"Plot holes aside," Jessica continued, "I think the new security directives are the prime reason for it all."
Again, Amon nodded. "My theory: Goliath hoped an artificial domestic threat would let them tighten their grip on Eden, and no one would question it. An investigation of SK-3's source code could undermine all of it. In other words, they blinked."
"For the first time in a hundred years, These are only the things we know about..." Hearing a couple of sighs, she eyed Shannon and Valerie whose mugs were darkly and disturbed. "I don't have to spell it out. This is why they're hunting me."
Amon crossed his arms. "We won't learn more unless we get inside their HQ."
The dates... "Or we can just put two and two together," Jessica snorted. "Pine Rim was not an accident, and neither was the date on which it happened."
"Fourth of July?"
Jessica darted her eyes side to side. "Valerie."
Homegirl beamed upright. "What's up?"
"How did you know about the dates on the drive when you came to my apartment?"
"The dates? Oh! The drop-off came with a message. It told me what to look for, which doesn't happen often."
Jessica set elbows on the desk and meditated. A sick feeling welled up inside of her. "I bet if you cross-reference every date on that drive, they'll match national holidays."
"Which national holidays?" said Amon.
"All of them."
"Maybe, you'll learn to hate Azareans as much as I do."
Jessica immediately wiped any evidence of her sorrow and turned around. There stood Beelz, the mysterious woman of Dissent. She had a rather humorless voice, and an X-shaped scar on her cheekbone chiseled much like of the rest of her. The room's neon glow highlighted the muscular arms and neck while a dark tank top and pants covered everything else.
"Even pro bono, you don't let a repairman into your house unless you believe it's broken," Beelz continued. "It has to stay broken. Otherwise, you ask them to leave. Azareans are repairmen, and their most dangerous trait is invisibility. It's in their best interest to make us hate each other; they need to manipulate and mold that hate, keep it perpetual, but keep it from reaching their high towers."
Jessica could almost sweat from the heat in Beelz's words.
Breathe.
The chiseled woman stepped closer. "Lynx, right?"
"That's me," Jessica cooed.
"Beelz." Her hand extended within a fingerless glove. "I've heard about you via the Wire."
"Some of them good?" Jessica returned the gesture before Beelz grabbed and tugged forcefully. Both women stood ear to ear. Valerie and Shannon flinched so fast they entered fighting stances.
"Suspiciously good," Beelz whispered, then leaned back. Glorious green eyes on a resting bitch face. "Do you hate the Azareans, as I do?"
I sense this girl has a problem with me. "Even if I did, I doubt it would be the same kind of hate," she said. "I'm more interested in neutering them and spreading their secrets."
"Eventually, sure," said Amon, stepping directly between the two women. "You look wrecked though, Lynx, so, not to be too polite or anything, but you could use a cooldown period. Respawn tomorrow so we can get to work."
Beelz ambled away, taking a seat, back to reclusive espionage at her monitor.
With a scowl, Jessica turned to Amon. "Negatory," she remonstrated. "There's still too much to do, digital wheels to grease and so forth."
"I can't stop you, but even geniuses need rest sometimes."
"You should stop flattering me and get to your own work, Amon."
"Yes, Amon. Stop," Beelz chided from her workspace.
"Either way, he has a point, Jess," said Valerie, laying low her frown. "We really gotta get some sleep. I can't get over all these world-turning revelations, right now." She innocently upturned to Amon. "Sleeping alone?"
Jessica rolled her eyes.
"Technically, no," Amon replied. Again, he waved for the girls to follow him, which entailed a short walk through a connected corridor. Just more darkness funneled into a cavity of secrets. As she slumped forward, Jess realized that Amon was right. She was tired, and the caffeine remedy was nowhere to be found.
Amon lifted a flap to another pitch-black room, holding a finger to his lips. Jessica peered inward with her goggles, to find nothing but bunks snoring. Amon's crew slept here.
"Looks like the party's here," Shannon whispered. "Why are you guys split off from the rest of Sub Terra?"
"Call us Dissent," said Amon.
"So, you don't play well with others?" remarked Valerie.
"It's the name of their organization," Jessica whispered back. Night vision revealed a multitude of bunks empty and occupied. They would sleep among strangers for the night. As the goggles came off, another thought invaded. "What's Beelz's story?"
Amon straightened his lips. Any empathy he might have shown retreated behind his glasses. "Her story is my story," he sighed, "but the pill she swallowed was quite bitter. Moving forward, Lynx, you need to realize that the alien regime can be crueler than people realize. Perhaps crueler than even they know – Monsters don't need mirrors."
Jessica could almost feel his bitterness on her muscles, cushioned by melancholy as she looked back at Beelz. The woman seemed like a cold statue, a premonition who peered up from her computer and caught Jessica staring. She blinked away.
"We have a lot to talk about in the morning."
"Just pick a bunk and crash," Amon said, departing.
Time. Jessica wished she had more time to dissect the chip. "I know you guys are at least as tired as I am," she told Valerie and Shannon. "We'll take another hard-hitting dose of rebellion tomorrow."
"So long as we're around to regret it," replied Valerie, spreading her most optimistic smile, but her eyelids had sagged into a squint.
"We got more than we bargained for tonight, didn't we?" Shannon yawned.
Jessica's forehead creased. "Having regrets already, Xiao Long?"
"Not at all. I'm glad I came. I'm just wondering, for all our sakes, if the surprises will get better or worse."
"There are no surprises if you calculate. Thing is, you can't calculate in your sleep."
"I've seen you do it, actually."
"Say what?"
"Just get some sleep."
Before she could retire, Jessica peered back. Beneath the green light sat Amon and Beelz. Busybodies. The hypothetical circumstance of their meeting flashed in her imagination. They were the subjects of alien experiments, most likely. Perhaps they had never not known each other. Whatever upbringing they suffered transformed them into enemies of the regime. The pain was in there, somewhere, left to ferment. Did they ever know paradise or just the Azarean attempt to play God?
Then again, God is technically an extraterrestrial.
The passage of time between falling and waking seemed non-existent. A loud but muffled siren wracked past the barrier of a nightmare. Her eyes popped open faster than she could remember where she was, and with spaghetti muscles, she sat up on her bunk. Nothing but shadows passed until a pair of bare legs dangled overhead then landed on the floor. Valerie crouched and stared soberly.
"That can't be good!"
Lights revealed a room full of random souls funneling outside with their kits. Shannon arrived at the side of the bed, bug-eyed. Jessica reached under the bunk for her Vit. She meant to stuff it into her backpack, but the notification light made her freeze. Instead, she powered the display and discovered results from the voice database search. It had concluded with a man's mugshot. Staggered by uncertainty at first, she realized who she'd found.
"Beth's killer."
ns 15.158.61.5da2
