Catalyst

fiction by michael werneburg

"Hey," said a young voice behind me. I didn't budge. "Hey," it said again, "you Tilescu? Hey man, Hirami's getting on the boat!"

I spun around. There were two teenage boys, one of them holding up the kind of oversized folding portable comms unit that the kids liked. I looked down at the screen and saw Hirami. He'd come to the same conclusion I had: Goss was guarding the bridge. Then, something about the camera angle caused me to look up towards the stern of the ferry. A large Megalomedia camera drone, complete with crew of three, was floating at the rear of the ship.

Deciding that I probably had a moment before I'd be spotted, I asked the kid, "Hey, is Goss on that harbor-front bridge?"

"Yeah, man, you bet! He set up there like he's defending the bridge. Hills is booting it up Thax street, and Kuan and Samson are heading to a showdown with Goss for sure. Hey man, you're the real thing, you know?"

"Sure," I said, not sure. I hurried around to the far side of the ship, and the kids followed.

"Hey, you gotta stay hidden, huh? Don't want them to find you!"

I looked at the demented grinning faces, bobbing in agreement with their wisdom, and said, "Yeah. Why the hell would I want them to find me? To have Hirami break my hands? The top prizes are worth some serious money, you know. These monsters have killed people today!"

"Yeah, highest death toll of any urban race in all of history! It's awesome!"

Cursing, I leaned over the railing to see if I could spot Hirami. No such luck. But I could hear a commotion coming from the main deck. Was Harami's presence making a splash? "Where's he at, now?" I asked the kids.

The one with the screen checked again, and said, "Oh, they're covering Hills. Man, that guy really is made of steel, you know? Like they keep saying?"

"Iron."

Whatever was going on, down on the first deck, it sounded like the crowd was angry. "What's that?" I asked the boy.

"Iron. He's an Ironman competitor. Iron, not steel."

"Oh, yeah. One of those old metals. Hey you even carrying for this?"

"Huh?"