It's blurry how we all managed to climb back from the sewers and across burning Krezubasar. I remember some people talking to me, some cheering and some cursing. Faces twisted in fear but eyes grateful for being able to see another day.
I've logged back into reality after I sat on the couch in our basement.
Upstairs, Paul's body lays under tarp, giving his remains smallest degree of dignity. We've all said our pieces, few words we felt like saying. We aren't heroes, nobody made pompous woes or pledged for their lives. We just said goodbyes and thanked the old man for being the father none of us really had.
Ironic, his death brought us even closer, a family of orphans grieving after their last guardian.
Eiger was most moved by Amsel's death, there was no denying it from any side. She even volunteered to give him last rites...Knowing her enough, we both probably thought of immolation with incidiary charge. Best we could arrange for a fixer we owed so much when we were on the clock like this.
"Rai." Glory's voice and cool hand touching me, break my spacing out. Looking at her, with concern on her face, gears in my head shifted.
I got up from the seat and moved to the computer, plugging the memory disc from Alice. Standing in front of the monitor, I felt presence of the rest hovering above my shoulders.
After few seconds of hitting play, I was graced with recording of Alice behind her mahogany desk, all smug and collected. Unlike real Alice who apparently wasn't just a ghost of the Matrix if she beat feet and sold us out.
"Customer name: Rai. Account number..." This completely synthetic Alice worked like a virtual secretary, her words flying through my ears without touching my brain. "I am simalcrum of the Alice persona. I've been added to answer all of your questions regarding information you have purchased." Synthetic gal spoken to me with trained, plastic smile.
"Just tell us what you know about Adrian Vauclair." I've grunted, not in the mood to play twenty questions with the bot. Yet.
"Alright Rai, I have good news and bad news." Real Alice begun speaking. "Good news, I've found you Adrian Vauclair and he's alive. The trail to your missing doctor was a long and slippery one. What you paid me for finding this intel barely covered the costs...I sent a team into the SOX on a fact-finding mission. I've bribed goverment offcials and even greased palms of european corporations. Each step eliminated possibilities instead of giving answers. But finally, I've found the place where Vauclair is being held."
Simalcrum dissapears from the screen and a grainy photograph appears. Hearing wheezing breaths of people behind, they reocgnized the building same as I did.
Harfeld Manor.
"You gotta be fucking kidding me..." Eiger gasped, her ears twitching.
"I have a question." My voice broken the stupor. "What intel supports the idea of Vauclair being held in Harfeld Manor?"
In lieu of answer, I was given a surveillance footage of the back of the manor, with enchanced figure of clearly neglected and burnt out Adrian Vauclair.
"Poor bastard, skin and bones barely holding together...Feureschwinge wasn't going easy on him." Dietrich commented at the state of doctor.
"What else did you found out about Harfeld?" I inquire further.
"Seismological data and thermal imaging confirm the existence of large, hollow chamber under the estate. It is my suspicion that Vauclair is held somwhere within the substructure."
"Does this chamber's big enough to hold a fully grown dragon?"
"Yes."
"Why Firewing keeps Vauclair alive? Malice?" Eiger adressed elephant in the room.
"Vauclair created a weapon that split body and essence of Firewing. Maybe the dragon forces him to undo it." I've piped in, recalling lovely theories from shoddy DVDs collected by Green Winters. Just as I suggested it, Glory shuddered and grabbed my forearm.
"I've heard about people going insane just by experiencing this by accident. If Feuerschwinge lives in this excruciating state for two decades..." Glory didn't finished. She didn't had to.
"Super duper, color me jubilant..." I grit teeth at these 'good news'. "Alright, give me the bad news."
"Hold on a sec." Eiger stopped me. "We have a problem. We can't just walk into Harfeld. Last time we did, Monika got her brain *fried*. And this time it'll be even worse because this whole Audran will be waiting for us."
"Well what are we supposed to do? Call it quits and run? That's not an option even if we could, Eiger." Dietrich was first to stand against her.
"I'm not running either. I couldn't...Not after what they did tonight." Glory purses her lips, her hand still holding my arm tightly.
"None of us is going to run, Glory. We can't. There is no hiding from a dragon...Everybody got it all wrong before and tried to creep in the shadows like rats. We don't hide in shadows. We run in them. We're cornered and only thing we can is bite back...But we need an edge. Something to tip the odds in our favor."
"Now onto the bad news." Alice's voice picked up fine moment to continue. "In the course of my investigation, I have came across something terrifying in the Matrix. It was fast, cunning and very intelligent. I have escaped only because it let me go...I'm sure now that this thing could have killed in a heartbeat. This *thing* that I met, is protecting Harfeld Manor. And It's going after anyone who gets too close to what's happening out there."
"What is going after all these people?" Eiger asked, hesitating if she really wanted to know.
"To put in in perspective: There was a talk about rumored AI project called APEX. Saeder-Krupp was rumored to have been developing artificial intelligence for Matrix Warfare purposes. The project was bandoned in 2036 when the entire team died under mysterious circumstances. Decker from Shadowland BBS speculated that team was killed by Lowfyr, the new CEO of the corporation in effort to wipe out the project. APEX is presumed to be deleted as part of the same effort."
"Let me guess...they didn't deleted APEX afterall."
"I am positive that what I have encountered within Matrix, was APEX. Just as I am sure that APEX was responsible for deaths of Monika Schafer, Green Winters, Clockwork, Peregrine, and a score of other deckers over the course of the last sixteen years."
Hand reaching up to cover my mouth have fallen down limp when I heard that. Monika...
Flashback of her dying from a stroke, convulsing in pain as current wreaked havoc in her brain-
"APEX wasn't killed by Lowfyr, it got away and somehow, someway...joined the one dragon willing to fight Lowfyr." I've aired out, not really thinking to whom I was saying this. "Pet AI swiping over the Matrix and burning out brains of everyone who'd come too close to the truth...That's conspiracy theorist's wet dream."
"So there's the bad news, Rai. You won't get to Harfeld without APEX frying you." Alice finished her tale.
"Really?" With this one question I have managed to make my whole team shiver. "What if we kill their Cerberus first, ay? Go after APEX itself...Got any information on that, love?"
"The AI has a killswitch. But Alice deemed any additional contact with APEX as unjustifiable risk."
"Let me be the judge of that. APEX killed Monika, that mean *it* and *I* have some unfinished business..."
"By running a tracing program after my initial contact with it, I have discovered physical adress of a backdoor access point for APEX's programming. An old S-K research lab, long since abandoned and fallen into disrepair. The facility is now a hotly-contested gang territory. I will provide you with physical adress of the building under which APEX's backdoor is." Simalcrum buzzed out a line of adress.
"No better place to hide a doomsday machine like that than right under battlefield between gangs. Nobody will come looking and locals are too busy sniffing glue than paying attention to AI sitting under their arses..."
Simalcrum switched off and suddenly, alive and scared-eyed Alice was holding the camera in her hand, giving me yet another deja vu.
"Rai, if you didn't listen to me before, listen to me now! DROP THIS. Stop going after Vauclair. GET OUT of Berlin and stay out of Matrix. I'm telling you this for your own good." Alice cried to the camera with stare that almost made me see some care in her eyes. "I am going to follow my own advice. I'm *out*. Never contact me again...Run, Rai. Firewing and APEX are both probably on their way to you right now!"
Screen flickered and blacked out, ending this rollercoaster of revelations.
"Dragon has a killer AI in charge it's net security...I can't say I'm surprised. Nothing surprises me anymore." Glory spoken, running fingers through her hair.
"APEX killed Monika, tried to kill us and will try again AND it stands in our way to Feureschwinge and Vauclair. That's enough reasons for me to give it a shot." Dietrich wasn't deliberating too much.
"These are all valid ideas. Good enthusiasm." I've spoken, crossing arms on my chest. "But we're going to do it smart. Not too smart like a bunch of eggheads or corp mercs. Not too stupid like average blokes...We gonna do it smart. And crazy."
"So what's the plan, chief?" Blitz asked, shaking from fear but standing tall.
So proud of you, young padawan. I'm so proud.
"We go in after APEX, find a way to shut it own and then aim at Harfeld ASAP, when they're still in disarray. Then we go inside, turn all the shite upside down, grab Vauclair, run before Firewing tries to turn us into wyrm-sponsored barbecue and then we skip to Manchester for a cold pint."
"...I'm deffinietely going for a pint after all this." Dietrich was first to break the silence I have casted in the room. "Actually, I remember a nice bar in London by the canal."
"Dingwalls? Forget it. Broken Thistle in Manchester, I still have an open tab in there." I grin, snapping into laughter that slowly overtakes everyone more or less for a few seconds.
Tension snapped, people cracked and vented at least on the outside, enough to keep them going just a bit longer.
"Everyone get ready, any wounds report to Dietrich and Glory, that includes Dietrich and Glory themselves." I've finished, pointing at clotted cut on Glory's jaw. "One hour to prepare, one hour for sleep if any of you will manage it. We move at...One o' clock."
"You did good out there, Rai. Defending the Kreuzbasar" Eiger's voice brought my attention to KSK soldier still standing next to me. "You've had our backs the entire way, made good decisions."
"Is this the moment where we're going to hug and snuggle out our woes?" I've asked spreding my arms wide. Seeing her bewildered expression, I've smiled. "I appreciate your words. But more important than that is you forgiving yourself about Paul. You wouldn't have made it in time. You wouldn't have saved him from whole squad and that bloody orc. He knew that, that's why he opened channel to us all and tried to get some answers out of Audran. Don't dwell on it, Eiger. Never forget, but don't let it slow you down."
"...Thanks. Can't see being able to do this but...thanks." She whispered last word and moved away to her corner to prepare.