Twenty's Mission Log
Chapter 1

Excerpts from the diary of a Clone

My name is Twenty Camelia Hargreaves. It used to be Guard Unit FV-22-B-020. That identified me as a female clone soldier decanted in the year V22. I was deployed in B Squad as the 20th support member and was part of the Pan Oceanic Special Zone Defence Force, commonly referred to as the Guard.

For the past six months I have been a free woman. My freedom was earned with blood and tears, as all freedom must be.

I have decided to tell some of my story. Not as a legacy or anything so bold. Just to help me examine my own actions and the path that I am on. My path to becoming human.

September 3rd, V26 (2046 AD)

I ran down the alleyway between the shopping malls, checking the GPS ping from my phone against my internal map of Spitfield City. Based on my estimate, the subject would be exiting the mall onto Cornflower Street. If Millie had kept up her pursuit, he should turn left on exiting, towards my projected location.

As I ran easily down the alley, I noted it was a lot better maintained than the trash filled ones around our part of the City. This section of the Spit, as Millie liked to call our home city, was where the wealthier residents and our few tourists liked to be. Definitely not the place two Bounty Hunters like Millie and I could afford to shop at.

I slowed as I reached the alley exit. Ahead I could see shoppers and sightseers walking back and forth along the street. Bags of shopping and hands filled with drinks and snacks. Just a typical morning in the heart of this city.

Back when I was in the Guard, I had patrolled here many times. My squad were often supported by members of the Police Auxiliary, regular humans employed to handle most day to day legal enforcement roles. The Guard were the heavy hitters, providing armed intervention as needed.

My role had been intended as a liaison between the Guards and the Auxiliaries. As a female clone it was thought that the humans would find me less intimidating than the male units. They were still terrified of me as I recalled.

I stepped out onto the walkway alongside the street. There was no sign yet of my target. I moved into the shelter of a nearby doorway and set my phone to mirror surface. Using that I kept an eye down the street, looking towards the mall exit.

On cue, I saw our man come stumbling out, looking wildly left and right. Turn this way please I willed him.

His name was Jacob Tan, a small time white collar criminal. He had made the mistake of letting a gambling addiction get out of control and owed a local gang nearly twenty thousand Pandas. So what did any sensible young accountant do? He embezzled money from his clients to try and clear his debts. He was as good a criminal as he was a gambler, so he had been found out.

He had posted bond, then promptly fled. His debts were still unpaid and the gang was after him. Luckily for him, Millie and Twenty were on the case. We would make sure he was sent back to jail where he would be nice and safe.

Tan listened to my mental wish and turned left as I had expected him too. There was a Guard patrol post at the other end of the street. He would not want to head in that direction.

Millie appeared behind him, puffing heavily but still moving. I was pleased our daily runs had improved her stamina.

“Stop right there, Tan!” I heard her shout. Tan looked back at her ferocious face and that gave him a second burst of energy. He charged down the street, pushing past confused pedestrians.

I watched him get closer, his eyes flicking back to Millie as she ran after him. She was weighed down with her vest and her heavy boots, but the dear little thing was catching up to him.

Breathing out gently, I stepped out from the doorway and held my left arm solidly in Tan’s path. I braced myself just before impact.

Tan’s chest hit my arm with a solid thump. His legs flew out from under him and he crashed heavily to the paving. I repositioned myself and put my booted foot on his chest, keeping him down.

My right hand rested lightly on my unlatched pistol butt as a warning.

“Jacob Tan, you are under arrest for bail evasion” I told him. He looked up at me, dazed.

Millie ran up to us and bent over, hands on her knees, huffing loudly.

“Goddam, he can run” Millie wheezed. I gave her a few moments to get her breath back. She then looked up at me and smiled, lighting up her face. “Another win for the team” she announced happily.

Together we hauled Tan to his feet and I cuffed him while Millie made sure he had no weapons or anything of note on him. He was not considered a dangerous subject, which is why Daniel-san had assigned this case to us. Regardless, his capture would give us a much needed injection of new Pandas into our bank accounts.

I could see Millie pondering how we would get our captive to the central processing office for the Guard. It was a long way across the city and we could not get all three of us on our scooter.

“Looks like I will need to take him to the pokey in a cab” Millie decided. I agreed. The cost would not be much and it was the only viable option.

“I will collect our scooter and meet you outside the Processing Centre” I told her. The scooter was parked two blocks away and Millie was a terrible driver anyway. She suffered from what I heard described as frequent “road rage”.

“Sounds like a plan amigo” said Millie. She got her phone out and summoned a cab. It arrived in a couple of minutes and she bundled our man inside. He kept offering her exorbitant amounts to let him go, and she was getting angrier each time she rebuffed him.

It would have been safer for Tan if I had been the one to escort him to the centre, but I did not want to enter the building. The facility was mostly operated by the Police Auxiliary and civilian employees, but there would be some Guard stationed there. I tried to avoid interacting with my brothers and sisters when I could.

I still did not know I felt about them. I had been one of them but now I was not. They were created to be unquestioning servants of the Zone governors, yet I was proof that they could be so much more. So far my only solution had been to avoid the Guard when I could. It was something I had to find an answer for.

After Millie had driven off in the cab with the still protesting Tan, I turned away and headed back to the scooter. By habit I kept to the side streets and alleys, alert and staying close to cover. These were the things that keep you safe in a place like Spitfield City.

The scooter was where we had left it. I had ensured it had a sturdy chain securing both wheels and the body to a nearby metal post. The post held a No Parking sign but since we were not technically parked on the street itself, Millie had reasoned this was acceptable.

I was happy there was no parking ticket on the scooter. Millie had a bad habit of just throwing such things away when she got one. That had lead to at least one unexpected call from the Parking officers and a doubled fee. I had made her pay it all from her own bank account as punishment.

She had sulked for a day afterwards and refused to let me sleep next to her that night. Millie can be very temperamental at times. It is lucky for her that I am so emotionally stable.

I unlocked the scooter and headed slowly to the rendezvous. There was no point in rushing as the sign-in process and claiming the bounty could take up to an hour or more.

Traffic was moderate for the time of day, around one in the afternoon. The sun was out and there were only a few clouds in the sky. I enjoyed riding about the City on days like this. Sometimes Millie and I would ride out to the coast and enjoy a day at the beach. With this case resolved, I thought we might be able to do that tomorrow.

Filled with such happy thoughts I pulled up to the opposite side of the road at the Processing Centre. I parked the scooter and stood on the walkway, stretching and moving my neck around. I could see some people coming and going at the centre, mixed in with some of the Police and a trio of Guards. It was two Jacks and a Jill as the locals liked to refer to us. To them, I mentally corrected myself.

I stood for a while and there was no sign of Millie. After thirty minutes I sat back down on the scooter and watched some baseball on my phone. It was a match from last weekend when the Pan City Demons (my team) tackled the Brisbane Sharks. The Demons were a good team but courted a lot of controversy.

Two of their players were registered Awakened. Low level, yet one of the pitchers was an Aeromancer. He had to face claims of tampering with the flight of the ball nearly every game, especially when he pitched an excellent innings.

They won more than they lost and I expected them to reach the finals. Millie had often promised to take me to a live game but that had not happened yet.

It was sitting there that I noticed the man watching me from further down the road. He was sipping a coffee as he leaned against the parked car. He was about Millie’s height, with almost white hair and dark glasses. He was wearing a well cut dark blue suit. My memory files tagged him as a Jericho avatar, part of the Archimedes Network.

I felt my blood turn cold. I had no direct memory of meeting him last time in person. My mind and body had been under control of the network, and then Jericho-Three. He had left the room by the time I was given back control of myself.

He had met Millie and I later while in control of my old Squad commander. That was not a happy memory either.

Jericho acknowledged me and walked over to where I was. I got to my feet and my right hand fell naturally to my holstered pistol.

“Pax, Miss Hargreaves” he said as he came alongside. “I just need to talk to you”

I looked back to the building opposite. If Millie appeared now there could a problem.

Jericho-Three looked at the building too. “Millie will be another ten minutes at least” he suggested. “She is currently talking to the Receipts Clerk, getting the bounty for Mr Tan paid into your accounts”.

“Are you monitoring us?” I demanded from the Avatar.

“Only when I need to” he answered. “I need to ask a favour from Millie and yourself. There is someone I believe is currently in Spitfield and I want you to locate her”

“We don’t owe you any favours” I replied. I noted that some anger was creeping into my voice. Being around Millie was not always a positive thing at times. She had a volatile personality and it may be rubbing off on me.

“I am happy to compensate you for your time” he said smoothly. “How about a retainer of one thousand Pan City Dollars up front?”. That caught my attention The bounty on Tan had only been five hundred and it had taken us three days to finally run him down.

“I will have to talk to Millie first” I cautioned him. “Who will we be looking for?”

Jericho-Three smiled. My phone pinged as he transmitted a file directly to it.

“Her name is Sister Venerae of the Order of Michael” he said.

=====

Millie appeared at the front of the building, looking pleased. I waved to get her attention and she ran across the road to me.

“We got the bounty!” she said happily. “I had them deposit half into my account and half into yours”.

“That is good, Millie” I replied to her. I could not help smiling back. Her joy can be very contagious. “That is our work done for the day. Shall we go see Di for some coffee and lunch?”

“Sounds great!” she answered and we put our helmets on. She had complained a lot when I first insisted we wear safety helmets on the scooter. I was used to wearing helmets from my time in the Guard so it felt natural to me.

Millie said they were too uncomfortable. Then she got smacked in the head by an actual sea gull one day on a trip to the beach. She wore it without complaint now.

We rode over to our side of Spitfield. The side where the trash lay on the streets and alleyways, but it was home to us. S~ᴇaʀᴄh the (ꜰind)ɴʘvel.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

When we got to the Coffee Coffin, I parked the scooter up on the pavement as close to the doorway as possible. Once again the heavy chain was locked into place. I took no chances with our cherry red ride.

By the time I got inside, Millie was already shouting a happy hello to Di behind the counter. Di acknowledged me with a smile and started making our usual order – two coffees (latte for Millie and cappuccino for me) and two toasted sandwiches. I followed Millie to the rear most table and sat down alongside her. As usual I sat close enough that our legs touched. Hers in her knee length shorts and mine in the black uniform pants I wore on missions.

We both sat facing back out towards the street. Di had a good laugh at us the first time we started doing this but just accepted it now. I sat down silently and wondered how to broach the subject of meeting Jericho.

Millie turned her head and looked quizzically at me.

“What’s up partner?” she asked. She was not always the most perceptive of people but she knew me very well. Her hand reached out unconsciously and stroked the long pony tail of dark hair I now had. In the six months since I left the Guard, my buzz cut hair had grown to a length that came halfway down my back.

I purred a little. I always liked it when she played with my hair. It was one of our rituals that she brushed it out for me every evening. Except when we were fighting about something.

Our coffees and sandwiches arrived and I knew I could not delay this anymore.

“I saw Jericho-Three today” I began. I felt Millie stiffen and her hand fell away from my hair. She said nothing but I could imagine the look on her face. I dared not meet her eyes.

“He wants a favour from us. He needs help to find someone here in the Spit” I continued.

“Why us?” she said coldly. “He has plenty of spies and errand boys that could do this”.

“It’s someone you used to know. Someone important to you” I answered. I took out my phone and opened up the file Jericho had sent me. I showed the picture of the target to Millie.

“Sister Venerae?” Millie said softly. I nodded.

The Sister was never far from Millie’s thoughts. She spoke about her all the time and I had seen the one photo she had of her countless times. I wondered if the legend that Millie had in her heart could match the reality of today.

“If he tries to hurt her, I will tear him apart” growled Millie.

“So are we going to help him?” I asked. She nodded grimly.

“May as well find out what the little shit is up to” Millie said. She looked at the picture of the Sister once more. “And I would really like to see Venerae again”.

=====

I called Jericho on the number we had for him. He answered on the first ring.

“Mr Jericho, Millie and I are willing to undertake the trace for you” I told him. “Millie wishes to meet in person to discuss terms. Is there somewhere we can talk?”

“Thank you Twenty” he replied. “I appreciate the risk you took in speaking to Millie on my behalf”. He was really smooth when he wanted to be.

He gave us a location in the north east end of Spitfield. It was in the fancy part of town, among the upper class houses at the outskirts of East Central. At least as upper class as we had in the Spit.

The meeting was set for tonight, around Eight PM. I finished the call. Millie had heard both sides of the conversation.

“Do we trust him, Millie?” I asked.

“About as far as I can spit a rat” she replied.

“How far is that?” I wondered aloud. This was not a skill I was aware she had but Millie just laughed and didn’t answer my question.

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