Read the book: «Neon Hearts»

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Illustrator Alexander Skopintsev

ISBN 978-5-0065-4067-5

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

Annotation

«Neon Hearts» is a thrilling cyberpunk novel set in a futuristic European metropolis in 2068—2089, where neon lights outshine the stars and cybernetic implants have become commonplace.

Anna Buyanova is a talented neuro-programming engineer from the lower levels of the city, striving to make her way into the upper echelons of the corporate elite. Along with her friends, Nova de Carte and Dash, she struggles to find her place in a ruthless world of high technology and deep social inequality.

Two decades later, Anna heads Europe’s largest synthetic organ factory. Despite her dizzying success, her personal life remains empty. An unexpected encounter with the charismatic master teamster Alex turns Anna’s world upside down, forcing her to reassess her priorities in a reality where human emotions are increasingly replaced by digital simulations.

Against a backdrop of majestic skyscrapers, pervasive clouds, autonomous transport systems and ubiquitous artificial intelligence, a story unfolds that proves that even in an ultra-technological future, genuine feelings, friendship and humanity remain priceless.

«Neon Hearts» is not just science fiction, but an in-depth exploration of human nature in an age where the line between man and machine is becoming increasingly blurred. This novel will make you worry, ponder and wonder: what does it mean to be human in a world where technology can fulfil every whim, but cannot give true happiness?

Immerse yourself in the world of «Neon Hearts», where real human hearts beat under a layer of glass and neon, and love can overcome even the most advanced algorithms of fate.

Chapter 1

In the heart of Europe, where once stood an ancient city, now stood a colossus of technological progress – the Gigapolis of 2068, the embodiment of the most daring fantasies of cyberpunk. This giant, stretching to the horizon, lived, breathed and pulsed like a single organism made of glass, metal and neon.

The morning was gloomy and heavy. The sky, covered with a dense blanket of leaden clouds, hung over the city like a giant lid, ready to pour cold drops of rain at any moment. The air was so saturated with moisture that it seemed as if you could touch it with your hands. This humidity created a strange contrast to the warmth of a summer day, which, despite the overcast, broke through the cloud cover, enveloping the city in a sweltering haze.

The infrastructure of the metropolis was amazing in its incredible complexity and scale. Multilevel road junctions, like giant tentacles of some fantastic creature, braided the city, connecting not only different districts and neighbourhoods, but also the levels of this vertical world. The buildings pointing to the sky seemed to have no end – their tops were lost in the low clouds, creating the illusion of infinity. The facades of the skyscrapers were covered with glittering screens that continuously broadcast adverts, news and messages, turning each building into a living, ever-changing organism.

The majestic river, once the natural boundary of the old city, was now subdued and turned into an integral part of the urban landscape. Dozens of bridges have been built across its wide waters, from graceful pedestrian structures that resemble works of art to massive multi-lane highways that can withstand an endless flow of thousands of vehicles. Cyberboats and small vessels passed beneath these bridges with a subtle hum, their sophisticated sensor systems constantly communicating with the city’s navigation network to avoid the slightest possibility of collision.

Despite the triumph of technology, nature found ways to exist in this man-made world. Flocks of birds, adapted to the new conditions, circled between skyscrapers, nesting in the most unexpected places – in gaps between building panels, on screen protrusions, in abandoned drones. Their singing, which had changed strangely over the decades, now blended harmoniously into the symphony of the city’s noise, creating a marvellous acoustic landscape.

The city stretched in all directions to the horizon, where the silhouettes of buildings merged with the sky line into an indistinguishable haze. Every block, every neighbourhood lived its own special, unique life. In the glittering chrome and glass business centre, people in strict suits with implanted neural interfaces were scurrying about, hurrying to work for huge technological corporations. In the industrial zones, shrouded in multi-coloured smoke, factories producing cybernetic technologies ranging from microscopic nanorobots to giant exoskeletons were in operation. In the dormitory districts, apartment complexes were slowly waking up – huge towers that could house entire cities of the past were preparing to release their inhabitants into a new day full of possibilities.

The transport system of the metropolis worked like an incredibly complex, but perfectly fine-tuned mechanism. Autonomous taxis, like drops of mercury, glided silently through the streets, picking up and dropping off passengers. Their surface constantly changed colour and texture, adapting to the environment and the mood of the passenger. Public transport was a true marvel of engineering – massive electric buses on a cushion of air and high-speed trains on magnetic levitation, capable of speeds of up to 400 kilometres per hour, transported millions of people, connecting the most remote corners of this huge metropolis.

Pedestrians hurried about their business, many of them clad in exoskeletons of various configurations or with visible cybernetic implants to facilitate movement and daily life. Some favoured more radical modifications – artificial limbs replacing natural ones, controlled by human consciousness.

Cafes and restaurants located not only on the ground floors of buildings, but also on special platforms between skyscrapers, as well as in the virtual space accessible through neurointerfaces, were already opening their doors. They offered visitors not just food and drinks, but entire gastronomic journeys combining real taste sensations with virtual visual and tactile effects.

As dusk fell, the city transformed, as if dropping one mask and putting on another. The darkness descending on the streets did not mean the end of the day – on the contrary, it was the beginning of a new, even more colourful and intense life for the metropolis. Billions of lights lit up simultaneously, turning the city into a glittering sea of light in which one could drown. Neon signs, three-dimensional billboards and LED panels on the facades of buildings created a phantasmagoric play of colour and light that made you dizzy.

The night city never went to sleep, it only changed the rhythm of its existence. While some of the inhabitants returned home after a long day’s work in the factories and offices, others only took to the streets to plunge into the bustling flow of nightlife. Clubs, bars and entertainment centres opened their doors, beckoning visitors with the promise of unforgettable experiences and virtual adventures that could last for seconds in the real world, but stretch for days and weeks in the altered perception.

The noise background of the city varied depending on the time of day, but never completely subsided, creating a unique sound palette of the metropolis of the future. During the day, this symphony was dominated by the sounds of transport – the quiet humming of electric cars, the whistling of maglev trains, the buzzing of flying delivery drones. To this were added the shouts of street vendors offering their goods – from synthetic food to illegal implants, scraps of conversations of passers-by in dozens of languages and dialects, including artificial languages created by AI, and the hum of working mechanisms – from microscopic nanobots to giant construction exoskeletons.

In the evening, the soundscape of the city was transformed. The daytime noise was joined by the honking of cars hurrying to leave the business centre, music from the opening nightlife venues – from classical melodies to cutting-edge compositions created by artificial intelligence, and the loud conversations of people enjoying the end of the working day and the beginning of the night’s entertainment.

Advertising screens and billboards seemed to have a life of their own in this city of the future. They shimmered, shimmered with all the colours of the rainbow, and broadcast mesmerising three-dimensional images and enticing slogans that, thanks to advanced technology, could adapt to each individual passer-by, addressing them by name and offering goods and services to suit their preferences. The light from these screens reflected in the many puddles on the pavements, creating bizarre patterns of light, as if the city were covered with a multicoloured luminous web.

This is how this city of the future lived – tirelessly, noisily, brightly, constantly changing and remaining unchanged in its essence. Each of its inhabitants, from an ordinary worker to the head of a large corporation, was part of a huge, incredibly complex mechanism that worked day and night. This mechanism was not just functioning – it was evolving, developing, realising the wildest dreams of the science fiction writers of the past about the technological future of mankind and at the same time creating new challenges that the next generations would have to face.

In the thickening twilight of the cyberpunk megacity of 2068, where neon signs waged an endless war with the fading light of day, a girl in a light, once elegant lavender-coloured dress walked slowly down the street. Anna Buyanova, exhausted from a long day of work in the neuroimplant laboratory, walked with her head down, as if trying to shield herself from the world around her with an invisible shield of fatigue. Her slender figure seemed fragile and vulnerable against the background of massive skyscrapers, whose tops, topped with spires of chrome steel and glass, were lost in the low, heavy clouds, illuminated from below by the millions of lights of the ever-wakeful city.

Around Anna, the life of the megalopolis was boiling and pulsating, like a gigantic, never-stopping mechanism. Music was pouring from everywhere, creating a bizarre cacophony of sounds, in which the attentive listener could distinguish dozens of different melodies merging into a single symphony of the future. From the open doors of restaurants came melodic jazz compositions, interspersed with aggressive beats from passing cyber-bikes, whose neon stripes left glowing trails in the air. Audio systems embedded in the walls of buildings broadcast the latest hits, and billboards sang the jingles of the latest products, from synthetic food to the latest neuro-implants.

But Anna, immersed in her own thoughts, did not share in this general merriment. Her mind, tired of endless calculations and experiments, was far from the festive atmosphere of the street. She did not scrutinise the faces of passers-by – people, not distinguishing where the human ends and the artificial begins. The brightly coloured shop windows, seemingly offering goods from all parts of the solar system, floated past her without leaving a trace in her consciousness. Anna’s only wish was to get home, to her little refuge in the vast, indifferent city, where she could finally take off the mask of confidence and let herself be vulnerable.

The music changed with every step the girl took, creating a unique soundtrack to her journey. As she approached the next establishment, she heard melodic electro-pop coming from the Cyber-Dreams bar, hard industrial from the Steel Heart club, and exotic rhythms from distant continents-colonies sounding from the doors of some cuisine restaurant. But even this symphony of the future could not drown out the eternal hum of human voices – laughter, conversations, rare outbursts of quarrels. People remained human, despite all the technological marvels around them, their emotions and passions were as vivid and unpredictable as they had been thousands of years ago.

Finally, after a long journey through the maze of streets, Anna reached the NeuroHub, a huge complex of dormitories where the developers and workers of the cyber-implant manufacturing companies lived. The building towered above the surrounding buildings like a giant beehive, glowing with thousands of windows. Its facade, covered with self-cleaning solar panels, reflected the lights of the city, creating the illusion that the building itself was glowing from within with some mysterious, pulsating light.

Anna walked through the main entrance, where invisible scanners instantly read her biometric data. A slight tingle in her temple and the security system recognised her as its own, granting her access to the inside of the building. The lift, controlled by an artificial intelligence with a soothing female voice, smoothly lifted her to the desired floor. Stepping out of the cabin, the girl found herself in a long, seemingly endless corridor, the walls of which were covered with interactive panels displaying news, weather and private messages for the occupants.

Life in NeuroHub was bustling even at this late hour, resembling an anthill that never fully sleeps. The corridors were crowded with people: young engineers were animatedly discussing the latest developments, waving their hands with projections of schematics and graphs; others, immersed in virtual reality through neural interfaces, were frozen against the walls with an absent expression, their eyes moving rapidly under closed eyelids, giving off intense brain activity. In the corner, several people, clearly under the influence of synthetic alcohol, were arguing loudly about the advantages of different brands of implants, their eyes glowing with an unnatural neon glow – a sign of activated endorphin stimulators.

Anna stopped at the open door of one of the communal kitchens, attracted by the smell of real, non-synthesised food, a rarity in their world. Inside, an elderly woman, whose wrinkled face seemed an anachronism among the ever-younger inhabitants of NeuroHub, was working over a small stove, humming an old-fashioned song. Her voice, slightly trembling but surprisingly clear, seemed an echo of a bygone era. The girl leaned against the jamb, watching this almost domestic scene, so rare in their high-tech world.

The interior of the kitchen was a bizarre mix of old and new, as if reflecting all the contradictions of their age. The walls were covered with panelling, now mimicking the cosy floral wallpaper – apparently the choice of the elderly occupant. Above the stove hung a recipe, automatically adjusted according to the cook’s actions, flashing green when everything went right, and blinking red when it deviated from the ideal process. The only window faced the street, letting in the flickering light of advertising banners, street lamps and passing air cars, creating a bizarre play of shadows and light spots on the floor and walls.

Suddenly the other girl, who was standing at the window sill and calculating something on a tablet, broke away from her work and raised her head. Her face, framed by a cascade of blue hair – the latest fashion of the season – lit up with sincere joy at the sight of Anna. Her eyes, equipped with the latest model of optical implants capable of seeing in the infrared and ultraviolet spectra, reflected a warm glow of friendship.

– Anna! I’m so glad to see you! – She exclaimed, rushing to her friend with open arms. Her voice, melodious and clear, seemed to drown out all the noise around her. – How are you doing? I haven’t been able to contact you all day!

Anna smiled tiredly, her shoulders slumping even more under the weight of the friendly hug. At that moment she looked especially fragile and vulnerable, like a statue made of the finest glass, ready to shatter at the slightest careless touch.

– Not so much, Nova,» she answered quietly, her voice barely audible over the noise of dinner cooking on the cooker and the hum of the corridor. – I failed today. A little short on the new neural network test.

Nova’s face changed instantly, reflecting genuine disappointment. Her eyebrows drew together at the bridge of her nose, and concern flashed in her eyes. She put her hand on Anna’s shoulder, squeezing it lightly for support. The touch was warm and soothing, reminding her that even in this cold world of high technology there was still room for simple human gestures.

– Oh, An, I’m so sorry,» she said sympathetically, her voice softer, as if trying to wrap her friend in a cocoon of comfort. – What do they say upstairs at the department? Can’t they discount your previous successes?

Anna just waved her hand tiredly, a gesture that said more than words could express:

– They don’t say anything. You know how it is – dry figures and no human approach.

The girls left the kitchen and headed down the corridor, their footsteps echoing off the walls, mingling with the general hum of the NeuroHub. The old woman at the cooker turned around and shouted after them, her voice, amplified by the acoustic system of the corridor, easily caught up with the girls:

– Hey, Nova, where’d you go? What about dinner?

Nova only brushed it off nonchalantly, not interrupting her conversation with Anna:

– You know, don’t get upset. I’ll support you, we’ll work on the material together, study. You’re a smart girl, you just need a little more time. – Her voice sounded cheerful and optimistic, like a ray of sunshine breaking through the clouds. – Maybe we’ll have a new cognitive implant by the next test. You’ll pass next year, I’m sure you will!

Her words were full of sincere faith in her friend, but Anna only nodded absently, absorbed in her own thoughts. Her eyes were staring somewhere far away, as if she saw not the walls of the NeuroHub, but her uncertain future.

Finally, they reached Anna’s room. The door, reacting to the biometric data of the hostess, silently slid aside, revealing a view of a small but cosy space. Inside, on one of the beds, lay Anna’s roommate Dash, enthusiastically adjusting the latest lip augmentation and eye discolouration implant. Her face, reflected in the video mirror, was constantly changing, trying on different shades and shapes.

– Oh, you’re finally here! – Dash exclaimed, breaking away from her work for a second. Her voice sounded a little distorted because of her half-enlarged lips. – You’ve been gone all day. Nova and I were getting worried.

The interior of the room was typical NeuroHub, but it had the personality of its inhabitants. Three narrow beds built into the walls could fold up to make room for work or rest. Now one of them was unfolded – the one Dash was lying on – and the others were neatly tucked into the wall, revealing Anna’s desk, which was littered with schematics and physical prototypes of devices.

Screens replaced the usual windows, now projecting a view of the city at night – millions of lights, flying cars and distant silhouettes of skyscrapers gave the illusion that the room was at dizzying heights. In the corner stood an old-fashioned wooden cabinet, a true rarity in a world of plastic and metal.

Nova walked over and sat next to it, tucking her feet up on a worn chair upholstered in synthetic leather. Unlike many of her peers, she favoured naturalness, avoiding obvious cybernetic modifications except for optics.

– Don’t be upset, you’ll pass, I believe in you,» Nova said, leaning over to Anna. Her voice, soft and warm, contrasted with the cold glow of the gadgets around them.

Anna looked up, her eyes a mixture of gratitude and hidden stubbornness:

– I’m not upset,» she said, trying to keep her voice firm, but the slight tremor in her tone betrayed her true feelings.

Nova sighed, her fingers nervously tugging at a strand of hair, the only sign of worry on her otherwise calm face:

– Just a few per cent… – she whispered, staring into the void in front of her. – Why couldn’t they forgive them? That’s how you’d get everything and turn it in.

Anna straightened up sharply, her eyes flashing with determination like two little supernovae in the cosmos of her face:

– And I’ll get in anyway,» she said with unexpected firmness.

Dash, absorbed in the process of adjusting her cybernetic eyes, which were now shimmering in every shade from emerald to sapphire, said absent-mindedly:

– Who’s arguing? The corporation hires until how old? Thirty-five? – she said, fixing her lips, which, thanks to nano-implants, were changing shape and colour to suit her mood. – You’ve got plenty of time to try.

Anna’s neighbour, who had been silently watching the conversation until then, snorted, leaning back in the antique armchair that contrasted strangely with the ultra-modern furnishings:

– But at least you graduated from the institute first,» she tossed in Dash’s direction, her voice full of caustic sarcasm.

Dash only laughed back, her laughter modulated by her voice implants, sounding like a melody from the future. She walked gracefully across the room, showing off her fancy jumpsuit of colour-changing and texture-changing smart fabric.

– «Here you are setting your lips and eyes, and now Faza is coming. And you’re going to scare him. And we have to go to the concert with him tonight,» Nova continued, her voice tinged with envy and admiration at the same time.

Dash rolled her eyes, which went completely black for a moment before returning to their usual shimmering state:

– What concert? – she sighed theatrically. – You’ve been here for two years and you’re still going to concerts? You are cultured!

In the dusky corridors of the NeuroHub, where the neon stripes on the walls pulsed in time with the beating of the building’s electronic heart, there was a sudden insistent knock on the door.

– We can, we can! Come in! – Dash said in a high-pitched voice, her voice, modulated by cheap voice implants, sounded like a melody from the distant future, each note filled with artificial harmony.

Nova, desperately trying to pull on a tight-fitting smart-fabric dress that shimmered in all the colours of the rainbow, reacting to the slightest changes in her mood and heartbeat, screamed with a note of panic in her voice:

– You can’t, you can’t! You can’t go in yet! – Her voice echoed off the walls, creating a bizarre echo in the room.

But it was too late. The door opened with a soft pneumatic hiss, like the sigh of a cyborg, and on the threshold appeared Faze, a tall, russet-haired young man with large facial features and an athletic build that seemed to defy the general fascination with cyber-implants. His cyber-leather jacket, with a brightly glowing pattern on the back of it depicting a writhing neon dragon, made him look like a modern knight from the neon kingdom.

Nova, like a frightened nymph from Greek myths, lost in the labyrinth of high technology, skulked behind the wardrobe, trying to hide her half-naked body from Faz’s gaze.

Faza, slightly confused by the unexpected scene, quickly entered the room. His eyes quickly scanned the surroundings.

– Hello,» he began, but stammered when he saw Dash, whose lips now took up almost half her face, shimmering in all the colours of the rainbow like a living neon billboard.

– Hello,» Dash mumbled, her huge lips barely moving, creating a surreal spectacle, like a Salvador Dali painting brought to life in a high-tech world.

Faza, shuffling from foot to foot, his boots making a quiet squeak with every movement, analysing the composition of the air and the floor, asked with a note of surprise and slight concern in his voice:

– What is it with our Dasha? – His gaze darted between the giant lips and the rest of the girl’s face, trying to make sense of what he saw.

Dash, trying to give her voice a languorous note, which combined with her current appearance looked comical, like a parody of Hollywood divas of the last century, purred:

– You’re the one who got me… turned me on. – Each word was accompanied by a wave of iridescence running across her lips.

Faze, clearly feeling out of place, began to heel towards the exit. The sensors in his shoes beeped quietly, warning him as he approached the threshold.

– Sorry,» he mumbled as Dash continued to swivel her multi-coloured cyber-eyes in different directions, creating a hypnotic effect like a kaleidoscope.

By this time Nova had already managed to tidy herself up, her dress taking on a more conservative look as she adjusted to the situation. She adjusted the fabric on her firm young thighs, and her blond hair framed her face with delicate features. When she heard Faza about to leave, she shouted, her voice, amplified by the room’s speaker system, echoing around the room:

– Faza, Faza, wait! Don’t run away! I’m ready!

Nova turned to Dash with a smile as she put the finishing touches to the video-mirror, which obligingly highlighted the most favourable features of her face and suggested make-up options:

– Why are you scaring Fazi? He is a reserved man, not used to your weirdness. – In her voice you could hear notes of both irritation and amusement at the same time.

Dash, still looking at herself in the mirror, which obligingly offered various options for lip reduction, mumbled:

– Yeah, he didn’t add a cerebral implant to himself. Why did you have to move to the city centre? You could have found someone as dumb as him in the slums. – Her words, despite the distortion of her giant lips, were drenched in sarcasm.

Nova giggled, the sound of her laughter picked up by the room’s speaker system and scattered with silver bells:

– Oh, things are so mixed up in these corporate cities now, it’s a hell of a mess to know who came from where.

With a wink to Dash, which made her eye flash for a moment with the bluish light of the inbuilt lens, Nova sauntered out into the corridor. Anna had been silently watching the whole time, smiling at her friends’ jokes and tomfoolery.

Nova quickly caught up with Fazu at the end of the corridor, taking him under her arm and grabbing him by the sleeve of his leather jacket, which reacted to his touch by slightly changing the pattern of the backlighting. She laughed out loud, her laughter seeming to make the neon lights of the corridor flicker in time with it:

– Why are you so scared? Dash bought new implants on credit, she’s trying it out to find herself a handsome, strong, wealthy husband. And when you came in, she started fooling around to scare you. And she did! You’re kind of scary. You’re afraid of women, aren’t you? – Her words were half a joke, half a reproach.

They walked down the corridor towards the exit, their footsteps echoing off the walls, creating a bizarre melody. Faza, spreading his arms, which made the dragon on his back seem to spread its wings, excused himself:

– What an idea you’ve come up with! These implants come out new every week. I don’t know what’s on the market. You might walk into a room and there is no longer a human being, but some cyborg octopus. – He grinned nervously, clearly imagining the picture.

Suddenly, the imperious voice of the neural network controlling the entire building sounded in the corridor. The very air seemed to vibrate with the sound:

– Attention! At 00:00, the building will be closed as part of an anti-terror programme in accordance with Corporate Law #17—2913.14, «On NeuroHub Security and Cybercrime Countermeasures». All residents are advised to complete their business and leave public areas before the specified time.

Faze replied loudly without thinking, his voice echoing through the corridors:

– We’re going to a concert!

Neural Net, clearly teasing, her voice taking on a sarcastic tone, parried:

– Well, well, well, to a concert. You’re making citizens out of yourselves again. Maybe you should also go to the theatre? Or a museum? – In the artificial intelligence was clearly heard a fair share of irony.

Laughter could be heard from all the rooms of the NeuroHub. Panels on the walls displayed laughing emoji for a moment before returning to displaying data streams.

Nova, twirling her finger at her temple, a gesture that seemed to activate some sort of implant as her hair changed colour for a moment, whispered:

– Fool, why did you say that? Now the entire NeuroHub is going to laugh at us. – Her whisper, amplified by the acoustics of the corridor, could probably be heard several floors up and down.

And Faza, perplexed, his face expressing genuine incomprehension of the situation, replied:

– But we’re really going to a concert… Is that something bad? – He looked around, as if seeking support from the invisible spectators.

All around them was the life of NeuroHub, this hive of high technology and human passions. Groups of people stood in a spacious hallway with walls displaying pulsing streams of data that seemed to be the living embodiment of the digital world. Their conversations blended into a bizarre cacophony, augmented by the sound effects of numerous gadgets and implants.

Some were passionately discussing the latest corporate news, their hands drawing graphs and charts in the air, visible only through AR-lenses. A couple in the corner was flirting, exchanging virtual gifts via neural interfaces – the air around them sparkled with digital hearts and flowers invisible to the eye.

People walked past in outfits with inbuilt displays showing their mood and social media status. The dresses changed colour and pattern, adjusting to the wearer’s mood and the surrounding environment, creating the impression of a living, breathing work of art.

In the corner of the hall, a group of teenagers were playing an AR game. Their movements, chaotic to the uninitiated observer, were actually part of a complex virtual dance in which they were battling digital monsters visible only through their AR glasses.

Office workers crowded around the lifts, their eyes glowing with neon light – a clear sign of active work with virtual screens. They continued meetings and negotiations even when they left their desks, their consciousness divided between the physical world and the streams of corporate data.