Like Eindhoven, this small township had a minority population of beastfolk, most of which were some form of canine, although I did witness a pair of tiger-men, built very-powerfully, looking like they would easily tear my head off of my shoulders if they wished. It was probably good luck for me then, that they were members of the town's guard, marching in step as they patrolled the streets, looking for anyone that might cause trouble.

Unfortunately, there were still the odd humans here and there who were more than content to jeer at any hybrids they came across. Once, I'd come across a gaggle of teenagers throwing food at a wolven girl, and when I glared at them as we passed, they looked at me as though I'd stripped naked and danced in the street.

I didn't waver, instead, I kept up my glare until they nervously whispered and ran off. The look of surprised gratitude I'd gotten from the wolven girl was heart-breaking, and it was all I could do just to nod gently in her direction before I had to get out of there.

I'd found an old restaurant that was converted into a bed-and-breakfast type of operation with a pair of attached retail units that had been annexed and converted into additional accommodations at some point in the past. It was serviceable, the rooms were clean, and the dining area was well-kept with clean and sturdy, if not exactly comfortable furnishings.

Rather than spend any time doing anything else, I instead opted to pay for a room for the evening, so I could immediately retire for the night and review my situation. I still needed to find this Bart fellow, and that would start tomorrow when I'd had some time to think of what I could tell him.

As I lay in the hard bed, I called up my nanocloud interface and set to work. There were some notifications I needed to review that I'd ignored earlier, and I still needed to look over the information on Bart Henckel while I had time to myself.

Somewhere along the way, I'd picked up a new upgrade for my visual overlay. I decided to activate it.

Visual Overlay Provides information about the surrounding environment to complement the visual capabilities of the host. Baseline Outline only. Visually identify any passively-detectable object for nanocloud activity. Level 1 Context-aware visual enhancement system. Relies upon processing from local nanocloud. Provides basic threat analysis and parameter information.

It was activated immediately, though my nanocloud had made me aware through some form of instinct imprinting (if you could call it that) the function had to be manually activated, like a muscle reflex, in order to use the additional information, and this was because it required additional processing from the nanocloud itself. I wasn't really sure why this was, but I suspected it was because I had entirely human eyes, and some of the stuff it did needed more than my eyes could provide.

Still, another mystery for another time.

I then turned my attention to Bart Henckel's file. He was forty-eight when he entered the nanotech programme, having been entered as an ALS sufferer. Since he was in his late teens, Bart had begun to suffer symptoms of this syndrome, slowly degenerating from an avid sports player to someone who couldn't move. He slowly lost the ability to move his limbs, then his torso and lower body, until eventually, he was essentially paralysed from the neck down and confined to a wheelchair. The nanocloud corrected for this by repairing the neurological damage that the syndrome caused, as well as bolstering the central nervous connections throughout his body with fixed-in-place nanomachines to take over those functions until the damage could be repaired. According to his file, he had already showed some promising results, able to stand and walk in a controlled environment by the time the records ended on the files I had.

Because Bart was fairly young at the start of his time at Synergy, I wouldn't have to worry too much about what he looked like compared to his documented photos. He should look similar enough for me to spot him without assistance.

This was as much work as I wanted to put into the mission this evening, so I filed all of the data away in my nanocloud and my own mind, shucked off my clothing and had a shower. I was thankful that this part of the world at least still had access to indoor plumbing for this to be possible, and I took full advantage of this luxury.

I gratefully slipped between the covers almost twenty minutes later, my nanocloud preparing my mind for sleep and ready to listen out for trouble if I needed to wake up. With those preparations finished, I relaxed, and was very quickly asleep.

As was fast becoming the norm for me again, I'd rested well and woke up feeling like I'd had a coffee and a nice warm shower, despite having yet had either of those things. I looked about my room, caught sight of my backpack which I'd left packed for my journey, and then gratefully stepped into the shower to clean off the night's accumulation of grime. The overnight laundry service had my trail clothes freshly cleaned, a luxury I thought I'd never know the like of again. As I quickly re-packed my backpack with my provisions and additional clothing, I marvelled again at the premium motel-feel to this place in a world that had gone mad.

As I made my way out of my room, I nearly tripped over the box that had been left just outside of the door. Curious, I picked the box up and steppewd back into the room so I could look it over. There was a note, which I put to one side so I could see what else there was, and discovered a variety of cured and cleaned wolven pelts, all of which were bright silver, just like that wolf I'd encountered last night.

I picked up the note and opened it, and all the irritation I'd felt last night exploded right out of me again, as I read what had to be Eveline's hand-writing, an elegant cursive script that while it was written in French, I'd easily translated thanks to the linguistics functions my nanocloud now possessed.

A peace offering. Meet me for breakfast. -E

Man, she's so fucking infuriating at times, I thought to myself. I was still fucking pissed off with her unwarranted accusation toward me last night, and at the same time I wanted to avoid any drama; I'd endured enough of that in my old life with a pair of bigoted parents and a sister who they never learned to accept for who she was. My nanocloud was almost completely ineffective at moderating my fury, which didn't bode well for me, given that such uncontrolled emotion would likely get me killed if I lost my temper in a life-or-death fight.

Host emotional state was valid in the context of the situation.

Wait, what?! Again, my nanocloud had been aware of my thoughts on the matter, but most bizarrely, it had determined that my state of anger was valid. How did it become so proficient at determining whether being angry at an unwarranted accusation was valid or not?

The nature of host thoughts and how they triggered host emotional imbalance is not known to the nanocloud. Determination was made due to the lack of enemy presence in the area and the lack of fear felt at the last remaining presence capable of causing harm to host.

I wasn't really sure what the nanocloud meant by that statement. Maybe there were some things it was incapable of articulating at its current level of abilities? But it sounded to me like it was saying "You weren't in any danger, so I let you run with your feelings."

While I might not yet fully be in sync with my nanocloud nor understand what it meant to do all the time, I nonetheless appreciated this aspect of its' operation. I needed to vent pretty badly last night, and curiously, realising this today was making me feel a bit better.

I still needed to deal with Eveline, and there was no sense in being a dick to her just to be difficult; they still had to journey together for a little while longer, so I decided I may as well try to make it as easy as possible. I folded the note back up and stored it in my backpack, then took the pelts, clipping them to the sides of my pack with the provided clips, before hoisting it back on to my shoulders and stepping once again, out of the room.

I soon found her in the breakfast room, sat in an alcove at the corner of the room, dressed in a loose-fitting T-shirt and cargo shorts. Her mane of hair was clipped back and tied down, and slightly damp. I noticed as I approached, that she read from a newsletter of some kind, twirling a loose strand of her mane through her fingers, claws sheathed.

It would have been adorable under different circumstances.

I shucked my backpack and approached, deliberately clearing my throat so as not to startle her. I needn't have worried, as she turned her head slowly with a frown.

"Morning," I offered in a slightly-upbeat tone.

"You make a lot of noise," her own tone was disdainful.

I sighed, wondering if she was ever anything other than difficult. "I don't want to startle you," I replied.

"Your feet made enough noise walking in a minute ago," she snorted, gesturing to the seat across from her.

"And I probably stink, too," I said in snark, reminding her of her comments about pheromones.

She narrowed her eyes before answering, her expression calculating, as if unsure whether to call me out for being bitchy with her. I had to admit, she might have had cause right then, because I cringed slightly at my own frosty behaviour. "You stink of wolf pelts and snark!" Her own tone was flat as she turned back to her newsletter. Wait, did I pick up a slight hint of amusement? It was gone before I could think on it any longer. "I'm hungry, so let's sit and eat."

A major part of me wanted to make it clear to Eveline, that what she did and said yesterday was unacceptable. Another, not-so-major but nonetheless significant part of me was hungry. I also recognised that she was making an effort to be hospitable right now, and wasn't about to slap her in the face with this olive branch of hers.

I took the seat opposite hers. "Any preferences?" I asked.

Eveline continued to look through her pamphlet, absently giving me a response. "With what's on offer here?" She looked up at me, and I then realised she wasn't holding a newsletter, but a menu for this dining room. "Whole wheat fruited toast with strong coffee. If they made any meat for breakfast I'd have some, but we are in the Netherlands."

I gave a disinterested shrug. A full English had a certain appeal, but even with a nanocloud-regulated physiology, I should probably avoid such such things. "I'll give it a try."

Eveline waved one of the waiters over, who approached with something of a disdainful look toward her.

Immediately, I could feel the hair stand on the backs of my arms and my skin flush with annoyance. "Can I take your order?" The waiter asked in a flat tone, as if being put upon.

"Wholewheat fruit bread, toasted, with coffee," Eveline told the stuffy little man in what sounded to me to be an equally flat tone.

I couldn't exactly blame her for that.

Oddly, his manner as he turned to me, had transformed. He gave me a slimy grin that made me want to spew, and in a smooth voice, asked "And may I take your order, sir?"

You motherfucker, I thought to myself, as I saw Eveline stiffen in response to the major difference in his attitude toward me versus herself. "Same," I offered flatly, narrowing my eyes, suppressing my anger.

The waiter slowly nodded, then he turned to walk away, his gaze sliding past Eveline as if she were a rat in a five star hotel suite. I glared at the arsehole, wishing my eyesight could burn holes in his fucking back, the dickhead.

"Rick," Eveline called out, snapping me out of my anger for a moment.

I turned to her, and her resigned expression caused my outrage to burn brightly once more. "Is this the kind of shit you have to put up with any time you go anywhere?" I couldn't contain the anger I was feeling.

"I'm used to it," she sighed.

"Fuck used to it," I snapped. "That's exactly the sort of prejudice I hate, and one of the things I got angry at you for last night."

Eveline looked as though she'd been slapped in the face, looking about her to see if anyone had noticed. "But-"

"No," I cut her off. "It's not acceptable to judge someone on something they have no fucking choice in!"

Her face was unreadable right then, and I wondered if I'd offended her, but I held my tongue. "Nice of you to say so," she sighed, her tone defeated, her face dropping into a resigned expression. "But this is something we've had to face from humans since they made us, and it's not going away any day soon."

Before I could stop the impulse, I found myself standing, anger turning into cold fury. "That doesn't make it right."

"Rick, I can take care of myself."

"You shouldn't have to deal with something like this!" I growled, wanting to go find the waiter, and everyone like him, and slap them hard for their attitude. My nanocloud chose this moment to intervene, and I ignored the warning it flashed me about my adrenaline and cortisol levels.

"It's not up to you to fix my-" Eveline started, but I cut her off.

"Please stop," I said, trying desperately to get a grip on my tone. She wasn't the one I was angry at, and I didn't want to direct my outrage in her direction. "This isn't about me trying to fix you, or your problems. This is about basic human decency," I continued, ignoring her derisive snort. "When I think about gentle but protective Amélie having to deal with hostility any time she had to travel here for supplies, it stings. It hurts to think that people here would look at Charles and treat him like a dangerous animal when he has been nothing but cordial and friendly to everyone I saw him interact with, including a stranger like me. It's cruel and completely unjustified."

Eveline's look, while no doubt intended to be kind, was condescendingly pitying, and I didn't care for it. "Rick, this problem is here to stay. It's nice you care-" I went to protest, but she kept going. "No, I'm serious, let me finish. It really is nice to know you truly are talking to me like I'm a person, but you're not the only human who sees us that way. My parents adopted me and taught me that some humans can be wonderful people, but so few of you cannot change things in one night."

The fight had left me at the realisation her words had causewd to dawn within me. She was right, of course, and on some level, I realised this fact long before today. I suddenly felt exhausted, and I hadn't even been awake for half an hour yet. "It's not fair," I muttered under my breath. I felt lost in the unfairness of it all, the injustice of what beast folk like Eveline had to deal with probably throughout their entire lives, and it gave me a new appreciation for the efforts of the Cuissets and their supporters. At the same time, realising that this was yet another fight for justice for everyone that had started long before I was ever born, I couldn't help but feel utterly defeated. This was an uphill struggle, and I didn't know how to deal with it. "Why don't people just fucking stop this shit?"

Eveline said nothing, and in that moment, I couldn't really decide if that was a good thing or not. Nothing she said to me would make me feel better about the fact that people like her would have to put up with the kind of bigotry that was practiced for centuries before, because of the injustice of it all. I hated it with every fibre of my being, and just sitting here stewing about it made my fucking blood boil.

"I need some air," I told Eveline curtly. "Back soon."

The look she gave me was inscrutable, but she said nothing, and that was probably for the best right now.

Unfortunately for me, just going out to try and calm myself down was unhelpful. What complicated the issue for me was the fact that my nanocloud did absolutely nothing to calm the sense of outrage I felt within. I felt a maelstrom within me, a mixture of anger, sadness, outrage at the injustice of the bigotry that this new breed of people were facing. Add that to the unpleasant memories I had of my sister being bullied, intimidated, gaslighted, and in some cases, physically assaulted just because she had an attraction to both men and women, the beatings I saw my friend be subjected to, or the bigotry I witnessed my sperm donor and my incubator subject other people to... People who were more family to me than they ever would be... It put me in danger of losing my sense of control and objectivity. It had the potential to derail me from my mission.

Not to mention the fact that I wanted to scream, or to punch someone, like that fucking waiter I spoke to earlier.

I was so lost in my thoughts, I hadn't noticed Eveline's approach. When she spoke up next to me, I nearly jumped right out of my skin.

"Shit," I exclaimed. "Why do you need to sneak up on people like that?!"

She said nothing at first, though her expression held a hint of annoyance and amusement at the same time. "Still stewing over the shit that happened in there?"

My irritation flared. "This isn't just a simple case of me being annoyed over a minor issue," I snapped at her. "And I'll thank you not to treat me like I'm making a big deal out of nothing, if it's all the same to you."

"What's your problem?" She asked in a flat tone, her expression smouldering with resentment. "This is not your-"

"Don't you fucking dare insult me like that!" I felt my own anger flare up. "I've had to watch friends of mine, family members," I emphasised the two groups with angry jabs of my fingers as I extended them on one hand to count, glaring at her the whole time. "People that I fucking loved and respected, Eveline. I had to watch them suffer," I paused, trying to strive for calm, but the lack of change in her expression pushed me over the edge. I could feel the anger and distress within me, and my eyes started to burn. "For YEARS! DECADES! I had to stand by and WATCH them as they were made to suffer for nothing that they had any control over!" I couldn't help the angry tears that spilled from my eyes at that moment. I really felt a strong need to punch something. "I will not lighten up over this. I refuse to sweep it under the fucking rug," I said, desperately grasping to control my outrage at the sense of injustice.

This world was fucked up in so many ways, murder taking place more frequently, people far less secure in their homes and lives, hybrid humans forced into servitude, and all of it unacceptable to me. Yet, while I understood the intellectual and emotional rejection of the notion of bigotry toward others, as well as rejection of every ill that happened in society, what really undid me was when I saw bigotry happening right in front of my face, and being unable to do anything about it.

There was something visceral in my outright revulsion at seeing people treated ill in front of my very eyes.

"I'm not asking for your help with this, and I don't need your validation-" Eveline started, almost condescendingly.

I couldn't help it. This was too much. "Shut the fuck up!" I seethed. "This isn't about you. Didn't you listen to a single fucking word I just said to you less than thirty fucking seconds ago? This is about everyone who has ever suffered because of the sort of thinking that I still see before me. Even you do it, with your bigotry toward humans." I didn't give her a chance to protest, even though I could see she wanted to. "This is about the knowledge that millions of people have lost their lives throughout history because they were born in the wrong place in the world, or they had a biological disposition toward people that others disapproved of, or because they followed a certain belief system," I took a breath, and then looked her dead on, wiping my face angrily. "Don't you ever fucking insult me again by assuming that my rejection of such bigotry is about trying to impress you, help you, or seek your fucking approval. How dare you?!"

And with that said, I stalked off. I had to put distance between us.

"Where are you going?"

"For a walk," I snapped. "Is that alright with you, Your Majesty?"

I didn't bother to look back, and right now, I didn't care if she took offence at my manner.

The only way I was going to get past my anger right now, was to get myself out there and busy looking for Bart. If I was lucky, I might be able to do something useful for a change.

Oddly, finding Bart proved to be impossible. I don't know why, but no matter where I looked, I never found him. It was like he had disappeared off the face of the planet. More than likely, he had either been killed in the past, or he had moved out of the area...

Or he was clever enough to hide.

I remembered Johanneke back in Eindhoven. She had found me, in the end. If she had not, I might not have ever found her.

However, the search, while it proved fruitless, did give me enough of a distraction to clear my head and calm myself down, but my personal feelings at being present at scenes of bigotry, gaslighting or abuse, coupled with my increased tendency toward being emotionally intense now that I'd been rejuvenated to a twenty-something, all made it clear in my mind. I needed to do something about that. I consulted my nanocloud.

Is there a way of moderating the intensity of my emotions?

Emotional regulation is a function of the nanocloud in times of extreme duress or combat.

That wasn’t what I meant. The nanocloud still had contextual limitations. Or was it simply that I hadn't been clear enough? I knew humans who might have made that same mistake.

Earlier today, I had an extreme response to being reminded of situations early in my life that I was forced to be witness to. You made no attempt to moderate the intensity of those feelings. That could have led to some difficulty in certain interpersonal relationships with anyone accompanying me on my current quest.

The effects host is referring to are not predictable and are not factored as part of the current model.

You may not be able to predict the results, but I can.

Noted.

Good. Finally, I was getting somewhere with my nanocloud.

I need to be able to control my emotional state at will. Is there a means of doing so?

A method exists but requires more direct access to host synapses. This requires a nanocloud AI upgrade to Level 1.

Great, I thought. There had to be a way of enabling a level 1 AI. I had to wonder if this could be obtained from someone else, or if this was a situation where my nanocloud had to come up with this upgrade itself.

Oddly, my nanocloud did not provide an answer. I had no idea why, only that it usually either stated a possible answer, or stated bluntly that it could not assist.

Either way, I needed to get ready to head to Dusseldorf, so I took myself back to the hotel I'd stayed at and trudged up to my room to go pack my gear for the trip out. I did not see Eveline at any point since I'd stormed off earlier, but I suspected she would be off for her morning run, so thought nothing of it. She could catch up with me on the way; I had no doubt about her tracking skills.

Within thirty minutes, I was back at my room, I had packed my travel gear back up, had checked out of my room and was heading to the eastern edge of Sevenum. As I passed by a small marketplace on the edge of the town, my attention was arrested by my target for this region.

Bart Henckel, the volunteer for the Synergy project here in the Netherlands, was walking toward the marketplace in a casual stroll. Like his profile photo suggested, he was tall, thin, had piercing blue eyes and a goofy look about him. Unlike his profile photo, he was young-looking, held himself with poise and strength, had bright red hair, and despite his thinness, possessed densely packed muscle on his arms. It suggested he had a lot of muscle all over his body that was just as equally dense, which to me seemed likely given his profile informed me that he was a patient suffering from ALS before the nanocloud had intervened. His muscles had wasted, his body almost completely useless, and the only thing left was his mind. With the nanocloud, there was no doubt in my mind that it was specifically programmed to repair the damage done to his body, reinforce and repair where possible the connections between his body and brain, and anything else necessary to eliminate his condition.

The result was a man who was fluid in motion, and strong in stature. Despite my own physique and apparent strength, I had no doubt I’d be in for a tough time if I were forced to fight against Bart.

He noticed me at that moment and frowned. I decided to take the risk he might make a run for it, and approached slowly, deliberately, and made it obvious.

It was the right move. He waited for me at the edge of the marketplace.

“Hello, Bart,” I announced, surprising him. “I’m Rick Reyes.”

Bart frowned at me for a moment. “Well, it appears you have me at something of a disadvantage,” he eventually replied. “Did you approach me for any reason in particular?”

“I did,” I told him. “You’re in danger.”

That declaration brought him up short. I couldn’t blame the guy. “Explain,” he eventually demanded.

“It might be easier if we exchange data?” I suggested, holding my hand out in the now familiar gesture for nanocloud exchange. Bart immediately leapt back.

“Not a chance,” he said. “You need to explain. Right now.”

Without any apparent motion, Bart now had a blade in his hand, a determined expression on his face, and was now several feet away from me. He clearly had some trauma from his past encounters and was taking no chance with me.

I supposed I couldn’t blame him, but it did mean this would take longer.

“Alright,” I responded quietly, raising both hands. “I was a volunteer for the Synergy nanocloud trial that took place in the twenty-twenties. I know you were as well, because I have your file from what I collected from the Milton Keynes offices when I was last there…” I paused to give him a chance to absorb what I’d said. “When I was captured and interrogated.”

Bart lowered his blade, but not entirely. He still looked ready for a fight, or a betrayal on my part. “What did you go in as?” He asked, his tone still flat, his expression holding suspicion.

“I was a low-level investor who got in because of the promise of the technology for medical treatment,” I told him. “I also had late-stage oesophageal cancer. I’ve no idea if I would have survived without nanotechnology treatment. I was also fifty-eight years old at the time I was given my first dose, so like you, I’m a lot older than I look.”

“What do you know about me, other than my name?” Bart asked, still somewhat suspicious of me.

“Well,” I began. “I know you’re Bart Henckel, forty-five at the time of the experiment, suffering from a slow-progression form of ALS, and up until you were administered your first dose of the nanocloud, you were confined to a wheelchair and had little to no movement below your neck. Initial reports on your trials were promising, and you’d developed some movement in all of your extremities at roughly the same time, becoming more fluid as the nanocloud repaired the connections in your nervous system.”

Bart had now put away his blade, his manner now relaxed, his face cleared of suspicion, though he looked somewhat displeased. “Well, I can’t doubt your story anymore,” he told me. “I don’t like there being this information out in the world, though.”

“I wouldn’t blame you,” I said absently.

“You’ve used the phrase ‘nanocloud’ a few times already. This what you’re calling your cluster of nanomachines?”

I nodded. “Not to be an ass, but you’re still at risk.”

“Yeah,” Bart sighed. “You’d better fill me in on why that is.”

Thirty minutes later, I’d told Bart what had happened to me, why it was important I now find everyone I’d discovered on the data I’d recovered from Synergy, and why he now needed to go to ground and watch out for anyone that might be a threat to him or anyone he cared about. He also exchanged nanocloud data with me, including some more up-to-date information he'd been able to discover on a couple of the volunteers on my list along my next few stops. I’d given him some nanomachines with the medical directive that warded off illnesses and corrected genetic flaws, and he’d given me Musculoskeletal repair and synaptic and central nervous system restoration in response. My nanocloud began work integrating these new improvements to its own directives code now that I had some more resources I’d been saving from before, and my notification offered me the Level 1 AI upgrade I’d been hoping for. I would deal with that on the road to Dusseldorf.

Once I’d said my goodbyes to Bart, I discovered Eveline waiting nearby, her face a mask of impatience.

Fuck sake. Couldn’t I get a break today?

I approached, and rather than get drawn into an argument, I simply told her I was ready to leave.

“Where did you run off this morning after our discussion?” She asked, her voice flat and almost bored, but her tail twitched agitatedly.

“Taking care of the next item on my quest,” I told her in a flat tone, offering nothing else. “You ready to move on?”

She merely nodded, clearly not wanting to get drawn into an argument any more than I did, for which I was thankful.

We set off.