After the End - Chapter 3
Ignoring the vial, Sylvester keeps running and leaps off the dock into a waiting boat. A movement catches Cybersix's eye; she turns to see Jose running down the steps toward the dock, looking around him.
"Boss! Over here!" Sylvester calls, and Jose runs toward the boat. He makes a jump for it, but overshoots just a bit. Sylvester tries to catch him as he flies over the boat but he fails. Jose plunges into the freezing cold water of the harbor.
"Boss!" Sylvester does a good job of sounding appropriately horrified.
"You idiot!" Jose yells as he flounders in the water. He starts hitting Sylvester even as his servant is pulling him back in the boat. Sylvester tries to avoid Jose's fists, all the while apologizing profusely in his whiny voice.
Cybersix hears a grunt behind her and turns around; the fixed idea she'd knocked out earlier is coming to. He stares at Jose's boat for a long minute before cluing in to what's going on. He gets to his feet. "Wait!" He bellows... and also makes a jump for the boat.
Now unlike Jose his aim is good, but it is a small boat and he is heavy. As a result the boat's entire prow plunges below the surface as the fixed idea's weight lands on it, almost sending Jose overboard again. By some miracle the boat does bob back up again as the fixed idea's weight shifts, but the interior is now soaked. Jose abandons his punishment of Sylvester and begins beating on (or trying to beat on) the fixed idea instead. Free of his tormenter, Sylvester finally manages to get the motor started and the boat zooms away.
"Well," Cybersix says aloud. "Sure beats staying home and watching TV." She turns around and slowly walks back toward the vial of sustenance still lying on the dock. She stops a good distance away from the vial and looks at it suspiciously. On a sudden impulse, she finds a rock on the shoreline and, standing well back, throws it at the vial. It explodes with a loud bang and a burst of flame.
Cybersix quickly glances around to see if anyone noticed the noise, but this part of the harbor is still uninhabitable after the Isle of Doom. She walks over to the spot where the vial had been. The explosion was so intense there is no lingering fire, just a scorched black hole in the dock. She smiles ruefully and shakes her head; Jose must be losing it if he thinks she's going to fall for a trick like that.
She turns away from the water and starts back for the city. The rubble heaped at the harbor's edge makes a good jumping ground, and she enjoys testing her agility on the new terrain.
After a while she stops and heads for home. So no sustenance tonight. She still had the three vials at home, but things were different now; it could very well be running out for good. Cybersix sighs. There had been a few times in the past when she'd come very close to not getting it in time. She could remember saying goodbye to Lucas at the cafe, not knowing if she'd be alive to see him again tomorrow. It certainly gave you a unique perspective on life.
Of course there was the possibility that Jose knew how to make sustenance. Logically he wouldn't have killed his father if he didn't know, but then Jose was never very good at seeing past his own nose. Cybersix looks up at the clear night sky and tries to push away such morbid thoughts. For now, at least, she is alive and healthy.
Lucas knocks on Kevin's door and it opens almost immediately.
"Lucas. Come in." Kevin looks around suspiciously before closing the door.
"So what did you find out about that sample I gave you?" Lucas asks eagerly.
"Lucas, you have to tell me where that stuff came from." Kevin says.
"I told you, Kevin, I don't know. You probably know more about it now than I do."
Kevin looks him in the eye. "Lucas, you're my friend, but... you're also a terrible liar. I think you know something you're not telling me."
Not sure of what to say next, Lucas remains silent.
"Look, Lucas, you have to tell me. I'm doing this for your own good, you know. That stuff is very dangerous - and very advanced, from what I can tell."
"Can you duplicate it?"
"Now why on Earth would I want to do that? I still can't figure out what it's actually supposed to be for."
"Kevin, you have to trust me on this. I need whatever information you can give me."
"Okay, Lucas, if that's way you want to play it, here's the deal: You tell me everything you know about that stuff, and I'll tell you everything I know. A trade. Otherwise, forget it... and you're not getting that vial back either."
Lucas looks at him for a moment, then goes to get his coat and begins putting it on.
"Where are you going?" Kevin asks.
"I can't answer you right now." He replies. "I'll call you sometime later, okay?" He leaves Kevin's apartment without looking back.
Sylvester enters VonReichter's secret lab once again; his master has summoned him, saying he has a plan.
"Ah, Sylvester, there you are." VonReichtor turns from the table he's been hunched over. His eyes look red and strained and his hair is a mess; it's obvious he's been working hard. "Tell me, is Jose still after Cybersix?"
"Yes, Master." Sylvester replies. "He tried to get her again last night - and failed."
"Good." VonReichter says. "I have a plan to capture this human friend of hers. I want you to put the idea in Jose's head that if he were to catch this man, Cybersix would come to him. He will hack into the city's health computers to find out who this man is; that, at least, is one thing he is good at." He pauses. "Now I know for sure that those files don't have personal photographs, so Jose will only be able to get a list of possible names. He will undoubtedly give you that list to investigate... you will do that and tell me what you find. I will send some Technos to help you."
Sylvester nods. "Excellent plan, Master."
"Of course it is." VonReichter says distractedly. "Now... there is one more thing." He seems lost in thought for a moment. "My circumstances have changed a great deal, Sylvester... I have no fixed ideas left, nor the means to make any really sophisticated creatures, and because of that... I need Cybersix alive."
Sylvester stands still and does not reply.
"Therefore," The scientist continues." I want you to do whatever you have to to prevent Jose and his fixed ideas from killing her."
"That shouldn't be too difficult, Master."
"True. But I want you to do more than that. I want you to keep her alive, if necessary."
Sylvester looks perplexed, then his face falls as he begins to understand what his master is saying.
"Yes, Sylvester, you know exactly what I mean by that." VonReichter says sternly.
"But Mast-"
"No buts! Come now, Sylvester, haven't I always taken care of you?" VonReichter gets up and walks to the corner of the room, where clusters of strange machinery are quietly humming away. "I have developed a procedure that will enable you to withstand her attacks better." He says to his servant. "Now come over here."
Sylvester goes.