Chapter 4

In a restaurant near the AD Police centre, three police officers were sitting together. They were eating lunch and having a conversation about a certain person they know.

"So. How sure are we that Nene is one of the Knight Sabers?" Daley Wong asked.

"She was hacking into the system to find information's about the massacre and that wasn't the only time", Jessica Kaneda pointed out.

"Yes, but that alone doesn't say much. We know she is a good hacker and we all would like to have more information's about that."

"Right, but the most time she hacked to rearrange her work shifts. Everybody in the station knows this and is willing to let it slide because she still works as long and hard as everybody else and she is a magician on the computer and we need someone like her. I and a few other have realised that her shifts are always changing so that she is not on duty when a boomer attack happens somewhere. Right before or sometimes even after the attack happened. By the way she is never around when a boomer attack happens. That alone should have made us suspicious."

"You are right. There is no other explanation for that", Daley agreed.

"And remember last year, as this psychopath used false Knight Sabers and framed the real ones for his crimes. Do you remember how Nene reacted? She was completely beside herself, angry and hurt. As if she was personally involved in this."

"So what do we do now Leon?" Asked Jessica. "Do we simply take her in, Nene of all people?"

"No", Leon made clear, "Nene is one of us and a friend. At least for me. And by the way, she is a Knight Saber, so what? We need them, if we want to admit it or not. Were do you think we would be without them? How often would we have been killed. Alone in the last year?"

Both Daley and Jessica looked cryptic at him. He was in the front line the most time and would probably been the first to die.

Daley agreed completely with him. "You are right my dearest friend. Even if we know exactly who the Knight Sabers are. Even if we wanted. We can not do something about it. So do we all agree to keep quite about this?"

"Yes." They both agreed on the spot.

Leon was quit happy about it. For several reasons. He knew the identity of another Knight Saber since several months, Priss. He remembered the night, he found out about her. A out of control gone battlemover had knocked him out. And Priss had to kill a friend. As he reawakened he saw Priss in the blue Knight Saber suit. With her helmet off. In her arms were the woman she hang out with the weeks before, the 33S. He remembered seeing them together. She and Priss came incredible close in only a short time. He would really like to know how she had made it. In the same time people were dieing. The 33S line was unable to create it´s own blood. A "security measure" by genom to control them.

Idiot's, that was it, that forced that boomer to hunt down people and draw them of blood to survive. He remembered that case all to well. Ten incidents as a whole. Seven people dead, four others injured. All because that fools in genom had that great idea. He couldn't blame the boomer for that, not really. But people were dieing. She needed to be stopped. Worse, she had stolen a battlemover that was linked to a neutron bomb that could have destroyed the whole city. Another secret "security measure" in case the Battlemover should be defeated. To shut it down and stop the bomb, Priss was forced to kill the pilot of the mover. As he met her again later he could see how much that tore her up. He really wanted to do more to comfort her to help her but he couldn't. She had to keep her secret and he could not downright admit that he knew about her without losing his own integrity.

Genom Tower at the same time

The place the genom tower was full of hundreds of demonstrators. People, who wanted an end of the irresponsible and careless use of boomers. Many of them thought the time for this had long come and the massaker yesterday, plus the rampage earlier were the final straw. A number of security forces, humans not boomers, were holding the demonstrators in distance to the building. Normally this task would be performed by boomers. But many people in genom´s leadership feared a mass panic under this circumstances and used only human forces instead.

Quincy and Kate Madigan were now alone in his office.

"So what do we have?" He asked her.

"It looks like someone in genom have been behind our backs selling Combat and assassin boomers and possibly other material to a unidentified terror organisation."

"Have you find out who it is?"

"Not yet, but I will. I will find out who was involved in selling the boomer from Youshihara and I will also check the one the Knight Sabers took out today. But this will need a bit time." She knew that her career was probably depending on it to.

"Find it out as fast as possible. Normally we could easily deal with such a rampage, but not before this background."

"It could be, that this boomer was actually malfunctioning and that this wasn´t an planned assault", Madigan reminded him.

"No, from what I heard this boomers let several civillists go when he had the chance to kill them but was especially targeting cops."

"So it was a planned attack?"

"Obviously."

Kate Madigan decided to ask the important question.

"Do you think the ones behind what happened in Youshihara and today could be the same?"

"I think it is possible." Quincy had actually already considered this question himself. "But we don´t know what this people want and if they will start other assaults. We can only know after you have found out more."

"I will continue my work Chairman."

xxxxxxx

"I don´t know if all that is still in my best interests." Vice president Taiko was in a discussion with the man, who had been her contact and in many ways her master as much as the source of much of her success in the last years.

"You realise that your last actions had damaged genoms reputation as a whole? Some people already demand that the company should make compensations for all that happened. This could ruin my carrier too."

"Don´t worry. Our plan is working exactly as expected. Of course genoms image will be damaged for some time. This couldn´t be avoided. But we will make sure that Quincy takes the fall for that. And with us in your back you will have no problems to rise as the new head of genom. Our partnership was always profitable for both of our parties. Don´t forget who got your predecessor out of your way and brought you into the position you are now."

"Yes and for that, I was supplying you for the last two years with boomers and all other equipment you needed. I have already paid you back for that."

"Exactly, you were supplying us and rising your own profit marge in the eyes of your superiors with that. Did anybody know who you were really selling your boomers to, why your department was making so good profits? I think You got your share out of everything we were doing the last years. Do you really think you can simply go out now, even if you wanted. You are into this. Trust me nothing can go wrong. Only if Quincy can somehow link you to us or to the boomers in Youshihara", he assured her.

"Is there a way for him to do this?" He asked her more serious.

"Are you sure that you have not overseen anything?" It was an obvious way to imply that she was the one who could have made a mistake.

"I am absolutely sure of that. Quincy doesn´t know which boomers were used in Youshihara. He has no idea. I have made sure of that."

"Good, then nothing can happen to you, right?

"Right", she confirmed now.

"Whatever negative backslash will be against genom, if our connection stays a secret, Quincy will have to deal with it and then the way will be open for you. I guarantee you that."

"Okay. When will we continue?"

"Start the third strike as fast as possible."

"It can be done in 5 days if everything stays at it is."

"Good, do it like that." With that, he closed the line.

Omnitec. industry building

"Too bad." He pointed out, as he put his phone down. "One of the boomers that attacked Youshihara was shot down and it´s remains captured. Quincy found it obviously not necessary to inform his officers about this and the poor Megumi was to arrogant to find out what happened on her own." He explained to a 33C named Diana, one of his assistants.

"Blind arrogance is a weakness", he continued.

"The stupid and blind one´s don´t deserve any kind of help."

"Taiko could still be useful. Maybe you should have warned her", the Boomer pointed out.

"If Quincy will find out about her through this evidence, she will be worthless to us anyway. Should she be able to avoid him, despite her earlier mistakes, she will have proved that she is worthy to be a part of our organisation. It is a challenge for her. Taiko against Quincy or whoever he had put on this task. We will see who wins. For that reason I couldn´t warn her, it would have been unfair."

"Unfair?" She asked him him.

"Oh Diana", he laughed, "you are simply no true believer yet. But we will work on that."

As they entered another room, he asked.

"How far are you with your work. Have you finally figured the technology out. Is the AI ready and connected to the computer."

Yamada, a middle sized man in a business suit, answered him.

"Yes Mister Newman, we are ready to activate it. We could have been ready months ago but as you wanted, we double checked every step." Yamada was the official owner of Omnitec. If he had a say in, they would have simply linked the thing to the computer and seen what would have happened. He was obviously out nerved with the careful approach.

"Yamada, I want to make one thing clear. This AI is more important then your entire company and if your technicians have damaged it, you will wish to have died a long time ago. Have you understand me?"

"Of course Sir."

"Good, now activate it."

For a moment nothing happened. Then they heard a raspy and twisted voice through the loudspeakers. It sounded noisy, deep and somewhat hollow.

"Where am I", it asked.

"You are in the Omnitec building in Mega-Tokyo", the man called Mr. Newman answered her.

"The AI is now fully connected to the computers and getting active", one of the techs told him.

"Am I dead?" The entity asked.

"Yes, you died", he told her in a serious tone. "We salvaged your AI and brought you here."

The technicians, who were monitoring the computers were speechless.

"Sir the AI the AI is changing in incredible speed. The two different programs are merging. They are becoming one, their software is somehow rearranging itself, useless or conflicting data is erased. The AI is practically developing of it´s own as we stand here. Completely independent", one of them reported.

"Fantastic. Better as we ever expected." Newman smiled.

"Why I am still here?" The entity asked. It´s voice was now different, less noisy, more confirmed.

"I have friends. Can you tell me what happened to them?"

"Sir it is now synchronising with the other programs in our computer. It is connecting to everything. It is practically overtaking the system." The tech was screaming now. Newman only laughed at that.

"Is the virtual reality device ready?"

"Yes", another man answered and brought him something that looked like a over sized helmet and gloves.

A he put it on, he only saw a grey, empty room.

"Now we can talk better", he told the Artificial Intelligence.

"I know about your friends, I know everything and I will tell you."

"What do you want from me?" The AI asked him. It was now the voice of a woman.

"I will tell you that to. We have truly much to discuss. Can you show yourself to me? The data to do that should be in the system", he told her.

Before him, in the room, the form of a beautiful young woman appeared. She had dark, brownish hair, gold like eyes and were dressed in blue, white and yellow clothes that looked like a biker suit.

"Do you have a name?" He asked the now visible AI.

"My Name is Sylvie", she answered.

"Sylvie, what a nice name", he said and laughed.