Business Is War [M] (S)

[Azazeal849]

"I want Britta to change this world, to keep her promise to us. If she causes enough change she's going to be a target. If my encounter with Hime proved anything, its that I'm tough to kill. I can make sure she lives long enough to do what needs to be done."

Mike slowly sat back down in the chair he had half-risen from, his face a complicated mix of pride and worry. Lisa and Britta looked at Wallace, then at each other, appraisingly. They seemed to find something that they agreed on, though for different reasons. Britta was glad of the extra security, while Lisa appreciated the safeguard against any change of heart from the executive. And both were trying to decide which duty took precedence in the Agent's mind.

“Thank you, Jason.” Britta said after a moment.

“So how significant will the downgrade be?” said Miller, “Can my optical implants work without the CHIP? Will my limbs have less functionality? If the civilian model limbs only give me the strength of an average person, I'm going to be very disappointed. I'll miss being able to effortlessly punch a hole in a wall.”

Britta frowned, just a little, then folded her hands and leaned forward in her chair.

“Forgive me if that sentiment unsettles me slightly.” she said, “Don't worry, your replacement bionics will have all the functionality of an ordinary human's.”

[Azazeal849]

"If everyone's happy with their new roles," Britta said, sitting back, "Then I think we're done here." Despite her tiredness, she managed a tight smile. "Let's change the world."

Not all of those present shared the newly-minted CEO's optimism. Lisa volunteered to accompany Miller on his way to the med lab, where a team of cyber-surgeons in Britta's confidence had already been told to make preparations for his downgrade.

"What are you planning?" she challenged him once they reached a deserted stretch of corridor, keeping her voice low. "That comment about punching walls wasn't exactly subtle."

"I'm not planning anything. I just really like to punch holes in walls," Miller said sarcastically. Quickly realizing that he had sounded serious, and unsure of whether Lisa realized that he was just being sarcastic, he didn't wait for her to respond. Miller stopped walking, and turned towards the scientist to explain what he was going to do.

"I'm going to take down the syndicates, and I'm going to try get a militia running. Then we'll have to try to convince everyone that the syndicates are greedy bastards who want to control our lives. It's going to be hard though, since everyone has those damn CHIPs in their necks."

He was only able to finish his proposal by virtue of its content shocking Dr Asari into silence. When she found her voice she stopped walking, and glanced sharply up and down the corridor for any security cameras.

"Are you crazy?" she hissed. "You'll never be able to do that!"

"Unless I can use your device to disable all of them. I don't need to get rid of all of them at one time, but I need to be able to at least get a large portion of the CHIPs in a city. I don't know how the technology works, but I think if I can broadcast the signal with a radio tower, we should be able to disable the majority of the CHIPs in the area. Once the CHIPs are disabled, I'll start recruiting people for my army."

"It's not that simple!" Lisa snapped, then realised she had raised her voice and hurriedly lowered it again. "Mike and me tried doing it without outside support - it didn't bloody work."

She broke off as someone exited the bathroom near one end of the corridor and disappeared through the double doors leading to the Finance department.

"Besides," she added in a whisper, "It's not ready yet - I haven't found a way of scaling up the signal breaker that doesn't risk killing the target."

"Then you'll have to find a way," Miller responded calmly, "Or the human race could be stuck with the syndicates forever. I don't know about you, but I don't want that to happen."

Lisa bit her lip. "I know, and I'm no fan of miss Engel either but how can you possibly go about it? At least from in here we can make sure Britta does the right thing, makes some real changes."

"Britta can try to introduce her new CHIPs, but you and I both know that it won't solve the problem. Eventually, she won't be in charge anymore. There will always be people like Xenakis, and they'll always take control. When someone like that becomes executive, we'll be in the exact same mess that we just tried to fix."

Lisa leaned back against the wall, hugging her arms. "You might be right about that. But just forming an angry mob? That's crazy. Even the police who aren't in the syndicates' pockets would come down on you, never mind the syndicates themselves. If you want to expose them you'll have to..." She trailed off, letting her hands fall to her sides as her train of thought ran out. "I don't know."

"It won't just be an 'angry mob,'" Miller replied impatiently, "These people will be trained. Not as much as I would like them to be, but they'll have some degree of training. I'm not going to just send random angry civilians after the syndicates."

Either Lisa thought he was an idiot, or she was just being stupid. Or both. Did she really think he was going to send a bunch of inexperienced civilians to fight agents?

"This is going to take a lot of time, more than just a few years, and I realize that. I'll train the first recruits, and they'll help on smaller operations. The tasks they're given will increase in difficulty as their skills increase.

"Once they're trained enough, some of them can help me train the next group of recruits, and so on and so forth. The amount of people that can be trained will also increase as time passes. Eventually I'll have a big enough army to start fighting."

Lisa shook her head, clearly agitated, Miller's own frustration creating a negative feedback loop between the two. "If you can keep it secret that long. And what are you going to look like to the rest of the world? The next Al Qaeda. The syndicates won't even have to act themselves to shut you down."

"You know, there's this thing called 'anonymity.' It's really nice for when you want to accomplish something without revealing who you are," Miller retorted. Lisa was starting to annoy him.

"Yeah, because it's so easy for people like us to stay anonymous." Lisa snapped. She rested the back of her head against the wall and closed her eyes, reining in her anger and gathering her thoughts.

"Look," she said, more reasonably, "If miss Engel breaks her word or gets replaced then yes, we'll have to fight. But don't fight them with guns, fight them with information. That's what I was trying to do with the signal breaker. If enough important people realise how the CHIPs really work to kick up a fuss, then maybe they can finish what we started." She paused. "Trouble is, the signal breaker might not even work on the new line of CHIPs. I'd need time to study them."

"That's what I plan to do with your signal breaker. If I can disable the CHIPs, I should be able to get information out much more easily.

You said that your device doesn't work with a radio tower though, so if you can't get it to work, fighting is an alternative choice. It'll probably be necessary anyway, once the information is out. The syndicates are going to try to restore order, and they'll use force if they have to. Eurocorp may not go to extremes if Britta is in charge, but what about Sonbushi? They obviously have no problem with killing civilians. So we need to be able to protect the people, and to do that, we need an army."

"So use the government's army." Lisa countered, "The syndicates aren't afraid of casualties, but they are afraid of inquiries. Look how close they came after that nightmare in Warsaw."

She fell quiet for a moment in thought, then sighed and pushed herself off the wall. "Give me more time. I'll call you."

She glanced pointedly towards the doors at the other end of the corridor, knowing that they would be missed in the med-lab if they delayed much longer.

[PaintSerf]

“Awful. Six of our people, counting Xenakis and Dawson; three police officers and seventeen civilians dead at the scene; two more who've since died in hospital. We might have saved a few more if the paramedics had been able to get in straight away, but with all the IEDs they couldn't take the chance. There were also thirty one injured, including a fifteen-year-old girl in a coma that she'll probably never wake up from. The youngest victim was four. Four!” Britta shook her head violently. Wallace just closed his eyes and leaned back into the chair with a pained grimace. Unbidden memories flashed through his mind in quick succession. He saw his son and daughter when they were four and fifteen. He smelt acrid smoke waft through the air in war torn city streets. He heard widows and widowers weep as they received folded flags. He felt soft skin as he slid a ring onto a slender finger. He tasted the blood in his mouth even as he drowned in it.

“God damn it.” Wallace breathed as he brought a hand to his forehead and massaged it. The touch of faux skin against the genuine article still set his teeth on edge, but the sudden ache in his head required it. Britta’s revelation about the massacre and the barrage of sensory memories had jarred him. While the others conversed amongst themselves Wallace sat and mentally scourged himself in silence.

How’d your high minded principles work for you, and those you thought to save, eh? Not too well, huh? Kids are dead, cops are dead, and dozens of people mauled by heinous physical injuries – to say nothing about the lifelong mental trauma all the way around - because you didn’t man up and do something about it. You couldn’t find a way to kill the suit soon enough. Did you really think trying to escape the kill box would stop that psycho bitch from murdering innocents? Wait, that’s right, you did. How many of those lives were gutted or snuffed out while you drove on by? Oh, yeah, don’t forget you also murdered a man who was alive. Unlike you, until you made him like you, dead man.

Wallace almost laughed out loud in bitter anger as Dr. Asari queried Britta about how an Agent would return to their previous life and again at the executive’s offer of a payout. He wanted to rage. He wanted to weep. Most of all he wanted his old life back to the way it was before he became Agent Wallace. Even though he couldn’t remember most of his old life, as David Townsend, it surely had to be better than this reality. You can’t go home again. Wallace’s free hand curled into a fist as he reached that conclusion. You’re a tattered ruin of who you once were, whoever he was, and you’d only get your family killed if you tried. You were declared dead, you were mourned, and you were buried. It’s better for everyone that the dead stay dead.

"Here's your personal data that Mr. Townsend requested."

It took a moment for Wallace to open his eyes and respond to what had been his name. He briefly met Britta’s eyes as he leaned forward to collect his document. The only noises he made were from his movement in the chair and the cybernetic parts. Once again Wallace remained silent, with one leg crossed over the other knee, as he stared down at the folder and idly tapped the cover. He felt he needed to know what was lost to him and what he’d been forced to do as an Agent. But he also knew that knowing would be nothing but self-inflicted torture. It was a strange thing to think that this was the sum of his life in his hands. He would read it when he was alone and possibly with enough scotch to forget he ever did. The file would have to be destroyed afterwards. It connected him to his family, and he couldn’t allow that liability to their safety to exist. No doubt it that arrangement would cost him.

“I remember my kids when they were four years old.” Wallace stated quietly to nobody in particular after what felt like an eternity of silence. He stared down at the file in his lap as he approximated the height of a small child with a free hand. “I was at my little girl’s stuffed animal tea party. My son and I were at a ballgame. I needed to hear about a dead child to recollect even that... that’s not great.” He glanced up at Britta before his gaze swept across her desk towards the picture frame. After a few lingering moments Wallace turned his tired eyes back at the executive and nodded slightly as he spoke, as if acknowledging his own lack of choice. “Unfortunately you can’t bring them back once they’re gone.”

“This, and any other records, will need to be destroyed once I’m done with it. I don’t like the idea of anyone using my family as leverage, and you shouldn’t either since I’ll be helping Robson keep you alive.” He continued after a momentary pause as he gently smacked the document on his knee a few times. Wallace’s expression changed to an appraising one, after momentarily tightening after his last statement, as he leaned back into his chair to listen to what came next.

[Azazeal849]

“Unfortunately you can’t bring them back once they’re gone.”

“No.” Britta said quietly, following his gaze over to the picture of her dead sister, “You can't.”

In an uncommon display of vulnerability, the CEO bit her lip. The look in her eyes was a complicated one. She seemed to be wrestling with the part she had played in Wallace's current situation and her utter powerlessness to make any meaningful amends. In the end, she said nothing.

“This, and any other records, will need to be destroyed once I’m done with it.” Wallace continued after a momentary pause as he gently smacked the document on his knee a few times.

“I'll take care of it.” Britta nodded. She was still looking at Wallace, but she had carefully smoothed her face back into a neutral mask.

“I don’t like the idea of anyone using my family as leverage, and you shouldn’t either since I’ll be helping Robson keep you alive.” Wallace’s expression changed to an appraising one, after momentarily tightening after his last statement, as he leaned back into his chair to listen to what came next. Britta once again met his appraising look with steady eyes, although this time she bowed her head. In thanks or regret, Wallace couldn't tell. Maybe both. Maybe something else entirely.

"If everyone's happy with their new roles," Britta said at length, sitting back, "Then I think we're done here." Despite her tiredness, she managed a tight smile. "Let's change the world."

She stood up, the steel executive once more. The smile fell off her face as she watched Miller leave the office with Dr Asari in tow. Mike stayed behind, hovering near Robson.

“I think,” Britta said slowly, “That we might have to keep an eye on Mr Parker after his surgery.” She glanced from Robson to Wallace. “I hope I'm wrong, but he seems a little too eager to make trouble.”

“What are you going to do to him?” Mike spoke up, a certain wariness in his voice.

“Nothing, unless I have to.”

“And if you have to?” Mike challenged.

Britta's eyes darted, very briefly, to Jessika's picture on her desk. “To prevent another war? Whatever it takes.”

+ + + + + +

Lisa Asari subconsciously reached under her hair and fingered the back of her neck, feeling the tiny metallic stud of the CHIP embedded there. The British-Indian scientist's apartment was dim, lit only by the lamp on her desk and the projected hologram of her computer terminal. The hologram displayed pictures and scrolling text regarding the Dart 4b, EuroCorp's latest CHIP. The one that would open the people's eyes, or at least, just enough to stop syndicate Agents from being able to roam the streets with impunity. It was also the one that rendered her signal disruptor obsolete.

Lisa sighed, and swiped her free hand through the hologram to put the computer into standby mode. She would need the mainframe at EuroCorp, and a higher clearance, to be able to access full details on the new CHIP. Her hand drifted to the archaic handheld phone that had been sitting on the desk next to her computer. Lisa's CHIP, forcibly implanted and then deliberately sabotaged like Wallace and Robson's, carried all of the implant's functionality apart from the compulsion to obey. Nevertheless, she would be caught dead before she made conscious use of the built-in communicator. Instead, the mobile in front of her displayed two numbers, both of which she had typed in and then stopped short of calling multiple times in the last hour. One was the contact number Miller had given her as he departed EuroCorp, striding out of the vast glass doors without looking back. The other number was the CHIP-code for CEO Britta Engel.

Lisa hesitated once again, brushing her fingertip up and down the phone's touchscreen. She didn't know what to do, and this time she didn't think even Mike would be able to help her. Was she going to side with Miller, and willingly repeat the mistake that had led to so much bloodshed in the past month? If she warned Britta, then she could stop him now before he put his provocative, dangerous and probably insane plan into action. But she was still far from trusting of the new EuroCorp CEO. Lisa and Mike both had information that could potentially bring Britta down, and the two free Agents at her side could put a bullet in her back at any time. But not only would this probably lead to their own swift deaths, they had no way of knowing who would take her place. As Miller had pointed out, there could easily be another Xenakis waiting in the wings. Britta must know that she was their only surety of change, and that counterbalanced Lisa and the others' theoretical leverage over her.

“Fuck!” Lisa hissed under her breath, and tried to think of the best case scenario rather than the worst. Maybe she could convince Miller to hold off – to stay on the sidelines as insurance and to gather power through information rather than force. Maybe Britta would do as she promised; maybe she did have the ability to bring the changes they all wanted, despite only commanding one of several EuroCorp department boards. Maybe she did have the steel to keep the other syndicates in check. Neither scenario seemed likely enough to be comforting.

Lisa closed her eyes for a long moment.

And then, suddenly, snapped them open. She picked up her mobile, and tapped her thumb against the chosen number.

The phone began to ring.