They say self-driving vehicles take the fun out of driving. Han Lin Jr. begged to differ. After all, what could be more thrilling than not knowing whether you’ll make it out alive by the end?

  Lin clung to the hover ski as it sped across the water. The hovercraft knocked down a buoy, blazed through a school of fish, and hurled itself over a wave before crashing down and sputtering to a stop. Lin shook the water off his hair and gave a thumbs-up to the drone hanging overhead.

  A mounted camera zoomed in on his face, and Lin flashed it his hottest smile. “And that, folks, is how it’s done. Don’t forget to smash that like button and hit subscri—”

  The hover ski jerked, and Lin tumbled backwards into the foamy water.

  “Goddamn robot!” Lin shook a fist at the blasted machine.

  The little drone zipped after the hover ski, its camera fixed on the riderless seat.

  Whatever. He could just have it fixed in the edit. He rubbed the saltwater off his eyes and leaned back, his life vest buoying him.

  “Sir, you have a call,” said a female voice in his earpieces.

  “Not in the mood, Alexei.” Lin waved his arms at the hover ski, but it ignored him and spun in circles like a headless penguin.

  “The caller says it’s important.”

  “I’m a little busy here.”

  Finally, the hovercraft jerked to a stop. Slowly, it turned to face Lin, its engine revving.

  Lin squinted. “I don’t like the look of that…”

  The ski shot across the water, straight at him.

  “Oh shit!” Lin covered his head and braced for impact, but at the last moment, the hover ski stopped a meter short of his head. Lin let out a breath. “For a second there, I thought it was out to get me.”

  “Sir, the caller—”

  “Imagine that. An AI trying to kill you.”

  Lin pulled himself back aboard and switched off autopilot. He checked the brand on the dashboard. MegaCorp. That explained it. He grabbed the reins but realized he didn’t know how to operate one of these things.

  “Alexei, call in the chopper,” Lin said. “I’m outta here.”

  The AI assistant didn’t respond, but pretty soon, the rhythmic beating of helicopter wings thrummed in the distance. Lin signaled to the camera drone, and it lowered itself into the water. He extracted the camera and let the drone fly off back home on its own.

  Meanwhile, the private helicopter emerged from behind the mountains. The locals on the beach watched and pointed, saying something in Bahasa. The chopper flew low over the shore, leaving a mini sandstorm in its wake. The crowd scattered like ants from bug spray.

  The waters rumbled as the helicopter made its way to Lin’s position. Lin grabbed onto a hanging rope ladder, and as soon as he did, it started retracting upwards, leaving the hover ski in the water.

  Meh, the locals could have it. Damn thing was busted, and there were always more where it came from.

  Lin climbed aboard and strapped in. He replaced his earpieces with the on-board headset.

  “Hello,” said the helicopter. “I am to be your helicopter for the day, ready to take you to the destination of your—”

  “Yeah, yeah, just take me some place to eat, I’m starving.” What was he in the mood for? Sushi or French, maybe. Something that went well with booze. “Alexei, search for ‘pizza near me’. ”

  “Playing Never Gonna Give You Up, by Rick Astley,” Alexei said.

  “To hell with it, just take me home.”

  The helicopter started toward Lin’s suite in the mountains as the music played over in the headset.

  But just as the song was reaching the bridge, a ringing interrupted it.

  Lin groaned. “Ugh… not now. Reject call.”

  “Answering call,” Alexei said.

  “Damn it, woman, I’m replacing you with Corzana.”

  The line beeped, and Alexei’s voice was replaced by a male one. “Han Lin?”

  “Uncle Bao! How’s it going? Long time no—”

  “I have been trying. To reach you. For hours!”

  “Sorry, line’s a little choppy. I’ll call you back.”

  “Do not take that tone with me, young man.”

  Lin rolled his eyes. “To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?”

  The line went silent. For a second, Lin thought it might have gone choppy for real. Then Bao’s voice came back lower and softer. “It’s your father… he’s no longer with us.”

  Lin’s breath caught in his throat.

  “Hello?” said Bao. “Are you there?”

  “I’m here. In fact, I’m better than ever.”

  “Good, because I need you here as soon as possible.”

  “Whatever, I’ll be there.”

  “I’m not joking around, Lin. You better—”

  Lin ended the call.

  So, the old man finally kicked it. How sad.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “Change of plans,” Lin said to his phone. “Set my coordinates to Day City.”

  “Affirmative.”

  “And one more thing. Alexei, play Despacito.”

  The helicopter broke through the clouds, and a large island came into view. Lin leaned forward and gawked at the landmass. The island’s tips thinned into strips of sand far to the east and west. A hill range, carpeted by dense palm trees, stretched through the length of the island. At the foot of the hills, the forests thinned into farmland dotted by settlements, culminating in a mass of buildings by the southern bay.

  The chopper descended, and the hot mess that was the island city-state of Coralesia spread itself before Lin. The sky dome enclosing the Day City district stuck out like a pimple over the sprawl of buildings. The light of the setting sun glinted off the glass surface, skyscrapers threatening to pop the dome from the inside like a balloon.

  Home sweet home, exactly as he remembered it.

  Outside the dome, smoke choked the city, bathing the outskirts in an orange haze. The buildings on the outside were dark and tightly packed, like a termite colony. The helicopter was low enough that Lin could pick out the hundreds of motorcycles and rickshaws zig-zagging along the narrow roads.

  The chopper neared the dome, descending lower and lower. Anytime now, it would swerve to the airport to the east. Anytime…

  Lin grabbed the headset. “Yeah, hello? Helicopter. You can take me to the airfield now.”

  “Your destination is set to the MegaCorp main building.”

  “I know. And I would very much like to get there alive. Hello? Are you there?”

  Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.

  Lin jumped into the pilot’s seat and fumbled for the controls. It was all digital, with the steering wheel being a mere joystick. Damn it, this was nothing like the helicopter controls in GTA.

  It was too late. The helicopter zoomed straight to the dome, and Lin prepared himself for the end. But then a section of the glass dome slid open, just large enough for the helicopter to pass through.

  Now that was new. Guess some things do change.

  As soon as the chopper passed through the opening, a chill wind blasted Lin’s body. That was something else he forgot. Day City was in a state of eternal autumn rather than the year-round tropical hell like the rest of Southeast Asia. And Lin, in his Hawaiian shirt, surf trunks, and slippers, was under-dressed.

  The helicopter navigated over the skyscrapers toward the tallest of them all at the center of the district. The MegaCorp tower was a big, black, boring rectangle sticking out amongst the buildings like a gigantic middle finger. It wasn’t the most creative design in the world, but then again, it was cheaper than hiring a human architect to make one.

  The chopper slowed, then descended onto the helipad. Waiting for Lin on the roof deck was a tall man in a dark suit and a smaller woman with glasses and a neat hair bun.

  A speck of sun glimmered off the man’s bald head, and his face scrunched up into a scowl as soon as he saw Lin. There were some new wrinkles under his eyes, but Bao was the same as ever.

  Lin disembarked and spread his arms wide. “How’s my favorite uncle doing? How long’s it been, five, six years?”

  “Seven. But there’s no need to catch up. We have matters to discuss.”

  “A smooth talker as usual, I see.” Lin patted Bao on his shoulder.

  Bao swatted Lin’s arm off. “A great man died today. We have no time for your shenanigans.”

  “Great man…? You sure we’re talking about the same guy?”

  Bao scoffed and turned to the exit. The assistant opened the door for him, and together, they went down the staircase without looking back.

  Lin closed his eyes and inhaled. Here goes.

  Lin followed Bao through the penthouse suite, a fusion of modern aesthetics and super villain sensibilities. In one room, a glass sculpture hung over a grand piano playing Chopin. In another, robot piranhas prowled a moat around a vintage electric car collection.

  Finally, they arrived at the master bedroom. A chandelier cast golden light over classical AI paintings adorning the walls. But the largest artwork of them all was the massive portrait of his father, a large fellow with a baby face that belied the man he was. The painting stared down at them from above the emperor-sized bed, on top of which lay a long, metal container.

  Bao and his secretary walked to the metal box and gazed into its glass surface.

  Step-by-step, Lin inched toward the bed. He peered into the box and found the man from the portrait seemingly lying in sleep. His skin was fresh, his suit prim. Yet his chest did not rise or fall. His arms lay stiff at his sides, and unlike the portrait, he only had five fingers on each hand.

  “I never thought I’d see the day,” Lin muttered. “So what finally did him in?”

  “Heart failure, most likely,” Bao said. “He struggled with his blood pressure, as I’m sure you know. Luci here found him like so this morning. No signs of foul play.”

  “Who else knows?”

  “Besides the people in this room and his medical droid, no one yet.”

  Lin pressed his fingers to the glass. Han Lin Sr. wasn’t even seventy yet. Looks like that diet caught up to the old man after all. All the good that money did for him in the end. But Lin still found it hard to believe, even if he was seeing it.

  “Hey sailor, sun’s getting real low,” said a woman’s voice from behind them.

  Lin nearly leaped out of his trunks. He turned heel to the voice.

  A life-sized humanoid doll smiled before him, tall and pink-haired, with big doe eyes. Red lingerie hugged her naughty bits, accentuating the curves.

  “What in the ever-loving fuck is that?” Lin said.

  “That,” Bao said, “would be your father’s sex doll.”

  “You know what, I’m not even gonna ask.”

  The android-doll thing catwalked to the bed. She sat next to the coffin and stroked the box surface right above Lin Sr.’s head.

  Bao sighed. “It was lying next to your father this morning when we found him.”

  Lin smirked. “You don’t think he sexed himself to sleep, do you?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You’ll be surprised what people are into. Could have been autoerotic asphyxiation, for example. Don’t ask how I know that.”

  The doll’s hand lowered from the area above Sr.’s head to the part above his other head. “Did baby boy have a tough day at work? You can tell mommy all about it.”

  Bao pointed a thumb at the robot. “Luci, deactivate the thing, would you?”

  His assistant walked to the doll and flicked a switch somewhere on its nape. Its eyes shuttered closed. Its head drooped forward.

  Bao turned back to Lin. “Now, as to the matters of your father’s estate, the inheritance he left you, and the future of the company.”

  “Inheritance? What did he leave me, his favorite golf club?”

  “Everything.”

  “He left me all his golf clubs?”

  Bao clenched his jaw. “Before he died, your father wrote a will. Without my knowledge,” he added under his breath.

  “You’re not telling me what I think you’re telling me, right?” Lin’s heart beat faster. “This is Pops we’re talking about. He could have had a kid with any of his other ex-wives.”

  “Not possible. After your mother, he put a clause in the marriage contracts.”

  Lin sank on the bed and leaned against the coffin. This couldn’t be happening. But against all odds, it was. Bao was only an honorary uncle, having been Pa’s right-hand man from the beginning. And Pa never spoke about any blood relatives or even parents. He was just some kid from the slums who clawed his way to the top to found the biggest tech company in the region, as he was oh so fond of reminding everyone.

  “So you’re telling me it’s all mine?” Lin asked. “The company. MegaCorp. All his stuff.”

  “Technically, it’s a controlling share of MegaCorp. But yes.”

  Then Bao said some more things, but Lin wasn’t paying attention anymore. He rose and went to the glass wall overlooking the city. Night was falling, and the lights were springing up through the metropolis. Beyond the glass dome, neon colors blurred like stars in an impressionist painting. Everything the light touched belonged to his father in all but name. And now it belonged to Lin.

  “… and of course, we need to bring the board of directors up to speed,” Bao was saying. “Our stock will take a hit, but with enough time and—”

  Lin put up a hand. “Sorry, I spaced out there for a second. What’s this about stocks and boards?”

  Bao took a deep breath through his teeth. “You need not concern yourself with executive duties. Or with any duties at all. You can return to whatever it was you’ve been doing these past years, and I’ll be sure to—”

  “Whoa, buddy, let me stop you there. Who said anything about giving up administrative abilities?”

  “Young man, I’m not sure you fully grasp the gravity of your father’s position. The power, nay, the responsibility he wielded.”

  “I grasp my father, plenty, Uncle.” Lin strolled back to the bedside and tapped the coffin. He stared up at the painting. Whatever model drew it may have gotten the hands, the colors, and the hair wrong, but the eyes were spot on. Eyes that looked down on you with contempt and disappointment.

  Bao rested a hand on Lin’s shoulder. “I say this for your own good. Go back to sipping pina coladas on whatever island you came from. Trust me, you don’t want to… what are you doing?”

  “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m taking a selfie with my dad. Ooh boy, my followers are in for a story.”