Rich has been hunting for Andi ever since he got the call from Alexi and discovered the note in his apartment.
Eventually in frustration he stands on his balcony and yells
"Andi! Where the hell are you!""Hi Rich." Andi's voice sounds from behind him, slightly muffles by coming through the Exeter's systems.
Rich turns, almost dropping the cigarette. "How the hell did you get in here?"
The suit shrugs. "I've learnt a few tricks."
Rich states at him, trying to gather his feelings and thoughts now his quarry is finally in sight.
"What did you want?" Andi asks, the Exeter's head tilts slightly, a human gesture that seems strange coming from the suit.
"I..." Rich pulls himself back together. "The note you left me." He fumbles his pockets. Then remembers. "Cloak took it."
The suit shrugs again. "It's not important."
"What you said in it was." Rich challenges. "What did you mean by it?"
"Rich, you got anything to drink." The suit asks.
Rich looks confused. "Why?"
"Because I need it and you are sure as hell going to want one by the time I've finished."Rich returns from the kitchen to find the Exeter resting on the back of the sofa, the cushions bunched under its weight. He holds out a glass of Alexi's finest. The power suit reaches up with ease and takes the glass.
"You have no idea how long I have been waiting for this."
To Riches surprise the power suit lifts the glass to its lips. "You can drink in it?"
"Maggie and I made some modifications." Andi responds. He drains the Glass. "Has to be Alexi's."
Rich nods. "Have you been in touch with him, let him know yo are ok."
The suit turns to him, some how the face plate freezing. "You don't know do you?" There is a tension in the electronic voice.
"Know?"
The suit shakes its head. "Alexi is one of them Rich."
"One of who?"
The suit lifts it hands, extending one finger and pointing to the center of the other palm. "Or some one close to them."
Rich shakes his head in disbelief.
"He tried to blow my fucking head of with a Manchine killer. Rich." Andi stresses. "What do you think made the hole in the tank."
Rich shakes his head. "He said the Shimulhara..."
Andi shakes his head.
Rich drains his glass.
"Fill it up again lad. It gets much worse." Andi holds up the glass.
Rich returns from the kitchen again, this time bringing the bottle with him. He places it on the coffee table before dropping into the seat. Exeter moves round the sofa, taking up a cross legged position on the floor in front of him. It reaches up for the glass.
"Ok Then what is this about the Nechanthropes."
There is a pause, Rich can almost hear the suit sigh. "What did they tell you about the Necanthropes?"
Rich stares at him. "Why?"
"Well whatever they told you was a lie."
Rich stares at him challenging his authority.
"I have seen it Rich. I have seen what happens when an Ebon becomes a Necanthrope. All this Crap they told you about being strong and coming back and shit......." The suit shakes his head. "It's not true."
Rich shakes his head slightly.
"They come and they get you. The Necanthropes. They take you to this place. I don't know where it is in Mort but I have been there in the Subnet. Maggie took me there. Once you get there they kill you."
"But the Necanthropes.....They come back."
"Something comes back." He affirms. "But it ain't the Ebon that was there before. Its something else. I can't describe it Rich, I just know what I saw. Ebons are...." The suit waves his hand round as he struggles for the words. "... light, brightness, even the brainwasters, their colours are darker but there is a..... luminescence about them."
The suit turns and looks at him. Rich can see himself reflected in the black mirrors of the eye sensors, for a brief second he can see an aura around his reflection in the blackness. He frowns at the moment of revelation, and then it is gone.
"What comes back is not like that." Andi continues "It's dark. No its more than dark. It's like Space, it swallows light and makes it nothing. " The suit shrugs. "I don't know if that made any sense at all but it is the best explanation I can give." He sags forward.
Rich reaches for his drink. Swallowing it without being aware.
"What happens to the Ebons?" He asks without looking at Andi.
"I don't know." He shrugs, draining his own drink. "They die."
Rich bites his lips, trying to swallow the emotions welling in him.
"How do I know you are telling the truth?" He clutches at the straw.
Andi looks at him. "I can't prove it. You just have to believe me. But you know me, and I hope in what time we have had working together that you have got to know me well. I wouldn't lie about this Rich. It's too fucking important."
"Language." The suit whispers in another voice, Maggie's. The soft accent forces Rich to look up.
"Maggie saw it as well." He asks.
The suit nods.
"Maggie is Ebon. She can show it to me." Rich states.
"You don't want to do that Rich." Andi warns.
"Want and Need are not always in agreement." He replies. "And I need to see this for myself."
"Ok." There is a reluctance in Andi's voice. "But not here." He unfolds himself to standing, the suit bending slightly so as not to touch the ceiling.
"Why?"
"Because you are not going to be happy and we should go some where where collateral damage is less of a concern." The reply is in a voice caught between Maggie and Andi's tones..
Rich frowns slightly at the strange voice coming from the suit.
"Now gentlemen, the A.P.C. is outside. I suggest we get out of here before Alexi and his friends turn up for a second shot."Rich heads down the stairs, acutely aware of the power suit, and its readied weaponry, following him. Despite its large size it is making almost no noise. As he opens the door to the street the A.P.C. screeches to a halt, the side door open.
He feels himself being bundled in by the Exeter's grip. He lands on the cushioned seat next to Maggie's box. The door slams shut automatically and the A.P.C. is rapidly under way.
"What was that for?" He demands.
"This way any witnesses will claim you were kidnapped." Andi explains. The suit moves to the driving position, the heavily modified seat sliding out of the way. As Rich watches a data jack extends from Exeter's wrist, plugging into a socket next to the steering wheel.
"Ok. Maggie, I'll drive, You talk to Rich."The Laptop on the side of the box jumps into life. The display showing Maggies head fades into view.
"Rich?"
He turns and looks at her, Swinging himself into a sitting position.
"Do you really want to do this?"
He nods.
"We need to get past the barrier. To do that you will have to open the casing."
Rich nods. Despite the turbulence of the A.P.C.'s rush from his apartment, he moves round to the the front of the box. He runs his hand over, locating the rapid release catch he installed after the last problem they had.
It slides out of the way to revel the complex circuitry beyond. The water in the air condenses to a fine fog in the coolness of the box, a CO2 cascade flows down the front of the box from the small hole.
"It will be cold, but If you can do it without gloves it will be better." Maggie warns.
"I remember." Rich slips his hand inside, feeling the ice form on the hairs on his arm. He carefully pushes through the cold wires until he can feel the smooth side of Maggies cryogenic unit. He takes a deep breath.
"Try and keep it steady Andi."
"Will do." There is a quiet concentration in the reply.
Rich presses his had against the unit. He can feel the skin freezing to the container. "Ok, I'm ready." He closes his eyes.He is in Blackness. The smooth nothingness of the Sub net. In the far distance he can see a..... building. A double layer of confusion drifts into his mind, both his own surprise at seeing the construction and Andi's emotion, some how carried along with the images.
He moves closer, there are.... things inside. His heart almost stops. Necanthropes, hundreds, no thousands of them. And more coming all the time... He can sense their anticipation.... He moves closer.
Rich hears himself screaming. He can feel pain in his hand. Something hurts his back and then he roll onto this feet and he is running.
Shadows and shapes appear before him but all he is aware of in anger, betrayal, fear and a need to destroy. To destroy everything that has been tainted by Them.
He shouts his anger at the sky, dimly aware of a blast of energy leaving his body and bursting into the air. Something crumbles next to him as his hands rip into the building beside him. He can hear falling debris but he move on. There is more to destroy. More to make pay for their betrayal of his kind."RICHARD!" The voice cuts into him. Some how so familiar but.... "NOW STOP IT!"
He finds himself on his knees, weeping, exhausted, drained of all his energies. He can feel something lifting him, cradling like his mother held him so long ago. He clutches to it, aware only of the feeling of protection that runs from the embrace and through him. Reassuring him and easing his need to sleep.
He looks up into the face of Unity. It twists into a motherly smiles."It's ok Rich." The voice is strange, caught between Maggies softness and Andi's turn of phrase, with just a hint of Alexi's accent.
He closes his eyes and the memories clear and sort them selves out of the emotional burst. "You were right." He whispers softly.
"I know." The voice is more Andi's. There is a sadness in it, almost as if he hopped he was wrong.
Rich feels himself being held closer, the suits hand stroking his hair, a soft touch in the finder tips that should be impossible.
"I'm sorry you had to see that." The voice softens into a tone nearer to Maggies. He can feel himself being lifted. "We need to get out of here. That much Flux being released is bound to attract attention." The unity starts to walk.
From the safety of his perch Rich looks round. They must be out side Mort, this much debris could only be the cannibal sector. In some ways it seems familiar. As they move between the buildings he can make out Mort in the far distance.
"You put the Drop ship down round here somewhere." He whispers.
"Yeap." The suit replies.
Tiredness drifts into his mind again. "How did we get into the Cannibal sector?"
"Like I said I have acquired a few tricks since we last met Richard." That strange in between state again. It does not help his dreamlike state. "It was made clear to me that you would need to be violent after learning The Truth." Some how the suit voices the capitals. "This is one place where few, especially Mr Slayer, care about damage. Also I know that no one lives in this location currently."
"You are talking strangely." He states, consciousness rapidly flowing from his mind.
"Really? Yes I can see how you would think that. This is merely the product of all the speech I have experienced. If you find it disturbing...."
"I'm too tired to care." Rich responds.
"We will be in a place of safety soon. It is important that the window is only opened in a place where it will not be observed."The light level drops and he realises he is being carried into a building.
"When is a window not a window." Andi's voice asks.
"I don't know Andi tell me."He can hear Maggie reply, but all he wants to do is sleep. He rests against the warm carapace of Power suit..
"When it does not brake."
"How may I illuminate you?" Maggies voice is run through with a deep Russian accent. For some reason after Andi's words about Alexi it makes him shudder.
"Don't worry Rich we are taking you home." Maggies voice croons at him softly.He feels suddenly light. A warmth spreading from the center of his body and out down his limbs. A sensation of calm runs over him. Of peace and safety. No one can hurt him here. It is flike folding only some how so much..... more.......
He is vaguely aware of something soft touching his face. He forces his eyes open to see Maggie looking down at him. Not an image on a Lap top, not a hologram, but a real living person.
"Go to sleep Rich. You need to recover. We will look after you."
He looks past her to see Andi standing behind her, his hand resting on her shoulder. There is no sign of the suit. Just Andi standing there. The man smiles.
"See you in the morning Rich." Then he turns and walks away.Despite all his questions he can not stay awake.