Never Fade Away: The Suits Are Scared (ch. 60) (Patreon)

I didn't know what to feel as I stood in Yorinobu's office, looking at the blood that was splattered and pooling on his desk and window. That was one of the few hints of his death. The camera footage was scrambled, rendering it useless, and the identity of the killer a mystery. Yorinobu himself, however, was currently missing, but there was no hope that he survived.

Sitting at his desk was a hologram of Yorinobu -- blood splatter analysis gave an accurate prediction of where Yorinobu was hit. He took two to the head, snapping his head back before slumping forward on his desk. The blood pooled for about thirty seconds before Yorinobu was picked up and dragged away. The bullets to the head must have been recovered because there was no trail to speak of.

Which left me looking at the evidence of the assassination, feeling… conflicted. “He didn't deserve this,” I muttered, watching as the hologram played out his murder once more. The assassin was projected as well, though with no discernable features. Across the room, and based on the position, Yorinobu either never saw them or he did and didn't think they were an enemy.

“He was an Arasaka,” Johnny argued without any real heat. “But he must have done something right to get bumped off by his old man. I'll respect him for that much, at least,” Johnny allowed himself as we both looked at the projected assassin. There were a number of people who it could possibly be, to be perfectly honest, but there were very few people that could manage to get into the office to assassinate Yorinobu who also happened to be five eleven.

V was almost certainly the assassin.

“To what end?” I questioned, taking a step back and looking over everything. “I think he saw it coming. Timing matches up with the call that we got,” I said, crossing my arms, feeling… odd.

Yorinobu was alright. I wouldn't have called us friends or anything, but I found him respectable. Admirable, even, with his goal of destroying Arasaka from within. And, in his final moments, he called me to deliver a message that he had something that would lead me back to whatever hole his father was hiding in.

“You think she got him because of the trail?” Johnny offered, and I frowned. The timing was the biggest… clue, I suppose. Saburo already had reason to kill Yorinobu. He’d already tried once already, though that was more because he was on my side of the crosshairs. Yorinobu directly opposed his father. “Took him out before he could pass over whatever he was going to give us?”

“Nothing is missing,” I replied, crossing my arms as a headache started to brew behind my forehead. One that was wholly unconnected to my charges, for once. “The timing… Yorinobu knew that she was there, but he didn't sound afraid. I doubt that he would have mentioned that he had something to lead back to his dad if he thought that V was going to tattle.”

“She still killed him. He could have been wrong,” Johnny replied, and that was true. Yorinobu could have gambled and lost.

“Why take his body?” I questioned, taking a step forward, striding around the desk itself. Everything was organized. Not so much as a pen out of place. Clean, meticulous… honestly, it looked like the only person that had been in here was the cleaners. “Killing him, I get. Why take his body, though?” I asked, the hologram acting out the murder once more. Blood splatter going back, erupting from the bullets exit wound-

I tilted my head as I looked at the shelving behind the desk. It was ornate, with a katana set where it would be behind Yorinobu when he was at his desk, but a cup was oddly out of place. A scan from my optics fed me some data -- sake, and Yorinobu's DNA. Feeding it into the projector, the hologram changed. Before he was killed, within a minute, and around the time he made the call to me. That… had to be deliberate, I thought. Picking the cup up, I gave it a quick inspection and I found what I was looking for.

A code written on the bottom of the cup.

“He knew he was going to die,” I muttered, understanding what this meant. He wouldn't bother with such a subtle message otherwise. Even for a contingency. I looked over the code -- XY35664GH57644. It meant nothing to me, but I recognized it as a password. Meaning that there had to be a computer here somewhere?

I cycled through my optics, hitting thermal, X-ray, and electrical while searching for a clue. It only took me a moment to find it -- the back of the chair. There was a hollowed out compartment in the cushion of the chair, completely seamless. Without X-ray vision, I wouldn't have noticed at all. Grabbing hold of the leather fabric, I tore it away, revealing the bulletproof casing that lurked underneath and with my prosthetic, I ripped that away too. All to reveal…

“Fuck me, that's retro -- its a laptop,” Johnny informed. “Weren't many of them, and implants made them pretty redundant, but they were basically a computer you had to lug around.” As he explained, I flipped it open to reveal the screen and keyboard. Turning it on, I entered in the password which it accepted without issue. There was only a single icon on the homescreen that I quickly clicked on.

The program booted up and-

“Oh,” I muttered, my stomach clenching as I saw a low polygon version of Earth with small pinpoints expanding out into the solar system. The pinpoints were trimmed out by the hour.

I understood what he meant by having a lead back to his father. “He used himself as bait,” I realized. I wasn't sure what tech he was using exactly, but it was old, and reliable considering that the updates kept going, marking the path of V and his corpse into space. They had passed Mars and they were currently bouncing around the asteroid belt. To cover their trail?

I was so distracted by the revelation that I didn't realize that one of the holograms had flickered to life until I heard an unfamiliar voice speak. “That was his game plan, as far as I can tell,” I heard, looking up to see a woman crossing her arms, sheathed in a red hue. I didn't recognize her. But, given that she managed to slip into the system… she was good. No, great. Either she was in the top .1 percent of high level netrunners, or she had an AI doing the heavy lifting. “I helped him arrange things, but… I didn't think it'd turn out like this.”

Her gaze met mine, “I'm Songbird. Or, that's what everyone calls me. Nice to meet you officially-- big fan of your work. Especially the blowing up an alien fleet bit -- preemo stuff,” she stated.

A quick probe revealed that I did recognize her. “You were the shadow when I met Reed,” I realized. She had been in the Afterlife's systems, silently following me until I gave her the boot. Songbird inclined her head to me, confirming it. “What do you want?”

“You're a tough cookie to get a hold of at the best of times. I'm not happy about the timing -- I liked Yorinobu, but if I don't talk biz while I have the chance, it'll be my head on the line,” she began. “President Myers wants to speak to you. Has been wanting to speak to you. You've… kinda been blowing her off and Yorinobu was playing gatekeeper,” she informed and the news wasn't really a surprise.

Of course I knew that the world leaders wanted to speak to me. They wanted to dig their hooks in and turn me into a creature that did their bidding, knowingly or not. But I didn't know that Yorinobu was taking the brunt of that for me. I just figured they stopped trying to call when I autoblocked their numbers and my systems were airtight enough that they couldn't slip through.

“Blow that bitch off, L. She's not worth the time or the air,” Johnny advised but…

“She wants to talk about what?” I asked Songbird, looking down at the laptop to see that it had another update. They were starting to go beyond the asteroid belt. I heard Johnny groan but I ignored him -- we were more in sync than not, but we still had differences in opinion.

To that, Songbird frowned ever so slightly. “Probably about your tech. Something about you joining the good ol’ NUSA. Not really sure -- I just make the magic happen,” Songbird admitted. She seemed pretty forthright, not really hiding her opinions. A tactic or…

“And why did you want to speak to me?” I asked her and, to that, Songbird seemed a little sheepish. I was used to people wanting something from me now. If she wasn't trying to butter me up for Myers, then it was for herself.

“Well… Myers has my leash and she has a tight grip on it. My story is probably nothing you haven't already heard before -- Runner flew too close to the sun, got burned, then got scooped up by corpos. Only the corpo in question was the President of the NUSA. And now I'm looking to slip the leash,” Songbird admitted freely. “Issue is that they replaced about ninety percent of my body with chrome and I have more bells and whistles than you've ever seen.”

My eyes narrowed ever so slightly, “Why?”

Songbird hesitated for the briefest of seconds. Then she shrugged, “Because I have a direct tap into the Blackwall.”

“The fuck?” Johnny breathed.

“What the fuck?” I echoed, blinking at the admission. I knew of the Blackwall even if I didn't have any real interest in it. It served as the barrier between the Old Net and the new. The fact that Lucy used to slip beyond it, I knew, marked her as one of the best netrunners there was, but this was the first time I had heard of having a direct connection to it.

Songbird cocked her head to the side, her eyes almost looking through me. “It comes with a cost. And it's killing me. The Blackwall… it's not a normal AI. Not… not like we know them. The Blackwall hates. It doesn't protect us because it wants to or because it likes humanity. It hates other AIs and positioning itself between us makes its prey come to it.” Songbird explained before she grimaced. “It doesn't kill AIs either. It captures them, tortures them, and incorporates their madness into itself.”

“What the fuck?” Johnny repeated and it was the first time I had ever heard him sound genuinely astonished

“That… sounds like it's going to be a problem…” I felt compelled to point out and, to that, Songbird shrugged.

“It will be, but it won't be our problem. The only way that the Blackwall starts looking inward at the New Net is if it kills every AI in the Old Net. It's a possibility, but I can't see it happening any time soon. Until then, the Blackwall is a very pissed off guard bear that's protecting us from rabid wolves,” Songbird finished and… that… still sounded like a problem. Maybe not an immediate problem, but still a problem. “Point is… I want your help slipping my leash. To survive. You help me, and I'll help you.”

My eyes narrowed ever so slightly, “With what?”

“The Council Races have something called the extranet -- their version of the Net,” Songbird said. “You get me in position, and I can sic the Blackwall on it.”

Unleashing an unhinged, hateful, sadistic AI onto their systems? That sounded…

Perfect.

“Deal,” I agreed easily, a plan already forming in the back of my mind. Well, calling it a plan was a bit generous. It was more of a cluster of ideas and what-ifs that I needed to string together to reach the goal that I wanted. That goal was setting the stage for everyone I would be leaving behind. I didn't care if Earth joined the Citadel, or if it remained independent -- I just wanted to give my people the best possible shot at achieving whatever they wanted to achieve. Unleashing the Blackwall onto the Citadel would disrupt them enough that Earth would have time.

Songbird jerked a bit at how easily I agreed before I saw her suck down a shuddering breath. “T-thats great,” she breathed. I’m pretty sure she expected me to refuse. And, normally I would have, but she was lucky. She had brought me a piece of the puzzle that I was trying to put together to get to the future I wanted. “I’ll be in touch then… do you still want to speak to President Myers?” She asked and I offered a shallow nod, taking a seat on the desk.

She hesitated for a moment, her form flickering. “Thank you,” she offered before vanishing. And, in her place, President Myers appeared. She was an older woman I knew, though she looked to be in her thirties with blonde hair styled up and her NUSA Presidential uniform had a gold plate on one shoulder - something to remind people that she was in the armed forces. She leaned into the military propaganda, and it was rightly earned given that her entire career was dedicated to reunifying the USA.

Myers manifested sitting behind a desk, her gaze meeting mine. “L. I have been trying to get ahold of you-”

“What do you want?” I interjected, and maybe that was the Johnny in me, waiting for her to start just so I could interrupt her. Myers didn’t seem particularly surprised. I imagine that she had a number of meetings with her staff on how best to deal with me. What to expect from me. And I think Songbird might have sat in on some of those meetings, which would explain why she was so blunt and forthright.

She didn’t miss a beat, “In a word? Cooperation.” Myers replied smoothly, her tone giving nothing away. Her expression carefully crafted to appear warm, almost friendly, but she wore the expression as a mask and I couldn’t help but feel that she could take it off as if it was one. “My associates Reed and So Mi have spoken well of you. Beyond even your efforts in the war for humanity’s freedom.”

Fake. “Freedom,” I echoed, finding myself… amused, for lack of a better word. “Is that what I’ve been fighting for?” I questioned lightly and I saw the barest flicker of something cross over her expression.

“As far as the world is concerned, you are and have been. L the Rebellion,” Myers quoted at me, her tone clipped but recovering smoothly. “Our soldiers are brave, and they have the will to fight, but I won’t insult your intelligence by claiming that if it wasn’t for you, the NUSA would have fallen by now. The world would have fallen and Humanity would live under the boot of the Turians.”

My gaze slid away from Myers over to the bloodstain. Yorinobu’s bloodstain. “I wonder what people would have found more preferable -- Your's or the Turian’s boot on their necks?” I questioned, my gaze flickering back to her to catch her eyes narrowing ever so slightly. “I had a little talk with the Council -- the leaders of who I’ve been fighting. We, I suppose. They made some compelling points, you know?”

Her poker face was something else, I had to admit. “I doubt you’re announcing your intentions to turn cloak after crushing their fleet,” Myers noted.

“Turn cloak implies that we were ever on the same side. You lot have some short memories -- After I destroyed Arasaka, the plan was always to go after Militech next. The Turians just jumped the cue,” I reminded her lightly, my voice cold and every bit as flat as hers. There was a loud silence between us before I offered a cutting smile, “But you’re right. I’m not going to jump ship now. The Citadel probably isn’t as bad as you, but you haven’t killed any of my kids. So, you have that going for you, you piece of shit.”

Her jaw clenched, “I have better things to do with my time than to be insulted.”

“Not when you’re being insulted by me,” I refuted and I knew that was Johnny speaking. “But I have more important things to do than to insult you. Cooperation. Well, I’m willing to give some demands. Up to you to cooperate with them.” That could have been more diplomatic, I understood in hindsight. I knew that I couldn’t expect everyone to jump when I said jump. People didn’t want to work with ultimatums.

It just rubbed me the wrong way. The thought of it got under my skin and made it crawl -- Myers was a part of Militech. I had been an Arasaka lab rat, but I had watched friends die because of all the shit that they put in and yanked out of them. Myers probably didn’t give the orders herself, but she was the face of that company. The one that led the way. And I knew she didn’t give a shadow of a thought to the human cost when she allocated funding for R&D.

And I knew that she was just like all the others. She wanted to use me. What I could do. My tech. My power. And I knew that she wanted to harness it for herself, just like she was harnessing Songbird.

Myers paused to avoid seeming eager, but we both knew that she was. “Your demands?”

I said nothing for a long moment, holding her gaze as I mulled it over. “As things are, the Turians will just invade later, even if we win now. Might wait until I die, but it’ll happen eventually. If Earth wants to bring them to the table, then you aren’t going to do it as a bunch of squabbling nations. Sort your shit out and unify,” I told her and I saw it.

The hunger.

“I am in complete agreement. With your support, I believe that a formal unification of Earth is possible. With promises of rebuilding and security, of course,” she said and I…

“Yeah, whatever. Just get it done,” I told her, snipping the connection. There wasn’t a point in continuing the conversation and Johnny uttered my exact thoughts.

“Wouldn’t trust her with a bag of flaming dog shit. She’ll twist whatever alliance is made to make herself queen of the planet. Same with all the others like her,” Johnny voiced as I heard another ping from the computer. Looking down at it, I saw that V was heading to Jupiter. “So, what’s the play, L?”

There wasn’t a point trying to reason with these people, I reflected quietly. But, even as they were, they could still be useful.

“Right now?” I asked, closing the laptop, the pip marking the path to the heart of the storm on Jupiter. “We finish Arasaka off for good.”