Fire and Ice - For The Writer's Post prompt

Silas watched Eve via his peripheral vision. She moved with preternatural grace, but your average Joe was unlikely to notice. He turned his attention back to the rushing streets. He'd started noticing things recently. He'd walked these streets with Eve for twenty years, never taking the same route twice. If he played back his mental photo file, he could see himself progress from eager, bright-eyed and snappily dressed new kid to gradually balding, shabbily garbed slouch, lion salient badge of office slowly tarnishing. Over the years it had slipped from pride of place on his lapel to barely visible, inside his jacket, peeking out occasionally, like a shame-faced criminal.

Lately, Silas had seen new things on these familiar, tedious streets. The people still scurried from A to B, but he hadn't realised how every one of those rushing figures had their eyes glued to the floor. Now, he looked up, felt the grey rain of late autumn sting his eyes, watched the floating advertising screens pass overhead, vibrant with colour. These people would never experience such vibrancy. They were workers, soldier ants marching from one task to the next , only stopping to sleep at their designated hours. They produced the power, the materials to create the screens which offered products they could never afford.

Eve turned her head, the movement sharp, angular. Silas' heart sank as one of the hurrying people flinched inside his drab overcoat, collar turned up against the rain.

“He is not Serene.”

Eve's voice was light, musical, but she'd never been able to lose the slight monotone of her model. Something Silas had also come to see differently. He realised his partner's vaguely emotionless voice drove an itch deep into his brain. Eve's sensors were never wrong when it came to Serenity. He looked at the man, who was trying to elbow his way through the crowds, looked at Eve, and shrugged.

“Do what you do.” he nodded and flipped open his coat to reveal his badge, worn thin with use and dim with distaste.

“Halt. All citizens freeze. Do not move unless given permission to do so.” Silas glanced down at the electronic screen in his palm, gathered the man's name from the files there, “By order of the Mechapolis, I arrest Jason Ardley for failing to use Serenity.”

The sight of thousands of people instantly halting on those teeming streets always made Silas' flesh creep. It was completely unnatural. Even as Silas spat the taste of the words from his lips, Jason took off running. Before her partner could issue a second warning, Eve did what she was trained for. Much as he admired her feline grace and the elegance of the leap which took her from his side to Jason's in a single moment, without so much as ruffling the hair of the petrified statue citizens around them, she still scared the crap out of him.

He wove through the throng, coming to stand above the young man, pinned to the floor, Eve's long fingers holding him by the throat.

“You know she can crush your neck with a slight squeeze, right?”

Silas watched the man begin to wriggle, think better of it and simply nod.

“Good. Eve, Mr Ardley will not resist. Bring him to his feet.”

Eve did as bidden, turning the man to face Silas, who held up his palm, the screen automatically activating as he curled his index finger.

“Open your eyes” he commanded, but Jason did not obey.

“If you don't open your eyes I will be forced to have my partner eliminate you, if you offer no defence.”

“I refuse. Do what you will.”

Silas was thrown at the calm demeanour shown by a man who stood pinioned by a machine and faced with imminent death.

“Just open your eyes, let me scan you for Serenity.”

Serenity was the drug given to all workers. It kept them in a state of permanent peace. Work now progressed without strikes, without incident, without calls for pay rises and days off. To Silas, workers were barely above catatonics in the med wards.

“No.”

Eve already had her finger poised, the tip of a Euth needle peeking from under the nail, but Silas raised a hand to hold her in place.

“Wait.” he turned his attention back to Jason, “Why?”

Jason finally opened his eyes, but his words caused Silas to forget his scan.

“Because death is the only freedom I will ever know.”

“You are fed, clothed, given a home. What more do you need?”

“I'm going to assume, as you were picked to team with a machine, that you are a smart man, educated. With that in mind, and looking up at those screens above, think what it would be like for you to live as I do. Think how barren, grey and pointless my life is.”

“But the Serenity...”

“I was sick. One day, bad food, the shot didn't take because I threw up. I woke up on that day. I started to see that I would never have what you have, what the rich have. I began to wonder what made them so great, so privileged. Why did I have to take Serenity and they did not? What was the difference? You know what I realised?”

His eyes suddenly locked onto Silas', and there was no stopping Eve as the Euth needle shot out and into the man's pale neck, just above the slightly grubby collar of his shirt.

“There is no difference. They just got lucky.”

He crumpled and Silas saw the life go out of his eyes. In a moment of forgetfulness, too shocked by the realisation that there were workers who could think the way he did, despite his rank and privilege, Silas bent and closed Jason's eyes, drew his coat closed over his thin chest and whispered a few words of blessing for his journey.

Eve drew up, looked down and Silas stood slowly, accepting as she began to echo his warning to Jason.

“In the name of the Mechapolis, I arrest Silas Mayning for the crime of sorrow. Present your eyes for scanning.”

Silas looked down at the still form by his feet and sighed.

“Less difference than you thought, Jason, but mine is to prevent sympathy for you. It's called Blind. I stopped taking it a week ago.”

Eve shot him.

Author's Note - This story owes more than a nod to Bladerunner for its atmosphere. It's a world which has always fascinated me, despite my being pretty useless at writing Sci-Fi stories. However, when I was looking for alternate meanings for Salient, I came across the following:

Salient – Leaping or jumping: a salient animal

Heraldry – (Of a beast) represented as leaping: a lion salient

Eve was there the instant I read those definitions, and so I took her to the world of my favourite film of all time. It's not one of my best, but I'm glad I took Eve out of my mental green room and gave her a day's work!

Bright Blessings

Mojo