” Said the ferret.

The blood hound remained silent, his wrinkled brow deepening, as the anchor retracted, and ship set forth from the harbor.

Scene Break //

On the ship, Wylan dusted himself off inside of the dark hold as he caught his bearings. He had landed somewhere rather open, and with his night vision beginning to set in, he did manage to notice a service hatch. Engaging the multi-tool on his wrist comp, he produced a thin laser which promptly cut through the locked hatch. One of the many upgrades to working in the hacker underbelly of the city is the access to banned tech. In some cases, banned for good reasons, because honestly, who should be going around with a laser attached to their wrist...

With the hatch open, he proceeded though, attempting to locate some form of direction. Strangely, the hold was rather spartan and void of any labels or signs. He continued down a long narrow corridor in what seemed like the right direction.

“TAC are you there?”

-No response-

Probably no signal inside this massive thing

Down though the tunnel, which connected to main engineering. To this point, strangely he had not encountered any personnel. It did seem odd for a vessel of this size to not have any staff down here and the hold seemed rather lifeless in a way. He used this freedom to examine the impressive build quality of the cavernous engineering marvel. Gigantic support beams crossed the gangway, intersecting at the top of the cavity hundreds of feet above him. It made him feel small, even in comparison to great skyscrapers of the A.K.

He crossed a long gangway, the ships turbines on either side of him dwarfing his presence. Wylan had never really been inside a boat before. He had read about them, but you see raccoons are not the biggest fans of water typically.

At the end of the gangway, he was able to find an exit marked for main deck. He was able to make out the faint hum of animals hustling and bustling. He toke a moment to remove the HUD emitter from around his head, as well as his wrist comp, stashing them into his backpack.

Need to find a way to blend . He thought.

Wylan did his best to straighten his worn garments to where if you squinted, he was at least passable. With a smirk and air of confidence, he opened the door, exiting the hold.

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The hallways were a buzz as frantic cruise goers scrambled about the ships main causeway. Wylan was able to slip into the crowd unnoticed and because of the sheer amount of animals crammed into this compact space, no one was paying attention. Yet the urge to leave this stampede was overwhelming. If there was one thing he did not do well in, it was crowds.

After shoulder to shoulder pushing through the blockade of animals scurrying about with luggage, he was relieved to make it to the open plaza of the ship. He took a glance around to notice most of the animals gathered, looking towards this center podium to where a peacock, dressed in plain white shirt shorts and sandals, held a microphone.

“GOOOOOD EVENING, NEPTUNIANS!” The peacocks voice boomed over the ships loudspeakers. “Welcome aboard as we embark on a beautiful voyage to the Grand Barrier Reef! It’s gonna be a blast, so get ready to kick those feet back and take in some sunshine while we make our way from city central.”

From his bag, he could hear crackling from his headset. Wylan made his way off to a side passage, shuffling into his back to retrieve his HUD.

SHHSSKKT… you read?… shkkkt …HQ….

“Iggs can you hear me?” Static garbled, yet no response.

Gonna have to get up to the outer deck. He shuffled the hud back into his pack and set off down the hallway.

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Up on the main deck, Wylan was able to escape the chaos in the decks below. He managed to find a secluded area while preoccupied animals scurried down below getting situated into their cabins. Pretty soon, his garments and general likeness was going to stand out from the upper class animals that occupied the vessel. He fished the headset from his bag again and put it on.

“HQ, you got me?” He transmitted.

“Got you loud and clear, T.K. I’m guessing you didn’t end up at the bottom of the ocean.” He said jokingly

“No thanks to you, ol’ chap!” He retorted with a smirk. “I can say I’ve probably gone where most raccoons have not at this point.”

“Haha, yeaaaah sorry bout that. This one has really been a ringer, never seen countermeasures like those guys were using. Had us reverse hacked a couple times. But hey, you’ve got an audience here at HQ. Kind of had us on the edge of our seats.”

Wylan rolled his eyes. It wasn’t uncommon for certain operations to have gravitas. “At least they aren’t betting again like the Dewdrop mission…” He said

No response

“IGGY, ARE THEY TAKING BETS?” Wylan blurted.

“I mean it was an honest 50/50 there for a minute. Some of us really thought you were gonna get captured!” Iggy conceded.

“Wow, you guys have no faith. Trust me, I’ve been in some stickier situations.”

That was a lie.

“Anyway, back to those agents. Any idea who they work for?”

“No intel on that yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised this came back to King’s Rock. We’ve been barking up their tree quite a bit, and it would be like them to send corporate fixers after something smaller. These guys have some high end tech, stuff we’ve never seen before. They where able to remote hack us when we initially tried to bug them, still not sure how. Caused quite a mess on our circuits.”

Wylan scowled. The day was gonna come where they would bring the tyrant organization known as King’s Rock to justice.

“Look, I don’t have much time.” Iggy said. “You are moving out of our range. Your just gonna have to make yourself comfortable for the time being.”

“How ever will I do that?” Wylan said with a grin, the fresh ocean air bristling through his fur and whiskers.

“I should warn you,” Iggy went on “that once you are out of range, we will be cut off. Probably want to ditch your tech somewhere safe as that’s not very cruise like. And we managed to set up an account when we hacked the registry. Let’s just say you won’t have to worry about the cost of the amenities on this excursion.”

Wylan raised his eyebrows

“Better get some new duds. Take it easy and you’ll be back home soon…. Oh and T.K.?”

“Yeah?” Wylan said.

“Get some rest and relaxation, bud. You earned it.” The turtle said with a smile.

“I might feel kinda guilty, ya know? A raccoon is not accustomed to such luxury.”

“Something tells me you’ll do just fine.” Iggy said with a smirk. “HQ out.”

Wylan removed the headset and replaced it into his bag which he promptly threw over his shoulder. As he turned to leave, he paused and looked out over the banister towards the city. The shining jewel of the A.K. coming to life as the neon lights clashed with an already magnificent sunset in orange, auburn, and even purplish hues. From this distance, you could almost see the city from end to end.

Almost.

It seemed so distant from here, and a part of him was able to separate its beauty from the problems, the every day struggles of growing up in the A.K. He wanted to love the city for what it was, a place of pilgrimage and aspirations for animals everywhere. A cultural melting pot with technology and science at the forefront. Some in the animal world, would even call it a utopia.

But that would be ignoring all that is wrong in the hi-tech mega city. Wealth disparity, exploitation and even destruction of nature. Inevitably all animals are under the thumb of the powerful corporations, rampant consumerism and demand churning the industrial machine of progress. And the cost you pay, is that the longer you live in the city…the further you get from True Nature.

Alas, Wylan could never hide his love for the A.K. and the land it occupies. The sprawling metropolis intertwining itself with the archipelago made for a wondrous place to live and explore. Seeing it at this scale was awesome.

He took one last glance at the sunset skies and glistening neon skyscrapers as they steadily shrunk toward the horizon, then Wylan shuffled off towards a warm shower and comfortable bed.

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END PART 1

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