Three
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No matter how many times the man known simply as Grant met face-to-face with his benefactor, Lord Marsden, he never ceased to confuse. The older man's brown skin was stout and taut- not exactly fat, but he possessed a wide potbelly common to many of his stature. Over that, he'd always worn a green or blue trench coat of a kind that was never made anymore. That alone spoke of the Lord's power and influence, had it not been apparent through his opulent dwellings.
All Marsden's money could not hide the effects of age- his wiry black hair held a small tinge of grey, and it left the front third of his scalp utterly bald, instead arching down the sides to form a dignified beard from the zenith of another era.
All of that aside, Grant had originally been perturbed by the Lord's other features- features that only a relatively qualified Psychic like himself would notice. Diving into where the man's mind should have been, Grant had time and time again found only emptiness. This was what had originally drawn him to seek the corpulent Lord's employ, and what had intrigued him ever since. No probe would ever unlock the secrets embedded in that mind until doomsday.
"She is unharmed?" Marsden asked, without even bothering to welcome Grant to his private study.
Grant grimaced. As much as he wanted to please this man, saying yes would ignore all the scrapes, bruises and tears left upon Cyber Six's body and clothes. The detonation of the lab had done more than a number on her a few days back, and moving her from it had only worsened things.
"She won't die for while yet, Lord. We brought her straight to the mansion basement- no one saw."
Grant was reinforcing the good in steady tones so he could leave the bad alone. Anyone who had stumbled onto Marsden's men placing the injured Cyber on a stretcher and marching her along the streets had felt a brief spell of dizziness as Grant had plucked the memory straight out of their minds.
Marsden tightened one fist upon his desk before Grant could think of anything else to add. "That's cutting it rather close. I don't think I have to tell you again that this specimen is of the utmost importance to my plans. My men are doing the best they can to preserve it's life. I would preserve it even at the cost of theirs, but..." trailing off, he brought up a small document, feigning curiosity. "...My doctors claim that it continues to writhe and scream at full volume in the face of the best medical treatments they can give. Why is that?"
He knew the answer, Grant knew. He was only waiting for him to say it out loud, so that he knew what his next job would be. Hesitation would only earn him disdain from Marsden, so he plunged on ahead.
"It's the Sustenance, Lord. She's been lying there, in the ruins of that lab for at least four days now, and the only source for Sustenance we know of is gone. If we don't feed her some in the next twenty-four hours or so, well... it won't be pretty."
Marsden broke into a strange, almost toadish smile and cracked his fat knuckles. "And that, my friend, is why I hired you in the first place. Von Reichter is the only man who knows how to create Sustenance- the secret died with him. When a Cyber's nervous system goes without Sustenance for a week or more, it begins to melt. I've studied the diagrams that the good doctor provided us, and there is only one solution now."
Then he got it. He wanted to keep Cyber Six alive, in their custody for as long as humanly possible- it didn't matter that she would be of no use to Marsden physically. He had something else in mind, and Grant had a very solid idea what it was.
Before he tried anything like what he'd just been asked to do, he had to look after number one, what he'd come here for. "So" he said casually over the crackle of a fireplace. "Once I'm done this little job for you, my lord, you can allow me into your inner circle?"
"Once the job is done, I think we can arrange it. The group you speak of will be far more lucrative once your job is done properly. You've made a wise choice indeed."
Looking furtively once again at the man's dark smile, Grant could only wonder what he truly meant by that.
-
Jose's 'night on the town' had stretched into a couple of days. He couldn't help it- eating out was better than the crud his Techno cooked up at home, and hotels and junk food tasted much better when they were free. The same thing applied to the various movies, shows, and arcades he'd visited with his entourage. While they looked exhausted, their master was filled with a manic energy; everything in this city he'd seen so far was his if he wanted it, free of charge. No one dared come too close to the fivesome as they strode down an arched stone bridge over a river, searching for new ways to have fun.
One person, however, dared to whack Jose in the head with a rotten apple from behind, and laugh from his perch on the roof. By the time the sluggish Fixed Ideas whirled about in a rage to see who had thrown it, Julian was out of sight, doubled over in laughter that threatened to give him away.
From another spot along a windowsill, he watched as the four brutish creatures fished Jose out of the river and back onto land. He waited until they were gone, and climbed back to the top with ease, running straight into a pair of yellow eyes that shocked him for a moment. Then, like Lucas, he realized that those eyes belonged to a friend thought dead for far too long.
"Data Seven! You're alive!" he cried out, wrapping his arms around the panther's midsection, causing him to wince in pain. Julian noticed the bandages, and patted him on the head instead. "I really thought you were... you know. After that lab went boom, and..."
Purring again for only a moment, Data Seven focused on some distant point on the horizon longingly. Following his gaze, Julian saw nothing but empty sky.
Yet he knew- somewhere out there in another country, another city, Cyber Six was alive.
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"It's a miracle she's still alive after a blast like that" Grant thought to remark upon seeing her condition. Behind him on a raised balcony, Marsden did not scowl, and did not need to in order to let his hireling know that he'd spoken callously.
The Cyber was suspended on a blank white table, sans her hat and cape, and a good portion of the black outfit she'd worn was torn away. Titanium shackles held her hands and feet bound to the table like Frankenstein's monster.
Even these, Marsden had explained, might not be able to fully restrain her wild tantrums. That was why she was also separated from the doctors and other viewers by a triple-paned box of laminium, a protective measure more commonly used to hold back an elephant or rhino instead of a woman.
All the protective measures in the world could not guarantee complete safety from a half-mad Cyber, which was the first reason why he'd hired Grant- to pacify the subject when no doctor would risk their life going within ten feet of her to administer a sedative. So far, the protective measures were holding her thrashing, and the box muffled the screaming enough so that Grant could hear his employer speak over it.
"Such a pitiful sight, isn't it? Normally a thing of grace and beauty, this... thing has been reduced to this by the weakness that Von Reichter programmed into it."
Grant nodded and shook his head in wonder, cataloguing the fact that Marsden referred to her as 'it'. "I've seen pregnant women in less distress than she is. I'll begin right away."
Stepping forward to a railing, Grant closed his eyes, allowing his presence to flow out beyond it. The minds of the doctors in the next room over reeked of fear, fear of the Cyber, fear of the Lord Marsden.
Cyber Six did not fear. Even as her body was consumed with the agonizing need for Sustenance, her barely conscious mind was content to watch her cell membranes explode. Ignoring her feelings for now, Grant plunged onward. The nervous system was a tangled mess of need, reminding him of the psyche of a drug addict. It longed for the memory of the glowing liquid pouring down her throat, and Cyber Six's mind willed that away.
In order to complete his task, Grant would need to draw upon that memory. He had full access to the nerve endings now, where he couldn't even see his own body unless he looked through the Cyber's eyes, and forced them to stop twitching.
He had no interest in the former, but with a simple memory, he accomplished the latter. With one final frenzy, the Cyber became stiff and motionless on the bed, her conscious self filled with the memory of Sustenance pouring through her. Now her nervous system was being fooled into thinking that she'd just taken a huge dose, but the moment Grant left for his own body again, the screaming need would return.
Instead of leaving, he sat there inside the mind, letting Marsden's doctors do what they'd been hired for. He caught a flicker of distaste, a feeling that came attached to the memory he'd induced, and was unable to stop more memories from pouring forth. The Cyber had hated taking Sustenance, yet she needed it to survive. With Grant's powers simulating the chemical's life-restoring effects, she could be preserved for as long as his concentration lasted.
It wasn't long at all before he heard a far off voice, calling him back to the world of men. Marsden had not moved from his cushioned chair during the entire procedure, and in fact very little had changed on the outside.
The powerful sedatives were working. Grant sensed no more anxiety or need from Cyber Six, only a static-like tranquility. One thin needle had been pushed into each temple by the doctors, who now felt safe enough to place the rest of their equipment in the box, including a heartbeat monitor and oxygen mask.
Grant breathed out huskily. Penetrating someone's mind so deeply like that was never easy, even for someone of his talents. He continued to look at his victim closely, watched the doctors apply a tertiary restraint, a thick plastic shell that covered her from bottom to the full of her neck. The last echoes he'd picked up from her mind slowly faded after they made several more injections through the arms before covering them.
"Congratulations" echoed a deep voice from behind him. "You're every bit as skilled as I've heard. Any sort of psychic talent is an extreme rarity in this day and age, especially one as powerful as you."
Unheeding of the praise, the other man thought back to the memories he'd triggered by accident. Bits and pieces of this woman's history had spooled out to him to see, and he could not get them out. Without speaking, he stalked off to his quarters already prepared by servants. He had a lot more thinking to do.
-
As Lucas had expected, his boss slumped over depressively in the sunlight after hearing his proposal in full, his brown hair trailing over his wooden desk.
"Mr. Amato, If you'll forgive my saying so, you're a bastard."
Trying not to seem overly nonchalant about it, Lucas scratched his head and tried to look as though he didn't want to leave. "I'm sorry, but there's something I've got to look into. I'll use up my entire supply of sick days if I have to."
He didn't want to mention that he would quit altogether if he had to. A job was one thing; a friend was another.
"You're talking like it's a tradable commodity, just like the others" Mr. Greene replied tiredly. "You already know how hurting we are for staff around here, especially after Mrs. Pavel and Mr. Siedelman..."
Upon seeing his gaze slant to the linoleum floor, the boss' tone changed. "I'm sorry. I know that he was your best friend. Go, Lucas. I already have a replacement English teacher lined up- I'm sure we can survive without you for a few weeks now. I understand that a lot of people don't feel safe here anymore- that's why Mrs. Pavel left. Go."
He was no longer looking at Lucas, instead staring off at the sea and sunset. No one could admit to not feeling a pang of fear when that island surfaced out in the bay. There wasn't a soul in Meridiana who hadn't feared for their safety during that time- perhaps it really was time to move on. For real.
"Don't take it hard, sir" he managed before slipping silently out the door. "Sometimes bad things come right to your doorstep, and there's nothing you can do about them."
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