[Drivel to follow]
"Old Scars"
Part 3
Matthew knew he was dreaming. It was the same dream that graced his
nights for the last six years, after all. The dream began the same way
every time, slowly panning across a laboratory, with an undisclosed
point of view. The view would focus in on a young woman, vaguely facing
him. She was smiling just as sweetly in each dream, and it was this
smile that started the irrational terror and guilt bubbling up in his
heart.
From his viewpoint he screamed out her name, as he did every dream. His
voice was not heard, but he couldn't stop screaming. And as he screamed
he drank in her features, the shape of her face, the way she looked, her
clothes, as if it was the last time he would see her, dreaming or not.
The smile of Ai Tachibana Warren remained, framed by her beautiful
face. And then the fire and shockwave swept the room. Dark, angry coils
of flame burned across the room, eating the tables, computers, tool,
machines and finally the sweet, kind Ai Tachibana.
Matthew woke with a start, jolting ramrod stiff in his bed. He couldn't
tell the cold sweat from the tears of his face. His breathing slowed to
a normal pace after a minute, but the image of the flames wrapping
around Ai's smile never faded. He felt lucky it was only a small
fragment of the dream tonight, a small portion of the events of that
day�
Brushing the thought aside, he reached for a cigarette and lit one with
an urgent motion. A couple of deep pulls later he was calmer, his eyes
searching the area around his bed for the bottle of rum. He sat back on
the cot for a moment, resisting the urge to put his head in his hands.
It hadn't helped any of the other times he tried it.
He rose again, unsteady for only a moment before he pulled himself
together. It was the loving smile of his wife that drove him to the
workbench and his tools. His activities last night had provided him with
the location of the last bits and pieces of his� Of his what? He
wondered for a moment. All these years, and I've never really gotten a
grasp on what I want.
Matthew glanced at his hands, of the scars and burns there. Of the
blood that couldn't be seen or removed. It has nothing to do with what I
want, he thought grimly. Then he set to work on his suit.
As the meal came to a close, Sylia called the meeting to order. As was
the custom, the three other Knight Sabers continued to munch as Sylia
outlined the results of the two day evaluation of the black power suit.
"I've never seen anything move this fast before, so I can't speculate
on what kind of controls it uses. Additionally, the ECM and sensors are
remarkably advanced. I can't develop any countermeasures to them until I
get more data. Fortunately, there can't be a whole lot of strength
augmentation in the chassis as there simply isn't enough room for
anything but myomar fibers and some linear motivators." Sylia stopped,
the glazed expressions of Linna and Priss' faces indicating that she was
rambling again. "Any luck on your side of the investigation?" she asked
the seated girls.
"I've managed to come up with some data on the first robbery at
Tachibana. The most important thing is that it isn't the first robbery.
Two American offices were hit in the last two months, in less
spectacular manners," Nene paused to look down at the print outs,
deciding she could skip the dates and names. "And another Japanese
office was hit two weeks ago in Kyoto. The only thing stolen in all of
these incidents was the main computer's memory core."
"Just the memory core?" Linna asked.
"Each one was cut out of the computer by the sword that ninja boy waves
around all the time."
"Hey Priss, is the sword he waves around all the time what gets you
excited about this guy?" She said, emphasizing the last word as she
glanced at her friend.
"�" was Priss' only reply.
"Did the rest of you girls have any luck?" Sylia asked, heading off the
possible argument.
"Nothing," Priss said in an annoyed tone of voice.
"I saw a firefight at the Microsoft building, but I'm sure it wasn't
our guy," Linna added. "Not his style."
"I agree. Nene, do AD Police have anything on that?"
"Seems like a simple espionage attack. There were six military grade
powered armors that broke in and stole some computer equipment.
Microsoft Security did most of the fighting. There was one other thing I
dug up."
"Oh," Sylia said. "What's that?"
"There was a break in at a subcontractor that does work for Tachibana
last night. That leaves only one Tachibana building in Japan that hasn't
been hit yet."
"So that's where we set our trap," Priss said, anger creeping into her
voice.
"So it would seem. Ladies, lets suit up and wait for the suit to show
up."
"Quickly, we wouldn't want Priss to be late for her date now would we?"
Nene asked rhetorically.
Priss ignored the comment and followed the others out of the room.
Something felt wrong about this whole thing. She glanced over her
shoulder at the display of the black suit on the LCD screen as she
passed the threshold.
Matthew dropped silently onto the roof across from the Tachibana
building. He scanned the streets and rooftops for a couple of blocks
around it, then climbed down the face of the building. Aiming the wrist
gun carefully he shot a line across the street, anchored it to the wall
he was currently holding onto and worked his way quickly across. Unlike
the other Tachibana building, this one had no windows. It was a
warehouse according to the official documents, and the appearance
matched what one would expect.
The passives detected the motion sensors Tachibana Security had
recently installed on the door and deemed them no threat to the cloak.
He dropped to the street, still cloaked in shadow. And then the shadows
disappeared.
Four suits of powered armor surrounded him, one of which he remembered
from a few nights ago. So she went and got friends, Matthew thought.
The bright light streaming from a pair of flood lights made the cloak
almost useless. But the rest of the suit was going to get a good trial.
"Knight Sabers," Sylia said as she tried to lock her weapons on the
still shadowy figure, "GO!"
End Part 3
Drivel:
Part three's done, and I hope you've enjoyed it. There isn't too much
to put in these notes. Um, well, I guess you have it. C&C Welcomed at
jmele@brandeis.edu and my other works are at www.brandeis.edu/~jmele if
you're interested. Oh yeah, "Great Minds" pt. 4 is still underway.
Hopefully the these two fics will not overlap(woe to us all, okay, woe
to me, if they do)
Thanks for reading.
Due to lack of customer interest, Genom has discontinued the Jerico Mele
line in favor of a more efficient fast food manager. We Apologize For
the Inconvience.