Bubblegum Crash : Knights' End

A Knight Sabers' fanfic in nine parts
by Mark Latus

Part 8 : Afterlives

     7 pm Friday December 21 2035 - Mackie Stingray's Apartment, Berlin.     

     Mackie Stingray's decision to keep a written journal would be regarded
by many as high anachronistic.  Those who chose to such things normally either
typed or dictated them into their home computer.  However Mackie's decision 
was wiser than many would realize.  His own hacking days had proven just how
vulnerable computer stored data was.  If it's in a system there's always 
someone, somewhere, who can access it.  There were quite a few things Mackie
would rather not become public knowledge.  He didn't use it to remember,
his own memory was infallible.  It had been since the final stage of his
enhancement triggered over two years earlier.  The journal existed to help 
him sort out his own thoughts.  He'd begun keeping it after the triggering to
cope with the changes he was experiencing.  Until recently it hadn't been
used much.  Everything seemed to be under control.  This last month it had  
been filled with entries.
     For security reasons the journal spent most of its' time sealed in a 
safe.  The current one of which required retinal and DNA scan in addition
to a combination before it opened.  The journal itself was written in a
cipher Mackie had devised as an intellectual exercise.  Currently the journal
was open to the last entry dated December 20th.  This began, "This has been
a day for surprises, few of them pleasant.  Things got off to a rotten start
shortly after I got up."

     Mackie snapped awake as his internal alarm awakened him.  6:30 am.  Time
to get up, shower, dress, eat, etc. and head over to BioCyb.  Put in a few
hours on the new hardsuits then get over to Phoenix HQ for a business lunch.  
Recover from that, spend the rest of the day keeping Phoenix running, meet up 
with Sonya and help her unwind.  A full day ahead.  Now if he could just 
handle the first step.
     With an effort he slid out of bed.  He took care not to wake Sonya, she
needed all the sleep she could get.  Sis was really overworking her.  He'd
told her Sonya couldn't be expected to work at a speed matching hers.  Sylia's
only comment had been that she wouldn't have to make do with inadequate help
if he'd spend more time at BioCyb.  Both of them knew that was impossible.
Dumas had to believe Mackie was doing everything he could to fight GENOM in
the financial arena.  That required the majority of his time.  It wasn't just 
an act.  Dumas wouldn't believe anything less than a committed effort.  After
all it was supposed to be Mackie's way of compensating for Sylia's death.
     As he ate breakfast he saw the news icon flickering on the video screen
in the corner of "Guernica"  Sonya had set the screen to show a montage of 
Picassos though Mackie couldn't see the attraction.  All he could think of 
was that the man had no sense of proportion.  Possibly this proved enhancement
didn't improve artistic judgement.  Alternately it proved that art critics
were running a con game.
     What was really important was the icon.  It indicated something he'd
prioritized had been on the news.  He touched and saw a sombre Mary Hart Jr. 
behind the desk of "Entertainment Now".  The clip was dated three hours 
earlier.  Looking properly bereaved she began, "Tragedy struck the music
industry today with the loss of one of it's most popular and profitable stars.
Reika Chang, better known to the world as Vision died today in a plane crash.
She was 25 years old.  The circumstances of the crash are currently under
investigation.  What is known is this.  (The screen changed to a still frame 
of a descending small jet.  The Vision logo on the side was clear.)  At 8:30
pm local time Vision's personal jet began final descent into MegaTokyo
International Airport. (On screen the plane began to move.)  Suddenly a routine
landing became a disaster."  The plane suddenly tips wildly to the left.  The
wingtip strikes the ground and crumples.  As it does the wing acts like a 
lever throwing the plane into an arc.  It strikes the ground upside down and 
bounces.  The plane impacts the ground again striking on the side with the
damaged wing.  The wing snaps as the fuselage crumples like tinfoil.  Jetfuel
ignites and the plane dissolves into a fragmenting ball of fire careening
down the runway.  Cut back to the anchor.  "In addition to Vision all her
bandmembers perished along with her personal staff, technical crew and the
crew of the aircraft.  Names are being held pending notification of next of
kin.  This was to have been Vision's first tour of Japan in two years.  It is 
a sombre day for all of us in the entertainment industry.  To commemorate 
this great artist here's Vision's final hit, "Vengeance Road".
     Mackie flicked off the recording.  Shit!  He'd been afraid of something 
this when he'd heard the tour announced.  His hope had been that it was
simply a tour rather than an attempt to avenge Linna.  If it had been Dumas
wouldn't have bothered with her.  Why hadn't she listened to him?  Did she
think she was tougher than the Knight Sabers?  He'd never know.
     "So what will the inquest show Daniel?", he murmured.  "Pilot error?
Electronics failure?  Crazed fan with a rocket launcher?"  Whatever it was
it wouldn't implicate GENOM in any way.  "And I'll bet they don't find a 
trace of an illegal mecha in the ruins.  That could raise questions."  Best
to keep this from Linna for the time being.  
     How?  They weren't in a Gulag.  There were no shortage of video channels
available to surf at BioCyb.  After all until Sis allowed them out they needed
some way to relax.  Sylia hadn't seemed to think about it.  She still referred
to them as the Beta units when discussing Nene, Priss and Linna.  Everyone
was beginning to find her abrasive.  When the Sabers' memories were recorded
she hadn't mellowed as much as she would during the summer.  Still the 
contrast from the Sylia they'd known to the Sylia they had now shocked them.
Mackie had his own theories about her.  Today was probably a good time to
confront her.  He was already in a rotten mood.
     Mackie arrived at BioCyb before eight.  Frank and Ilsa's car was already 
in the lot.  Good.  After all the cover for Dumas's benefit of his continual 
presence here was his desire to keep the Knight Shadows operational.  Which
reminded him, he'd better take the upgraded suits out on a trial run.  Just
to keep up appearances.  Not that there had been much need for the Shadows 
recently.
     The ALFs who made up the maintenance staff greeted him with a chorus of
"Good morning Mr. Stingray."  He didn't bother acknowledging them.  They 
weren't sentient.  They could have been but it wasn't necessary for their
current duties.  Millions spent developing the damn things and they wind up
obsolete before we get to produce them.  Mackie ran through the security 
checks.  When he cleared them he opened the door and headed down to the lower
levels.

     A page turned in the journal.  This one began, "When we began the 
revival I felt that Linna would make the best adjustment and Priss would make
the worst.  Nene would fall somewhere in between.  Which just goes to prove
that enhancement isn't omniscience.  Nene has made the best adaption to her 
new condition.  As I write this it strikes me that I think of them as the 
originals shifted to new bodies rather than as copies.  Almost as if they
are Nene, Linna and Priss simply suffering from a six month period of amnesia.  
It raises the question of, what if we managed to record everything someone had 
experienced up to the point of death and then uploaded them.  Would we have
continued that person's life or just made a very up to date duplicate?  I  
can't decide.  Anyway this remains purely hypothetical at present.
     Returning to Nene, her latest adaption was a complete surprise ..."

     As he reached the bottom of the stairs Mackie saw the stranger.  How the
hell had she got this far?  Even as he wondered this his combat persona 
activated.  Instantly he knew what to do.  His right hand snapped the 
concealed fletchette tube from his jacket pocket as the vibraknife slid into 
his left.  No visible weapons, order to surrender.  If she refuses shoot to 
incapacitate.  Aim for left leg.  Fletchette rounds at this range will cause 
major blood loss.  Move in quickly to tourniquet wound and save subject for 
interrogation.  
     "Morning Mackie"  Nene's voice.  The warrior personality snapped back to
a corner of his mind.  He looked again.  It was Nene except she'd ... 
changed.  She was now about half an inch taller, slimmer around the waist and
hips, her cheekbones had raised narrowing her face and her endowments had
increased.  Something was very wrong.
     "Nene?"
     "That's right.  So what do you think?"
     Redistribution of mass.  Biological components are monitored by ... 
"Nene we've got to get you back to ALF lab right away."  The bioputer that
monitored and directed the ALF biological components must be out of control!  
Normal body image patterns had become distorted.  This could be disastrous.
How had they missed a flaw that major?  "We have to find out what's wrong
with your internal systems and ..." 
     Nene cut him off.  "WHOA!  Take it easy.  Nothing's wrong."
     "Nothing's wrong!  Your body pattern ..."
     "I just decided to make a few changes.  That's all."
     "You ...?"  She nodded.  "You hacked into your own biocomputer?"
     "Yep.  Well after you unlocked my interface capability the other day I
got curious about my internal systems so I did a tour of inner space.  When
I found my body pattern was artificially maintained I realized I could make a
few improvements."
      There was a certain logic to this.  They'd reshaped three "blank" 
MegaALFs to match the final medical data available on the Knight Sabers.  The 
artificial spine was flexible allowing certain variations in height without
needing extensive rebuilding.  Tissue could be reshaped by the internal
systems, shifted to areas it was needed.  Theoretically the ALFs could morph
to disguise themselves by shifting from default pattern to a second.  However
this would not be as swift or painless as in the movies.  There were also
definite limits to the variations that could be made.
     "So what do you think?"  She struck a couple of poses.
     "I think I liked your old face better."
     "Really?  I'll change it back then.  What do you think of the rest of
me?"
     "Very ..." Desirable "...nice.  Why grow taller?"
     "I always thought I was just a little too short.  Not anymore."
     "Ah.  This is quite a surprise, it's going to surprise Sis too ..."
     "Really?  I finally get to surprise Sylia."
     "You'll do more that.  Your new dimensions means we'll have to
rework the basic frame of your new hardsuit so you'll fit.  I predict Sylia
will freak."
     "Oops.  Didn't think of that."  Nene sighed, "Now I have to change back.
But there's no reason not to freak Sylia out first."
     "Go for it."  If Sylia did freak Mackie would feel a bit better.  He had
the nasty feeling Sis would just order Nene to revert to standard pattern
in her normal cold tone and go on working.  
     "Say Mackie ..."  Nene looked a little embarrassed.  "I finally had a look
in the ALF lab yesterday ..."  Despite her ease with her new form Nene had
been avoiding the place her biomech body was created.  "You know there's 
three MegaALF's left in there."  Mackie nodded.  One was a blank, it could be 
formatted for whoever needed it.  The other two had designated occupants 
though redesign was possible.  Nene had been more than a little surprised to
see the two Stingrays floating naked side by side.  "Uhm ... I was just 
wondering if yours was ... accurate."
     "No."  He shook his head.  "I don't have green skin."
     "You creep."  She laughed as he said it.  "Well guess I'll go annoy your
sister."
     "Good luck.  Before you go is Priss in her room?"
     "Yeah."  Nene sighed.  "She's having a really hard time with this.  Hey,
maybe you can cheer her up.  Build her a new bike or something."
     "It's worth a shot."
     "Ok see you around.  It's not like I'm going anywhere."  Mackie watched 
her head off to Shadowbase.  When Sonya wasn't around she didn't try the
heavy flirting.  Hopefully that meant she'd given up on him which would 
simplify life.  Alternately she didn't feel she had to work as hard without
her rival around.
     Mackie wandered over to the former storeroom that had been converted 
into Priss's quarters.  He knocked on the closed door and heard, "What?"
     "Mind if I come in?"
     "Who gives a shit?"  Taking that as an invitation Mackie opened the door.

     "To say Priss has made the least successful adaption is one hell of an 
understatement.  Her moods alternate between intense anger and near suicidal
depression.  The anger is primarily directed at both Dumas and Sylia.  One
killed her, the other let it happen.  The latter isn't rational but we are
dealing with human feelings.  They don't need to be rational.
     It's worth remembering that when Priss's memories were recorded in May
of '35 she was on top of the world.  Her new manager had signed her to a
recording contract.  She was finally heading for fame and fortune.  After she
was revived she found out the deal fell apart and she'd wound up back to the 
club circuit again.  Her most hardcore fans died with her on Red Tuesday so 
she's already on her way to being forgotten.
     On top of that her memories were recorded months before she met ADAMA 
and mellowed a bit towards Boomers.  So feeling she's now become a Boomer is
about the last thing she needs.
     If that's not enough my own stupidity didn't help matters.  I should 
have stored the damn thing anywhere but in Shadowbase."

     Mackie opened the door and entered.  The room remained spartan, Priss  
hadn't been particularly interested in decorating.  Posters from various of 
her gigs remained unhung.  She hadn't shown any interest in any other
wall hangings.  The walls remained bare concrete.  Priss was sitting on the 
far end of the cot, the TV at her feet.  She was, as Mackie had half expected,
cuddling the urn.  Priss had spotted the plastic urn labelled "Asagiri" ten
days earlier and demanded to know what it was.  After being told it was her 
ashes she'd cried briefly then picked them up.  Since then she'd carried it
with her everywhere.  Opinion was divided on if it helped her to cope or was
just exacerbating matters.  She'd become physically less destructive (both
self and externally directed) but still suffered extreme mood swings.
     "Hey, you hear Vision died?"  She nodded toward the TV.  It was on low
volume though Mackie could make out someone paying tribute to the recently
deceased star.  At Mackie's nod she muttered, "It's all over the music vid.
channels, news, everything.  They won't forget her in a hurry.  I got two 
goddamn lines in the local paper along with everyone else who got killed."
The large number of dead meant only the prominent got more than name, age and
cause of death.  "The Icequeen got ten and she didn't even die!"  Priss 
reached towards a bottle then stopped.  She'd already  found her new body 
wouldn't let her get drunk.  Being a toxin alcohol was filtered and purified 
by her digestive system.  She could taste it but that was about it.  "... can
do everything your old body did ... what a crock!"
     "Almost everything."  Coming to terms with your own death wasn't 
something psychiatry had covered yet.  Coming to terms with dying yes but not
this.  Not yet anyway.  Presumably when the procedure became known a new field
would open up.  For now he had to play it by ear.  "Priss, I've been thinking
..."   
     "That's what you Stingrays are supposed to be best at.  Hah!"
     Mackie ignored the interruption.  "I was wondering if you'd like to get
out of here for a while.  We could fix you up with a disguise (Priss wasn't
aware of her morphing capabilities yet), rent a couple of bikes (forget working
on the hardsuits today, could still do this before lunch) and run a couple
of races through Berlin.  You'll love the autobahn, you're expected to drive
like a maniac."
     For a moment Priss looked interested.  Then the depression returned and
she tapped the urn.  "That was her, I'm me."   That had become her answer to
everything.  She didn't sing anymore.  Priss was the singer, she was someone
else.  She didn't know who she was, she just knew who she wasn't.  She spent
most of her time in this room.  When she wasn't moping she was bouncing off
the walls threatening the people who'd killed her.  And the ones who'd brought
her back.  
     She was the only one of the three still in lock-down mode.  Right now
everyone was hesitant about unlocking her weapon systems and increasing her 
strength to superhuman levels.  Still they didn't feel they needed to watch 
her twenty four hours a day anymore.  So there was some progress.
     After a few minutes more Mackie gave up trying to elicit any enthusiasm
and said goodbye.  At the door he paused and said, "Don't do anything ...
too crazy OK?"
     Priss gave a sad smile.  "I'm not going to kill myself.  You'd just bring
me back again, right?"  There was no answer to that.  "... 'And death shall
have no dominion'.  I'll bet that wasn't intended to be a curse."  As he 
turned to go Priss called, "Hey Mackie ..." He turned back.  "You're not a 
kid anymore, there's no reason you have to do everything Sylia says."
     "I'll remember that."  
     Mackie headed into Shadowbase.  Frank and Ilsa were over by the Shadow 
suits running them through a computer diagnostic.  The lack of action and the
tension down here was beginning to wear on them.  Off in the tech. bay Mackie
could here Nene's voice.  Sis would have got up before dawn and started work 
on the new Saber suits.  Linna was over in a corner running through one of her
karate routines.  Mackie headed over to have a few words.
     Her white gi remained stainless as she swept gracefully through the 
motions.  After a little while she stopped, centred herself and giving a
scream slammed her right fist onto a propped up cinderblock.  It cracked in
half.
     "You've still got it."
     "Do I?"  The calm he'd noticed during the routine seemed to have fled.
"Check this out."  She picked up a piece of the block and began to squeeze.
The concrete cracked and shattered.  She wiped the dust off her hands as she
said, "What do my skills matter anymore?  With this body everything I learned
is obsolete.  Hell, Nene can duplicate and exceed anything I did in the old
days.  Except they weren't really my old days, were they?"
      Mackie tried to think of a good answer, "Linna ..."
      "I know, don't rip myself apart questioning my identity."  She looked
worried.  "Priss is the one who needs to learn that."  She'd had as little
luck as Mackie in reaching her friend.  Though both of them were doing 
better than Nene.  Priss found Nene's eager acceptance of their new condition
offensive.
     Changing the subject Linna said, "I don't sweat anymore.  No matter how
hard I work out."  Of course her old workouts didn't come anywhere near taxing
her new body's capabilities.  Still ...
     "You can if you really want to."
     "Eh?"
     "You've got an internal cooling system that's more efficient than sweating
for radiating off excess heat.  But you can mimic sweating if you need to."
     "Part of the 'pass for human' capability?"
     "Right.  Hey you saw Nene?"
     "Yeah"  It had been a real surprise.  "That's quite a change overnight."
     "Well you've got the same morphing capability.  Once you all know how to 
use it there's no reason you can't use it to disguise yourselves and head out 
for some fun.  I'll arrange some fake IDs."  Suddenly it all seemed clear, why  
hadn't he thought of this before?  "In fact there'll be no reason you need to
live down here anymore.  You can all get apartments in the city, jobs if you 
really want them, a whole new life ..."  He broke off as Nene rushed back 
towards the living quarters.  She looked upset.
     Sylia appeared in the technical bay door.  "You're late Mackie.  We've
got a lot to do."
     "Right.  We'll talk later."  Linna watched him disappear inside the bay.
Both the Stingrays had changed drastically.  Mackie had matured during the
months he'd been in Europe.  Sylia ... Sylia was nothing like she remembered.
When they'd first met Linna had thought her cool and driven.  She now knew
she'd had no idea just how cold Sylia could get.
     Still it was a cold world.  Everyone left in MegaTokyo thought she'd 
been a mass murderer.  Finding out she'd been buried as a pariah didn't help 
her sleep nights.  "That was Linna, not me", she thought.  "But who am I?"
Still no answers, divine or otherwise.
     As he entered Mackie closed the door behind him.  Privacy would be best 
for what he intended to say.  "Nene looked upset."
     "I told her how foolish it was to alter the system maintaining her life.
Also that she doesn't have those capabilities to play games.  She's designed
as a weapon."
     "The MegaALFs were weapons.  But these particular weapons have people 
inside them."
     "So do ... so did the Sabersuits.  It didn't change what they were 
designed to do."
     Not a glimmer of emotion.  Try a new tact.  "Sis, you remember what you
told me when I started changing?"  He didn't wait for an answer, "You said
that enhancement would give me the ability to shut off my emotions but I
shouldn't use it.  Because retaining emotion was part reminding us that 
despite all our differences we were still human."  She didn't answer.  "But
you've forgotten that.  You've turned yourself into some sort of 
emotionless robot.  You already know that's not the answer."
     Sylia studied her brother.  After a moment she said, "I let my guard down
once.  I let my emotions interfere with my judgement and my three closest
friends died for my stupidity.  NEVER AGAIN!"  Her tone was final.
     He'd just glimpsed something below the cold mask.  Mackie began putting
the pieces together.  "It's more than that isn't it?  It's the same reason
you still call Nene and the others Beta units.  If you accept them as the
people you knew then you'll have to face losing them again."  Everything
clicked, "We both know when you start your attack on GENOM this place will
probably be levelled.  That means no more backups, ALFs, or downloads.  So
Linna, Priss and Nene can't be recreated and they'll be facing dying again. 
Except this time it'll be as permanent as everyone else who ever died.  And
you don't want to get them killed again."
     Sylia twitched slightly.  She gave no other reaction.  "Perhaps that's
true.  However it's irrelevant.  They always were expendable."
     "If things were desperate enough any one of them would have sacrificed
themselves to save the others.  You sound like you're planning some kind of 
suicide run."
     "That's my business!"
     "When you reappear Daniel's going to figure out I had something to do 
with it.  Which makes it my business."
     "Are you opposing me?"
     "No.  Just trying to keep things in perspective."  A moment's pause, 
"Priss needs some kind of help."
     Sylia nodded, "Yes.  I've been thinking we might consider making some 
alterations."
     "Alterations?"
     "Reprogramming.  We should be able to remove this mood swings by 
increasing her brain's production of ... what's wrong?"
     "You can't be serious."  Mackie stared at his sister in shock.
     "We just agreed she needed help."
     "Not at the cost of rewriting her personality.  Hell if we're going to
change her to suit our tastes then why bother bringing her back?  We might
as well just have installed battle programs in the ALFs."
     "I needed sentient troops with experience."
     "Bullshit!  You wanted them back."
     "Very well I'll leave her as she is.  But right now she's useless."
     You're deliberately missing the point, Mackie thought.  What are you 
trying to distract me from Sylia?  What am I missing?  Aloud he said, "Has
it occurred to you that our own experiments make it unlikely you can remove
Daniel that easily."
     "Meaning?"
     "Meaning that the two of us were able to recreate Gilgamesh.  Daniel
might lack our scientific background but he had GENOM's resources available
to him.  I can't believe he hasn't recreated it.  Matter of fact I figure 
that the equipment the fake Green Saber destroyed was Quincy's memory 
recording.  Daniel would have wanted to make sure Quincy stayed dead."  Mackie
sighed.  "But Daniel won't make the same mistakes as Quincy.  By now there'll 
be copies of his memories and superboomers to load them into stashed all over 
the world.  If you kill the original he'll just pop up again.  It'll be worse
than Largo because he's got the power Largo only dreamed of.  Once you've
lost the advantage of surprise we're history."
     "You're saying forget everything he did?"
     Now that definitely got a reaction.  "No I'm just saying that a head on
assault won't work.  We should consider ...hrrk"  Sylia's attack was a 
complete surprise.  His combat persona triggered.  But she had the same 
abilities as him, combined with a lot more practice.  Mackie found himself 
flattened against the wall.  Her left hand pinned his left wrist and her 
right forearm was firm against his throat.  His right arm was caught behind 
his body.  When he tried to free it the pressure on his throat increased.  
She had the leverage to crush his windpipe if she wanted.
     "Now listen to me brother!", Sylia's voice was low and controlled.  "I
will attack Daniel when I judge the time is right.  If you get in the way I
will make myself an only child.  Do you understand me?"
     Nodding was impossible.  Mackie could only whisper, "Yes."  It was true.
He finally understood.  Sylia released him and stood back.  "I'm glad we had
this little chat.  It's good to define our positions."

     "It can be argued that besides increased intelligence and cognition Dad's 
enhancement process created a condition similar to multiple personality 
disorder.  Personality fractions form appropriate to dealing with certain 
situations.  While these trigger as needed they can be activated at will.  
Unlike MPD they don't have carry their own identities, awareness of the core 
mind is always present.  Daniel runs almost exclusively in what I call 
"corporate shark" mode.  Sis used to run on her "aloof observer" mode most of 
the time, or "ice queen act" as Priss called it.  Except as a Knight Saber 
when she was using a combined "tactical/combat" mode.  I fought the same way
alongside the Knight Shadows.  The only time the two of them didn't use their 
masks was in each other's company.  Personally I try to avoid using personas 
though that's not always possible.  I've developed my own corporate shark 
self but that's not the issue here.
     Enhancement also makes it possible to temporarily suppress memories.  
Daniel must have done this the last time he saw Sis.  He didn't give her any 
hints away about his plans to attack them because he'd made himself unaware of 
his own actions.  Which is why Sylia failed to pick up any warning signs.  
She must know this, but that doesn't mean she accepts it.
     Sylia fooled me completely.  I thought she was using a more extreme
version of her ice queen personna.  Refusing to feel emotion because she hurt
so much and could well be leading the Knight Sabers to a second death.  I was
wrong.  The ice queen is just a mask.  Underneath she's driven by emotion.
Fury.  Pure focused rage.  Anger directed both at Dumas for his betrayal and
herself for letting him do it.  I don't think Sylia can live with herself
until he's dead.
     The thought of someone as smart and determined as Sis driven purely by
hatred is terrifying.  That wasn't a bluff this morning.  If I get in her way
I become Daniel's accomplice, her enemy.  Enhancement is no guarantee of 
sane behaviour, Mason/Largo taught us that.  Unfortunately I'm afraid she's
right.  Daniel has to go.  The big question is how?
     If we manage to penetrate the Tower and kill Daniel that's only going
to slow him down.  He'll come back via Gilgamesh (or whatever it's called 
now) and regain control of GENOM immediately.  Maybe he'll return pretending
he's still human and was simply injured.  Or perhaps he'll have a new identity
set up.  The fact is that Daniel is effectively immortal.  He's probably
updating his recordings regularly so he'll be reborn as up to date as 
possible.  We can't even wait for him to die of old age.  If he gets too
decrepit he'll just make a final recording and take euthanasia.  So to beat 
him we not only have to kill Daniel we also have to find and destroy all his
backups.  Before his counterattack finishes us.  We have only one site
capable of recreating us.  Frankly we can't count on this place remaining
standing long enough to do that.  Trying to set up a second site runs an
extreme risk of alerting Daniel.  So what do we do now?
     The situation is so bad I even considered if we should forget fighting 
him.  His last words to Sis were, 'somebody has to save the world'.  Daniel's
always maintained he's not out for personal power (though he doesn't distain
it) but on a crusade to save the planet.  I think he's sincere.  He sees 
GENOM as the tool to unify the human race.  He once told Sylia, 'try to 
conquer the world and everyone will fight you.  Try to buy it and everyone
wants a piece of the action'.
     But I cannot make myself believe that he is the best choice the job.  
Daniel lives for the big picture, 'the greatest good for the greatest number'.
To achieve that he will sacrifice anything and anyone.  By doing so he's
already sacrificed his humanity.  As the old adage goes, 'A fanatic willing 
to die for his cause is even more willing to have others die for it'.  Of 
course for Daniel death has become a temporary inconvenience.  
     None of this changes the fact that he must be stopped.  Even though we 
risk plunging the world into chaos by destabilising GENOM we must fight him!
     I just wish I knew how.
     I also wish I knew my sister was sane enough not to do anything crazy."

     Sylia closed the journal.  Good, now she was sure that Mackie wouldn't
oppose her.  She didn't need more enemies, the one she had was formidable
enough.  Though she'd better find a way to reassure Mackie that she wouldn't 
act prematurely.  Otherwise that could change.  Putting the journal back 
Sylia prepared to reseal the safe.  She gathered up the equipment that had 
enabled her to break Mackie's security system unnoticed.  Sonya and Mackie 
shouldn't be back for several hours.  They were out trying to relax from the 
pressures of the week.  Still it was best not to take chances.  Besides there 
was a lot of work to do at BioCyb. Checking her disguise was in place she 
slipped out of the apartment, double checking that she had left no sign of her 
presence.
     As she silently exited the building Sylia reflected she could answer 
neither of Mackie's concerns.  As yet she didn't have a viable way to kill
Daniel permanently.  Thinking of her former lover brought the fury bubbling up
again.  She forced it back.  Maintain the facade.  They won't follow you if
they think you're out of control.  
     Mackie's worries about her sanity she couldn't answer.  She didn't know
if she was sane.  Nor did she care.  Daniel must pay for what he'd done.  
To her and all his other victims.  When she'd done that perhaps she'd be able
live with herself again.

End of part 8

Next: meanwhile in MegaTokyo

Part 9 : Merry Christmas Mr. Dumas

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page