Chapter Two

Fleet and Kennedy

The stars looked down upon Kennedy’s face for hours as he lay there sobering up. Slowly the sky started to warm and the stars slowly faded away. Even with the aid of alcohol he could not sleep. The events of the day ahead, should they go to plan, would change his life forever. His partner, James Fleet, had conceived the plan years ago. Initially it was going to be a solo effort however Kennedy had earned the trust and the admiration of the agency’s first Operator. It was under Fleet’s wing that he learned how to conceal himself from Oculus when he really needed to. Fleet was somewhat of a dark prince in the program, a vocal opponent of it in fact, but he still conducted his work as asked. Kennedy’s night with Susan was presenting a mini dilemma to him. She was a good person, like Fleet, like himself, she was nothing like the rest of the apathetic jobsworths that called themselves Operators. Knowing that the circumstances were against her, he hoped that the small breadcrumb that he sent her would lead to window of opportunity down the road. A voice suddenly rang through Kennedy’s ears “After today, she will never see you again”. Fleet’s formidable form materialised in the chair opposite him. Kennedy barely flinched.

After a brief lecture about the potential for Kennedy’s message to create a problem for them, they both got into Kennedy’s car and headed towards the city centre. They stopped off at a filling station, a coffee stand and then the car park across from the bank. They bought typical items and interacted with their environment in as usual a sense as possible. Many eyes had focused on them over the course of their morning routine as well as many cameras. Kennedy winked at Fleet and exited the car. He entered the bank and made his way to the counter, carefully placing his little bag of coins and notes in front of the teller. “Cash amnesty sir?” asked the teller, recognising him from his previous visits. Kennedy nodded and went through the motions. Usually he had to flash his government ID when handing in recovered cash but he was a regular. After passing fingerprinting he folded up his empty bag and put it inside his jacket pocket. He saluted the teller and made his way to the door of the bank and left. As he entered the street he could see Fleet was itching to go. He walked across to the car park and hopped into the driver seat. “Cash used to be king” proclaimed Fleet as he lit up a cigarette, “now it is illegal to even hang it on the wall”. They set off in the direction of their assignment.

After a silent 15 minutes in traffic, the pair proceeded onto an orbital road and travelled along it until they came to a stop at a small, quiet junction. In front of them was a large billboard. Fleet grinned and announced what he could see sarcastically, “Coca Cola, you?”. Kennedy looked at the billboard smiling and responded. “Tampons”. Fleet issued his last Oculus command into his wrist piece, NO CARS, and signalled for Kennedy to proceed. To their left was an access tunnel that went under the river. It was a black spot for signals and had recently been liberated of its cameras. Dissidents were wreaking havoc against the surveillance state, destroying public camera networks. They had targeted the tunnel so much that the central planning committee in the area had marked it as a lost cause. It was also used by nearly half of all of the trucks in and out of the city which provided the conditions that Fleet and Kennedy needed to make this convincing. Kennedy turned the wheel and set off towards the subterranean corridor. The shadow of its entrance flashed over the bonnet and across their faces as they slowly made their way in. The Wi-Fi detector on the dash flashed for couple of seconds and then went a solid red colour. Kennedy checked his rear view mirror and sure enough, there was nothing coming behind them and brought the vehicle to sudden stop. “We’re on” said Kennedy as he reached into the back seat, grabbing two crude looking helmets and handed one of them to Fleet. “15 minutes” Kennedy nodded in acknowledgment. They placed the headsets on and doused their eyes with eye drop solution. Fleet pulled the car battery he had at his feet up to his lap and connected the alligator clamps from his headset to the battery. Without delay he flicked the headset down over his eyes and switched it on. He immediately began to scream in pain as Kennedy looked on. Some of the light was escaping through the side of the headset and was painful even for him to look directly at. As fast as it began it was over. Fleet switched off the headset and stepped out of the car. He made his way across the road looking for the wall with his hands. All he could see was white with a pulsating black circle that moved wherever he moved his eye. Kennedy quickly prepared himself and repeated Fleets feat of self inflicted blindness. Ten seconds became what seemed to be minutes as Kennedy’s eyes exploded with pain. The lenses that he aimed to disable were also his only protection from permanent blindness, at least he hoped.

The following minutes after the pair sat down against the tunnel wall were tense. Both men were in a state of self induced blindness, unsure if they had permanently lost their sight. The heavy revs of a lorry entering the tunnel echoed past their ears. “ Can you see anything?” barked Fleet. “Not a fucking thing” answered Kennedy. The lorry approached and screeched to a halt a few feet away. The cab door opened and a large man hopped down. “That better be you Murph” shouted Fleet over the noise of the lorries engine. “It sure is lads”, Murph was a life long dissident who had been communicating with Fleet for years. He was also a driver for gas company who had made a final demand on him to install a Lens or he would lose his job. This was the last good thing he had left in his life and it was now trying to crowbar him into the sea of eyes. Fleet learned about the de-Lenser process when he was tasked with investigating Murph’s activities within the dissident movement. Fleet buried the evidence the moment he saw Murph’s potential and the potential of his device and kept him off the radar of other Operators. Murph ran over and shone a small light into each of the mens eyes. “ Your eyes are scalded but your pupils are responding.” Glad to receive this confirmation the two men made their way over to the lorry guided by Murph. He retrieved two bags and an angle grinder from the cab, dropped the bags at their feet and sprinted down the tunnel to a maintenance access door. As Murph went to work on the door the two newly retired Operators got changed into their gear. They were slowly regaining some sight but were still at the mercy of Murph for guidance. Murph whistled to them and told them to hurry on. Kennedy and Fleet sprinted to Murph and entered the maintenance tunnel as Murph turned his attention back to the truck. He had seen a couple of gas trucks go up in his time but never intentionally. He popped the boot of Kennedy’s car and grabbed a small backpack. He jogged over to the truck and removed the device from inside the backpack. He placed it tightly under the tankers body, adjusted the timer and began sprinting after his accomplices.

Fleet and Kennedy were moving at a steady pace. The tunnel was near black with a few dim lights every few feet that their eyes were barely picking up. Still they continued hastily onwards. They were supposed to find another door part of the ways down but without the full use of their eyes they were literally in the dark. Fleet shouted back to Kennedy “get ready”. They both stopped at the sharp bend they had memorised from the tunnel plans. Kennedy roared down the tunnel for Murph. “Are we good Murph! …Murph!…………. Are we goo…”. His echoing voice was interrupted by a huge flash of white followed by a large boom. It felt like the earth itself had shifted. The blast of scorching hot air travelled down the tunnel and ripped past the pair. The echo lasted for a good fifteen to twenty seconds. They were both trying to call out to each other and to Murph but the echo smothered their shouts. Fleet felt a hand grab him by the scruff and pull him forward down the tunnel. He decided to just run not knowing if it was Kennedy or Murph. The running and panting blended together into a frenzied chorus and after a few minutes Murph’s voice rang out. “It’s Here”.