Free Deep Yellow by Stuart Dodds

way. An awkward few minutes followed, waiting for the cutters,
but when Jherzery lasered through the back wall of the main room
and revealed the large cavity, Brell felt elated. She took off her
helmet and rubbed both hands across her head, her hair damp with
sweat.
    Brell enjoyed watching
the two detectives scrambling around in the small room, which
groaned with chips, memo streams, comm links, and stolen
property.
    "Get logging."
    The two detectives
silently got on with their work.
    What happened next
changed Brell's life. Happy that everything was scanned and bagged,
she informed the team to reassemble at the front door whilst she
completed a final room sweep to check that equipment had not been
left behind. Such was her trust. One of the second level rooms was
full of furniture and assorted old gadgets piled on top of each
other. Around the back of one pile, a broken table with a small
drawer lay on its side. It took some determination, but Brell
managed to pull the drawer out. Her fingers curled around a small
bottle. Deep Yellow, another item to add to the list. This is one
of the detective's rooms, too lazy to get on his knees or direct
the assistants. There was nothing else inside the drawer, luckily
for him.
    She went over to a
window and held the bottle up to the sunlight. As she turned the
bottle in her hand, the golden liquid cascaded slowly inside, the
nano flecks twinkling as it caught the light. It was
mesmerising.
    Breaking her gaze, she
reached up to call Holo 1, but stopped herself. Almost unknowingly,
she put the bottle in her pocket and made her way downstairs.
    "Well done, everyone a
good haul found. Back to base."
    She felt oddly excited
talking to them with an illegal substance hidden in her pocket. Did
they know what she had done? If she did not log the bottle as
evidence soon and it was found on her, it could be a career-ending
move.
    The bottle stayed in
her pocket.
    ***
    The thing was that
after taking her first Deep Yellow, the following two weeks at work
were easier. She was so relaxed and confident that the team gossip
was that she must have a new boyfriend. Of course, after two weeks,
things went back to normal and her thoughts turned to whether she
could get away with taking more Deep Yellow.
    She laughed at the
memory, a new boyfriend? Her relationships were often disasters,
but that was another story.
    Rubbing the back of
her head with both hands, she knew that a thought was trying to
emerge. Something recent.
    “The Challenge,” she
said aloud and clapped her hands.

Chapter 12 - Reports are
good
    " Drink. Whit beer, large." Williams took his
beer out of the auto chef and sunk back into his seat. Time to view
some of the reporters’ beamlogs. The day had gone well. Whilst
there were many questions regarding security, such as “will we see
a repeat of the previous challenge when the inmates got out?” all
reports were positive. More importantly, they were awestruck by the
holo worlds.
    Williams took a few
sips of the intox, rubbed his eyes, and made a few commands to
watch some of the highlights of the day. The reporters all had
small drone cameras hovering around so they could make comments
directly whilst walking around. The reporter from one of the
religious channels did not ask any questions and appearing bemused
at the whole thing.
    "This is Xerica
Bnieeder reporting from the main stage of Convict Challenge."
    Williams remembered
working with Xerica years ago; solid reporter, not given to easy
frippery. She went up to the door at the back of the stage.
    "The winner will
arrive through here and then be welcomed in front of the studio
audience. The audience, who are yet to be picked, will appear as
their virtual selves, via their surround equipment from home."
    Walking to the front
of the stage, she paused, then pointed out the area where the
audience would appear.
    "The cell block is
situated behind the audience. The whole cell and security area is
contained within massive diamond