“Can you tell me everything you know about this?” Julia Grinder asked.

“No.” I said.

“We all have sufficient clearance for this.” Julia said.

“It's not that.” I said. “I've got conditioning in place to prevent me from talking about it.”

“Oh, that.” Julia said and tapped out a command on the vidwall. A drawer opened where a portable screen should have been, and she took out a pair of googles. “Here, put these on.”

“But...”

“Just connect the leads into the ports behind your ear.” Julia said.

I frowned at her as I took the goggles, and looked them over. “Do you really expect this to work after not having the VR interface work?”

Julia opened her mouth to say yes, then sighed. “Damn.” She said and tapped a few more commands into the vidwall. “She should be here in a minute.”

I didn't ask her who it could be, because that question would be answered as soon as the person came into the room. The door to the room opened a minute later, and the older woman that came in stopped when she saw me.

“Oh, my god.” The woman said. “What is this deviant doing here?”

“It's nice to see you again, Anna.” I said and smiled.

“That's Doctor Bolivic, you uncultured swine!” Anna said sternly. Julia and the man at the table stared at her, then her face cracked and she laughed. “I can't believe they roped you back in.”

“I can't believe you never left.” I said, and she came over to me.

“How have you...” Anna stopped talking when she saw my synthetic parts. “Oh, damn.”

“Say hi to the new me.” I said.

“Jack, I... I'm sorry.”

“Nowhere near as much as I am.” I said and used my real hand to knock on the back of my head. “Full implant replacement.”

“Oh, no.” Dr. Bolivic said and stood in front of me. “What can you recall?”

“Just the last year of her life and the funeral.” I said.

She sighed. “All the worst parts of her life, and her death.”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

Dr. Bolivic reached out and cupped the sides of my face. “Are you ready?”

I nodded and she put her hands by my ears and snapped her fingers twice in rapid succession in my left ear, then once in my right ear with her other hand, then three times in the left ear.

“At least I know your conditioning is still intact.” Dr. Bolivic said, and I blinked my eyes at her.

“When are you going to start?” I asked.

“Start?” She asked and chuckled. “I'm already done.”

“Oh.” I said. “Good work, then.”

Dr. Bolovic laughed and put a hand on my shoulder. “Come and see me when you have a free hour... or ten.”

I smiled. “It's okay, Anna.” I said. “I'm dealing with it.”

“Actually, I think you're ignoring it as much as you can, even though it's now more a part of you than you ever wanted it to be.”

I took a deep breath and let it out.

“My couch is always open.” Dr. Bolivic said. “As long as you call first and I can clear my schedule.”

“I'm going to show up out of the blue now, just to see if that's true.” I said. “It was nice seeing you again.”

“Likewise.” Dr. Bolivic said and walked over to the door and left the room without saying a single word to Julia Grinder or the man at the table.

“Now.” Julia said. “What can you tell me about this?” She asked and pointed to the particle generator on the screen.

“It's the bane of humanity.” I said. “It's creation was a scientific breakthrough of gigantic proportions, just like the creation of the atomic bomb was.”

“There's no need to be dramatic.” Julia said.

“If I was going to be dramatic, I'd be waving my arms around and screaming at you to destroy the thing, all the research ever done with it, and then plead and beg that you purge the knowledge of it from humanity for all time.” I said and pointed to the man that sat at the table. “Look, he didn't tap his finger.”

Julia sighed. “Can you describe what the projectile looked like that damaged and almost killed you?”

“Like I could ever forget that.” I said and stood up, and walked over to the vidwall. I brought up a touch keyboard and used it to search through the various files available, and found a rocket propelled grenade. I swiped the keyboard away and touched the rocket grenade. It gave me an exploded view, and I took out the payload and looked at the particle generator. I copied it and shrunk it down, then put it inside the grenade, and rather than put the thing back together, I left off the side panels.

“There.” I said. “It had a regular propulsion drive that all RPGs have, but the sides opened up. It emitted beams as it rotated, and they cut through almost anything it hit; but, it was clearly designed for removing people.”

“What makes you say that?” Julia asked.

“Before it hit me, I saw it cut only an inch or so into the concrete in front of me.” I said. “If it had been designed to go at full power, the beams would have gone at least three feet down into the earth.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Julia looked at the vidwall and nodded. “You're right.” She said. “It's yield was much lower than it should have been, and it was only launched at five separate areas before your 'Rolling Tide' overtook their positions and recovered not only their portable launchers, but their supply as well.”

“Can I curse openly now?” I asked. “You idiots are going to use them, aren't you?”

“If we can duplicate it.”

“No.”

“They are already using it against us.” Julia said. “If we don't develop it as well, they will keep killing us in droves.”

“No.”

“You don't want S.C.R.A.P.E. to unleash this in a populated area, Jack.” Julia said. “You know they will, once they get rid of us.”

I closed my mouth and didn't say anything, because I couldn't argue that they wouldn't. They would do it just to get the point across that they were in control, and we all knew it.

“I'm not a weapon designer.” I said. “I'm just a-”

“You just reconstructed exactly what the enemy was using against us.” Julia said and cut me off. “Either you have an aptitude for it, or you have a lot more experience with it than we know.”

“You already have me over a barrel with Sandra feeding my career information to them.” I said and sighed. “Do you really need to imply that I have personally committed treason and designed weapons for the enemy?”

“I just want you to realize what the true gravity of the situation is.” Julia said.

“Oh, I know.” I said. “You're going to make me break my word... again... and force me to kill even more people.”

“No, we are going to do that.” Julia said. “As long as you can figure out how to reproduce their projectiles.”

“Why me?” I asked. “You must have hundreds of researchers working on it already.”

“We do, and they are all convinced that it's impossible to have a particle generator small enough to fit inside an RPG projectile, despite having a dozen of them to look at.”

“Oh, god.” I said and rubbed my forehead. “You opened one, didn't you?”

“Yes.”

“How many people died in the explosion?” I asked.

“How do you-”

“Thirty-six.” The man said. “Not counting the AIs, robotic assistants, or supplementary programs.”

I sighed and shook my head. “You can't treat this like regular ammunition or explosives.” I said. “That is not how it works.”

“How does it work then?” Julia asked. “Give us something.”

“I... I can't.” I said. “I don't want you to research this.”

“Jack, you have to help us.” Julia said. “Do more people have to die, just so you will give us a clue to discover the secret?”

“No.” I said. “No one else needs to die.” I sighed again. “The only way to control the output, regulate the particle generator, and run the optical sensors to tell the projectile to open at the right spot to maintain the most coverage as well as keep a stable flight...”

Both Julia and the man leaned forward to hear my answer.

“...is with a rudimentary AI.”

Julia stood up straight and had surprise on her face, but the man slowly nodded. I looked at him, and he looked back at me.

“You understand what happened, right? At the lab and with the explosion?” I asked him.

“It was protecting itself, and the integrity of it's body.” The man said, and I nodded.

“It's the only logical explanation.” I said. “It doesn't even have to be a full AI. A supplementary one would do it.”

“What about a micro-drone?” Julia offered.

“You can use one of the micro-drones as a scanner, but not as the main processor.” I said. “It's too limited in it's responses to handle that much information.”

“Well.” Julia said and cleared off the vidwall. “You've given us quite a lot to think about and discuss.”

“Does this mean I'm free to go?” I asked.

Julia laughed. “You can leave the building and go home, but you are not 'free to go'.” She said. “You will be taking babysitters with you.”

“Really?” I asked and looked at the man, who shrugged. “As long as it's not the squad that brought me in.”

“No, they are only the fetch patrol.” Julia said. “You'll meet your babysitters when you get to the lobby.”

I nodded and walked over to Sandra, then tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped a little and looked at me, and I hit the button on the noise-cancelling headphones and they released their hold on her ears. I took them off of her and folded them up, and tossed them to the security guard that had given them to me. They bounced off his chest and landed on the floor, and I smiled.

“Come on, Sandra.” I said. “They're letting us out on good behavior.”

Sandra stood up and took my hand, and I led her over to the door. I bent down and picked up the headphones, then tucked them into the pouch they came from on the guard's combat harness.

“No kick in the groin for you today.” I said, and the guard smiled. The other guard opened the door for us and we left the room, and went to the elevator. Only one guard was with us, and for a moment I thought that it might have been a deliberate insult; then the man spoke.

“I can't believe they let you go with a single guard.” The man said and shook his head. “There's no way I can handle two people alone.”

“That's two people determined to resist.” I said, and his eyes widened. “I didn't mean us.” I chuckled. “We're not resisting at all, so it's no big deal.”

The man looked like he was trying not to frown; but, he couldn't quite make himself believe that I wouldn't try to resist in some capacity. I was tempted to tease him a little, then changed my mind. The elevator ride was going to end any second, so both his backup and my babysitters would be appearing any moment now.

The elevator arrived at the lobby and the doors opened, and I was greeted with a sight I didn't think I would see again.

“Hey, rich man.” Crush said and waved. “Looks like we're looking after you again.”

His squad commander stood beside him, but the other three were absent. I walked over to them with Sandra, and stopped in front of them.

“Hi, Alyssa.” I said.

“Hi, Jack.”

“Where are the other members of the squad?” I asked.

“Waiting for their turn on watch.” Alyssa said and motioned to the security station. “Crush, lead on.” She said and then looked at me. “After you.”

I nodded slightly and went through the security station without incident, Sandra went through behind me, and Alyssa went last. We left the building and the troop transport was there.

“We even get a ride back.” I said, surprised.

The door to the transport opened and the cyborg there stepped out.

“Hey, look who's walking free.” Frank said.

“Well, I'm walking at least.” I said, and he laughed.

“Hop aboard, and I'll get you back to your living sector.”

“Thanks, Frank.” I said.

We all got onboard and Frank drove us back to my apartment. We arrived there some time later, and he dropped us off without any fuss and left us alone.

“That just seems weird.” I said as I walked to the door of my living area. I scanned my hand and entered the code, and told it I had a heavy load again.

“I'm staying here in the lobby by the door.” Crush said. “Weight regulations for extended stays are pretty strict.”

I nodded and cancelled the heavy freight elevator. “I'll have some food brought down to you.”

“Thanks, but I already ate.” Crush said and pat his stomach. “Those new brown algenate discs are amazing and well worth the points to buy extra.”

“I'm glad you like the change.” I said as the door to the lobby opened.

“Hey, that kind of sounds like...”

“Yeah, it was me.” I said. “Once I had to eat one for myself... well...”

“Then you getting hurt benefited every single cybernetically-enhanced being in the Cavern.” Crush laughed. “It was a horrible way for it to happen, but look what you've done with it.” He said. “On behalf of everyone, thanks a lot.”

“Did everyone hear that?” I said to the people in the lobby. “I'm being thanked for my selfishness.”

“Get going, and don't try to escape from your luxurious apartment and hot girlfriend.” Crush laughed. “You poor bastard.”

I laughed, and hit the button for the elevator. Sandra, Alyssa and I got in, and it descended to my floor.

“The both of you are under house arrest for the foreseeable future.” Alyssa said when we got out of the elevator. “You will not go anywhere without an escort.”

“I assumed as much.” I said and walked to the apartment. “I won't be going anywhere, though.”

“Unlike Jack, I need to work.” Sandra said.

“I thought you were staying off for sick leave.” I said and stopped in front of my door. “You haven't finished recovering yet.”

“I'm not doing the tour, I'm going to the administration building.” Sandra said. “They said that a desk job is a lot easier than standing on my feet for most of the day.”

“Crush will go with you when you leave the building.” Alyssa said.

“I won't argue, because I know I don't have a choice.” Sandra said and went to the next apartment.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“After what just happened, I think we need some alone time.” Sandra said.

“But...”

“Goodnight, Jack.” Sandra said and went into the apartment I had given to her parents.