The City Mole
By Alan Jones, first published in The City: A Cyberfunk Anthology
The narrator, an adult Black man, needs to make a quick buck and decides to go into mole removal for a shady contractor. Instead of an in-and-out job, it becomes a lot more complicated when secrets and ulterior motives are revealed.
Author
Published in
Year
Plot Summary
John H. is an unknown man. He does not remember too much about what happened to him, but he does know one thing. The rent is due soon and he doesn't have any money. In order to avoid eviction, John decides to look at the wanted ads and finds a simple job that is paying really well. He has to remove moles from the city's sewer system. No big deal right? So he takes on the job and meets Chuck, a short, fat, shady contractor, and Carla, his lovely assistant. John is given his assignment: bring Chuck one dead mole and he will receive his pay of 5000 credits. John is geared up and ready to go so, he goes into the sewers and discovers the mole. However, this mole is eight feet tall, five-hundred pounds, and...can talk? The mole knocks out John and ties him to the ceiling. John walks up and learns more about the mysterious mole. The mole's name is Sharon (a name John cannot stand for other reasons) and she used to be a woman, but was experimented on and became a giant mutant mole. Sharon shares that the purpose of the experiment was to give vision enhancements to humans, but it messed up (obviously). So now she digs holes throughout the city in order to get to offices and labs to find out who mutated her and get them to fix her, which causes a problem for the people on the surface of course. John somewhat sympathizes with her as he was experimented on as well. He was supposed to help a contractor work on a secret project. When he arrived he was told to shower and get in a capsule. He went to sleep and when he woke up he was on the outskirts of The City and doesn't know what happened to him. He tried searching for what happened but never found the answers he was looking for. For a moment Sharon did sympathize but not for long, so John had to figure out a way to escape. Unfortunately, Sharon took all of his weapons, but John remembers the bracelet he found earlier in the sewer and thinks there may be a sharp edge or twist it into something to cut him down. He reaches for the bracelet and his vision changes. He can see everything in the dark, details he couldn't see before. He gets himself down and reaches for his weapons and strikes Sharon killing her, and severs her paws to get his reward. Now it's time to go, but one problem. He doesn't know where he is. Then, John hears singing, beautiful singing and follows it all the way back to Chuck's. Carla is there waiting for him as she was the singer. She helps him bathe the chemical waste off and decides to tell him what is going on with the mole and why he _really _needed to remove the mole. The mole was collecting vital information from the buildings she was digging through. Chuck and Carla had to pretend they didn't know about the information for their own safety from the government. Carla finishes bathing John and tells him to collect his reward from Chuck. John goes to collect his pay from Chuck's office and sees Chuck is trapped. Chuck is trapped by beings that only John is able to see due to his bracelet. The figures are there to collect their money from Chuck. Money Chuck doesn't have yet. John pretends not to know what's happening in order to save himself when he walks out and sees Carla being taken away by winged beasts. Carla was collateral! Now, heartbroken that the woman he loves was taken away, he is on a journey to get her back.