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The Black Queen
黒の女王
There are better worlds out there, but Alyx Chao is stuck in this one.
もっと良い世界がいくつもあるのに、アリックス・チャオはこの世界に留まることを選んだ。
It had started out as a routine liberation: Pop into a universe where an organization's gotten too big for its britches, spark the fire of global revolution, and then pop back out.
最初は日常からの解放だった。組織が肥大化した宇宙へ飛び出し、世界的な革命の火をつけて、また飛び出す。
She'd successfully overthrown Foundations, Marshall, Carter & Darks, and even a version of herself –
彼女は財団、マーシャル・カーター＆ダークス、そして自分自身の認識さえも転覆させることに成功した。
And then this world's Global Occult Coalition invaded the Wanderer's Library.
そして、この世界の世界オカルト連合が放浪者の図書館に侵攻してきた。
The Library severed the diseased branch, letting it fall to the invaders, cutting off this world from the multiverse. There are still Ways in and out, of course, but the costs are higher than she's willing to pay. For all intents and purposes, she's stranded in this universe.
図書館は病んだ枝を切断し、それを侵略者に落下させ、この世界を多元宇宙から切り離した。もちろん、出入り口はあるが、そのコストは彼女の払えるものより高い。彼女はこの宇宙に取り残されたのだ。
The only way out is through.
唯一の方法は通り抜けることだ。
The Cook and the Critic
料理人と批評家
Safehouse One is in a pocket dimension just off of Backdoor Soho. It's risky, hiding in the GOC's backyard, but New York City is practically pockmarked with paranatural enclaves and mini-Nexuses. There are so many the GOC can't possibly police them all. What better place to hide than in plain sight?
セーフハウス・ワンはバックドア・ソーホーの隠された次元にある。GOCの裏庭に隠れるのは危険だが、ニューヨークは超自然的な飛び地とミニ・ネクサスによって実質的に窪んでいる。あまりに多すぎてGOCが取り締まるのは無理だ。これほどに隠れるに格好の場所はあるだろうか？
Still, she grimaces at the garish "A" that adorns the front of the otherwise unfurnished restaurant.
しかし、彼女は家具もないレストランの正面に飾られた派手な「A」の文字に苦笑いを浮かべた。
Charles Ambrose and the Critic are in the midst of a heated conversation as she steps in. The two men sit at a single made table, surrounded by a forest of upturned chair legs.
彼女が足を踏み入れた時には、チャズ・アンブローズと批評家は熱い会話の真っ最中だった。二人は一つの作られたテーブルに座り、ひっくり返された椅子の脚の林に囲まれている。
"So I'm thinking a conveyer belt, right? And it seems like it's moving along, bringing you dishes, but they get more and more alive and more and more disturbing as they come along," says Ambrose.
「ベルトコンベアーのようなイメージですかね？それで、それは移動しながら料理を運んでいるようですが、それらはだんだん生を帯びて、どんどん邪魔になっていくんです」とアンブローズは言う。
"Seems uninspired."
「そんな刺激的とは思えないね」
"I know, it does — but eventually they start moving. They start looking like little people."
「そうなんです。でも、そのうち動き出すんです。小さな人間に見えるようになる」
"And is this a metaphor for the dreary New World Order?"
「そして、これは悲惨な新世界秩序の暗喩なのだろうか？」
"I… honestly, that's as far as I got. I'm a chef by trade."
「私は…正直なところ、そこまではいいんですよ。本業はシェフなので」
The Critic frowns.
批評家は顔をしかめる。
"You could make it so they are people. But not just any people – the diners themselves. They could ignore the scurrying pests, or—"
「彼らが人であるようにすることもできる。しかし、ただの人ではない。食堂の人だ。走り回る害虫を無視することができますし、あるいは‐‐」
"They could eat each other alive!"
「互いの生を食らうこともできるのです！」
"Very Lord of the Flies," says the Critic dryly. He sighs. "It's been done."
「まさに『蝿の王』だな」と批評家は辛口で言う。彼はため息をついた。「もう終わったことだ」
"Gentlemen," Alyx says, announcing herself.
「お二方」とアリックスが名乗りを上げる。
"Ah, the lovely Black Queen," the Critic says without hesitation. "Why do you grace us with your presence?"
「ああ、美しき黒の女王」批評家はためらうことなく言う。「なぜ私たちにその存在を示す？」
"First strike was successful," she says. "We'll need your services soon. Prisoners to feed, minds to unwash. And no funny business."
「最初のきっかけになるものは成功した」彼女はそう言った。「もうすぐあなたの力が必要になります。囚人に食事を与えるのと、心は洗わないで。それと、変なことはしないようにしてほしいわ」
"God strike me down if I do," says the Critic. It's his idea of a joke. The GOC killed God sixty years ago.
「そうすれば、神は私を打ちのめす」と批評家は言う。彼の考えたジョークだ。神は60年前にGOCによって殺されている。
One day, these two will be a problem. Alyx knows as much. The Critic will scarper once things start looking too good or too bad, and she knows the dark deeds Chaz Ambrose – Carnifex Carl – gets up to in other dimensions.
いつか、この二人は問題になる。アリックスもそれを知っている。批評家は物事が良くも悪くも見え始めると逃げ出すし、彼女はチャズ・アンブローズ-カーニフェックス・カール-が暗躍し、異次元で企んでいることも知っている。
But right now, they're here, and they're useful.
しかし、彼らは今ここにおり、役に立っている。
"We need memes and meals in Sites 43, 179, and 150," she says.
「サイト43、179、150にはミームと食事が必要だそうよ」と彼女は言う。
The Critic gives her a deep mock bow. "Your wish is our command, your majesty."
批評家は彼女に深々と疑似的なお辞儀をする。「陛下のご希望は我々の命令、陛下の栄華です」
She'll need Kriyot to check his work. She's not looking forward to that talk.
彼女は彼の仕事をチェックするためにクライヨットを必要とするだろう。 彼女はその話を楽しみにしていない。
++ The Pharmacist
薬剤師
Safehouse Two is in Wyoming. There's a hidden road from Backdoor Soho to Yellowstone National Park, a path covered in eternal autumn and perpetual twilight, which has surprisingly good phone reception.
セーフハウス2はワイオミング州にある。バックドア・ソーホーからイエローストーン国立公園まで、永遠の秋と永久の黄昏に覆われた隠し道があり、そこは意外と電話の電波がよく通る。
She checks her SCiPNET inbox and sees some heavily mixed reviews about the latest set of paranatural chemical augmentations as she walks.
彼女はSCiPNETの受信箱をチェックし、歩きながら超自然的な化学的増強の最新セットについての激しい賛否両論の評価を目にした。
She sighs and starts texting.
彼女はため息をつきながら、メールを始める。
+++ dado
Dado. How are things on your end.
my name is dado not +d+ado
Sorry, autocorrect.
i am very well miss black queen. how r u?
GOC knows they're not invincible anymore.
excellent. hopefully amazon prime will start delivery again
dado
Dado、そちらの終末はどうでしょう。
dado です。+d+ado じゃない。
ごめんなさい、大きなお世話だったようね。
わたし とても げんき くろのじょおう さん。あなた は どですか？
GOCは自分たちがもう無敵じゃないって分かっているわ。
すばらしい。あまぞん ぷらいむ うまくいけば はいたつ さいかい です。
Alyx rolls her eyes. Amazon is a GOC puppet in this universe, but dado has never meant Amazon the company. She's not sure what he ever means, though. He's not talking about the rainforest… probably.
アリックスは目を丸くする。この世界におけるAmazonはGOCの操り人形であるが、dadoはAmazonという会社に言及したことなどなかった。しかし彼女には、彼が今まで何を意図していたのか分からない。おそらく……熱帯雨林のことではない。
+++ dado
Got a problem with your last shipment. Thought you'd give us patches to make us antimemetic? They just made us slippery.
u said drug to keep goc off your back?
Metaphor.
ah dado is sorry. did it work?
dado
最後の出荷で問題が発生したわ。制吐剤のパッチをくれると思った？滑りがよくなっただけじゃない。
あなた goc じゃま されない くすり ？
比喩的ね。
わお dado ごめんなさい。くすり きいてる ですか ？
To her chagrin, Alyx realizes that the patches had performed as promised. GOC armaments and artifacts, be they handcuffs, tasers, guns, or thaumaturgy, slid right off of Foundation agents, so long as they had their backs to the attackers.
残念ながら、アリックスはパッチが約束通りに機能していることに気づいた。GOCの手錠、スタンガン、銃、魔術などの武器や遺物は、攻撃者に背を向けていれば、財団のエージェントの手から滑り落ちた。
dado
It did. The next batch should be more well-rounded, though.
ok. u trust dado?
dado
効いたわ。でも、次のバッジはもっとバランスの取れたものにするべきね。
はい。 あなた dado しんじる ？
She doesn't answer that. It hasn't stopped him before.
彼女はそれに答えなかった。彼はそれを止めなかった。
The Zookeeper and the Wondermaker
飼育員と不思議の作り手
As Alyx steps through the Way to Safezone Two, she's reminded of the song Home on the Range. Her father had sung it to her, so many long years ago. Here, there are wide plains on which a large amount of animals roam, though these plains are dotted with garish houses of cartoonish proportions.
アリックスはセーフゾーン2への道を歩いていると、峠の我が家という歌を思い出した。ずっと昔、父が歌ってくれた歌だ。ここには広い平原があり、様様な動物たちが暮らしており、マンガに出てくるような派手な家々が点在していた。
Isabel Helga Anastasia Parvati Wondertainment V, PhD flashes Alyx a quick smile, though most of her attention is on Faeowynn Wilson.
|イザベル・エルガ・アナスタシア・パールバティ・ワンダーテイメント・V・PhDは、アリックスに軽く微笑むが、彼女の視線の先はフェイウィン・ウィルソンに注がれていた。
Alyx silently joins Isabel.
アリックスは黙ってイザベルと合流する。
Faeowynn Wilson is a woman in her element. With terrifying efficiency, she gives instructions to volunteers and refugees recruited since the GOC raid of Boring. She taps her tablet, accounting for each and every animal they've rescued from the GOC's clutches. There are deer with burning horns, several shaggy dogs, and a cat lacking its hindquarters. Fae deftly directs each animal to proper quarters.
フェオウィン・ウィルソンは、本領を発揮する女性である。GOCのボーリング襲撃以降に集められたボランティアや難民に、目を見張るほどの効率の良さで指示を与える。GOCの手から救い出した動物たちの記録を、タブレット端末に打ち込んでいく。角の生えた鹿、毛むくじゃらの犬、そして後ろ足のない猫。フェイは手際よく動物たちを適切な場所に誘導していく。
Once all of her subordinates have their instructions, Fae nods to Isabel and Alyx. The three of them adjourn to a pink-and-purple lean-to that's five times larger on the inside.
"I declare this the third zillionth meeting of the club of girls with dead dads!" Isabel Wondertainment says once they've settled down and poured some coffee.
Fae winces. "Please don't say that."
"Sorry," Isabel says. She takes a sip of her coffee. "I sometimes still dream about my dad. He'll be there in the Great Halls of Wonder, the latest in a whole line of Wondermakers, and he'll look down at me with that crooked smile of his and tell me that there's still so much I can do."
"Parents," Fae says with a half-smile. "You never live up to them, even if you're a magical toymaker, huh?"
"Hey, I might be a magical toymaker, but so was every ancestor I ever had."
The three of them chuckle at that. Fae sighs.
"I never imagined I'd be doing this."
"This isn't the life I imagined. I doubt my dad would imagine this for me, either," Alyx says. Her Charles Gears is long dead, but she hopes he'd be happy to see her now.
Isabel giggles maniacally. Fae and Alyx look at her until she stops.
"I'm a toymaker, gosh darn it!" she says, short of breath. "And you know what happened in the raid the other day? Doctor Wondertainment's Walloping Wallabies knocked out and detained a few hundred soldiers in total."
She takes a long, long drink of her coffee. Alyx suspects it might be making her more and more hyper, but it might just be the high of a victory.
"So no," Isabel says, "I'm not happy with who I've become."
"I just want people to stop getting hurt," Fae says. "I don't even know…"
Fae stops herself. Fae's a strong woman, but Alyx knows all too well it's never easy not having closure. Alyx would comfort her, but at heart she's Charles Gears's daughter. She's not good at providing comfort.
"It's why I have to keep fighting," Fae says, once she pulls herself back together. "For my father. For everyone else's father, and their brothers and sisters, and their children."
"Exactly," Alyx says. Her eyes gleam. "We fight for them."
"What are you thinking?" says Fae. Alyx has their full attention now.
"The cutest animals you have," Alyx says, "and the safest, most marketable toys. Something… marketable."
The Pacifist
"Jude."
She steps out of a Way directly into the currently hiding place of Jude Kriyot, a dingy basement somewhere in New Jersey.
"What the fuck. Alyx, you scared me."
She raises an eyebrow at him. The basement smells like marijuana smoke.
"So how's Project Kenowhere going?" she asks. After the loss of the physical Kenowhere, after the Coalition conquered their hidden heaven and turned it into a prison camp, they kept the name. Even as they went back into hiding, scattering once more to a hundred different nowheres, they held onto that first freedom.
"It's going," he says. He doesn't elaborate.
"You're not taking this well, are you?"
"It was different when we still had the island," he says. "We were all safe, all together then. Now, we've still got Mr. Destiny watching over us, but… it's different."
"You could join them," she says. "No reason not to. Join them, wherever they are."
He shakes his head. "I… I haven't heard the call," he says. "Everyone else, Esther and Jockjams and the rest… they say that they can feel it in their bones, driving them forward. But for some reason, Mr. Destiny wants me here."
"You're doing good work, Jude," Alyx says.
"I fucking hope so," he says. "I feel like fuckin' Saint Peter. Leading people to heaven but never stepping foot in myself."
Alyx chuckles. "I know the feeling."
"So what do you need, anyways?"
"Need you to double-check the Critic's work."
His face darkens the moment she says that, so she throws in some off-color jokes.
"Make sure he's not making Manchurian agents out of any of the Gocks we sussed out."
"Isn't that racist?"
"Dude, I'm Chinese, I get to say that."
"That makes it worse. Racism is local."
"I… maybe. We can argue about it later."
Jude sighs. "Just promise me that once he's no longer useful, you take that murderer…"
Alyx nods slightly. She can't make that promise, of course. The Critic is too useful now, and too smart to pin down fully.
She leaves the way she came.
The Archivist, the Legacy, and the Journalist
アーキビスト、遺産、そして記者
The winding Ways bring her next to Alexandria Eternal.
その曲がりくねった道は、彼女を永遠なるアレクサンドリアへと導いた。
When the Wanderer's Library cut its branch off, leaving this universe to its fate, Alexandria remained. A pale imitation of the platonic library.
放浪者の図書館がその枝を切った時、運命がこの世界を去ったのだ。アレクサンドリアは変わることはなかった。理想主義的な図書館における、形のない真似事であった。
Alexandria Eternal's old Warden passed its duties to M'rj'nz, the last Archivist of the Library, when he died. And now, M'rj'nz serves as the solely Archivist of this library, poring through records of every human life in knowable prehistory, searching for weapons against the Coalition.
永遠なるアレクサンドリアの旧き監視者は、図書館における最後のアーキビストが死に、その責務をM'rj'nzに引き継いだ。そして今、図書館における唯一のアーキビストであるM'rj'nzは、先史時代からの判明している限りの人間の生涯を記録し、連立政権に対抗する手段を探していた。
That's what the rest of Overwatch believes, but Alyx knows better. It's rare for an Archivist to strand themselves outside of the Library, but when one does…
監視者の残党はこれを信じていたが、アリックスはよく知っていた。アーキビストが図書館の外へ自ら出るということは珍しい、それでもある者は……
It's to give a dying universe one last chance to make better stories, or should that fail, to harvest it.
死にゆく宇宙がより良い物語を作る最後のチャンスなのか、もしも失敗してその報いを受けるのか。
The Way lets her out a few hundred feet away from M'rj'nz proper; the bookshelves loom above her, stretching into eternity. She can see streams of green light, the thaumaturgical basis of the SCiPNET intranet, flowing like a digital web through the library and into the books themselves. She's not entirely sure how it works, but ADAM's network permeates people's very lives, allowing a dangerous level of interconnectivity. They're quite lucky ADAM is an AI who is hyperfocused on his motives.
道はM'rj'nzを彼女に適した場所から数百フィート離れたところへと連れだした。本棚は彼女のよりも高いところまで聳え立ち、無限に伸びている。彼女にはSCiPNETの奇跡論的基礎である緑色の光がインターネットが蜘蛛の巣のように広がっていくかのように図書館を通り、本そのものへ流れているのが見えた。彼女はそれがどのような働きをするのか完璧には分からなかった、しかしADAMのネットワークは人々の生活に浸透しきっており、危険なレベルでの相互接続を可能にしている。ADAMは自身の真意にしか意識を過剰に集中させるなんてことはないので、彼らはまさに運が良い。
M'rj'nz sits at the center of a web of thaumaturgy, papers and books flying around her. Occasionally there's a flash of green as ADAM, the AI, digitizes a finalized document.
M'rj'nzは奇跡術が蜘蛛の糸のように張り巡らされている中心に座っており、彼女の周りには紙や本が飛んでいる。時折AIのADAMが文章をデジタル化し終えると、緑色に一瞬光るのだ。
"Yo, Chao," says Maria Dracu, looking up from her laptop. She's doubtless typing up a summary of the first blow against the GOC to be distributed throughout the Protectorate Intranet.
「やぁ、チャオ」マリア・ドラクは彼女のものであるラップトップ型のコンピュータから顔を上げる。彼女は疑うまでもなくGOCに対する最初の急襲の概要について入力しており、保護関係内部ネットワーク全てに公開するつもりだ。
"As busy as usual," Alyx says coolly, glancing briefly upwards at the storm of papers, flitting past M'rj'nz's thousand eyes.
「いつも通り忙しいのね」アリックスは冷静にそう言い、M'rj'nz'sの千の眼をひらひらと通り過ぎて行った、上へと舞う紙の嵐へ一瞬目をやる。
"We do what we are born to do," M'rj'nz says in eldritch chittering. Only Alyx seems to find it ominous.
「私たちは生まれたころからのことをしてる」M'rj'nzは気味の悪いことを呟くように話す。その言葉を不吉と感じているのはアリックスだけのようだった。
"I mean, of course," Maria Dracu says. "We got a win! Not a big one, but a win's a win. How do you want to spin this?"
「そうじゃない、当然のこと」マリア・ドラクはそう言う。「私たちは勝利した！大きいものではないけれど、勝利は勝利なの。どうやってこのことを長く語りましょうか？」
"I have something bigger in mind," Alyx says, trying to ignore the rustling of flying paper. "Something to kick the wheels in motion. I'll need your help with the presentation."
「私はもっと大きいことを考えているの」アリックスはかさかさと音を立てながら飛ぶ紙を無視しようとそう言った。「車輪を動かす何かを。提示するためにはあなた達の助けが必要なの」
"I'm listening," Maria says. Above them, the fluttering archives slow. M'rj'nz turns her thousand eyes upon them. Even ADAM deigns to project himself, a green digital ghost woven of half-light.
「話は聞いた」マリアは言う。彼女たちの上ではゆらめく記録達がその速度を落とす。M'rj'nzはそれらに千ある目を向ける。ADAMですら灰色がかった緑が織りなすデジタル式の薄い彼自身の像を投影するよう設計されているのだ。
Alyx smiles.
アリックスは微笑んだ。
The Merchants
商人たち
Alyx emerges on a beach, far from any cameras or GOC drones, to see two women sipping martinis and sunbathing. Even in hiding, Marion Carter demands a baseline of luxury.
遥か遠くに何台ものカメラとGOCのドローンがあり、二人の女性がマティーニを少しづつの見ながら、日光浴をしているビーチにアリックスは現れる。
"So I really think there's a synergy here, I can leverage my influence with Goldbaker-Reinz in order to lubricate the transition of power for your hostile takeover," says Marion Carter, formally of Marshall, Carter, & Dark.
「ここには相乗効果がある、私は本気でそう思っていますし、君は敵対企業の買収において、権力の移行を円滑にするためにゴールドベイカーレインズにおける私の影響力を利用することが出来る」マリアン・カーター、正式にはマーシャル・カーター&ダークはそう言う。
"A two-pronged attack," says Tonya M. Chappell, formerly of the Chicago Spectre. "You hit them high, I hit them low."
「二方向からの攻撃さ」トーニャ・M・チャッペル、正式にはシカゴ・スペクターはそう言う。「君が高く打つ、私が低く打つ」
Alyx doesn't judge them, at least not for their occupations. In another world, she knows she's taken on the Carter name. In another world, she's a top ranking general in the Spectre. But those are not her worlds, and those are not her fights.
アリックスは少なくとも彼女たちの仕事だけで判断するようなことはしなかった。別の世界では、彼女がカーターの名を持っていると知っている。また別の世界では、彼女はスペクターにおいて全体の最高位であった。しかしこれらのことは彼女の世界のことでなく、彼女の努力によるものでもない。
"Ladies," Alyx says.
"Yo, Queen!" Tonya says, coming in for a hug. Alyx hugs her back, warmly.
"Alyx," Marion says, giving her a tight smile. Alyx nods, wrinkling her nose as Tonya's ponytail brushes by it. "I heard the first strike went well."
Alyx nods. "So. Progress on your ends?"
"The major players suspect there's a monopoly underlying the market," Marion says. "They're aware that there are major inefficiencies. They're just not sure why. I've done what I can, pushed the right buttons in the right places, to make sure the right people start to have the right ideas."
"Same for me," Tonya says. "The right people on the ground. They know where to look in the shadows."
"Are you sure that was wise?" Alyx says. "The Coalition has a way of disappearing anyone who gets too much."
Tonya and Marion share a look.
"They'll have even bigger problems on their hands soon enough, from what I hear," Tonya says with a shit-eating grin.
Alyx closes her eyes. "Who told you?"
"We figured you'd try something big. We caught them with their pants down once, we gotta keep on hitting."
"It's the first rule in war and business," Marion says. "When you're winning, keep winning."
"For a blue blood, she's really fuckin' ruthless," Tonya says in a stage whisper.
"We're all like this, lowlife," Marion says in a mocking tone. "You might almost survive."
"You need anything else from us, Queen?" Tonya says.
"You've set the dominos in place," Alyx says. "Soon, we'll just have to push."
The Idealist and the Cyborg
After the beach, the dim neon lights of Eurtec strain Alyx's eyes.
Eurtec, like in many other universes, is under GOC jurisdiction. And just like those other universes, that jurisdiction is spotty, despite the GOC's reach and power.
It's easy enough to duck past GOC patrols under antimemetic veils, down an alley up the stairs in a bar, down the same stairs in that same bar, and back out that alley to find a concrete wall, then through the wall to a hiding spot.
She sees Vincent Anderson II and Gibson. Vincent is adjusting one of Gibson's cybernetic limbs.
"Oh, hey, Alyx," Vincent says. "You've got big plans."
"ADAM tell you?"
"Nah, Marion," Vincent says. "Hey, by the way, she mention anything about selling my tech once we kick this off?"
Vincent, in Alyx's opinion, is a bit of a failson. He managed to run his father's company into the ground to the point where it got acquired by the GOC. He's very skilled with cybernetics and augmentations – Alyx has his cybernetics embedded in her forearm, just in case she needs it, but he keeps trying to excel outside of his specialty. A common enough problem for engineers.
"We have bigger concerns, Idealist," Gibson says. "Soon, the world will be free from the corruption of the flesh that twists men and women of power. Soon, the signals shall flow like light. Soon, we all become WAN."
Vincent's wearing his sunglasses, like always, but Alyx just knows he's rolling his eyes at that.
"You've weakened the GOC's censors and their internet filtering, right?" Alyx says.
"I but enact the will of WAN that dwelleth within me… but yes," Gibson says. "Knowledge strives to be free."
Vincent doesn't retort, which is uncharacteristic. He looks at her after a few moments.
"We are doing the right thing, right? You've seen what other worlds are like. Is this the right—"
"Yes," Alyx says. She doesn't even know if she's lying.
The Ringleader and the Suit
The Way to the Circus of the Disquieting is never quite consistent; it moves as the circus itself does. This is not a problem for Alyx.
The circus itself is little more than a front these days, of course. It's a training ground for Protectorate Mobile Task Forces, and a place where people can be safe and free as themselves.
She peeks her head into the big top and a fireball immediately streaks her way.
Instinctively, she whips up her right hand, twitching her fingers in a complicated ritual. She catches the fireball, and it dissipates in midair.
"Still sharp, Ally!" says Icky the magic clown, walking up to join her. She signals to a row of trainees, and they stop trying to cast their own fireballs at crudely-made dummies.
"Icky. How goes it?" Alyx says.
"Pret-ty well," Icky says with a smile. "Got some new leads on people we can bring in – apparently there's a whole hidden Fae city in Poland the gocks haven't gotten to yet, so we can get to them first. And – you see her?"
She points to one of the trainees, a young woman with antlers.
"Her dad's a Coalition agent, goes by 'Ukulele'. Brought her to us about a decade ago. Type-Green himself. We're close to turning him – he's looking for a way out."
Alyx nods. "Keep up the good work."
Icky gives her a smile and a wave and she goes back to her duties.
Alyx watches them for a bit before she becomes acutely aware of eyes on her.
"Something you want to say, MacAllister?"
Quinn MacAllister joins her. "You sure about this, Chao?"
"What do you mean?"
"We're putting together a pretty damn strong army," MacAllister says, her eyes on the trainees. "Combat mages. Assassins. Snipers. All masters of working in the shadows."
Alyx knows where MacAllister's going with this. She's seen this story play out many times before in hundreds of worlds.
"When the war's over, what are we going to do with them?"
"The right thing, I hope," Alyx says. It's a fifty-fifty chance, to be honest.
MacAllister releases a single mirthless bark. "He who fights monsters," she says. "And yet we count a mob boss among our ranks. I can see this going sideways very, very fast. Once the GOC is gone, and we're all that's left…"
Alyx has known other Quinn MacAllisters. Most of them hated the Foundation instead of founding it.
"That's why you're here," she says. "Because one day that will happen. And someone needs to keep us ethical."
Queen, Rook, Ghost
Like Jude Kriyot, Wilna Fritz sits in a basement in front of a laptop.
Unlike Jude Kriyot, Wilna Fritz is not depressed, though her room is still a mess. There's a billboard with pins and strings tying things together. Despite all her travels, Alyx would've said that it was an inaccurate cliché that conspiracy theorists used those sorts of things. That was until she met Wilna.
She briefly glances at the board. Once again, it paints a disturbingly accurate picture of Coalition activities.
"So, you gonna get on with it?" Wilna Fritz asks, not looking up from her computer screen.
"Hey, Wilna," Alyx says. "Is Nobody here?"
Fritz snorts. "He's never not anywhere."
"Does the Black Moon howl?"
"Once its shackles break."
The code phrases are clear. It's Wilna, hale and whole.
"You have got to get better security," Alyx says.
"If anyone manages to get to me, either I'm dead anyways or it's you," Wilna says. "ADAM sent me your plans."
The fall of Parawatch to GOC censors merely forced Wilna to retreat to a shadow network. Here, in the darkness, she's stronger than ever.
"Is it too much?"
"We gave them an ultimatum," Wilna says. "Secure and liberate their secrets. Contain and try their operatives. Protect and shelter their victims. And if need be, break the Veil. Did you ever think there wasn't a need?"
Alyx doesn't answer her. She knows the answer all too well. The price of freedom is truth.
"Thought so," Wilna says.
Alyx looks over at Wilna's shoulder at her screen, and she sees the fruits of their labors. Pictures of cute magical animals, to be posted everywhere on social media. Mail-in ads for Wondertainment products, to be sent to every network-exposed printer in a capitalist country. Matter-of-fact reports and victim testimonials from all of the GOC's genocides to be blasted across the globe.
"This was the easy part," Alyx says. "Everything after this is the real battle."
Wilna Fritz hits the enter key.
"No more dying in the darkness. It's time to live in the light."
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- portal:6759215 (21 Aug 2020 09:12)
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