April 30^th, 2081
Toronto Parkwoods-Donalda @ 14:21 GST (Global Standard Time)

A Toronto Webnet Services van pulls up to a grey box on Victoria Park Ave. It’s a quiet Tuesday afternoon in the neighbourhood of apartment blocks and small shops surrounded by parks, pleasant winding streets, and plenty of young families which was something the city hadn’t seen in decades.

Inside, Ruby turned off the ignition of the petroleaf fueled engine and looked back at the five people with her. All of them were dressed in TWS uniforms: navy blue button-up shirts, overalls with tons of pockets, high-visibility vests, helmets, gloves, steel-toed boots, with falsified ID badges on display.

Harry still wasn’t convinced of the con, “These orange vests are going to make us stand out.”

“No, they’ll make us invisible.” Ruby shook her head and asked them, “Everyone remember the plan? Because once we exit this van, we’re all just TWS workers until we get the mobile conversion unit up in Makoto’s apartment.” Nothing was written down, Ruby had to trust her three to do the job.

Tess motioned to two sitting at the back doors. “And you trust these two cunts?” One man and one woman, both appearing in similar age to Ruby.

The man leaned over to her, “Ma’am, us and Mayday go way back. Further back than you’ve been alive.”

“What, Mayday?” Harry laughed, “Is that your name?”

“Codename.” Ruby sighed. “From way back. Castle, Vela, this is the squad I told you about. Squad, I trust these two more than any of you to get their part of the job done.”

Vela smiled and folded her arms, “And a cash payout on completion never hurts motivation.”

“Don’t worry, Harry, this isn’t my first rodeo.” Ruby pulled the key out of the ignition and tossed it to Castle.

Castle caught it and added, “We’ve done this kind of work dozens of times, with and without Mayday. Do your work, we’ll keep the cameras and biometric database link off.”

“Speaking of.” Ruby spoke to clockwork. “I need to hear exactly what you’ve done again. I always triple check before giving the ‘go’.”

“Certainly, boss.” Clockwork cleared his metal throat, even if there was no need. “For the past three weeks I’ve been introducing small glitches to the security systems in the area, primarily cameras and the occasional temporary failure to confirm biometric data, of the apartments within the local network of our target. Enough to be noticed, but not terrible enough to demand immediate attention, until today, when your associates will use the guise of fixing the glitches to blackout the two networks.”

Vela was far more amused by the plan than anyone, “We’ll poke and prod at that box for a while, keeping away anyone who tries to actually come and fix it.” She pointed to their TWS badges, and the date of their employment. “Just a couple rookies doing their best to fix the outage, people will understand.”

Ruby nodded, “Tess, got your gear ready?”

Tess pointed to a few heavy cases with TWS logos and serial numbers. “I’ll need Harry and Clockwork’s help with these bitches, but I managed to cram everything into standard work carry.”

“Tess, Harry, show me your NICs.” They all held up NICs that were created by splicing together data taken from their abducted material. A single altered NIC could raise questions, given it was from a disappeared person, but through a lot of effort, it was possible to combine datasets encoded and encrypted in a NIC together to create a new persona. They would never pass a NATO checkpoint, those machines had access to the entire identification database, but they would pass a doorman’s check, where only a valid dataset and checksum were needed; the wealthy could afford to pay the bandwidth to access NATO’s database, but they weren’t dealing with a wealthy young woman. By no means poor, Makoto’s building still relied on the second tier of security which Ruby could circumvent. However, due to his status as an android, there was not enough material to create a NIC for Clockwork, so he would need to wait until they had access to the building and its backdoor.

Ruby slung up some unnecessary wires wound up around her shoulder and tipped her grey TWS cap. “Last check.” She turned on a heavily modified radio resting on the seat beside her, listening to the intercoms of TWS workers. They waited through irrelevant speech, before hearing that legitimate teams had started showing up at other apartment buildings in the area. “Good, I was afraid TWS would send a team to our building, even if we attached our work order to it for 02:40h. It looks like we’re in the clear.” Ruby took a mic from the radio and called in on the TWS frequency. Speaking with a Russian accent to fit her name tag and NIC, she also pitched her voice slightly to disguise it. “This is van 790, we’re beginning work roadside and at building thirty.”

She waited a moment before a dispatcher replied, “Van 790, confirmed for roadside maintenance of box VPA5 and buildings designated TPDO-30 through 33.” Ruby handed the radio to Castle.

“You chose a Russian name, Mayday?” He chuckled. “It’s true what they say about you.”

Ruby ignored him, “Okay.” She looked at her watch. “02:24h, mission start. Sterile communication until the target has been secured. Mission starts now.” She opened her side of the door, the rest followed out the back, and the heist was officially in progress.

Vela and Castle didn’t have far to go, and opening the cable box wasn’t a problem for either of them. As Ruby and the squad began walking across an open field park to building 30, Harry noticed that Castle and Vela both gave Ruby a faint salute. Vela looked at the mess of cables, both new and old-world. “Fuck, if we weren’t about to mess this pile up it would have done it on its own.”

Castle worked more quietly but reminded her: “We need the cameras and biometrics down immediately, then we can explain away the time it’ll take to ‘fix’ by showing passers-by how out of date this is. Turn this into our advantage.”

With the operation underway, Harry walked beside Ruby, barely containing his excitement. “Today’s the day!”

Ruby spoke softly but sharp. “Sterile communication.” Her steps were more purposeful than usual, and the other three carrying heavy cases had to jog to keep up. Luckily, the apartment wasn’t too far, and as the front doors of the old, painted grey brick building came into focus, her eyes were on the security cameras, looking for movement. As they came into range, she could see they weren’t moving.

Pushing open the doors, three entered, while Clockwork kept his distance and went the long way around the building to avoid the doorman looking out the window and seeing him. He reached the back and pretended to be inspecting an electrical box while waiting. Ruby tipped her hat to the doorman behind a sliding glass pane, and he opened it without much suspicion. “The whole system’s down, thank god you’re here.”

Only Ruby spoke in the exact manner she did on the radio. “I am Sonia Kolotcha from TWS, and this is my team.” She unclipped her identification badge and produced her fraudulent NIC, motioning for the team to do the same. The team was glad for the rest, given the weight of the equipment. “Here is our identification. We need to inspect your server room and require the keys to it and the building so we may move equipment in and out.”

The doorman quickly scanned their CIDs, and looked to see if their work badges matched what came through. All three passed inspection, and he handed over the keys to the server room and one for the building. “How long do you think this will take?”

“There is no certainty, old-world servers when mixed with the new are full of bugs, far more than what we are here to correct. We may get lucky and find the problem quickly, but likely not.”

“Of course. Elevator’s just over there.” The doorman buzzed them in. The elevators were in his eyeline, with the number each was at above.

Ruby already knew this, “We must inspect the wiring at the back first.”

“Just bring those keys back when you’re done, or they’ll hang me off the top floor.”

Ruby decided to be personable. “Do not worry, if we are not able to fix this problem, we will be hanging beside you.” She smiled at the bit of dark humour before ushering the rest down the hallway. Tess and Harry had to look like they carried those cases all the time, and upon resting up gave it a burst of stamina to mask that what was inside was not relatively light cables and diagnostic terminals.

With Clockwork brought inside, Harry motioned for them to go back down the hall to the elevators, but Ruby pointed to the stairs. “Ruby, gran gran, you know we love you. But I’m not carrying these things up eighteen flights of stairs.” He protested.

Ruby made sure the door to the stairwell was shut before responding, “Seventeen, this building is old-world so there’s no thirteenth floor.”

“Even so.”

“Do you want to get caught?” Ruby looked him straight in the eye. “The doorman has a perfect eyeline to each number those elevators are on, never mind whoever might get on or worse, off, with us. Even if we took it to fifteen and started up there, we run the risk of being caught. Stairwells are the liminal space of apartments, especially on the higher floors. So, I’ll take one of the cases, then we’re all going to grab our gear, return to our TWS personas, suck it up, and make you a free Doll. Just keep thinking of what you’re going to do to that Makoto chick when this is over. Just make sure your cock doesn’t take up enough blood to keep your legs from moving. Up we go, people.”

Walking up the steep concrete steps of an apartment building, one whose paint was chipped and smelled faintly of dog urine, while lugging collectively hundreds of pounds of equipment wasn’t anyone’s idea of a good time, besides Clockwork. While his android body had its limits, the lack of lactic acid in his extremities meant that while sweat beaded down his co-worker’s foreheads, hats were removed, shirts unbuttoned, he was enjoying the ‘field trip’ with his peers.

At the landing for the 18^th floor, Ruby gave them a moment to rest. “Clean yourselves up and put your hats back on: you leave a bead of sweat on the floor and we’re fucked.” Ruby pulled out a rag and dabbed her forehead. “Catch your breath. I need to listen for movement. 1805 is around two corners, and we start at 1810, which means there’s multiple chances for us to be sighted by neighbours. When I give the signal, move.” She took out a key she commissioned which unlocked the physical lock of 1805’s door, and with the biometric check that would have required Makoto’s DNA knocked offline, they should have access. Feeling it in her hand, she tried not to think of Castle, Vela, or Jupiter who made the key. It was difficult, they had a dense decade of history and more than a few encounters after that. It wasn’t that she disliked them, she was relying on all three at that moment to stay out of prison, but the operation they were on, the timings and sterile communications, and secrecy, reminded her of a fateful night in May with them.

“I don’t hear anyone.” Ruby said.

“Neither do I.” Clockwork confirmed, attuning his hearing to footsteps and movement. There was some within a couple of the apartments, but nothing to indicate a potential encounter.

“Move, 1805. Now.”

Ruby reached 1805’s doorway efficiently and smoothly, sliding the key into place and opening the door without issue. Clockwork was inside next, followed by Tess, and then Harry. The moment Harry cleared the entranceway, Ruby made sure nothing was left on the floor outside before locking the door and allowing herself a sigh of relief.

The squad finally set down their cases. Tess headed for the kitchen before Ruby stopped her. “You have water bottles with you. You don’t touch anything you don’t need to, and you do not even look in her fridge. Don’t sit on the couch, don’t move anything you don’t need to, is that clear?”

“Aye, ya military nyaff.”

Ruby looked at her watch. “We confirmed she’s working a full-shift, so that gives us an hour-thirty minimum to set up. Take five, then get this place ready. We will not work with the assumption we have any more time than the minimum. Clockwork, how’s the code looking?”

“Brilliant, debugged, and ready to upload Harry’s requests. It’s ready at the garage, and I have the basic TSOS and persona copy program ready on this disk.” He held up a 3.5” Floppy Disk with a capacity of 1.4 exabytes, although there was still enough room for him to watch episodes of his favourite shows.

“Harry, how’s the generator?” Referring to the portable fusion generator.

Harry, still catching his breath, cracked open one of the cases and saw it resting unscathed. “Yeah, just- I need that five.”

“Tess, toss me the tape and plastic sheeting, I’ll start while you’re on your breather.”

Tess, sitting on one of the cases looked up at her. “How in the devil’s name are you still standing?! You smoke more than my nan.”

“I’ve got a chin-up bar and weights in my apartment, and my lungs repair the damage from smoking faster than it can be inflicted. Toss me the tape and sheets.”

Tess opened another case and threw Ruby a roll of petroleaf derived plastic, along with tape that was designed to both hold heavy loads, and to not leave any residue when removed. Extremely popular with people doing DIY home projects and serial killers. Ruby caught them and started the task of quietly moving furniture as little as was necessary to make room, measuring out sheeting, and preparing to leave no trace they were ever there.

Makoto Kitagawa, 19 years old, had been a Toronto resident her entire life. A member of the re-emerged ‘true middle-class’, she had plans to attend the University of Toronto’s law school upon completing her two-year diploma in New-World Finance. Her mother passed away at an early age, and she and her father had become estranged the moment she left home at 16. She had an older brother, but he had accepted a job in Washington State, and their communications were sparse as the two focused on their own lives. Makoto had only been living in the neighbourhood for three months, after relocating due to an incident with a neighbour. As far as target backgrounds went, while she had a close circle of friends, Harry lucked out in how few threads could lead to their actions. Her disappearance and the eventual recovery of a body altered to pass for hers (thanks to decomposition mixed with her DNA and dental impressions), would tell the story of a young woman who had an date to meet those friends at a local hang-out spot, but who took a wrong turn in an unfamiliar place and fell into Toronto’s most common cause of death: wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people; a story that wasn’t entirely untrue given the circumstances, but officially it would be determined it happened a couple kilometers north-east of where the truth lay.

Looks wise, she certainly got more than Harry’s attention. Young Asian women, particularly those from China, Korea, or Japan were still hot commodities. For that reason, as Ruby took her position to be obscured when Makoto opened the door, she knew that Makoto would be armed, and she’d need to Jupiter discharge it a few times with a glove imprinted with Makoto’s hand and DNA as part of the ‘story’. From scouting, Ruby could see she was certainly cute. She had that traditional Japanese ‘flour of youth’ vibe, was average height for her genetic background, quite thin, delicate looking. A face that was easy on the eyes, when they weren’t focused on her chest, which had developed just somewhat beyond what one would expect. Not Ruby’s type, but this was Harry’s Doll, so she could have looked like a rough sack of potatoes that had been left in the sun for a year and Ruby would have done it anyways. She never did quite get the appeal though, if her date couldn’t break her teeth (easily replaced, most people in Toronto opted for lower-maintenance implants) with a well-placed punch and looked like they had walked out of any of the four good Mad Max films, she wasn’t interested. Makoto was sweet looking, petite, and exactly the kind of girl that could (and maybe did) make cash on the side whoring herself out, even if Harry insisted that she’d never do that, despite having never spoken with the girl.

Decades ago, she could have made a killing as a cam girl or on OnlyFans. However, while the internet still existed, its localized nature coupled with the old-world generation’s trepidations about its use, and the new-world generations understanding it as a series of BBS and chat rooms with some video content, had returned its level of adoption of the late 1990’s. Never mind that reaching beyond the local net required purchasing additional bandwidth for transweb/ global connections and the internet had become much like the world, more localized communities with their own flavour, memes, and lexicon; a miniscule mote of what it was pre-K36, but one many argued was more vibrant and far less sanitized than the internet had become before it.

It did make collecting information on someone difficult. So little was there, social media died “the day it rained metal and fire”, and Harry had no access to the wealth of photos and videos he could have leered at like Ruby could have done in her time. For Ruby’s part, having watched the internet begin as a wild frontier only to be chained, bought, and sanitized, she preferred how things were now. Realizing what they were doing so perfectly aligned with what she hated quietly amused her.

Harry was strange around Makoto, had Ruby long since buried her moral compass in favour of an optimistically nihilist point of view, she would have denied him his target. Harry had a perfect image of who Makoto was but had only seen her through a glass pane or from across the street. Ruby knew whatever program he and Clockwork created to run as the ‘default personality’ wasn’t going to be Makoto, everything about that girl’s personhood wasn’t going to be co-opted but erased. Still, Harry was into her and insisted she was the one, and Ruby had included one free Doll for each of the squad, so the pretty little thing was going to die so some fantasy version of an Asian girlfriend, maid, sex slave, whatever Harry wanted, would be born.

When it came to Asian women, she did like the look and vibe of anime characters from shonen that came out of Japan though, especially stuff by the long-passed Studio TRIGGER, but she’d go to her grave before telling Harry that for fear of never hearing the end of a list of modern recommendations. Despite her desires on Halloween, she knew she’d never heard the end of it from him if she came down wearing her exceptional cosplay of Satsuki Kiryuin from Kill la Kill, something she occasionally wore around her apartment.

Never mind the fact that Ruby could tell fantasy from reality, something she wasn’t sure Harry could do. Then there was the fact that Ruby’s consumption of media only extended as far of things produced up to 2028; after that the ‘dead internet’ came to pass after unrestrained AI content generation. Even if it was better now post-K36 and new shows were thriving, she still had a sour taste in her mouth from the glut of hyper-capitalist vacuous crap spewed from every streaming service, theatre, and even bookstore; howling static noise that drowned out and/ or bankrupted genuine creatives.

Makoto made her last acts as a free woman as she turned her apartment key, opened the door, and wearily tossed them into a nearby bowl. She didn’t have enough time to react to how the door closed behind without her doing so, as Ruby with latex gloves, threw one hand over her mouth, and one elbow around her throat. Makoto went for where she hid her pistol, on the inside of her bolero, something Ruby was waiting for because now she didn’t need to guess its location. Disarming Makoto, she finished the task of slowly dropping an unconscious girl to the floor. There would be some bruising, but if they couldn’t fix that in an instant, then they would have no business being in their line of work.

Ruby locked the door, picked Makoto up, and laid her down on the folding table Tess had set up. “Hop to it.” Blueprints, parts, a laptop, and even a ‘paint can’ of T-3P (porcelain in appearance) skin enhancement had been sitting ready. “Harry? You with us?”

Harry had long set up the mini reactor, as they wouldn’t use any power beyond the light switches Ruby turned on to register a typical power draw for someone coming home. He stared at Makoto, as Tess put her under with more appropriate anesthesia than strangulation, it seemed the gravity of things had hit him.

“This is your one.” Ruby reminded him. “You don’t get another, not after the cash I’ve been laying out, and the time we’re all putting in. Get cold feet, and we go straight to disposal. She’s not waking up with a memory of what just went down.”

“Naw, it’s not that.” Harry grinned, “I just can’t believe it’s real.”

“Job’s not done yet.” Ruby began assisting Tess in removing Makoto’s clothing, which were carefully set aside in a pile. “I’ll leave it to you lot, I need to be downstairs pretending to work the servers. Time to completion?”

Tess had already begun destroying body hairs, marking where the augmentations would go, scanning for existing ones, and drawing on Makoto’s temple where she planned to do brain surgery. “No visible changes to the body- except the skin, but I have a make-up kit for that. This is mostly a neuro-mod case, with some enhancements to the cunt. Clockwork?”

“Once Tess installs the P/D Port, I can begin the upload. With the bandwidth we have available from my laptop, TSOS and partial-persona copy, we’re looking at two hours. Once it is back at the garage, Harry’s requests will take an additional six hours with a proper set-up.”

“Fucking wankstain!” Tess looked at Harry. “How much code you putting in this thing?”

Harry shrugged, “Ruby said I could have whatever I wanted.”

“So you ordered everything on the menu?! Aren’t you just gonna fuck it and have it do laundry? It’s gonna be a maid you fuck, right? Like on the old TV, little cafes, fawnin’ girls, then one of ‘em finds ‘erself in the middle of a bunch of men all blowing loads in her face? But just you, and- do you have any fuckin’ friends?”

“I don’t need to go into my fetishes or my life!” Harry defended himself. “I don’t have to go into what’s in that code!”

“I know what’s in that code.” Clockwork kept typing.

“And you’re keeping that between us, right?”

“I have yet to receive that box of real Cubans.”

“That shit’s taking forever to get out of there!” Harry sighed, “Hold out from blackmailing me a little while longer?”

“For a box of real Cubans, I will withhold explaining the depth of your perversions.” Clockwork smiled.

Ruby, listening to the exchange demanded, “I get one.”

“One cigar, or one… box?” Harry asked. “Because that one box cost me-“

Ruby hushed him. “I didn’t know those were still around. Are they old-world?”

“Cuba’s recovered a fair bit, they’re rolling again.”

“Huh, good for them. Then I want your Cuban contact’s info on my desk tomorrow, if you’re not too sore to call in sick.” Ruby picked up the cable for show and walked back to the door. “Time to log some bullshiting in the server room to maintain our cover.” She pressed her ear to the door and listened as two neighbours talked, before hearing their doors close and making her dash to the stairwell.

Approximately two hours later, Ruby looked at her watch after enduring having to improvise her way through a conversation with a neighbour as she ‘worked’. The cable was connected to a port that hadn’t worked since the old-age, and the other end fastened to one that she found deactivated. The neighbour had seen her go into the server room and had always wondered what was inside. He was kindly enough, an elderly man, and Ruby was amiable; despite the urge to slice an electrical wire and start scarring his hide was starting to become unbearable to resist. She slammed a panel in with force, dusted off her hands and told him that she needed to run diagnostics on some random floors.

“Can I come with you?”

“You watched me prod every chassis in here, and- don’t you need to get home to Betty?” She tapped her watch. “Dinner’s calling, my friend.”

“Oh! Yes, thank you.” The man smiled and turned, “I’ll get out of your hair. Thanks for helping us. Can I bring you any leftovers?”

“I’m actually hydro powered now.” She held up her water bottle. “Intestinal cancer a few years back.”

“Well…” He was unequipped for that response. “I hope TWS has a good benefits package.”

“It’s all right. One and a half months vacation, and…” She placed her hand on her belly. “Full year of maternity leave.”

The man patted her on the shoulder. “Atta girl! You keep on going! It’s nice to see the youths of the world getting back to starting families.” Ruby was twenty-two years older than him.

“That’s the plan, but this isn’t the only building I need to-“

“Right, I won’t stand in your way.” He stood off to the side against a server.

“You need to go first; I have to lock the room.”

“I metaphorically won’t stand in your way! Have a good night, mommy-to-be!”

When Ruby arrived back at the apartment, the plastic had been removed and boxed, the blood had been vacuumed and stored within a cannister inside, and standing in her original clothing was… “What are you calling it?”

“Makoto.” Harry beamed.

“You ever bring that thing outside your apartment you change its appearance first, then find a different fucking name, or I’ll skin you alive with a cheese grater.”

Clockwork gave his report: “Evidence has been contained. Dental impressions and sufficient amount of DNA taken. Tess has successfully performed all implants, and as you can see, done a fine make-up job to make her look like she did before. I assure you; it is a porcelain doll underneath. As for the code, it has enough to appear human, and the knowledge it requires to for the final stage.”

“Good, let’s get out of this place. Remember, we need to inspect a few more buildings before we meet back up with Castle and Vela. If one crew shows up to one building on the night one girl disappears, that security guard or the prick I had to talk to for two hours downstairs might connect it to us. So, let’s get this started…” She walked up to Makoto. “On. Prepare for commands.” Nothing happened, Ruby realized her mistake. “Right, Harry, you’re up. Exactly like I told you.”

“Right… um…” He was a little nervous but saw Ruby tapping her watch. “On. Prepare for commands.”

Makoto’s eyes opened, she stood perfectly straight, clasped both hands down in front of her but didn’t respond as her fully programmed self would. “Accepting commands.”

Harry tried to recall the script Ruby drilled into him. “Personality: Makoto. Directive: Leave this apartment, tell the doorman you’re going to see friends, then head south to Broadlands Park. There is a shopping plaza and a series of roads to the South-West of Royal Doulton Drive and Castlegrove Boulevard. There will be a large storage facility there. Ruby will hand you a key before you leave, open storage bay 057 at street level, enter and close the door behind you, then power off. Do not tell anyone there were people in your apartment or make any unnecessary contact with others. Understood?”

Its personality changed, but it was still a Doll. “Yep, got it. I’ll head right out, and I know the place you mentioned.”

Harry never actually heard Makoto speak before. It was a confusing moment for him, but he wasn’t about to give up his lifelong fantasy. “Execute commands.”

As Makoto turned, Ruby handed her the locker key, and she slipped it into her purse. She immediately fished the keys from the bowl in the foyer and left, locking the door behind her.

Ruby gave one last scan of the apartment. “Got everything?”

“We went over it with a fine-toothed comb.” Clockwork actually produced one of those, ivory with platinum accents. Strange for a man with no hair. “All gear is loaded and ready.”

“Let’s get outta this fucking pastel hellscape.” Tess looked around at Makoto’s décor. “So, you’re saying we still got work to do?”

“We still have work to fake. Three more buildings. Me and Tess will take 31, Clockwork and Harry take 32 and 33. Just fiddle with shit and hope no one’s friendly towards you. Don’t take too long, say the diagnostic ran smooth or some shit, then meet back at the van. Go in pairs, TWS never sends just one person. Got it?” They nodded. “Then get to bullshitting, y’all should be great at that.”

“Why does Tess only get one?” Harry asked.

“Because we just spent all goddamn day making you an Asian French maid, which isn’t even done yet, and Clockwork can say your diagnostics went so fast because he’s a fucking android. Besides, I need a fucking smoke break and some quiet.”

“You chose Tess for that?”

“Harry, I will march over to that locker and smash her to pieces.”

“Right, boss. Excellent choice boss.” Harry even saluted a little, which he noticed made her slightly uncomfortable.

“Bullshit. Then van. ASAP. Go.”

It was during their ‘work, when they were alone in Building 31’s server room that Tess spoke to Ruby in a way the others couldn’t get away with. “You might be smart, but I’m a fuckin’ genius.” She kept fiddling with wires. “The name you chose, it’s Polish but also used in that mess that used to be the Russian Federation. That state died in ’41 after NATO snuck its way to everything keeping it alive and shattered the country like glass across Asia, on one fateful May Day. Your codename’s both a cry for help, and the day Moscow would have had tens of millions of extra Russian patriots crammed into it. But I’m sure that’s a big fuckin’ coincidence, miss thirty-something lookin’ centennial.”

Ruby looked to Tess, “Maybe it’s because I’m so fucked in the head that I’ve spent time under guardianship of the state.”

“Yeah.” Tess knew, and Ruby knew it. “Just a theory, doesn’t matter to me either way. Not even worth mentioning at the sorry excuse for a pub we’ve got close by.”

Ruby nodded to Tess and finished their bullshitting. “I heard most of the pilots and crew that day died shortly after, anyways, and Ruby Eve spends her days flying under NATO’s radar, not being feted by them.”

“She can sure splice a good NIC though.”

Ruby admitted the truth, “I’m not the smartest woman, a century can leave the un-augmented brain a fucking jumble even if it was returned to its youth. I’m just getting by on what I know. It’s why I need someone like you.”

“You ever think of getting some augments? You’re the only one of us without at least something. Give me an hour and you could manage that mind better.”

“Call me an old bitty stuck in her ways. When I was your age, augments were first coming on the scene, but all owned by megacorps. The thought of sticking something by Apple in my brain was enough to turn me off the idea. Those that did lost a modicum of control, they became bound to a company and occasionally, before K36, those companies tested the limits of what they could feed those implants.”

“So no irony about what we do then? You got a fear of losing control, but we make our living doing extreme measures of what you just described.”

Ruby shrugged, closing the last panel. “I’m no masochist, and no one owns me. Doesn’t mean I can’t delight in it happening to others.” She helped Tess to her feet, holding her hand and looking to her eyes. “That’s something we share, lass. Isn’t it?”

Tess for her part lightly punched Ruby in the shoulder. “Best job I’ve fuckin’ held, but I’m in it for the process. All that blood, the grey matter, snapping vertebrae, installing a whole new person into what used to be someone else’s body. Yeah… I hear ya, Canuck. I hear ya louder than anyone in Raccoon City [Toronto’s unofficial nickname, replacing Hogtown which was long forgotten].”

Ruby placed her hand on the door, “Sterilized communication, cover back up. Let’s get out of here.”

Castle and Vela had been passed by dozens and dozens of people, and not a soul thought to speak to them. They were running out of ways to fake fixing the problem they created, and Castle even had to be on the radio a few times with TWS about progress, making something up about vandalism and acid. It worked, with the renewed reliance on physical cables, acid was an easy thing to covertly drip onto exposed cables and cause some headaches. If any seeped through a cable box’s lining, it would take time to repair. Vela even made it sound like she was removing damaged panels and replacing them, by banging on the ones that were there.

Salvation came when they saw Ruby and Tess arrive and could make out Harry and Clockwork not far behind. That was the signal, and Vela made a ‘breakthrough’. Within seconds biometrics and camera feeds for the apartment block were restored. Castle called it in, much to the relief of dispatch, and the six loaded back into the van.

Castle took the wheel and before heading to the TWS lot, he pulled the van into a vacant side-street a short walk from the storage locker. The squad exited and began making their way towards it, but Castle and Vela called Ruby back to them and she obliged. The Toronto Servos crew watched as Ruby, Castle, and Vela talked. They did so in hushed tones, but it was clear it wasn’t just about the job.

Ruby lit a cigarette and offered them one each, which they took. As they did, Castle and Vela shook her hand. Ruby admitted, “I’m glad to see you two well, and Jupiter really came through. Give him my regards.” Sticking to business Ruby remembered. “You two remember where I stashed your fee?”

Castle seemed disappointed. “Only business? I don’t care about the cash.”

“He does not speak for me!” Vela laughed.

Castle smiled, “That all you have to say, Air Marshal?”

“We’re not NATO officers anymore, no more of that, please.”

“I had hoped…” Castle struggled to find the words. “I had hoped that time had healed the wound, Mayday. We did a good thing.”

“You’re going to have to accept me for who I am now. You knew our part in Operation Daybreak would leave us different people than those who took off from that runway.”

Vela proudly stated, “Our part in Operation Daybreak was the main event!”

Ruby continued, ignoring her. “I’m Ruby Eve. I’m not Air Marshal Aarre, she died the moment my boots hit the pavement upon return.”

Vela and Castle understood. He suggested, “Then sometime, let’s meet Ruby Eve, sound good?”

Ruby stamped out her cigarette before lighting another. “Another time. Another place. Why not?” She looked at the two of the three other people who sat in that cockpit with her. “But I don’t want to talk about Moscow.”

Castle quietly nodded, “We can meet each other, all over again.”

“Aren’t you two fucking married?”

They had removed their wedding rings for the job and wouldn’t slip them on again until they had returned the van and even clocked out. Vela chuckled, “Don’t worry, you won’t be a third wheel.”

Ruby looked to her squad. “Jobs not done. Let’s wait eight months, then if you still want to talk to the cantankerous old Inkeri Aarre who became the cantankerous young Ruby Eve again, we can. Now, let’s close this out.”

Castle sat back in his seat and slotted the key into the car’s ignition. He gazed across the street and uttered, “That is the target.”

Vela held up an imaginary key and agreed, “That is the target.” They looked to Ruby.

Nostalgia, the pain of remembering what could never occur again. Slowly, out of sight from the squad, she held up another imaginary key and confirmed, “That is the target. On mark. 3-2-1-Mark.” Castle turned the ignition and held it there, while simultaneously Vela and Ruby twisted their imaginary keys. They held it like that for seven seconds, before Ruby reached to the popped-up locking pin on Castle’s side and pressed it down. “Mayday.” She brushed back a tear.

“What do you think they did with our keys?” Castle asked.

“The whole craft got melted down to nothing, they erased it from this Earth. I heard they threw them in there, along with everything else, and just melted it in a giant vat. Didn’t even extract the metals.”

“I heard similar.” Ruby nodded. “Regardless, give Jupiter my regards, and tell him he was the best pilot who ever drew breath. But we still have work to do. I’ll see you lovebirds again, sometime and somewhere.” Ruby let the van go, before slowly walking back to the squad.

As they walked between buildings to the storage unit, Harry asked, “What were you guys talking about?”

Ruby kept it short, “Three old fossils talking about work.”

“And what work was…” Harry trailed off, he realized he wouldn’t get anything more.

The four arrived at the storage locker, luckily without another soul in sight, and storage facilities which kept tabs on their clients’ use tended to go out of business weeks after they opened in Toronto. Ruby tossed Harry the key, “The honour is all yours.”

Inside was an old car bought in cash, bags of their normal clothing, and one Doll standing perfectly still and offline. The squad dressed in their street clothes, and Ruby collected their uniforms, badges, plastic sheeting, the entire blood vacuum with the blood collected in its cannister, and false NICs; throwing it all into a duffel bag she zipped up, along with the empty bags which had held their clothing. The equipment they used for Makoto’s conversion to Toronto Servos cases, while the TWS cases were filled back with their proper gear, with all serial numbers matching up with their location along with every component and the cases being sanitized of every trace. While Clockwork and Tess got in the back seats, Harry walked to the Doll and commanded: “Prepare for commands.”

Makoto’s eyes opened, still blank and running on basic programming. “What is your command, Master?”

“Climb in the trunk and go offline.”

“Understood.” Makoto had the motor control to curl up in the trunk, a sight which Harry took a little too long to admire before Ruby threw the duffel bag over her without ceremony.

“Job’s not done yet.”

Pulling into the back of Toronto Servos which had been closed due to deep cleaning, which wasn’t a lie, Ruby had hired a couple other contacts to legitimately give the garage a scrub. They were long gone by the time the squad arrived, along with the brown paper envelopes with their pay. The private parking area behind the garage had fences designed to prevent prying eyes; tall steel alternating slats fused together; a heavy, solid gate that required one of their biometric signatures and real NICs to enter; and for “patriotism” a large South-Canada flag had been fastened flat up and over the carpark to obscure any overhead view. It made moving the Doll Makoto into the garage safe.

As soon as Tess plugged Makoto in, beers were cracked and the four clinked the four synthsilica glass bottles together. Then the fatigue set in, and Tess decided to grab a few more beers and lay on one of the normal bay tables while Clockwork tipped his hat and went home.

After Ruby came back from throwing the entire duffel bag into an atomizer downstairs, she heard Tess exclaim, “Aw, shit!” Tess had forgotten one thing. She went to Makoto and placed an ugly skin-hugging mask on her, along with tying her hair back. “That’ll do.” She waltzed back to her bay and hopped back on, gulping down her beers.

“You can go home, Tess.”

“I ain’t going home, I’m going to fucking light this town up!” Tess sat up and tossed down one of the bottles, it shattered on impact and Ruby threw a broom at her.

“Finish your drink, finish cleaning the glass, and go home. Get some rest. You’ve got work tomorrow.” Ruby sighed, bending down to pick up a shard. She considered it for a moment, such a perfectly sharp little blade, before tossing it towards Tess.

Hours later, Ruby and Harry sat alone when they heard the upload cycle complete. Ruby sat the offline Doll up and put a hoodie over it, fitting its arms through the sleeves. “Take it home, and have fun, but your obsession in preserving what Korea practically mass-produces is a liability.”

“I know. I’ll change her appearance if she ever leaves the apartment and give her a new name.”

“Windows? What does your apartment look out at?”

“Lake Ontario. Right on the water.”

“Fine.” Ruby stretched and decided to leave. “Enjoy your freebie. Job complete.”

“Care to come over? Just to see?”

“You know, Harry, I like you. But the last thing I want to see is what you’re going to do with that thing.”

“I’ll keep it clean. Or- she uh- it?”

“You choose its pronouns.”

“Well, she’ll keep it clean. On my orders.” Harry liked saying that. “It’s Liberty Village, I’ve got a great view of the island, and a bottle of Niagara ’55 Red I’ve been saving for this day. Whatcha say, boss?”

Ruby threw up her arms and accepted. “Let me grab a few things, then I’ll get in my car and follow yours.”

The doorman was easy to bypass. Harry was a tenant, and guests were allowed. The disguised Makoto had been activated to the point of being able to walk and say basic phrases, but the true programming still lay dormant. As for Ruby, while the doorman gave her a particularly close look before her gazed practically pierced his soul.

Sixteen floors up, in apartment 1602, Ruby didn’t find what she was expecting. It was far more tasteful than she had imagined. The furniture and walls were nicely coordinated and maintained, there wasn’t what her time would have called ‘weeabo trash’ everywhere, or empty bottles or takeout containers, it looked like the apartment befitting a man in his late 20’s.

With the door locked, they could finally remove the hideous mask Tess had chosen. Makoto was still in a low-operating setting, and Harry excitedly asked, “Now?”

“Go for it.” Ruby didn’t pay much attention to the Doll Makoto’s real awakening, instead she the apartment. There were a few odds and ends on the floor, and the kitchen could use a good scrubbing. Things had been tidied, but there was dust everywhere. “You really could use a maid.”

“Well, I got one!” Harry had brought Makoto to his room, where he had a uniform specifically tailored to her size (based on photographs taken when she left work). “Say hello to Ruby, Makoto.” Makoto stepped out from behind him in a uniform that showed more restraint than Ruby was expecting. Truthfully, she expected a maid bikini. Instead, Makoto was in black heels, stockings, with frilly garters, leading up to a short skirt with a tiny apron, and a laced-up top which held her tits snugly, white frills along the straps. It wasn’t bad.

Makoto spoke with the kind of energy you’d expect at a maid café, so Ruby wasn’t too far off the mark in guessing the default personality. “Hello, Ruby! You must be a guest of Master! Or do you belong to him as well? We could-“

“That’s my co-worker! Co-worker!” Harry managed to save his life. He quickly moved on to testing. “We’re going to hang on the couch, you got my apartment schematic uploaded, right?”

“I have everything I need to serve you, Master!”

“Open the red wine bottle, the ’55 Niagara, and bring us two glasses.”

“As you command.”

Ruby found herself sitting next to Harry and enjoying her time. “You know apart from that one shelf over there of anime girls bent over, and/ or being fucked by tentacles, this place is pretty tasteful. But Satsuki Kiryuin would allow herself to be taken so easily though, that’s a pretty cheap, unrealistic piece of lurid tat.” A mistake.

“I knew you liked the classics! I knew it! I felt it in my bones!”

“Yeah, and I like to keep it to the classics when it comes to anime, so…” She trailed off when offered wine in a highball glass, from a white plate. “You don’t have any wine glasses, or a tray?”

“Do I look like Clockwork?!”

“You have a maid, get her some accessories!”

“Can I have money to buy accessories?”

“From your paycheque, yes.” She looked at him for a moment. “You’re twenty-seven, actually twenty-seven, not two-year gene bath young like me…”

“Is that a problem?”

“No.” Ruby sipped her wine; it was rather good. “But not everyone gets to start over like me. Use this thing to elevate your apartment, start dating some girls. I’m sure a lot of them would be into using her as well, practically the whole world went bi sometime in the 50’s… I don’t get it, but then I don’t really care.”

Harry ventured a guess, “Those mercenaries you hired, you mentioned three fossils, did they get the same treatment as you?”

Makoto interrupted, bending over at the waist to Harry. “Master, is there anything else you desire.”

“Get on my lap.” He needed to hide an erection from his boss. She did happily, crossing her legs and leaning back against him. He finally could grab those tits he had been spying on for months.

Ruby wasn’t concerned and kept sipping her wine. “Yeah, we all had ‘the bath’.”

“How’d you afford that? I know you’ve got cash, but that kind of treatment isn’t even for basic trillionaires, it’s for the trillionaires that could buy and sell their asses.” He thought a moment, even if Makoto’s ass pressed against his pants was making it hard. “Not even military service would get you that, not unless you did something spectacular, which I think you did.”

Ruby played it cool, “And what makes you say that?”

“Your planning, code names, tactics. You were covert ops, weren’t you? You were old so you must have made rank, and then you did something and I’m guessing NATO liked enough that they gave you the treatment.”

Swallowing the rest of her drink, and denying Makoto’s offer to get her more, she placed the glass on a side table. “Yeah, I did covert ops in the 30’s, pre and post K36. Went a little into the forties, climbed rank, and they gave me the bath.”

“If I ask you what you did, you won’t tell me.”

“It’s still classified.” She gave Makoto another look, two days ago she saw her working the coffee shop. Now she was destined to a life of service. It didn’t bother her, it even excited her a little, but the day had delved deeper into her past than she was comfortable with. “Thank you for the wine. Your place is a shitstain compared to Clockwork’s, but I suppose all of ours are. Get that maid on cleaning up the dirt, get her a feather duster, you’ll love it. In fact…” Ruby reached into her leather bag and put one in Makoto’s hands. “Can I make a suggestion?”

“Hey, thanks, and sure.”

“I don’t know what you’re into but given your erection the moment I leave you’re just gonna fuck it. Don’t do that, don’t bang a Doll like that for your first time. Here, tell her to listen to my command.” Harry told the Doll to listen to Ruby. She strode over to the Doll, gripped the back of its hair, looked deep into its eyes, bent it back slightly and nearly putting her lips to its, she commanded: “Dust and dirt is such a turnoff, you hate it. This apartment’s full of it, and that makes you sad and dry. So, you’re going to start cleaning, and the more you clean, the hotter you’re going to get, it’s going to be so fucking hot to see the kitchen wiped clean. Your cunt’s gonna be aching for Master’s touch, you’re going to be begging him to cum even before you’ve done the bedroom, but you can’t touch yourself, and you can’t cum, until he tells you. And he won’t, not until this place is fucking spotless. Got it?”

“Yes, Ruby. There’s too much dust.”

“Then fix that.” Ruby released the Doll and winked at Harry. “Enjoy the show.”

Arriving back at Toronto Servos after late at night, Ruby flicked her cigarette out the window as she got out of her car. Going in through the back into and through the garage, past the front desk, up the stairs in the lobby, through the lounge, drawing back a simple blue, white, and gold drape, she placed her hand firmly against a false wall, it slid open revealing another staircase. Lighting another cigarette on the way up, where its scent joined the legion of its fallen brothers, the false wall closed flush behind her. Tossing her pistol on the living room coffee table, with featured a clutter of fetish and Toronto sports magazines, an ash tray needing to be emptied, and a scale model of the USS Enterprise-D from Star Trek: The Next Generation, she grabbed some nutrition pellets from the kitchen and ate until full. Checking her watch, it was far too late, but she didn’t prepare for bed just yet.

Instead, she went to her office and opened a safe embedded in the wall, one requiring a passcode, biometric scan, and her NIC. Inside were typical things you’d expect to find; a dozen bound stacks of NATO marks; one bundle of old Canadian money from both the paper and polymer days; a photo she took of a dead raccoon laying on Yonge St. where people had added to an increasingly elaborate memorial to it; an envelope stuffed with photographs and cards of sentimental nature; blackmail material on a few people; a small stack of fake NICs and corresponding passports, all of which could pass high-level checkpoints, each pair for a different persona; a tall, bound stack of practically ancient currency totalling $4.65 in Canadian Tire money; along with a few other relics. She pushed some items aside, because the safe had a false bottom, and an invisible keypad which only allowed two attempts before electrocuting the user. She tapped at the metal, and a slot opened. Inside was a single item.

It was a simple, blue velvet box. Emblazoned on the top was the white NATO logo. Taking a long drag, she tossed her cigarette aside onto the stone floor and trepidatiously opened it. On the inside of the top, pristine white letters read:

“The new-world didn’t begin in 2036, it began in 2041 when one woman made the decision to create it.”
– NATO Supreme Commander, Gerald Kasa

NATO Operation: Daybreak
Moscow, Russian Federation - May 1^st, 2041 @ 22:10:49 GMT+3
SAAB Spectre-4 Stealth Bomber – 75mt Single Payload
Commanding Officer: Sky Marshal Inkeri Aarre

Eve’s eyes slowly drifted down, to what the box contained. It was a simple piece of equipment, banal to most eyes. Metal casing, screw holes for where a plastic shield once was, a tangle of wiring that had been snipped off beneath, all connected to a simple metal red button with faint circular pronounced grooves. When she saw it, all the light and heat of the world couldn’t amount to what Ruby felt strike across her face. It was blinding, agonizing, yet for one moment she abandoned all pretence that she didn’t revel and delight in the memory of when her finger met that red metal.