Just Water under the Bridge
I
“Good morning, sir.” The small hologram said calmly. It was his personal computer installed in the house and individualized by a complex system of 3D projectors and speakers to make it more real. It looked like an old robot, with antennas above his head, but it was similar to a small animal.
“Ah,” Fernando said, also calmly. “Hi, Nuktuk.”
“Do you want me to open the curtains, sir?” Nuktuk asked.
“Yes, please. Ah, don’t forget to start the toaster.”
“I won’t forget, sir. Remember that tonight is the Department’s Party.” The hologram vanished.
“Ok, thank you.”
Fernando stood up right after the curtains were fully open, letting the sunlight warm the room. He got dressed, getting ready for a new day out. He was a police officer and by that year, that occupation was not really popular, prestigious nor public. It was something he liked to do, but he was busy at traffic monitoring. That was a boring job. The traffic system was fully controlled and automated. The drivers had to ask for changing altitude and speed; there hasn’t been a car crash in years. Fernando’s job was just stand at his working station and wait.
The CTS – Central Traffic System, was a huge project created 30 years before whose function was to stop car accidents in the streets of São Paulo. Before that, the flying cars had independent navigation systems that prevented them from crashing. But they crashed a lot. Some traffic scientists managed to develop a traffic control which would be human-free, and all the cars would be connected to a central station. They made it.
The interesting part of their project was that it matched the necessities of the growing city: there were lots of really tall buildings with hundreds of floors. It was not possible to have the cars going back to the ground so the scientists suggested that there would be several skyways along each two floors in which the cars would circulate. If they wanted to change, they would have to press a button and inform the CTS, who would permit the car’s changing of altitude and speed according to the skyway’s availability.
Of course many people protested of having their driving freedom taken away, but something had to be done. So they tested it in Manaus and after three years they tested it in São Paulo. It was a success.
Fernando bought his flying car six months after he got his job at the Police Department and it was parked inside his floor’s parking lot. He reached it and pressed the start button.
“Corner of Runa Sky e Up&High buildings.” Fernando sent the command to the car that sent the command to CTS. The car started his way and left the building.
Fernando started his turn as a traffic monitor in the corner of two big avenues. Normally he wouldn’t do anything, but as soon as he started feeling sleepy, a big car showed up flying slowly. Legaly, that car shouldn’t be there: it was slow because the higher the cars are, the lighter they are, or they will consume an amount of fuel sufficient for powering a small house. The car, a big gray SUV, should be moving over wheels, and not by massive propellers. When the technology of the flying cars was created, they could lift only some centimeters from the ground. Scientists found that the weight of the car was the problem. They managed to put only the necessary of a car inside its structure using lighter materials, so the advances for having cars flying so high happened really fast: in only 20 years they were ready – in a profitable way – for selling.
Having a big car too high wasn’t common, at all. There was something wrong or someone is just so rich that is trying to spend some of his savings creating customized cars – big cars, able to reach this height. The gray car entered the Up&High by one of its lateral doors. It didn’t appear in Central Traffic System’s real time report for the building.
Fifteen minutes passed and Fernando started to wonder what that car would be doing inside the building. The Up&High was not a big building – it was tall, but not big – and there were many conference rooms inside it. It was there the place for tonight’s party… Maybe he could enter the building and check what the car was doing under the excuse to check how things in the party were doing. Fernando had been assigned to that function, but refused. He hold some air and hit the button START in the car’s panel, but before he could give any instruction for the car, the grey SUV left the building faster than it had entered.
Fernando quickly decided that he would follow the car. There was no time to waste. He pressed the button to start the car and heard the welcoming tone.
“Enter Maria Figueiredo Skyway.” Fernando said to the car and it followed the instruction, going down the avenue.
“Turn left on Avenida Paulista Skyway.” The car followed the instruction again. Fernando pressed a button in the panel of the car. “Permission for going higher altitude. Detective Fernando Lopes inscription number 92555.”
The automated system took a while to answer. “Sorry sir, the skyway is full; want to go upper altitudes?”
“No, that’s fine.” Fernando said.
Luckily, there were a lot of cars in the city that day and two blocks later, Fernando managed to reach the car. They were flying slower due to regular skyways maintance. Fernando typed some instructions in the board computer and a small hologram appeared in the front glasses of the car. It showed every single car within the radius of 300 meters, but the car Fernando was following. The car was invisible to the CTS and could move freely. That was what happened.
While Fernando and other hundreds of other drivers were slower the gray SUV simply moved out of the skyway, reaching higher altitudes and faster speeds. That was the conclusion Fernando was trying to come up with: the car wasn’t following Sao Paulo’s Traffic System.
Fernando got to his apartment very tired. His morning hadn’t been so tiring, but he had spent the rest of the day in mental workout, trying to discover to what direction the mysterious car had gone but he failed. He could only imagine what kind of illegal things one could do with a car not connected to the central system. The Central Traffic System was really good to keep traffic in good conditions, but even better to control citizens’ movements. He knew – concerning his occupation as police officer – that was a bad thing, but that was the best way to have really working flying systems.
“Nuktuk?” He asked the air. A small hologram appeared in front of him.
“Yes, sir?” The image of the small robot answered.
“I want you to search on the internet and on the police database for news and registers of an invisible car. I’m taking a bath. Do not interrupt me.” He said, undressing.
“Ok, sir.” The small hologram disappeared.
When Fernando left the shower, Nuktuk had the results done. It showed them in one of the various screens in the small apartment.
“There are only two results, sir.” The small robot appeared in the screen.
“Where are they from?” Fernando asked, curious.
“One is from the police department and the other is from the F-Metropolitan, but the first one…”
“Show me the article from the Metropolitan first.” Fernando interrupted.
“Ok.”
First in 15 years!
CAR ACCIDENT IN SAO PAULO!
Sao Paulo, December 13th, 2077. Authorities have confirmed that the fire in the northern part of the city was caused by a car crash early this morning. They still haven’t explained why it happened, but some witness saw the car, a gray SUV flying over safe speed before hitting one of the basement walls of a condominium. “It was flying really fast, and very close to the ground! It’s been a long time since I saw the last accident!”, said one of the workers in the area. Our traffic specialists remember that this is the first time a flying car crashes in fifteen years. We’ll bring further comments in the next editions.
“Did they write anything after that?” Fernando asked.
“No. If they did, they have deleted it.”
“Hum…” Fernando analyzed the article for a while. “Show me the report from the department.”
“I’m sorry, sir, but your credentials do not allow me to access the files. They were tagged with car and invisible, but I cannot open it. They are coded under /001 security.”
“High security… I don’t understand… As an operator of the system I should have access. I’m talking to Dorian. What is the code of the files?”
“SP77-2674/001.”
“OK.” He answered and went to the Police Department.
…
He got to his room at the incredibly huge building, in which were located both the police department and the server for the CTS. Fernando tried once more to access the files with his credentials, without being successful.
/001. That’s something really important going on around here. He kept his gaze at his tablet, waiting for it to present him the answers. His boss, Dorian approached. He was as tall as a door and had his body thin and strong, as if he was always ready to start a fight. His hair was as straight as a ruler and really dark. And he was a long-term friend.
“Fernando!” Dorian greeted Fernando very happily. “Thought you had your afternoon off…”
“Yeah… Something… unexpected happened today.” He answered.
“Are you checking a girl’s profile again?” Dorian got closer. “Feel grateful I am your boss; it could be like any heartless person in the world and fire you.” He laughed aloud.
“I’m not doing that! Today I saw a big SUV up at the 300th floor! It had Massive Propellers!
“Well,” Dorian said, not worried. “maybe it’s a very rich man who doesn’t know how to spend his money…”
“That was my first guess, but then I tried to get information about the car using the tracking system from CTS and the car wasn’t there.” Fernando paused and looked at the computer turned on. “Something’s wrong, Dorian…”
“Did you check your sensors?”
“I didn’t, but I’m sure…”
“Man, it’s the procedure.” Dorian interrupted. “You have to check your sensors. Sometimes they stop working.”
“I see…” That discussion wasn’t going anywhere and Fernando was tired of arguing. Dorian checked the screen of the computer and saw what Fernando was looking for.
“Case SP77-2674/001.” Dorian read aloud. “Well, I remember this. You shouldn’t worry about this, Fernando. That is water under the bridge!” He laughed. Fernando tried to, but didn’t do it. “These invisible cars are a bug in the CTS that our computer experts have been trying to correct since December, after that car fall…”
“Ah! I think I got stressed…” Fernando had a plan and needed Dorian to go. “Come here and give me a hug! It will be difficult to congratulate my best friend when he’s going to be surrounded by dozens of people congratulating him for receiving a medal!”
They hugged, happily and Fernando managed to steal Dorian’s credential from his jacket.
III
He chose the most isolated computer terminal available in the police department by that time and turned it on, inserting Dorian's card when asked. He had access now to every single case in the last 5 years – corresponding to the time Dorian had been working there. Fernando had been there for 2 years because Dorian had recommended him. He had just quit a private guard company and was looking for a job. After a 5 minute conversation, Dorian put Fernando in the police department. When the computer was ready, Fernando typed the information he needed in the panel.
SP77-2674/001.
Please, wait.
…
Report SP77-2674/001
São Paulo, December 15th, 2077.
Report by Greg Terence and Isaac Stroke
Vehicle description: Customized gray SUV
The vehicle was found burning under a bridge, many meters from the first flying zone, and based on observations on the angle of its fall and witnesses comments we concluded that it was really fast. The CTS responded that no car had made any change regarding the speed or the flying zone. Only a traffic camera was able to record its fall and it was fast enough to go to Japan in some hours. The car hit the ground strongly, creating a big hole in the ground next to a condominium – which had most part of its walls from the basement destroyed. The building structures were not damaged. We found illegal substance inside the car. We also noticed that this car had no CTS Link, which makes communication with CTS impossible. The Massive Propellers of it were customized, stronger than the ones sold to the common customer, making it possible to carry heavy things freely in the different circulation zones of Sao Paulo’s skyways. Our conclusion is that someone may have altered the car’s system to be invisible for CTS and being able to use the skyways freely, without having to ask for permission to change altitude or speed as a consequence. We believe that this car was manually controlled.
End of the report.
Next page: CSI Specific reports (Not Available)
The description of the car matched the description of the car Fernando had watched entering the building and having the propellers more powerful explain why it was so fast when moving across the circulation zones. But what was the car transporting? Were the substances similar? Should they start investigating the owners of the Up&High? It had to be a lot of coincidence for these two events to be separated. Fernando decided that he would talk to Dorian once more about it during the night. He knew it wasn’t the best place to have the conversation he wanted, but Fernando had the feeling of a bomb about to explode. They had to be fast.
By the beginning of the night, Fernando arrived at the Up&High’s Conference Room for the party. When he entered the big saloon, there was a cascade of water. He had never seen such a demonstration of richness. Since he was born, there’s a shortage of water, which every citizen should obbey. Time passed, the World’s population grew in numbers and water became a very expensive good. It didn’t run out, as some experts from the beginning of our century used to say, but it was indeed a problem. The water today is the great responsible one for our expensive bills.
Where did the Department get money to fund all this water? And it’s just a ceremony of promotion… How did all this water come up here? Wait… What if…
Fernando’s line of thought was interrupted by Dorian’s speech.
“Tonight, we are celebrating this medal that is not mine. It is yours. The problems of last week were solved with everyone’s help. Without you the burglars from the…” Dorian continued his speech for fifteen minutes and the last sentence he used called Fernando’s attention: “and this is water under the bridge…”
Once Dorian had finished, Fernando got closer to him.
“Water under the bridge, uh?”
And they started partying.
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