Chapter 8
As a city, NeoSeattle had been transformed by the immense wealth that the Apath Corporation had funneled into it. It was not so much the company, conservative in its outward investments, that had generated the money, but the explosion of information technology companies that had sprung up in its wake. When the Pathfinder OS proliferated all brands of computers, beating out first Microsoft from its own game and then soon after destroying the market for Apple computer products merely by merit of existing, the market for software developed by third parties to utilize the OS also grew immensely.
When company after company began to move into Seattle, the city itself was reborn. A technical wonderland, replacing what was once known as silicon valley with a newer, better version. Above all these sycophantic businesses was of course Apath itself, who used the massive reconstruction of the city to establish and expand its massive underground network of laboratories, manufacturing facilities, and research departments.
Soon after is when Seatle became Neo Seattle. The entire face of the city had changed, as had it's culture. It retained a portion of what had made it unique, but the rapid developement of this new business sector had made it into a city based on the business of technology. The multitudes of software developers became the lifeforce of the city, and without Apath, it would without a doubt die.
Becoming such an important anchor had allowed Apath from behind the scenes to manipulate building codes, contractors, and the many other neccessary firms to secure and hide their underground facilities. The complex that sat below the New Century Apath Corporation building, buried down and outward of it, was hidden from the world, with no external signs that it did in fact exist.
---
Like an old man, Bill sat hunched over, eyes unfocused. Leaning against his shoulder, hugged tight to him was Sanctuary, as deadly as always, shining even in the dull light as a tribute to the loving care he put into maintaining it. The blade was sharpened, the hilt wrapped tight, the guard polished.
Bill's own visor showed less care. It was smudged and had dried bits of rubbish caked into the seams. His eyes, amplified by his own genetic enhancement, amplified by being artificial orbs implanted into his skull, amplified further by that same visor which was bolted to his face, could see and see and see regardless.
The dark room was not dark to him. His eyes without the visor would have been burned by the intense light. A normal man would likely lose himself in the pitch blackness. The damage to his eyes had been perminant and degenerative. His eyes became stronger, sharper, more precise with every passing moment. But they were right to bind him with the visor; He would likely be blind from his hyper sensitivity to light, cones and rod burned to uselessness. The Visor allowed him to see with his superior eyes which protecting them from being too strong.
Bill also imagined they watched him through that visor. Recorded his every move. Saw what he saw. He would not put it past them, they were suspicious of him. They did not trust him. His eyes were their eyes on him.
'I'm in this cage because they do not trust me. They saw with their own eyes, with my eyes, what I'm capable of. That frightened them and rightly so. I'm better than them, stronger, smarter. I know things, truths about the world that they could never dream of. Not as a product of my mind but as a product of my will. I have the will to seperate lives from men and in doing so with abandon I have found the secrets of this world.'
Bill was nude. They didn't trust him at all anymore. His DS^2 had been deactivated, and he was supposed to be demoralized by being left naked and helpless in the concrete box they had placed him in.
'I am neither. Were I of the will to kill myself it would have been done. They cannot control my body, only fool themselves into believing they can.'
The curious decision to let Bill keep his sword was one often debated inside the Council. They had seen the tapes knew the facts; Bill was in love with his sword. It was an extension of him, a part of his body. When they had taken it from him initially, for their safety as well as his own, he had nearly destroyed both of his arms trying to pound his way out of the cell they trapped him in. The worry, more than anything, was that by depriving him of his Sanctuary, they would only give him access to a more terrifying, more powerful weapon.
Should he, by accident, find the key to his Viral activation, there was no telling the sorts of horrors that could be unleashed.
There was also the fact that he remained their only functioning BioSuit, and that while he was ambitious, crude, deadly, and increasingly psychopathic, there was no tool as valuble as him in all the Underground. He rarely completed a task cleanly, but when his skill were called upon he always completely the task with finality.
'And yet Gabe...'
He shrugged off that thought. Chasing men through the forest was no task for a killer.
'When did I become the most efficient-- ah, I suppose that is a stretch. When did I become the most effective killing machine on the planet?'
The memory came to him. His first kill had been sloppy. Not because he left evidence behind, that was normal. No, he had been injured. He had not known exactly what he was to do. He was scared, at that moment, excited and frighten by the prospect of killing.
It had made him, dull weak. He had learned from that experience though. And he had grown stronger. Bill slid his finger across the side of Sanctuary, leaving an oily print on the glossy metal. He took the cloth they gave him and buffed it out.
'Before Sanctuary, I was incomplete. Obviously I could not live up to my potential.'
His eyes stared out from his metal mask.
'I lost Gabe. I lost him. He managed to get away. That's why I'm here.'
Something about that made his blood boil.
---
It felt good to be in a uniform while not on a mission for once. Bill stretched, a bit wary that the fabric felt slightly abrasive after sitting in his bare skin for so long.
Bill had been taken from his cell to witness something. He wasn't sure the purpose, but walked without restraint. It was rare these days to be able to take in the sights of the Underground. Led and trailed by an escort, which was more a formality than an effective means of culling his violence, he was taken to an elevator. The slow, innocuous movement disguised the direction it went, for most people that is. Bill could sense the subtle vibrations, the angular resistance of metal being pulled across metal. He knew they were descending. Bill filed that information away for some far off, unforeseen later.
The escorts led him through two sets of doors into a dark room that was fully illuminated via his visor. The was a large table in the center, surrounded by faceless bodies, with numbers projected across their face. Bill peered into these faces and saw nothing. They were not really there. He looked hard at the figure at the head of the table, across from him. That man was there. There was a woman standing besides him silently.
Standing at the side of the table with escorts in tow, the BioSuit realized that he had walked in on an argument in progress. The voices had paused when he entered, but now as they became used to his presence they began talking again. The man with the Number 1 began to speak, his voice calm, but with an edge to it. The woman standing to the side of him watched without watching, keeping completely still.
"You have said your piece time and again and I refuse to hear it because you are, and have been, incorrect."
The man he was speaking to was near Bill, with his back to the BioSuit. He pounded his fist on the table, jabbing his finger towards the man with the Number 1 on his face.
"Do you find it funny to let my creation sit and languish while you play games for your own amusement? We had a viable test platform for mass production and you ignored it based on the failing of an incomplete unit!"
'Ah,' Bill thought, his features darkening as he went into himself, 'That must be Hughes. They're talking about me.'
"Presumptive or not, the evidence at the time showed a higher rate of instability than the Type05s. Further more, the time it would have taken to build another unit would have left us with a window of development time wasted. Number 8," Hughes stiffened, his number hiding his identity, "We are behind schedule. Do you know what I would have done with you if we wasted 6 months building a new Type 06 only to find it completely unsuitable for mass production?"
Hughes responded with a burst of anger, "It does not matter what you have done, because you could have done nothing. You have seen him. He is the next stage, the next process of human evolution. You've seen him, as I've seen him! He embodies it, all the traits humanity needs. He is strong and he is brutal and he is cunning. He has no fear of killing! And that is what is needed, he must kill and by killing he will spurn forward evolution."
Apex ended Hughe's diatribe quickly, "And how did you expect him to do that while being unable to procreate."
The way he said it came more as a statement than a question, a punctuation to end the thought Hughes had stumbled into. Hughes mouth hung open, then closed, like a gasping fish.
"Procreate? They are machines. What are you talking about! We don't need them to procreate for they are immortal. If one dies another can be made, such is the beauty of the artificial!"
"I am here to bring about evolution, to bring about the great leap. Don't confuse that with creating the ultimate being. There is no such thing; all things fall before the march of evolution. Without procreation, nothing we do has any value. Bill is a tool. You, Dr. Hung are a tool, but you are loosing your utility quickly. We must strive, we must advance. What humanity needs is the ability to give themselves eternal perminance, not for the individuals to extend their years."
Apex, behind his guise, stared with intent at the man he knew to be his man Dr. Hughes, "BioSuits die. Because of us, humanity will not. "
"What is the point of creating these beings that can't live through time? They can be eternal rulers, freeing society of the burden of choosing again and again from pools of untrained, unworthy candidates."
"There will be a ruler."
Hughes pasued. Fianlly his mouth widened as the implication dawned on him.
'He will accelerate the evolution of man kind, but he is the one who will rule into eternity. He plans to keep that power for his own. I would too, but I cannot stand by--'
"Now just you wait, you have no right to withhold this--"
"Ambrosia."
With one word the woman to Apex's side burst suddenly into motion. She leapt onto the table, her entire body moving in subtle, shifting, fluidic motion. While in mid air her right arm came back, drawing a katana from the sheath on her back. As she skidded across the table, her arm came down, up, and over. Blood sprayed from Dr. Hughes slashed neck, his heart forcing the blood out in thick bursts, before his body shuddered and her fell forward onto the table, dead. The woman jerked her sword, flinging the man's blood from it, and brought it back over her shoulder into her its sheath.
Bill gaped. The whole exercise took maybe 4 seconds. The woman before him on the table made him feel fire in his loins. She stood there, a symbol of defiance of the council, against any close or far who would oppose that "Number 1's" rule. The leader of the Underground was a shrewd one, that was certain. Bill felt his heart race.
Her face was a mask of calm, to the point of appearing disinterested. her eyes were heavy lidded, shadowed lightly. Even in the darkness Bill could see her irises, a strange pinkish color. Her body was slim and athletic. She was not curvy, but was instead somewhat angular, sharper, more dangerous looking. The roundness of her breasts were hidden by her suit, which he noticed he noticed with a flush was of impreccible tailor, very similar to the one he had since abandoned.
The rest of the council remained silent. A few lights dimmed as the members left. The man with the Number 1 on his face stepped forward, looking over the table. He placed his palms down, leaning in, examining. The blood pooled on the table and his face, behind the cloak, was cold. He felt an emptiness in his belly.
'I have never before seen a man die before me. Not of violence. I have ordered it and known it done but never so close, never so directly based on personal whims. It was neccessary, and even if not, I must hold on. Everything depends on my ability to maintain my humanity while causing the world to crumble and be rebuilt in my image.'
Apex snapped his finger, and the projector shut off. The light in the room raised, and Apex showed his face. There were several gasps from around the room. Bill saw with shock that Engelmacht sat directly next to the now dead Hughes, her face not betraying any emotion, a spray of blood deeply stained on her coat. He felt a chill. The woman was more dangerous than he gave her credit for. He was lucky he had been without chance to push her recently, it might have ended much worse than he could have imagined.
"My name is Stephan Apex. You know me only as the CEO and founder of the New Century Apath Corporation. But that is not me. This is me." He slammed his fist against the table causing several in the audience to jump noticably.
"What I do is give you proof that we have entered the next phase in our plans. This woman is Ambrosia Townshend," He raised his hand to indicate her, still standing at attention on the table, Hughes blood puddling around her shoe, "She is the first of a new series of Production Type BioSuits, the Type07A. She is capable of so many things, things we have never dreamed of. She is our first true success. That is why I show you my face today. You have been brought in on a secret, and by doing so your are cupible for that secret. You see, I have the confidence that even if one of you outed me, I would survive." The implication that they would not hung heavy in the air, "We will be seeing more of Amborisa and her kin soon. Multiple Wombs are being constructed to make a full line of Type 07s. They will be tasked with starting what we have been planning all along. Our scenerio is finally in effect!"
Bill looked at the woman in awe, 'Ambrosia...'
His mind was clouded and he could feel a warmth spreading over his body. His ego screamed out at him, his instincts told him to rebel, to spin and kill that Apex right now. His body burned with the desire to snuff Apex out in this instant, to take and rape and fill Ambrosia with his children, to become the god of this world and rule without mercy or pause.
But as soon as he thought that his logic reigned him in. He while he could do the act, his children did not exist. He was a sterile, as Apex had said. And with Ambrosia there, had he moved to strike Apex, he would have likely lost his head. The thought of a sword fight with the woman intrigued him, and he found his heart beating rapidly as he thought of her.
Ambrosia stepped down from the table, not giving Bill a second look. She was tall for a woman, just slightly shorter than Bill. She seemed more mature, as if she had been designed to be a few years older than him. She took her place at Apex' side.
Bill was led out of the room by his escort, not a word having been spoken to him the entire time he was present.
The lights of the other council members extinguished, leaving Apex, Engelmacht and the new BioSuit alone in the room.
"Do you have anything to say, Dr. Engelmacht?"
Engelmacht sat back straight for a moment, and then turned in her chair. She rested her elbow on the table, and her chin in her hand. The blood from Hughes that had been spilled wicked up the cloth of her labcoat.
"These BioSuits are children. Don't rely on them too much."
She moved to leave, but Apex raised a hand to stop her.
"What do you mean?"
She looked back, "They might know things like an adult does, but until they experience they aren't mature. They'll act like children, selfishly, as they deserve to be."
Stephan's eyes flickered to Ambrosia, who stood next to him impassively.
"Please see me in my office later tongiht. I want to talk to you about something. You'll be sent an escort."
Kathryn paused a moment and then walked from the room.
'She's the sort who has been seen her whole life for her body, and she knows it. She thinks I am going to abuse my power so soon after gaining it. That is of course appealing but she'll learn soon that's not all I value her for.'
Apex rose, Ambrosia following behind him.
---
Kathryn felt like she had betrayed the world, all of a sudden all her petty problems felt like nothing in the grand scheme of things. She had gone to Stephan's Apex's office. She had learned the things he wanted to tell her. She knew that her own personal follies would never amount to anything in this world.
'If I am in this for personal gain, fine, most are. He is in it for something else entirely! He's crazy, and yet he seems like the most sane among us!'
He had taken her inside his offiice. She noticed with some fear that Ambrosia was with him, her inpenitrable face looking on without concern.
"What I'm going to show you will change the way you see this organization. but I can see already that you are outside the scope of the others. Your desires in some ways reflect mine, though selfish as it may be I find mine to have greater priority."
Kathryn frowned, not following his logic.
"You lust after your own creation, Engelmacht. Let's not be coy."
She had bristled, but let herself be led by what he was saying, seeing if he had a point. Apex took his cue to continue.
"Everything I have said I beleive. We are a species that has stopped evolving, and we are a species that is being led to a premature death. We are weak, and needlessly so. Our bodies are frail, and our time here is short. But, I do not want us as individuals to become immortal. That is short sighted. But as a race I can make us survive forever, without concern for the natural processes of the world."
He paused, though for dramatic effect or to compose his through Kathryn could not tell.
"I also do this to revive someone I have lost, to cheat death in a way no one thought possible."
He brought her around to his side of the desk, and she saw with shock what he intended to do.
"You mean to build a body and transmit memories into it?"
"What is a person but their memories."
"It's not the same, accourding to this, you've only recreated them. They are not real."
"They will be real to her."
"That's impossible."
"We will make it possible. You and I."
"I can't, I wont."
"If you don't do as I ask I will kill you."
Engelmacht had no doubt, from the moment the words left his lips, that he was telling the truth.
"You have no other place here, doctor. You will not touch another BioSuit with your hands. It is now beyond you, you had your chance and it blew up in your face. Bad luck or not, this is all that holds you to the Underground. If not this, you are useless, and if you are useless, then you will disappear."
Her mind reeled. Was it really so simple to bring someone back from the dead now? No, it was less than that. He was merely replacing a person from his memories with the illusion of that person. She saw now what had driven Apex to the mad lengths he had taken to get that far. Love and anguish had moved him to action, against all logic.
"Why now?"
"With the Type 07 we have reached the point where failure is no longer in our meal. The plans will go forward, and the technology is now here that I might begin to design her. I will require your assistance. Designing the Type 07 was a task in itself, a trial to see if I'm worthy of this next task. This suit however," He tapped his screen, "This suit will be more. Nothing like it has ever been made nor will it ever be made again. I cannot do it alone. I brought you here because I saw your genius. I let you squander it on your personal fetishes in order to satiate you. The time has run out, and you will help me. The technology is here. The time is now."
"Why me?"
"The refinements you made to the BLOCKSabre technology only shows how much genius you are hiding away in that skull of yours. I'm sure you intended to use your new invention on something other than my Type 07 but the fact of the matter is it is revolutionary. I need you to capture that genius and help me, and by helping me help the human race."
'He's talking about my BLOCKSystem. I was startled by the applications too but to think that it would mean this much to him? He must have taken and finished my prototype and included it with the Type 07'
"Did you include the BLOCKSystem I designed in the Type 07?"
Apex smiled wryly. Ambrosia stepped forward and unbuttoned her suit jacket, pulling it and her scabbard from her shoulders. She placed them on Apex' desk and leaned over slightly. Kathryn could see the her blouse begin to stretch out from her back, and with a shredding of cloth two large white wings grew out of her back, pumping as they unfurled, as tall nearly as the BioSuit woman was. For once Ambrosia turned her dull eyes stare to Engelmacht who felt her body clam up and tingle.
'The wings are a product of my BLOCKSystem, exactly as I designed them! Oh, to imagine them on my darling Gabriel...' She felt herself dampen and pursed her lips, eyes slitted, looking at Apex.
"As you can see, your theories proved true. The Wings are constructed out of biomechanical material at the microscopic leve. They rearrange themselves from a dense catlyst material into functioning, organic wings. Exactly as your plans implied."
So they had. Kathryn, following Gabriel's escape, began to work tirelessly on her new project, kept strictly away from BioSuit develoment. The BLOCKSystem already existed in an extremely primitive form in the BLOCKSabre, using encoded metal that reacted to electrical stimulous to form blades. She, with help from the Deep 13, took the simplicity of the BLOCKSystem and applied it to biomechanical componants. The result was similar, inert, the 'blocks' were stored densly in Ambrosia's shoulder blades. Once activated, the became less dense and interlocked to formed the wings that now stuck out of her back. The only caveat is the system was unable to heal organically, because of the biomechanical nature of the building blocks.
'They can be replaced easily enough, though the system at this stage is extremely expensive to impliment, unlike prosthetics.' she thought.
"How did you discover what I had been doing?" She was less concerned than she was curious.
"Since all your work will be forwarded directly to me from now on, letting you know isn't such a foolish idea. You did most of the intensive calculations with the Deep 13. The Deep 13 is my machine and it knows precisely what I need to know.
'Ah, so when something of interest crosses throgh the Deep 13 it passes it onto Apex. That would make it very difficult to hide any personal project. Whatever we do is inevitalbly handled or touched at some point by the Deep 13.'
"I need you to continue to work on this system. I can imagine easily it becoming the most potent weapon of the BioSuits. And, more than anything, I need the system to advance to complete my plans for this one..." His hand again brushed the screen with his preliminary plans for his final BioSuit.
Kathryn began to take her leave, but was stopped again by Apex.
"Dr. Engelmacht, is there any way we can track the Type 05 series? We've been working to reacquire them, but as you know the Type 05B has escaped even the Type 06's grasp. We will soon have more than enough resources to return them against their will, and perhaps make use of the investments we made on their bodies."
Her mind raced, and she kept the fear and knowledge as far from her body language as possible.
'They have transponders that locate one another. It's part of being companion BioSuits. If we wanted we could track them down in an instant.'
"Not that I know of, sir. We will just have to keep an eye out."
'I cannot betray my own creation. Not if I claim to love him. I wish he could return, but if he does it should be by his own will.'
Kathryn recalled all this, the meeting fresh in her mind.
"If I'm of use then I can still live. But to do all this for one woman... To conquer the world, and evolve the human race for one woman."
Kathryn shuddered as she thought of the will neccessary for such an act. If nothing else, Apex deserved the admiration of the world for that alone.
---
William Sunderland, known to most as Bill or the TestType 06, reclined in opulant wonder. Oh, it had been a good day.
For the first time in months sat on a bed, a real bed made of fabric and springs and blankets. He wore clothes, saw a computer sitting on desk. He had a room, no longer a cell, at least not the traditional kind.
Bills eyes managed to encompass everything while remaining closed, taking stock of his new possesions. He felt almost human, but was keen to keep the distinction between the lesser species and himself.
'Hughes is dead and now I have been elevated a rank in stature. Surely things are starting to move.'
His thoughts turned to Ambrosia, the blue haired goddess that had smiled upon him. She represented something improtant to the Underground, a fundemental change in attitude and aim.
'Before the thought was only "Make a BioSuit." Now we can concern ourselves with the real mission, what we were all brought here to accomplish in the first place.'
It occured to him that he may have been let free because Ambrosia existed.
'If they beleive me tamed by affection for her... No, that's not it. They no longer have to fear me because they do not only have a roque BioSuit, but one that sits comfortably under their thumbs. I have a counterpoint, something to stop me if I run wild.'
The prospects whirled in his belly, both exciting and enraging. They were confident that he had been replaced, but again the thought of battling that woman made him feel alive, filthy.
'I cannot procreate, that is true, but my existence still can change the flow of evolution. I think Apex knows this, and that's why I remain. That is what we are here for.' The smile on his face grew, he spoke aloud, "I hope my evolutionary drives don't force me to do wrong."
---
Stephan Apex couldn't help but feel pride in his creation. Many people had contributed to the success of her, but leading that process, shaping it, made him feel unlike he had since... the creation of the Deep 13.
'That was the first time I carved out a new fate with my own hand, fought against the currents of the world and won, created a pocket for myself that no other man could have done.'
Ambrosia gave him the same feeling, that he had dug his way out of the quagmire that had almost engulfed the project. Things were moving smoothly, finally the plans that had begun a decade before would be set fully in motion.
His mind turned, 'The plans will have to be sent off to Seraph Corp soon. We expose a vulnerable weakness in doing so, but we cannot renege on our end of the bargain. The Dive Machines are too precious to give up now. Of course, they can wait until the other Type 07s are in production. Better to have a pad against accident first than to be left naked if they decided to betray us.'
The man-machine interface the Seraph Corporation craved and had bargained for was to be delviered soon. With it meant that they would be able, in theory, to begin to produce their own BioSuits.
'But it wont be as easy as copying us. All they will get from us is the Man-machine interface and the Lucretzia Drive AI. They will be left completely in the dark as to the rest of it. It will be up to them to figure out exactly how to use those implants and the AI to their potential.'
Ambrosia stood at rapt attention, not moving, eyes striaght forward. A model of military precision, she would be a welcome addition to any army.
"Ambrosia, relax, you're going to give me nerves."
"I am relaxed Mr. Apex."
Apex grunted. He wondered whether it was just this girl or the Lucretzia drive as a whole that made her so stiff and formal. He didn't really mind, but it would take some getting used to. The BioSuit would be his official body guard, both inside and outside the Underground. He was confident that the members of the council would not be as foolish as to attempt to assassinate him now that they knew his true identity, but the threat remained.
'And that is why I waited until we finally were met with success. She is both my protection and the reason I would put myself in harms way.'
"Ambrosia, you may retire for the evening. Please wake me by 6 tomorrow."
Ambrosia nodded curtly, taking her leave. She disappeared into the elevator and descended to the level deep in the Underground that would contain her quarters. Apex had made sure to keep them far from where Bill would be staying.
'We can introduce some levity now, we are not at his mercy as we once were, but he is still dangerous. Dangerous and useful, maybe, but were that not the case we'd have eliminated him already.'
Apex stood up and stretched, feeling the tension in his body. He was taking a gamble, but they needed to know that thing were progressing. Fear, fear of failure and confidence in the plan is what they needed right now. He would begin to meet with people face to face, as he had when he was getting the Apath Corporation off the ground. There was preliminary work that had to be done, before they prepared for Mass Production.
He thought wearily how it might have been done him good to have fulfilled Engelmacht's expectations and forced her to sleep with him. Or even Ambrosia. But no, he had to be stronger than that. Too many great men had been side tracked by the failings of the flesh. His goal after all went well beyond the abuse of power. It was too early for him to get lax.
He thought of his dead wife, as though he ever stopped, and knew that he was better for it for her sake, as well.
---
Ambrosia decended down into the depths of Apath. Her thoughts were immobile, and her body language remained as sharp and compact as it had when she was in front of Apex. She was as she was created, an obediant, intelligent, ruthless killing machine. She harbored no guilt for that. She accepted it as fact. She was Apex' bodyguard. She was his right hand, his tool. Her expression remained the same.
From the outside, it seemed as though in his search for a better human, Apex had mistakenly left the humanity out of this one.
When company after company began to move into Seattle, the city itself was reborn. A technical wonderland, replacing what was once known as silicon valley with a newer, better version. Above all these sycophantic businesses was of course Apath itself, who used the massive reconstruction of the city to establish and expand its massive underground network of laboratories, manufacturing facilities, and research departments.
Soon after is when Seatle became Neo Seattle. The entire face of the city had changed, as had it's culture. It retained a portion of what had made it unique, but the rapid developement of this new business sector had made it into a city based on the business of technology. The multitudes of software developers became the lifeforce of the city, and without Apath, it would without a doubt die.
Becoming such an important anchor had allowed Apath from behind the scenes to manipulate building codes, contractors, and the many other neccessary firms to secure and hide their underground facilities. The complex that sat below the New Century Apath Corporation building, buried down and outward of it, was hidden from the world, with no external signs that it did in fact exist.
---
Like an old man, Bill sat hunched over, eyes unfocused. Leaning against his shoulder, hugged tight to him was Sanctuary, as deadly as always, shining even in the dull light as a tribute to the loving care he put into maintaining it. The blade was sharpened, the hilt wrapped tight, the guard polished.
Bill's own visor showed less care. It was smudged and had dried bits of rubbish caked into the seams. His eyes, amplified by his own genetic enhancement, amplified by being artificial orbs implanted into his skull, amplified further by that same visor which was bolted to his face, could see and see and see regardless.
The dark room was not dark to him. His eyes without the visor would have been burned by the intense light. A normal man would likely lose himself in the pitch blackness. The damage to his eyes had been perminant and degenerative. His eyes became stronger, sharper, more precise with every passing moment. But they were right to bind him with the visor; He would likely be blind from his hyper sensitivity to light, cones and rod burned to uselessness. The Visor allowed him to see with his superior eyes which protecting them from being too strong.
Bill also imagined they watched him through that visor. Recorded his every move. Saw what he saw. He would not put it past them, they were suspicious of him. They did not trust him. His eyes were their eyes on him.
'I'm in this cage because they do not trust me. They saw with their own eyes, with my eyes, what I'm capable of. That frightened them and rightly so. I'm better than them, stronger, smarter. I know things, truths about the world that they could never dream of. Not as a product of my mind but as a product of my will. I have the will to seperate lives from men and in doing so with abandon I have found the secrets of this world.'
Bill was nude. They didn't trust him at all anymore. His DS^2 had been deactivated, and he was supposed to be demoralized by being left naked and helpless in the concrete box they had placed him in.
'I am neither. Were I of the will to kill myself it would have been done. They cannot control my body, only fool themselves into believing they can.'
The curious decision to let Bill keep his sword was one often debated inside the Council. They had seen the tapes knew the facts; Bill was in love with his sword. It was an extension of him, a part of his body. When they had taken it from him initially, for their safety as well as his own, he had nearly destroyed both of his arms trying to pound his way out of the cell they trapped him in. The worry, more than anything, was that by depriving him of his Sanctuary, they would only give him access to a more terrifying, more powerful weapon.
Should he, by accident, find the key to his Viral activation, there was no telling the sorts of horrors that could be unleashed.
There was also the fact that he remained their only functioning BioSuit, and that while he was ambitious, crude, deadly, and increasingly psychopathic, there was no tool as valuble as him in all the Underground. He rarely completed a task cleanly, but when his skill were called upon he always completely the task with finality.
'And yet Gabe...'
He shrugged off that thought. Chasing men through the forest was no task for a killer.
'When did I become the most efficient-- ah, I suppose that is a stretch. When did I become the most effective killing machine on the planet?'
The memory came to him. His first kill had been sloppy. Not because he left evidence behind, that was normal. No, he had been injured. He had not known exactly what he was to do. He was scared, at that moment, excited and frighten by the prospect of killing.
It had made him, dull weak. He had learned from that experience though. And he had grown stronger. Bill slid his finger across the side of Sanctuary, leaving an oily print on the glossy metal. He took the cloth they gave him and buffed it out.
'Before Sanctuary, I was incomplete. Obviously I could not live up to my potential.'
His eyes stared out from his metal mask.
'I lost Gabe. I lost him. He managed to get away. That's why I'm here.'
Something about that made his blood boil.
---
It felt good to be in a uniform while not on a mission for once. Bill stretched, a bit wary that the fabric felt slightly abrasive after sitting in his bare skin for so long.
Bill had been taken from his cell to witness something. He wasn't sure the purpose, but walked without restraint. It was rare these days to be able to take in the sights of the Underground. Led and trailed by an escort, which was more a formality than an effective means of culling his violence, he was taken to an elevator. The slow, innocuous movement disguised the direction it went, for most people that is. Bill could sense the subtle vibrations, the angular resistance of metal being pulled across metal. He knew they were descending. Bill filed that information away for some far off, unforeseen later.
The escorts led him through two sets of doors into a dark room that was fully illuminated via his visor. The was a large table in the center, surrounded by faceless bodies, with numbers projected across their face. Bill peered into these faces and saw nothing. They were not really there. He looked hard at the figure at the head of the table, across from him. That man was there. There was a woman standing besides him silently.
Standing at the side of the table with escorts in tow, the BioSuit realized that he had walked in on an argument in progress. The voices had paused when he entered, but now as they became used to his presence they began talking again. The man with the Number 1 began to speak, his voice calm, but with an edge to it. The woman standing to the side of him watched without watching, keeping completely still.
"You have said your piece time and again and I refuse to hear it because you are, and have been, incorrect."
The man he was speaking to was near Bill, with his back to the BioSuit. He pounded his fist on the table, jabbing his finger towards the man with the Number 1 on his face.
"Do you find it funny to let my creation sit and languish while you play games for your own amusement? We had a viable test platform for mass production and you ignored it based on the failing of an incomplete unit!"
'Ah,' Bill thought, his features darkening as he went into himself, 'That must be Hughes. They're talking about me.'
"Presumptive or not, the evidence at the time showed a higher rate of instability than the Type05s. Further more, the time it would have taken to build another unit would have left us with a window of development time wasted. Number 8," Hughes stiffened, his number hiding his identity, "We are behind schedule. Do you know what I would have done with you if we wasted 6 months building a new Type 06 only to find it completely unsuitable for mass production?"
Hughes responded with a burst of anger, "It does not matter what you have done, because you could have done nothing. You have seen him. He is the next stage, the next process of human evolution. You've seen him, as I've seen him! He embodies it, all the traits humanity needs. He is strong and he is brutal and he is cunning. He has no fear of killing! And that is what is needed, he must kill and by killing he will spurn forward evolution."
Apex ended Hughe's diatribe quickly, "And how did you expect him to do that while being unable to procreate."
The way he said it came more as a statement than a question, a punctuation to end the thought Hughes had stumbled into. Hughes mouth hung open, then closed, like a gasping fish.
"Procreate? They are machines. What are you talking about! We don't need them to procreate for they are immortal. If one dies another can be made, such is the beauty of the artificial!"
"I am here to bring about evolution, to bring about the great leap. Don't confuse that with creating the ultimate being. There is no such thing; all things fall before the march of evolution. Without procreation, nothing we do has any value. Bill is a tool. You, Dr. Hung are a tool, but you are loosing your utility quickly. We must strive, we must advance. What humanity needs is the ability to give themselves eternal perminance, not for the individuals to extend their years."
Apex, behind his guise, stared with intent at the man he knew to be his man Dr. Hughes, "BioSuits die. Because of us, humanity will not. "
"What is the point of creating these beings that can't live through time? They can be eternal rulers, freeing society of the burden of choosing again and again from pools of untrained, unworthy candidates."
"There will be a ruler."
Hughes pasued. Fianlly his mouth widened as the implication dawned on him.
'He will accelerate the evolution of man kind, but he is the one who will rule into eternity. He plans to keep that power for his own. I would too, but I cannot stand by--'
"Now just you wait, you have no right to withhold this--"
"Ambrosia."
With one word the woman to Apex's side burst suddenly into motion. She leapt onto the table, her entire body moving in subtle, shifting, fluidic motion. While in mid air her right arm came back, drawing a katana from the sheath on her back. As she skidded across the table, her arm came down, up, and over. Blood sprayed from Dr. Hughes slashed neck, his heart forcing the blood out in thick bursts, before his body shuddered and her fell forward onto the table, dead. The woman jerked her sword, flinging the man's blood from it, and brought it back over her shoulder into her its sheath.
Bill gaped. The whole exercise took maybe 4 seconds. The woman before him on the table made him feel fire in his loins. She stood there, a symbol of defiance of the council, against any close or far who would oppose that "Number 1's" rule. The leader of the Underground was a shrewd one, that was certain. Bill felt his heart race.
Her face was a mask of calm, to the point of appearing disinterested. her eyes were heavy lidded, shadowed lightly. Even in the darkness Bill could see her irises, a strange pinkish color. Her body was slim and athletic. She was not curvy, but was instead somewhat angular, sharper, more dangerous looking. The roundness of her breasts were hidden by her suit, which he noticed he noticed with a flush was of impreccible tailor, very similar to the one he had since abandoned.
The rest of the council remained silent. A few lights dimmed as the members left. The man with the Number 1 on his face stepped forward, looking over the table. He placed his palms down, leaning in, examining. The blood pooled on the table and his face, behind the cloak, was cold. He felt an emptiness in his belly.
'I have never before seen a man die before me. Not of violence. I have ordered it and known it done but never so close, never so directly based on personal whims. It was neccessary, and even if not, I must hold on. Everything depends on my ability to maintain my humanity while causing the world to crumble and be rebuilt in my image.'
Apex snapped his finger, and the projector shut off. The light in the room raised, and Apex showed his face. There were several gasps from around the room. Bill saw with shock that Engelmacht sat directly next to the now dead Hughes, her face not betraying any emotion, a spray of blood deeply stained on her coat. He felt a chill. The woman was more dangerous than he gave her credit for. He was lucky he had been without chance to push her recently, it might have ended much worse than he could have imagined.
"My name is Stephan Apex. You know me only as the CEO and founder of the New Century Apath Corporation. But that is not me. This is me." He slammed his fist against the table causing several in the audience to jump noticably.
"What I do is give you proof that we have entered the next phase in our plans. This woman is Ambrosia Townshend," He raised his hand to indicate her, still standing at attention on the table, Hughes blood puddling around her shoe, "She is the first of a new series of Production Type BioSuits, the Type07A. She is capable of so many things, things we have never dreamed of. She is our first true success. That is why I show you my face today. You have been brought in on a secret, and by doing so your are cupible for that secret. You see, I have the confidence that even if one of you outed me, I would survive." The implication that they would not hung heavy in the air, "We will be seeing more of Amborisa and her kin soon. Multiple Wombs are being constructed to make a full line of Type 07s. They will be tasked with starting what we have been planning all along. Our scenerio is finally in effect!"
Bill looked at the woman in awe, 'Ambrosia...'
His mind was clouded and he could feel a warmth spreading over his body. His ego screamed out at him, his instincts told him to rebel, to spin and kill that Apex right now. His body burned with the desire to snuff Apex out in this instant, to take and rape and fill Ambrosia with his children, to become the god of this world and rule without mercy or pause.
But as soon as he thought that his logic reigned him in. He while he could do the act, his children did not exist. He was a sterile, as Apex had said. And with Ambrosia there, had he moved to strike Apex, he would have likely lost his head. The thought of a sword fight with the woman intrigued him, and he found his heart beating rapidly as he thought of her.
Ambrosia stepped down from the table, not giving Bill a second look. She was tall for a woman, just slightly shorter than Bill. She seemed more mature, as if she had been designed to be a few years older than him. She took her place at Apex' side.
Bill was led out of the room by his escort, not a word having been spoken to him the entire time he was present.
The lights of the other council members extinguished, leaving Apex, Engelmacht and the new BioSuit alone in the room.
"Do you have anything to say, Dr. Engelmacht?"
Engelmacht sat back straight for a moment, and then turned in her chair. She rested her elbow on the table, and her chin in her hand. The blood from Hughes that had been spilled wicked up the cloth of her labcoat.
"These BioSuits are children. Don't rely on them too much."
She moved to leave, but Apex raised a hand to stop her.
"What do you mean?"
She looked back, "They might know things like an adult does, but until they experience they aren't mature. They'll act like children, selfishly, as they deserve to be."
Stephan's eyes flickered to Ambrosia, who stood next to him impassively.
"Please see me in my office later tongiht. I want to talk to you about something. You'll be sent an escort."
Kathryn paused a moment and then walked from the room.
'She's the sort who has been seen her whole life for her body, and she knows it. She thinks I am going to abuse my power so soon after gaining it. That is of course appealing but she'll learn soon that's not all I value her for.'
Apex rose, Ambrosia following behind him.
---
Kathryn felt like she had betrayed the world, all of a sudden all her petty problems felt like nothing in the grand scheme of things. She had gone to Stephan's Apex's office. She had learned the things he wanted to tell her. She knew that her own personal follies would never amount to anything in this world.
'If I am in this for personal gain, fine, most are. He is in it for something else entirely! He's crazy, and yet he seems like the most sane among us!'
He had taken her inside his offiice. She noticed with some fear that Ambrosia was with him, her inpenitrable face looking on without concern.
"What I'm going to show you will change the way you see this organization. but I can see already that you are outside the scope of the others. Your desires in some ways reflect mine, though selfish as it may be I find mine to have greater priority."
Kathryn frowned, not following his logic.
"You lust after your own creation, Engelmacht. Let's not be coy."
She had bristled, but let herself be led by what he was saying, seeing if he had a point. Apex took his cue to continue.
"Everything I have said I beleive. We are a species that has stopped evolving, and we are a species that is being led to a premature death. We are weak, and needlessly so. Our bodies are frail, and our time here is short. But, I do not want us as individuals to become immortal. That is short sighted. But as a race I can make us survive forever, without concern for the natural processes of the world."
He paused, though for dramatic effect or to compose his through Kathryn could not tell.
"I also do this to revive someone I have lost, to cheat death in a way no one thought possible."
He brought her around to his side of the desk, and she saw with shock what he intended to do.
"You mean to build a body and transmit memories into it?"
"What is a person but their memories."
"It's not the same, accourding to this, you've only recreated them. They are not real."
"They will be real to her."
"That's impossible."
"We will make it possible. You and I."
"I can't, I wont."
"If you don't do as I ask I will kill you."
Engelmacht had no doubt, from the moment the words left his lips, that he was telling the truth.
"You have no other place here, doctor. You will not touch another BioSuit with your hands. It is now beyond you, you had your chance and it blew up in your face. Bad luck or not, this is all that holds you to the Underground. If not this, you are useless, and if you are useless, then you will disappear."
Her mind reeled. Was it really so simple to bring someone back from the dead now? No, it was less than that. He was merely replacing a person from his memories with the illusion of that person. She saw now what had driven Apex to the mad lengths he had taken to get that far. Love and anguish had moved him to action, against all logic.
"Why now?"
"With the Type 07 we have reached the point where failure is no longer in our meal. The plans will go forward, and the technology is now here that I might begin to design her. I will require your assistance. Designing the Type 07 was a task in itself, a trial to see if I'm worthy of this next task. This suit however," He tapped his screen, "This suit will be more. Nothing like it has ever been made nor will it ever be made again. I cannot do it alone. I brought you here because I saw your genius. I let you squander it on your personal fetishes in order to satiate you. The time has run out, and you will help me. The technology is here. The time is now."
"Why me?"
"The refinements you made to the BLOCKSabre technology only shows how much genius you are hiding away in that skull of yours. I'm sure you intended to use your new invention on something other than my Type 07 but the fact of the matter is it is revolutionary. I need you to capture that genius and help me, and by helping me help the human race."
'He's talking about my BLOCKSystem. I was startled by the applications too but to think that it would mean this much to him? He must have taken and finished my prototype and included it with the Type 07'
"Did you include the BLOCKSystem I designed in the Type 07?"
Apex smiled wryly. Ambrosia stepped forward and unbuttoned her suit jacket, pulling it and her scabbard from her shoulders. She placed them on Apex' desk and leaned over slightly. Kathryn could see the her blouse begin to stretch out from her back, and with a shredding of cloth two large white wings grew out of her back, pumping as they unfurled, as tall nearly as the BioSuit woman was. For once Ambrosia turned her dull eyes stare to Engelmacht who felt her body clam up and tingle.
'The wings are a product of my BLOCKSystem, exactly as I designed them! Oh, to imagine them on my darling Gabriel...' She felt herself dampen and pursed her lips, eyes slitted, looking at Apex.
"As you can see, your theories proved true. The Wings are constructed out of biomechanical material at the microscopic leve. They rearrange themselves from a dense catlyst material into functioning, organic wings. Exactly as your plans implied."
So they had. Kathryn, following Gabriel's escape, began to work tirelessly on her new project, kept strictly away from BioSuit develoment. The BLOCKSystem already existed in an extremely primitive form in the BLOCKSabre, using encoded metal that reacted to electrical stimulous to form blades. She, with help from the Deep 13, took the simplicity of the BLOCKSystem and applied it to biomechanical componants. The result was similar, inert, the 'blocks' were stored densly in Ambrosia's shoulder blades. Once activated, the became less dense and interlocked to formed the wings that now stuck out of her back. The only caveat is the system was unable to heal organically, because of the biomechanical nature of the building blocks.
'They can be replaced easily enough, though the system at this stage is extremely expensive to impliment, unlike prosthetics.' she thought.
"How did you discover what I had been doing?" She was less concerned than she was curious.
"Since all your work will be forwarded directly to me from now on, letting you know isn't such a foolish idea. You did most of the intensive calculations with the Deep 13. The Deep 13 is my machine and it knows precisely what I need to know.
'Ah, so when something of interest crosses throgh the Deep 13 it passes it onto Apex. That would make it very difficult to hide any personal project. Whatever we do is inevitalbly handled or touched at some point by the Deep 13.'
"I need you to continue to work on this system. I can imagine easily it becoming the most potent weapon of the BioSuits. And, more than anything, I need the system to advance to complete my plans for this one..." His hand again brushed the screen with his preliminary plans for his final BioSuit.
Kathryn began to take her leave, but was stopped again by Apex.
"Dr. Engelmacht, is there any way we can track the Type 05 series? We've been working to reacquire them, but as you know the Type 05B has escaped even the Type 06's grasp. We will soon have more than enough resources to return them against their will, and perhaps make use of the investments we made on their bodies."
Her mind raced, and she kept the fear and knowledge as far from her body language as possible.
'They have transponders that locate one another. It's part of being companion BioSuits. If we wanted we could track them down in an instant.'
"Not that I know of, sir. We will just have to keep an eye out."
'I cannot betray my own creation. Not if I claim to love him. I wish he could return, but if he does it should be by his own will.'
Kathryn recalled all this, the meeting fresh in her mind.
"If I'm of use then I can still live. But to do all this for one woman... To conquer the world, and evolve the human race for one woman."
Kathryn shuddered as she thought of the will neccessary for such an act. If nothing else, Apex deserved the admiration of the world for that alone.
---
William Sunderland, known to most as Bill or the TestType 06, reclined in opulant wonder. Oh, it had been a good day.
For the first time in months sat on a bed, a real bed made of fabric and springs and blankets. He wore clothes, saw a computer sitting on desk. He had a room, no longer a cell, at least not the traditional kind.
Bills eyes managed to encompass everything while remaining closed, taking stock of his new possesions. He felt almost human, but was keen to keep the distinction between the lesser species and himself.
'Hughes is dead and now I have been elevated a rank in stature. Surely things are starting to move.'
His thoughts turned to Ambrosia, the blue haired goddess that had smiled upon him. She represented something improtant to the Underground, a fundemental change in attitude and aim.
'Before the thought was only "Make a BioSuit." Now we can concern ourselves with the real mission, what we were all brought here to accomplish in the first place.'
It occured to him that he may have been let free because Ambrosia existed.
'If they beleive me tamed by affection for her... No, that's not it. They no longer have to fear me because they do not only have a roque BioSuit, but one that sits comfortably under their thumbs. I have a counterpoint, something to stop me if I run wild.'
The prospects whirled in his belly, both exciting and enraging. They were confident that he had been replaced, but again the thought of battling that woman made him feel alive, filthy.
'I cannot procreate, that is true, but my existence still can change the flow of evolution. I think Apex knows this, and that's why I remain. That is what we are here for.' The smile on his face grew, he spoke aloud, "I hope my evolutionary drives don't force me to do wrong."
---
Stephan Apex couldn't help but feel pride in his creation. Many people had contributed to the success of her, but leading that process, shaping it, made him feel unlike he had since... the creation of the Deep 13.
'That was the first time I carved out a new fate with my own hand, fought against the currents of the world and won, created a pocket for myself that no other man could have done.'
Ambrosia gave him the same feeling, that he had dug his way out of the quagmire that had almost engulfed the project. Things were moving smoothly, finally the plans that had begun a decade before would be set fully in motion.
His mind turned, 'The plans will have to be sent off to Seraph Corp soon. We expose a vulnerable weakness in doing so, but we cannot renege on our end of the bargain. The Dive Machines are too precious to give up now. Of course, they can wait until the other Type 07s are in production. Better to have a pad against accident first than to be left naked if they decided to betray us.'
The man-machine interface the Seraph Corporation craved and had bargained for was to be delviered soon. With it meant that they would be able, in theory, to begin to produce their own BioSuits.
'But it wont be as easy as copying us. All they will get from us is the Man-machine interface and the Lucretzia Drive AI. They will be left completely in the dark as to the rest of it. It will be up to them to figure out exactly how to use those implants and the AI to their potential.'
Ambrosia stood at rapt attention, not moving, eyes striaght forward. A model of military precision, she would be a welcome addition to any army.
"Ambrosia, relax, you're going to give me nerves."
"I am relaxed Mr. Apex."
Apex grunted. He wondered whether it was just this girl or the Lucretzia drive as a whole that made her so stiff and formal. He didn't really mind, but it would take some getting used to. The BioSuit would be his official body guard, both inside and outside the Underground. He was confident that the members of the council would not be as foolish as to attempt to assassinate him now that they knew his true identity, but the threat remained.
'And that is why I waited until we finally were met with success. She is both my protection and the reason I would put myself in harms way.'
"Ambrosia, you may retire for the evening. Please wake me by 6 tomorrow."
Ambrosia nodded curtly, taking her leave. She disappeared into the elevator and descended to the level deep in the Underground that would contain her quarters. Apex had made sure to keep them far from where Bill would be staying.
'We can introduce some levity now, we are not at his mercy as we once were, but he is still dangerous. Dangerous and useful, maybe, but were that not the case we'd have eliminated him already.'
Apex stood up and stretched, feeling the tension in his body. He was taking a gamble, but they needed to know that thing were progressing. Fear, fear of failure and confidence in the plan is what they needed right now. He would begin to meet with people face to face, as he had when he was getting the Apath Corporation off the ground. There was preliminary work that had to be done, before they prepared for Mass Production.
He thought wearily how it might have been done him good to have fulfilled Engelmacht's expectations and forced her to sleep with him. Or even Ambrosia. But no, he had to be stronger than that. Too many great men had been side tracked by the failings of the flesh. His goal after all went well beyond the abuse of power. It was too early for him to get lax.
He thought of his dead wife, as though he ever stopped, and knew that he was better for it for her sake, as well.
---
Ambrosia decended down into the depths of Apath. Her thoughts were immobile, and her body language remained as sharp and compact as it had when she was in front of Apex. She was as she was created, an obediant, intelligent, ruthless killing machine. She harbored no guilt for that. She accepted it as fact. She was Apex' bodyguard. She was his right hand, his tool. Her expression remained the same.
From the outside, it seemed as though in his search for a better human, Apex had mistakenly left the humanity out of this one.