Bubblegum Circus: BREAKDOWN, part 3

by Shunsuke Ichikawa
shunsuke@mailcity.com
www.fortunecity.com/victorian/university/5/index.htm
www.fortunecity.com/victorian/university/5/a-fanfic.htm

=================================================================

CHAPTER 5:  Ideas and Ideals

I had to bail out on Mackie before noon to start my shift at work.
Leon didn't ask me any questions; he saw the look on my face when
I got in the car.

At the incident we were called to, a service boomer was smashed,
lying on the floor of a factory.  My mind was still on the morning's
events as we surveyed the damage; so much so, that I was pushing the
boomer with my foot, completely unaware of the plant manager yelling
at me. The boomer was damaged, not destroyed.

It rolled and nearly took my leg off; I was lucky enough to jump aside
and put five bullets into its head casing.  The plant manager was not
pleased, screaming about the resale value of his boomer.

Leon was even less impressed, and read me the riot act when we got in
the car.

"Christ!  What the hell are you doing?  What are you thinking?  Were
you thinking?  He said the goddamn boomer was only down, not out.
Either do the job or stay home, okay?  I don't need another partner
with replaced body parts."

"You mean Daley..."

"No, Jeena; I'll tell you about her sometime."

I paused, breathing deeply.

"Leon, I'm sorry.  What happened this morning was too much.  Maybe
I'll call in sick for the rest of the day."

Leon sat quietly, knowing I wanted to spill it.

"What happened was..."

            **********

Mackie and I were in the test facility.  He had rigged a makeshift
com-link between Sylia and the computer system.  Since he knew his
modified BCM could control Sylia, we wouldn't need anesthetic or
surgical procedures to work.  Some preliminary scans and x-rays,
and we were set.

We checked the basic structure of Sylia's wetware, and compared them
to Dr. Stingray's designs.  He had obviously planned for the human
learning process, as the two were so intermeshed that you couldn't
separate the biochemical synapses from the electrochemical ones.
As Sylia learned and grew, her boomer brain learned and changed,
just like a human.

Just like a human.  Sylia IS a human, for pity's sake.

We could tell the boomer parts had not invaded the rest of her body,
but the skull was being integrated into its structure.  Some bone
mass was being lost, but was replaced with equally strong boomer
components that her brain was making from body nutrients.

As humans learn, different areas of the brain store and use different
information.  An injury to a frontal lobe can lose vision, speech,
motor control, personality, or any number of things, all depending on
which square centimeter of muscle surface is hurt.  The boomer in
Sylia was replicating these functions in smaller spaces, increasing
her capacity for memory and retrieval speed.  No wonder she had
become so smart, even without Brian Mason's knowledge.

And that was exactly what we were going to do: remove Brian Mason's
knowledge.  We were...

            **********

"...so our leader's odd behavior makes sense now.  We're going to
run complete and thorough tests, and if we can, remove information
from her memory that's causing her to act this way."

"You're going to play God and decide what she knows and thinks?
Why don't you just give her a lobotomy?"

"Shut the hell up, Leon.  It's not your friend who's got this stuff
in her head.  I'm starting to feel like she's not even human now."

I had to turn my head to the window at this point because I was
about to cry.  Leon realized he had said too much, and just drove.
At ADP HQ, before we got out of the car, Leon turned to me to talk.

"Sorry, Nene.  I realize this is hard and I can't relate, but this
person...you're deciding who she is, her humanity.  Who has the
right to decide that?  Not you or me.  Not even a family member.
She's got to deal with the knowledge of what she is if she wants to
stay human."

I opened the door and stepped out, turning to face Leon before I
closed the door.

"You don't understand, do you Leon?  She's the one sending boomers
to attack Genom."

He sat looking at the dashboard, finally understanding everything.

"Is a piece of advice welcome?" he asked.

"You'll probably give it anyway."

He paused to breathe in.  "At least tell her and let her decide.
Don't make it like an abortion, the kid never knowing or having
a say."

"She's not going to die from this."

"Will the personality you know be dead?" he said, looking at me.

I had to stop and think about that one.

            **********

I clocked out for the rest of the day, knowing I was a liability
to Leon.  I arrived back at the lab to find Mackie hard at work.

"So what do we have so far?"

"Her memory is a series of syllogistic and heuristic AI programming.
Everything is interlinked, all her knowledge and facts.  Trying to
describe how is works is like trying to map a plate of spaghetti.
It's long strands of information, easy to break and impossible to
reconnect.  Yet somehow, it sits there and works.  I don't know how
we're going to reprogram this to get rid of the darker parts of her
memory."

I stood there behind him, thinking about this.

"Mackie?"

"Hmm?"

"I don't think we should do anything.  The only thing we should take
out is the com-link so no one can use a remote control on her like
you did last night."

He turned in his seat to look up at me, a puzzled look on his face.

"Are you kidding?  There's all that hate and dangerous information we
have to get rid of.  It's poisoning her, it's not part of who she is."

"Isn't it?  Isn't she the Sylia we know and love because of it?  When
I left this morning I was thinking of how we were going to do this.
Now I can only ask why we were going to try."

He sat there thinking, with me giving time for this to register.

"She's Sylia, as is.  We can't change that.  The only programming of
her mind we should be doing is by talking to her, not hacking code."

Mackie's elbows were on his knees, his face in his hands.  His sighs
were full of despair as he looked at the floor.  I started to walk
out.

"I'll be in the kitchen when you're ready to talk."

            **********

Murakawa hadn't been seen around Genom for two days.  His subordinates
were certainly happy.

So was he.  Downstairs in Quincy's home, he was hard at work on the
control computer.

"All right, then.  Personality algorithms, command functions, inputs,
service and goal routines..."  He spoke to himself as he pored over
the source code that was on the machine.  He could see the code and
programming language were designed for a computer illiterate like
Quincy.  The late chairman was a businessman, not a hacker.

Murakawa knew his all-round knowledge was a good thing, but here it
was a big help.  First rate AI software; it would be worth selling
if Murakawa didn't need to keep it a secret.

"So, I don't need to change his outward appearance or actions, just
his 'objectives instructions'."  He sat back and thought.

"Selling 30000 yen shares to me for 100 yen would be too noticeable.
How do I get majority ownersh...YES!"  He was jubilant at his idea.

"Chairman Quincy, may I borrow a trillion yen to purchase Genom
stock?" he asked himself.  "Why, certainly, Mr. Murakawa.  Maybe
I'll retire now," he jokingly answered to himself, pretending to
be Quincy.

Now that he had a plan for the takeover, he needed one last bullet
in the gun.  He needed a trigger, something to finally put control
of Genom within his grasp.  Put it right in the foot so it hurts.

"Let's see what happens when I take out the competition.  One bomb,
traceable to...let's see...hell, why not the chairman himself?"

His smile was truly frightening as he got down to work.  He was so
driven he didn't even notice he hadn't eaten in two days.

            **********

"That was so good!" Sylia called out as she finished wolfing down
the meal we prepared for her.  "I haven't been so hungry in a long
time.  I felt like I hadn't eaten for days!"

"Glad to hear it," answered Mackie as he had sat watching her eat.

"So you needed to talk to me," she spoke, wiping her mouth.

"Sylia, do you remember anything about two nights ago?  What you
were doing?"

"I remember the meeting, and I saw you at the door, then I went to
bed.  It was a normal evening, for the Knight Sabers."

"But no details?  Say, for example, what I said at the door?"

Sylia tried to answer, but couldn't.  I entered the kitchen as
they talked.

Mackie and I asked her to recall many events over the last week.
With each question, she became more and more frustrated with her
lack of recall.

"Look, just what the hell is going on?  What are you doing to me?
Have you drugged me?"

"No, Sylia.  It's your mind.  Think about the last experiment in
Germany.  Think of the others before it.  The boomer capture, the
meeting, your reaction to Nene, the times you and Largo communicated
telepathically."  Mackie looked at her as he talked.

Sylia was shaking.  She had never told anyone about telepathy with
Largo.  She had always thought she was going crazy, or it was just
her imagination.  Mackie's statement told her it was real.

"How could you know this?  When did I tell you or anyone about it?"

"You never did, Sis."

Mackie told her everything.  The BCM feedback, the boomers, her
actions, everything.  I then explained how we found out about
Largo: downloads of memory from her head.  Mackie and I had to
wait ten minutes to continue our conversation with Sylia.

The meal Mackie had cooked was now floating in the toilet.

END CHAPTER 5

=================================================================

CHAPTER 6: Boomers and Bombers

It was a big "love-in" the next few days at the Silky Doll building.
All of us spent as much time as we could around Sylia, trying to let
her know we cared, that we knew she was human.  Try telling that to
someone who wants to be alone.

Sylia spent much of her time in her apartment, looking out across the
city at Genom tower.

Mackie had spent hours with her, going over the test results from
Germany, the incidents of the last few months, nevermind days, and
what she remembered.

The deactivation of the communications device in her head went
smoothly.  Fortunately, she was willing to cooperate and let Mackie
and I do it.  She made plans to have it surgically removed at some
point.

"So how long do you think the feedback problems linger?"

"Judging by your coherency, Sylia, probably a week.  After each
boomer attack, you didn't test a BCM for a time that matched the
gap to the next attack on Genom.  I'm sure you're okay now."

"Fine.  When we go back to Germany, you get to be the guinea pig
from now on," she smirked at him.

His smile was his first real one in days.  He sat looking at her
as they laughed together.  Two weeks had passed since Sylia's
accident, and he knew he was looking at his real sister, not some
simulacrum running wild.

We had settled into a sense of normalcy, that everything felt
right.  It was not to last.

            **********

Murakawa was on the phone with his puppet at the SuperNikkei Stock
Exchange.  Nickolas Matsushita was shaking as he held the vid-phone.
He had taken insider purchases from Murakawa previously, but none
this big.

"B-but, Sir, we're talking fully 6% of Genom stock!  You can't
really expect an purchase of that size to go unnoticed after a
planned event."

"Who says I have a 'planned event'?"  A terrorist attack, an
assassination, or a coup de-tat were his usual type of planned
events, but there were others.

"Mr. Murakawa, you never make these requests unless you do."

"I'm getting predictable," thought Murakawa.  "Maybe I should
bomb the SSE as a distraction."

He spoke again, saying "I hope you remember January's money
transfers."

"Yes?"

"I made them in your name, Matsushita.  If the SSE finds out, you
will do about 20 years for fraud and funding terrorists.  You see,
I do know something about leaving financial trails."

Matsushita hiccoughed at hearing this.  Two billion yen going to
a front for terrorists was illegal anywhere, and any government
would gladly turn him in.  Subverting governments still isn't a
popular activity.

With a sigh of resignation, he replied, "What do you need?"

            **********

Mackie and Sylia had a few more days of relaxation planned before
returning to Germany, mostly so all of us could spend time together.

We all hoped to do something like a few evenings out, but at dinner,
not in hardsuits.  The news of the bombing put a crimp in our plans.
Some of us were away from the Silky Doll when we heard the news, but
it wasn't long before we were together.

We sat glued to the TV:

      "In international news, a terrorist bomb blew up a production
      and test facility in South Munich.  AtamaTech, the upstart
      producer of Boomer Control Mechanisms, was hit by a large
      implosion bomb at 11AM, GMT.  There are no official reports of
      casualties at the present, but the estimated workforce of more
      than 200 were on shift.  The bomb is said to have been located
      near the management offices.

      No one has yet been linked to the attack.  Terrorist groups
      and separatist Neo-Nazis are being investi-"

Sylia shut it off.  No one talked, we didn't need to.  I got online
to Interpol computers, Reika to Hou Bang networks, and Mackie to any
company offices in Germany not on site.

Like hell it was anyone but Genom.

            **********

Murakawa was putting in an Oscar performance, pretending he was in
trouble with Quincy.  Most of the top corporate executives at Genom
were in the meeting room as Quincy verbally abused Murakawa.  The
voice of the false Quincy bellowed throughout the room as Murakawa
pretended to cower before the head of the company.

"What the hell is this?  We have other ways to destroy them, without
resorting to bombing or assassination.  I will have your head if you
don't uncover who ordered the attack.  Do I make myself clear?"  A
stern look was on the face of Genom's chairman.

"Y-yes, sir.  I promise, four days, at the most.  We will find the
culprit."

"I expect it in three.  Now, all of you, get out.  I need time to
think."

"You mean time to transfer the money," thought Murakawa, "now that
Genom stock has slipped 300 points since the rumors started."

As he and the rest of the board of directors left, Murakawa noticed
smirks upon the faces of many of them, obviously thinking only one
person would be taking the blame.

Murakawa smiled inwardly as he dreamt of how he was going to ruin
each of them.

            **********

Mackie had contacted the Berlin office and got good news from one
of the operators: Dr. Verhofen had been there, not Munich, when the
explosion took place.

"Doctor!  I'm really glad to see you!"

"I'd like to say the same, but the body count is at least a hundred
so far.  It's not really a time for rejoicing."

Mackie's smile diminished as the reply came; still, he was happy to
know his friend was alive.

"Do you know how the bomb got into the plant?"

"We think it may have been a boomer impersonating a delivery driver.
We haven't examined security films yet; the rubble has to be cleared
before we can get to the underground black box.  I think I know why
Genom did this, though."

"You're sure it was Genom?"

"Be serious, Mackie, who else would?  Anyway, it may be due to our
non-existent branch of the company: the 'External Research and
Development' department."  The codewords for industrial espionage.

"So what the hell did they get?"

"Something called COVERING.  It's an acronym we can't figure out
yet.  I'm sending you it's design and specification to look over.
Anyway, how's Sylia?  Is she healthy?"

"Yeah, a slight relapse, but nothing to worry about."  Nothing the
doctor needed to know about.

"Okay.  We won't be resuming tests for a while, so don't hurry back."

"Take care, doctor."

            **********

Linna, Reika, and I were all as successful as Mackie in finding out
something interesting.  Once we seven met and pooled our information,
we reached the conclusion about why Genom attacked, thinking it was
the COVERING plans.  We were wrong, but that didn't make a difference.
We planned to finish off Genom.  Permanently.

END CHAPTER 6

=================================================================

CHAPTER 7:  Thanks for Nothing

A lone figure walked down the street towards Genom's property.  The
tower guard, a boomer, signaled the alarm and went to the attack.
The would-be trespasser exploded to its boomer form and destroyed
Genom's boomer, then jumped the fence onto Genom property.  A small
army of top-model war boomers began the attack on this intruder.

Before they began their attack, however, several boomers stopped
their progress; one Genom boomer, then another, began to attack
their own.  The three boomers started a small war inside the fence,
rockets flying, plasma weapons, and miniguns firing away.  The
turncoat boomers and the original intruder fell one by one, yet
more of the Genom guard kept changing sides, and attacking their
own.

Within twenty minutes, nearly fifty Genom boomers had come outside,
and three were at all times changing side to attack their own.

Inside, the human guard staff was watching, amazed at what was going
on.  One in particular had a strange feeling that became panic as he
felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Can I have a word with you, alone?" called the voice attached to
the hand.

            **********

Mackie sat in the chair of Nightwing, working frenetically to
control the boomers.  He was having fun, though, destroying Genom's
property with its own boomers.

"Mackie coupled a BCM with the stolen Genom device.  By using both
together, a person can override boomer programming and control them.
As each one falls, he just takes over another and starts attacking
again."  Linna had a smile on her face as she explained to Priss and
Reika the cause of the mayhem going on a mile away.

"What is that COVERING thing he's using?" asked Priss.

"COVERING is a Code OVERriding INtegrated Grappler.  It's purpose
is to subvert existing boomer programming and shut down boomers.
But by using a BCM with it, Mackie can take over several boomers
at once, and control them," I said as simply as I could explain.

Priss, Reika and I were laughing as we saw the boomers falling.
No problem with wasting Knight Saber resources here.  Mackie's
grin was as big as the rest of ours.

"So this intruder was another boomer programmed by Sylia, huh?"

"Yes, Nene, but this time at my request.  We should wait a bit
longer before we get involved, and soften them up for ourselves.
No point in Genom having a hundred boomers available when we can
destroy them from a distance."

Sylia came from talking to Kou, telling him to get ready to move.

"So my little intrusion did the job?  I hope Genom will treat it
as a fifth attack like the others."  Sylia's mouth curled at the
corners.

"Mackie won't be much longer.  Just remember to leave a few going
so we can justify ourselves, okay?" said Linna as she turned from
Sylia to Mackie.  He looked to Linna, not speaking as he sweated
while focusing on the job.

After twenty minutes of this, however, boomers stopped coming out.
Sylia was about to scold Mackie for overdoing it when a message
came in over our radio:

"You can now land safely, Knight Sabers."

Murakawa.

We looked at each other wordlessly, wondering if that was a good
idea.  Linna then spoke up: "Take us in, Kou."

On the ground, we five women got out of Nightwing and waited.

            **********

"Good evening, everyone."

Murakawa walked toward us from the building entrance.  In front of
him, I recognized our AD Police informant, with trepidation and
fear on his face.  I dared not say a word, or risk being identified.

"I see you've done my dirty work for me.  I really appreciate your
efforts."  Murakawa pulled the trigger on his gun, the head of our
informant exploding in front of us.

As we stood and watched with horrified faces, Murakawa tossed his
gun at Priss's feet.  With a smile on his face he removed his
overcoat, set it on fire with a match, used a handkerchief to wipe
his face of the splattered blood, then dump it and his gloves on
the fire.

His manner and actions were so calm and cold that I was scared.  This
one man, no protection, no weapons after dropping the gun, standing
in front of us wearing a smile like a cat with a canary in its mouth.

"What are you talking about?" asked Linna.

"Oh, you don't know?  Well, you see, I am now the CEO of Genom, as of
this morning.  Mr. Quincy was removed when it was discovered he gave
the order for AtamaTech to be torched.  Imagine my surprise when I
discovered that fact!  My, oh, my, what some people will do for
power and profit."  The smarminess in his voice was grating.

The five of us stood where we were as he walked around us, hands
clasped together behind his back.

"The corpse you see over there just informed me of what the AD
Police were doing.  Spying on Genom?  I couldn't allow that."

"You'll pay for killing him.  The security cameras have a feed to
AD Police HQ," I called, choking back a tear.

"I don't think so; I disabled the system.  Nobody's watching
us, if you want to take a shot at me.  But I think you won't."

"You have a reason we shouldn't?" asked Priss, raising her arm in
his direction.

"Well, I think the fact that Genom is on the road to financial ruin
would make you, as a group, happy."

"Then why are you so jubilant?"

"You obviously don't invest your money.  When a company falters, it's
stock prices plummet.  Genom stock is worth forty percent of what it
was a year ago.  It's very easy to purchase a number of shares now."

"Your point being?" called Linna; she later told me she realized what
he was doing.

"Mr. Chairman signed a large personal loan for me, then I purchase a
few shares on the open market.  You are now talking to the single
largest shareholder of Genom stock.  Effectively, I own the company."

"Quincy gave you a loan?  Why?"

"Generosity?  Who knows.  But I definitely thanked him for it.  You
can go visit him, if you like."  He handed Linna a piece of paper
with Quincy's home address.

"So what do you want from us?" Sylia called out.

"Absolutely nothing," he replied, walking up to Sylia and rapping
a finger on her visor.  "I'd really like to know how you can see
through solid metal.  It would sell very well on our military
hardware."

He stepped away, turned and faced all of us.

"Like it is with your visors, you don't see what's in front of you,
only the deluded form of reality you allow yourselves.  I've been
around long enough to watch you, and that buffoon Mason.  You're
very much alike, thinking the only way to win a fight is to kill
your opponent.  It's much easier to manipulate people, and it's
far more effective."

"If you know which buttons to push, you can control anyone.  You
are nothing more than programmable boomers.  Genom strikes out,
you attack; Genom steals, you kill; Genom threatens, you rescue.
Mason never learned, and that's why he died.  I paid attention,
and will walk away from here tonight.  You'll go back to your
hideout, tails between your legs, and wait until the next time I
call for you."

All of us stood wordlessly, fuming inside our suits.  For some
reason, we all just listened to his humiliating diatribe.  Shock,
the realization of our delusions of grandeur, the events of the
last few weeks, or a breakdown of our moral will, but something
left us unable to act.

He stood back and gave us an odd smile; it was almost affectionate.

"I really do thank you.  Imagine, me, owner of Genom at 38.  Yes,
the company won't turn a profit for ten years, but I've got the
time."  He began to walk to the doors and waved to us.  "Call me
sometime, I'll invite you to dinner as a thank you!"

His coat sat on the ground in a pile, like a small volcano, finally
burning out to ashes.  There was nothing for us to do but leave.

            **********

Next morning the AD Police forensics team went over Quincy's home
looking for evidence.  Leon and I were pissed; all we could do
was look around and think of what we might have found.

"The bastard is laughing at us, and we can't touch him."  Leon
kicked at the dust in the room.  "All this wiring, the lack of
dust where the computer terminals were, Quincy's rotted corpse,
and nothing we can use."

"I told you he was good at planning, Leon.  We couldn't even
hold him for vandalism."

The last of the technicians had gone, and Leon and I stared at
the wall where Murakawa spray-painted a message in the dust.

"Don't worry, partner, we'll bring him down eventually."  I left
as Leon looked at the characters on the wall.

The hiragana spelt one word: 'rei'.

END CHAPTER 7

===============================================================================

EPILOGUE:

We were angry at having no reason to kill Murakawa; there was
no way to justify it.  But that didn't mean we were going to
leave him alone.

By chance an old friend of Linna's, who she worked with at the
securities firm, called her and mentioned the insider trading
rumors.  Linna looked into it, with me cracking some trading
computer systems, and we found out just what Murakawa had done.
In total he had purchased 9 percent of Genom over the years, and
the 6 percent he bought recently was too big to go unnoticed, so
an investigation by the SSE was started based on an anonymous tip.
Take a guess where it came from.

It got worse for Murakawa when Mackie, who had flown back to
Germany, worked with Dr. Verhofen to hack in and falsify German
patent records to claim that COVERING was AtamaTech's creation,
not Genom's.  All traces of Genom creating it were destroyed.

The bombing, the "stealing" of trade secrets by Genom, and the
insider trading combined to drop Genom stock values through the
floor.  More damage was done to the company in one day than the
Knight Sabers accomplished in five years.  The world's largest
corporation had lost nearly 40 trillion yen, about 390 billion
dollars.  We had been fooling ourselves, thinking we could
destroy Genom with weapons.

Numerous governments were now using the opportunity to kick Genom
while it was down, and Murakawa's quick trial and conviction left
him facing a 150 year prison sentence.  He was temporarily released
on 100 million yen bond to clear up personal matters, which he
promptly did.

With one self-inflicted bullet wound to the head.

            **********

So that's pretty much what happened.  We came out ahead in the
end, but not by design.  We got lucky because Murakawa was more
careless than us.

Just remember, you didn't hear any of this, that you swore
secrecy.  Just because Sylia relaxed the rules, it doesn't mean
she won't kill me for talking.  Lastly, if I see don't see you
again before Priss and Leon get married, take care.

Ja!

=================================================================

                        E     N     D

=================================================================

ADDENDUM:

Depending on the kanji used, or hiragana in this case, 'rei' has
several meanings when translated from Japanese, among which are:

      1. zero (0)
      2. thanks, appreciation

=================================================================

JANUARY 1997

This is the final segment, and the end, of the story "Breakdown".
The next story, "From One to Another" is complete, but will not be
posted for a few more weeks to allow the details of this story to
settle into the readers' minds.  February 21 is the expected date.

You may have noticed that I borrowed from two well known books in
writing the plot; if Artmic can do it, why can't I?  If you want
to know where specific ideas came from, read these books: 'Psycho II'
by Robert Bloch (do NOT watch the movie; that is a different story),
and 'The Manchurian Candidate'.  Although you might think otherwise,
'Star Trek: Next Generation' was not a source of ideas.

As before, suggestions really don't help at this point.  I have
scripted all subsequent stories in this series, so it is too late
for changes.  Criticism and comments are more than welcome, however.
To respond, you can contact me at:

      ae750@freenet.unbc.edu

or visit my web page:

      www.geocities.com/Tokyo/9464/yinghome.htm

Sayonara, tomodachi!

Shunsuke Ichikawa