When Karan opened his eyes, he was greeted with a very familiar bunk bed. Immediately, he got up, the lights sensor turned on because of his movement, and he was greeted with a very familiar base.
He stood up warily, eyeing every detail of the place. His brain was trying to find something amiss, something different, something that could tell him that this was not a dream. This was reality.
The investigation took some time. And in the end, he figured that this was reality.
Finally, he sat down at the communal table. And asked himself one important question: What was that?
He had spent around 10 hours in that dream, at least according to the time window of his dream. And he doesn't know whether it was a dream or not, considering how real everything felt. His brain told him, The Dreamscape, the commandments, and everything else were just a figment of his imagination. Something he cooked up in his dream.
But at the same time, another part refused to believe so. Everything was in such detail that no simulation could match the clarity, let alone a dream. It was so vivid and clear that it felt as if he was looking through the Brain Records of someone. He just could not believe that it was all just a dream.
Not to mention the phantom pain that he was feeling in his right palm, where he had cut himself deliberately.
It was.. Just a dream.. Right?
It is then that a beeping sound started resonating through the base. He immediately made his way one level down to the control room.
As he stepped inside, all the monitors of the room came to life. Some of the monitors started showing blueprints of the building, while some were maps of the outskirts of District 21. But the center-most monitor was showing a timer, which was about hit zero in less than 2 hours.
"You there?" Karan said as he took the seat in the center console.
"The mist in the morning is made of smoke and fog," Came a stoic voice from the speaker. It was a riddle to see whether everything was alright.
With confidence, Karan replied, "Of course. What did you think? It was made from your grandpa's farts."
The tone of the person immediately changed, "Where the fuck have you been?" the voice from the speaker asked anxiously.
Karan took a second before replying, "I had a.. Weird dream."
"A weird dream?" the voice was skeptical, "You got held up by a weird dream."
"I would rather not talk about it," he said, " Let's start. What did I miss?"
The voice then immediately got professional, "The plan has a green light from the scrapper. Also got the green signal from the armada. Now, we just need to wait, and then intervene."
Karan said, standing up, "I talk to you in a bit."
As Karan turned around, the voice quickly added, "Happy heisting, Darius."
***
Sitting on one of the high rise building in District 21, Karan had a disguise on.
He was wearing a white wig, a beard, and had covered his face with latex wrinkles. He was wearing AR sunglasses, which had the direct video feed of the street downstairs, and had a data pad in his hand through which he was scrolling Social Scroll, a social media app.
There were no security cameras around, at least not one that he could spot. The disguise, scrolling through social media, was just a facade. This was District 21, and one couldnt be too sure who was looking at whom when in the place.
District 21 was run by the Kumegava Family. They are known throughout the world for their prowess in hacking and telecommunication. If there was a camera around in the district, there was a chance that they were using it. From what he had heard, there were also drones following the consignment that he was after. Which was why Karan was extra careful of how he was acting in the district…
It was the screech of tires that got his attention, after which he put the data pad on auto scroll mode. And through his AR sunglasses, he saw the mayhem happening downstairs.
There was a Kumegava family caravan, two military SUVs, and a small capacity cargo truck, which came to a halt downstairs.
The leading SUV had apparently hit someone.
Normally, whenever Kumegava SUV hits something, they dont stop. And this time as well, they didnt want to. But mysterioulsy the lead SUV had lost its power; it could not move now.
The caravan had stopped in a place between two community buildings. It was also the most crowded area of District 21.
People who knew how their government operated quickly started retreating, but not before carrying off the man who had been in the accident.
But some didnt move.
After 29 seconds of carvaan stopping, the Kumegava military acted. Soldiers, armed to the teeth, exited the SUVs and surrounded the van. While the driver of the leading SUV desperately tried to start the thing.
To the military's eyes, people who were running away were threats. They would not hesitate to neturalize anyone that got too close..
But what those soldiers failed to consider was why the SUV stopped working in the first place.
Nor did they think about why their caravan had come to a stop just above a manhole cover.
At that moment, Karan got a notification. Someone else was jacked into the system as him. There was someone else who was also watching the feed from the camera with him. It was easy to deduce that the Kumegava hackers were the ones jacking in, after all, they do excel in hacking.
Before the soldiers could get their bearings or the people could empty the place, multiple smoke grenades were thrown out of the manhole covers.
As the soldiers got blinded, people who hadnt move at all acted. They all pointed their guns towards caravaan, and let it rip.
The feed showed soldiers firing back. But the attack came from all sides, and with the smoke hampering their vision, soldiers stood no chance.
In the gun fire exchange, many got injured, but Karan didnt pay attention to it. His focus remained on the screen, on what the attackers did next.
After fire fight stopped, the dry winds for the california's desert had blown away the smoke. And through the feed, he saw some punks prying open the van and taking cargo out.
It is at that moment that the data pad in Karan's hand went red. The Kumegava family had issued a local curfew, which was within expectations.
Karan, acting surprised, let go of the data pad, grabbed his cane, and started quickly limping towards the stairs of the building. As he closed the door behind him, his whole demeanor changed. He quickly removed his disguise and got into another one…
Within 20 mins of the incident, Karan was on his bike, leaving the district 21. The local curfew affected that locality, not the whole district. But he felt that it might extend to the whole district soon.
So he dressed and disguised himself as a Scavenger, a person known to roam around the world without affiliation with any districts. And with his disguise, no one batted an eye as he made his way to the open road.
The military at the border didnt even glance twice at him, just because he was dressed as a scavenger. But that would have changed if he were just a few hours late.
It didnt took him long to reach his next destination. Around 30 km away from the district 21, in the mountain ranges of californian desert, Karan had climbed up in a sniper's nest. Lying on his back, in a ghillie suit and a silenced .50BMG rifle.
He had been lying there for two hours, constantly listening to the chatter on the Kumegava military frequency. And if his calculations and planning were right, he was at the right place.
And sure enough, he soon started hearing gunshots in the distance. Three inter-country vehicles were being chased by military drones. And this is where Karan came in.
With his sniper rifle, he began shooting down drones. His rounds were big enough to make a hole through the drone's armor. But he didnt take down all the drones, one by one. He waited patiently, only taking down drones that were in worse condition.
He did it, so the people being chased do not get the feeling that someone was helping them…