Justin Kemppainen - The Legend of Ivan

Dozens, hundreds, thousands of people were packed in each building with bare inches of space to call their own. Apartment buildings rented out numerous body lockers, tiny sleeping bunks the size of coffins. Simple and cheap sound proofing provided the illusion of privacy, and of course one could get a slightly bigger unit if one had guests in mind.

Public bathrooms for these tenants, to my knowledge, had also been a large problem, but my curiosity never drove me to discover the delicate balance required. In either case, the body lockers lined the walls in the apartment complexes. Traveling in those buildings, it was always an eerie thought to wonder how many of the individuals locked inside were dead and yet undiscovered.

I seldom went into any of these locations, as my wealth level could afford something much nicer, and I didn’t need a great deal of sleep either way. In addition, I seldom stopped for more than a few hours or a few days in any one location, so accommodations were not usually necessary.

I continued to contemplate the possibilities involved with gaining the information from Keritas, deciding that whatever little bit they could provide would be worth my time to pursue.

“ Pssst! Hey buddy!”

A disheveled, filthy individual stared at me with wide eyes. He leaned out of the tiny alley gap between buildings, squeezed tightly in the very small space. Dirty fingers clung to the wall edge, and the man beckoned frantically.

I didn’t approach. “Yes?”

“You’re the guy looking for Ivan, right?”

Glancing around, noticing no one else paying me any mind, I said, “Now what would make you think that?”

He jabbed a grubby index finger at the side of his temple, where a tarnished implant lay. “Oh, you know. I got ways.” He grinned, revealing a row of stained, half-rotting teeth. His shaggy gray hair and beard were tangled and greasy. “Tapping into the database is tricky, but not if you piggyback onto someone else’s query. Of course, it can get really boring because you have to sit there and wait for something useful to come up. But that’s not important. What I’ve got is information. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

Significant doubts of this individual’s sanity entered my mind, but I sighed. “What do you know?”

“Oh, nono. Not here. Somewhere else. We can’t let them find us.”

He wriggled backwards, squeezing his way through the tight space. Gritting my teeth, I followed behind, inching my way forward. The man seemed thin and frail, squeezing through with relative ease. My metallic right shoulder scored the walls on both sides as I scraped along. My hat tumbled off, but I managed to snatch it with my free hand. “I take it that receptionist’s discomfort was your fault?”

The man laughed as I continued to struggle through. “Yeah man, the system they got has detection algorithms for multiple links on the same path, kinda to prevent exactly what I’m doing. They send a feedback spike down the link into the intruder’s brain, which manifests as about the worst hangover you could ever imagine.” He shrugged, stooping over. “Of course, I tricked the countermeasure into thinking she was the illicit presence, so she got zapped.”

Finally, as he jabbered about his mainframe diving, I gripped the edge and pulled myself free. I came out in a small open square, with identical gaps leading forward and to the left and right. My new friend was crouched over a street covering, prying at it with a twisted chunk of metal. Exasperated, I asked, “Sewers?”

He waved a hand at me, annoyed. “No, no, no. This isn’t a shit-pipe. It’s a relay.” The man wrenched, and the covering popped open an inch. “Grab that.” I did as he asked and hauled the hinged plate upward. I noted the broken locking mechanism on the lid as my new companion dropped down into the hole. Carefully, I followed behind, settling the hatch in place overhead before descending the short ladder.

Lengths of electrical and various cabling stretched out in either direction along with a small walkway. It appeared to be a maintenance tunnel for the unholy amount of data processing and wiring that stretched everywhere on the planet. Soft green diagnostic blips on the walls provided a dim lighting.

I half-expected the crazed man to take a lunge at or try to rob me, not that it would have done him any good, but he waited with an impatient expression. “You’re a little slow; you know that?”

Frowning, I asked, “Where are we going?”

“We should be safe here, for now. I couldn’t speak freely out in the open because they’re looking for me.”

I felt a twinge of frustration as the man confirmed the presence of paranoia and likely delusion. “Who is looking for you?” I asked.

“Keritas, of course. Who else?”

Rolling my eyes, I replied, “Who else indeed? What information do you have for me?”

“Ah, ah, ah! It’s not that simple, is it?” He grinned again, and the wild expression knocked my opinion of his sanity down several more notches. “There’s a such a thing called a deal. You know? Tit for that? You scratch my back, and we all smell the music? All for one and five for a credit?”

I folded my arms, favoring him with a glare. “Loose lips sink glass houses.”

My new friend tossed his head back and gave a long laugh. “Exactly my friend, exactly. So I want to know what you’ll be doing for me if I tell you what I know.”

Cocking my head, I replied, “I’m willing to negotiate, assuming what you know is worth anything in the first place. You mentioned Ivan; do you have information on him or not?”

I winced as he revealed his hideous teeth again. “Oh, for sure. I know exactly why he was a patron of the fine Keritas establishment as well as why the greedy pricks won’t say a thing no matter how high up the chain you go.”

“Why not?”

“They’re embarrassed! Oh no, no… can’t let that little secret out, can they?”

Rubbing my forehead, I replied, “What secret?”

“Ah, ah, no, no!” He wagged a finger at me. “You gotta promise me something.”

I stared at him.

“Promise you’ll take me with you when you leave.”

“No.”

He appeared shocked by my flat denial. “W-well, then you have to tell someone about what I tell you. Spread the word, fly like an eagle, you know?”

“To what end?”

He smacked himself on the forehead. “Man, the people! The people gotta know what they’re doing in there: the kinds of horrors and wonders of technology hidden by the corporate giants. They gotta know, and then everyone can band together to tear the walls down, you know? Bring the fat cats back down to our level!”

“You want to bring down Keritas?” I envisioned the planet upon which I stood, Ethra, with billions of unemployed people scrounging and murdering for food. Fires burning across the wide cityscape. A galaxy-wide recession as commerce stuttered under the loss of a major economic power.

“Of course! Man, the things I’ve seen; they would shock you. They would horrify you.”

I doubted this, as I’d done many jobs and seen many things. His assertions didn’t matter anyway since it wasn’t really possible to bring down the entire corporation in any real sense. It operated within thousands of smaller units and didn’t exactly have unified oversight of every little detail.

It became certain for me that the information from this man was suspect. Not that any of the corporations had the most stellar record or firm ethics, but he carried an obvious madness. I nearly decided to leave and let him doomsay at someone more patient. Still, I wouldn’t be too inconvenienced to hear him out.

“Very well,” I said. “I will take your message to those who may act upon it. I don’t guarantee results, and I am not a champion for your cause.” This was utter honesty. I intended to tell someone as long as the story had details applicable to my search. I didn’t tell him what I suspected: no one in the entire galaxy would care even if his tale was dripping with the truth. “So tell me, what is this big secret about Ivan which is so embarrassing?”