1 + 2

by Kristie Lynn Higgins

  The Rogue's view...

  Once I finish, a question crosses my processor, so I go back to the bulb and study it. I remember in the past the dot-light blinking blood-red. The bulb is orange, so it could not possibly blink blood-red. It does not make sense, actually a lot of things do not make sense, but time is short, and I will have to consider this mystery later.

  End the Rogue's view...

  It looked at its shabby business suit on the floor. The Rogue needed a change of clothes. It had to look the new part, if it was going to investigate the stone tablets. It streaked its way to a locker room, used a master keycard it took off the body of a dead manager, opened lockers, and searched through clothing and personal items till it found what it needed. It put on a pitch-black business suit and studied itself in a full length mirror. No one would know that it was an Un-Man, and it had one last room to visit before company showed up, so the Rogue made its way into the hall and down several passages. Hundreds of dead Factory techs and S.C.Ms. filled the war zone laden hallways. It had been over a week since the T-3s malfunctioned and killed almost everyone at the Factory. The Rogue searched several manager offices till it found one with a functioning computer, sat at the desk, and woke up the computer.

  At the Factory's main gate...

  Lieutenant Creed held up his hand as a convoy of eight trucks approached; he wore a jet-black uniform, and a handful of soldiers stood behind him. His men were armed with a FN SCARs (Fredricks of Noir's Sphinx Combat Assault Rifle). He and his men were part of the Third Branch Office's corporate military. The armored S.C.M. vehicles that had just pulled up belonged to the Council. The lead truck halted, and the driver who wore a dark green uniform looked over the Latino man in his late thirties with a black goatee. The driver noticed Creed's name on his uniform and his rank and then handed a H.H.C. to him.

  "Lieutenant, I'm Lieutenant Walters." The red headed man had a pale complexion and spoke, "The Council will be taking over the Factory. You and your men are to return to the Third Branch Office for your new orders." Walters sported a high and tight crew cut and trimmed beard.

  Creed slung his assault rifle over his shoulder, scanned the H.H.C., and told him, "Use caution. All of the T-3s may not have left the Factory. They're like the Rogue now, and they no longer follow orders."

  "Thanks for the heads-up."

  Walters slapped the side of the truck, and four Council S.C.Ms. jumped out of the back to guard the gate. The four men removed barricades from the back of a truck and setup a roadblock.

  Walters ordered over the truck radio, "Move out!"

  The convoy traveled down the long stretch of road toward two large buildings. The trucks halted, and Walters turned off the engine, opened the door, and jumped down from the vehicle. His men unloaded from the eight trucks, lined up in eight rows of ten, and stood at attention, holding their assault rifles across their chest.

  Walters walked up and down the line, stopped, faced the men and women, and ordered, "Team leaders, move your soldiers out. I want the Factory secured and if you encounter any active Un-Men, do not engage. Radio in and wait for backup. Is that understood?"

  "Yes, sir," the eight team leaders answered.

  Chapter Six

  Mr. Pinchbeck

  2:16 P.M...

  The Rogue worked on the computer with inhuman speed as the printer behind it spat out document after document. The Rogue took an ID badge from a dead body out in the hall, removed the card from the plastic covering, scanned it, and printed out a version with a black square instead of a photo. It snapped a picture of itself with a digital camera acquired from a locker, printed out the photo, pasted it to the ID, and put the new card back in the plastic covering. The Rogue clipped the ID to its pitch-black business suit. It finished its work, signed a few of the documents with the Sphinx Corporation President's signature it had copied from a document, placed them all in a folder, and then it made digital copies of all the documentation and placed them on a H.H.C.

  All that was left to do was to set the stage, and it looked at a Sphinx Corporation credit card it stole from one Mr. Frank Bygone. It had all of its props but one, and a quick phone call from it would fix that. It picked up the receiver, heard the dial tone, and dialed a number it found on the internet.

  "Hello," the Rogue said. "Yes, I would like to rent a limousine for the day. Yes, I will be paying by Corporate Credit. I would like to be picked up from the corner of Limit Street and West 1000 Avenue, and I will be there in three hours. Very good. Let me give you the Corporate Credit number."

  The Rogue hung up once it was done; it would need to get out of the Factory without being spotted and make its way to Limit Street.

  About four hours later...

  The limo pulled up to the Factory's main gate. Two yellow and black striped barricades stood, blocking the entrance, and a Council S.C.M. approached the passenger's side door, keeping his XM8 at the ready. The Rogue would see if all its hard work had paid off, rolled down the tinted window, and waited to see what would happen; it was ready to draw its hidden knife at the slightest hint of failure.

  The S.C.M. glanced around the limo's interior, then looked at what he believed was a man, and asked, "Can I help you?"

  It had passed, and now it needed to start its performance, so the Rogue said, "I am Mr. Pinchbeck, and I am to take over management of the Factory for the Council. Here is my documentation."

  It handed the S.C.M. a H.H.C., and the S.C.M. looked through the docs on the device and tapped his headset.

  "Lieutenant, a Mr. Pinchbeck is at the gate. He claims he's the new manager of the Factory. Yes, sir. His paperwork is all in order. Yes, sir." The S.C.M. turned to the new manager and said, "Lieutenant Walters says for you to proceed in. He'll meet you at Building G, and he also wants me to ride along in case there are any Un-Men on the grounds."

  "Certainly," the Rogue said. "Sit up front with the driver."

  The S.C.M. relayed his orders to the remaining three, walked around the back of the vehicle, and entered through the front passenger door. The other S.C.Ms. removed the barricades blocking the entrance to the side, and the limo pulled down the road and after a short time, the vehicle stopped in front of Building G. Walters with a few of his men waited outside.

  The Rogue got out of the limo, walked to the driver, and said, "You may return, and I will call if I need a ride."

  The driver along with the S.C.M. still in the front headed for the main gate.

  Walters walked to the new manager, offered his hand, and spoke, "Mr. Pinchbeck, welcome to the Factory." They shook, and then Walters removed an energy bar from his vest pocket and unwrapped the chocolate snack. "The Council sent you in a bit early." He took a bite and then said, "The dead have not been removed or the grounds secured."

  "I am aware that cleanup has only started and know full well what to expect inside." The Rogue opened a folder on its H.H.C. and scanned through some of the files. "All I request from you is two of your soldiers till my own report in." It closed the folder and said, "I will not get in your way. I want to set up my office and begin work. There is so much data to catalog in the Factory. It will take us years to go through everything."

  "I can loan you some soldiers." Walters waved two of the S.C.Ms. forward and ordered them, "You two, go with Mr. Pinchbeck and stay with him until his people relieve you."

  "Yes, sir!" the two men replied.

  "This way gentlemen."

  The Rogue headed into the Factory. The first part of its plan was complete; it had the Factory at its disposal. Now the Rogue must begin on the second part, and it would uncover everything the Factory had on Pandora and Ginn L. Irynkissgthie. The Rogue would determine if its drive was more than programming, unravel why it was fixated on killing Pandora, and if that was its purpose in existence, it would destroy her.

  Chapter Seven

  Etna Toys Distribution Station Bravo

  Etymology, history a
nd usage of the word asp...

  Asp was originally a word for a venomous snake then later around 700 B.D.C. in slang, it referred to a person who was so low that they slithered on the ground. Over the centuries, the word also began to refer to a vain, self-important, silly, or aggressively stupid person and the anus.

  2:58 P.M...

  Hellenistic Sector, Commercial Vicinage...

  The corridors smelled dusty and looked as if no one had used them in years. A fluorescent light flickered overhead of Kat and Kim as they walked, and all the lights hummed, and it was a maddening sound in the otherwise silent building of white block walls and concrete floors.

  Kim brushed a cobweb out of the way as she complained, "All we've found so far are a few boxes of toys." She held her gun at the ready as she questioned, "Where's the lab?"

  "You mean if this place has a lab." Kat followed behind her as she spoke, "The deeper we go, the more I believe this place is only a distribution station. Sheez... I don't think we'll find anything here. The Gorgons could just be a new line of toys Etna's developing."

  "It's stupid comments like that that really pisses me off! You can't honestly think they're toys. For Ares' sake! Why would their file be on the Data Crystal? They have to be more than action figures."

  "I know," Kat said. "But I can hope."

  "You can hope? What kind of aspinine comment is that?" Kim asked as she paused at another door, opened it, and peered inside. "Don't you want to find something?" The room was empty like the three dozen or so they had already searched, and Kim said, "I do. It's the only reason I came. The info we downloaded from the Data Crystal has to have some importance. Otherwise, why would my mom have created the crystals and have hid them?" She shut the door and said, "Hades... I better not be wasting my time."

  Kat mumbled, "I really hate it when you yell at me."

  "What did you say?"

  She replied loudly, "I said..." Kat then spoke normally, "I've been wondering what kind of project could the Gorgons be. I've encountered a lot of the Council's experiments over the past year, so I'm imagining the worst, and a toy sounds better than what I'm thinking."

  Kat remembered in Greek stories, the Gorgons were three sisters so hideous the mere sight of them turned people into stone, so she knew the Gorgons had to be weapons.

  "You and your dream world," Kim said. "You can't go by your imagination. You have to go by the facts, and then they'll lead you to the truth." She stopped and faced Kat. "Did they do something to your mind when they experimented on you? Maybe they replaced it with the brain of a two-year-old."

  "That's kind of mean. Why would you say that?"

  "Because you're an idiot. I've never seen somebody so naive."

  Kat slowly blinked three times, processing her statements. "Naive? So you see me as a child?"

  "Yes, a very annoying child. The world works certain ways, and you can't see it. Let me point out one example. You didn't want to kill the guard."

  "What's wrong with that?"

  "What's wrong with that? Oh my Zeus! I can't believe you asked me that." Kim shook a condescending finger at her and said, "You're not understanding anything I'm telling you." She rubbed her temple and said calmly, "Oh, for Ares' sake... Never mind. Maybe you'll never understand. Come on."

  Kat watched as she walked ahead and then mumbled, "I might be naive, but at least I'm not always angry."

  "Did you say something?"

  "Nothing." Kat hurried to catch up. She didn't believe murdering people was how this world was supposed to work and if it was, maybe it was better that she was an idiot.

  They hurried through the first section, entered the second, and came across a long hall with no doors. Blue pipes ran along the ceiling and water beaded on one of them, and in places, the liquid fell to the concrete floor. Kim and Kat started through the passage. The blue-gray concrete corridor ran for about four hundred feet and went around a corner, then the corridor continued for another four hundred feet and ended at a door with no knob, and on each side of the door was a scanner.

  Kim threw up her hands and exclaimed, "Great, now what?" She went to the door and pushed up on it with her body. "It won't budge. How are we going to get in?" Kim kicked the door and stood back. "Maybe we should have brought the guard or at least, we could have cut his hand off then we might have been able to use his palm print." Kat said nothing to her outburst only stared at the scanners, so Kim said, "Well, we can't go any further." She started back through the corridor and ordered, "Let's return and see if we missed anything." She mumbled, "Come back once I get a grenade launcher."

  "Wait," Kat said as she glanced at the star that marked her left palm. "I encountered a scanner like this at the Factory. I placed this on the scanner, and it let me in."

  Not understanding, Kim asked, "Placed what?"

  "This," Kat answered as she showed her the star that had been burned into her palm and walked over to the machine on her right. She found an outline of a right hand on its glass top, so she moved to the other machine, and it had an outline of a left hand. Kat placed her palm on the scanner, and the device activated. It scanned her with the different bars of light like the one at the Factory.

  "Ginn's Cipher detected. Activating micro-reader," the device stated. "Access granted."

  The door unlocked and slid up.

  The Sanctum...

  Within the Chamber...

  A female analyst turned from her workstation to the Council and yelled to them, "The door to Station Bravo has been activated."

  "Bravo?" Ms. Nona inquired. "Which of our places is this?"

  "It was our third lab," Mr. Decuma answered. "We long ago abandoned it once we finished the Gorgons experiment."

  Ms. Nona stated, "I remember. Why would someone go there?"

  "Why indeed?" Mr. Morta questioned. "Who accessed the lab?"

  The female analyst turned back to her computer and read over the information. "No, this can't be right." The analyst checked the data again and then replied, "Sirs... Ma'am... The lab was accessed by Ginn's Cipher."

  "What?" Ms. Nona uttered. "Are you sure?"

  Back at Etna Toys Distribution Station Bravo...

  "Let me see it," Kim demanded as she grabbed her hand and turned it over. "It looks like..." Kim studied her own right palm and compared the star burned on her hand to hers. "Oh my Zeus... They're the same." She squeezed Kat's wrist and asked, "Where did you get it? Tell me! Tell me or so help me I'll..."

  "You're hurting me. Let go," Kat yelled as she tried to pull away.

  "Not until you tell me where you received it!"

  "The music box," Kat replied, then reached into her pocket with her other hand, and removed it. "I got it from the music box during my battle with the Un-Men. I was at Etna Toys Plant and Warehouse, a fire started, and the music box was in it and when I snatched it out of the flames to save it, it burned me." She stopped resisting Kim and showed her the lid. "You remember, don't you? I had blisters on my hand when you took me to see Dr. Chiron." Still angry over the incident, Kat remembered the real reason Kim had taken her to the hospital.

  "Let me see." Kim released her, took the music box, and examined the raised star on top. "It looks like the one. Yes, it's exactly like it, but how can it be?"

  Kat rubbed her wrist and asked, "Where did you get yours?"

  Kim was in deep thought and mumbled, "What?"

  "Where did you get your burn?"

  "There was a fire in my mom's office the day she died. I grabbed the knob to go in and burned myself, and the star was on the knob." Kim glared at her, realizing she opened up to that woman and snapped, "My past is none of your business."

  "Sheez..." Kat shrunk back. "Do you only know how to yell?"

  Kim ignored her and studied the star on her own palm. "Do you know what they are?"

  "The scanner at the Factory called it a cipher, and beyond that, I don't know."

&
nbsp; Kim placed her thumb on one end of the music box and her index finger on the other. "Let's see what we can find out." She directed her next word at the music box and spoke, "Mom."

  A 3-D image of Theresa Griffin generated in front of her. The hologram scanned the area and asked, "Where are we?" She had an L-A processor and could Learn and Adapt, depending on her surroundings.

  "Etna Toys Distribution Station Bravo," Kat answered. "The address you decoded from the Data Crystal."

  "Enough with her questions. I want you to answer mine." Kim showed the hologram her palm and questioned, "What is this star? Why do I and that woman have it? And don't tell me you don't know."

  "I see you are in a good mood today," the hologram said and examined the burn. "I do not believe it. The mark is Ginn's Cipher."

  "Ginn?" Kim questioned.

  "Yes, Ginn L. Irynkissgthie."

  "Isn't he the composer of Unfinished Melody?" Kat asked as she pointed to the music box.

  "Yes," the hologram answered. "The star looks like the cipher Ginn mentioned in his works."

  Kat peered over Kim's shoulder so she could look at the hologram, and Kat asked, "Do you know what the star is?"

  "Yes, I was able to decode more of the files I uploaded from the Data Crystal. Ginn's Cipher was one of them."

  "Wait. Let's go back a bit," Kim said. "You mentioned Ginn's Works. What are you talking about? I thought he only composed the one melody and never finished it? Are there more?"

  "You are correct. There is only the one," the hologram answered. "Though, there is a rumor he had completed... Never mind. It is only a rumor, but as I was saying, Ginn did create other things. He was not only a composer, but an inventor, painter, sculptor, philosopher, scientist, and prophet. I have not been able to decode all the information on the file, but so far this is what I know. Ginn's Cipher or the Star Cipher has some code or other researchers believed a map to..."