After the End - Chapter 17
Yashimoto comes downstairs from putting Ikiko to bed and walks into his study. He turns on the light and sits down at his desk. Opening a drawer, he withdraws some sketches he'd been working on earlier. Hmm... he just doesn't feel like drawing right now. Something's distracting him. He looks around the room and his eyes fall on the chessboard sitting on the table. It reminds him of the conversation he had with Cybersix after they found VonReichter's hideout:
"What are you going to do now?" Yashimoto asked her after they'd returned to his place.
Cybersix paced agitatedly back and forth in his office. "Go after him of course. All I have to do is follow Sylvester there again and jump him after he opens the secret door. Yeah, I'll try tomorrow night-"
"Whoa, hang on a minute. " He stepped in front of her and raised his hands to stop her furious pacing. "You can't just go riding off in all directions here. You don't know what he's got down that hole - it could be a huge underground complex. It would be foolish to go by yourself."
She shook her head. "If you're suggesting coming with me, the answer is no. VonReichter's just too dangerous."
"Yes. Too dangerous for you too." Yashimoto ventures.
"So what do you suggest I do?" She asked seriously. "I can't find out what's down there without actually going there."
He thought for a minute. "Wouldn't it be easier to get at VonReichter through Jose?"
Yashimoto regrets that remark now. He worries it may have given her ideas of charging off to Jose's mansion before she's thought anything through. On an impulse, he decides to try calling her. He get his address book and looks up her number.
A few minutes later he hangs up the phone. No answer. Well, he supposes that's not remarkable; it is full dark outside. She's probably out... hunting.
That is something he learned about her last night that she never told him before:
"Yes, you may be right." She said to him after he mentioned using Jose to get to VonReichter. "Besides, what ever I do I... have to have a long talk with Lucas first."
"Why?" Yashimoto asked, although he got the feeling it wasn't really any of his business.
She looked at him straight-faced. "Because I'll die , of course."
"What? There's no need to be so pessimistic. When I said you shouldn't go after VonReichter now, I didn't mean that you were incapable of it-"
She stopped him by shaking her head. "No, you know what I mean. The sustenance."
"Sustenance?" He asked confusingly.
Realization dawned on her face. "Oh, that's right. I never told you."
And then she did tell him. About what sustenance is, how much she needs it - and how she gets it.
"But that means that if you stop both VonReichter and Jose, you'll surely die!" He protested after she explained it to him.
"Yes, I know." She replied, straight-faced again. "I've already thought about that."
"So you're willing to die to put an end to their crimes. To stop them from hurting any more people." It was a comment, not a question.
"Yes. If I didn't try to stop them I'd be just as bad as they are."
Then and now, Yashimoto admires her courage. Very few humans, he knew, possessed that kind of moral clarity. And the will to live by it... or die by it, if necessary.
After that she'd walked over to his back window:
"Thanks for all your help, Yashimoto. But it's late; I have to get going now."
"Cybersix."
She turned back around to face him.
"I understand it if you think you need to do this alone. But just promise me you won't do anything without thinking it through first."
"I promise." She smiled at him, then without another pause jumped out the window.
It seems, Yashimoto thinks in the quiet of his study, that these cyber creatures are stronger than humans in more ways than one.
"You are idiots! Complete utter imbeciles!" The five types cower in front of VonReichter, every one of them staring down at the plain concrete floor. The scientist paces agitatedly the back-and-forth like a caged jaguar. "Now I'll have to treat her injuries before I can use her." He shakes his head and looks down at Cybersix's unconscious form on his operating table.
Having just come to after being knocked out, Sylvester stumbles into the room behind the types. Unnoticed , he leans up against the wall, a bit woozy from Cybersix's punch.
Type 1 clears his throat tentatively. "But Master, she just refused to back down. You know how tough she is-"
"It was five against one! You could have easily wrestled her to the ground without doing so much damage. Thanks to your incompetence, my plans will be delayed!"
"Um, but Master, surely what ever you have planned, we could do it for you? Instead of her?"
"I want Cybersix!" VonReichter replies irrationally, looking
so much like Jose having a tantrum. He
glares at the five of his creatures standing before him. For some reason, the first 10 or
so of a new series are always the most troublesome. He points at the oldest. "You,
Type 1, are being
relieved of your command. A 12 year-old techno would've shown better judgment.
And you," He points to
T
Rue becomes invisibly upset. "But Master! This wasn't an assassination attempt-"
"Silence! I won't have any more of you speaking out. Now get out of my sight, all of you. I will deal with you once Jose's out of the way."
The types quietly file out of the lab. Still standing by the doorway, Sylvester tries to keep the grin off his face.
VonReichter notices him there for the first time. "What happened to you?"
"She knocked me out, Master."
He merely grunts in reply and walks over to his bench, opening a drawer and rifling through it.
Sylvester decides to try his luck. "You're not angry with me, are you Master?" He asks meekly.
"What? Oh no, of course not. It wasn't your fault."
The slave smiles in satisfaction.
VonReichter begins inserting an IV shunt into Cybersix's hand. "This is only a minor setback." He mutters to himself as he works. "She'll recover soon enough. Then she'll be all mine."
A thump is heard from the other side of the room. Both men turn to see Lucas wringing his hand in pain after obviously trying to punch the side of the tank. He glares at them angrily from his fishbowl prison.
"Techno!"
A woman walks in from the back room. "Yes Master?"
VonReichter doesn't look up from what he's doing. "Drug him again, will you?"
"Of course Master." She walks over toward Lucas.
"I told you he'd never buy it. " Type 1 says angrily once they're a safe distance from the lab. "Now thanks to you we're all in trouble. And he might kill Type 2!"
"Hey, you're supposed to be the leader here! Why did you listen to me if you thought it was a bad idea? " Type 3 sounds indignant.
Type1 ignores him. He turns to Type 2 and grasps her by the arms. "Don't worry, Rue. I won't let him get you."
She sighs sadly, looking up at him. "You know you can't protect me from him, Shade".
"I will! Whatever it takes."
Type 4, ever the practical one, just shakes her head. "Look, it's over now. We took a chance and it backfired. We all need to be on our best behavior for a while. All we can do is wait for another opportunity."
"Fucking Cyber." Type 5 mutters.
Yashimoto is beginning to get concerned. It has now been three days since he last heard from Cybersix. He's tried to contact her several times - once last night, and three times today. She hasn't been home all day, even though it's Sunday. He sighs. Perhaps he's letting his imagination get the better of him, but he just has a feeling that something's happened. His feelings aren't usually wrong - several clients have commented on his good sense of intuition.
If only he knew where Data 7 's lair is. He could at least ask the panther if he'd met with Cybersix over the last couple of days.
That thought sends his mind off on a tangent: What must it be like, having a human intelligence in an animal's body? No voice, no hands...
Ah, that's it. Now he remembers that Data 7 watches after Julian. So Ikiko will know where Julian is, and Julian will know where Data 7 is. And hopefully between the three of them they can find Cybersix.
Sylvester is not a happy camper. He doesn't even make an attempt to hide his dismay from a passing type as he walks down the upstairs hall of the mansion, soaking wet to his waist. Tonight Jose insisted that Sylvester be the one to bathe him. That was usually the job of a lowly fixed idea - and why, he asks himself desperately, could the little brat not bathe himself? Even real eight year-olds...
He halts that line of thought, knowing it will get him nowhere. For the 10th time he wishes that he could just take one of the knives from the kitchen and quietly slip it between Jose's ribs while he slept. Or better yet, drown him right there in the bathtub, right now. But he can't do either of those things; the fixed ideas would be down on him in a second. And his master needs him.
Be patient, he reminds himself. Despite what the stupid types did to Cybersix, it couldn't be much longer.
Sylvester walks into Jose's room and retrieves his bottle of bubble bath. Jose had soaked him for "forgetting" it, even though he'd never said before that he wanted a bubble bath.
Suddenly the implant in his ear chimes softly. A call from Master. Sylvester stops in the hallway. Ah, screw Jose, he can damn well wait. He sprints up to his room where he can answer the call.
"Yes Master?"
"It is time, Sylvester." VonReichter's voice is music to Sylvester's ears. A grin starts on his face and spreads into a wicked grimace.
"Were you able to secure a car?"
"Yes Master. I'm ready."
"Excellent. Come as soon as you can. Don't tell anyone - I want it to be a surprise."