The crew is reassembled after the mission, being debriefed by Rescigno one at a time. 4509 is the first to speak with the Universal Omnitech director in a private room.
The two men stand a considerable distance apart. There is silence, while Rescigno studies the cyborg critically.
“You are not human,” Rescigno finally says. He seems to be waiting for a reply from 4509, but none is forthcoming.
“I owe you an apology,” Rescigno continues. “I considered your case in human terms. I thought I could appeal to your emotions; fear, hate, loyalty, trust…whatever. But I should have known; you are not one who could respond to such influence. What little of those human tendencies remains in you is stunted and consumed by your one single desire - to transcend humanity.”
The man appears troubled. 4509 shows remarkable control over himself, not even allowing a stray thought to betray him. He already suspects the mind-reading device is not as perfect as Rescigno claimed…
“I know the offer those vampires made you. Any man would have been intrigued, at least, but not you. In the end, you might be the only thing standing in the way of this cult. Now I know that when the time comes, you’ll be the right one for the job.”
He helps himself to Goethe’s liquor, pouring several ounces into a glass much larger than necessary, and only continues after draining the fluid in one huge swig. "I want to make you an offer better than the vampires did. I’ll give you everything you want; upgraded limbs, new legs, and better programming. Even your freedom. You walk out of this mission your own person, no kill switch, no monitoring devices, no contract.
“In exchange, you finish this out. Don’t kill anyone who doesn’t deserve it. Don’t blow stuff up just for fun. Don’t take the vamps up on whatever crazy offers they make you. Don’t come gunning after me, this crew, or anyone else in Universal Omnitech once it’s all over. Play this one run the right way, then walk away with everything you ever wanted, hopefully never to be seen by me again.”
4509’s expression doesn’t change. “Anything else?” he asks.
“Yeah, one thing. Watch over Nightshade, bring her back in one piece. Something happens to her, the deal’s off and you spend the rest of your days being watched like caged monkey. So what’ll it be?”
Sinthia has collapsed on Goethe’s couch, exhausted from her evening’s efforts. She’s by far in the worst shape of the bunch. Nightshade has a wound that could use healing, but Sinthia herself would benefit the most from her own healing magic. She can’t do much before the casting effort overwhelms her, though. Even she has her limits.
Nightshade catches Butcher’s attention. “Where’s our friend ‘Erwin’ gone off to?”
Butcher cracks a grin. “He had a very hard evening. He’ll be resting for awhile.” Wow, does his breath smell!
“I have a clone of the computer drive in Seneth’s cell.” She hands it over to the troll, who takes it greedily.
“I’ll get to work on this,” he says, as Nightshade turns her head away from the sickening stench.
Nightshade thinks she ought to watch over the troll while he works, but damn is he unpleasant to be around. The urge to head to a vacant bedroom and crash for a few hours is so tempting…
Goethe doesn’t bother with hospitality. Everyone is already treating the place like home, which is more than a little annoying. Butcher has carved through the house like a hurricane, leaving equal amounts trash and important documents and electronics everywhere he has been. The troll must certainly live in unimaginable squalor, to be so careless as a guest in someone else’s home.
He catches Nail’s eye. The Adept is turning the pendant over in his hands, studying it. Nail has a hunch that the pendant he found on the splatted vampire is important somehow, but he does not know in what way. He can’t tell if it’s magically enchanted. Sinthia probably could, though.
“What do you think? Is it a religious symbol? Magically enchanted, maybe?” Goethe asks.
“I don’t know,” Nail responds. “But, if it’s important to those cult dopes, that makes it important to us.”
