As a man with thousands of faces, Enigma rarely had to wear the same one twice. But on this occasion, he chose to re-use the one he had worn at their last meeting. He wasn't in danger in this place. This was a low-stakes game for him. They even met in the same place, a café at the outer ring, sector fifteen. As usual, he was early, but remained hidden in the shadows and observed his surroundings, waiting for his special guest.
Somehow, he had expected her to put on the same disguise too, so he was looking for a woman in white with red hair. She did indeed wear the white pant suit again, but her hair was black this time, styled in an elegant partial up-do that covered the half of her face with the eye patch.
She was trying to hide something else behind her hair, he realized, as he watched her from his vantage point. But he wouldn't be who he was today if he didn't have exceptional observation skills. He could clearly tell that she was uncomfortable and nervous, casting glances left and right in quick succession.
He knew that she had run into scandroids during her last visit, and he had no idea how she had managed to evade them and escape Hestia alive. He also wondered what had made her change her mind about their deal. A smile flashed across his face, causing a brief, barely noticeable flicker to ripple across the disguise. He was looking forward to finding out.
"Miss Morgan, wasn't it?" he greeted her as he sat down on the bench beside her.
She jerked in surprise at the sound of his voice. Despite her wariness, she had apparently not noticed him approaching. She didn't reply to his greeting, instead she clenched her hands into fists in her lap and stared down at them, seemingly ignoring him.
"Hm. And here I thought you would be happy to see me, considering you were the one to call for our meeting here."
"It didn't have to be here," she said in a flat voice. "You know it's not exactly easy for me..."
"Au contraire, my dear. It had to be here, precisely because it is not easy for you," he said, and his lips curled upward in a smug smile. At least now he could be sure that she was sincere about her offer.
She cast him a sideward glance with her one eye. "Would you mind going for a walk?"
She nodded her head almost imperceptibly in the direction of a scandroid patrol about fifty feet away. His smile widened. During their last encounter she had managed to intimidate him for a moment, and then she had left without giving him what he had wanted. Seeing her uneasy like that now delighted him. It was almost the best part about their meeting. But the more important part was the information, and the place was anyway getting a bit too busy for his taste.
"Of course. Let me lead the way."
He got up and offered her his arm. She stared at him for a few seconds with a wrinkle on her brow, then she sighed and took it. As they walked across the plazas and parks of the sector, he took care that they would never directly run into a scandroid patrol, but would occasionally pass by one just close enough to remind her of her situation. The woman at his side just about reached his shoulder, and whenever they spotted a patrol, he could feel her tense up and press slightly closer against him. He really had to put an effort into suppressing a constant, gleeful smile. He figured there were not many men who had seen Amy Larsson in such a state.
"Allow me to ask. What made you change your mind?" he said, once they were out of earshot of any other passersby.
She didn't reply immediately. She stared straight ahead with her single eye and seemed to clench her teeth for a moment.
"I need that information you promised," she just replied.
"More than you need New Elysium?"
"I don't need them," she said curtly. "If anything, they need me."
"I'm not surprised," he remarked, "You never struck me as a team player, or as someone who likes to take orders. You're more the type who wants to be wild and free, am I right?"
"I'm used to working alone," she said with a shrug.
"See, that's the beauty of our relationship, my dear. The two of us can work together and still retain our independence. That's why we've gotten along so well in the past, and will continue to get along well in the future, don't you think?"
She didn't reply to that. They had reached a dead end, a secluded little garden near the inner border of the sector. Framed by walls on two sides and bordering a large artificial lake on the third, the walkway they had crossed was the only way that led here. It was the perfect place to talk business.
She let go of his arm and took a step away. She seemed to stare down at a flowerbed of white lilies before her feet. With her back to him, he couldn't read the expression on her face, but her voice sounded strained as she talked.
"So is it true? You know what happened on Thanatos 3?"
"Have I lied to you before?" he asked her.
"You have shown a tendency to omit crucial information," she said, still without looking at him. "And before I give up New Elysium's secrets I want to be sure that it will be worth it. I need to be absolutely certain that you will be able to tell me what I want to know, and that you won't just tell me things I am already aware of."
"That's difficult... how can I convince you of that without giving away anything for free? You know that's now how it works."
He resisted the urge to step up behind her and give her a little scare, by touching her back or putting an arm around her. As much fun as that would be, he wasn't stupid. The tension in her shoulders told him that she was sufficiently on edge that a gesture like that might make her snap, and she was still a dangerous woman, even if she probably had to deactivate all her combat augments before coming here.
"Just answer me a couple of questions - yes or no," she suggested. "You know about Thanatos 3."
"Yes."
He hadn't quite believed his intel, but the look on her face as he had just so much as mentioned the planet had convinced him that in contrast to him and his source, she didn't know all the details of what had happened there. His source had also claimed that she had no memory of before, so there were still other interesting things for him to sell to her.
"You knew about the Butcher, and his... business," she went on.
"Yes."
It had been unfortunate that she had decided to kill the man. He had hoped that she would simply steal from him, or perhaps do business with him herself, but in the long run, he didn't really care. He furrow his brow as he wondered why she only asked about the things she already knew.
"You know some of his customers."
He hesitated for a moment. He had to be careful now not to reveal too much. But that was something he couldn't very well hide any longer after some of the things he had told her already.
"Yes," he finally said.
"So you know about Lazarus and Martin Blake."
His jaw dropped at the mention of that name, and he was glad that she still had her back turned at him. He snapped his mouth shut and gulped. He hadn't expected her to know that name, and he wondered how many dots she had already connected herself.
"And you already told me that you know that at least some people in Neo-Tokyo are aware of the dangerous, shady business dealings of these people." Suddenly, her voice sounded sweet and soothing as honey. The tension from her shoulders was gone, instead he could feel his own body stiffen at her words.
"Which leaves only one question. How does it all connect? How do they do it? How do their customers avoid persecution?"
Despite her questions, he realized that she already knew the answer. He took a step back as she turned around to face him again. The tensed and worried expression had disappeared from her face and given way to a devious smile that made a shiver run down his spine. If she already knew, why had she asked to meet him?
"Let me think," she said, putting a hand up to the side of her face. "Ah, perhaps it has something to do with a certain branch of the military. An order of fanatics well known for their hatred for augments, who were on the forefront of the Purge and continue to hunt augments all across known space, with unparalleled ruthlessness and brutality, to this day. Hm, what was their name again?"
He took another step back and hoped the holographic mask he was wearing would hide some of the utter shock and surprise he felt. She wasn't supposed to know all that. This was the kind of information he had been about to sell her today. If she already knew, why had she asked him for a meeting? Just how much did she know?
A screeching electronic trill resounded through the garden. It was a noise that went through his bone and marrow, and on any other day he would have shuddered hearing it, despite the fact that he had been stripped of his augments a long time ago. But in his current situation, it filled him with a sadistic sense of joy. Surely, he would lose an interesting customer and a potentially useful source today, but she had been getting a bit too close to uncovering some very valuable secrets on her own, so he wouldn't miss her too much.
He met Amy Larsson's gaze, prepared to revel in the look of utter fear and terror on her face at the knowledge that she would be killed by a scandroid. But for some reason, she still wore that ominous smile.
"Oh no," she exclaimed, putting her hands to the sides of her face. "A scandroid! Whatever shall I do?"
Behind him, he could hear the low-pitched hiss of the scandroid, followed by scattered rays of blue light illuminating the garden around them. He quickly stepped to the side to get out of the way. He watched in surprise how she stretched her arms out wide and seemed to revel in the glow of the blue light.
The scandroid unit scanned her, and then it simply froze. It just continued to hover there, as if it was pondering what to do next. Enigma stared at it in disbelief. Why didn't it try to capture her? Why hadn't it shot her already?
She sighed contentedly and went up the scandroid, patting its hulking body as if it was just a gigantic metal puppy.
"Ah, Engima my friend," she snickered. "Here I thought you were a smart man. But you made the same mistake as all the other idiots. You underestimated me."
"I... I don't understand. Why is it not attacking you? I thought you had life support augments-"
"I do," she said casting him a sideward glance. "I thought you knew what happened on Thanatos 3? And after that."
His slowly inched away from her under her gaze. She was dangerous, and somehow she had even managed to trick the scandroid. He had to get away, fast. He took a step back.
"You thought I don't remember, and you could get me to sell out New Elysium to find out what happened to me."
She turned to look at him and fixed him with her one-eyed gaze. He froze mid-step.
"Too bad I remember very well what happened on Thanatos 3. But take it as a lesson learned, Enigma," she said and smiled sweetly. "You should never try to sell a person their own secrets. That can only backfire."
He shook his head slowly, his glance darting back and forth between the woman before him and the hulking robot next to her. She patted it again, and as if on her command, it turned and hovered away. He stared after the robot in disbelief.
"How did you-"
"Ah, that's an interesting story. I shared my little secret with the scandroids too, and now they don't really know what to do with me any longer."
"Which secret?" he asked, none the less confused.
She cracked an uncanny smile. "The one you tried to sell me. I'm already dead."
He took another step back. Despite the fact that she wasn't armed, he was suddenly not so certain anymore that she didn't have any combat augments active. If she had found a way to trick the scandroids, who knew what else she might have up her sleeve?
He cursed his own stupidity and overconfidence. He had brought her here because he had thought he had the upper hand, he had thought he could play some mind games with her and use her fear to his advantage. He had made a terrible mistake. He had indeed underestimated her. This place was remote and deserted, and the next scandroid patrol would only pass by in ten minutes.
"You're thinking about running, hm?" she asked, as if she had read his thoughts. "Sorry to disappoint you. Our conversation is not over yet. As useless as you have proven to be in the past couple of weeks, there are still some things I could use you for."
"If you come any closer, I will scream. There is more security on Hestia. The kind you cannot trick so easily," he warned her, but his voice sounded weak.
"If you try to scream, I will crush your larynx and you will never get a chance to spout any nonsense again," she said, bearing her teeth in a wide smile that made him think she would probably tear out his throat with them to fulfill her threat. "And if you run, I will break your legs. I really would prefer not to, though. I don't wanna get any grass or blood stains on my clothes..."
She looked down along her body and flattened a fold in her white pant suit. Then she crossed her arms and eyed him up and down.
"I'm giving you a choice here, Enigma. Think about it. What happened on Symoa and Aenara, that was just the beginning. The Purge may have brought the elite peace of mind for some years, but it's nothing but an illusion. You know that as well as I do – after all, the Purge was never fully carried out, was it? Some of the elites might know that there is a shadow market for augments even to this day, some of them even profit from it directly, and they think their money can keep them safe. But here's the thing: you cannot buy loyalty. You cannot buy safety. They bought themselves peace of mind, but it's just an illusion. There are millions out there, Enigma, millions of people who complied with the Purge, who lost loved ones and had to suffer. These people sacrificed a lot, just to continue playing by the rules. I reckon these people will not be so happy once they find out that the elites have kept the juiciest bits of the cake for themselves while forbidding anyone else to eat from it."
She ran her tongue across her teeth and for a moment he thought she might just jump at him and begin to suck his blood. Even knowing that she was not really dead, the woman was still the uncanniest thing he had ever seen. He remembered her threat and fought down the urge to scream and run.
"A storm is brewing," she warned him with a menacing grin. "And I will be at the forefront when it hits in places like Hestia, and tears them to shreds. You may harbor disdain for these people just as much as me, but you chose to live among them – so think about this carefully. When the storm comes, which side will you be on? You can't keep on selling secrets to both sides forever."
He looked at her, and he saw that storm she was talking about. It was raging in her grey, organic eye, already now. Another shiver ran down his spine, and he evaluated his remaining options for a moment.
"Now wait a second," he said and held his hands up in a defensive gesture. "We can still talk about this. We can do business, you and me. We could even be partners!"
He flashed her a forced smile, while the fast-paced heartbeat that he felt all the way up to his throat felt like it was about to choke him.
"There's no reason for all this hostility. We're opportunists, you and me. The world we're living in is a mess, it's complicated... but we can profit from that. There's no need to do anything rash, no need to pick a fight with an enemy so powerful. Just... be rational about it. You might be about to set a fire you cannot control, don't you think? Why raze it all to the ground when you can use the situation to your advantage?"
She laughed out loud and turned to face the flowerbed again. For some reason, she seemed deeply fascinated by the white lilies growing there.
"Oh Enigma, always the business man. But we didn't start anything. Neo-Tokyo made that decision long ago when they called for the Purge. They began to tear the world apart. We will just be the ones to finish the job."
A furrow appeared on his brow at her words.
"We? I thought you worked alone?"
She looked up and flashed him another of her uncanny smiles.
"Oh, that couldn't be farther from the truth."
She stepped back, and suddenly, the ground below his feet began to rumble. He had never been a believer. He had never even pondered the existence of a higher power. He was an opportunist, he took what he needed and gave only as much as he had to. He thought about the consequences of his actions in terms of a mathematical balance – selling secrets to all sides so that overall, a balance of power was maintained. And the surplus was his to take. He had never thought about his actions in terms of morality.
Now, the sight before him made him consider falling to his knees to pray for forgiveness.
The ground was torn open and an angel appeared, as pure as the white lilies surrounding it and shining brightly in the glaring light of the sunstrip. But the wings on its back were not made from feathers, they were mechanical. And it pointed a gun at him.
Larsson went up to the side of the angel of death, and smiled down at him sweetly, as if she was angelic herself. She looked almost innocent with her five foot three figure in a pure white suit. As if she couldn't harm a fly. If it hand't been for the Reaper MK-5 unit next to her, that was obviously under her command.
It was insane. Absolutely lunatic. Impossible.
"How did you-"
"Maintenance tunnels," she cut him off. She peered down the hole in the ground that had opened up in the center of the flower bed. "This is a pretty old space station... not all of them are in use any longer. Not all of them are under surveillance."
"But how did you know?" he exclaimed.
For a split second, he felt more offended than afraid. He had lived here for years – he knew everything there was to know about this station, every scandroid patrol route, every shortcut, every catwalk, ever corner in the shadows. He had spent hours of his life in these places, listening and watching. Yet he hadn't known about this tunnel.
She grinned and tapped a finger against her temple. "I happened to come across a very useful old map during my last visit here."
"So that's how you escaped the scandroids?"
"Not exactly. But it's how I got here today. I didn't need the docking code you gave me. Nobody knows that 'Heather Morgan' is here."
She cast a glance back in the direction they had come from, and he understood. She had never intended to do business with him. This had been her plan all along. He wondered if she had called her android here directly, or if she had correctly guessed that he would bring her here, and told her android to come to this place. He wondered if he had become so predictable.
"Now, here are your options," Amy Larsson said, looking back at him. "You can come with me and tell me everything I want to know. Or you can die here. The next scandroid patrol will be here in about... three minutes I believe. But I don't think they'll be very interested in your corpse, so it might take a while longer for it to be found. By then, I will be long gone."
The Reaper took a step forward to emphasize her threat, and he could feel cold sweat break out on the back of his neck and forehead. The mask on his face suddenly felt hot and heavy, despite being nothing but a thin mesh. He wished he had put on a bulletproof vest instead.
"Well?" she raised an eye brow, apparently still waiting for his answer.
"You won't kill me," he said defiantly, filled with a sudden rush of adrenaline, "You need information from me."
"Hm, not necessarily. It would just make things easier for me," she hummed.
"So why do you believe I will give any of it up willingly?" he said and clenched his hands into fists. "I'm prepared to take my secrets to the grave. I won't just come with you-"
"Oh I was hoping so much you'd say that!" she snickered and patted the android next to her.
Enigma opened his mouth to say something, but he didn't get the chance. The Reaper fired his gun, and for a split second, he thought that she had lied about giving him a choice, and had decided to kill him after all. But he wasn't hit by a bullet. Instead, he felt the electrical surge of a taser flow through his body. His muscles went rigid and a muffled cry of pain escaped his lips as he toppled over.
A split second before he hit the ground, the android caught him and hauled him over his shoulder. He couldn't move a muscle, but he was still conscious when she stepped up to look at his face from up close. She squinted as she reached up to pull at the mask, and the thin silvery film slipped from his face. She looked at the iridescent sheet with great fascination as it shimmered in the harsh lights of the sunlight strip in the artificial sky.
Then she looked back up at his face again and cast him another devious grin as she spoke.
"I think Rutherford will be delighted to show you his collection of Alonian opera music."