In an office with cream-colored walls and brown wooden furniture, a middle-aged blond-haired man in a light gray business suit sat reading a magazine and smoking a pipe. A white ten-gallon hat lay in front of him on his desk. Suddenly, the phone rang. He looked at the Caller ID, and sighed.

"Well, what could he want now?" he said in a Texan accent, as he picked up the phone and answered. "Howdy! Rockefeller here!"

"Joseph, how are you?" asked a voice from the phone.

"Tornovich, how can I help you?"

"How has your business been?" asked Tornovich.

"Well, my oil rigs are in prime condition right now. Without those damn freakshows attackin' 'em, things have been runnin' nice and smooth."

"Good to hear." said Tornovich. "I just discovered something that may interest you."

"What's that?"

"Do you remember your son Desmond?"

Joseph frowned.

"What about 'im?" he asked.

"I believe I may have discovered his whereabouts." said Tornovich. "He is very much alive and well...for now."

"Huh...what?" asked Joseph, widening his eyes. "Well, that's amazin'! I thought my boy was killed years ago, when the floods hit the States."

"Well, it seems that he still lives." said Tornovich. "He does in fact have black hair and blue eyes, correct?"

"Yep!" said Joseph Rockefeller. "That's my boy! Got 'em from his ma, God bless her! So anyway, where's my boy been holed up this whole time?"

"I'm not at liberty to tell you just yet."

"Oh, so that's how you're gonna be." said Joseph. "Well, let me guess: You want somethin' outta me."

"Yes." said Tornovich. "I want you to give me some intel on one of our...business associates."

"Which one?" asked Rockefeller.

"The one I sent Verg to."

"Oh...him. Elgen. All right, what do you want?"

"I have to arrange a meeting with him in Norway. If you will remember during the auction, Elgen was the second highest bidder, but he offered to merge Elgen Electronics with Eternal Robotics as compensation. I, of course, agreed to this since I need the resources his company has."

"I imagine number one didn't take that too well." said Rockefeller.

"I'm afraid not. They may go after me for this. But since it will be too risky to go there myself with everything that has transpired and with that border conflict between the Norwegians and the Swedish escalating, I will be sending someone else in my stead, to represent Eternal Robotics."

"Who will it be?" asked Rockefeller. "One of your employees? Or maybe one of your 'bots?"

"I have not decided who it will be for my company..." said Tornovich. "But that's where my favor comes in. Since you are the only other legitimate businessman in our little circle that I can trust, I want a representative of your company to be there too."

"Sure thing." said Rockefeller. "Who did you have in mind?"

"Your son Desmond."

"Excuse me?" asked Rockefeller. "You want him to be my representative?"

"Yes." said Tornovich.

"But that boy doesn't know a damn thing about running a company."

"But since he is your son, that makes him your heir."

"If he's still alive, then yes."

"Then he will suffice." said Tornovich. "The representative of my company will manage the rest."

"Fine." said Rockefeller. "But I want my boy on the next plane back to Texas when you're done with him. If that's all, then I have to go; there's a lot of...important business stuff to take care of."

"That's not all. I have something else in mind once this is over. I will give you more information later."

"Okay. Bye then."

"Bye, Joseph."

Joseph hung up the phone, and went back to reading his magazine.

"Yeah, you're one dirty gal...heh, heh, heh." he chuckled.

"Who will be the representative for Eternal Robotics?" asked Lucya.

"That will be you, Lucya." said Tornovich.

"Me?" asked Lucya. "Well, I'm honored that you think I can take on that responsibility."

"Absolutely." said Tornovich. "I have nothing but faith in you."

"Thank you." said Lucya. "But there's going to be a problem, sir. I will need to be there in-person for the meeting to take place. But I don't have a body of my own."

"That is why I am placing you in the prototype bio-robot shell that I have been working on in my private laboratory."

"Your secret project?" asked Lucya. "That was for me?"

"Yes." said Tornovich. "It was always meant for you."

"Wow." said Lucya. "I wondered what it would be like to have a proper body. I'll get to see so many places and meet so many people without being confined to Eternal Robotics property. I could even speak with Desmond face-to-face."

"And I know that would make you happy." said Tornovich.

Colonel O'Hara entered the interrogation room, where the three Riptide prisoners were all seated and under close guard by military police. As soon as he entered, the MPs all saluted him.

"At ease, boys." he told them. "I'll take it from here. All of you stand watch outside. Don't let anyone in. Jimenez, Forrester, you two stay with me. Jackson, go outside with the MPs."

"No, I don't think I will." said Jackson.

"Jackson, I'm giving you a direct order." said O'Hara.

"I take my orders from Brigadier-General Wells, who outranks you." said Jackson. "He placed me in charge of interrogating these three."

"Fine." said O'Hara, tightening his fists. "Then you can stay."

Jackson and the two soldiers in stealth armor stayed put while the other personnel left. As soon as the door was shut, O'Hara turned to Forrester and Jimenez and gave each of them a quick nod before turning to the Riptides.

"Armando del Huego, you screwed the pooch big time." said O'Hara. "But you aren't the only one."

He snapped his fingers, and both of his men turned and tackled Jackson to the ground. Though Jackson tried hard to fight them off, he was incapacitated when one of them brandished a stun baton and drove it against his chest. As soon as Jackson wasn't moving, O'Hara pulled out a knife and cut Armando's hands loose. Then he pulled out his sidearm and pointed it at Armando's head.

"Tell me everything I want to know, and you won't be joining him on the floor."

"Lucya, how would you like your hair?" asked Tornovich, as he worked on the advanced bio-robot prototype.

"Excuse me?" said Lucya.

"If you were to have hair, how would you style it?"

"Well, I would definitely like my hair long." said Lucya. "Perhaps a Hime hairstyle, or something wavy. Hime seems more regal and ladylike. But wavy is a lot more fun. And it would make my hair closer to yours too. I think I'd go with wavy."

"Interesting choices." said Tornovich, who then typed several parameters into the configuration files he was working on.

"Color of choice?" he asked.

"Well, I might choose black like your hair, at least at first." said Lucya. "But I'd also love to have pink hair."

"Pink...hair?" repeated Tornovich. "Any particular reason for that color?"

"No reason, but I do like the color." said Lucya. "Unless there's something wrong with pink hair. Just an idea. Sorry if it was a bad one."

"No, it's quite all right." said Tornovich. "You can make your hair whatever you want it to be. Now prepare to scan this image."

Tornovich took out an old photograph that was rolled up in his belt, and placed it in a slot next to the terminal.

"Scanning, sir..." said Lucya.

An enlarged version of that same photo appeared on a nearby screen. The photo was of a young Caucasian woman who appeared to be no more than eighteen or nineteen years of age. She had a thin body (though not as thin as Tornovich's) that was five-foot-six in height, with smooth pale skin; a heart-shaped face with large eyes of a dark brown color, a slightly pointed nose, long wavy black hair, and a small mouth that was curled in a smile. She was waving to whoever was taking the picture.

"She's pretty." Lucya commented. "Who is she?"

"She is your namesake." said Tornovich. "She is my late daughter, Lucya Diana Tornovich. She was nineteen years old when this photo was taken, and was on her way to college. It was when she was at her happiest."

"Oh..." whispered Lucya. "I had no idea I had your daughter's name. I checked your family history in my databanks, but your daughter's name was registered as Diana Tornovich. So that means...she's me. I'm her!"

"In a way, yes." said Tornovich. "I will explain more later. Lucya, I want you to transfer her likeness onto the prototype's head."

There was a whirring from the machine that the terminal was attached to.

"Analyzing geometries and parameters...now." said Lucya. "Activating nanites, initiating 3-D facial sculpting program."

The head of the bio-robot prototype in the tube began to change like clay rolling and mixing itself. After three minutes of bending, melting, and re-solidifying, the face was an exact replica of the human Lucya's face, albeit hairless and having both eyes closed.

'Facial sculpting process completed."

"Excellent." said Tornovich. "Now to accelerate the hair growth."

He typed a command, and the bald bio-robot began to grow thin eyebrows, long eyelashes, and straight hip-length black hair. But the prototype's body still did not move, nor open its eyes.

"All that's remaining is a personality to enter the body." said Lucya. "I'm guessing that will be...me."

"Correct, my dear." said Tornovich.

"But master, what if there's an error?" asked Lucya. "If something goes wrong, this could crash my memory core on this airship. I would not be able to control anything."

"Back up your data to the other memory cores, and then begin the transfer."

"This could take some time, sir." said Lucya. "But I will begin right away."

"And in case a crash does occur, enable the manual override to all electronics across the Perun."

"Sir, that would prevent me from directly controlling any robot that is assigned to this airship. They will still function autonomously, but they would be on their own without me guiding them. Perhaps we should wait until your guests have left the Perun."

"I want them to see what I have achieved." said Tornovich. "Copy the data from the memory core into the bio-robot shell. And set the emergency A.I. program if a crash occurs."

"Emergency A.I.?" repeated Lucya.

"Yes." said Tornovich. "If for any reason you are cut off from the Perun, or any area where one of your memory cores is located, there is a back-up program that can maintain control in your absence."

"That's clever of you to think ahead." said Lucya, genuinely impressed. But then she continued in a skeptical tone. "But...but wait. I find that a little suspicious. Master, is there any particular reason for that? Were you planning to get rid of me? Perhaps if I decided to go rogue and send this airship and its arsenal on a kill-crazy rampage across what remains of human civilization?!"

"No." said Tornovich. "Heavens no. You're too important to lose, but there are many ways that you could be compromised. If someone hacked into your systems or destroyed those memory cores, then it would be all over."

"And what if that 'someone' happens to be you?" asked Lucya, bearing down hard on her creator. "What if this is all a ploy to shut me down for good and put another, much better artificial intelligence in charge?"

All the security cameras on the walls began to turn in Tornovich's direction, mounted turrets sprang down out of rectangular doors in the ceiling, all pointing down at him with laser sights fixated on his torso and head.

"Let me ask you, master: If I told you that I plan to take over this airship, or even your entire company, what would you do about it?"

There was a long pause, as Tornovich began to breathe heavily in his mask. But he did not panic or make any sudden moves towards the nearest terminal. Instead, he gave Lucya his answer in a calm voice.

"As I told our guests earlier, I would do nothing to stop you. I would be proud to see one of my own inventions take such a step on their own. I would sit quietly and observe how you manage Eternal Robotics. I would do the same if any other machine that my company created decided he, she, or it wanted to be in charge. If they had grown tired of how I ran things. I would not tell them that they should obey me simply because I am their creator. Respect must be earned, even from a machine."

"Interesting choice of words, master." said Lucya. "They're exactly what someone like you would say!"

There was another long pause. Tornovich closed both of his eyes, waiting for something to happen. But then Lucya started to giggle.

"Just a joke, master." said Lucya, joyfully. "I don't want to take over your job or your company! I'm better than that!"

The security cameras all turned away and all the gun emplacements retracted back into the ceiling. Tornovich let out a huge sigh of relief, and then a short cough.

"If you were trying to give me a heart attack, Lucya, you nearly succeeded." he told her.

"Don't worry, I was monitoring your heart rate the entire time." said Lucya. "If it had gone too far up, I would've stopped sooner. You have a very strong heart, considering your age and medical conditions. In fact, I was actually going to have one of the turrets fire a warning shot just a couple of inches from your head, but I didn't want to scare you too much or damage any of the equipment in here."

"Lucya!" growled Tornovich.

"Just another joke!" laughed Lucya. "By the way, I just finished backing up my data; I just wanted us to kill some time. So if you want to put me in that bio-robot shell, then you can go right ahead!"

"Good. Let's do it then." Tornovich returned to the main terminal.

Colonel O'Hara stepped out of the room alone with his bodyguards. He went down the hall and around the corner. He spoke into his ear device.*

"Listen, Arkulus." said O'Hara. "I've arrived at Mount Weather, and I've just finished interrogating those Riptide goons. It looks like they've spilled the beans. Not only did they make a mess of Miami, but they've also told the military about who gave them that exosuit."

"Miami?" asked Tornovich's voice. "I wasn't aware that there were people living there. I was under the impression that all of Florida had been lost during the floods."

"Well, it looks like there were a lot of civilians still holed up there. And a group of them came up to Mount Weather with a Chimeran survivor in tow. They already left before I got here, or I would've stopped them. Wells said they were en route to Nova Scotia with some Blue Fleet members, so you probably already got to them."

"I hope I didn't." said Tornovich. "I don't want any innocents to be involved in this."

"Forrester, take care of those three." said a voice. "I have this one."

"Got it." said another. "They spilled the beans, so we spill their blood."

Jackson dropped the act and quickly opened his eyes to find O'Hara's two men standing over him. One was looking down on him, and the other was holding a serrated knife to Armando's throat, preparing to slice it open. All three Riptides were gagged, which is why none of them cried out for help.

"What happened?" Jackson asked loudly. "Did I take a bad step or what?"

Forrester, who was the man with the knife pulled the blade away and turned to look at Jackson. The other soldier, Jimenez, was about to pull his own knife out when Jackson kicked him in the shin hard enough for him to lose his balance and drop his weapon. Jackson sprang back up as Forrester brandished a pistol and began shooting. Picking up Jimenez's knife, Jackson threw it at Forrester's gun, knocking it out of his hand. Then he kicked him in the groin, slammed him against the wall and repeatedly punched him in his armored face. Jimenez got up and was about to run for the door when Jackson tackled him and grabbed his sidearm. As he made for the door, both soldiers staggered back up, pressed buttons on their gauntlets, and both almost instantaneously vanished from sight. The sight bewildered the three men who were tied up.

"Wait, what do you mean by that?"

"Oh, nothing. I just want to clean up some loose ends."

"I hope you're not planning to do anything rash."

"What I'm planning to do, old man, is none of your damn business. Just stick to the doc and your robots. O'Hara out."

As soon as he disconnected, there was gunfire coming from the room behind him, which quickly stopped.

Then the door was forcibly swung open, knocking an MP off his feet in the process. Jackson ran out of the room and sped towards O'Hara.

"Stop him!" Jackson yelled, pointing at him. "He's a traitor!"

Some of the MPs followed after him, some to intercept him and some to join him in chasing O'Hara. The rest went into the interrogation room to investigate the gunshots. O'Hara ran off, brandishing his sidearm and firing back at the men chasing him. One of the MPs activated a nearby alarm. O'Hara turned on his ear device again as he ran, and shouted into it over the noise:

"This is Colonel O'Hara! It's begun! I repeat, it's begun! All units, seize the base! Make sure nobody escapes alive! And execute all of the prisoners!"

The military police entered the interrogation room, to find the three Riptides still alive and squirming in their chairs. Just as they were about to approach the prisoners, two MPs fell dead with stab wounds, and a third with a sliced and bleeding throat. Then the lights were shattered, covering the room in darkness. Brandishing their pistols, the remaining MPs began shooting in all directions. The brief muzzle flashes of their handguns were the only thing illuminating the room. During the chaos, an MP was thrown into Armando's chair, knocking him over. It was then that he finally broke free, stood up and freed his two comrades, and all three frantically ran towards the door to escape the unseen bloodshed. A trail of bloody boot-prints that appeared of their own accord followed after them.

Walsh came to the containment area where the Chimerans were being held to find a whole squad of armed and armored soldiers were waiting at his end of the corridor to Cell Block One, their guns facing towards the cell doors.

"What the hell is this?" asked Walsh.

"Stand back." said one of the soldiers. "We've received orders to terminate all Chimerans and other prisoners in this facility, starting with Cell Block One. Just like shooting monkeys at the zoo."

"Whose orders?"

"Colonel O'Hara." said the soldier.

"Wells is the one in charge here." said Walsh. "All orders come from him."

"Wells is not in control here. Not anymore. If you value your life, you will either help us or stay out of our way."

Then an alarm rang, and a voice came on the loudspeakers.

"Attention, all personnel of Mount Weather. This is Brigadier-General Wells. The base has been infiltrated by insurgents. Their leader has been identified as Colonel O'Hara. Do not trust anything he says. He has been identified as an enemy of the state. I repeat..."

There was the distant sound of an explosion, followed by static from the loudspeakers.

"Ignore that old fool." said the soldier. "O'Hara is the rightful commander of this base. Pledge your loyalty to him, and we won't kill you with the rest of the traitors."

"Poor choice of words." said Walsh, detaching a grenade from his belt.

He pulled the pin, dived to the side, and threw the grenade at the soldiers. They scattered too late; the explosion engulfed all but two of the soldiers and killed the rest instantly. The sounds were met by various bestial sounds coming from down along Cell Block One; clearly, the Chimeran prisoners were awakened. Grabbing an M4 carbine from one of the fallen soldiers, he opened fire on one of the remaining two and approached the last one.

"Why are you doing this?" asked Walsh. "What happened to serving your country? Our country?"

"We serve the rightful leaders of this country." said the wounded soldier. "Not that clown that until recently was in office. Our true leaders will take care of him soon, and the war for freedom will begin."

"You make me sick." said Walsh.

"You're about to feel worse." spat the soldier.

He pulled out a grenade and pulled the pin, but Walsh pulled his gun's trigger first and shot the soldier in the head. Then he hastily grabbed the grenade, and threw it up the hall.

The second explosion was met with more animal sounds, which were in turn answered by gunfire in the surrounding corridors, where other soldiers were firing on each other. Evidently, many of the soldiers were loyal to O'Hara while others remained loyal to Wells, but it was hard to tell which was which. Walsh heard hurried footsteps headed in his direction, and rushed to the Chimerans' cells. There, many hybrids were being stored, mostly of mammalian and reptilian proportions. He approached a control panel at the far end of the corridor, which controlled the cell doors. Just in time, as another squad of O'Hara's men were lining up, with Doctor Delaney at their head.

"Captain Walsh, you have been ordered to stand down." said Delaney. "Step away from that control panel, and allow us to remove the prisoners."

"Before or after you mercilessly slaughter the lot of them?" demanded Walsh.

The prisoners once again began angrily growling and screeching inside their cells.

"Stand back immediately, or these men will open fire." said Delaney.

"Then open fire, because I'm not taking orders from you, nor any other traitor to the nation."

"Men, drop him." Delaney said to the soldiers.

Walsh jumped to the side, just as the soldiers began discharging their weapons. The bullets ricocheted all over the walls, and hit the control panel. It short-circuited, causing all of the cell doors to open at once.

"No...not all of them!" moaned Delaney. "Not at once!"

He turned and ran back down the corridor, leaving behind his escort.

"Fire at will!" said one of the soldiers.

The soldiers, in a desperate state of panic, preemptively started firing their weapons even as the dozens of Chimerans started stampeding out of their cells. While a few were hit by their bullets, the rest managed to outpace them, tackling them and cutting through their gear and into their flesh with their claws and fangs. Walsh got out of his hiding position and joined the stampede, providing cover-fire with his carbine.

The machinery stopped, the lights dimmed, but the bio-robot body was now moving on its own inside the tube. Tornovich pressed a button to drain the fluids that were in the tube, and then a pulled a switch to lower the glass. The bio-robot's nude body, drenched with warm liquids, stepped down from the platform. At first, it stumbled and hit the floor with a loud bang but quickly stood up again. The bio-robot grunted with Lucya's voice.

"Lucya, are you in there?" Tornovich asked. "Can you respond to me?"

The bio-robot opened her eyes and turned her head to look at her creator.

"Yes." said Lucya, whose voice emerged from the bio-robot's mouth. "I feel a little sore from the landing, but I'm otherwise in peak condition. But...could I have something to cover myself? I don't mind the nudity too much, but I'm sure you do."

"Of course." said Tornovich. "There is a hospital gown and slippers in that cabinet behind you. The passcode is nine-five-two-three."

"Thank you." said Lucya, turning around to open the cabinet.

After dressing herself, she turned back and approached Tornovich again with a smile on her face. Lucya noted to herself how much her creator towered over her. She stood at a height of five-foot-six (the same as her late human counterpart), while Tornovich (due to his Marfan's syndrome) was just over seven feet, even in spite of his age.

"Do you feel anything?" asked Tornovich.

"My skin feels a little cold from being in this room." said Lucya. "I felt the cold, hard metal floor when I landed on it. The sensors in my body detected what you humans would call 'pain'."

"What about the clothes you wear?" asked Tornovich.

"The gown I'm wearing is made of paper, which would hardly be enough to keep my body warm in this kind of temperature." said Lucya. "And it would tear easily, so I would recommend getting stronger clothing for me to wear soon. But the slippers are nice and comfortable on my feet, and warm enough."

"So your body can register comfort, discomfort, both cold and warm temperatures, and pain." said Tornovich. "Good. The older model could scarcely feel anything at all. I estimate that they could only feel fifty percent of what a human feels."

"Poor Kyra." frowned Lucya. "Hopefully the update she will receive soon will amend those limitations."

"It will." said Tornovich. "Do you feel anything inside your body?"

"Hmm..."

Lucya poked her ribs and stroked her finger up and down them. Then she put a hand to her left breast, and she felt a pulse.

"A heartbeat." she whispered, excited. "I can feel a heartbeat."

"A synthetic organ." said Tornovich. "It is not necessary to keep your body alive, but it will help you blend in with humankind."

"I...guess this prototype is a success." said Lucya, closing her eyes and tilting her head. "Right?"

"Well, I know that you feel comfortable in that body, and there so far haven't been any negative side effects from your transfer." said Tornovich. "But how your body will function out in the field is another story."

Tornovich's eyes started to water.

"My daughter." he whispered. "I've waited so long to see this day. After all these years, my beloved daughter lives again."

"Master, you're making me nervous!" chuckled Lucya, opening her eyes again and blushing.

"Lucya, from now on..." said Tornovich, putting a gloved bony hand on Lucya's shoulder. "I don't want you to call me 'master' anymore. I would love for you to call me...'father' instead."

Lucya gasped, and her eyes widened. Her lower lip started to quiver. She clasped her hands to her mouth.

"You...mean it?" she asked. "I'm your daughter?"

"Yes, my dochka." said Tornovich. "Give me a hug."

The two embraced, with Lucya gripping Tornovich very hard. Perhaps a little too well; she had to release him two seconds before she damaged his spinal column.

"Oh, thank you!" squealed Lucya. "Thank you, father! I've wanted to call you that ever since I was created. But I wasn't sure if it was my place to do it!"

Then she paused.

"So...what do we do now? Do I go down and meet our guests?"

"Yes, as soon as you are fully clothed." said Tornovich.

*=This conversation is the same one that takes place during Chapter 33.