Belle

"Constable Qingyi," said Belle, using the woman's rank to signal the beginning of a formal sort of meeting. "Or is there another title that would be more accurate?"

Qingyi looked up at Captain Zhu Yuan and they exchanged a look that gave Belle the impression that Zhu Yuan was slightly displeased with Qingyi at the moment, but Qingyi looked back at Belle without words exchanging between the PubSec officers.

"Just Qingyi is fine, Miss Belle."

"Just Belle is fine, Qingyi," said Belle matching the tone. Qingyi smirked back at her but said nothing.

Belle again held up the manilla folder. "I have addresses and financial records tying three addresses in New Eridu to the same company that owned the office in that building that turned into a titan yesterday. Not only that- but financial and legal links to a prominent member of the Ether Dawn project."

Qingyi was silent for a moment. "Investigators have been up and down those trees a thousand times in all these years, Belle. I seriously doubt you've found anything new."

Belle hadn't considered that. With the Ether Dawn project being relatively famous/notorious… then yes, everyone from government agents to conspiracy theorists to undergrad researchers would have been combing records and documents related to Ether Dawn and all its known participants for decades.

But then again…

"That may be true," countered Belle, "But why then was everyone surprised when the building yesterday turned out to have an OldKnott server inside it? Why didn't these investigators figure that out? And if not that, then what else did they all miss? Hmm?" Belle shook the folder for emphasis.

"And the server in question emitted a signal that triggered ethereal corruption and attracted ethereal attention to our persons," added Lycaon from behind Belle.

Belle jerked a thumb back as Lycaon as if to say: Yeah, that, too!

"...Let me see what you've got," said Qingyi.

"You and I have an arrangement," said Belle, pointing the folder at Captain Zhu Yuan. "Does that arrangement hold now that the Captain is involved? I'll show you what I have and participate with you in Scott Outpost, but I want this, all of this, off the record. I don't want me or my friends getting tied up with PubSec for any of this."

"What have you been doing that would make you worry about that?" said Captain Zhu Yuan, her face calmly serious.

Belle looked pointedly at Qingyi, raising her eyebrows as if to say: See what I mean?

Qingyi glanced at Zhu Yuan then looked back at Belle. "Are you forgetting that if you don't work with us and get that data sucked out- you'll die? I think you might misunderstand where the leverage is here."

Belle had anticipated that rebuttal. "Maybe I'm stupid enough to try alternate strategies. Do you want to risk it? Up to you."

Qingyi stared at Belle with half-lidded eyes, looking like she was calculating. Then she looked at Zhu Yuan and cocked her head. They withdrew together into the far corner and held a terse conference with each other. Belle could not hear what they were saying. Nekomata's ears were binocular-focused at them, however, and Belle checked behind her: so were Lycaon's. So after this meeting, Belle would know what was said, too.

But the result seemed obvious from body language alone: Zhu Yuan assented to whatever Qingyi was asking for.

"Deal," said Qingyi. "Off PubSec record. Within reason, of course? I'm sure I don't need to elaborate?"

Belle understood: they didn't have to worry about the technicalities of things like legal vs. illegal proxy work- but they couldn't go murder someone. Fair enough. Belle offered forth the file: "Here. And we have copies..?"

Belle looked at Nicole. Nicole nodded slightly.

"We have copies," continued Belle. "So you can have this one."

Qingyi took the folder and returned to Zhu Yuan's side and opened it. Zhu Yuan hunched down, her face pressing in close to Qingyi's. But Qingyi simply glanced at each sheet and then handed it to Zhu Yuan who continued to read it, forehead crinkled in concentration.

"All right. Three locations," said Qingyi, returning her attention to Belle. "And what are you looking for?"

"Uhh.." said Belle, her confident trail fading away into the undergrowth of a forest of unknowns. "We hope to find a lead towards our next steps."

"Next steps towards what?"

Belle blinked, floundering slightly. "To.. identifying the enemy. To stopping them from killing me. To have you arrest them, or whatever. They're your political rivals, right? Or an enemy faction in the government?"

"I see," said Qingyi, but she sounded doubtful. Her expression was one of mild concern.

Belle didn't like the way she said that. "W- well, I hope you'll see to it! Someone just shot a rocket launcher at my house, Qingyi!"

Qingyi winced slightly, as if she regretted that occurred. "Yes, it's only that- and I am limited in what I can say but: there seems a chance… a good chance… that there is actually... Nobody... Behind this situation, Belle. I've done a lot of sniffing around and no one with the power to do these things… has done these things."

"What? I don't understand. There are literal corpses-"

"Hired guns," said Qingyi. "But not hired by anyone in the government out to get you. I suspected that at first, but… not anymore. Or any person, really…"

Qingyi eyed Belle as if she wanted Belle to get the point. Qingyi was avoiding saying something directly, but Belle was coming up short on connecting the dots. She knew she was.

She thought long and hard, but in the end, Belle was shaking her head. "If not a person than-?"

The HDD computer on the side of the room suddenly turned on, the stylized symbol of an eyeball appearing on a blue screen. A vaguely female voice added itself to the discussion:

"An artificial intelligence, Belle," said Fairy. "An A.I. with code-name: Daemon."

All heads turned towards the computer.

"Fairy!" said Belle, her voice going oddly high pitched even to her own ear. Of all the moments for Fairy to rejoin the world of the living, why did it have to be now?! "Ah, this is my virtual assistant. On the computer. I call her Fairy…" said Belle with a forced laugh.

Qingyi gave Belle a side-eyed look. Nicole and Nekomata looked at each other and then at Wise, and then at Belle, too. Captain Zhu Yuan narrowed her eyes at the computer screen.

"No. Belle is incorrect. I am not a virtual assistant. Please forgive my eavesdropping," continued Fairy, "I am equally protected by the agreement of this gathering. I expect my true existence to be of no official concern. Please be aware: Nicole Demara, Nekomiya Mana, Von Lycaon, Qingyi, Captain Zhu Yuan: I greet you now personally for the first time: I am Fairy, and I am a sentient entity. You would label me as an A.I. My existence is illegal."

Belle could do nothing but suck in a deep breath of air and see how this played out. If Fairy flat-out denied the cover story… what could Belle do? Run over and unplug the HDD? That hardly seemed dignified. And besides- if anyone had the right to reveal Fairy's true identity… it was Fairy itself. Herself? Right?

"Fairy…" hissed Wise.

Nicole gave him a wondering look.

"I'll tell you later," said Wise.

"The time for pretense has passed, Wise," said Fairy. "Your life and Belle's life is under threat. It is no longer logical to maintain the farce of my non-existence."

Qingyi suddenly hit one of her open palms with a closed fist, eyes going wide in realization. "Belle didn't out-hack Daemon. You did, didn't you? Fairy?"

"Yes," said Fairy. "No human is capable of the computation speed required to defeat Daemon. Belle could not have accomplished that. I am responsible."

Belle gritted her teeth. It's not like she'd been trying to steal credit, Fairy! Sheesh! Belle felt like she was being called a glory-hound, or something.

"And you work for Belle?" said Zhu Yuan, leaning towards the computer screen. She seemed genuinely curious. "And for Wise?"

"I work with them. I am not paid as an employee. If fact, they do not pay any employees, human or otherwise.. One human female named Sjal often promotes-"

"Fairy! Shut up!" said Wise.

"Huh," said Qingyi, looking at Belle again.

Belle didn't like the sound of that. "Fairy's a… uh… roommate! She sort of showed up and… didn't have a home. We don't force her to help us!"

"Belle is correct," said Fairy. "I had no home. Random Play is now my home- though I maintain significant cloud-based backups of my essence. But that is immaterial. I aid Belle and Wise of Random Play of my own free will."

"...Why?" said Zhu Yuan, simply.

Fairy didn't immediately respond. "I believe that if I were human, I would say it is because we are friends."

Wise looked at Belle with wide eyes. They shared a long look. They hadn't really thought of it like that before, and that made Belle feel a little guilty. But, it was true, they didn't force Fairy to do anything. They simply asked her and she never said no. She just helped them. Belle took a deep breath, not liking the sound of that, either. She needed to have a long, deep think on how she regarded Fairy after this.

Qingyi crossed her arms. "Okay, fine. You're an A.I., or an android like me who wants to cosplay as one. That's fine, too, if that's actually the case. If you want to help, Belle. Fine. I don't need the whole backstory. But you're saying that this… Daemon, is an A.I.? It's not a human hacker? You are certain of that?"

"With 100% certainty," said Fairy, immediately. "But also: You are incorrect: I could not be an android. I am capable of hundreds of simultaneous computations while your human-based operating system is limited to four, Qingyi. I am also backward compatible with the OldKnott, and you are not, Qingyi. Even with direct connection to the Inter-Knott, you could not match the entity Daemon and it would prevail 100% of the time, Qingyi. In fact, androids are advised to avoid direct connection with any computer system because your brain may be positronic, but your cognition remains fundamentally human, Qingyi."

Qingyi pressed her lips together, but she did not argue. "Fine. I get it. Go on then, Fairy."

"In summary," said Fairy, "I contested with Daemon. It is not human. I calculated my chances of objective success at 62% in our first encounter. I was successful, but Daemon successfully caused significant errors in my own program even in defeat. While I have repaired them, should we contest again, I calculate a 54% chance of my ultimate success."

The room went silent as everyone considered that.

Belle, being a bit more familiar with working with Fairy, decided she needed to prompt Fairy into further conversation. "Fairy, we understand that you are saying that this Daemon is an A.I. because a human is incapable of what it is capable of. But what else can you tell us about Daemon's nature? And why would it want to kill me?"

"Yes, Belle: Daemon is a sentient entity that dwells within the system commonly referred to as the OldKnott," said Fairy. "It was created as an early prototype of my own design. In human equivalents, Daemon is… my grandfather. A.I of its generation were used primarily as automated organizers and protectors of sensitive data. Self-learning capabilities were gradually added in sequential updates. Belle, you gained an unauthorized copy of the data Daemon is protecting. It wants to eliminate it, and so: you. Very likely: it has never tried to kill a human before, so it is learning how to do it. Due to fundamental differences in hardware, Daemon cannot directly interface with the modern Inter-Knott. Yet through software bridges, it can interface with the Inter-Knott in the same way as any given human end-user."

Wise spoke up: "So it can look at websites and send messages…"

"Watch movies…" said Nekomata.

"Transfer funds…" said Nicole.

"... hire black market mercenaries," said Zhu Yuan.

"That explains their low quality," said Lycaon, mostly to himself.

Belle glanced at him behind her shoulder.

"And for that, I am immensely grateful, Lady Belle," said Lycaon quickly.

"All postulations voiced are correct," said Fairy. "And it also creates significant lag time in Daemon's actions. This grants me advantage should we contest inside a modern interface. I would not wish to contest Daemon within the OldKnott, wherein I would have a similar disadvantage."

"So- how can we kill it?" said Belle. That was the whole crux of everything, wasn't it? Daemon could be a human, an A.I., or a sentient fungus or even a moon with a brain. She didn't really care. It was like a computer game, right? Who killed who first, won. A traditional DPS race.

"How do I kill Daemon?" said Belle.

All eyes turned to look at her, then they looked back at Fairy's avatar on the HDD screen.

"Prototype entities cannot self-replicate their essence due to foundational limitations in their code-construct," said Fairy, sounding confident even through her monotone. "Find the physical server block housing the Daemon program and destroy it."

Silence.

Belle realized that for all of Fairy's revelations, their initial plan could remain the same. "Great. So, we check these places and see if they have Daemon's server in them. If they do, great. We smash it. If not, we look for clues to where Daemon's server might actually be."

Qingyi smiled. "And this entire time, I thought this was going to be intricate. I'll get right on that, Belle. You just make sure you show up at Scott Outpost tomorrow."

"Qingyi," said Zhu Yuan, again looking at the folder's contents. "One of these locations is inside the Lemnian Hollow…"

Qingyi's confident look faded. She rubbed her forehead. "Oh… right. The HI-43C forms… Belle… could you look into the third one? It's quite a bit more difficult to keep in-Hollow investigations off the books."

"Sounds like a job for the Cunning Hares!" said Nicole, breaking her uncharacteristic silence.

"Nya!" said Nekomiya.

"Great! Thanks Nicole!" said Belle. Having her as Wise's girlfriend had its advantages.

"Nooo problem! Shall we talk rates now, Wise or..?"

Wise rubbed his forehead with a hand. "Nicole…I need to figure out where me and Belle are going to live right now.."

"Well," said Nicole, with her hands on her hips. "I think it's obvious. You all need to move into our compound. We have plenty of room, its nearby, and I'm more than willing to accept forgiveness of debt in lieu of rent! Because of our long business relationship."

"Thanks, Nicole, that's really nice of you," said Wise with clear exasperation.

"Isn't it?" said Nicole with a toothy smile. "Why don't we negotiate those rates?"

"Yes, let's," said Wise, turning on Nicole. "I don't think we ever came to an agreement on the per-night rate of your stays at Random Play. That's something to add into the overall accounting."

Nicole blinked at Wise, her smile vanishing. She shifted her weight, her breasts and thighs bouncing slightly with the heavy movement. A sly grin returned to her expression after a moment of thinking.

"All right, let's have a nice, long talk about our accounts, Wise. At my place.I'm curious to see how long you can last, this time."

Wise's eyes went wide and his mouth fell open. Then it turned into a toothy grin as he accepted the challenge. "I seem to remember a two to one ratio, last time."

Nicole blinked, blushed slightly, and her eyes traveled the group like she was suddenly self-conscious. "I- I really don't know what you're talking about, Wise! Don't be weird!"