“I’ll be blunt.” Viina leaned back in her seat, and gave me another once over with her eyes. “I want in on whatever operation you have going on right now.”
I raised my eyebrows, and when it was clear she was waiting for me, I said, “That can be arranged, Princess Secela. What can you offer me in return?”
“Before I get to that,” she said, pointing to the A.I. to her left, “you don’t seem too surprised by this guy. Explain.”
“How about no.” I rolled my eyes. “I don’t have any obligation to give you any information, as of yet.”
A smile formed on my lips. “However, I can tell you that I haven’t seen one like that before. I assume you know what it is?”
Viina slowly nodded her head, and snapped her fingers. The hulking frame of the program disappeared, leaving the two of us alone in the aircraft. Well, almost alone. The driver would peek back occasionally, but looked straight ahead for the most part.
“If you also know, then there is no need to speak about it here.” She said out loud, and looked out the window to the right.
I looked outside as well, when a message appeared in the corner of my vision. ‘Is it possible to have a meeting once we land? It’s not that I don’t trust things to be private between us, but our pilot, Victor Dormiana, is employed by my mother.’
Is there even anything for us to discuss in person? I replied, but she didn’t seem to want to grace me with a response.
I switched my communications, and spoke to Un. What is your initial read on that Judgment? He looks intimidating, but I don’t know how much of a problem he would be to subdue with all the powers at my disposal.
“Confidence is a good thing, Master. However, like all things, having it in moderation is the best. It would be safest to err on the side of caution. I may have been the first Judgment created, but even I do not claim to know every power available to us.”
Well that wasn’t helpful at all. Un’s incorporeal voice chuckled in my ears. “I know that it’s not what you want to hear, but I suggest practicing with Three’s skillset when you have the chance. You may need all of our powers to come out of this War Game unscathed.”
I’ll take that to heart. I begrudgingly saw the importance in Un’s sentiment, as I hadn’t even spent enough time around Three to even know her speech patterns, let alone her ability.
We spent the rest of the time on the flight in silence, as I refused to look back at Viina, or our pilot.
---
“I’ll be back to pick you up in two hours.” Victor said before taking off, leaving Viina and me in the capital city of Baillo, a mere two hour walk from our base.
“Baillo, huh?” Viina said. “A nice choice of residence. I should pay my respects to the Warrior King while I’m here.”
“As the daughter of the late People’s King, I’m sure it’s something you had to do often.” I said as I began walking to a local bar. It had been one that Lilian had visited when he came to the city last month, and Three had confirmed that it was completely safe from spying in certain areas.
I looked behind me when I realized that Viina wasn’t following, as she was staring absentmindedly at a food stall on the street. There was nothing special about it to me, so I called out, ‘Are we going to talk? If not, I’m content leaving you here and going back to base.”
She straightened up at my words, and hurried over. “Sorry, I was just… thinking about something.”
I said nothing as the two of us walked into “The Grove,” and got a table on the second floor of the establishment, in a private room. As soon as the waitress who brought us the menu and the call button left, we began our discussion.
“So, what’s so important that we had to wait until we were out of the air and in a secure room?” Viina snapped her fingers, and the large A.I. appeared once more.
“Do you need something from me, my queen?” It asked in its deep, baritone voice. It slowly turned to look at me, with the same lights peering out from behind its skull shaped mask.
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Viina pointed to me as she wrote down her order on a piece of paper and said, “Search him. Make sure he doesn’t have any recording programs active.”
“Yes, my queen.”The being held out his hand with the palm facing me, and my skin began to tingle as the nanites within me reacted to something.
After a moment, he put down his hand, prompting the princess to slide the notepad over to me to write down my own order. “Find anything?” She turned to the Judgment, who nodded.
“He is not using any programs that would jeopardize our secrets more than his own memory and recount of this meeting. However, he does have a passenger.”
My hand twitched as I was writing, and I looked up to see Viina’s scrutinizing gaze on my face. Well, so much for hiding it. Un, say nothing of Three or X. Better for her to believe you’re the only program I’ve come into contact with.
“Understood, Master.” Un said directly into my brain before making his appearance over my shoulder. He began to stare down Viina’s judgment in a contest of who could look the most imposing.
“So, you are a Judgment user then?” Instead of answering her, I hit the button on the table, calling the waitress to come pick take our order.
Once she had left with the notepad and had placed another blank one in front of us, did I finally reply. “Don’t pretend like you didn’t have your suspicions. I saw you look directly up at Un when we first met, when there should have been no reason for you to look over my shoulder in the first place. In actuality, you didn’t know if it belonged to Reya, Lucina, or myself. After hearing my speech though, your suspicions fell to me as a primary suspect, and this meeting was an excuse to find out the truth. Am I wrong?”
Viina’s mouth was agape as she studied me. Finally, a smile played on her lips and she rested her head in her hands. “You really don’t care anything at all for the games of nobility, do you?”
“It wasn’t how I was raised.” I shrugged. “More importantly, did you actually have anything to talk about, or was all this just an elaborate ploy to confirm your suspicions?”
“Of course.” She waved her hand, making her Judgment disappear. “Doing that in front of you, instead of privately in a chat between Orey and myself was a sign of good faith, by the way.”
I nodded, mentally filing away the name of her Judgment, and willed Un away as well, prompting her to continue. “I am genuinely interested in your work proposition. There’s no future for me here.”
My eyebrow raised involuntarily. “Are you sure about that? With that tool at your disposal, you can do all kinds of things you would otherwise think impossible.”
She shook her head. “It is impossible. No matter what kinds of achievements I bring home, nothing will be there for me at the end of the day. My mother is set in her ways, and unless you’re the oldest child, you will not succeed the throne.”
“Sounds tough being in such a messy government.” I said. “Three separate kings for each part of the nation, along with the C.U.H. representing the interests of the common people.”
“As such, and like I stated before,” she continued, not deigning to reply to my open criticism, “I want in on your plan to revolutionize the industry of Neuromancers. So far, I’ve only been used to line the purse of my mother, rather than make a true difference with the kind of technology I can create.”
“Well, what can you make?”
She must have felt challenged by my skeptical look, as she puffed out her chest and said, “I’m working on a system that will download the consciousness of the user into a dataspace, and will allow for reupload into an artificial body. I want to distribute them to hospitals to help the disabled regain their senses.”
So the phoenix system, but not as potent, on top of being spread to the masses… “It sounds like a lot of your goals align with the C.U.H.”
She just showed me a dry smile. “I was the one who proposed for the factions to work together, you know. My mother and the leaders of the C.U.H. were really opposed at first, but thankfully they’ve settled into a state of grudging acceptance of the other’s cooperation.”
“And what do you want for you to defect?” The question seemed to catch her off guard, but she recovered quickly enough.
“I want to be your equal in the operation, and we split all profits fifty-fifty.”
“Denied.” She frowned, and opened her mouth to speak, but I cut her off. “You’ll be working for me, and most of your problems will be taken care of. I’ll even fund your operations, but anything you profit off of belongs to me, save for the medical technology that you’ll distribute.”
“That’s a horrible deal.” Viina smirked.
“Take it or leave it. It’s not like I need your services.”
Her grin widened as the waitress brought some dirt chicken for her, and a plate of ‘empanos,’ for me. We were each brought a pint of craft beer, straight from the kitchen downstairs.
After the waitress left, I pointed to the glass. “Please don’t tell me that I walked into a trap, and you’ve already drugged the food and drink.”
Viina’s smile evolved into a laugh, and it seemed like the tense atmosphere from before had passed. “No, I just thought you might like something to unwind. Prince Raiden is known for his love for drinking, so I thought that being his acquaintance, you might have a similar taste.”
I rolled my eyes and took a sip, looking down at the food I’d ordered. Well, at least it looks like an empanada. I picked it up and took a bite, enjoying the spicy mixture of meat and vegetables that hit my tongue.
“Well, I’ll think about it. We still have five days left until the war game, after all.” I nodded at her statement, and we clinked our pints in cheer.