That night when we got the all clear I was finally allowed to come up for air. I looked around the tarmac of the factory’s airstrip but Simon was nowhere to be found. I had thought he would be there to meet me. Instead there was a lone helicopter.
It was black and angular with stubby wings that might have housed weapon or sensor pods. It sat there on the runway, its side doors open to reveal the empty seating area.
“Where's my dad?” I asked Rook. We had spent our remaining time down in the boneyard making a point of not talking.
“Simon went on ahead to the villa a few hours ago to draw out anyone who might not be happy about his recent purchase. It's safer if the two of you travel separately.” Rook went over to the helicopter to visually confirm the identity of the pilot in the coffin style cockpit. He waved me over. “Come on, there's no point in being a sitting target for longer than we have to.”
“Where are Sapphire and Sparky?” I looked around, they weren't here either.
“We didn't tell them you were going. They'll be informed once you land. Now come on, we need to go!” Rook got into the helicopter.
I followed after, letting him strap me in and put on my hearing protection. “Why didn't you tell them I was leaving?” I asked once the doors closed.
Almost immediately the electric motors spun up and we lifted off into the sky.
“Sapphire's is related to Prince Bellsong of Katzenlund. She isn't close with that side of the family so she might not be compromised, but we couldn't risk it.” Rook explained.
“Fuck.” I swore, realizing that I should have made the connection sooner. The last name Snugglewump was tied to the royal family of Katzenlund and Sapphire had the same blue eyes and white fur as the empress. One could even say they looked related.
I had met the Eternal Empress of Katzenlund at a charity event once. Snowflake Fluffytail Snugglewump Bellsong was a cold bitch who jealously ruled over the remains of her crumbling empire like a dragon hoarding treasure. Her incredible longevity had at first been thought to be divine, but now was recognized as merely the result of genetic modification and advanced tech.
Prince Bellsong was the next in line for the throne, technically. The chances of him ever getting a chance to rule were incredibly slim since his mother was the Eternal Empress and had so far lived up to the title. Plus he was male and katzen were matrilineal.
If his sisters hadn't died during the cataclysm he wouldn't have even been in the running. I felt a flutter in my mind as my wetware pulled new information from an external source. Across from me Rook tensed up momentarily then relaxed.
The princesses had not been killed during the attempted rebellion like the history books said. Instead they were exiled for attempting to overthrow their mother, eventually ending up in the Döbian camps under Gershwin.
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“Holy shit.” I said out loud. “The Empress does not fuck around.”
“No, she definitely doesn't.” Rook agreed. “By the way, your eyes flashed yellow for a second then went back to normal. Were you pulling information from your… friend?”
At first I wondered why he didn't just say Gershwin, then I realized that the pilot could also hear our conversation. “Yeah, apparently he shared some information with me before he left. I just haven't had a chance to sort through it all.”
I shrugged, wondering why I was suddenly so cool with having a genocidal maniac living in my wetware. Then I remembered, yep. Gershwin conditioned all of his hosts to prevent them from rejecting the graft.
Interesting, so what else had he left me? It looked like there was a fairly diverse mix of information from science, to anatomy, to… baking? Gershwin baked? That couldn't be right.
“Wait… he baked?” I asked, realizing that my eyes had probably been flickering yellow. “Because I've got a fuck ton of cookies recipes in here.”
“Yes, fairly well in fact.” Rook confirmed. “He used to bring them to us fresh from the oven. Unfortunately those were the same ovens where the bodies were disposed of.”
“No, that's not right.” I felt a memory surface. “He tried that once but they always burned.”
“Interesting. Well, you would know better than I.” Rook looked at me with a mix of curiosity and what I eventually realized was pity.
“You're completely fucked. You know that, right? The more you use him the stronger he will get. I've seen it before with some of the survivors. If you are lucky you will become a hybrid, and that's the best case scenario.”
“Or perhaps I'll become a psychotic killer. Now wouldn't that be ironic?” I contemplated my next words carefully, knowing that the subject matter would be a sore spot for Rook.
“You should know that the first person he infected was himself. He wasn't always a monster.” I let that hang in the air.
“He became one because it was the only way to bring his children back. He burned away every shred of compassion and decency he had in order to make sure nothing would stop him. That's why he went so crazy.”
I looked out the window at the city below us. “Those children he implanted his memories into in the camps were traumatized, damaged goods. No matter what it never would have worked out. You can't paint trauma on top of trauma and hope for a pretty picture. I'm different, less of a ruined canvas and more of a blank one.”
Rook didn't reply. He just sat there, watching me. He probably thought I was already long gone, too infected by Gershwin to look at things objectively. But he was wrong.
I understood that the conditioning was the only reason I wasn't trying to dig Gershwin out of my head with a spoon. Sure, the conditioning could be broken. But then my mind would break with it.
There was no point in fighting this until a cure could be found. But why Gershwin had chosen me or even how I had been infected remained a mystery. I wondered if reaching beyond the barrier and connecting to KB had somehow triggered it.
Eventually we touched down at the helipad in front of the villa. “Goodbye, Mr. Rook.” I said as I got up from my seat.
“Goodbye, Eden.” The large panzerhund rumbled back. “Good luck with your friend.”
Once I was safely inside the villa the helicopter took off.
I felt a rumble in my stomach. I hadn't realized how hungry I was.
I let out a sigh of relief. Things were finally getting back to normal.