Chapter V

"There is no enemy nearly as vicious and dangerous as human emotions. It was the hardest one to fight, for emotions were an incurable disease, inherent to every human being. But not anymore! There is a cure for this disease – a triumph of human intellect upon human drives – Prozium; our salvation, our key to perfection."

"And our invention." Michael Dorn thought, while reading Stein's copy of "Father's Word".

The old scientist was trying to translate his colleague's notes, but he had a hard time, since he hasn't been using German for years. But that investigator, whose name Dorn tried to recall, urged him to translate them. In what way would it be helpful, Michael didn't know. But order is an order, Dorn thought, and he proceeded with the book.

"The foundation of our state is more solid than rock. It is the pure Reason, without the irrational part of our natures – an equation without the unknowns. It's our stronghold against wars. Peace will last and the war will become a term, which meaning will fade from our understanding."

Dorn rewrote the fragment and the corresponding comments on a separate sheet of paper. He translated those comments he could understand and put a question mark by those he couldn't understand at all. He didn't intend to translate every single comment, since he figured that a part of them will suffice.

"There is still so much to do," the scientist thought, looking on Stein's folder, lying nearby. "Damn, I'm a scientist, not a translator!"

As Michael Dorn was making progress, he started to understand the strange question he was asked. And he didn't like the answer which started to form in his mind.

It took few more hours before Dorn was eventually done with the book.

The document was another challenge. Written in a difficult way, it was mainly beyond Dorn's German skills. He found only five sentences, which he was more or less able to translate. Finding this one too difficult to tackle, he decided to move on to the last thing – the folder.

It contained a lot of content as well. Dorn wasn't sure what Stein exactly meant by writing "The ultimate solution" on the cover, but he wanted to find out.

The content turned out to be more familiar to Dorn – mainly due to large amount of chemical formulas. Although he couldn't understand the majority of the German comments, he could understand the chemical reactions, since they were related to the research, which he was conducting together with Stein.
As he studied the notes suddenly something struck him. Dorn realized that something was wrong there – definitely wrong. He studied the formulas once again, very carefully. The results were beyond doubt. Michael had worked with Stein too long to be mistaken.

"Martin," he whispered. "That's not possible."

But Stein's notes pointed otherwise.

Michael Dorn had his orders and he knew what to do. He picked up a phone and dialed a number, in order to request the meeting with the Vice-Council.

At the same time, Crow was making a call to Watts, in order to acquire some more details on his investigation. He couldn't explain why, but he somehow sensed that there could be a connection. Not entirely sure whether he was right, he waited until Watts picked up the phone.

"James Crow speaking. Watts, I need some… additional details on your investigation. Two things, to be more specific."

"Hm", Watts thought for a while, "Crow, I don't think I can tell you everything. Why are you so interested in my case?"

"Let's say that there might be a possible link between our cases. I can't say for sure before you provide me with some information." Crow stressed the word some.

"All right. What do you want to know?"

"The Sweeper's identity and his exact time of death."

"We're working on this one. The body was burned thus identification is impossible without the DNA sample. There was no trace of his ID as well. We got the DNA sample, but before the identification process had the chance to begin, the whole Database went down, including medical servers, where the genetic profiles are stored."

"And I thought it couldn't get any worse. Oh sweet naivety," James thought.

"I'll get back to you as soon as the identification process is complete, by phone or by e-mail." Watts assured and hung up.

"This damn computer network." James thought. On one of his early cases he learned the hard way that he should store all of the relevant data on CDs. He also learned not to rely entirely on any computer database.

He looked again at the telephone. Following unclear calls of his instinct, he dialed up the Police Forces' extension.

"Paul Smith here, who's speaking?"

"James Crow speaking. Paul, I need the names of the Sweepers that were sent to the Nethers on Monday between 6 and 9 AM. Detailed lineup of every single patrol, including the time of deployment."

"Monday, you say? Well, that was a busy day, as you know. It'll take a couple of hours."

"All right. Send it to me on my e-mail. You remember my e-mail address, right?"

"Sure I do."

"Send me the lists as soon as you can." Crow said and hung up.

Possibly, it was a next piece of puzzle. But the dead Sweeper could be as well not related to the case. James couldn't be sure until the identification is complete.

Now all he had to do was to wait.

09.05.2040 – I asked Watts about the Sweeper's identity, but I haven't acquired any information yet, since the medical computers went offline as well.

10.05.2040 – Finally the Database is up & running. Today I should get the notes translated. I'm still waiting for the info from Watts and from Smith. I must have something to back up my theory. Vice-Council won't accept bare words.

James Crow looked at his cup of coffee. Yesterday was the worst day in this investigation. Due to the fact, that the Database wasn't working and that Michael Dorn wasn't ready with the translations it was rather fruitless. It was the third day, so Crow still had the entire week. However, he knew he'll need some time to search for Stein.

Martin Stein is outside Libria. Dead or alive – I don't know yet.

Crow stared blankly at the computer screen and he spotted a notice in the right bottom corner of it:

2 INCOMING MESSAGES

"Yes, that should be it," he thought and checked his e-mail. Indeed, these were the messages he was waiting for. He checked the one from Watts first.

"James, the identification is confirmed. The victim was identified as Richard Simons. Estimated time of death – between 5 and 6 AM, on Monday. If you find the link, e-mail me. I can't figure out the motive."

Harry Watts, II Department

The message from Paul contained the list of deployed Sweepers, sorted by an hour. James had to admit there were plenty of names, but only one of them interested him.

James activated the search feature and typed the victim's name.

Richard Simons, 1 result

"Getting there," he thought as he was browsing the details. He noted down the details that interested him"

Richard Simons, deployed 7:45 AM, East Gate, Sector 5C

As soon as he took the necessary notes, he started to write e-mail to Watts. After he sent it, he wanted to finish his coffee, but a sudden telephone prevented this.

"James Crow, II Department," the investigator answered mechanically "Who is speaking?"

"It's Michael Dorn, V Department," was the answer, "I am ready with the translations, but I wasn't able to understand all of the content."

"Go ahead" Crow listened carefully.

"I translated some of the comments from the book. I also worked on the contents of the folder, but I cannot speak about them, since these pieces of information are classified."

"And the printed document?"

"Incomprehensible," Dorn answered, "There were only five sentences which I was able to understand."

"I'll come for those documents in a few minutes" Crow said.

"All right," Dorn agreed. "I'll give you all documents but the folder."

"Why?" The investigator became alerted.

"It contains information, which is supposed to be known only to Stein, me and the Vice-Council." the scientist explained. " These are direct orders"

"All right. Order is an order," Crow agreed, " And I'll have to do without the folder," he concluded and hung up.

Secrets. Crow encountered many of them, but this one seemed especially shady and, in a way, tedious. Suspecting, that it is something extremely relevant to this research, mentioned by the Vice-Council, he wasn't able, even approximately, to assess, what did those formulas mean. The description on Stein's folder was the only clue.

"The ultimate solution," he thought, while heading for the V Department, "Well, add to it Stein's specialization – Prozium. The result could be… No, that's impossible! Prozium II is fully implemented, it works fine when properly dosed. Why improve… Improve? In which direction?"

First Crow rejected this thought as completely impossible. But just few seconds later he actually found several arguments backing it up.

The first one was Stein's specialization. Besides, the Vice-Council stated, the research could not be continued without him, which, combined with his career path, strengthened the investigator in his theory about the research.

"Here are the translated findings," Dorn said as the investigator approached him, "This is all I could do. I hope it'll be enough for you".

Crow took the papers, read them carefully and saw what follows:

"Peace will last and the war will become a term, which meaning will fade from our understanding"

"If there is peace, why do the furnaces still burn?" – was Stein's comment.

"It was the hardest on to fight, for emotions were an incurable disease, inherent to every human being. But not anymore! There is a cure for this disease – a triumph of human intellect upon human drives – Prozium; our salvation, our key to perfection"

"Now refined to its final stage."

"There is no enemy nearly as vicious and dangerous as human emotions."

"There is no enemy nearly as vicious and dangerous as ideology."

"We won't have to be afraid of ourselves anymore."

"So that's what it's all about!"

"Sooner or later no-one will be willing to reject what our great society has achieved"

"Soon no-one will be able to do it."

"Are you sure you got the meaning right?" Crow didn't even look at Dorn as he was asking the question.

"Sir, I only translated those sentences I was absolutely sure about."

Crow nodded and continued to read carefully and eventually came to the final sentence, which read:

Gibt es Vorzüglichkeit - dann gibt es keinen Menschen.

The translation followed:

Is there perfection – then there's no human.

The Vice-Council DuPont was about to finish reading his messages, when Michael Dorn appeared with a folder. He looked at the scientist cautiously and started:

"You requested a meeting with me, Mr. Dorn."

"Yes" the scientist confirmed.

"What is the reason of your request?" DuPont gazed at Dorn with strange intensity.

"It involves the research" Dorn replied.

"Go on" DuPont nodded.

"Two days ago, Investigator James Crow came to me with several notes belonging to Martin Stein, which were written in German and with his copy of "Father's Word." Dorn started, "Since Crow doesn't know this language, he asked me to translate. The things I found out are the reasons of my request."

"Could you be more specific?"

"I found in his notes something that puts the research in jeopardy, I worked with him long enough to be sure that it is neither a mistake nor coincidence."

"In what way?"

"This could reverse the results of the experiment."

"What?" in DuPont's seemingly calm tone Dorn a menacing note could be heard, "Give me the folder."

The scientist placed the folder on desk. The Vice-Council started to browse them and, after a moment, he said:

"I didn't know you speak German that good."

"Sir, I don't understand the comments, but I understand the formulas," Dorn disagreed, "Martin Stein is working against us now."

Vice-Council's eyes narrowed as he heard that.

"It seems that I'll have to speak with Investigator Crow," he said eventually "You may leave now."

As Michael Dorn left, DuPont thought: "I'll have to do something with this."

While heading back to the lab Dorn realized something. Even those most important to the system may betray. If this continues to happen, Libria will fall and in order to prevent is, Dorn had to complete the experiment. He told himself that he, unlike Stein, will remain faithful to the system. Michael didn't know what were the reasons behind his colleague's treason. And he realized that he doesn't want to know.