The House Lucretia, one of the many high-classed establishments in Uptown Delta City, where all the rich and powerful come to fulfill their many needs. Some as simple as food, others more complex, but when credits are involved this place knows no boundaries.

Tonight Caroline Hallowthorpe, known the world over as the last real media tycoon makes her way out into the night. Caroline, of course, cannot take all the credit for the company she now runs, it has taken several generations to make AirThirtyFour into the vast empire it is. Caroline herself, has only been the power behind Air34 for the last three years, but in those three years, she has changed the face and need of news and how it is controlled. Before Caroline the company was run by her older sister Rebecca, who inherited the reigns from their father, but Rebecca was killed in a car accident before she ever really had a chance to make the company hers.

“Home Miss?” the computerised driver asks as she climbs into her awaiting limo.

“Yes, get me out of this place,” Caroline replies, the limo heads towards Hallowthorpe estate, she is traveling for no more than a few minutes when several explosions take place further ahead, and the limo comes to a sudden halt, Caroline jumps in fright. For a few moments there is nothing but silence, and then the limo rises into the air and crashes into the ground violently. Caroline is thrown around inside and smashes her head, blood gushes out of the wound instantly, she tries the door desperately but it won’t budge.

“Computer, open the door!” she screams but there is no response, only silence. Out of the corner of her eye Caroline notices a woman standing outside near one of the doors, she bends down and looks in, and Caroline goes white as a ghost as she locks eyes with this woman. ‘Rebecca?’ She gives her a smile and disappears into the darkness outside leaving Caroline trapped and frozen with fear inside.

 

#

 

Within the darkness and dampness of a seedy downtown apartment, a figure prepares themselves for the night ahead.

“Tonight Jackson, is the night it ends,” Sonya says as she moves out of the darkness. “Soon you will pay for broken promises, soon you will know the name of your killer, for tonight you pay for your sins with blood you son of a fucking bitch!”

 

#

 

Gary sits on his bike in the downtown street of Ratchets Lane, known to many of the City’s perverted patrons as the place to go if you want a cheap, good time.

“Maddison Gray, no address?” Gary asks.

“Nothing current, her last known address was Whispering Heights, but she is long gone from there. It’s like she just up and disappeared, and Ghost can’t find anything else on her at the moment. Did I mention how photogenic your face looked splashed all over the tube last night? Made you look at least ten years younger, bet Gleeson loved that?” Fontaine replies.

“He suggested it, but you can just eat it up shit head, I know you’re jealous.”

“Old man loves taking risks when it’s not his neck.”

“Time is wasting Fontaine, back to this Gray kid, if she up and disappeared off the grid it’s more than likely she’s involved in something pretty ugly, right?”

“I’d say so, Ghost is running her picture through the cities camera systems, but if she’s lower in the city then there’s no hope, half the systems down there are fucked beyond repair. But if we get lucky and get a hit, I’ll buzz you.”

“What about Kessler?”

“Ghost is toying with her records, over the last few weeks she’s made a few bizarre purchases, but nothing crazy. Her phone records are interesting though, she has a number, and was a regular user, social media and the works, but over the last few weeks her usage just dropped off, which suggests maybe she was using a clone or two or maybe more. Her credit records show she withdrew a bit here and a bit there, really out of character stuff, but we’re checking every avenue we can and hoping something might drop, I also looped her pic and info to Johnny L to see if he had any meets with her, but he gave me the big negative. So if she went deep downtown we might as well forget it, we’d have no chance of getting any information from anywhere down there, pretty much like I do with my ex-wives. Anyway, besides that, there’s nothing that would really warrant any more of our time, but we’ll still plug away and see what we find, if anything falls out you’ll know.”

“I owe you Fontaine, hopefully, Leroy will be able to fill in the blanks on this Maddison Gray,” Gary says as he hangs up his phone and picks up his commline patching it though to Oliver at District-Three PD.

“We’ve found nothing yet sir, have you spoken to this Leroy person?” Oliver asks.

“Not yet, but I’ve got a name for our target, Maddison Gray, see what you can find out for me.”

“I’m not going to ask how you managed to get that information, I’m sure Superintendent Gleeson would not approve, but I’ll run her name through every database I have access to, and some that I don’t,” Oliver replies.

“What about Kessler?”

“Nothing so far, she’s pretty clean, a few attitude issues shown on her records, but otherwise she was a stand up officer. Applied for her sergeant’s badge a few times but could never pass the exam, last time was two months ago, apparently her inspector was one of her biggest defenders, until she broke his jaw that is. I have to ask again, are you sure you won’t take my advice and get some officers down there to help you conduct your search?”

“They will only slow me down, sorry Oliver, I’ve got to go, I’ve just spotted Leroy,” Gary replies as he disconnects his commline and heads towards the street corner.

Five girls stand on the corner attempting to look somewhat desirable as Leroy makes his way around, making sure each of them are flaunting their goodies for all prospective buyers to be enticed with, he stops in front of a frail, blond girl.

“Fuck girl, if you don’t get some customers soon, I’ll start thinking about replacing your skinny white arse,” Leroy says.

“No, please Leroy, I need this, my dealers don’t give me credit anymore, and I need it to survive,” she pleads as she grabs Leroy by the arm, he throws her to the ground.

“Get your hands off me, fucking clean yourself up and start getting some paying customers, otherwise you’re done,” Leroy says as he walks away, running smack into Gary.

“No way to talk to a lady Leroy,” Gary says as he smashes Leroy across the face with a solid right hook, sending him crashing into the ground.

“Hey man, that’s police brutality!”

Gary grabs Leroy by the throat and pulls him to his feet and slams him into the wall, “Don’t encourage me, this girl work for you Leroy?” he asks shoving the photo of Maddison Gray in his face.

“That no tit bitch isn’t good enough to work for me, I like girls with big tits Jackson, my customers want their girls to have big bouncy tits, she’s flat as a six-year-old, she’s not one of mine!”

“Don’t play dumb,” Gary says. “Look at the photo again Leroy, you see that ugly motherfucker behind her? That’s you. Now one last time, have you seen this girl down here before and is she one of yours?”

“She isn’t one of mine, I swear man,” Leroy says. “But I have seen her, she hangs out at the Acid House, usually with a guy name Jones, that’s all I know.”

“What about a District Cop by the name of Kessler, Brunette, dark-skinned, ever see her hanging around?”

“Never man, no blue’s come down this far except for you,” Gary drives a knee up into Leroy’s stomach sending him to the ground.

“I hope your right Leroy, if I find out you’ve fucked me around, I’ll be coming back and we’ll discuss what real police brutality is,” Gary says as he runs off towards his bike and jumps on, his commline lights up as a call comes through, Gary ignores the attempted communication and takes off towards the Acid House.

 

END OF ACT II