Chrono Inquisitor (Gods Be Damned)

by Rien Reigns

  He looked to Kali. “That is up to her. At the moment I am still her prisoner. Our agreement was that I be sandboxed. I have no actual control over any mytes.”

  “Yeah, but it was you who instructed her to do what she did. You may not be able to do anything yourself, but you could manipulate her into doing it for you.”

  “That is why I am suggesting you take precautions and design your own mytes. I would also suggest you do it before you allow Kali back in, that way she won’t be aware of exactly what you did. In doing so, as far as I am aware, you would be the safest human in regards to any sort of invasion, whether it be another human, CerA, or Celestial.”

  I nodded. “Well then, I think we’ve come to an agreement.”

  She smiled and changed into the fantasy Sam form. I wondered what the goddess form would look like in that gold dress rather than the skirt of limbs.

  28: Care to Tango?

  “You want to do what exactly?” Sam asked, after I told her I was going to program my own thugs.

  “I suggest you do the same, if you haven’t already. At the very least, I’d recommend you reevaluate the thugs I’m sure you already have in your system. They killed Beit, and they almost killed me.”

  I’d struck a nerve. I probably shouldn’t have said it like that. It made it sound like she was completely responsible for what had happened.

  “Just so you know,” she said, voice raised with finger in my face. “The thugs found in Beit’s body, weren’t mine. Yes, they were based off my design and my programming, but they’d been altered. While you were in there talking to them.” She waved a hand towards the lounge. “I was out here going over the autopsy. And don’t for a second think I didn’t notice how Kali took a form which looked an awful lot like me. I knew you’d gotten more perverted since we split, but I didn’t know you’d gotten into CerA stimulation. Honestly, it’s like I never knew you at all.”

  She threw her hands in the air and started to turn away from me.

  Sam was absolutely adorable when she was angry. I reached out and took her hand in mine, then I put my other hand on her waist. “Care to tango?” I asked with my best, devilishly handsome and charismatic grin.

  “You don’t know how to tango,” she said, a little less angry.

  “True, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun attempting to do so.”

  I turned my head and marched us across the room. She laughed. When we got to the end of the room I spun her around, pulled her close to me, and kissed her.

  To my surprise, she pushed away from me. She had her serious face on.

  “Travis, there are things you need to know if there’s going to be an us again.”

  “Okay, then let’s hear it.”

  She paused. Several times she started to speak and then stopped, almost like she physically couldn’t. Finally she said, “If I programmed some new M-mytes, would you accept them?”

  As far as I knew, Mnemosyne-mytes weren’t dangerous, but then again, Death had managed to get them to make me appear brain dead. He probably could have made it be the case for real.

  “What would be the purpose?” I asked.

  “To restrict you from sharing certain knowledge with others who don’t have similar ones.”

  “Are you telling me that you have these mytes in you, and that’s why you’ve been closed lipped?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why the hell didn’t you say that earlier?”

  “Because I couldn’t. Speaking about them is a restriction.”

  “But you just did?”

  “Because I already injected you with them. Most got destroyed in the fight between Kali and the thugs, but it seems enough remain that I can talk to you about their existence.”

  “So let me get this straight, you have answers to something, but can’t tell me because you created mytes to keep you from talking about whatever this knowledge is, unless the person you’re talking to has these mytes as well?”

  “Correct.”

  “Why the hell would you do that?”

  She tilted her head at me, widened her eyes, and gave me that look like I was being stupid.

  But then I was.

  Of course she couldn’t tell me. Obviously, it was a security precaution. It actually made sense. Being a security guru, Sam had vital knowledge to all sorts of systems. The more I thought about it, I started to suspect that it was technology she’d acquired back when she’d worked for ChronoGen. That’s probably why they’d cornered the market on myte-tech. I bet thousands of employees had these special mytes to keep them from spilling company secrets. That made me wonder, did I have some already? I knew lots of company secrets. I couldn’t recall ever being prevented from letting something slip, but then I couldn’t recall having ever done so. Was that because I was a loyal employee, or was it because I wasn’t even capable of doing so? I started to ask Kali if she knew, but then I remembered she was in the lounge and not in my head.

  “Can you do a scan to see if a person has these altered mytes?” I asked.

  She nodded and gave me a look that I was on the right track.

  “Then let’s do it.”

  She looked around for the nearest myte-scanner. We both eyed one at a work station. We went to it. Sam did some calibrations and performed a scan. She showed me the results.

  Sure enough, I had them.

  Somehow she’d been able to scan for the different variations, and there were several. The results showed me the types and how many mytes I had in my head. There were only a couple hundred of the ones she’d injected me with. For the five other types I had, there were a couple hundred thousand, each.

  I didn’t like knowing that someone had messed with my head.

  “Can they be reprogrammed or destroyed?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “I haven’t found a way to do so, yet. They’re preprogrammed to find and block certain knowledge before they’re injected into the person. They don’t have a communication nodule built in. A CerA is even blocked from the knowledge, along with the Arkhive.”

  “How is that possible?”

  “A CerA doesn’t really have a memory of their own. I mean they do, but it’s mainly for themselves to mess with their own programming. Think of it this way. The Arkhive is like a backup computer drive. It’s the M-mytes that write to the drive. The mytes copy what your brain drive records. The altered mytes take control of certain synapses in your brain and don’t write to the Arkhive. A CerA only has access to the Arkhive.”

  “So then how the hell can a person get hacked? I mean isn’t that what this whole Celestial thing is about, one of them taking control of people and using them as puppets?”

  “The problem comes from the Huginn and Muninn upgrade. They’re altered M-mytes which allow people to share thoughts and memories by directly stimulating the receiver’s brain.”

  “Damn it!” I said. I’d been right. H&M was a bad idea after all. “Why the hell would ChronoGen allow it on the market if it had that big of a risk? It’s supposed to be secure.”

  “I don’t know,” she said, in that robotic way. Question was, would she be able to tell me if I got her altered mytes, or would she still be restricted because there was some other type blocking the knowledge?

  There was only one way to know.

  “Do it.”

  Sam nodded and led me to her primary work station.

  She opened a drawer and pulled out an Inquisitor’s glove. “Ready?” she asked.

  “Hold on a sec,” I said. I didn’t trust her injecting me with a random Inquisitor’s glove. Anything could have been loaded into it. “Scan it first. Make sure it’s what you think it is. And there better not be any thugs in it.”

  She started to object, but then probably realized I wouldn’t cave. She picked up a scanner.

  There were thugs.

  She started to apologize and swore that it shouldn’t have, that she’d gotten it from the drawer that just had the altered M-mytes. She grabbed another o
ne and without my having to ask, scanned it. Same thing, it had thugs as well. She grabbed another. Same. She scanned every glove in that drawer, and then every glove in the drawer below it. They all had thugs.

  “I don’t understand,” she said.

  I thought about it.

  “Nora blames herself for her husband’s murder. I take it he didn’t know about whatever secret you, Nora, and Shep share, and that she injected him in order to share it?”

  Sam nodded.

  “There were thugs found in his body. They killed him. Did Nora mean to inject him with the thugs, or just the altered M-mytes?”

  “Just the M-mytes.”

  “And you didn’t know she’d done it. Let me guess, she’d taken one of these, expecting it to just have the M-mytes.”

  She nodded.

  “Who has access to this room?” I asked.

  “Myself, Nora, Shep, Lillian, Brandin, half the security team, and Kody.”

  “As in Ranger Stevenson?”

  She nodded.

  “I take it you all are in on whatever this secret is?”

  She nodded.

  “The investigation was a sham, wasn’t it? Ranger Stevenson was purposefully derailing it, keeping me distracted, while you and Lillian were working the real case, am I right?”

  She nodded.

  “Why? The Horsemen were on their way to take over. They’re in charge now. It’s just a matter of time before they find out what Stevenson was doing.”

  “I can’t say anything more until you have the mytes.”

  “Can you take the thugs out of a glove?” I asked, then changed my mind. “On second thought, make a new glove.”

  She did.

  Scanned it to show there were no thugs present.

  I nodded. She put it on. I took a deep breath, and she touched my neck. This time the glove wasn’t drugged. We stood there in silence for the two minutes it took for them to take up position inside my brain.

  “A war is brewing, Travis, and you got caught in the crosshairs,” Sam said, breaking the silence.

  “You want to stop being cryptic and just tell me what the hell is going on?”

  “I know why Cassius gave ChronoGen your name, as well as Beit’s and Kwan’s.”

  “And that would be?”

  “As you already know, neither of you are E3, but what you don’t know is that each of you are close to someone who is.”

  It finally donned on me what Sam was getting at, and what Kali detected she was lying about.

  “No,” I said, shaking my head, trying to dispel the revelation.

  She started to turn away, but I took her face in my hands. I made her look at me. Then I kissed her.

  When I released her lips from mine, I said, “You’re E3, aren’t you?”

  “Yes,” she said, only hesitating for a fraction.

  I released her face. “How long?” I asked, surprised at how well I was taking this betrayal. She was E3, basically my sworn enemy. But on further reflection I realized it was Sam, and somehow, it made sense.

  “Since the beginning,” she said. “I’m a founder, Travis.”

  Even though I was surprised at how easily I accepted she was E3, I couldn’t quite choke down that she was a founder of the organization I’d been trying to wipe off the face of the earth.

  Doubts and questions about our sudden reunion of affection overtook my feelings of acceptance and happiness at how things had turned out. “So, what, you thought sleeping with me, making me feel connected to you again, would make me less inclined to take you in?”

  “No!” she said, stepping towards me.

  It was my turn to step away.

  She stopped her advance.

  “I slept with you because I love you. Because I thought you’d died. I missed you. I wanted to be with you. Idiot.” She started to cry.

  I shook my head. “Then why the hell didn’t you tell me to begin with? You knew Cassius told ChronoGen I was E3. How long were you going to wait to tell me?”

  “I couldn’t have told you. The mytes I gave you, the mytes every member of E3 has, prevents us from discussing anything pertaining to the organization with outsiders.”

  “But why did he give my name?”

  “Think about it. He was one of us. He couldn’t turn any of us over. But he found a loophole. He gave them your name because looking into you would eventually lead back to me. Nora is E3, but Julius wasn’t.”

  “Who’s Annabel Li Kwan?”

  “She’s the wife of a prominent member in Eden.”

  “So, what the hell was your plan? Or should I say, what is your plan? The Horsemen are here.”

  “That’s why you’re here, why I told you. I need your help, to solve why someone would want Julius dead.”

  “Except there’s one major flaw in your logic, I’ve been accused of being E3. My only hope was to prove my innocence, except now you’ve gone and made the accusation true. Thanks, I’m now fucked in every possible way known to man, plus some.”

  Sam held out her wrists. “Forget it then. Take me in. Tell the Horsemen that I’m behind everything, that I gave Cassius the names. Say it was all in the name of revenge. I gave him your name because I’m a scorned ex. I killed Julius because I realized no one would believe he was a Conspirator. I then tried to frame Shepard for the murder because he’s my biggest rival.”

  I analyzed what Sam said and nodded. “That actually makes a lot of sense.” Then I shook my head. “Except there’s two problems with that scenario. First, how do you explain whoever Annabel Li Kwan is?”

  “She’s the wife of my high school boyfriend.” Sam said

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Seriously?”

  One look into her eyes and I knew she wasn’t. I felt dizzy, so I sat down in a nearby chair and put my head in my hands. Was what Sam said true? Did she do all those things?

  “It’s true about Annabel,” she said. “But nothing else is. I didn’t do any of those things, but as I’m sure you realize, it’s an explanation that can get you off the hook.”

  I looked up at her and shook my head. “Yeah, it might, but that leads me to problem number two, you fucking infected me with that virus and made it impossible for me to turn on a member of E3, especially its fucking founder. So, as logical as all that sounds, and as much as I’m utterly pissed at you, the option of turning you over isn’t even in the cards. It’s not even in the fucking deck.”

  She got on her knees in front of me. “Then help me figure out who orchestrated Julius’s murder.” She was on the verge of begging, which caught me off guard.

  She never begged.

  Never.

  “Nora may have infected him with the thugs, but we know Inquisitor Noble was the catalyst.”

  “How so?”

  “The BabbleBru. Immunos are programmed to ignore it because of ChronoGen protocols, so that Inquisitors can use it, but the thugs are meant to eliminate it. Except in Julius’s case, the thugs thought it was an attack. I don’t know why I didn’t check the injection gloves before now. We thought Noble or someone else had given Julius the thugs. I think it’s safe to say that it was Nora after all, but that someone has been experimenting with them here.”

  “Someone in your organization.”

  “Like I said, a war is brewing.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You have to understand, I didn’t create E3 to start a fight with ChronoGen, or to destroy anything.”

  “Then why did you?”

  “To get you back.”

  “Get me back? You started a terrorist organization, to get me back? I’m not the one who left.”

  “I may have walked out of our relationship physically and legally, but you walked out of it emotionally way before I did. You allowed your job to rule your life. You let it change you. I thought that if I could make your job obsolete, well, maybe then you would see what you’d become.”

  I clapped my hands sarcastically. “Well, I have to give y
ou some props, going to that kind of extreme to win someone’s affections. You’ve got some crazy fucking notion of love.”

  “Stop being a smart-dumbass. E3 isn’t a terrorist organization.”

  “Really? Because the fact that buildings are being blown up and people murdered, begs to differ.”

  “You’ve known me for most of my life. Do you seriously think I’d do something like that? That I’d condone such actions?”

  “I’ve killed people, and you don’t seem to have a problem with that.”

  “Could you be serious for a fucking second?”

  “Said the terrorist.”

  “Forget it,” Sam said, and headed for the exit. “The Horsemen can have your ass, dead or alive, for all I care.”

  I thought of letting her walk out the door, but then my dad’s words arose from the grave. “I’ve spent every day since, watching your mother walk out that door, over and over again, hoping that someday I’d get a second chance, but I never did.”

  I leapt to my feet. “Sam, wait.” I ran to her and got there just as she reached the door. I positioned myself in front of her, blocking her departure.

  “You’re absolutely right. I’m an asshole. But I’m also an asshole capable of learning from my past mistakes. I already let you walk out that door one too many times. I’m not going to let it happen again.”

  I got down on my knees. “I may be too late, and my words may mean nothing to you, but I have to try. At this point I can only hope my actions will reflect my intentions.”

  I took her hand in mine. “Sam, I’m sorry. I screwed up, too many times to count. You know I don’t believe in fate, destiny, kismet, whatever you want to call it, and yet, somehow, I believe in us. That there is something in this universe, which continues to draw us together. I have no doubt that if I had let you walk out that door, that at some point in the future, our paths would have crossed again. But you know what? I don’t want to waste any more time not being with you. I love you Samsara Manisha Matsuzaki, and I want to be with you, now, and forever, as long as that may be.”

  Tears flowed like they had the day I’d proposed, maybe even more so.