Chapter Thirty
Jinnee
Wednesday. March 21. 11AM. 125 S.A
Lac Noir. Saint-Paul-en-Chablais, France.
Rum walked down the ramp of the ship followed by Stan and they both looked at the landscape while stretching their bodies a bit. She felt a little confused and dizzy, although she had been able to rest on the ship for hours.
On the way down they had become a little disoriented by their surroundings. They were on the shores of a small lake of peaceful waters, surrounded by a dense forest, whose trees let in the light of a weak sun that peeked through the clouds from time to time.
Both were wearing the camouflaged clothing of the French land army. The clothing had been provided to them by EVE, but they could configure it later in case they didn't need it or to avoid attracting attention once they finished their new missions.
They had spent the last few hours on the ship with EVE and her drones. They had taken about twelve hours of rest, because both not only were still under the effects of the anesthetics they had been given to perform the Deep-Dive but also something else.
After the adrenaline from the escape wore off, they both felt really tired and had headaches. During that time EVE had simply kept her ship camouflaged in the clouds. In Stan's case he had to admit that he hardly detected that he was in the air at all, and thanks to that he had been able to rest.
But, beyond that, what Rum in her case was feeling now was something different. "What a treat," she murmured, somewhat grumpily.
"It'll be over in a couple of hours," EVE said, walking up behind the two of them.
The gift. That bastard Janus had done something they both hadn't expected. During their first encounter on the ferry he had done something they hadn't detected. When he had disarmed them and then, when he had returned the weapons and the fractium core cube, he had introduced in both of them something else that neither of them knew anything about.
An upgrade to the Neurowire of both of them. EVE had explained it to them when, suddenly a few minutes after they escaped from Pyrene's base, both of their noses started to bleed and they were assaulted by sudden headaches that barely allowed them to stand up.
EVE advised them both to rest, and let the nanoparticle system do its job on its own. They had simply escaped from the anesthesia, so that EVE would give them a drug to help them fall asleep quickly.
Janus' gift was indeed an enhancement to both Neurowires, but also an insurance he had put in place in case, as it happened, something went wrong and they were both captured. The function of that was that a memory lock would be activated, in case someone decided to access the short-term memories externally. Which had happened during the Deep-Dive. That had basically prevented Pyrene from finding out what had happened after they finished their mission in Edinburgh and the encounter with Janus.
Nanoparticles, which were absorbed by breathing, was one of the most common ways of implanting the Neurowire into a person. That system of entry into the brain was based on the mechanism of the Naegleria Fowleri amoeba, a bacterium that had once been fatal once it reached the brain.
Once it reached the brain the nanoparticles would lodge in an incredibly small space and, over short time, create a new nervous system of their own that would generate the Neurowire. Why the procedure had to be done at an early age was due to the neuroplasticity of the young brain. Once a certain age was reached the procedure could be dangerous in case of generating cognitive dissonance and dissociative personality disorder. And a phenomenon that even up to that day generated strong debates in science and philosophy.
In the case of upgrades, it was something extremely rare to be done in recent times. Since the latest generation did not require internal upgrades, as had been the first generation available to society. In fact, the system could count on an up to five hundred years of operability insurance, always assuming that in the future there would already be an upgrade of the system.
It was the improvements that were installed in those early days that generated the debate as to what age it was best to get Neurowire in the brain, and why improvements should not be made.
Rum was too busy trying to get used to it, but she knew that what she was experiencing was one of the most frightening paradoxes as far as Neurowire was concerned. The so-called Three Body Problem, or as others also called it The Fourth Voice.
From her point of view it was as if there were three people in her head at the time. Her left side of the brain was thinking something that was very different from what the right side was thinking. It was as if there were two consciousnesses, where before there had been only one. And, somewhere far away in her mind, she was feeling as if something was slowly devouring both of them at the same time and putting everything in order.
That was the Three Body Problem of neuroscience and philosophy. Where only one consciousness had existed in perfect harmony with the brain, with the Neurowire growing, suddenly it seemed as if the two hemispheres of the brain had decided to disagree, and as if sometimes they did not recognize the other half of the body as one. This was because the Neurowire growth system started in the corpus callosum of the brain. This meant that, for a short period of time, it felt as if the consciousness and personality had split. After a few hours everything would return to normal. This occurred when the nanoparticle system was installed in the brain and began to grow, and the same thing happened with the enhancements.
The real problem was an unknown that had been around for a long time and had generated quite a few headaches. Was the consciousness that put everything in order at the end the same consciousness that was there at the beginning? Or was it a new individual formed from the growth of Neurowire filaments in the corpus callosum? Until then, not even neuroscience, fractium technology, nor other branches of medicine had been able to answer that. Although there were other postulates that were much more disheartening that said that consciousness simply did not exist as such at all. Or, if it did exist, it was a transient phenomenon and that in fact the brain spent more of its life unconsciously than consciously. The zombie hypothesis.
Such was the debate. The non-locality of Dark Events, fractus and that space and time were not fundamental properties in the realm of physics had even further confused the subject of neuroscience, even more than in the past.
Whatever it was, it didn't matter to Rum. Whether it was the old Rum, or a new one that had just been born from the depths of her mind, she still had her memories and that was all that mattered. That hadn't changed the depths of her feeling as a human, that was enough for her.
For his part, Stan was calmer and, for some reason, he did not feel the same sensation as his companion. The truth was that, since the day that shapeshifter thing had merged with his body, many other things had changed, but he certainly didn't usually feel sick or anything like that, unless it involved an air or sea vehicle. The time he had worked as a janitor on a ship had been more than enough for him.
Stan finally came down and was grateful to finally be on the ground.
They could both see that the place was not exactly devoid of civilization, the trees prevented them seeing from the air the structures of another time. There were some nearby ruins of what appeared to have been some ancient buildings. Probably destroyed during the time of the war, if the war had reached there. Somewhat far away, among the trees, there seemed to be another small lake nearby. Both were not of great size and in fact could be called more lagoons than lakes.
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"So, how far do we have from here?" Stan finally asked EVE.
She indicated a point to the northeast. "About five kilometers if it were a straight line, but I don't recommend it. Make a detour once it starts to get dark, or better at night and get as close as you can to both targets."
"It's not going to be easy for us to take them both out."
"Just try not to screw up again. A vehicle will be ready to take you out with a safe route."
Rum furrowed her brow at hear that. "Is there anyone inside who knows about us?"
"No. Someone will simply leave you the route so you can get past the perimeter ring fence. From there you guys have to go on your own to the final location."
Stan just stared at EVE, as he sighed.
Janus, the enigmatic leader of the whole gang, was temporarily out of their reach because he was attending to other matters. On that occasion EVE, their mysterious ally for forced reasons, had been in charge of providing them with the following instructions for their final mission.
The new objective was crystal clear, but its simplicity contrasted with the complexity of the task. They were to abduct two people from the base camp during the night and transport them to their final destination, an abandoned nuclear study center in Geneva.
What worried them both, though, was about that military fence. Apparently, from what EVE had told them, the military and Nevermore personnel were on site in a joint operation investigating a Dark Event. That didn't please them at all because they would be in the lion's den again. But Stan had his shapeshifting ability in optimal condition to be used again, and their Neurowire enhancements would allow them to go almost unnoticed by the military in the area. Or at least that was what EVE assured Rum, and she had been in the last few minutes accessing the new subroutines and menus she now had.
She would have to use her old hologram to blend in, but she wondered if even that would be necessary. As far as she could see there were special programs that could interfere with the information received from the environment by other Neurowires nearby which was basically, by means of electrical signals, overwriting the input information received by the visual and auditory cortex. This was illegal in the marketplace, but it was part of the programs that certain agencies and militaries could afford for intelligence work.
"Here is half of the payment and the final order data. The other half will be delivered to you on site once you deliver the two targets." EVE, her face serious, handed over an incomplete digital key that she sent straight to Rum's Neurowire. "The deadline is important, you must be in Geneva before morning." EVE's words echoed in the uncertainty-laden air. "You can't afford mistakes this time," she stressed in a grave tone, emphasizing the importance of her errand.
"You could at least come and get us, that way everything would be quicker," Rum said.
"The situation is extremely delicate, and the success of this mission is crucial for all of us. Also, I want you to understand that my involvement in all of this is at stake as well. The machine you stole is part of a larger plan in which I am also involved."
"What do you mean?," Stan asked.
"I have to do my part with that thing," EVE said, turning around and pointing to the tactical droid inside the ship, which had merged with that mysterious box. "But it's somewhere other than where you'll be. That's why I can't help you."
"I guess you're not going to tell us what's in it after all?" Stan asked.
"Believe me, I'll believe it myself when I see it. And no. I can't tell you either way."
Stan sighed again. "I guess that's it then? There's nothing else?"
"No, just don't screw up again. And remember, the one who has to give you the other half of the payment is Mr. Griffin. Good luck."
EVE slowly turned around and simply started walking back to the ship. Stan paused for a few moments looking at the figure of the fey girl. That symbiont suit was really tight and, if it weren't for the color, it would really look like she was naked.
What a nice ass. Stan thought as Rum punched him in the back of the head. "Why did you do that?"
"I need your eyes here, not glued to those buttocks," Rum said grumpily. But she had to admit, that outfit was too flashy to avert her eyes. She herself had to admit that the woman was too perfect, she hardly looked human, not even fey, or anything like that. And the way she saw Stan, she knew he felt something similar.
She almost reminded them both of those gynoids that were too perfect. But no, there was something else about that girl that made them feel attraction, but at the same time fear. It wasn't because of what they had seen in the attack, after all they hadn't seen EVE's confrontation but, without a doubt, there was something that seemed out of place and contradictory about her. Attraction and rejection. Excitement and fear.
EVE was finally lost inside the ship and the hatch closed. The ship made one last turn over the calm waters of the lake, almost as a farewell signal, and sailed silently away, activating its cloak again and blurring into the morning sky, leaving Stan and Rum with the feeling that they had wandered into something that was much more difficult than it appeared. The implications of their actions began to weigh on their minds. They felt like pieces in a larger game, whose rules and objectives remained shrouded in a veil of uncertainty.
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Questions were piling up in their minds, threatening to overwhelm them, more so since they were still with the effects of the Neurowire enhancement. Were they acting on behalf of something much larger and were they mere pawns in a twisted plot? Who were the real orchestrators behind these seemingly meaningless missions? Was Janus alone? And, most importantly, could they fully trust the people who were leading them?
The whole honor among thieves thing was old hat and meaningless to them, but that their employer had been so busy attacking a station to rescue that piece, and them in the process, was too much. He could have employed others in his mission, leaving them behind to their fate. After all, underworld work was a constantly moving market and casualties were a normal occurrence. But Janus seemed keen that they should both be the ones to complete that mission. He had kept his word as he had said.
This was not an existential or moral dilemma for them, they were simply suspicious of what the ultimate motivations might be. Their lives had been irrevocably entangled in a web of secrets, conspiracies and hidden motivations for a long time, but these last few days had been different. Every action they took seemed to push them further away from the truth, plunging them further into the enigma of the fractured parts that made up a fucked up kaleidoscopic pseudoreality.
They both looked at each other. The hours would advance slowly, but at least they would have enough hours while Rum finished getting used to the improvements to her system. That would give them time to put their thoughts in order.
Rum sat down on a pillar in the nearby ruins and stretched out her feet. The new military boots were really comfortable for her. But what worried her was something else.
"I was looking at some of the history of the place…"
"Which place?"
"The abandoned nuclear study center, where we have to go. Apparently it's been privately owned for a few years now. But I couldn't find the owner no matter how hard I looked. But I did find associations to certain companies that have weapons contracts here and out there," she said pointing with her chin to the sky, in the direction of where the ship had been lost.
Stan thought about it. "Could this Janus guy be the owner then?"
"That would make sense. These upgrades only exist in certain cases and they're military grade. Add the fact of those droids and the ship are military grade. It's highly likely that this guy is involved in defense projects and has to go to outside sources to get certain things done."
Stan nodded at that and in his mind he replayed the information EVE had sent him. He looked at the face of the target they had failed to obtain in Rome. It was a scientist named Lee Reubens. The other target was someone from the Nevermore organization. They had no idea who it might be but it had to be someone important if belonged to the ravens.
However, there was one thing that bothered him in that information and that was regarding the scientist.
It was simply a word in brackets and it was next to the last name. Stan read it and then looked at Rum.
"What the hell is a jinnee?"