Finally, the holidays are over (almost) and I can go back to writing this mess. Sorry for the wait.
Hope you enjoy this chapter.
...
"We did amazingly terrible today."
Sniper facepalmed. He didn't need to be reminded of the day's lose, especially by Spy. The masked man was casually smoking, as casual as a nervous man could be. Sniper had had a bad day because of the nightmare he had the night prior; he hadn't been able to focus as well as he usually would on his kills because he kept remembering that black screen with green letters and that text that appeared to be talking to him. He dreamed about talking computers, so what? Still, the dream had been a tad too real, so maybe that was what was nagging him: the fact that his mind was not sure if it had been a dream, or he really sleepwalked to the respawn room, had opened the door, had written complicated code on the screen...
Sniper sighed. It had to have been a dream.
"I didn't expect you to be that depressed about it, bushman."
Ugh. He didn't need this. 'I was just thinking about the dream I had last...' Sniper's arms stopped right in the middle of the sentence, but it was too late. Spy, of course, was already interested. A dream that took Sniper away from doing his job correctly? Spy's favourite candy. Sniper sighed for the twentieth time that day, or maybe more, but he had lost the count.
"Oh my...you had a dream and it distracted you during the match? It must have been a terrible nightmare."
Sniper stopped looking at the stars to lock his eyes with Spy. Up until then, both men had been stargazing, but after that statement, Sniper couldn't ignore his teammate anymore. 'Yeah, I had a dream about a talking computer, but this one was different. It felt real, too real, like it actually happened. I mean, I know I've sleepwalked around before, but not since I was what? Around thirteen? Too late to start again. Besides, a computer won't talk back to you, right?'
Spy had to be very careful to catch every move Sniper made; this was the first time Sniper had made a gesturing session this long in a single go, and it was a lot harder then when he said a few words. This one needed full attention to not miss anything, and still Spy missed one letter or two. The message, however, had arrived safely to his mind.
"A computer that talks back to you? Where were you in the dream to have that?"
Sniper hesitated. If he was right... 'In the Respawn's room'. Seeing the look in Spy made him shift uncomfortably in his chair. 'Look, it was just a dream okay? I didn't do anything at all. Besides, there's no way a computer can hold a conversation with a hum...'. Before he could finish that sentence Spy took his wrist, stopping his 'talk'.
"It's okay Sniper, I'm not saying you did something wrong." Only then Sniper noticed he was acting nervous. Since he needed his body to say anything, he was prone to letting his emotions show more than any other person on the team. You could hide your nervousness in your voice, but your arms couldn't hide it that well if they were meant to express your entire mind. Sniper looked down and then to the opposite side to where Spy was, just as he felt his wrist being released. He let his arms fall back on his lap, while his mind was thinking about the entire situation.
There was no point in hiding anything if whatever he was doing could endanger his team. Even if it got him in trouble, Sniper knew that in the end, he'd rather his team turn their back to him instead of suffering whatever was looming over them because he didn't want to be found guilty of whatever was going on.
He felt a hand on his shoulder, and looked towards Spy, who was looking back at him with a soft, supportive smile.
"You don't have to do this alone."
It clicked. His entire mind went blank for a second, before those words registered. For an instant he didn't see his current team's Spy, but a forgotten friend, also covered with a red mask. Sniper gasped, as the locks in his mind started to fall, and memories poured through the cracks of the room filled with code.
'You don't have to do this alone.'
His old team.
'You don't have to do this alone.'
His old base.
'You don't have to do this alone.'
His old Respawn system.
'You don't have to do this alone.'
The experiment.
'You don't have to do this alone.'
Silent.
Sniper bent forward, clutching his head with both hands. He felt like it might explode. He wasn't quick enough to process all the information, and there was something in there trying to block and lock everything back into the small, coded room. Coded room...
Spy wasn't prepared for that sudden reaction. As he saw the man covering his head with his hands and hiding his face on his legs he couldn't help but feel useless. He had no idea what Sniper was going through, but it looked like something that, while it didn't hurt physically, it did mentally. Maybe Sniper was getting his memories back? He could do nothing but rub the other man's back, trying to soothe him through the process. However, he was startled when the Sniper got up back into a sitting position, with an expression that, rather than shocked, showed comprehension about the situation.
Before Spy could say anything, Sniper stood up, took his wrist, making Spy stand up as well, and led him into the passenger seat of his camper van. Sniper climbed in the driver's seat and started the engine. The old machine took a few tries before roaring back to life, and in less than you could ask 'what?', they were off.
Spy tried to ask Sniper what was going on, or see where they were going, but all the other man did was stay silent...well, more silent than usual. Spy looked behind them through his window and saw the base getting smaller as they got farther from it.
It wasn't until a few minutes passed and the base was far enough that Sniper stopped. Without even glancing at his teammate, the Australian stepped out of the driver's seat and took a few steps forward, leaving a very confused Spy to do the same.
"Okay...now you want to fill me in what's going on? Or should I guess?"
Finally, Sniper looked back at him. His expression was a weird mixture of worried and serious. Lucky for Spy, Sniper dropped his mysterious moment and started moving his arms; however, this time the movement was calmer than he ever had. There was definitely something different with him after what happened.
'Sorry to take you out here, but I had to be sure we were out of her grasp.' Sniper looked at the base in the distance 'I'm sure she could even read my signings by now'.
Well, that wasn't the answer Spy was looking for, so it was time to become the Spy and get some answers out of the bushman. "Who's 'she'?".
At the question Sniper got visibly nervous, and Spy noticed it. So he remembered after all, but it was possibly something a bit too big to just share like that. How could Spy resist? "Don't worry bushman, we are in the middle of nowhere, alone, outside the Respawn system and away from any camera. Want to tell me why is this happening? Or should I investigate on my own?"
Sniper frowned at that last part, but then shook his head. Spy waited patiently for the other man to collect his thoughts, and tried to hide his eager when Sniper raised his hands to start 'talking'.
"I'm afraid that's important information that shouldn't be handed the easy way."
Both men turned around to look at another masked man, dressed in black and leaning on the van. Both men's eyes widened, but for different reasons. The masked man simply walked towards them, with a grin plastered on his face, silently saying 'I have the answers but you won't get them that easily.' Spy frowned. He hated unexpected turn of events, and this one was way out of his comfort zone. Still, he stood in his place while Sniper kept his shocked expression; he even't didn't make a move when the masked man approached Sniper.
"Hello Sniper, how have you been doing?"
Sniper couldn't believe it. He thought his old friend, the Spy from his old team, had died in the accident, but here he was: standing in front of him, nonchalant and smiling. 'I thought...I thought you were gone.'
The black Spy chuckled at that. "Bushman, you more than anyone should know it would take a lot more than her to put me out of my misery." Then he looked towards Spy, "and I see you're clearly following the tradition. Is this your new buddy? I may start thinking you got a thing for masked men."
"Charming," Spy answered. "I suppose you're the one spying on us from behind the fence. You either wanted to talk to us, or your ego is so big you must appear in every single photo taken in this world."
"Well aren't you cute," the black Spy answered. "And here I thought you were a real Spy. You really took pictures of me? Awww, I'll have a copy of them. Or maybe you should keep them, put them on the wall of your room to remind you what a real Spy is."
Sniper facepalmed. This wasn't exactly what he wanted. He had come here to talk to Spy about Silent, but apparently his old friend still had his habit of trying to get on everyone's nerves. And now they were bickering with each other, which gave him time to think. Sniper looked at the horizon, which was pretty plain since they were in the desert. Looking back once more at the two men, he took a few steps forward, away from the only source of light that was his van. There, surrounded by the darkness of the night only nature provided, with the small amount of light coming from a half moon, there he could think. It had been a long time since his mind had been so clear, being so far from her clutches. Of course, some of the locks were still there and firmly closed, but he had managed to recover enough to know who she was, where she was, and, more or less, recall what she did the last time. Aside from that, he could only see the coded room, with Scout and all.
No. Wait. The Scout wasn't there now. The room was empty, deactivated. There were no lights, he could barely see the code on the walls. Then it hit him.
He was completely out of her reach.
Sniper could do anything, think of anything, and there would be no repercussions about it. He was safe out there, he was alone. His mind no longer clouded by her. Sniper closed his eyes, trying hard to focus on one point, any point in his memory that could reveal more of what happened. If only he could remember everything, he could, probably, tell the others what was going on and stop her. He tried and tried, but nothing came. Maybe he had luck at that moment, and now his mind needed rest, wait some more time before revealing anything else. He had a few things clear: she was already inside, and she was aware of him. But why him? He was just a Sniper, not an Engineer or Medic, he wasn't the brightest kid in the class, so to speak. Why him?
Beta.
She used to call him that. Why? Why would she use everyone's class name but not his? Why a pet name?
A pet name...
'I didn't expect you to be that depressed about it, bushman.'
Bushman. Spy called him bushman because they've spent enough time for him not to get angry at it. It was something they both understood without the need of an explanation, and he just accepted it. For him, Spy was the spook, and for Spy he was the bushman. So the only conclusion she would call him Beta, even to leave the name in the room, was because...
They knew each other.
Sniper left his eyes locked with the horizon. He focused on keeping that piece of information, to process it, to guard it like a valuable treasure. They had been together, they had shared something for him to earn a name from her. She wouldn't call anyone else anything but the class name, except for him. But she wasn't something you could call a friend because, after all...
'She's not human.'
"Bushman?"
Sniper slowly turned around to see both spies looking at him. Well that was embarrassing, but it didn't keep him away from the piece of information he had managed to gather from all that. Spy walked over to him, putting a hand on his shoulder in a concerned manner, while the other one kept his distance.
"Are you alright?"
Sniper looked at him, and raised his hands. He had to share this.
...
"Caroline? Are you there?"
Engineer sat in front of the keyboard in the respawn's room, waiting for her to answer. It wasn't long before she spoke. "Yes Engineer, I'm here. Good evening! Did you discover anything else?"
The man smiled, and then proceeded to gather everything he had investigated. "Good evening, ma'am, and yes, I've managed to find a few things. I haven't been able to crack the encrypted files, but I've found a few anomalies in the Respawn's system. Apparently, someone's inside it and is touching a few things here and there; not enough to affect the entire system, but enough for me to see it. It looks like whatever they're doing, they either don't want to be discovered and are going slow, or they just want to do a few small changes. I'm really surprised, to be honest."
"And what are those things?"
Engineer got comfy on his chair and proceeded. "Well, for example, the system's name has been changed. Now it's called 'Silent', which is a good name but not the name I gave it. It does nothing to the rest of the system, really, is a name that never shows up and is never used for anything, since the system responds to any request with the name 'Respawn', but still it bothers me. Then there's this weird thing going on between the system and Sniper's files. Apparently, every time he respawns, there is some exchange of extra files between him and the system, like he was updating Respawn a bit more every time. It's very weird."
"Did that affect him in any way?"
Engineer gave it some thought. "Physically no, he's still the same lanky, silent man we all know. Mentally? Can't tell. It's hard enough to understand him without the translator."
"Translator?"
Engineer chuckled. "Yes, Spy. That man is the only one who completely understands him, so wherever Sniper goes, Spy is usually close by. And I think Pyro understands him as well, but Pyro is also another encrypted code, if you know what I mean."
Caroline giggled. "Yes, I understand. But what kind of things are being exchanged with Sniper?"
"It's mostly small code, and for now I can't tell what it is. The parts that are not encrypted are too small to understand what they do. Sometimes is just an 'int number=2000;' sort of thing. What I noticed is that any source code goes from Sniper to the system; whatever the system sends to Sniper is encrypted, and I can't read it. Caroline," Engineer sighed "I'm sure that man has nothing to do with this, but still, it bothers me. Why wouldn't he say something, warn us? I mean, this is clearly wrong, someone is inside the system and doing things to him, why not tell us abou..."
"What if he doesn't know?"
Engineer looked up at the screen. That was...a possibility. What if Sniper never knew this was going on? What if he was being used? Then he, along with the team, was in a possible danger. "Caroline, I need everything about the Respawn system, anything you can give me. I need access to the hidden files of the system, or better, to the entire system. I know you can't give away codes like that, but we may have a bigger problem than we thought. Someone who's able to implant code inside a human's mind..."
Engineer stopped. Slowly, his ungloved hand went to the back of his neck, touching the skin over where the Respawn's chip was installed. "Of course..."
"Engineer? Are you alright?"
"Of course! It's the chip! That thing is connected to our neuronal system in order to store and recreate all the connections the brain has upon respawning! If not, we would always come back with no memory whatsoever! That's what the intruder is using to get access the system! That's why Sniper knows nothing about it! He can't, there's no way he..."
Before he could finish the sentence, Engineer fell down his chair onto the floor. Before he could touch it, however, his chip had already activated, preparing the Respawn process to bring him back to life. He was already dead when he hit the floor.
"Engineer? Are you okay? Engineer!"
...
"Wait...so you're saying that you had an experiment back at your old base, which was called Silent, and it was treated as female, and she pretty much killed the entire base? I'm sorry bushman, but it's a bit hard to follow." Spy was unsure what to make out of the information Sniper just gave him. Apparently, the bushman came from a team that had been part of an experiment called 'Silent': a Respawn system that could work on its own, without the need of human interaction to repair any error; a system that could find any glitch sooner and repair it before it could cause any damage. That sounded like a brilliant idea, so why would that system, all of sudden, do the opposite of its...her primary function?
"Don't worry, I understand you're a tad short and you need things spelled out for you." The black Spy grinned at him. Spy was getting a bit annoyed with the other masked man, but he tried to keep his cool, for Sniper's sake. The Australian had shared a lot more of information he had expected, but what did that have to do with their current situation?
Unless...
"Don't tell me...she's in our system."
"Ding dong! And the prize goes to...the RED Spy!"
Ignoring that last comment, Sniper answered Spy. 'I think so. That's why everything is so weird lately. But I think she's not completely in, because if that was the case she would have complete control.'
"How do you know she doesn't?" asked Spy. Sniper smiled. 'We are out here, aren't we?'.
Spy smiled back. He had a point. So Silent was in their system, but she wasn't fully installed yet, which meant they still had an opportunity to uninstall her. "We could erase her before she completely installs on the system, right? We could tell our Engineer about it and..."
"Let me stop you there," the black Spy interrupted, but this time he was completely serious "We can't do that, at least not until she's fully installed. Trying to delete a half installed program would leave traces everywhere, or even worse, damage the entire Respawn system. And knowing she would see that coming, Silent would probably stop us. Some of my old teammates and I have a plan."
"I'm all ears." the Spy said. Sniper stood beside him, waiting for the other masked man to continue.
"When the company created Silent, they also created a password to uninstall her, deleting everything. Of course, that password only works when the code that accepts it is already in the system, that's why we were waiting. The basic code is already installed, the activating code is also there, but the connecting code is not. We need that last bit in order to have her fully installed and then we can use the password."
"Wait...wait, you're risking an entire base for this? If she was uninstalled from your last base, why risk all this?"
"Because she wasn't. Not completely. She learned that the chips could be used as bridges between her and us, and for what my Engineer said, she sees us as hard disks. For what I got from him, two of us stored her inside, allowing her to escape the base. I really don't know all the details, but..."
"I will repeat the question: why risk an entire base installing her again?"
The black Spy looked at Spy, very serious this time.
"Because it's either this base, or any other system with wireless connection. And it could be ANY system. She manages to get one of her hard disks close to it, she can get inside, slowly but surely. Like I said, my Engineer knows more than I do, but apparently our chips have that wireless connection to connect to the Respawn system everytime we die."
Spy looked down, thoughtful. Of course that was a risk they couldn't take, but it still nagged at him that it had to be his base and his team. "So you sent Sniper to us, because he has part of the code?"
"You're getting better at this, aren't you? Yes, he's one of the 'hard disks' carrying Silent, and apparently a very stubborn one. The other can't really walk, so we kept him hidden. And this is when I ask a few things to my old friend. Sniper? I'm afraid to say that you're quite the suspect of a few things here, and as much as I appreciate you, you carry something more than just her code. She killed our entire base, and the ones of us who survived that last Respawn process lost something. All of us except you."
Sniper flinched at that. Of course that would come out eventually, and now he kind of knew why. Well, better let it out.
'I talked to her. More than once. She ever gave me a pet name.'
Both Spies looked at him confused. A pet name? A computer giving pet names?
'I can't remember exactly what we talked about, but I can remember one thing. I gave her a name aside from Silent.'
Spy frowned. Sniper named her? And also talked to her? Could Silent actually develop a personality on her own? "What name did you give her, Sniper?"
Sniper closed his eyes for a moment, and then kneeled down to write on the sand, since there was no gesture to show the name in his silent language. Both Spies got behind him, and after Sniper finished, they saw just one word.
Caroline.
