“We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.”

Anaïs Nin

Marv was not easy to find.

It took more than a week to contact him. All the numbers, all the drop boxes, all the contacts Trials knew from the Ministry were compromised. He could only count his blessings that whatever cover Matthews had organised for him before their ‘falling out’ seemed to be holding. Trials knew from experience that cover-ups, once committed, tended to take on a life of their own as those implicated and involved worked hard to make sure such involvement would never see the light of day. You couldn’t just call off a conspiracy.

So it was unlikely the polizia were actively hunting for him, but he needed to err on the safe side, which ruled out air travel. It took him days to get back to the UK, and Trials was very unhappy at the paper trail he had left behind, but lacking access to false passports and the resources of his… ex?... employers, it was the best he could do. At least, it would be hard to trace him from A to B to C.

He tried unsuccessfully to get in contact with Marv the whole of the journey up, but in the end it was Marv who got in contact with him. An email to an email at the end of a chain of forwarding email addresses, a phone kept locked in a security box in a hotel near Portsmouth ferry port.

All it said was:

Remember the wolf pack?

A private joke, from back in the early tests of his new mechanical friends, offering both proof of Marv’s identity and a location to meet. He bought a train ticket heading towards the New Forest.

Trials had not taken the time to appreciate the beauty of this area when he’d first come to this place, he realised. The three of them had trained and tested here for nearly two months, pacing tens of kilometres almost every day over the heathland, yet in all that time Trials realised he hadn’t really looked. He supposed you could say that about a lot of his life.

Marv, of course, hadn’t been walking with them, he could never have kept up, but he’d always been on the radio or appearing through a video call. So he, Trials, and… the other guy... had talked and chatted as the ground passed below their feet.

The heath extended far into the distance, and was dramatic in the winter gloom. Browns and dark greens covered the rolling hills, heather mixing with dead, dry bracken and bare winter trees. Dark clouds hung overhead so close you could touch them, and one of the small ponies endemic to the area grazed in the distance, unconcerned with the cold wind whipping at its mane. Marv was camped out in the same place they had years before, sat in front of his small one-man tent. He was wrapped in a heavy jacket to protect him from the elements, a serious look on his face.

He must have noticed Trials coming from miles away, but he showed no sign. He continued staring at the horizon as Trials walked closer, legs folded under his chin.

“He was right, wasn’t he?” said Marv as Trials sat down beside him. Both men stared into the distance.

Trials did not respond to the question.

“What happened, Marv? Why are you here?” he asked instead.

“They came for me. I barely got away. I wouldn’t have, if it hadn’t been for your mate.”

“What? Who?” Trials asked in surprise.

“The electronics guy. Mike.” A cold chill ran down Trials’ spine at the name. “We got talking about this and that at the HQ, back after you got shot. You’d told him I was the designer, apparently.”

“I did…” said Trials weakly, remembering his words at the time.

“Well, this guy knew his shit. He had some really novel ideas too.”

“He designed them,” said Trials, in deadened tones.

“What?” Marv shook his head, unsure of what he had just heard.

“He designed them. They were his. I took them from him.” Trials’ voice cracked slightly.

“Well… Shit. That would explain a few things. Where is he now? We could really…”

“He’s dead.”

Marv stopped dead, and slowly turned his head towards Trials.

“Oh,” he said, inadequately. “I see.”

The wind gusted over them, tearing at their hair and clothes.

“The General got him?”

“Matthews,” said Trials, emphasising the name. “Yes, he got him. How did you know?”

“Your friend Mike. Like I said, he saved my ass. He told me not to trust you.”

Trials didn’t know what to make of that statement, so he waited for the next part.

“Guess he was right, huh? So anyway, I looked into what was actually being done with the nanites, and what did I find? They were producing them. There was a mass of code I had never seen before. Not only that, but they were making waaaaay more than I thought possible.”

“They’re mass-producing them? How? The tech…”

“…can be reversed engineered. They aren’t as good as yours, nowhere near as adaptable, but then, they don’t need to be. They’re not trying to use them to create people like you. Or maybe, yes, maybe they are.”

The hostility in Marv’s voice was clear.

“What are they using them for then, Marv?” asked Trials. He was getting impatient.

“You never told me about the serum, Jake. You never told me you were up to anything like that.”

“You know?”

“Yes, I know. After finding the nanites, it wasn’t hard. I saw the tapes, the experiments, everything.”

“What do the nanites have to do with the serum, Marv?” Trials asked.

“How do you think they got the serum to work, Jacob? The drug was too wide in effect, to unrestrained, but you gave them the perfect carrier. They use the nanites, Trials. The nanites are what make the drug so effective. The nanites are how you steal a soul.”

There was silence for a while.

“That’s what he said, wasn’t it? That this work would steal your soul.”

Trials and Marv hadn’t spoken of the third member of their party for years. Not since he had… betrayed… them and the Ministry. Well, now it was their turn to make the same betrayal.

“The whole thing was a lie, wasn’t it?” said Marv. “You can’t do that to someone, not without becoming worse than the thing you are trying to prevent. Not even in the name of security. Can you?” Marv’s final plaintive question hung in Trials’ ears.

“I don’t know yet,” he replied, “but I know that I’m not going to allow Matthews to decide. He needs to pay.”

“And how exactly are you going to stop him? Even with the Ministry in disarray, he’s still got access to way more resources than you.”

Trials shook his head.

“No, I have to stop thinking like that. We have to stop thinking like that, like this is some action story where the good guy achieves victory from an all-out no-holds-barred shootout. I’m not even sure we are the good guys. There’s a much more obvious way, one that will drag Matthews out of the shadows and force his hand.”

Marv looked quizzical.

“What way is that?” he asked.

“We reveal everything to the press and online, make it all public. We bring the entire Ministry into the light.”

“That will implicate you as well.”

“I can fend for myself. Matthews, on the other hand, can’t afford to have all his years of work exposed. We’ll need evidence, though.”

“Uh…” said Marv, reaching back and into a large rucksack to produce a small black USB. “Funny you should say that…”