Monday, 3:25 AM
Sara woke up, feeling like someone had used her stomach for a testing ground for ice picks.
Groaning, she staggered to her feet, and activated her armour so she could get home. Jumping from
rooftop to rooftop, usually doubled over in agony from every jarring landing, she caught a glimpse
of something moving behind her. Before it could get any closer, she went from peacetime to combat,
allowing her face to be obscured. She waited, still clutching her stomach with one hand, and clinging
with the other to a spire that was sticking out of a dilapidated church. Sara watched as the blur
resolved into CyberSix's distinctive form.
"Well, it seems that I'm not the only night person out and about. So, how are you doing?"
Six jumped slightly as Sara spoke, deliberately roughening her voice to keep her identity hidden.
"Who are you?" Six spoke quietly, peering onto the shadows where Sara was hiding.
"A friend."
"Okay then. What should I call you?"
"The Knife. By the way, I broke up a plot by Jose to try and kill you using bounty hunters,
so feel slightly less concerned about your well being. I'll see you around."
With that, Sara revealed her armoured form to Six, and jumped away. She used a roundabout
route to get to her house, and after entering by the bedroom window, she deactivated her armour,
removed all her equipment, which was then tossed into the safe, and collapsed into her bed, falling
asleep almost instantly.
Sara woke up at almost Seven-Thirty, went downstairs, and called up the school. "Hello...
this is Miss D'Arnise. I'm sorry, but I can't come in today. I managed to somehow injure myself and
don't want to exacerbate my injury. ...Thank you, I'll try to get in tomorrow." With that, she then
went back to her room and fell asleep, still confused by her sudden onset of weakness but grateful
that she was healing at her usual accelerated rate.
At the School, Lunch Hour
Adrian and Lucas were walking around, having a very quiet conversation. "So, where is she?
There was a message from the principal about her being injured, but I think she'll be around sometime
today." Lucas finished his rant, then turned to his friend. Adrian looked agitated at Sara's
disappearance, but tried to keep it under wraps, which could be considered admirable because the
principal had grabbed Adrian as the substitute teacher for Sara's class.
"Look Lucas. I think she'd be here if she could, and if not, she'll have a bit of explaining to
do. So just calm down, and try to keep Lori out of trouble. Besides, look at the bright side; you're
not getting tormented by having your car turned into a potato launcher, or by being pied by Hazel."
Lucas chuckled, then turned around and watched as Hazel and Erin finished taping a picture
of the school yard at night over the principal's window. "Erin! What are you doing?"
"Ya really wanna know Lucas? Not telling though..." Erin grinned, then took Hazel along
with her, both girls holding small burlap sacks. "What are those two up to?"
"Leave them be Lucas. They won't blow up the tech wing, or even get close to the damage
you do to the chem room on a daily basis. Come on, let's get some lunch."
Dr. Zack was sitting in an open-air Cafe near the school, studying a vial of silvery-red fluid
that he had placed on the table in front of him. As he focussed on the odd substance, he flipped to a
sketch of what appeared to be a miniature bathyscape and started to draw another, slightly different
version underneath the original. Soon he had finished, and instead of putting the book away, he
sipped at his iced tea and slowly swirled the liquid around in the vial, revealing that it seemed to be
just as liquid-like as it was when Reba Pearce, aka. Cyber 5000, had given it to him several days ago.
Looking up a minute later, Dr. Zack noticed that Adrian was walking over to the table, carrying a
sandwich and milk carton.
"Hello Adrian. How are you today?"
"Pretty good, all things considered." Adrian leaned in closer to Zack after sitting down, and
started speaking in a low voice. "Last night, I had an interesting run-in with... something. The being
was definitely a woman, but the voice was extremely rough, and her body was covered with what
looked like metallic scales."
"Wait a second. The person's body was covered by scales? What did they look like?"
"It was a brief glimpse, but they seemed to be the same colour of a heavy bruise, and had a
faint sheen along the pointed parts that were around the joints. Honestly, I'm confused about that
person's statements. She said that she's a friend, and is called the Knife."
"I'll take a look through some of the internet contacts for any information, but right now, I'm
more concerned about our absentee teacher. These sketches were made approximately two days
apart, and they show a definite change in the physical structure in the nanomachines." Dr. Zack
showed the two sketches to Adrian, who raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"I said it before, and I'll say it again. I have minimal knowledge about higher technology, and
am currently drawing a blank with this information. So, what's it mean?"
Dr. Zack frowned, and took another sip of his drink before retrieving the sketchbook from
his friend. "That means, simply, that our friend's 'enhancements' are not only being upgraded, but
they are quite capable of changing to almost anything right now. The only thing that's surprising is
that they have no EM shielding, so their programs would be disrupted by anything that's as strong
as the EM waves put out by a high-power microwave."
Adrian grimaced, and finished off his lunch. "Well, I think we'd better keep some tabs on
Sara, otherwise this will escalate into something that could be worse than Hiroshima."
Dr. Zack nodded, stood up after finishing his drink, and put the vial of blood into his coat
pocket.
Sara's house, 7:22 PM
Sara woke up in time to see the moon slowly reveal its face from behind some clouds, and
grimaced as she gently probed her stomach where she had been punched. *Ow. Well, the bruise
should last for another hour or so, but I think that I'll be fine. I wonder how Six and Zack are doing?*
Sara got out of bed, and feeling queasy, she only drank a glassful of water in lieu of her usual meal.
Soon, she was flipping through a phone book, and had found Dr. Zack's number relatively quickly.
*Okay, one call, and then I'm going to rest for a long time.* She dialled the number, and waited as
the connection went through.
"Hello?"
"Is this Dr. Zack?"
"Yes. What can I do for you?"
"It's Sara. I was wondering about something that... assailed me last night. It may involve my
nanomachines, so you're probably the only person in the city who can help me."
"I see. Could you come over and talk about it? I don't want to talk about something like that
over the phone."
"I'm sorry, but I'm fairly sore due to an internal injury that occurred yesterday, and I don't
want to exacerbate the wound. I won't be going anywhere for at least two days, if my nanomachines
are capable of repairing the damage."
"I hope you recuperate quickly, and maybe I should come over to your place if you are this
concerned about what happened."
"Um, no. I guess it's not extremely important, but maybe I'll come over to your place
tomorrow at about 6 PM, if that's alright with you."
"Well, I think that you're the final authority on what's going on in your body, but, yes you
can come over tomorrow at that time."
"Thank you Dr. Zack. I'll be there."
"You're welcome Sara. See you soon."
Sara hung up and stretched her arms behind her back, but stopped quickly when she felt a
ligament loosen from its mooring in her right shoulder. *Dammit! I've always had the ligament
problem, but it seems to be getting worse. Sometimes I just want to fall asleep and never wake up.
Of course, that'll never happen.* Sara sighed, then went back into her room and lay on her bed, soon
falling asleep again.
Dr. Zack's House
Dr. Zack hung up the telephone after his conversation with Sara, and mulled over the possible
meanings of her call. *What are the possibilities? She said that something had assailed her, but later
said something about her nanomachines having only a possibility of repairing the supposed internal
damage she had suffered. What could it mean?
*Normally, when someone is assailed, it's just a fancy way of saying that they had been beaten
up. However, Sara seems capable of handling herself in a fight, and the news footage of her killing
that Fixed Idea bare-handed proves that. Might it be something that didn't affect her directly? Instead
of attacking her physically, she might have been attacked through her limitations.
*Durallex is non-magnetic, so whatever happened didn't affect her artificial bones. However,
I wonder what would happen if she had been exposed to a strong electro-magnetic field? Maybe
that's the answer.* Zack lit his pipe and puffed away for a few minutes, thinking about possible
variations and extra permutations that might modify his idea, but eventually stopped after scribbling
the rough outline onto a pad of paper nearby.
After putting out his pipe, he then went to his basement laboratory, and after checking on his
production facility, which was currently producing about thirty metres of spider webbing per hour,
and in another section, he saw that another three synthetic rubies were almost at a size where he
could sell them for his usual profit. Dr. Zack then walked over to the computer he was currently using
for research and logged onto the internet. He activated several of the clandestine search engines that
had built-in hacking systems, and searched for 'The Knife' under several criteria, including bounty
hunting organizations.
The only matches that weren't junk were in the bounty hunting criteria, and in there Dr. Zack
found only snippets of information. Eventually he found an online newspaper that had archived old
articles, including a three-part story on a series of grisly murders, all of which were connected to what
appeared to be someone who wielded archaic weapons, and disappeared like a chameleon when seen.
Many people called the person 'the Ghost's Knife', but when a picture finally appeared, Dr. Zack was
disappointed at the low quality of the image, but he downloaded it anyhow and hoped that one of his
image-enhancing programs would pry some information out of the old photo.
Dr. Zack then jumped to another site, this one being the International Bounty Hunter's
Society (with more than a million registered hunters online). There, he searched for both names, and
found several matches. After cruising through all of them, Dr. Zack smiled and muttered 'Eureka'
under his breath.
On the screen, he was looking at a very good picture of a woman, covered in a dark purple
bodysuit which looked like a full-body suit of scale mail. Her face was obscured by more of the
armour, revealing only her eyes and her dark red hair. Also, she was wearing a long cape, seemingly
made of the same substance as the armour, and obscuring her arms and legs in such a way as to hide
any weapons. The one thing that even remotely looked like a weapon was three small half-spheres
running along the back of the woman's wrist, one of which was glowing a pale green.
Dr. Zack looked at the bio information underneath the picture, and his eyes widened as he
looked through the long list. *My god! She's been officially hunting for about three years now, and
she's been in almost every hot spot in the world during that time frame. Let me see, there are few
details about the missions, but the basic types are listed... amazing! This person, despite looking like
a stone cold killer, has only done three assassinations, and all the rest are either search and rescue or
bodyguard missions.
*Let me see, apparently, she's early twenties, about five-eight, and prefers payment in either
cash or uncommon items. This says that her current daily rate is about ten thousand dollars, in
Canadian funds!? That's almost fifteen thousand here. I wonder why this person is here. Hello, what's
this?* Zack scrolled down the text information, and found a small footnote at the bottom of the page.
*She won't take any contracts in the United States or Canada? I wonder why? Maybe she's
connected to Sara in some way. Not likely, but it always pays to keep my options open.*
Dr. Zack saved the website url to his bookmarks, then turned off his computer and closed his
eyes. Eventually, he went upstairs and got ready to go to sleep when he noticed that it was past
midnight.
In Jose's Mansion, 8:30 PM
Jose swore liberally as he injudiciously swivelled his chair around, making it smack into the
heavy wood of his desk. The resultant shockwaves made the chair vibrate, which ignored the heavy
padding he was sitting on, and allowing another painful jolt run through his still-sore butt. *Damn
bitch. Not only did she not accord me the proper respect I'm due, but when she kicked me, she gave
me a spin that allowed my butt to go through that window first. Hell, I bet she's laughing at me from
wherever she is now.*
Jose, instead of being quiet though, swore again, allowing Jess and M-17 the excuse to walk
into his room. Jess was still slightly scorched, her face reddened and her hair blackened by the
explosion that had claimed five of her siblings. M-17 was in hardly better condition, with her left arm
heavily stitched and bandaged from where the same woman had knifed her, and most of her chest and
arms were masses of bruises from the beating she had taken when the stack of crates had collapsed
underneath her.
Jose knew of M-17's bruises because, when she was being treated for the deep gouge running
along her arm, he had peeped in, and had the immense enjoyment of seeing the deadly teen stripped
to her skivvies as the medical techno sewed the wound closed. However, he didn't have time to enjoy
it as several other technos, including Jess, had to hold him down as glass was pried from his nether
regions with what had felt (to him) like they were using the jaws of life on each piece.
"That woman is even worse than CyberSix. She deliberately infiltrated the meeting, convinced
the other bounty hunters to follow her instead of me, and to add insult to injury, she attacked us. I
want her dead, and I'd happily dine on plates made of her bones, with a cup made from her skull."
Jess winced at the descriptive violence used in Jose's tone, but she agreed wholeheartedly with his
assessment. M-17 grinned and cracked her knuckles, unmindful that the bandage was slowly
dissolving from the acidic content of her sustenance-laced blood.
"Hell, when I find her, I'm going to do a hell of a lot worse to her. First, I'm going to flay her
alive, then I'll dig her eyes, tongue, and eventually, her heart out with my bare hands." Jose snorted
in derision, and M-17 prodded his chair over with her boot, allowing him to smack into the opposite
side of the desk, which sent another spine of pain through him.
"Jose, you're an ass. I said I'd kill her, and that's what I'm going to do. If you're lucky, I'll
be tired enough afterwards to not kill you."
"Riiight M-17. You're forgetting your current mission: to kill this woman." Jose pointed at
a copy of the picture that M-17 had shredded before, then tapped the person's face.
"Fuck you too Jose. I'm going after that woman, and your little mission will wait until I'm
done with her." The heavy door rattled slightly as M-17 left, but Jose was glad that she hadn't torn
it off its hinges, like she had done when she found out he was peeping on the female members of the
garrison.
"Jess, you're slightly redeemed due to your skill in there. I'm taking you off latrine duty
starting tomorrow, but you still have to deal with being a perimeter guard."
"Thanks. I won't forget this." *You pompous ass, you nearly got us killed by walking in there
and pissing off everyone. You're lucky that only that woman survived, and I'm not that good with
the rifle. Hell, the only reason why I'm still alive is because that woman avoided me.* Jess walked
out of Jose's room, leaving him to yowl in pain as he swivelled his chair around, bashing into the desk
again. *Moron.*
North America, 11:48 PM
"Sir?"
"What? I'm busy right now"
"Yes, you do need a bit more practice on your golf game."
"Do you want me to show you how I get rid of pains in my ass? It involves a baseball bat and
your skull."
"Yes sir. The charge wave was confirmed, but we've had a setback."
"Who got killed this time?"
"The executive officer of our spec-ops."
"WHAT!?!"
"He was practising with the new 2mm gauss weapons when the capacitor in the rifle
overloaded. The explosion took his head off, along with most of his right side."
"Damn. I knew we should've held off on active testing until we fixed that problem. How long
will the delay be?"
"The team will be in Meridiana in six months."
"That long? She may escape."
"As far as we know, she doesn't know about the satellite scans that picked her up, unless her
skills at picking off traces are better than we thought."
"She's good, but not that good. Is everything else on schedule?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good. You're going with the team to find and retrieve her."
"Me?"
"Yes, you. She still has a connection with you, and I want that connection used against her.
Train yourself in the armour, and get your small arms skills up to at least passable standards first.
Now, get out. You ruined my putt, so if I see you again before she's back, I'll take this club to your
head."
"Yes sir. I'll see her placed in your hands before eight months have passed by."
"I expect utmost secrecy on this one. You know what will happen otherwise..."
"Yes, I remember that incident."
Sara woke up, feeling like someone had used her stomach for a testing ground for ice picks.
Groaning, she staggered to her feet, and activated her armour so she could get home. Jumping from
rooftop to rooftop, usually doubled over in agony from every jarring landing, she caught a glimpse
of something moving behind her. Before it could get any closer, she went from peacetime to combat,
allowing her face to be obscured. She waited, still clutching her stomach with one hand, and clinging
with the other to a spire that was sticking out of a dilapidated church. Sara watched as the blur
resolved into CyberSix's distinctive form.
"Well, it seems that I'm not the only night person out and about. So, how are you doing?"
Six jumped slightly as Sara spoke, deliberately roughening her voice to keep her identity hidden.
"Who are you?" Six spoke quietly, peering onto the shadows where Sara was hiding.
"A friend."
"Okay then. What should I call you?"
"The Knife. By the way, I broke up a plot by Jose to try and kill you using bounty hunters,
so feel slightly less concerned about your well being. I'll see you around."
With that, Sara revealed her armoured form to Six, and jumped away. She used a roundabout
route to get to her house, and after entering by the bedroom window, she deactivated her armour,
removed all her equipment, which was then tossed into the safe, and collapsed into her bed, falling
asleep almost instantly.
Sara woke up at almost Seven-Thirty, went downstairs, and called up the school. "Hello...
this is Miss D'Arnise. I'm sorry, but I can't come in today. I managed to somehow injure myself and
don't want to exacerbate my injury. ...Thank you, I'll try to get in tomorrow." With that, she then
went back to her room and fell asleep, still confused by her sudden onset of weakness but grateful
that she was healing at her usual accelerated rate.
At the School, Lunch Hour
Adrian and Lucas were walking around, having a very quiet conversation. "So, where is she?
There was a message from the principal about her being injured, but I think she'll be around sometime
today." Lucas finished his rant, then turned to his friend. Adrian looked agitated at Sara's
disappearance, but tried to keep it under wraps, which could be considered admirable because the
principal had grabbed Adrian as the substitute teacher for Sara's class.
"Look Lucas. I think she'd be here if she could, and if not, she'll have a bit of explaining to
do. So just calm down, and try to keep Lori out of trouble. Besides, look at the bright side; you're
not getting tormented by having your car turned into a potato launcher, or by being pied by Hazel."
Lucas chuckled, then turned around and watched as Hazel and Erin finished taping a picture
of the school yard at night over the principal's window. "Erin! What are you doing?"
"Ya really wanna know Lucas? Not telling though..." Erin grinned, then took Hazel along
with her, both girls holding small burlap sacks. "What are those two up to?"
"Leave them be Lucas. They won't blow up the tech wing, or even get close to the damage
you do to the chem room on a daily basis. Come on, let's get some lunch."
Dr. Zack was sitting in an open-air Cafe near the school, studying a vial of silvery-red fluid
that he had placed on the table in front of him. As he focussed on the odd substance, he flipped to a
sketch of what appeared to be a miniature bathyscape and started to draw another, slightly different
version underneath the original. Soon he had finished, and instead of putting the book away, he
sipped at his iced tea and slowly swirled the liquid around in the vial, revealing that it seemed to be
just as liquid-like as it was when Reba Pearce, aka. Cyber 5000, had given it to him several days ago.
Looking up a minute later, Dr. Zack noticed that Adrian was walking over to the table, carrying a
sandwich and milk carton.
"Hello Adrian. How are you today?"
"Pretty good, all things considered." Adrian leaned in closer to Zack after sitting down, and
started speaking in a low voice. "Last night, I had an interesting run-in with... something. The being
was definitely a woman, but the voice was extremely rough, and her body was covered with what
looked like metallic scales."
"Wait a second. The person's body was covered by scales? What did they look like?"
"It was a brief glimpse, but they seemed to be the same colour of a heavy bruise, and had a
faint sheen along the pointed parts that were around the joints. Honestly, I'm confused about that
person's statements. She said that she's a friend, and is called the Knife."
"I'll take a look through some of the internet contacts for any information, but right now, I'm
more concerned about our absentee teacher. These sketches were made approximately two days
apart, and they show a definite change in the physical structure in the nanomachines." Dr. Zack
showed the two sketches to Adrian, who raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"I said it before, and I'll say it again. I have minimal knowledge about higher technology, and
am currently drawing a blank with this information. So, what's it mean?"
Dr. Zack frowned, and took another sip of his drink before retrieving the sketchbook from
his friend. "That means, simply, that our friend's 'enhancements' are not only being upgraded, but
they are quite capable of changing to almost anything right now. The only thing that's surprising is
that they have no EM shielding, so their programs would be disrupted by anything that's as strong
as the EM waves put out by a high-power microwave."
Adrian grimaced, and finished off his lunch. "Well, I think we'd better keep some tabs on
Sara, otherwise this will escalate into something that could be worse than Hiroshima."
Dr. Zack nodded, stood up after finishing his drink, and put the vial of blood into his coat
pocket.
Sara's house, 7:22 PM
Sara woke up in time to see the moon slowly reveal its face from behind some clouds, and
grimaced as she gently probed her stomach where she had been punched. *Ow. Well, the bruise
should last for another hour or so, but I think that I'll be fine. I wonder how Six and Zack are doing?*
Sara got out of bed, and feeling queasy, she only drank a glassful of water in lieu of her usual meal.
Soon, she was flipping through a phone book, and had found Dr. Zack's number relatively quickly.
*Okay, one call, and then I'm going to rest for a long time.* She dialled the number, and waited as
the connection went through.
"Hello?"
"Is this Dr. Zack?"
"Yes. What can I do for you?"
"It's Sara. I was wondering about something that... assailed me last night. It may involve my
nanomachines, so you're probably the only person in the city who can help me."
"I see. Could you come over and talk about it? I don't want to talk about something like that
over the phone."
"I'm sorry, but I'm fairly sore due to an internal injury that occurred yesterday, and I don't
want to exacerbate the wound. I won't be going anywhere for at least two days, if my nanomachines
are capable of repairing the damage."
"I hope you recuperate quickly, and maybe I should come over to your place if you are this
concerned about what happened."
"Um, no. I guess it's not extremely important, but maybe I'll come over to your place
tomorrow at about 6 PM, if that's alright with you."
"Well, I think that you're the final authority on what's going on in your body, but, yes you
can come over tomorrow at that time."
"Thank you Dr. Zack. I'll be there."
"You're welcome Sara. See you soon."
Sara hung up and stretched her arms behind her back, but stopped quickly when she felt a
ligament loosen from its mooring in her right shoulder. *Dammit! I've always had the ligament
problem, but it seems to be getting worse. Sometimes I just want to fall asleep and never wake up.
Of course, that'll never happen.* Sara sighed, then went back into her room and lay on her bed, soon
falling asleep again.
Dr. Zack's House
Dr. Zack hung up the telephone after his conversation with Sara, and mulled over the possible
meanings of her call. *What are the possibilities? She said that something had assailed her, but later
said something about her nanomachines having only a possibility of repairing the supposed internal
damage she had suffered. What could it mean?
*Normally, when someone is assailed, it's just a fancy way of saying that they had been beaten
up. However, Sara seems capable of handling herself in a fight, and the news footage of her killing
that Fixed Idea bare-handed proves that. Might it be something that didn't affect her directly? Instead
of attacking her physically, she might have been attacked through her limitations.
*Durallex is non-magnetic, so whatever happened didn't affect her artificial bones. However,
I wonder what would happen if she had been exposed to a strong electro-magnetic field? Maybe
that's the answer.* Zack lit his pipe and puffed away for a few minutes, thinking about possible
variations and extra permutations that might modify his idea, but eventually stopped after scribbling
the rough outline onto a pad of paper nearby.
After putting out his pipe, he then went to his basement laboratory, and after checking on his
production facility, which was currently producing about thirty metres of spider webbing per hour,
and in another section, he saw that another three synthetic rubies were almost at a size where he
could sell them for his usual profit. Dr. Zack then walked over to the computer he was currently using
for research and logged onto the internet. He activated several of the clandestine search engines that
had built-in hacking systems, and searched for 'The Knife' under several criteria, including bounty
hunting organizations.
The only matches that weren't junk were in the bounty hunting criteria, and in there Dr. Zack
found only snippets of information. Eventually he found an online newspaper that had archived old
articles, including a three-part story on a series of grisly murders, all of which were connected to what
appeared to be someone who wielded archaic weapons, and disappeared like a chameleon when seen.
Many people called the person 'the Ghost's Knife', but when a picture finally appeared, Dr. Zack was
disappointed at the low quality of the image, but he downloaded it anyhow and hoped that one of his
image-enhancing programs would pry some information out of the old photo.
Dr. Zack then jumped to another site, this one being the International Bounty Hunter's
Society (with more than a million registered hunters online). There, he searched for both names, and
found several matches. After cruising through all of them, Dr. Zack smiled and muttered 'Eureka'
under his breath.
On the screen, he was looking at a very good picture of a woman, covered in a dark purple
bodysuit which looked like a full-body suit of scale mail. Her face was obscured by more of the
armour, revealing only her eyes and her dark red hair. Also, she was wearing a long cape, seemingly
made of the same substance as the armour, and obscuring her arms and legs in such a way as to hide
any weapons. The one thing that even remotely looked like a weapon was three small half-spheres
running along the back of the woman's wrist, one of which was glowing a pale green.
Dr. Zack looked at the bio information underneath the picture, and his eyes widened as he
looked through the long list. *My god! She's been officially hunting for about three years now, and
she's been in almost every hot spot in the world during that time frame. Let me see, there are few
details about the missions, but the basic types are listed... amazing! This person, despite looking like
a stone cold killer, has only done three assassinations, and all the rest are either search and rescue or
bodyguard missions.
*Let me see, apparently, she's early twenties, about five-eight, and prefers payment in either
cash or uncommon items. This says that her current daily rate is about ten thousand dollars, in
Canadian funds!? That's almost fifteen thousand here. I wonder why this person is here. Hello, what's
this?* Zack scrolled down the text information, and found a small footnote at the bottom of the page.
*She won't take any contracts in the United States or Canada? I wonder why? Maybe she's
connected to Sara in some way. Not likely, but it always pays to keep my options open.*
Dr. Zack saved the website url to his bookmarks, then turned off his computer and closed his
eyes. Eventually, he went upstairs and got ready to go to sleep when he noticed that it was past
midnight.
In Jose's Mansion, 8:30 PM
Jose swore liberally as he injudiciously swivelled his chair around, making it smack into the
heavy wood of his desk. The resultant shockwaves made the chair vibrate, which ignored the heavy
padding he was sitting on, and allowing another painful jolt run through his still-sore butt. *Damn
bitch. Not only did she not accord me the proper respect I'm due, but when she kicked me, she gave
me a spin that allowed my butt to go through that window first. Hell, I bet she's laughing at me from
wherever she is now.*
Jose, instead of being quiet though, swore again, allowing Jess and M-17 the excuse to walk
into his room. Jess was still slightly scorched, her face reddened and her hair blackened by the
explosion that had claimed five of her siblings. M-17 was in hardly better condition, with her left arm
heavily stitched and bandaged from where the same woman had knifed her, and most of her chest and
arms were masses of bruises from the beating she had taken when the stack of crates had collapsed
underneath her.
Jose knew of M-17's bruises because, when she was being treated for the deep gouge running
along her arm, he had peeped in, and had the immense enjoyment of seeing the deadly teen stripped
to her skivvies as the medical techno sewed the wound closed. However, he didn't have time to enjoy
it as several other technos, including Jess, had to hold him down as glass was pried from his nether
regions with what had felt (to him) like they were using the jaws of life on each piece.
"That woman is even worse than CyberSix. She deliberately infiltrated the meeting, convinced
the other bounty hunters to follow her instead of me, and to add insult to injury, she attacked us. I
want her dead, and I'd happily dine on plates made of her bones, with a cup made from her skull."
Jess winced at the descriptive violence used in Jose's tone, but she agreed wholeheartedly with his
assessment. M-17 grinned and cracked her knuckles, unmindful that the bandage was slowly
dissolving from the acidic content of her sustenance-laced blood.
"Hell, when I find her, I'm going to do a hell of a lot worse to her. First, I'm going to flay her
alive, then I'll dig her eyes, tongue, and eventually, her heart out with my bare hands." Jose snorted
in derision, and M-17 prodded his chair over with her boot, allowing him to smack into the opposite
side of the desk, which sent another spine of pain through him.
"Jose, you're an ass. I said I'd kill her, and that's what I'm going to do. If you're lucky, I'll
be tired enough afterwards to not kill you."
"Riiight M-17. You're forgetting your current mission: to kill this woman." Jose pointed at
a copy of the picture that M-17 had shredded before, then tapped the person's face.
"Fuck you too Jose. I'm going after that woman, and your little mission will wait until I'm
done with her." The heavy door rattled slightly as M-17 left, but Jose was glad that she hadn't torn
it off its hinges, like she had done when she found out he was peeping on the female members of the
garrison.
"Jess, you're slightly redeemed due to your skill in there. I'm taking you off latrine duty
starting tomorrow, but you still have to deal with being a perimeter guard."
"Thanks. I won't forget this." *You pompous ass, you nearly got us killed by walking in there
and pissing off everyone. You're lucky that only that woman survived, and I'm not that good with
the rifle. Hell, the only reason why I'm still alive is because that woman avoided me.* Jess walked
out of Jose's room, leaving him to yowl in pain as he swivelled his chair around, bashing into the desk
again. *Moron.*
North America, 11:48 PM
"Sir?"
"What? I'm busy right now"
"Yes, you do need a bit more practice on your golf game."
"Do you want me to show you how I get rid of pains in my ass? It involves a baseball bat and
your skull."
"Yes sir. The charge wave was confirmed, but we've had a setback."
"Who got killed this time?"
"The executive officer of our spec-ops."
"WHAT!?!"
"He was practising with the new 2mm gauss weapons when the capacitor in the rifle
overloaded. The explosion took his head off, along with most of his right side."
"Damn. I knew we should've held off on active testing until we fixed that problem. How long
will the delay be?"
"The team will be in Meridiana in six months."
"That long? She may escape."
"As far as we know, she doesn't know about the satellite scans that picked her up, unless her
skills at picking off traces are better than we thought."
"She's good, but not that good. Is everything else on schedule?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good. You're going with the team to find and retrieve her."
"Me?"
"Yes, you. She still has a connection with you, and I want that connection used against her.
Train yourself in the armour, and get your small arms skills up to at least passable standards first.
Now, get out. You ruined my putt, so if I see you again before she's back, I'll take this club to your
head."
"Yes sir. I'll see her placed in your hands before eight months have passed by."
"I expect utmost secrecy on this one. You know what will happen otherwise..."
"Yes, I remember that incident."