A threat has been detected. Immediately, the fight-or-flight reflex is triggered, weighed heavily in favor of fighting, as the reflex has been honed to such an edge through countless repetitions, that the pattern in which to act has been almost laser-etched into the neural pathways of the brain.

The fiberoptic system that acts as nerves, but speeding it up a thousand times, echoes the motor signals generated by the brain. Highly trained natural and synthetic muscle fibres facilitate that one arm reaches over to the other arm's armpit, and that the hand gets a secure hold on the grip of the weapon concealed in the shoulderholster located in the vicinity of the armpit.

Immediately, secondary datachannels are opened between specialized circuitry located near the spatial centre of the brain and the specialized circuitry in the weapon - datachannels unavailable for a normal human. Handshaking and minor adjustments in the parameters of the circuitry are done to achieve a smooth interface between the circuitry in the weapon, the circuitry in the spatial centre of the brain, and the resulting interpretation of the signals in the spatial centre of the brain. The smartlink 2 circuitry reports that the weapon is now active, and displays the ammunition status in the upper right corner of the user's field of vision. The weapon is active.

Specially tailored neural clusters located near the spine adjusts the motion of the arm as the arm, now holding the weapon, is pointed towards the perceived threat. Overriding certain neural impulses, their task is to correct any tremors in the arm, eliminating them before they affect the aim of the weapon. The modified joint structure of the arm helps eliminating any hitches in the procedure, leading to the weapon being pointed toward the threat in a smooth and ultrafast movement.

The targeting sensors in the weapon, working together with the circuitry in the spatial centre of the brain, identifies the threat, and projects the ballistic curve any fired projectile will follow for every minute adjustment of the aim that is done. The resulting information is conveyed to the user as a small, glowing red dot that shows where the bullet will impact if the weapon is activated.

Almost before conscious thought has formulated the reaction to the threat, the subconscious has triggered a veritable electrical storm in the brain. The circuitry in the spatial centre and motor centre of the brain reacts to this activity by triggering a specific sequence of impulses through the dedicated datachannels from the headware circuitry to the weapon's circuitry. In but a fraction of a second the weapon has discharged, ejected the spent casing, and locked a new cartridge in position in the firing chamber.

The bullet, accelerated through the barrel by the expanding cloud of hot gas resulting from the rapid consumption of the propellant in the cartridge, leaves the barrel with a speed roughly equal to three times the speed of sound. It is spinning rapidly, to stabilize its path through the air toward the target.

After a few short moments, the bullet has traveled the distance of about 15 meters to the target, and penetrates through a thin layer of bone, expanding in the process due to its special shape and purpose-built fracture lines, coupled with the very minor explosive charge ensuring maximum fragmentation of the bullet.

Now a rapidly fragmenting mass of hot, shredding metal, the remains of the bullet penetrate through the back of the skull of the target, taking with it a significant chunk of that which used to be brains, flesh, hair and bones. Although the entry wound of the skull is small and quite well defined, the exit wound bears more resemblance to a wound made by someone punching through the skull. A grapefruit-sized area just isn't where it used to be, shortly afterwards splattering all over the person sitting behind the target.

His name is Michael Chodosh, and he has just killed a man.

The gang-leader whom he has just shot, falls backward with a hole in his forehead, and a crater in the back of his head. Not that he minds, as he is quite dead long before his body hits the ground with a slapping, meaty sound.

The gang leader and the gang that he leads - or rather, used to lead - had apparently decided that what they considered a "suit", or someone with corporate affiliations based on the way he was dressed, didn't really deserve to own the black and green, shiny monument to speed called a BMW Blitzen 2055, and therefore decided to take it upon themselves to rectify that situation. By stealing the bike.

When the suit returned, the gang leader reckoned that a show of force would be enough to scare the suit off. After all, the gang was over 20 men (and women) strong, and one man would easily be intimidated by a mass showing of strength. Letting the light from a nearby streetlight glint off the barrel of his huge revolver, a Ruger SuperWarhawk, the gang leader figured that the suit would run away, perhaps even throw him the keys to the bike in order to get away.

After Michael Chodosh had concluded the shadow-business that had lead him to this particular part of Seattle, he had returned to the bike fully intending to grab a bite to eat, and then crash in his apartment in Everett. Before he had had time to fully analyze the significance of the twenty-odd people sitting on bikes near his bike, or fiddling with his bike, one of them had stepped forward and shown a weapon - in this case, a large revolver.

Of course, Michael Chodosh had immediately drawn his own weapon, and shot the ganger once through the head. Now that he had killed one of them, the reaction of the others was quite predictable. It wasn't until the ninth shot in rapid succession that he seemed to have sufficiently proved that trying to pull a weapon on him was generally a bad, even fatal, idea.

After the go-gang had moved away a bit, one of them apparently decided to try and take him out, now that they had gotten out of the effective range of his heavy pistol. Opening fire with an assault rifle when they had gotten about 40 meters away seemed like a good idea. Everybody knew that accurate firing with a pistol was impossible at 40 meters or so.

The first shot ruined the assault rifle. The second and third shot hit the smart ganger in the groin area and the heart area, respectively. He didn't have time to agonize over the second shot, as the third shot was quite sufficient to kill him. The rest of the gang decided to cut their losses, and roared away in the damp night - without setting up any clever ambushes, this time.

Michael Chodosh was satisfied. Although he had had to use almost a full clip of EX Explosive ammunition, his bike seemed untouched. And the ganger that he had shot through the head even proved to carry some useful equipment. Stashing the large, dikoted Bowie-knife in its specially-made sheath in the saddle bags of his bike, Michael Chodosh sat on the bike and rode off.

It wasn't half bad. He had solved a run, gotten paid without being double-crossed (once he demonstrated he knew about the sheep by aid of some photographs), he had gotten a rare and expensive knife in exchange for some rounds of ammunition, and he had helped the local neighborhood in reducing the number of low-lives they had to deal with.

In Seattle year 2057, sometimes it just boils down to body language...