Tales_from_the_Hard_Side_ReLoaded / Episodes | TftHS-Ep13.5_Cold_Angel_Part_III
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Following an invitation found in her coat Alex traveled back to the place she was sure was the first thing she actually not had dreamed about. It was a flat part of land in the outer reaches of Chicago Megacity. Surrounded by a rusty fence and signs telling you to stay out. Ignoring the signs - actually never caring about warnings since she dared to remember - Alex entered the compound alert and ready. She dashed for the only building, a small concrete block with only one door and no windows. In it´s rusty hinges the door moaned lightly in the soft breeze. Cautiously entering a flight of stairs leaded her down into the dark. A trap she decided but descended anyway as smooth as the debris littered floor allowed. Flashlight stripped to the Pump-Action a cone of light guided her down some ten meters before the corridor gave way to a small office. As the corridor the room was littered and traces of a previous heavy gunfight were everywhere. On the far wall was a door. To her touch it opened smoothly and without a sound.
Alex raised her adrenaline index to max and readied herself for encounter. No sounds at all, no security but without doubt the hinges of the door where oiled. A closer examination revealed it was new and only trimmed to look old. So we getting somewhere she thought. The cone of light fell in a short corridor. In front of her at the end of it was a second door. This one was new by the look of it. No disguise at all. It was set in a thick newly erected concrete wall and had some pad next to it with a tiny green light in the bottom right corner.
After some mind-games and activation of her link on the Matrix Alex put her hand on the pad and it sprang to live. In the Matrix an pulsing icon sprang to live simultaneously. For the first time she was able to remember but not unfamiliar to her at all she used a scanner. It IDed her positive. With a hiss the door unlocked and slid aside. The icon in the Matrix vanished as suddenly as it had appeared. She thought about to block the door with her knife but the shear size of the door and its wall-mounted closing mechanism made her thought otherwise.
Alex stood in a hallway with three doors down its length on each side opposing each other. She swept each of the rooms diligently. The first ones were changing-rooms, behind the second doors where toilets and the last ones were bathrooms. All of them were under construction. At the end of the lengthy gangway was another door similar to the one she entered.
As to now the room behind it was dark but her flash-light played over some high-tech stuff. Many sections of the floor and the walls were inlaid with various sockets. Cable snaked out of holes. The wall in front of her was one big window looking into the next room which was dark too. Next to the window exactly across the door she had entered was another. As she came near it, it opened automatically. Lights flickered to life. For a second Alex was blinded by the shear impact of white. The Matrix flooded her board and showed ids for every light that sprang to life. As her eyes adjusted to her surrounding three people opposed her. All were dressed in dark business suites tailored for them as she estimated by the perfect cut. Adrenaline spiked weapon raised instantly she was in combat mode before realizing it. One of them, an elderly man, smiled at her, hold out his hand and greeted her by her name. Next to him stood a woman scribing casually on a tablet. Right to that woman an brought man with unwavering eyes mustered her. Calculating her situation and options Alex instinctively knew who could mean danger to her.
"I'm sorry for your inconvenience but it was a necessary precaution we have to take. Please relax, we mean you no harm. In fact we are family to you. May we sit down and discuss your involvement in this situation over here." The elder gestured to a hasty established desk and four chairs around it. So they really waited for me to come alone she thought. Lowering her Pump-Action she cautiously walked over to the table never letting her strange hosts out of her line of sight. The old man casually walked over and took a seat suggesting to Alex to take her place opposite of him. The woman took place to his left and the guy to his right.
"Well," the elder led on "I presume you have thought you dreamed a lot lately and again I presume you have a lot more of questions about your dreams Alex." "You can bet." "Good, so you are here to get your answers and we are willing to offer you every one of them. More over we offer you the opportunity to resume your training and by finishing that to work with us." Alex played relaxed and settled herself on the stool spinning it back to front to the table crossing her arms playfully on the chairs back. "You were interrupted by an - hmm lets call it - unlucky incident and escaped barely a fiasco not by accident - again we assume - but by the help of the only survivor next to you. A brother as we like to refer to him. So you see the family stayed together already." "What family do you refer to? What am I?" "You, Alex, as all your brethren were born from a special breed. You have the memories of your mother. Your dreams are disguised parts of her memory incomplete of course for the process of your mental training was interrupted as I stated before. But we offer you to resume this training and by that completing your memory. The person to your left is one of your trainers." Oh, now we are talking, she thought. Lets give it a try. Her hand flickered at his face to fast for a normal human to see but never connected. His head was simply not there anymore. His smile never wavered. "I'm impressed", she had to admit retreating her hand only to recognize his foot to move back under his chair by the noise of shoe on floor. "And interested.", she added. "You were the one who followed me?".
"Let's have a look around, shall we?", the elderly man suggested. "Who are you people anyway?" "Oh, I'm so sorry. I have to apologize. I was so exited to see you again Alex. My name is Aremaki, this is Miss Farraway, our doctor and a member of our research team and this is Mr. Roose, the one who found you. But come with me. I'll show you your new old home if you like." Alex was walked through two rooms stuffed with tech-gadgets looking like big tubes of glass. The last two were already fully composed. She recognized them by now. They were there with some bodies in it, one of them at least, when she left the site of destruction a few weeks earlier. "What are those?", she asked. "Those are your cradles, if you like. You and your eight siblings where m - born in them so your mother had no pains." "Where is she now?" "She is well and up, but busy on some project of ours." Aramaki led her through a door into a hallway resembling the one with bath- and changing-rooms she swept through on her way down here. But those were ready to use and down-tuned light illuminated them. Followed by a great hall Alex recognized as the training- and exercise-room her despaired escaped had led her through. As today it was all reconstructed and polished as were the apartment areas next to the hall. "This is your new home, if your decision still stands.", Aramaki told her. "Well, as I see it, we have a deal. But say, where do I get the money from to live here?" "You work with and for us. We are a small business group, not a global player. But we provide our clients with the necessary equipment to handle special situations quick and clean." He smiled at her. "Probably I hope you will see your brother, the one who helped you to escape very soon. He is a little hard to find in the moment. But I guess I can say that now: Welcome to the family Alex." "Hm, I'm not good at this family thing." "Eventually you will adjust to it, I'm sure of that. Come back in two month. Then all is ready and waiting for you. Until then try to manage loose ends and cover your tracks thoughtfully." "What will I do if I need money for that?" "Ah, I see", he smiled fatherly. "That of course is most likely." He handed her a cred-stick. "Well for now I have to say good by." They were back in the room they met. Alex turned around and offered a hand to Miss Farraway. It was greeted by a delicately manicured hand, warm and smooth. Next it was the turn for Mr. Roose "It was a pleasure and will be, I'm sure of that.", he said and smiled. His face resembled someone she had met. She was sure of that. "May I accompany you to the door, Alex?", Aramaki asked. The old man offered her his arm. At first Alex was not sure what to do. But he gently guided her through the steps and padded her hand. Odd but in some way reassuring she thought not ignoring the three possibilities to take combative advantage of her situation. At the last door he waited until she was up the flight of stairs. As Alex looked back the door was closed and all light was gone.
She opened the outer door of the concrete-box. For a moment she thought she could see a flicker in the matrix.
Drycon was at home and noisily asleep. Alex sneaked into her old bed and took a few hours of sleep.
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