I held the cold gss of whiskey to my head. The soft electric sounds of the jukebox and monotonous newscast cut through my groan as I swung my head up to take the final sip; the few people in the bar paid no attention. A set of robotic arms rushed over to me on its guided tracks behind the bar. An annoyingly chirpy voice rang out from its tinny speaker.

  “Would you like a refill, Mr Heyes?” I set the gss down in front of it and gave it a thumbs up. The arms grabbed a bottle and poured the whiskey neat before projecting a hologram in front of me.

  “Twenty dolrs, sir.” I loosely waved my hand over the hologram. I waited a moment for the purchase to authenticate, but it didn't.

  “Sorry about that, tender, technology just seems to make a fuss of everything around me,” I groaned as I straightened up and pulled out my ste, pressing the ft side to the hologram. The set of arms then carefully pced the gss in front of me. “Enjoy your drink, Mr Heyes,” it chirped before sliding away to the other customer at the bar.

  My mind had nothing else to do but wander as I slowly sipped, gncing up at the news report that talked about Nuevotech's new impnt. Apparently, this one made it so that negative emotions could no longer be felt by the user. My watching session was interrupted by two officers in their carbon bck uniforms.

  “Detective Ethan Heyes?” one of them asked. By the glowing insignia on his shoulder, I could tell he was a patrol sergeant. Before waiting for my answer, he started speaking again.

  “Captain Mathers wants you, got a case, fresh.”

  “Tell the bitch I'm clocked off,” I moaned back.

  “This is quite serious, sir; looks like murder,” the other officer said. I set my gss down, letting out a sigh.

  “It's more interesting than sitting in here. Alright, I’m coming,” I said, standing up from the table. As I left, the set of arms rushed back, giving me a wave goodbye as it collected my gss.

  “I can walk myself to the station, you know?” I said to the two officers as they followed me to the door.

  “Mathers wanted us to ensure you showed up to the station ASAP; take it up with her,” the patrol sergeant said, both of them following me to the door. The quieter officer waved back at the bartender.

  The rain fell thick, and the wind rushed with fierce intensity, the neon glow of the surrounding storefronts nothing but blurred colour. I looked down both ends of the street before walking towards my levicraft. Its doors slid upwards as I walked towards it, the plush white leather seats calling me to sit on them. The drone of rain on its gss ceiling was oddly calming. After double-checking that I was securely fastened, I asked for it to take me to the New London Police Station. The street sank into the ground as the craft around me rose into the rain, and the dark clouds grew bigger as I approached. As the levicraft entered the clouds, the rain lightened up before completely stopping; the only light visible was in the frame of the ceiling gss, just near the doors. I grabbed the ste back out from my pocket, the blue light coming from the ft side providing a little more illumination. There was the rattle of hailstones and snow on the gss. I checked my messages; there was one from my wife, Maya, informing me that work called the house looking for me. I couldn't tell if I was rising or falling until the levicraft pushed through the clouds. The sun shone through the bright blue sky, bringing warmth to the cabin, and the thick clouds became the ground as I moved through them toward an enormous floating tower in the distance, a lone patrol levicraft following me.

  The Levicraft dock was full of empty patrol vehicles, the general public, and levicrafts that looked like they should have fallen out of the sky long ago. My levicraft glided up to the side and opened the door. I carefully stepped out of the vehicle, my coat dripping water onto the floor of the dock, leaving behind a noticeable puddle. I reached inside my damp coat and retrieved a silver badge, the bright sun reflecting into my eyes. I walked along the dock towards the gss entryway, and a low, audible thump emanated from below the walkway.

  I walked through the doors and showed the badge to a man at the front desk, who pushed a button. I rushed up to the gate he unlocked, and it slid from the opposite end, making me take a step or two to the right to catch it. The bare white glowing halls of the Station were filled with officers escorting foul-smelling cyborgs, attendants rushing paperwork between desks, and the occasional food trolley. I ended up at the central elevator core, waiting for the next elevator before pushing the button to Mathers' office. I waited a moment before pressing the button again, and the doors finally closed. A hologram of a young woman appeared next to me.

  “Good morning, Detective Heyes. I am VIOLET; Mathers is expecting you,” she said, her voice soft and angelic.

  “I know who you are, VIOLET, and I know Mathers wants me,” I responded, looking to the ceiling as if ignoring her physical presence would somehow make her disappear.

  “VIOLET stands for Visual Interface for On-site Logistics, Enforcement, and—”

  “I said I know who you are, VIOLET,” I interrupted. “Look, can you just tell Mathers that I’m on my way?” VIOLET stared for a while at me before she confirmed my request,

  “Okay! I'll tell Mathers that you are in the way!” She disappeared before I had a chance to correct her. I checked my ste again, nothing, I put it back into my pocket as the elevator opened with a soft chime, the grand door of my captain's office waited for me.

  Captain Elizabeth Mathers always had an eye for design. The main door of her office was made up of several floating cubes that all rotated and bent when someone walked past to create an opening. Her desk was made up of simir pilrs, each pilr meshing together to create a physical heightmap of the city, the finer details being projected onto the map. The enormous gss window that was at the opposite end of the room made for majestic views during the golden hours, but this time, all the pilrs had sunk into the floor, leaving a wide, ft room for her to stand in the centre of, her silhouette towards the door.

  “I heard that you needed me to solve a murder case?” I asked the shadow. Sts made from the same materials as the cubic door fell across the window, darkening the room. A pilr rose in front of me, holding a dossier. I picked it up, and the green cardboard felt heavy against my hand.

  “I don't think anyone can solve this case, Ethan, but the mayor won't accept that as an answer, so I'm giving it to you,” Elizabeth confessed, “I'm going to show you the video that the cameras captured. This mustn’t escape this office unless you are informed otherwise.”

  A hologram appeared around us, as if we were in the environment itself. A young man was sat on his couch, working on his holo-deck.

  “This is Elias Tomson, a twenty-eight-year-old developer for various open source projects,” Mathers informs me. Suddenly, Elias was thrown across the room, his arms stretched out towards the sky, his fingers making strange patterns before his body went limp. “His windpipe was crushed, and forensics found bruising around the neck,” Elizabeth continued “He was clearly murdered. We don't know how or why, toxicology came back with nothing.”

  “You were right, Liz, I can't solve this case; nobody can, it's barely a case,” I said as I looked around the room.

  “Yet you’re trying, Ethan,” she said carefully, crouching down next to me as I looked under the couch for anything important.

  “I'll have the responders informed that you’re on your way, and you can do a proper search of his apartment, bring back everything you can.” She commanded. The hologram of Elias's room faded. I stood up, saluted the captain, and walked towards the door, dossier under my arm.

  “Ethan, this could be your redemption,” Mathers said, as the cubes rotated behind me.