Mortgage One’s Soul
Mortgage One’s Soul — Chapter 2 — Consequences — Part 2
Monique Touran, Day 1, Preparation
Merticaru Dorin Nicolae
(To Part 1) — (Content) — (To Part 3)
Monique Touran — Day 1 — Preparation
The action window was approaching. She couldn’t delay anymore… It was the last attempt.
She knew exactly what she had to do. Only she had rehearsed so many times in the simulator. At least the last “rehearsals” were perfect, without a mistake. She no longer had any doubts, especially since she knew that the simulations had everything updated from the day to the second. Monique, her external “sense”, had done her job perfectly, completely… During training, the parameters were set to maximum difficulty. So…
She was now sitting like a movie star from one of the old action movies waiting for the right moment. She was sitting theatrically, strangely theatrical. But deep down, she always liked to have a flawless, studied image. Monique, in her perfect romanticism, often scolded her:
- Stop paying so much attention to the exterior. You have nothing to add to perfection!
And she answered him either in return or in mockery:
- The important thing is that I feel this… To feel that I have nothing more to add to what you see… To the perfection that you keep reminding me of… What I do gives me more freedom, more power. And I can’t lose these experiences… And neither will your admiration… I’m doing it for myself and not for those around me.
The headset’s companion activates, signaling that it’s time to act. The visual screen activated its functions, and she began to see the surroundings outlined, highlighted, with the tactical elements of the mission. Data over data, descriptions over descriptions, the squares marking the points of presence, connection, etc. She had three clean buildings to go over and two more with some scanning orbs present. That was all she was interested in now.
Piece of cake, she thought as she launched herself towards the first building, not thinking about anything else.
Behind her, the launchers of the safety and porting ropes thundered and, somewhere above her, the two black shadows of the anchors passed. The companion visually presents the entire process of attaching the anchors, stretching the load-bearing rope and the coordination rope, and signals the end of the process.
She threw herself into the void enjoying the sensation of falling. Soon her fall turns into a slide towards the edge of the building in front of her signaling the activation of the transport systems, then follows the rise to the level of the building’s ceiling. She reached the ceiling of the building and ordered the companion to retrieve the equipment. As soon as you get confirmation that the operation is complete, move quickly and pull the initial heads, reposition the launch frame, and repeat the operation to move on to the next building… Then to the next…
“Boring!”. Every time she had the same feeling, whether it was in simulation or reality. But she was too focused on saving time to think about anything else.
Carefully analyze the jump to the next building, the first one that had tactical data present. Somewhere in the western corner, the chances of activating the scan were less than 20%… A good insertion point… But the next route had an average risk line of 50–60%. In the eastern part, the insertion risk was 80%, but the crossing route was less than 30%.
She points the launch frame to the east and activates the jump despite the companion’s protests that the risk is too high and recommends the insertion to the west…
The risk is my inspiration, the real danger is the exhalation… What can these machines understand?!? think while gliding between buildings.
She touched the building and pulled the ends. Slow, no rush… As usual… She quickly walked through the building and reached the departure point for the next one. Everything is clean, without any kind of scanning.
Risky, isn’t it?!? she thought sullenly, utterly bored. Intuition is different from statistical calculation, companion, she thought as arrogantly as ever.
Analysis of the last building resulted in “zero insertion points”. Almost the entire ceiling of the building was covered in active, moving scanners. She used the zoom and focus functions of the sensors and, surprise… The top floor was hosting a party. And all the participants had bioms. She went through the available data and… Monique had done her job well. The current data included this party, but it should have ended by now.
Two biomes, with their scanning sphere, exit the level. Katy and Mel Arrows, husband, and wife, here comes the report… two children, he is an engineer at ComWolf, and she is an educator at the “Little Flowers” kindergarten in the neighborhood… Ohhh, what a bore with these complete reports. There were only five people left.
Somewhere, to her right, a scanner is activated, and the visual screen quickly draws the trajectory of its sphere. It was coming straight towards her… 6, 5, 4 meters, indicating the proximity sensor displayed by the companion. The sanitary group, the indication of the target location of the trajectory is coming… She moves quickly diagonally to exit the sanitary room area but enters an area with a risk of over 90%.
The person with that biome was ready to wake up… According to the biological signs… A dance began with the limits of the sleepwalker’s sphere that he needed in the toilet… Ian Pogany, 39 years old, male, self-employed, and many other data, came to the description given by the companion… It was like viewing mentally what he was doing… It was as if she could see him, once she now also knew his face… After the movement time, he urinated… Now he moved to the mirror… To the sink… He moved a little to the side and to the mirror… Exiting the toilet… He washed after she shook hands with his friend, wiped herself, and went out, her mind visually completed what she imagined. And exactly now when he moves away and she follows his sphere, the sphere of the person who wakes up is activated. Fix it so that everything doesn’t come out of the usual perfection!
She quickly approaches the launch area and re-scans the roof of the block ahead. She couldn’t wait any longer because the sphere next to her kept moving around the apartment making the proximity sensor shrill, annoyingly. She was already quite disappointed with how easily she lost focus at the warning noises. But the reflexes did not fail for a moment… They had no problem with mind games. Everything flowed in encouraging perfection.
She launched herself and reached the last block that interfered with the target. Here everything was OK. Quiet. The owners of the apartment were already asleep. They spent until they exhausted all physical resources… They were worn out from fatigue… But also from alcohol, judging by the biological signs reported by the companion based on the data of their bioms. She reached the edge of the target building. Quiet. Strangely quiet. But he had no time for questions. Match the frame, launch, go over the space between the blocks, reach the target building, retrieve, match the frame to the return position… Ready for the decisive action…
She crossed the landing strip, quickly bypassed the door lock system in the building, entered, and began to scan the floor below the one she was on. She only had to go down to that floor, and everything had to be completed quickly. She quickly crept down the fire escape corridor and by the time she reached the target level the scan was complete.
Four active people, elite cadres according to the companion descriptions. Names, dates, blah, blah… She was no longer interested in anything… She was too stressed for that. The surveillance cameras on the fire escape were switched externally and neutralized right from the start of the mission, but those on the access corridors were not. Once video or audio was detected it was not long until the biom detection which had to be avoided at all costs. The last detection cost Monique an enormous amount of time and it would not be good to repeat this situation. Anyone could pay for her actions but not Monique!
Quickly assemble the multifunctional and set on alternating fire, two electromagnetic pulses, one taser. Everything was ready. It wasn’t the hardest mission to solve but she had a strange emotional state, something like a presentiment that she had felt since she had initiated the training missions. It wasn’t annoying except that she couldn’t identify the cause. For her everything had to be black or white. Shades of gray were always disturbing.
She pulled the scan wire, set it to ultra-fast, and scanned the central hall in a flash. Camera sensors could only identify items present for more than about a second. Apart from the situation in which they were set to high speed. And that was possible only on the alert status of human premeditated incidents. So, without bioms to scan her… If that were the case her gesture no matter how lightning fast it was would have been detected… But the companion would have detected the alert state and canceled the operation… Then, she knew that a global scan can trigger location sensors and didn’t want to take any chances. Look what I’m wasting time on in my thoughts, she thought irritably.
The data was processed quickly, the multi-purpose weapon for the shoulder, a pulse-only set, a position, and a jump down the hall.
A fine, weak noise, like torn cloth, was heard indicating the unloading of the multifunctional and the annihilation for a maximum of 20 seconds of the 6 surveillance cameras in the hallway. By the next corner, she needed much less time.
Jump, scan thread, tear canvas, jump, and be in the lodge for the next 20 seconds. Move, quickly locate the access door to the folding area, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 seconds open the door, enter, and… Yes, everything was clean… Relax for 10 seconds…. Deep breath…
Never understood why the server needed 20 seconds to reinitialize disconnected devices. Electrical impulses have the speed of light, and I don’t think it would have taken more than 2 seconds for this process.
Then, yes, the countdown of the 6 minutes that started from the first pulse fire displayed by the companion headset. Why 6 minutes, why not more or less? Monique once told him that it might be something to do with the risk-free resuscitation time of a human without an active biomis. Possible…
According to the companion, the final attack was coming. The target was two rooms away but, in the next room, was its guard, the four detected.
She opened the door, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, the scan wire, no alert, the fabric tearing, pulled the multifunction off her shoulder but… no targets. The guards weren’t there…
The door to the other room opened slowly, almost too slowly. The companion notices two line-of-sight surveillance cameras and a biom scanning sphere of one of the guards. She threw herself to the side and fired. Pulse, pulse, and the cameras were disabled, taser in the doorframe, pulse in the guard’s biom, pulse in the third chamber made visible by the jump, taser in the guard… Which began a strange, robotic dance of falling due to spasms of electroshock's taser.
The 20 seconds of resetting the surveillance cameras determined her to start the blind assault. Dive through the space left between the guard and the door space and… Pulse in the biom of the first guard observed, pulse in the last video camera, taser in the same guard, pulse in the second guard, pulse in the target’s biom, taser in the guard…
The first one didn’t even know what was happening but the second one was already in a fighting stance, advancing towards her, his shock stick very close to touching her with his biom sphere.
The room was now empty of guards and the target was staring at her with horrified eyes, some playing cards falling from his hand.
That’s why the guards weren’t in the guard room… They were playing cards with the target… Well, boredom pays, she thought coldly. Pulse, pulse on the floor. The gesture confused the target confirmed by the companion, while she inserted the multi-functional supra-taser cell. Then she pressed the multifunction to the target’s forehead, right between the eyes, and fired the weapon. The target goes into the epileptic convulsions that marked the completion of the mission. She doesn’t even care what happens to her, how she falls, or where she falls.
This brain had been wiped, she thought coldly, slinging the multifunction over her shoulder, and darting for the door. Jump, the stream of the annihilation of the surveillance cameras… Run… Another jump, stream, and in front of the door from the fire escape was the last guard.
She was really surprised. She had forgotten about this one. She knew she was dealing with four guardians, she annihilated three and targeted, four. Her brain filled in her target count and the relief of completing the mission superimposed the conclusion about the initial target count…
The card game requires four people… Three guards and the target… How come she didn’t think, completing the error of the mind too busy with something else?!? She pulled the gun from her shoulder and fired. Pulse in the guard’s biome, pulse in his stun baton, and taser the guard. He jumped up unnaturally and fell upright on his back, in an epileptic fit… The spasms quickly moved him into a grotesque position in which the convulsions looked like a kind of effort to swim…
Oops, I’m sorry, I forgot the activated supra-taser cell, she thought wryly, jumping over the guard’s body. Unfortunate games of fate, she continued the thought as she slipped through the access door to the stairwell.
Silence… Relaxation… I have time to breathe a little, she thought, falling to her knees which seemed to no longer help her. She straightened up, throwing her head back, and began to breathe deeply.
Poor guard, I really didn’t want it to turn out like that. Who is? requests information from the companion. Ronie Gautier, the answer came instantly. Too bad for him! and stopped the train of thoughts by noticing the countdown to entering the alarm state… 3 minutes 39 seconds.
The general alarm goes off… But where are the almost 4 minutes?!? The alarm is activated by confirmation of multiple unconsciousness, and companion reports coming. Immediate evacuation!
The biom sensors have been activated and the critical state of the target has been detected… Either way, neither she nor Ronie the guardian can be saved anymore… Good thing I asked for the data before… From now on I can’t ask for it anymore because I would create a research trail to Monique… Too bad…
She had already reached the platform and… She made the jumps without any problem and quickly reached the starting point… From here the return to the “Heart” was a simple formality.
All the way she didn’t have any thoughts other than her regrets about the guard… The target deserved its fate once it had received the mission from the center to reset it. But the man who was guarding him… Ohhh…
She made it to her apartment without incident. She enters the “Heart” and undresses slowly, almost drained of strength… She put everything in its place, mechanically, without haste, recalling every stage of the mission just completed… Everything was perfect, except for the error with the guard… The center will not account for this collateral loss as long as it did not kill anyone or cause irreversible incapacitation. The guy will be fully recovered as a being, reintegrated, and all that… But he will be completely different… Pity for the years of his life erased by her error!
And she shuddered at the thought that she might lose all her memories and knowledge. She had some sort of mind flash that superimposed the guard’s face on Rick’s. Noticing that she was standing with her right arm raised up, pointing her index finger at the ceiling, in a kind of discovery gesture, she couldn’t help but exclaim: “Really?!?”.
This is not my kind of behavior. What happens?!? Blame it on her feelings for Rick?!? Love, or whatever it is that lives for some time, really softens the spirit…
Her confusion continues during the hygiene shower. She wasted a lot of time under the water jet, being stopped only by the expiration of the water quota which decreases the water flow, signaling her to remove the remains of the wash and finish.
After finishing the shower, he dressed briefly and lay down in bed, trying to get rid of the avalanche of thoughts and regrets that could no longer be contained…
