31 Chapter 31: The nature of the pursuer

[PoV: Henry]

Satisfied with Fini's new body, they use a teleporter to reach the lab. It shows a picture of pure hell. Paramedics and Securety try to separate the unconscious from the dead, to assign extremities to the persons and to keep alive the saved survivors of which only torso and head remain. Henry stops a passing paramedic trying to stuff a victim into the nearby teleporter.

'' Can I help you? '' '' Always welcome. Your girlfriend can hold the drip. '' Does this one mean and puts a pack in Fini's hand.

''What happened?'' Asks Henry as the victim disappears into the teleporter.

''It must have been a chemical accident. But I have never seen such a chemical. That will have consequences for the higher ups ... '' the paramedic answers angrily, turns away.

"That was not chemicals, humans or animals ..." Explains Fini Henry in a half-calm corner of the lobby with a worried mine "... at first sight it appears to be claws and bite marks on the victims, yet they do not fit to any recorded lifeform. ''

''I do not like the thing either. But what can we do? Let's see it positive. At least we do not have to get rid of the workforce anymore.'' He thinks and pats his revolver. With a smile his KI answers him with a seductive shoulder knocker.

'' You will need information. We should look for a terminal and get a picture of the situation before it ends here like on the Hyperion. '' Hyperion had been the name of a colony the empire had established on the planet to resurch all kinds of mutations. In the end variants the empire had made experiments on massacred all colonist stopping all future plans of colonisation.

'' Do not mind me... All right then. Let's look for one. ''

Quickly they find in the chaos of the helpers the unchecked Terminal of the Guard and Fini gets to work. '' It's very difficult to enter every line. '' Says the KI in the body of a 21-year-old, when she makes tiping errors wile looking at Henry who smiles amused.

'' There. Give me your pad. I play you the map of the facilities blueprints. There are no teleporters in the sector. The ones in the lobby are the only ones. The empire prefers old school elevators to the laboratories to protect the population... " With the pad in hand, Fini hesitates and loses the thread connecting the pad with the terminal. She hesitantly strokes the small flat box that is the pad with her fingers. '' Fini? What is it?" Henry asks her and runs his finger tips through her hair, which sends a warm shudder through her body.

''There is nothing. I only just realized how small a pad really is and thus my view of the world. Everything is ready here. Unfortunately, I could not find any research data. They have to be on the main clout. '' ''Good. You go back to the Empress and let her give you the research papers. I explore the situation on site. We meet here in 3 hours. Have the mods been preserved? ''

"Everything from Defensive Actions to Blackops to Offensive." Responds Fini as she leads Henry to the sealed elevator. "Good luck!" Henry says to her as the elevator doors close.

With the airy feeling of light falling, the elevator races into the depths of the sector. Just before the elevator stops, Henry serves the emergency stop. Under the flickering elevator lights he fishes in his coat taking out his black iron Stranger skeleton mask and pulls it over his face. With one tap on a button on the left side of the mask, the mask presses itself onto his face and with a nother tap contracts wirlesly with his pad. The lenses of the mask show the Operator Display, full of all sorts of information. From environment map to environmental analysis to the now empty KI interface everything is there. When Henry wants to pick up the stop, the dying lights suddenly go out. Quickly, the mask changes to night view. With a sigh, Henry sets about opening the doors of the elevator. With the slow opening of the doors, the environmental analysis turns on fast .

[PoV:Fini]

Before Fini finally gets access to the data, she is first led into Private Laboratory where she finds the empress bend over a microscope.

'' I'm with them a lot. I just do not have a project which requires my full attention. '' She is greeted by Sisi as he sees a tablet swallowing the screen and sipping a sip of water.

'' Ms Sisi I'm just here to get more information from their experiment in District 9 Sector 11. ''

Frowning and suspicious, the empress questions Fini's and Henry's motive. ''These information is confidential. What will you need them for? ''

''There was an incident with many injured. The nature of the cleaning of the plant has thus changed. Which is why additional information is needed. "Fini coldly answers the implications of the woman.

"I can never say if dolls are lying or not. All right then. I grant your stranger release yellow access. I hope there are not more incidents besides the purge. '' Says the empress, staring deep into Fini's eyes, which have the same shade as her own.

''Is there anything else?'' Asks the KI uncertainly in their dealings with people, not Henry.

''You all have my eyes. I still wonder if your KIs all have a soul like us humans. Can an KI become an AI or is it always one? ... "asks the scientist in Sisi the emptiness of the laboratory or Fini.

'' ... I expect all data you recover from the labs back when this is over. ''

Increasingly irritated with the human in front of her and the big discrepancy to her operator Fini nods. ''Of course.''

When she tries to turn away from Sisi, she stops her and winks at her, lifting her chin. '' I hope so for both of you. No mistakes should be made during this cleaning. Good day Fina-Sara. ''

Fini holds her breath until she finally arrives in the safe elevator and her terrified pulse recovers from the empress invasion.

In the Atlas Corp. archive, Fini immediately uses her access privileges and sees the files of the Sector 11 experiments. From enhancements to dolls to KI research, all branches of of the empires research have once been represented in the labs of the facility. After capturing all previous experiments, she begins to see through the latest project.

[Project Lazarus .... AI instability ... Memory matrix ... Behavioral simulations ...]The more Fini lends between the partially blackened line, the more she begins to question the empires ethics standards as far as the limits of nature are concerned. Although the objective is clearly outlined with the words '' Eternal Life '', the status of the project seems ambiguous. Test Subject what AI data is contagious as well as the reviving cadaver origin are either blackened or not mentioned. Withholding one opinion because of her loyalty to Henry, she continues to look through the documents and set up her own hypotensives aboutwhat Henry has to expect in the labs.

When she finally comes to the guest book attracts the attention Latter-day visitors 50 people more than otherwise had entered the facility. 11 of them were all hire ups of the empire like General Justbin and the empress himself. The list of the salvaged throughout, lacks any trace of them. Also several barrels from district 117 had been delivered in the last 24 hours.

[PoV: Henry]

The elevator door open with the faint sound of decompression.

Despite the his masks filtersystem Henry can smell the familiar smell of drying blood and decaying bodies. There were a good 50 mutilated or dead in the lobby, so 50 more were sure to be dead. With all his strength, both doors of the Ufzuges open and Henry must durchzwengen through the narrow gap between the elevator floor and floors ceiling. -I'm really too old for that. - He thinks while he looks around with a mask view. In front of him is something he first thought was a bowl, but now comes out with Scan as a skullcap. Immediately alerted, he pulls his revolver and activates its target marker. Calm and ready to fight, he walks through the bloodied corridor. To his own surprise, he finds no dead bodies but only occasionally barely recognizable bones, which are highlighted by the scan. Like in a vacuum, Total Stillle reigns except for Henry's steps and the breathing spund from his mask. Just as he wants to push open the first laboratory, he feels the danger lingering. Good to hear is the bursting of the monster's finger bones on the top of the iron mask and its loud screeching. As fast as the attack combed, the monster disappeared so fast. The only silent witnesses to the attack are the blood and bone splashes on the mask and the blood drips from the rearend Henry's revolver with which he had dealt in a refexartig way. Even before he could fire on the creature, it had already fled into a nearby lab. All that remained were the debris of his broken ankles, which Henry collected wrapped in a handkerchief. Undaunted, he moves further into the interior of the laboratory, looking for the power supply. Paramedics and survivors would fall prey to the monster without electricity for the teleporters. Henry advances further and finds more and more intact meatless bones with distinctive bite marks. How much could the being only eat? In a maintenance room he finds the source of the power failure. The Rom lines had been severed by the monster when it killed a technician. It had probably received a stroke that had dissuaded it from the corpse, because the body appears intact except for a bite wound. A quick scan confirms this assumption. A closer examination of the pipe brings him to a quick solution of the line.

Only with by pulling on the main switch, the solution of the desperate he learns that only two in each other inserted pipes can be used. But the return of the flickering light is less positive than expected, because now the true nature of the monster was uncovered. In a corner of the Biggest Laboratory, the remains of the unfortunate victims pile up. Partly alive, partly death raises and sinks singly chest baskets and soft echo of teeth can be heard. Over all the sight, the smell of foulness and guts swirls, which, to Henry's relief, is captured by the mask's filters.

But what is smelled and what is to be seen makes even Henry's steel stomach quake. A daring reconstitution of the events of Henry's pad reveals the dimensions of the monster. Like a pursuer, it had brutally hunted and mentally tormented every one of its victims. With a look through the other laboratories, Henry realizes with horror that the pursuer had escaped through the room inbetween the walls and ventilation shafts from the depth laboratories. So he penetrates every floor of sector 11 and with every trace the stranger can witness the evolution of the being. With every sacrifice, every way of being takes on a Papen rise. At the time of the Agreed Reunion with Fini, the Henry must atmitt that the stalker is an unsurpassed Predetor.

Taking the elevator back up to meet Fini Henry can only admit his temporary lost.

At the same time in a horizontal air vent...

With the silence of the screams of its victims on the lower levels, the monster breaks through the narrow ventilation shafts and partitions of the plant only to end his massacre for now, allow a few employees to escape and pull back. It would have to eat to grow tall and strong. So it falls unceremoniously with his long fins for a torn arm from his shoulder and a gold watch hangs on his wrist. [Brother says eat everything then there is good weather]

With a loud smack and a quick bite, his bloody meal begins.