Chapter 6

Knight Sabers headquarter

For hours now Nene had been sitting at the computers, first in the AD-Police central and now here, working on a single task.

"Do you have found out anything so far?" Sylia, who was literally seeing over her shoulder, asked her.

"Not much", she replied. "We have a number of known enemies, in first line inside of genom. Some people might have been able to find out about our identities. But I can not tell anything for certain yet."

The day of their next mission was coming and they still had no clear answer to a very important question. Who was behind the line of attacks that were directed at them?

Sylia had however a certain, a terrible, suspicion.

Their might be some enemies they had, there was a number of people who might have found out their identities, but there were only very few who knew for sure and would attack them like that.

All her thoughts were coming down upon a single name, someone she had until recently thought was dead.

"Do you really think he is still alive?" Nene asked her.

"It is hard to say for sure", Sylia answered, "but yes, yes I think so."

"O...Okay", Nene said unsure.

"Largo", Sylia whispered quietly.

xxxxxxx

Central-building of the Weiss-kreuz company, Mega-Tokyo

The two groups who would be working together were being officially introduced for the first time.

At the one side stood the members of the Knight Sabers and at the other a group of four boomers of different types. Two of them were obviously BU 55C combat units and the third a similar `female´ combat model.

The last and the obvious leader of the group however, was one they already knew. It was the same boomer who had acted as Brogan´s bodyguard during their meetings.

"John", she greeted the cyberdroid.

"Miss Stingray", he replied. "It is good to see you again. I hope our two groups will be able to work together as a team", he stated. "This are the members of my special unit", he introduced, gesturing to the other boomers. "Vesto and Rex", he said, looking at the two other 55C ,"and this is Sarah." He pointed to the female model.

"You understand that the Knight Sabers are usually working by themselves", Sylia pointed out.

"Of course, but in this case it will be necessary. For this mission you will certainly have need for assistence."

"Well, normally we are used to fighting against boomer, not with them", Nene blurted out.

The other Knight Sabers were looking at her disapprovingly for a short moment.

"We are also aware of that", `John´ answered. "But I am sure we will be able to cooperate, given what is at stake. I would now like to begin to discuss the details of the mission."

"Of course", Sylia told him.

"Good, our task of securing the AI is of the highest importance", he claimed.

"This `AI´ had been a thinking, feeling being and a good friend of me", Priss said.

The boomer actually smiled back at her. It was a frighteningly human-like gesture.

"Your concern about one of our kind is well appreciated Miss Asagiri", he replied.

Another one who knew who she was, Priss realized grimly.

"Maybe we should put our identities in the newspapers", she said to Sylia sarcastically. "It seems that everybody knows about us anyway."

"Don´t sell yourself too short Miss Asagiri. You actually did a impressive job of hiding your identity, until your fight against Largo at least. And I honestly don´t know who your two colleagues here are." He pointed to Linna and Nene.

"We should return to the plan", Sylia mentioned.

"Of course", the boomer said to her, politely like usual.

The mission would take place in a few days. They would use that time to prepare themselves, learn more about the propable defenses and security they will have to deal with and get ready.

xxxxxxx

The day of the attack had come. Both the Knight Sabers and their new `partners´ were ready and waiting for the time of the beginning.

Until then the four Knight Sabers were spending their time as if nothing was wrong or unusual. For years now they had spend their time switching between their daily activities and their mercenary actions. So in a sense it was nothing unusual for them.

While this mission would be more dangerous than the most, the situation itself was nothing really new.

By the information their contacts from `Weiss-Kreuz´ had given to them, they could expect to face a small army of boomers and human guards, a highly developed security system and probably a few agents of the mysterious shadow organization itself. That were the dangers they were anticipating.

For all they knew there might be something else they didn´t know about yet.

This mission now might become just as dangerous as their fights against Largo. For that reason they had spend weeks to prepare. Now they were ready and that for nearly everything. Or at least they thought so.

xxxxxxx

At this evening Priss was once again performing one of her shows on the stage in `Hot Legs´. In only a few hours the Knight Sabers would start, tonight.

It would beginn in only a few hours. But until then Priss still had some time left for the rest of her show this day.

In the last months Priss `carriere´ as a singer, that so far had only consisted of performing in different nightclubs, mostly this one, had become more and more successful. she and her band were now drawing even larger crowds of people into the bars.

"Thank you," she said to the audiance as she had finished her current song.

It was nearly at the time, she thought silently. She made a few steps forward on the stage.

"We are coming to the end now," Priss told them. "This is the last song for tonight. It is one I have never performed before. So you are hearing it for the first time song is something special to me.

I have written it in memory of an good friend of me who I had lost about one year ago," she said.

Priss had indeed written the song a few weeks before, thinking about Sylvie and Anri. Then, when she had remembered that it was the anniversary of their deaths.

It was before she had found out that at least Sylvie might actually still exist in some form somewhere.

She didn´t even knew if this information gave her ever the smallest bit of hope. Or maybe it actually made things worse.

The thought that the mind and soul of one of her closest friend might have been reduced to a mere computer-software in the hands of some twisted company or whoever this people were, made her sick. But that was exactly the scenario their informants had been describing.

And the thought that maybe she would be forced to kill her a second time was devastating her.

Despite all this, it was still somehow fitting to sing it here, now, at this time.

Mysterious Night, it was the title of the song she had written in memory of her two friends. She had to admit, it was sounding quite different from her usual works. Not that this was a bad thing. It was just something different.

So they started the music. Priss was singing the text she had written. Every word of it reminded her of the friend she had lost one year ago.

Of the friend whose leftovers she would maybe see again in a short time, possibly for the last time. That meant if whatever was left of her was still recognizable as the person she had known, she thought with some dread.

xxxxxxx

AD-Police department

The cops, including Leon, were just beginning with the late shift.

Nene had already gone home, he had noticed at some point. Her working time had ended earlier today. But that didn´t necessarely had to mean anything.

There had been no mysterious changings in her schedule this day. Her shift really ended earlier.

But that didn´t necessarely meant that the Knight Sabers were not getting active this night either. By the things Priss had told him a few days ago and especially the way she had acted, he expected something big coming very soon.

xxxxxxx

A short time later Priss at met up with the other Knight Sabers at their hideout and then they moved to their meeting place with their `partners´ for this mission.

They had agreed to cooperate with their temporally allies because of the difficulty of their plan.

None of them particular liked the possibility that maybe they would have to destroy the AI, that was in fact nothing else but the mind of Priss friend, a boomer, no a woman, most of them had come to know and like in the relatively short time the last year.

Even Sylia, who saw the entire situation more in terms of the greater good, didn´t thought highly of it. She knew all to good how close Priss and Sylvie had been.

But their new allies had also told them that there might be a way to separate the AI from the systems where she is currently contained in. In fact they had said that this would be the preferable outcome for them. If possible, they wanted to save the boomer personality. Destroying her would only be the worst case scenario.

But Joseph Brigan, at least, had made it clear that he could also easily live with that choice. If she was honest, she mostly agreed with this. Before she allowed the AI to be used by a group of fanatical terrorists, she would rather destroy it herself, Sylvie or not Sylvie. She would be sorry for Priss, but there was no choice. If her mind could not be removed, she had to die.

That however didn´t mean that Sylia necessarily believed them. She didn´t got where he was by just trusting everyone so easily.

For all she knew these people could have their own plans with the software and wanted it for themselves. Maybe the aims of their allies were not even that different from the other group´s.

Still, by the information and evidence they had provided to them about the nature of their opponent, they seemed by far as the better choice. She and the other Knight Sabers would just have to keep her eyes open.

They had arrived at the agreed place. The other group, as they saw, was already waiting for them.

It was their contact person `John´ and the three other combat-boomers they had already been introduced to. They all were still in their human camouflage. Most combat-models they had met would have already shed their outer skin and openly shown their machine nature at this point on a mission like this.

This group however seemed to, at least for the moment, prefer stealth over force. On the other hand, they were all wearing combat-suits and carrying weapons that they actually didn´t even really need.

They, like all units of their model-line, possessed heavy weaponry built into their bodies themselves. But to use it they needed to give up their human appearance.

They were obviously some of the smarter ones. This was a good thing, Sylia thought. The last thing that they needed was a group of rampaging boomers at their side for this heist.

"I see you are ready," she said to them.

"We are," the leader of the boomer team replied.

"We have already been waiting for you," the female model who had earlier been introduced as `Sarah´ told them.

"Then let us beginn," Sylia replied.