Chapter Two

Valerie

When it appears there isn’t going to be the scuffle Sy imagined there would be, everyone in the small scanning lab visibly relaxes. Still, neither Valerie, nor any of the others are anywhere close to letting their guard down, even a tiny bit. When Sy and his guards back up some, to give them their space, she begins to open up and look about at her surroundings in other ways than to escape them. She, and Aaron are a little more willing to come out of their shells, while the others, even Mikel, wait quietly. It’s a strange feeling being abducted, yet not having anywhere else to go once she’s been given the choice. In a way, it’s kind of embarrassing.

She finds the SSS guards to all be quite a distasteful bunch to look at, but at the same time unquestionably elite in their trade. All of their gear is at another level above anything she’s ever seen. It’s clear why none of them saw what was coming for them last night. They make even investigators look like mere volunteers. The rifles these men are carrying are twice the size of what law enforcement uses too, and so are the muscled arms carrying them.

Not only are all of the men huge, but some of the women are too. Many of them are quite muscular, and taller than Alexis, but still not on her level. She tries to hide her smirk as she watches the female guards sizing her up. Given the group is only expected to be mostly dudes, it’s hard to tell who’s more appreciative of seeing some new women around. She feels her feathers getting a little ruffled by the way they look judgmentally at Five and her sister though. She wonders if it’s because they’re the meekest looking.

Inevitably, most of the prying eyes find their way to Arma, and stay there. It’s only a matter of time before she drops her folded arms away from her breasts again. With her translucent black skin, it’s a wonder they managed to catch her in the dark last night. If they hadn’t gotten the drop on all of them like they did, she would’ve had no trouble fending a few of them off and escaping.

As people shift about in the room, she notices the biggest and tallest of the guards eventually elbow their way in closest, to get the best look of her. She chuckles to herself wondering if they might actually be vying for her already. Robot or not, Evan made her quite tall, and quite beautiful, his masterpiece. She thought Aaron’s new body, the one they stole from Paul Mendle, was a bit over the top, but now his muscle-bound frame blends in almost plainly, drawing the least attention of them all.

Sadly, Five stands behind Mikel, with a hand on the scanning station, hardly able to hold her completely burnt body upright. When she wavers, as if she might pass out, Mikel catches ahold of her and makes sure she’s alright. The sight of it almost makes her cry. She can’t believe the likes of him has turned from trying to kill Five, to now taking her under his wing.

The guards have mostly changed out of that impossibly black gear they were wearing earlier, but there’s still some of it left on them. Even in the light, she can’t quite focus her eyes on it properly. It’s like parts of them are missing, having been snipped right out of reality. Only where the pure-black surface has been scuffed, can she see a hint of shape to it.

When she catches eyes with Sy again, he motions for her to follow him out with a tilt of his head. As if she were a lead mare, the others follow right out after her too. Out in the main room, the techs in the white jumpsuits have already set up most everything from Werker and even framed in the separate offices exactly like they were before.

She closes her eyes in annoyance the second she hears the pitter patter of Gabriel catching up to her. Somehow, he is happy, chatty, and pretending like everything is suddenly cool between them.

“Hey, Valerie. I called these guys the second I got let out. I knew they’d get hosed if I didn’t. We would’ve all been screwed, you know. I made sure they got everything we needed.”

All she can think about right now is hitting him in the face with that big metal wrench again. She even gives the room a quick look-over for something like it lying around. She knows the truth though. He’s really the only one Sy even needs to bring the project back to life. All she has going for her right now is the loyalty of the others. She forces herself to keep it civil between them.

“I bet Sabrina wasn’t happy to see you.”

“Oh, no, that bridge has definitely been burned down. But so what, we don’t need them.”

Before joining Sy in the newly set up computer room, she looks back at Five, who has resigned to stay behind in the scanning lab. It breaks her heart to see her like that. Inside, she sits down in one of the chairs at the computer console, wishing she’d never have to see the damn thing again. Not caring what anyone thinks, she lays her elbows out across the countertop, and sets her head down on one of her arms. She zones off, letting her eyes completely lose focus on anything, blurring the room out.

Gabriel leans towards her a little. “Valeire?”

She had promised Five that no one would ever hut her again, and she ended up getting lit on fire by crazed rioters. Those screams are still fresh in her memory. “We still need Werker. They own AMF, and five needs a new body. What if we can’t get one? Look at her.”

“Well, I think they’ll play nice, as long as we do. They aren’t going to just give up and die. They’ll start up again, I’m sure of it. They’ll ask for help, it’s only a matter of time.”

She lifts her head up straight, as if hearing a loud crash. Hey eyebrows scrunch together, and then she stands up. “Aaron, Arma, back in the scanning lab right now.”

Everyone follows her right back into the lab they all started out in and watch as she starts rummaging around. She hunches over Five, sitting at the computer console, and wakes the main computer up. She waits for the password prompt to pop up, but it doesn’t. Sy’s men have already broken through all of the Werker security checks and, she expects, have likely copied the data to their own systems too. She checks the com port between the computer and the scanner to make sure it’ll transfer to the drives, finding it all to be in order.

While she waits a moment, she looks to her left, noticing the SSS guys have even welded up a nice big steel shelf for a lot more than the small collection of heavy drives they already have for Five, Arma, and Aaron. It looks like they’re anticipating another couple dozen more being added to it. She smirks at their optimism, but then considers what they could possibly have in mind. It’s unsettling. Shockingly, the rack even has Paul’s original drive on it. She puts her hands on each and every one of them, as if they were a precious delicate things that need nurturing.

With shaky hands, she plugs the long data harness into Five’s drive and lets out a deep breath. “Five, get in the station. We’re going to back you up right now.”

Mikel picks her up in his arms and, gently as can be, lays her down in it. There’s no need to bother with the restraints this time. She’s too weak to make a struggle. Five lays her head over to the side to look at her with her one good eye, and then closes it.

Valerie wipes a tear from her cheek. “Five, I’m gonna put you to sleep this time ok.” She puts her forehead against Fives and her hand on the side of her face. “When you wake back up, you’re gonna be new again, ok.”

Five goes limp, letting loose of what little strength her body has left in it. This time, she’s willing to embrace the plunge into the cold darkness. Before she even sees it coming, Gabriel touches the boot module to the back of her neck ant puts her out.

The SSS crew stands back in quiet support as they watch Five’s body shed its life. As hardened of men as they all are, such a thing effects them in a way that it would not with others. It’s like they have already counted her as one of them. They have all seen death, and some of them have likely even experienced it. Every one of them drops their rifle butts to the ground at the same time, and take a knee for a moment. She considers telling them Five is not actually dead, but she’s afraid nothing is for certain right now.

When Five’s last memories are done being backed up to her big heavy black drive in the shelf, Aaron picks her limp burnt body up out of the station, hands it over to Arma, and lays back into it himself. This is the first time he’ll have ever been scanned since the day he was made. He’s nervous as hell, worrying about if something might go wrong, or if it doesn’t work on him. He could lose everything and wake up only moments after being shot dead by Ray’s father out at the farmhouse.

Since it’s his first time, Valerie explains what she’s doing to him, but loudly enough so that the others can hear as well. With him still awake, she initiates a full body and brain scan. They need to know if he might’ve been damaged during any of last week’s carnage. For a half an hour, he lies perfectly motionless as the scanning ring proceeds down the entire length of his body, all while his memories are copied to his drive in the shelf.

When he’s done, Arma lays Five’s body repose across the countertop along the other wall and takes his place. As she lays down under the only ceiling light in the room, shadows of her dark metallic grey muscles, tendons, and bones glint a little as they shift beneath her translucent black skin. The sheen of only a few metallic appointments glint here and there. She stretches back tall in the platform, proud of her frame. Sy and his entire crew watch shamelessly as she seemingly flaunts herself in front of them. She is clearly still quite elated with the superb work Evan, her designer, had done on her.

When Valerie finishes backing up Arma’s memories, it’s like the entire world lifts from her shoulders. She can’t let herself cry in front of Sy and his crew again, so she steels herself against her feelings. All it takes is to remind herself that they’ve been cornered and there’s a long road ahead before they’ll finally be free. She does her best to not acknowledge the truth that what’s happened to them is more of a recue than anything else.

She leans back in the chair and exhales a deep breath, letting her shoulders slump, and her head fall forward. Out of the corner of her eye, she can still see the dark burnt flesh on Five’s hand at the edge of the other counter. It reminds her of what Arma had gone through before she was rebuilt. Her eyes pop open, but with a little curiosity. She wonders if Sy is being as honest as he pretends to be. She gets back on the computer terminal and opens up the internet browser. Sure as shit, they have a connection. He wouldn’t let them have the internet if they were actually captives.

She types up the address for the Werker intranet and goes into the AMF system she used to work with. Her credentials don’t work anymore, but she can still request a replacement frame like any other customer. She types in Five’s model number, which is simply her original name, model Five-Two. She was the second ever model of the new Five-series line. Arma was the first. She follows through with the order all the way up to where the purchasing credentials need to be entered, and then rolls back away from the screen. She doesn’t say anything, but gives Sy a pensive look.

When he sees the sticker price of two hundred fifty thousand dollars, he stiffens up straight. “Hmm, well, I guess that’s not too bad, considering some things. What’s she even look like anyway? She black, like the other one? We like black around here.”

She rolls the order back a few pages to show the three dimensional render of what Five is suppose do to look like finished, in all her glory. She does not bare the unfinished black skin Arma does, but has the perfectly indistinguishable skin of a beautiful young woman in only the way a master artist could ever have made. Again, she says nothing, but watches his eyebrows lift when he leans back down to look at the model.

“Oh, I see.” He clears his throat. “A real infiltrator, I suppose.” He’s doing his best to not ogle.

If you in fact own the Five-series project, legitimately, her design is your sole intellectual property. Created by none other than the world famous late Evan Adams. That frame could sell for a good five hundred to a collector. Too bad the hand painted original got torched by fucking rats. It would’ve been worth more than a mil, since his passing.” She looks out the door to Arma and Aaron. “Aaron is an original, but he’s already a little scuffed. Arma was supposed to have been his final and life’s masterpiece. He was murdered before he could paint her.”

“I can see that. She’s a bit… much, isn’t she.”

“So I don’t own Five, or the others, but I do own their body’s designs, and you expect me to pay for the bodies themselves too then.” He is merely flexing his authority over her, but still careful in choosing his tone.

Both of them know she has ahold of the shorter straw this time, and that there really isn’t anything she can do about it. She glares at him, daring him to give her an excuse to back-hand him in front of everyone. “You want her to do your dirty work, you pay for the equipment. I’m not fronting the cash so it can get shot at.”

She enlarges Five’s profile on the holograph and lets im look it over shamelessly for only a few more seconds before closing it out. When she leers at him, it’s with all seriousness. “And I expect you all to maintain the utmost respect of her. I swear if anyone gets handsy, there’ll be murders.”

Ara cooly leans her shoulder against the door frame and quietly boasts a warning everyone can hear. “The last three men who assumed to disrespect Five’s body, are now dead.” Even Aaron has to look away because he can’t keep the smirk off his face.

Sy is never impressed when people try to talk tough, but with Five’s innocent stature, it does captivate his curiosity. He looks to Mikel to gage the claim. “She killed three men?”

Mikel’s eyes are looking up, as he counts. “Heh, she’s killed more’n that, but yeah…” He comically shrugs his shoulders with his hands in his pockets, and then nods. “Those three are dead.” It hurts to say it because one of them was his life-long best friend. He still smiles in pride of the petite torched figure laying in front of him. He had hated her for so long, but things change.

Sy’s been well informed on the groups past deeds. Especially on how Aaron is the one who killed most of the rats during that last riot out at Evan’s estate. The showdown between Valerie’s robots and Welan City’s anarchist mob was on its way to worldwide attention, before the investigators buried everything. His team has still managed to locate a few videos of him and his robot tiger thing tearing people apart in droves though. The more notorious picture he had acquired of Aaron was one where his face was so covered in blood he was unrecognizable.

When Mikel runs his mouth about Arma also having racked up a considerable kill tally of her own, Sy starts to get annoyed with him. Most all of the SSS guards are professional killers, as much so as himself, but there is never any boasting about it among them.

While the others are talking, Valerie finishes up the order form for Five’s replacement body and gets his attention again when it’s ready for payment. Quietly, he sits down and submits the form without any griping. She can clearly tell he thinks she’s already using him for his money, like her team did with Werker. Nonetheless, she puts her hand on his shoulder when he’s done, and gives him a faint reassuring smile. Still, she can’t help but worry about the future. “I hope the cost is enough to keep you from being irresponsible with her.”

He knows what she means, but then looks up at her again with a little bit of worry. “As long as she’s worth the trouble.”

“Hey, at least you won’t have to rebuild her brain this time. I don’t even have a price on that, but I know it’s worth more than the body.”

When the order is sent across, it shows that it’s been flagged, but for some reason still goes through. It’s scheduled to be finished within forty eight hours. There’ll be some kind of hold on it. Gabriel was right to assume Werker would be willing to play nice. She dreads what it will cost them in the end.

Impressed with the turnaround, Sy high-fives her. “You know, we really might just be able to work together without hating one another after all.”

The sound of Alexis and Marek whispering to one another amongst the group catches Sy’s attention. He turns around and stares at them until the room goes quiet. “I’ve tried to recruit some of you rats in the past, but all they ever did was freeload and eventually steal a bunch of my shit. They could never seem to grasp the concept of earning their keep, you know what I mean? I won’t be putting up any entitled little brats that think I owe them something.” He turns around and glares at everyone. “That goes for all of you.”

Sy’s awkward turn of tone on their group catches them all at a loss for words. The SSS crew looks at Marek and Alexis as if Sy has discovered lice on them. Of all people to defend the two, Mikel is the one to step forward.

“These two are not your regular rats. In fact, these two are the ones responsible for taking that entire steel mill down. I’m sure you’re familiar with the device that was said to have been used. We’ll all vouch for them, and if need be, keep them reigned in tight, not that they’ll need to be anyway. They’ve earned my respect, and they will earn yours.”

“Mmmh, well… I guess they’re already here. Might as well give em a chance. But I’m not promising I’ll keep em, just cause they’re your friends.”

With everyone in a relatively amicable mood, all of the guards that were accompanying Sy eventually start to wander off, disappearing down a bleak looking corridor on the far side of the main room. The sound of a heavy metal door opening is accompanied by a considerable amount gunfire. None of them seem to even give it a minute amount of notice.

Each time the distant door opens, it sounds like there’s battle going on in another part of the building. Even with the shock on their faces, Sy still doesn’t acknowledge it. He aimlessly looks around for another minute, as if he’s been taken by boredom and then suddenly perks up. “Hey, how bout I show y’all around.”