‘We’re part of an independent agency,’ she said.
‘Government, then,’ he said. ‘So, why should I trust you.’
‘You used to work for Nano Technic, right?’
‘Until you fucks destroyed it and ruined everything. We were on our way to prison because of people like you,’ he yelled, emotion in his voice.
‘You blame us for this,’ she said. It was a statement rather than a question.
‘Of course,’ he answered.
‘Did the government force you to kill people, to brutalise people in the name of a corporate entity who was breaking the law? Did the government oppress billions through the use of nano tech? Did the government force your Corporation to make people pay for that same tech under threat of removing its protection from harmful diseases?’ she asked.
‘Did your government need to force Nano Technic to put us into custody? We were under their influence as much as the rest of the population. We were just doing our job, just doing what we had to do to earn a living,’ he argued.
‘I know that, and I can help. While there’s no excusing what you did, you also had little choice in the matter, too. I recognise that, but I can’t do anything for you if you don’t come quietly,’ Frankie said.
The lead operator thought for a moment. She could see him retreat inwards as he considered her words.
‘Boss, what are you doing? You’re not seriously considering this are you?’ one of the operators asked.
‘Do you want to die here today?’ the lead operator asked.
‘Well, no…’ the questioner answered.
The lead man lowered his weapon and stepped out from behind their makeshift cover. He placed his guns on a table nearby and stepped away from them, holding his hands up.
‘Sir?’ The questioning operator said.
‘You do what’s right for you, but I’ve had it with this fight. I’m tired. I’m done. You do as you please,’ he said to his team. Over the next few moments, first one stood up and followed his lead, and then another, and then two more, and finally the rest of them, even the one who questioned him, all got up, relinquished their weapons, and surrendered to Frankie and her team.
‘Cole, Veronica, check the rest of the building. Bring any other survivors here,’ she said to them over their link.
A few moments later with the operator Gibson had handcuffed, and another that Cole and Veronica had captured, they had everyone that was in here.
She looked at these nine operators, and even with the five others they had killed outside, Frankie knew for sure they were missing some. Where were the agents she had seen in the palace earlier today? Where was Zealotte? It seemed like they had captured some of the team, but not all.
4.10
‘Well done, that’s impressive work,’ William said to her. He’d just walked into the viewing room that she and Gibson were in, watching Kalypso in the interrogation room on the other side of the one way glass talking to the lead operator who she now knew to be called Tyler.
‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘I was keen to bring in as many of them alive as I could.’
‘And you succeeded. I was expecting one, maybe two, but nine?’
‘It wasn’t everyone, though,’ Frankie said.
‘I know. We’re missing some of those who were at the attack on parliament. That’s at least three agents and a bunch more operators. We’re watching the hideout you raided, but I doubt they’ll return there. We know that warnings were sent out by several of the team to people not in the building about the attack. So, we’ll continue to dig and try to find them,’ William said.
‘Any idea where to start?’ Frankie asked.
‘We’ll follow up the usual lines of enquiry, talking to the informants we use, hacking any databases we think might have the info we need; you know the drill,’ he said.
‘So, these guys were just one more casualty of the Nano Liberation,’ Gibson stated.
‘Looks that way,’ William said. ‘When the Liberation happened, the income into Nano Technic dried up over night. Their major product was nanobots, and their main revenue stream was insurance and monthly payments. The Liberation crippled them. The government stepped in, offered subsidies, offered to keep them afloat if they made certain concessions and changes,’ William said.
‘Such as disbanding their paramilitary arm,’ Frankie said, her voice deadpan.
‘Correct. They were to be placed into custody and processed as criminals for the deaths they caused,’ Willaim said.
‘That seems a little harsh,’ Frankie said.
‘The government didn’t want them jumping to another Corporation. They needed to be taken out of circulation,’ William said. ‘They were also under pressure from certain lobbying groups who represented the exiles and the opposition party who had been accusing the government of being too soft on the crimes that these Corporations had been committing. They needed to be seen to be doing something about it.’
‘Couldn’t they have recruited them to help fight against the Corporations? Put them back into the military?’
‘Maybe. I have no idea what their long terms plans were. I suspect there was talk of something like that, but getting them into custody was always going to be the first step. They needed to get them away from the Corporations. They needed to be seen to be taking action,’ William answered.
‘Unfortunately, it created this mess,’ Frankie said.
‘Indeed. Some of the agents and operators saw it coming and ran. They, in turn, freed their fellow team members, and now we have a rogue group on the loose. God only knows where they are in this city,’ Willam lamented.
‘Or what they’re doing,’ Gibson joined in.
‘Tyler in there thinks they were looking for reinforcements following the failure of the attack on parliament. He seems quite vague, though, so, I don’t believe he knows for sure. He certainly doesn’t have any idea where they are.’
‘But, maybe he could find out,’ Frankie mused, an idea forming in her mind.
‘How?’ William asked.
‘We use him as bait,’ she said.
‘And how do you propose we do that?’ Gibson asked.
‘Let me speak to him,’ Frankie answered, feeling sure she could talk him round.
‘Sure, go ahead,’ William said.
‘Thanks,’ Frankie said as she walked out and around to the next door along. A Doll stood outside it and glanced at her as she walked up, but let her pass. Frankie turned the deadbolt on the door and stepped inside. Tyler sat at the table with Kalypso standing in front of him.
‘…can not believe you don’t have any clue where they… oh, hi,’ she said, turning to Frankie. ‘Everything okay?’ Kalypso asked through a link.
‘Everything’s fine, I just need to talk to him for a moment,’ she answered.
‘Sure, be my guest,’ Kalypso said, and walked out, picking up her things from the table.
Frankie waited for the door to shut behind her, but looked down at Tyler as she waited.
‘Aaah, the battlefield negotiator. I wondered if I’d see you again,’ Tyler said.
‘I’ve been watching,’ Frankie commented.
‘Of course, you have,’ he said, and glanced at the mirrored side of the one-way glass to Frankie’s right.
‘So, you have no idea where Zealotte and the others are?’
‘Like I said to your friend, they didn’t tell us everything. She took the other agents with her, as well as some of the operators and left. She said she would be back, but I doubt that now,’ he said.
‘And you think they were looking for reinforcements?’ Frankie asked.
‘It makes sense, sure. That’s the impression that we had. We needed them after the parliament mission. Typical fucking government, fucking us again,’ he said.
‘You blame the government, don’t you,’ she said.
‘Maybe…’ he said. ‘I get what you said, back in the stacks, but this could have been handled much better than this. We didn’t
deserve to be thrown in jail and forgotten. We were as helpless against the Corporations as you were, as all of us were, before the Liberation fucked it all up.’
‘You don’t like being free of that Corporate influence?’ Frankie asked.
‘Of course, but it did fuck everything up,’ he said.
‘For you, maybe,’ Frankie chimed in.
‘Yeah, for me, but then, you’re talking to me, so…’
‘Granted. But you need to understand, the situation was already “fucked,” as you put it. Fixing that mess is not going to be easy, and there will be casualties along the way. We can try to minimise them, but there’s a limit on what we can do,’ she said.
‘Granted, the situation wasn’t… …the best for all. But I don’t think we deserved prison. I think we need a little more respect than that,’ he said.
‘Respect for hurting innocent people?’
‘You have no idea what we did. You have no clue what my life was like. I’m not some heartless executioner. I could see the injustice in some of the things we were asked to do, and if we could help, if we could give them a reprieve, then we did. We did only what we had to,’ he explained.
‘You helped people?’
‘Whenever possible. I have a conscience, too, you know. I mean, some of the squads were more heartless about it, some of them were just sadists, but not all of us.’
‘Then do the right thing now. Help us. Help us find the agents and the rest of the group, and I will see what I can do to keep you out of prison,’ she said.
‘You mean, work for the government?’ Tyler asked.
‘Work for us. Work to help saves lives and stop Zealotte from killing more innocent people. Help us find her, and we’ll do the rest,’ she said. ‘Look, the government isn’t the enemy here; the corporations are for what they made you do, for what they turned you into. Work with us and you can get that revenge you need. You can fight those who are the real root cause for your current situation. You seem like a reasonable man, you seem like you care, like you knew the Corporations were overstepping their mark. They are the enemy here, you can see that… …right?’
‘I need some time,’ Tyler said.
‘Of course, you do. I’ll let you think on it. I’ll be back,’ Frankie said and left the room.
‘Do you think that worked?’ William said. He stood by the now open door to the viewing room, leaning on the door frame.
Frankie looked up at him. ‘Maybe. Time will tell. Leave him overnight, perhaps. Let him think on it. Let’s see where he is tomorrow,’ she said.
‘No problem.’
‘I’m off to bed; it’s late,’ she said.
William nodded to her. She smiled back and bid him good night before she wandered to the elevators and took them one floor up to the team’s living quarters. It was the early hours, and although her body didn’t really suffer from fatigue, her still biological brain did and required rest. Not as much as she used to. She could go for days without sleep, and often did, but sometimes she just needed a break, she just needed to shut the world out and relax, and tonight was one of those nights.
Ω
‘You and your friends, you were behind the Nanobot Liberation weren’t you,’ her mum said.
Frankie looked up at her mum in shock. ‘What? How did you?’
‘Come now, dear. It wasn’t difficult to figure out. We saw you on that train in Germany when you kidnapped Angela. She was the lead programmer for all the nanobots that Nano Technic produces. Then a few days later, the security on all the nanobots, including ours, was bypassed and the bots de-registered, freeing the world's population from the control of the Corporations. It wasn’t a huge leap for me to figure that out,’ she said.
‘Aaah,’ Frankie said, realising how obvious it was. ‘We were that transparent, were we?’
‘Only after the fact. But by then, it was too late for the Corporations, which was the point I’m guessing. You must have taken programmers from the other three Nano Corps, then?’
Frankie nodded. ‘Either the programmer was kidnapped, or we hacked their cyberbrain, yes,’ she said.
‘Impressive. So, that’s what you guys do here, is it? You fight the Corporations?’ her mother pressed.
‘Something like that. I can’t give specifics, I’m sure you understand,’ she said. Frankie smiled to herself. She had never really given her mother much credit growing up, but she really was a brilliant woman. She had to be to work in the position she had carved out for herself within the former Nano Technic. It was just the way children viewed their parents, she guessed. When she was a teenager, she had gone through a phase of thinking her parents were total nerds. She’d been embarrassed by them. But, looking back, it was such a childish thing. She knew now just how successful and intelligent and cunning her parents had to be within the cutthroat world of the corporate elite.
She had to remind herself that she needed to be careful what she told her. She didn’t sense any deception from her mum, but she did need to be careful. William had insisted that she wear a neural plug to inhibit her GPS, so she didn’t know where she was and she was being tracked and monitored the whole time she was in the complex.
Frankie sipped at the water she had in front of her. She didn’t need it, but she wanted to appear more human, and it was also just the polite thing to do.
‘So, you’re a cyborg now,’ her mum said.
‘You noticed,’ Frankie said.
‘Hard not to,’ her mum answered, pointing to her arms across the table. Frankie glanced down at the indented grooves on her skin, the seams that ran across and around her arms where her body had been constructed. They were a dead giveaway. ‘So, how much of your body is human?’
‘Just my brain and part of my spinal cord, but that’s it,’ she said, not looking at her mother and feeling slightly unsure how she would react. ‘It wasn’t my choice. I was attacked by a Jacker gang in the Undercity, shot and left for dead. I would have died if Doctor Xenox hadn’t found me and saved me. He was the one who put me in this body,’ she said.
‘The likeness is incredible,’ her mum said.
‘We’d met before, a few times when I was trying to help some of the exiles down there, and I was petitioning him to help. I think he took a liking to me,’ she said.
‘He created a body that looked identical to you without your knowledge just in case you happened to be in a position to get implanted into it? And you’re okay with that? I bet he was following you around that night you were shot. Do you think he orchestrated the wh…’
‘MUM! You’re making it sound creepier than it is,’ Frankie said.
‘Why?’
‘Why what?’
‘Why create a cyborg? Why make it look like you? Why do all that? It’s just... I don’t understand,’ her mum said.
‘He’s an artist, Mum. He loves creating cyborgs and prosthetics and wanted to make his masterpiece without corporate oversight. He could only do that if he got away from Psytech,’ Frankie explained.
‘And that’s what he told you? That you’re his masterpiece?’
Frankie shrugged.
‘Really, Frankie, and you fell for that?’
Frankie did not like this line of questioning. Xenox had saved her life and had been there from the start of this, helping her along every step of the way like Gibson. There were no ulterior motives. Her mum was seeing conspiracy where there was none. Something that she struggled with herself. It seemed to be a by product of living the life they did. After all, it wasn’t paranoia if they really were trying to kill you.
‘Enough about me, I want to know more about you. Why are you here? Where’s Dad? What were you doing in Isaac’s office?’ she said, changing the subject.
Her mum smiled. ‘I needed to find you, Frankie,’ she said. ‘After the Liberation, everything changed. The Corporation was in chaos in the wake of it. Those first few days after the event were a nightmare. People were disappearing, committing suicide, threatening people. I rem
ember there being a lot of shouting, lots of very angry people. It was a nightmare. I couldn’t stop thinking about meeting you on that train. How you had taken Angela and then the Liberation happened. The coincidence of it was too much. It was a few days after the Liberation, and I remember some men in black came into the office; they looked the same as the guys who raided parliament.’
‘Operators,’ Frankie offered.
‘Operators, yes. They had guns and they stormed into Jackie’s office. They were accusing her of treachery, of working with the government. She resisted, and then I heard the gunshot…’
‘I’m sorry, Mum,’ Frankie said. ‘I remember Jackie; she was nice.’
‘That was it for me. I just kept thinking that you had known. You had tried to tell us, but we hadn’t listened. We were blind. But you knew. You had seen their true face. I just... I don’t know. I think I did know, but I just didn’t want to believe it. I was so happy with my family and my life that the idea of ending that, of jeopardising that, was too much. But when they killed Jackie right next door, everything changed. I had to get out.’
‘What about Dad?’
‘He wasn’t there. I tried to talk to him about it later, but he wouldn’t listen. Said I was crazy. Said the Corporation was merely protecting its best interests and would do what needed to be done. He didn’t care, Frankie. He seemed to think the Corporation’s action were justified, that she must have been involved in some kind of corporate espionage. He warned me about speaking to anyone else about this, but I lost a lot of respect for him that night,’ she said, tears welling up in her eyes. She grabbed a tissue from her handbag and dabbed her eyes.
‘I went back to work the next day, but I didn’t really work. I just hunted around on their intranet looking for further evidence of what the Corporation was doing.’
‘And you got away with that?’ Frankie asked.
‘I’m quite good with computers, you know,’ her mum said. ‘And anyway, the whole building was a mess. Staff were leaving. Files and folders that had been formerly off limits to my clearance were suddenly open to me. I could look at nearly anything. I won’t bore you, but I think you’re aware of what the Corporations get up to,’ she said.
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