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The Game of Power - Printable Version

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The Game of Power - Nicole Hunter - 01-14-2016


The Game of Power


Moriarty's mind has always been solving multiple problems simultaneously in the background of his main stream of consciousness. Trivial problems such as an assassination of a government official or a blackmailing of a military commander were taking him no longer than several minutes to solve. More complex schemes plagued by a number of unknowns usually took no more than several hours to be completed. This time, however, instead of a typical joy of an intellectual fulfilment he felt growing restlessness for several days now. Perfectly masking it under his brilliantly played pose of an omniscient mastermind, Moriarty was haunted by uncertainties.

Why Nicole Hunter disappeared? Where did she go? What is the project Transcendence?

Project Transcendence was the only distinct element of her last message and this mystery was the only remaining breach in Moriarty's unconditional authority over the Lane Hackers after his return two months ago. While usually verbose on every mission and project in which Nicole Hunter was involved, this time Moriarty's personal holo-terminal was silent. Moriarty scanned through every single mission report, surveillance log and secret file from last four years and there was literally nothing even remotely connected with "Project Transcendence". Moriarty was yet again refining his search patterns for the archives when suddenly a power surge occurred and the lights in his apartment went dark for a millisecond. His holo-terminal reset to a command line mode where a message was remotely typed in.

- Were you looking for me, my dear Senior Professor?
Moriarty slowly exhaled and then typed in an answer.
- Where are you, Nicole?
- It is a wrong question, my dear James. Try again, please.

Only Nicole was insolent enough to call him by this name. Moriarty was caught off guard at first but slowly regained his confidence when pieces of the puzzle started to fall each into their place...


***


...accessing Mortiarty's personal records. Locating record. Record Found. Starting playback...

...January 819....
...fast forward....
...authorized induction of a new batch of recruits today. One particular recruit's dossier caught my attention, specifically hers dissertation on adaptive programming in organic interfaces. If she survives the induction process, which is unlikely, we may...

...March 819...
...fast forward...
...not only she exceeded any expectations at her training but also managed to infiltrate a group of alien cultists and secure a considerable batch of liquid cardamine. Her reputation and influence among the Hackers has significantly...

...August 819...
...fast forward...
...her growing popularity forced me to hand her full professorship access. She is definitely more ambitious than Phate and lacks Sanguinetti's hedonism. The conflict might be inevitable...

...October 819...
...fast forward...
...conflict is inevitable. That ungrateful harlot openly defied me. When she returns from this fool's quest in Kusari and Taus I will have to...

...December 819...
...fast forward...
...was it only a distraction meant to hide her real intent? Why did she reach out to Gallia and secured such a large quantity of hypnotainment bands...

...February 820...
...fast forward...
...her mentally conditioned hounds are ready to move in for the kill sooner than expected. I need to execute the plan now...

...accessing Nicole Hunter's personal records. Locating record. Record Found. Starting playback...

...November 820...
...fast forward...
...with Moriarty gone I was able to turn the mania interrogation program into a gigantic project of human brain studies. With useless test subjects being sold to the Outcasts we can acquire...

...December 820...
...fast forward...
...access to Corsica Outer Sanctum's archives was an imperative. It is crucial now to acquire data on hybrid mind-machine interfaces, maybe even Jameson's own solution...

...September 821...
...fast forward...
...with my human brain studies complete I could finally divert resources from our gargantuan prison to construction of a proper cryogenic throne. It will be a drop in the ocean so I don't expect anybody will notice anything...

...February 822...
...fast forward...
...amusing that nobody even dared to question my judgement despite probably knowing that the processing power of each data hub is over one hundred times stronger than what the Spyglass Network really requires...

...March 822...
...fast forward...
...with this batch of highest quality bio-neural processors we have enough resources to build required data hubs. The end is near...

...June 822...
...fast forward...
...all data hubs passed excessive stress tests and are running stable at optimal capacity. The interface chamber should be ready in a matter of weeks...

...October 822...
...fast forward...
...thanks to his latest successful operations Yoshida became a new Lane Hacker champion. With my growing commitment to transcendence and resulting absence in daily routines I became too vulnerable. I better do not repeat Moriarty's mistakes...


***


Moriarty was caught off guard at first but slowly regained his confidence when pieces of the puzzle started to fall each into their place. Organic interfaces, liquid cardamine, professorship access, hypnotainment bands, mental conditioning, mania interrogation, mind-machine interface, cryogenic throne, processing power, bio-neural processors, interface chamber, transcendence. A series of notions passed before his mind and when the revelation came he asked the right question.

- What are you then?

The cursor was flashing for a moment before the final answer was shown in the console.

- I am the Network...


***


Ever since Goro Yoshida returned from his assignment in Kusari Nicole was never leaving her chambers without an escort of her personal guard consisting from carefully picked and mentally conditioned Lane Hacker Assassins. This time, however, where she was going she had to go alone. Possibly for the first time in years she felt real fear - the kind of fear that until the very end tells you it is not too late to turn back. But it was too late for her and she knew it. All the years of preparations have brought her to this very moment - the moment when she passed the blast doors to the secret interface chamber - the place of her death. She slowly approached mirror on the wall and gently let her robe to slip on the ground leaving her bare naked. Nicole was never too vain about her looks, but seeing herself completely shaved with her trademark curly hair gone she felt even stronger fear. While never truly being a creature of physical pleasures, she knew that her body was one of the last thing making her a real human being. Even with all the death and the destruction she caused she always believed that beauty, wherever and however it appeared, was one of few qualities worth preserving in this world.

But progress and evolution require sacrifices.

Nicole took a deep breath to add herself courage and stepped into a vat filled with cryogenic gel. Once she immersed in the gel almost entirely, elastic straps immobilized her legs, arms and head and then positioned her horizontally in the vat. A robotic arm with a nutrient and oxygen source intubated Nicole, while another performed injection of sedatives and liquid cardamine. Nicole slowly lost her consciousness while she was being submerged in the gel. The sarcophagus closed and everything but the infinite pain of neural interface became void...

***

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***