The City of (Fallen) Angels

[Mogar]

The real problem of humanity is the following: we have paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and god-like technology.

 

—  E.O. Wilson

With the world around silent, Los Angeles had swollen to a city of nearly forty million, quickly rising to rival Seoul and Tokyo for largest city within the Imperium and the world. Of course with such a dramatic population increase and hundreds of thousands of new arrivals a month, crime was a constant problem for the local Law enforcement. Surveillance was the easiest aspect but only prevented crimes in the commercial districts, the poorer residential areas were polluted with criminals and the dregs of society, but the city kept growing and the wealthy had long since retreated to their towers of glass and steel, turning a blind eye to the problems of the lower city.

Though it was the City of Angels, the majority of the population felt that the gods had long since abandoned them. The Syndicate had absorbed the vast majority of the various gangs that had plagued the city before the Imperium's arrival, maintaining far more organization over the prostitution and drug trades that had filled their coffers with billions in profits that were quickly laundered through various banks under shell corporations. Ironically, the level of legitimacy required for such endeavors had meant the Syndicate had to behave just like any other corporation within the Imperium, even sponsoring several of the Formula One cars in the Imperium's global circuit. Kobayashi Corp, one of the companies originally set up to simply shovel ill gotten capital into, had managed to transform itself into a media giant, turning a healthy profit even before considering the Syndicates "cash infusions".

Upon the Grand Prix of Long Beach is where our story begins, it was a typical race, with the exception of several of the audience members, the CEOs of several of the sponsors were all in a sky-box watching the race, Kelly Kobayashi had noticed her prey as he entered the spacious room. Most of the rich and powerful had augmentations that were unnoticeable beyond a metal detector or an X ray scanner, but it wasn't as though MoG[Corp]'s CEO was a normal case. The metal upon his right forearm showed clearly, allowing several small holographic projector to be open and easily used. She smiled as he walked up to the window next to her, looking down at the cars darting around the race track at over two hundred miles an hour.

A blank expression crossed his face for a moment, running a quick check to ensure he addressed her properly. "Ms. Kobayashi, I wouldn't have taken you for a racing fan."