kc_obrien | [30 Days of Fic - Day 25] "Seeker Altair"

Growing up in the farmlands south of what was still called the Armistice Line, in a land that hadn't seen war in seven generations, we all dreamed of Century City. Born of the same war that gave us the A.L., Century City was founded one-hundred years to the day that the Armistice brought it all to an end. An independent city that was neither East nor West, belonging to both nations and to neither. A sparkling metropolis that would proclaim, for all time, not just peace but the unity of a world sick of such conflicts.

Seven generations later, the two warring nations were one, but Century City continues to stand alone. When it was founded, the charter clearly stated that it could never be owned by either of the nations. So it held that they merged, the city must still stay independent lest it all be for naught, or so the entrenched political class bellowed, supported by those bylaws; a paper shield held strong by a repeated cry of independence and freedom.

Of unity. It's funny to think that the dream of unity brought for something so utterly decisive and at the same time fortifying to the human mind that none could stand in the way of it.

So Century City sits, a perilous megalopolis, a part of the two merged cultures and at the same time neither. A refuge for some of the world's greatest minds and most of it's greatest fiends. A place of passion and light and of drudgery and darkness. Lots of people with lots of bones to be picking.

That's where I come in. My name's Jackson Altair, and I'm an independent contractor in the field of covert information acquisition. You know, what the holovids I used to watch as a kid would call a Private Eye.

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Today's '30 Days of Fic' task was to write a story using the prompt: Noir.

Click Here for rundown of tasks that are part of the "30 Days of Fic" challenge, including a link to all completed works!