CHAPTER 18 — GUESTS

THE GRID–SECOND TRONCYCLE

ARGON CITY

Ever since the embarrassing defeat at the hands of masked rats, the General turned no stone unturned to catch those bastards anywhere in the Grid. The attack was no random scuffle, he thought, as it coincided with the victorious march of his troops, celebrating Argon's recapture in pomp and glory. It is a no-brainer that the Renegade is an old nemesis of the General who had always challenged his authority using many hit-and-run tactics known to the Grid. If only the Renegade were in his hands, his face would've been melted to voxel dust by the heat of his palms, the General thought to himself. "Are those two fugitives on the run behind this? Could it be that coward TRON and the Renegade? That Renegade sure looked like a man to me, but ladies too, have the same build overall", these are the insecurities and self-doubts clouding the General's mind. The mere thought of an ISO or User behind the chain of events sent shivers down his spine, which is why the General deployed his men all over the Grid in search of any one portal, or multiple portals if any left after C.L.Us decimation. This portal search party is one of those hidden mysteries which takes several, if not a million TronCycles to yield results, as spotting them needs the portal to be in an active state, which occurs only if the User travels through it. In the public history of the Grid, Kevin is the only User who uses Portal, followed by some anonymous Users a few Cycles back which ended with C.L.Us failed and fatal attempt. His searchlight troops had a few cities set up for their mission: Bostrum Colony, Purgos, TronCity, and Argon.

It would be adding salt to the injury if another attack took place in his own capital. In layman's terms, his nose would be chopped off and laid open in the hall of shame, if he let that happen. And that would never happen, not while he is alive, he boasted to himself, as he sent the best of the best leopards in his army, the razor-sharp, superspeed assassins named RollerBlades by the General himself. Rumor in his men has it that these men were bred with such finesse and state-of-the-art techniques that even two of them could slice their way into a small army band of hundred cavalrymen in a single mTC. Such is his confidence in his newborn band that he allotted only two RollerBlades in the outskirts of Argon and left the others to select their favorite place for hunting. His duties though lay in empowering his limbs with renewed vigor and rage, combined with the metallurgical properties of a mysterious molten liquid filled in them, the one designed out of the waters of Sea of Simulation combined with their trademark secret ingredients, inside his carrier ship.

On the other hand, Paige had no time for relaxation, touring the whole of Argon in search of the rebels. If finding these rebels was not tiring enough, chasing them over the streets and rooftops to their submission is a whole new ballgame. These rebels would either vanish in thin air or ride their way through the streets by the time Paige had requested Recognizers for deployment, and those who get cornered by the troops would make sure to avoid hand-to-hand combats and would instead escape such traps using smoke bombs and other such theatrics. All that Paige could get hold of are pouches filled with comms, trackers, flares, Light Cycle batons, and a total headcount of ten fugitives at the end of their 500mTC run. Interrogating those stubborn criminals was a time-taking and futile exercise in the making, as the interrogators underestimated the level of self-control their targets practiced during several of their grueling torture mechanisms. Reverse engineering of the captured commlinks proved futile as they began self-destructing within 0.01mTC of their activation, albeit the blast radius being less than a foot.

Paige saw the inefficacy in holding on to the captives in sight and then changed her strategy. No matter how hard she felt or how much one corner of her heart opposed her, she has to do whatever it takes to achieve her mission objective. Clearing up her ambiguities inside, she toured the residencies one by one as her guards dragged the residents outside for information, although their methods were as delicate as a chainsaw. Paige tried her level best to extract useful information with as less violence as possible because it's the normal and innocent Basics of Argonians they're dealing with, and insensitivity in such issues leads to unnecessary fights and rebellions which could threaten the empire like with the Renegade in the past. The only regret she has in her line of duty, other than losing her friends and family to ISOs, is that the Renegade escaped from her two times and as if adding salt to injury, he saved her the first time before flying off the mysterious island in his Light Jet. Any warrior with a pinch of honor left in him would consider mercy at the hands of the opponent a shame of eternity and try to end their life abruptly. But it is the General's command and his manipulative mind that saved her from doing so, on the pretext that she didn't avenge her friends yet.

Dejected at the zero progress she has achieved, Paige then shifted her focus to places of public gathering, this time instructing her guards to conceal their weapons and remain low until said so. Covering the arena, train station, and many more routine areas of interest, their convoy finally settled inside the 0001001 Club, the largest one in Argon City to date. The numbers in the name could've been written as a sarcastic reply to the sprawling dancing area of the club itself, as the drinking area acts just like a boundary to the most open yet occupied dancing area in all of the clubs of Argon. As the bartender served drinks to the men in the name of the Club, Paige initiated a small talk with one of the active bartenders in the row while her men were busy with chicks and glasses full of mocktails, cocktails and so many other bizarre names they could spout at random.

Extracting information from citizens, that too from public places is a risky business. One wrong move and the result either leads to massacres, ugly fights, or chaotic destruction, or the target vanishes for eternity. Paige's nursing abilities from her past came into use here, as her job involved diplomacy and empathy, the latter being a rarity in a Major. Excelling the first rule in any successful interrogator's playbook i.e., creating the feeling of comfort in the mind of the opposite person, Paige then slowly steered the random gossip and personal talk into the rebel attack at the main square which housed the failed Argon Victory Rally. The waiter chose to divulge from expressing his true opinions on the matter, but instead replied "For people like me, what happens inside this club matters. And what happens inside the club? Guards, sentinels, sentries, Basics, everyone parties here for a lifetime unless and until they start petty fights inside". This made Paige confirm her suspicions as to whether the fugitives attended the club often, to which the waiter has only "maybe" as a reply. As she tried to make sense of the club's weird rule of not having any video footage or recording inside the premises, he said "There's this golden rule in 01: THE LESS YOU KNOW, THE BETTER. Privacy is our top priority; how else do we get people in to dance all the time then?".

Nothing to add more to that line, she has to endure the rest of the conversation which led to random blabbering of anecdotes including abuses, slang, insults, and many more from the customers. Truly, even her guards, who have completed all their drinks and dancing at that point, couldn't help but wonder how the Major could tolerate such pointless talk for so long. Little did they know that females in the Grid, resembling their User counterparts, have inherited their User's tendency for listening to interesting stories to unfold themselves. Kind of like children having keen ears and wild imaginations for fantasy tales, wishing the stories would never end for them. But one of the anecdotes got her attention:

- They ran away without any payment?

- Yes. And they even threatened with batons and Discs.

- Why did they hurry suddenly?

- They sat two chairs away, and I don't stay in one place and serve everyone.

- There must be something, something odd or interesting about them. Try hard!

- Hmm…only two lines made somewhat sense to me, like "Our guests need help badly", and "They're resting in a farmhouse on the outskirts".

Paige brainstormed for some reasonable link of those lines to the men. Those men surely never revealed their identities nor those "guests" they'd mentioned, and their lines had no context at all. The suburbs in Argon had no farmhouses, she pondered upon. Then the real meaning of it all knocked some sense into her: "Suburbs. Farmhouse outside Argon .... ABLE'S GARAGE? Guests need help badly…...Fellowmen or…ISOs? He said guests, so it definitely means ISOs. No other option is left". Her mind couldn't afford to have second thoughts about the conclusion drawn, as even a small hint could work wonders for her case.

She then summoned her confidante general and ordered that they need to start a covert operation outside of Able's Garage and that she would also accompany them on this op. The general suggested that they directly raid and enquire about the fugitives, to which the Major cut him short saying "They live in mountains. Our convoy's light ribbons are bright enough to drive them away. Do as I say." Before leaving the club along with her men, Paige tipped off the waiter and gave him a commlink, instructing him to dial the comm if he observes anything odd and gets his hand on any information about the rebel fugitives.

THE GRID–SECOND TRONCYCLE

ABLE'S GARAGE

It has been around 140mTC since Sam had the long-due rendezvous with Alan. Post disconnecting the call, the feeling of interaction with him after his adventures made Sam a bit emotional on the inside. Thanks to the Grid, he had technically lived 2 months inside if adjusted for time zone correction w.r.t earth. That is the longest time he has spent without even the shadow of his uncle falling on him, which includes bailouts as well. Alas, he couldn't afford much time for this as he has a father to search for and return with.

Prior to Alan's video call, Sam and Quorra knew every nook and corner of the garage, all thanks to the relentless persuasion of Mara, who didn't like to isolate her guests to a single room for a long time. They were even introduced to Zed, who seemed to dislike them based on their face value. Zed is aloof, content with his job, and poking Mara at times. Since the couple's first visit, his stare at them has never ceased to creep them out. "His brain talks faster than his tongue. And yet, he acts like a douchebag most of the time" is what Mara described him. Even before C.L.U took over Argon personally, Mara was a kind-hearted person herself, who always liked the company of close ones and made sure no one got hurt in her presence. Her unassuming optimism and naivety are such that she even rejected all requests from her personnel, including Zed, about security in and out of the garage. To this moment, there is zero video recording equipment not only inside the garage, but also in her private cabin. She would respond to all the arguments and debates against her decision stating that their garage was, is, and will continue to be a peaceful place devoid of conflicts and tension, and no one will bring conflicts to the garage, ever. This quality, although good, has sometimes displayed possessiveness from her side, which gave Beck and Zed the lenience to mock her whenever possible. This possessiveness is now making Sam and Quorra a little uncomfortable as Mara's hospitality and compassion are overbearing, kinda eating up their private time. Even though Mara apologizes to them often for disturbing them, she isn't able to keep on a tight leash on her tendency.

Sam and Quorra searched for the Grid blueprint throughout the garage but to no avail. They even tried asking Mara, but Mara was firm in her response and urged them to wait for the right time. Sam neither has the time nor the patience for that, and he then devised a plan. The couple then went inside Mara's room and had frequent conversations with her, all the while one of them doing a visual recce of the whole room. Mara was skeptical at first but then she was happy that her guests are close to her now. Their recces confirmed one thing for sure: the supercomputer on her desk held answers to all their questions. It's showtime, they thought.

The couple went in this time with the same positivity on their faces and the same gentle smile, only this time with their plan in motion. This time, Mara started talking about her past life in the garage, how she and her gang never cared about the Grid and promised to live their whole lives inside the simple space they shared with each other. Everything went smoothly until Bodhi got derezzed right in front of their eyes and everything went downhill from there. At this point, Sam started showing more curiosity in her story and took her out of the cabin, affectionately standing up and holding her hand, leading her towards the door and a few steps outside as well, buying time for Quorra. Quorra then scoured the whole room for the blueprint, but all she could decipher from the hygienic scenery were photographic memories of her and mechanical tools which she found hard to recognize. Ignoring all those stuff, she then sat on Mara's chair and turned on the supercomputer. If Sam is the genius hacker in the User World, Quorra rightly earned her notoriety in the Grid, owing to her escapades and survival tactics employed in her past, after the Purge. As she connected her Identity Disc to the computing device, she has to invest herself for the next 0.005mTC or so and hope for the best as Sam tries his level best to keep Mara outside her cabin.

On the other hand, Sam struggled to hold on to Mara's flashback narration, the whole story clocking in 0.002mTC and going on. Mara is so sweet and courteous it made Sam hesitant and shy to stop her in between. Also, he has to buy as much time for Quorra as possible. Zed, completing his shift, approached them both and surprised Mara from behind. Zed became suspicious and asked Sam about Quorra, to which Sam said she was relaxing inside as Mara is narrating her flashback to him. Zed observed Sam for the next 0.002mTC and became suspicious that he left Quorra inside for so long because the couple was never seen to leave each other's company, even for a moment, in his observation. He then shook the foundations of Sam by his first stoic line, interrupting Mara:

- Where is Quorra, Sam?

- (startled)She's inside, Zed. Why do you ask again?

- Since how much time is she inside?

- Maybe ten minutes?

- Ten what?

- Why does that bother you?

- (adjusting his throat) What is she doing in there since then, Sam?

- She wants some space, Zed. Let's just leave her like that, for some time.

- What's her problem?

- It's her personal. Not worth asking.

- Let me try.

Sam blocks Zed from going in, and Zed stares seriously at Sam. Mara interrupts in between, trying to cool down the heat:

- Don't you understand, Zed? She needs some space.

- What's wrong with helping our guests, Mara?

- You're not helping. You're creeping the hell out of them, Zed!

- Great! Now consoling and empathizing has become a sin, isn't it?

- When was the last time you consoled me, huh? Tell me and I'll spare you.

- We faced everything together, Mara! You were worried, I'll give you that. But cry? Never.

- See, this is why no girl ever fell for you, douchebag! And no one will, ever.

- So what now? Make a girl cry and console her till she loves you? Is that what you suggest? Bullshit.

What started with Zed enquiring about Quorra now turned into an ugly verbal war between Mara and Quorra. Sam stood behind and watched their quarrel, which turned into childlike fighting, where they both pinched and plucked out each other's hair, making him unable to control his laughter. After another 0.002mTC, Zed pushed Mara aside and rushed inside the room. Not long after his first step toward the cabin, Quorra came outside. Looking jaded and moody, she thanked Sam for giving her some space and greeted Zed. Zed shot his question:

- What happened inside, Quorra?

- Nothing, Zed. Thanks for your concern.

- You took so long. Anything serious?

- Nothing serious, Zed. No need to worry.

Mara gave a good knock over Zed's head and shunted him left and right:

- They are our friends, Zed. Try to smile at them for me.

- Shall we give our garage to them, then? That's the last thing left now.

- Never change, Zed. Always a pain for everyone.

Mara then apologized to both Sam and Quorra and then escorted them both to their rooms. Closing the door behind them, Quorra then handed over her Disc to Sam and copied the information into Sam's Disc, and displayed the content in holographic form. Navigating her way through the infinite clusters of files and folders, Quorra finally got hold of the Grid Map as Sam had a good look at it.

Confirming that they have their hands on the proper roadmap, Sam then made a video call to Alan and conveyed the same. Upon Sam's request, Alan then contacted Roy, wherein Roy rerouted the BT Connection to his server and continued from there on. He then verified the map that Sam gave and copied the details into his computer. He ended the conversation by reassuring Sam of the progress "Good job, kid. Now let me do my job while you enjoy your Hawaii trip over there".