New York

Jason Pollard exited from the rear seat of his ride. Holding his satchel close, Jason was excited about what the day would hold. The driverless xLift beeped once to ensure he was away from the door as it closed itself and drew away from the curb to get its next fare.

The late summer sun reflected off the American Copper Buildings on 626 1st Ave in New York City. Sounding Labs, which Julian and Jason had set up as their base of operations, was situated on the sixth floor. They had set up in New York some eighteen months ago with the help of their angel investors and currently had a staff of around twenty.

Jason’s satchel held one of their Melon prototypes. It was malfunctioning. Jason, someone to take work home, had been trying to repair it. The failing unit gave results that teetered on the edge of their knowledge. At the age of 18, physics and then quantum physics had become an easy companion in Jason’s mind as he attended University, first at MIT, where he met Julian, then in Germany, where he quickly came up against the knowledge boundaries of his professors. At 23, Julian and one of his German professors convinced Jason to forgo pieces of paper on a wall and instead enter the world of practical research.

Two years later, at 25, Jason, Julian, and their research teams cracked the resonance frequency issues. Just as the Hubble telescope, years before, and the James Webb telescope recently had shown the universe in unbelievable detail. Jason’s work down into the sub-atomic had unlocked a world of wonder; a world animals could tap into.

Birds could sense the earth’s magnetic field changes and navigate thousands of kilometers during migration. Sharks could detect the electric field of muscle contractions in their prey. The Beluga Whales used their Melon for sonar to see kilometers through the water and communicate with each other. Hence the name of the prototype: Melon. 

The Sounding Lab team had developed artificial Melon transmitters to send and receive data. The melons could sense great distances at the subatomic level and see greater detail than conventional radar. The two teams, Jason’s in New York and the supporting team in Albany, had been testing and iterating to great success over the last few months. That is, except for the unit Jason had taken home the night before.

Those bike couriers are fast. But Jason did not have far to go and could see him progress through the traffic to 220 E 26th St, not far from the Sounding Lab.

They both pulled up to the address simultaneously; Jason already had his phone out, opened the FedEx app, and pretended to be talking.

“Yeah, yeah, I just got home.” Jason thumbed the keypad to the apartments and opened the door as the bike courier mounted the steps. “Yeah, that as well; he is just here,” faked Jason on the phone.

As he pulled north on 3rd Avenue, Simms had not wasted time. Simms had seen Jason get an xLift just as he was coming out of 26th street. Getting an xLift himself, he saw his plan’s failure. There was no one to say, “Follow that cab” to. Jason was already turning the corner and going out of view. Getting out of the cab, Simms raced after Jason.

Arriving at the Valley Bank, he accessed the ATM and got out a daily maximum of $5,000, about half the money in this account. Exiting the bank, he was shocked to see Simms just two blocks away, booking it hard towards him. Jason froze like a deer in headlights; this was happening way too fast. The shot chipped stone off the wall beside him and got Jason moving. What the heck? Did they want him dead now?

Fifteen minutes later, he was out of the next xLift and in Madison Square Park. Jason was suffering an adrenaline crash, but this worked for him; he had to plan better. He needed to use the power of technology to flip Castle over. Sitting on a bench, Jason flicked through the time of things leaving Grand Central Terminal. He purchased three different tickets going North in the next two hours. 

Leaving the park, he looked for one of the old Yellow Cabs, not an xLift this time.

Julian and Castle had Simms on the phone.

“He has already left Madison Square Park and is heading north, but not in an xLift this time. The boy is learning but not fast enough. We have three tickets on his account for the Central Terminal; you head there; we have also sent some others.”

“On my way,” said Simms. If he got his hands on Jason, he was sure that damaged property would not be an issue. He was sweaty and beginning to stink.

Having yet to reach Madison Square Park, Simms rerouted the xLift for the Terminal.

So the kid was in a cab this time; looking ahead and behind, he could see about three cabs. There would have been thousands of Yellow Cabs back in the day. Today maybe 500, if you were lucky, for all of New York City. Jumping out of the xLift at the station, Simms saw a cab pull in ahead of him. It stopped at the cab rank, but no one got out. Simms could not see if there was anyone in the back seat; the sun was going down below the building, causing a sun-strike.

The cab then drove off.

Crap, had he spooked the kid.

The close calls with Simms, the bullet, and the general desperation that Jason felt caused a pause in his thinking. He was running on the flight portion of fight or flight. His current success had him running on too much nervous energy; Jason wanted to flee but not do anything stupid. Taking a bus from where he got out of the cab, Jason made his way to the Easter portion of the New York Waterway on Wall St.

 He got a Ferry to Port Liberte across the Bay in New Jersey.  Trips with cash were all Jason could think about; credit cards left a trail, as did so many of the apps on his phone. No more xLifts or booking tickets online.

Public transport got him to Newark Penn Station and a Greyhound Express, and with a ticket to Cleveland, OH. Slumping into his seat, Jason finally felt he might be able to get some rest.

“So what happened to him?” Castle asked Simms.

Simms was happy that this was a call and not face-to-face. “After the cab was a bust, we returned to the Central Terminal but found nothing. I do have his phone!” 

“The phone is not him; how on earth do you think I will be happy with the phone?” asked Castle.