Chapter 8
Omnitec-building Tokyo
Priss and the rest of the Knight Sabers could only stare at the figure before them. They knew that this company and the organization that was standing behind it had salvaged Sylvie´s mind and were holding it inside their computer system.
But why should they habe rebuild her body as well?
They didn´t know.
Their partners were for this single mission were surprised as well. But not in the same way.
For them Sylvie was only a 33S boomer that they had heard of and who later became an important and potentially dangerous AI programm.
For the Knight Sabers she was a young woman they had known - a friend - especially for Priss. In the end she had been a victim of circumstances, in more than one way... and a victim of Largo´s manipulations.
So this here - all of it - was an even greater shock than they had expected. The idea that her mind still existed somewhere as a computer program was already hard enough to take.
But actually seeing her... in flesh and blood... and whatever mechanic parts this body had. It was nearly surreal to Priss... and a bit even to the others.
"I still don´t understand it. Why would they rebuild Sylvie´s body, when they just needed her AI - her mind?" Nene asked loud.
"I don´t know," Sylia said. "I think something is not right here."
"Priss." They all heard suddenly a voice calling through the room. As they looked around they realized that it was coming from a loudspeaker at the wall.
"Sylvie?" she said in complete shock.
"It is you. I am so happy to see you again," the voice said.
The four boomer companions of the Knight Sabers were exchanging a quick look.
"It seems that Omnitec and the Black Circle had been working on something else than just an advanced AI," their leader, the one they knew as `John´ pointed out with a look at the deactivated body.
"That is true," Sylvies voice told them. "By what I can tell, after they had recovered my AI and then experimented with it. They actually did their best to restore me, my mind... and also my body as you see over there.
Why they did it however, I am not completely sure myself. It was this man... Seth Newman, he was the one who had ordered it. He had talked with me a lot. We had long discussions. He was also the one who told me about Largo... and about Anri. But he never truly told me why he had ordered to rebuild me... or what exactly he wanted."
"Newman?" John questioned.
"You know this guy?" Priss asked.
"He is agent of the Black Circle, working directly for the organization instead of fassades like Omnitec. I have heard of him. After the mutation of her software, he possibly sees `Sylvie´ here as a completely new entity and wanted to test her."
"What?" Priss exclaimed. "Test?" she hissed.
"That is what Black Circle does. They see this entire world as a mixture between a testing-area and a battlefield where the strongest and best adapted beings manage to survive. Since your friend would now be in a sense a completely new type of boomer, they would be curious what she could become."
"Just great," Priss commented. "Crazy social-darwinists."
"Exactly," he replied.
"Priss, I know what happened to Anri," the voice said. "Newman has told me about it. He has shown me... security footage from the Genom building."
"Sylvie, I am sorry. I... "
"It wasn´t your fault Priss. Please don´t blame yourself," she told her. The disembodied voice actually managed to sound angry. It was a suppressed silent rage that most of them, especially Priss, knew all too well. "It was Largo. All what happened to us was just because of him." The disambodied voice now actually managed to sound angry.
"As much as I am touched by your reunion," the female boomer in their group commented as she sat down at a computer console close by, "we have other things to do right now."
The boomer, who had introduced herself to them as `Sarah´, was just busy accessing the internal network of the building and trying to find information about what exactly Omnitec had been working on during the last months... and especially why they had restored the body of the `killed´ 33S. Given who the true owners of the company were, it was certainly not out of the goodness of their hearts.
No, they were intending something with it. Most likely some kind of experiment... And right now she was looking for the information on the entire project.
"You say you don´t know the reason why they have reconstructed your body," John stated. "But do you at least know what they have done with the data of your `resurrection´ and about your software?" he asked her.
"They have not really told me," Sylvie stated. "But by what I have found when my `program´ started spreading into the other systems of this building, they had analyzed and copied my codes pretty early. Possible even before I actually regained consciousness after my `death´."
"I see," John stated, obviously not happy. "That means it is possible that we are already too late if we want to stop them. In this case we have only one choice left." He turned to the Knight Sabers. "We need to destroy the entire building. But if they have already transfered the data somewhere else I fear even that would not help us. Then we have already lost."
"Destroy the building?" Priss asked. "One moment, what about Sylvie? This `software´ you are talking about, it is still her, right? She is still inside this computers. If we blow everything here up... what will happen to her?"
"We need to stop the evolved software from falling into the hands of the Black Circle," `John´ responded. "You know that. This building needs to be destroyed. But you are right." He turned to the Knight Sabers. "If it is possible to get her out of the system alive, then we will take it," he calmed Priss down. "Beside that, the 33S `Silvie´ is in the end one of our kind. So we will try to save her if we can. She is one of us after all."
"Wha..." For a moment Priss felt the urge to protest, comparing Sylvie to other boomers. But after a moment of thinking she realized that John and his team had so far been acting quite different from the killing-machines that many of the boomers, they had faced on their missions, had been. Of course these boomers had been programmed and employed by mostly corrupt Genom officials and similar people.
If she thought about it. By what she had seen, this group her reminded her more of Sylvie and Anri in a way. Of course the Knight Sabers had not truly been talking to them that much. Both of their teams were concentrating on their task after all. But it were little things. The way the members of their team acted with each other and with the Knight Sabers, the way especially the two boomers calling themselves `John´ and `Sarah´ interacted with each other. And especially the fact that they even put any weight on getting Sylvie out of here alive in the first place.
The normal boomer troops or `assasins´, Genom and others were using would just have thought about finishing their mission as quickly as possible and would not have cared if they had to sacrifice anyone... be it humans or other boomers.
That left the question why were this guys here so different than the usual cyberdroids employed by mayor companies? Was there something unusual about Weiss-Kreuz? Aside from the fact that they were obviously actively fighting against this Black Circle organization, of course. But it was a question that should better be left for later. Right now they were still on a operation, right in the middle of hostile territory.
And every minute more guard and hired killers could arrive.
"Sylvie," Sylia addressed her, or more precisely she addressed the loudspeakers on the walls. Technically she was speaking to nothing but thin air. "Do you know if it is possible for you to download your consciousness into this body by yourself?"
"I - I think so," she voice answered. "They were planning to do that anyway at one point. As my AI begann to spread to the other systems of this building, I gained the knowledge about how the process works. But I will need help. Someone who starts the process by giving the computer commands from the outside."
"Then let us try it," John said. "That means if you agree." He turned to Sylia.
"Of course," she replied. "Sylvie is after all a close friend of one of my team, even if she is a boomer. That means saving her is our interest as well - if it is possible of course, like you said.
But let us hurry up," she added. "We have already spend more time here as planned."
"Yes and every moment more security can appear," Linna said.
"They are already trying to," Sylvie stated. "But I used my access to the main-system to shut all the security doors and lock this part of the building off from the rest of the facility. It will buy you some time."
"You can do that?" Nene asked surprised.
"Yes, like I said, my AI has evolved and by now gained influence on practically every system in this building complex."
"And they didn´t keep you from doing that?" Priss asked shocked.
"They tried, but not very effective. Actually, this man named Newman seemed actually excited in some way to see how far I would come. Priss, Nene, whatever I am now, I am not longer a normal 33S."
"Like I said, they were testing her," John stated.
"It doesn´t matter to me," Priss said to her. "I am glad that you are still here. And as long as you don´t connect yourself to a bomb that will blow up millions of people again, I will to anything that you can stay."
"I will try to avoid that from now on," `Sylvie answered, actually managing to sound sarcastic despite being only a synthesized voice. "You should hurry, I have probably bought you only a few minutes. They have brought in more boomers and they are already burning themselves through the security-doors," she said, watching the events outside through the cameras.
For a moment, Nene as well questioned what exactly Sylvie had become during the last months. But then her concentration returned to the events around her.
"Sarah," John addressed his partner who was sitting at the consoles. "Can you start the transfer-process for the AI right now?" he asked her.
"I am trying to," she answered as she was typing on the keypads. "Yes, it should be possible. We are here in the lab-area after all. So these consoles should have direct access to the AI and to the 33S body right here. The only hindrance would be the passwords. Normally it would possible take me a few minutes and I would need to connect myself directly with the computers." She grinned. "But I think that won´t be necessary here, right Sylvie?" she said.
"The access-code for the construction fascility, including my new body is 00125T-033S-C," Sylvie´s voice told her. "If you activate both of it, I should - with help of the knowledge I have gathered from the databanks - be able to download my consciousness directly into the constructed body."
"I´ve got it," the boomer Sarah said.
"Thank you," Sylvie replied. "The process might still take a few minutes to complete."
"Good," Sylia stated. "Then we continue from here like it was planned. We set the bombs and then leave before everything blows up. Nene, `Sarah´," she addressed both her teammate and the boomer who were currently working on the computers. Have you found any evidence if they had transfered the data about their research somewhere else. If they have, you know, we would be blowing up this building here for nothing."
"I don´t know," Nene answered. "I can´t find a concrete answer, only more and more files that are protected by passwords."
"The same with me," Sarah stated. "Whatever they have done with their research-results, they certainly don´t want anyone to find out."
"And we are running out if time," Nene added. "By the camera footage Sylvie is showing us right now, they have just broken through the doors. So they will be here very soon."
For the others, it was certainly fascinating and somewhat unsettling to see this two working together so well.
xxx
Behind them the systems of the new boomer body were now slowly becoming active... and after a minute more it began to open it´s eyes.
xxx
It was only a small detail, one that Nene, who was working next to her on the other console, was probably meant to overlook.
While they were trying to find the information they were looking for, everything about the mutated 33S software, the boomer named Sarah had indeed used an access-port - build right into her hand - to connect herself directly to the computers and speed up her search.
Nene was not meant to see one small thing... and Sylvie, whose consciousness was already in the process of being downloaded, couldn´t. It was only by pure chance that she had looked around her eyes fell just in the right moment on the other console to see it.
The command currently displayed on the other screen was `download´. She knew instantly what that meant. The data - the same one that would allow the Black Circle to create boomers without Genom´s override code - the one they were meant to destroy, Sarah was instead downloading it into herself.
It had only been for a short moment that her eyes had been on the other screen. If she had not broken concentration for a few seconds and looked around, she would not have noticed. But Nene had seen it.
What did that mean? Could they still trust their allies? Were they just trying to free themselves from Genom´s influence? Or was something more sinister behind it?
She would need to inform Sylia and the others about this when she had the chance. But not when the boomer team was around them. For the moment however, she said nothing. Neither Sarah or one of the other boomers seemed to have noticed what she had seen.
