“Impossible!” shouted the researcher, Anders.
“What the hell do you an impossible? Speak clearly.” Sitting in her chair, V’s tone carried raw anger.
“No... I an, the Relic doesn’t have that capability,” he stamred, panic rising.
“I’m running out of ti here... You think I’ve got patience for jokes? Spit it out! Don’t make repeat myself.” V leaned forward. Anders flinched back, trembling like a leaf.
Johnny Silverhand flickered into view by the window, smirking. “I’d bet this corpo softie’s about to piss himself. Just don’t let it splash on .”
“I can run a check... I an, at least let see what’s really going on,” Anders offered nervously, swallowing hard.
“Don’t try anything stupid, coward.” V studied the cowering man, then extended her wrist.
As the connection engaged, data flickered in Anders’s eyes. “Incredible... damn...” he muttered as he scanned the streams of code.
V’s face darkened even more.
The check didn’t take long. As soon as Anders broke the connection, V’s voice cut sharp: “What the hell is happening? Explain. Now.”
“Your case is... complicated.” Seeing V’s arm twitch like she was about to hit him, he quickly raised his hands in surrender. “I an... this chip—it’s still a test version.”
Anders hesitated, but the cold stares around him forced him on. “This is second-generation. I don’t know where you got it. The first-gen chips were stable—designed as reliable consciousness imprinting and storage devices. A person’s engram could be recorded, you could talk to them, even et them. That was it.
But this one’s different. From the ground up, It was designed from the start to take over a human’s entire nervous system.
He trailed off, too terrified to continue. The aning was clear enough.
“So this thing is ant to wipe out the original mind? You bastards actually built this...” V shot to her feet, rage sharpening every word.
“No... no... At the start, the intended users had no neural responses—” Anders ducked his head, words tumbling out in fear.
“What do you an?” V growled through clenched teeth.
“Dead people...” he blurted, barely dodging the blow.
“So? Is there a fix? Or do I need to kick it out of you?” V’s glare could have burned a hole through him.
“N-no...” Anders swallowed hard, then blurted: “Yes! Yes, but... you’d need Kang Tao’s top equipnt, only then—”
“Don’t you dare bring up the corps. One last ti—do you have a way or not?” V snapped, cutting him off. Kang Tao? Ridiculous. She wasn’t about to end up dissected on so corpo slab.
“Trust ... and you don’t realize how valuable the data in your head is...” Maybe it was the pressure, but Anders had completely lost his sense of caution.
“Ha! Didn’t even need roughing up—he gave it all away himself,” Johnny said with a laugh, egging things on.
“You want as your lab rat?” V’s fury only deepened, a cold smile twisting across her face.
“Looks like our friend here still doesn’t get it...” Arthur finally spoke, pulling his gun. “I’ve seen a lot of tricks in my ti. Let show you one.”
He leveled the barrel at Anders’s crotch. “Got nothing handy right now, so maybe the little guy wants to et a bullet.”
“Now that’s my style. Aim for his little friend when he’s being a coward.” Johnny flickered closer, nodding at Arthur. He looked back at V with a grin. “Your buddy’s just my kind of guy.”
“Please... don’t... don’t do this!” Anders squird desperately, voice breaking into sobs. “I couldn’t do anything—I swear! I’d already left Arasaka by then, I never followed up on this chip!”
Staring at the gun barrel shaking inches from him, Anders kicked at the floor, trying to put space between him and the muzzle. “Don’t kill ! Wait—I have the Relic’s design chip! I’ll give it to you—here!”
Arthur snatched the chip from him, shrugged, and turned... only to find the flickering red shadow hovering nearby. He frowned and stepped aside. “Looks like that’s all he’s got,” Arthur said to V.
“It was never going to be simple...” V sighed, her anger cooling at last. She took the chip. “Let’s hope this helps.”
Arthur nodded, though his brow stayed furrowed. Finally, he voiced what he’d noticed: “That thing’s color is shifting. Compared to a few days ago... it’s turning kind of purple.”
He was pointing at Johnny Silverhand’s shadow.
“Great, your friend’s still got no manners,” Johnny muttered. Then, with a shrug, he added for V’s ears only: “At least tell him to call ‘he’ next ti.”
V ignored him. Johnny’s figure hadn’t changed in her vision. Still... “Maybe... my condition’s getting worse,” she admitted quietly.
“Anyway...” Arthur’s gaze shifted back to Anders, who, surprisingly, hadn’t pissed himself. “Rember what we said? Let’s hand him over to Yorinobu Arasaka. Didn’t he say he needed precision equipnt? Arasaka’s gear is good enough.”
V nodded. The idea had been hers in the first place. At this point, it was worth a shot—handing Anders over might get them sothing in return.
The comms link was still open. That smooth, odd cadence flowed through: “May I ask... what matter is this about?”
“That man—Anders. He’s in our hands now.” V got straight to the point.
“Excellent. Since V has chosen to contact ... I assu Anders will be handed over.” Yorinobu Arasaka’s tone carried careful probing.
“We don’t need paynt. If sothing useful cos of it... just rember the problem I’m dealing with.”
...
Reviews
All reviews (0)