The Boy in the Alley

The Final Code

A bullet passes through the glass window behind us before the sound of the shot even reaches my ears.

I pull Ifeoma down behind a heavy steel computer console as a second round shatters a monitor into a million pieces. The air in the upper tower smells like ozone and hot plastic. Alarms wail through the massive control room, flashing bright red light across the polished floor.

Kanmi stands near the center console, his face calm and cold. He holds the digital control pad in one hand while a dozen heavy security drones fly out from hidden ceiling slots, locking their red laser sights directly onto our chests.

"You broke through the lift, Simeon," Kanmi says, his deep voice carrying easily over the blaring alarms. "I am actually impressed. But you walked straight into a cage."

I look down at my hands. The black fire is still there, burning hot and steady under my skin, but I know brute force will not save us from a dozen armed drones. If we move the wrong way, we turn to ash before we can take two steps.

Ifeoma stays low beside me, her eyes darting across the control panels. Her fingers move fast over a secondary service port, plugging in her handheld device while Kanmi is distracted by the drones.

"Do you really think you can control this city forever, Kanmi?" I call out, stepping slightly out from behind the desk to keep his attention on me. "You murdered my parents. You trapped me in a fake world for eighteen years. Why?"

Kanmi smiles, a bitter expression that makes the scar on his cheek pull tight. "Because your father was a fool. He wanted to share the master code with the slums. He wanted equality in a world built on power. We took the city back so it could survive."

"You took it back so you could rule over slaves," I snap back.

Kanmi raises the control pad, his thumb hovering over the master execution key. "Call it whatever you want, boy. The master purge is at ten percent. When it hits one hundred, the simulation deletes permanently, and the core code locks to my thumbprint. You lose."

I glance sideways. Ifeoma catches my eye and gives a tiny, almost invisible nod. She has finished plugging into the terminal.

"Now, Simeon," she whispers.

Before Kanmi can press the key, Ifeoma slams her hand onto the console and hits a heavy override switch.

A sharp electrical hum cuts through the room. The red laser sights on the security drones flicker, turn yellow, and then shut off completely. The drones drop out of the air, crashing hard onto the glass floor.

Kanmi’s eyes go wide. He looks down at his control pad as the screen turns completely blank. "What did you do?"

"I bypassed your master firewall," Ifeoma says, standing up straight with a cold, triumphant smile. She holds up a small data drive flashing with bright golden light. "You forgot that the system was built on my family's architecture, Kanmi. You never owned the core code."

Kanmi’s face twists into pure fury. He drops the useless control pad and draws a heavy pistol from his trench coat, aiming straight at Ifeoma's chest. "I will kill you both right now!"

He pulls the trigger.

I do not think. I leap across the open floor faster than humanly possible, throwing my body in front of Ifeoma just as the shot rings out.

The bullet hits my shoulder with a massive, burning impact. Pain flares through my arm, hot and sharp, but the black fire inside me responds instantly. The flames rush up from my chest, wrapping around the wound and cauterizing the bullet path before a single drop of blood can hit the floor.

Kanmi stares in absolute shock.

I do not give him time to recover. I raise my right hand, and the black fire surges forward like a whip, wrapping tightly around the pistol in his grip and melting the metal into glowing slag.

Kanmi cries out, dropping the ruined gun as he stumbles backward against the main terminal.

I step up to him, my eyes glowing with dark fire, my hand resting against his chest. I am not the frightened boy in the alley anymore. I am the master of this world, real or fake.

"It is over, Kanmi," I say, my voice steady and cold.

Before I can take the final data drive from his pocket, the floor beneath us shudders violently.

The massive floor-to-ceiling window behind Kanmi cracks right down the middle with a deafening sound. Through the glass, the entire skyline of Neo-Chicago begins to fold inward, turning from bright neon buildings into lines of green computer code.

The whole tower is collapsing.

Kanmi laughs, blood dripping from his lip, even as I hold him against the desk. "You think you beat me, Simeon? Look outside."

I turn my head toward the window. The sky above Neo-Chicago is gone, replaced by a giant, unblinking digital eye staring down at us from the clouds.