((Chapter heading is taken from the song Without Your Words by Deine Lakaien. It narrowly escaped another Ukrainian heading.

I have also borrowed a slightly modified bit of dialogue (or rather, monologue) from Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. Extra points for finding it and pointing it out to me.))


Chapter 22

Without Notes No More Chords

Adam watched the light on the panel go from red to yellow. He decided it was a small success. 'Hello, Adam. You are not meant to be here.'

'Francis, why does that thing know me?'

'The MANES works in a network. Every instance recognises the individuals known to it. It won't tell the owners of this instance anything about you, though.' Francis paused for a moment. 'Don't let that fool you into thinking that it will treat you differently than any other intruder. You're not Captain Kirk, either, so you can't talk it to death.'

'I wasn't planning to. MANES, can you tell me how many people are in there?'

'I'm afraid that this is none of your business.'

'Fine, be that way. Defences as usual, or anything lethal?'

'I cannot operate lethal defence.'

'Francis, is that true?'

Francis snorted. 'Are you expecting an AI to lie to you to trick you into a death trap?'

'It's your AI. I wouldn't put much past it.'

'I'm not going to answer that. Ask it if there's another system at work that can kill you. It should be able to tell you that.'

Adam smiled. 'The Creator thinks that you might be able to say if there is any other security that does use lethal force.'

'There is. You will find two turrets inside. They are equipped with an IFF. And you, in case that is unclear, are a foe if you choose to enter.'

'Yeah, I gathered that. Bots, poison, anything else?'

'No, Adam, only turrets. If that does not seem to be enough of a challenge, I could warn the people inside that I am being questioned.'

'That … won't be necessary. Thanks. Is anyone inside injured or otherwise in immediate danger?'

'I cannot give you personal medical data of anyone inside. You should know better than to ask.'

'What I meant is, does anyone inside need an ambulance?'

'Why would you think I can answer the question because you paraphrase it?'

Adam huffed. 'Francis. Ideas?'

'A warning, maybe,' the hacker said slowly. 'The MANES may not be lethal, but it can hurt you. Badly.'

'Can you find out what defences this place has beside the MANES, like where those turrets are?'

'Sorry, no, and before you ask, I did try.' He sounded harassed. 'Whatever they are using to control their turrets, they hooked that computer up to the MANES as well, which means it's protected. Not controlled by the MANES, but still blocking me. So far, I haven't managed to get in. I'll keep trying, but don't expect too much.'

'MANES? It was nice talking to you. I'll leave now.'

'Reasonable choice. The Creator would not appreciate it if I were to hurt you.'

'Indeed he would not,' Francis said. 'Adam, you do realise that you could just, you know, call the police.'

'And they'll come in with all the subtlety of a frag grenade.'

'And if Fabian is a captive, they'll murder him. You're right. I hate it when you're right.'

Adam had walked away from the building and took another walk around it, trying to assess the strength of the shutters on the windows. 'The door isn't an option. That leaves sewer or windows. I'd prefer the latter. Is there a way to tell if the MANES is watching them, too?'

'No. But I'd guess that the windows are safe for you. They do have shutters and they are too high up for a normal person to jump. So if I were in there and didn't expect a heavily augmented ex-cop to storm the premises, I wouldn't equip the windows.'

'A non-augmented person could always use a ladder.'

'Sure. But why would they? The place doesn't look promising. You can't get in through the sewers, by the way, unless you manage to crawl through a u-bend.'

'I'll pass.' Adam had made it to the far end of the building from the door. Here, the shutters didn't go down all the way, leaving an inch or so of space. He approached carefully, expecting a red light to go on. None came. 'Seems good. Is the MANES capable of pretending it's not looking?'

'Its job isn't trapping people but stopping them,' Francis answered. 'If it's silent, it's not aware of you.'

Adam looked up. It was high, even for him. Aiming carefully for the narrow ledge of the window he'd have to grab, he jumped. His fingertips grabbed onto the rough brick. Securing his hold as much as he could, Adam let go with one hand to wedge the other into the shutters. He managed to break the lower part away, pull himself further up, and punch in the window. Hoping no-one had heard, he hoisted himself inside, thankfully without cutting what was flesh and blood on his body open on the glass. 'Francis, I'm in.'

The other man made an impatient sound. 'I know. Try not to die. Can you do that for me?'

'No guarantee, Pritchard, remember?' Adam looked around. It wasn't a large place, thankfully. The room he was in was flooded in light from a camera above him. Pressed against the wall as he was, it couldn't see him, but to reach the door, Adam had to use the glass shield. In the corridor, he was safe for the moment there was a camera, but it was looking the other way. He listened, hard. For voices, the beeping of a camera that had noticed him, or for the mechanical whirring of a turret. He heard none of those things.

It soon became clear that whatever was to be found here, it was below. Adam did encounter one of the turrets on the upper floor, but the room it was in was deserted, and he managed not to be spotted by it.

'Jensen!' Francis's voice was excited. 'I have something for you. From before the MANES. A layout of the building. Soutar owns it and apparently, he planned to sell it a while ago, but couldn't find a buyer. It doesn't have a cellar and you are currently on the second floor. The first floor has three rooms, one of them with lab equipment, and one with an airlock.'

'Are you telling me there's a cleanroom in here?'

'Exactly. He used to work here, Jensen. When he was still with N-Pro Tech. This was his office.'

'I didn't realise that augmentation manufacturers had home offices.'

'It seems unusual. But we don't know how N-Pro Tech worked, do we?'

'No. Thanks, Pritchard. I'm going to take a look downstairs. They have to be here.'

'If not, where will you go?'

'I haven't the faintest idea.'

Ϡ

Downstairs, it became clear that the cameras had an eye on practically everything. And their movement was as unpredictable as it had been outside Abigail's house. Adam would have to remain cloaked, which also meant he didn't have much time. 'Francis, where is that cleanroom? I can't look everywhere.'

'Far room on the left. Be careful, you don't know where the second turret is.'

'Like I could forget about that.' Adam activated his cloak and made it to the door, moving as efficiently as he could. Once through, he let it go. The airlock had no camera. Adam waited out the decontamination process. Once it was done, he took a deep breath and moved on into the cleanroom.

If Adam had wondered what he expected, he'd probably have come up with the right answer, or at least, close to it. Soutar stood at an operating table, scalpel in hand. It didn't look bloody. On the table lay Fabian, a tube in his mouth and very obviously unconscious. He was hooked up to several monitors. Soutar froze when Adam came in, then he let out a yell. He dropped the scalpel. 'I found him like that, I …'

'Spare me.' Adam advanced slowly. 'So what were you going to do with him, exactly? Harvest him or put more augs on him?'

'Har…harvest?'

'You didn't even bother to check. He already has a biochip. Another would have killed him.' Adam had heard about tests with multiple biochips. No amount of Neuropozyne could save you from the cataclysm that caused in your brain.

'I know. Regrettable.'

'You'll learn about regret. You're coming with me.'

Soutar chuckled. 'Oh no, I'm not. You cannot drag me through the cameras without alerting them to you. You'll be out cold in seconds and dead later.'

'You do realise that I'm not on my own, don't you?' Soutar looked behind Adam as if expecting a group of policemen to materialise there. 'No-one is here, and maybe I will die today. But you are done, because people know I'm here, they hear me talking to you this very moment. You can try and fight me. Or you shut the MANES down and come quietly.'

'No. I'm taking you down with me.' Soutar blinked out of sight. Adam swore and lunged, but he found only thin air. The door opened and closed, locking itself briefly. 'Pritchard, can you put an emergency lock on the place?'

'No, but I don't think Soutar's going to leave. You need to be careful. He's clearly unhinged.'

Adam took a look at Fabian. 'Do you have any idea what I have to do to make sure he won't die?'

'Sorry, I must have missed class the day they covered finding someone out cold on an operating table.'

'Me too. Fuck. I'll leave him like this, I don't dare remove him from anything. At least we know he's alive right now.'

'Yes. Oh God, he's got to be all right.'

'He doesn't seem injured.' Adam returned to the door and headed out again. The camera caught sight of him and blared an alarm. 'Yeah, I know you know I'm here.' He activated his glass shield. 'And now I'm gone.' He darted across the corridor to another room. It looked empty, but of course, Soutar could still be cloaked. That left the last room, which had to be the lab. Adam got inside, feeling the pull on his reserves from the cloaking. He took a moment to collect himself and looked around.

The lab was a large open space with shelves and surfaces and various applications whose purpose eluded Adam completely. The turret was also in here, but it wasn't active. There was plenty of space to hide. Behind himself, Adam heard a beep, followed by the echoing voice of the MANES. 'You may not have been visible, but I can still see doors opening and closing. You'll remain in there until Jacob decides on what to do next.'

Adam ignored it. He walked the perimeter of the room, feeling his way into corners to make sure Soutar wasn't in one. As long as he remained motionless, he would be able to cloak for a long time. Adam was fully prepared to sit that out if he had to and keeping him on the move would shorten that time. He was almost back at the door and folded his arms. 'Soutar, you cannot stay cloaked forever.'

There was a treacherous clicking sound. Adam spun and Soutar slid back into visibility, a gun pointed at Adam's head. The doctor was out of his reach, but that didn't mean Adam was defenceless. Soutar, of course, knew that, too. 'MANES, I have an intruder that I need to be disabled. But be gentle, I want to have a chat with him.'

Adam had felt the effects of EMP fields and grenades before, but this wasn't like it. He had experienced this total loss of power only once, as if a button had been flipped in his head – and it had been, by Zhao Yun Ru. He groaned, the stab of pain in his skull nearly knocking him unconscious. The infolink had to be dead, too, leaving Francis in the dark. 'Now that seems like it was effective.' Blinded by the effect, Adam felt Soutar patting him down. 'No weapons? So sure of your prowess, are you? And yet all it takes is a tiny shock to your systems.'

'It doesn't change anything,' Adam ground out.

'Oh, it changes everything. You see, I am pretty sure you were bluffing me. Your only friend in the world is going to be punished for the death of those low-lives. No-one else will miss you. And who knows, maybe even he won't.'

Adam considered disenchanting Soutar of his conviction that Francis was still in custody but then decided against it. 'Your work? What work is that? Murder?'

'I want to create beauty!' Soutar ran his hands over Adam's upper arms in the perversion of a caress. 'You've always fascinated me. I am going to take a good look at you. Amazing technology in there, I hear.'

Adam listened into himself. The shock had left him all but drained, but his systems were slowly coming back to life. The MANES had indeed been gentle. He just needed more time. 'So what you wanted to do was to … what, replicate me?'

'In a manner of speaking. N-Pro Tech did such good work, until we were ruined by those … those Chinks. And I was on the verge of a breakthrough. Augs that were hidden like your blades, that could do precise, delicate work.'

'Like Marcus Dillinger's?'

'Very much like his. Sadly, he was starting to remember.'

'You placed a kill-switch in your victims, didn't you?'

'More like a remote control, but yes.' Soutar gestured wildly. 'I never wanted to kill anyone. It was necessary, of course, to get my hardware, but those that I wanted to augment that died afterwards, they were meant to live. I will rebuild us, we'll be back better than ever before! And the others … illegals, mongrels! The bane of society, they are as of little consequence to authority as they are to me. It's a … culling, of sorts.'

Adam thought of Tish back in Detroit, of Mei and Ning in Heng Sha, and wanted to beat Soutar to death with his bare fists. 'Why didn't you try and find work with TYM?'

'I did. But I wasn't good enough for them.'

'Is it that, or were they not good enough for you? Didn't want to work for people you consider inferior because of their place of birth?'

'You think I'm a racist? I would have done anything to work for them! I breathed for N-Pro Tech and the opportunities augmentation offered humanity. But no, they didn't want Doctor Soutar, no.' Soutar shook his head. The last of Adam's system, including the infolink, came back online. He activated it to let Francis know he wasn't dead. Not yet, at least. A smile formed on Soutar's face. 'Ah. You know, this party is rather small. The other guest is coming right now.'

With another beep, the door opened again and Sergio slipped inside. Repulsion had shaped his face into a horrible mask. Adam's Social Enhancer was all over the place. Sergio didn't hate Adam. He hated the situation, being in it, and what he was supposed to do. He stood half behind Adam, pointing a gun at him as well. His hands were steady, but the rest of him was not. 'Give up, Jensen,' he said. The plea in his voice was easy to miss, but Adam had been a cop long enough to pick it up. 'It's better that way.'

'Jensen,' Francis said, his voice laced with fear. 'You do still have the Typhoon.'

'I am not a murderer,' Adam answered, even though he'd considered it. He could practically hear the gears turning in Sergio's head. He had one chance to end this without bloodshed. 'Francis, send an ambulance for Fabian and the cops for them. Soutar, I'd raise my hands in surrender, but I have a feeling you're going to kill me anyway. So do it. Shoot. The MANES has drained me practically dry, I cannot shield myself. Go on.' He swallowed. He had addressed Soutar, but the words had been for Sergio. The next were not, or at least only in part. They were what he had to say in case this went pear-shaped. 'Francis … I'm going to end the call now. You don't have to see this. Goodbye, my love.'