4 | Man in the Mask

Gavin and Blaise entered the tent the second that LUCAS had woken up. The commotion from the crowd outside died down as the front flap of the tent closed. There must have been some sort of noise dampening technology set up somewhere. Must be real small—LUCAS could have been fooled to believe that this tent was all tech free—although the fact that he and Gavin were able to have a conversation without those outside taking notice was ample evidence to the fact.

Gavin drew everyone to the center table where LUCAS has met everyone a short while before. He looked at his internals, it seems four hours had passed since that point.

"All right, all right. Everyone come round. The great techno dreamboat has returned," Gavin said, "Of course, it took quite some effort to separate the poor prince from his dearly treasured."

LUCAS looked Blaise up and down, and instantly he understood that he does not understand Blaise at even a surface level. The man was tall—taller than even Gavin. He wore a flowing cloak that shrouded just how thick or thin he really was. And right over his face was a black mask, holed eyes and a curved line going from edge to edge were the only features he could make out. It looked like there was an inscription on the side—just by the cheek, but it was much too small for him to make out.

His head above the mask looked shaved, so he couldn't make anything out from his appearance other than how...odd it was.

"Just...lost track of time," the voice came from behind the mask. It sounded...measured. Composed. This was a man that kept all his cards close to his chest. So many variables to keep an eye on. LUCAS had a feeling that the interactions with these folks were going to be closer to disarming a bomb than running a mission as a team.

"So, we gonna get the map from the kid or what?" Roshe asked, leaning back in his seat.

LUCAS felt the eyes of everyone in the room shifting toward him. He didn't necessarily feel uncomfortable, but moreso...curious. He could feel the temperatures of everyone else raising vastly different. Bambo was the quickest—he was levelheaded when he was talking things in his field, but everything surrounding LUCAS seemed to unnerve him.

Blaise and Gavin seemed equally cool to the situation. There was little to no change in their internal temperatures.

"Yeah, should be no problem. C'mere." Blaise motioned with as little physical movement as was possible. He kicked over a stool and LUCAS took in a deep breath—a show for nerves than anything else.

"Shouldn't be long," Gavin said. "Also, it looks like his neck there is a little...off. Mind checking that out, too?"

Blaise muffled a grunt and LUCAS eyed Gavin closely. He hadn't told Gavin about his neck joint...had he noticed him rubbing it...or was it something deeper? His internal temperatures didn't change at all. He thought he was right to keep the second fragment's location a secret for now. And with each passing second he may continue that trend of secrecy.

"Seems easy," Blaise said. "Be right back." He backed off and LUCAS stared at the strange man as he ducked into one of the other rooms.

"Does...he ever take the mask off?" LUCAS asked.

"Never seen his face under it," Roshe said. "Seems ashamed of it. Maybe burned. Maybe he's just ugly," and then he burst into a fit of laughter. Bambo joined in, his laugh was wiry.

Blaise returned a few moments later with a small wrench and a few other small tools gathered in one hand. "Sit still."

LUCAS did so, and realized it would be so easy for Blaise to just...turn him off. He wasn't sure if there was such a command inside his system, but figured it would have been careless of Abel to not include it. What if he had rebelled against him? Abel would need a failsafe just in case...

The thought hurt inside, but he pushed it away because the truth was if he was going to die, he could have been overpowered at any point before this. Surely Gavin's own abilities would have been enough to suppress him. Blaise reached over and brought the wrench to LUCAS' neck. LUCAS got the image of a hostage situation with a knife pressed to a young boy's throat, but pushed that away too.

"Still," Blaise commanded softly.

LUCAS straightened up and froze his movement. His pain sensors triggered as Blaise tightened. If he hadn't frozen his movements, he was sure to have jumped forward in reaction. With Blaise's hands around his neck, he might have screwed something fierce up. He stood still as the joint was tightened, loosened, held for a moment, and then clicked into place as it was finally tightened correctly. His neck no longer felt like it was threatening to lock up.

LUCAS felt something sharp jab the back of his head—just behind his ear. His eyes widened and he definitely would have jumped from the stab.

"Still," Blaise repeated, and LUCAS listened.

Blaise worked silently as the panel connecting the rear of his head unlatched. His eyes darted to the frame as Blaise set it down beside him. It was a surreal experience, staring at the back of his own head. Sure enough, he knew that it were possible that his body could come apart like this. At his core, he was inside a machine. Of course they come apart. But he was not a machine, at least, not in the same way. He was those two dreaded letters. AI. A machine that pretends it's not. That's programmed to not, that believed it wasn't. And the part of him that believed found...despair almost in solid proof that he is what he knows he is. In that piece of him is the undeniable proof that he will never truly be human.

"What'cha find in there?" Bambo asked.

"A lot," Blaise said, using two of the tiny tools that sort of looked like a lockpick to pick around. "Found an inhibitor."

"Inhibitor?" LUCAS asked.

"Still," Blaise warned. "One mistake and you're done."

"Sorry," he said.

"It's dulling some of your senses. Whoever put it in you didn't want this part of your system running."

"Why'd they go through all that trouble?" Bambo asked. "Installed whatever just to block it."

"They probably needed the function at some point, then figured it was too dangerous for him to access it." Laven mused. "Restricted like a child."

An inhibitor...LUCAS thought. Why would Abel have needed to place an inhibitor? If his goal was to scour this vast wasteland and put an end to the Children of the Night, should he not have full access to all his systems? A terrible doubt began to flood his mind. If it was for his good—like, if it was something that would overheat his system or could possibly kill him, then why wouldn't he have told him? And...why wasn't he able to sense the inhibitor himself?

"Gone, now." Blaise muttered. "You should feel...more, when I finish up, the sensor needs time to boot."

The question lie heavy on his mind. What would he feel? Would he regret it? The only thing, he thought, was to just wait and see.

"Get that map already," Roshe commanded.

"Let him work," Laven chided.

Through it all, Gavin sat silent in the back, studying the situation silently. LUCAS couldn't see him from where he was standing, but he could start to feel him. Like, a strong suggestion of where he was and how he was standing. He wasn't sure this was the feeling that had been inhibited. It was his normal sense of strong energy. It was always ringing in the back of his mind.

"Almost done," Blaise said.

"How do you know how to find what you're looking for?" Bambo asked. When Laven gave him a dirty look, he held up both his hands. "Just curious. Not everyday you find something like this on the street."

All eyes shifted to Blaise. "Similar architecture to something I worked on in the before." And that was all he said.

Similar architecture? What could that mean? Was there something like him out there? There were too many questions that were floating around his head. All had the potential to greatly change how he would interact with the world in the coming times. And all of them frustratingly led to dead ends. All such dark paths that seemed like traps purposefully set to encase his mind in a full on logic loop. One thought to another to another unending.

"It's done," Blaise said. "Grab the projector, I've got a port here, got the data."

LUCAS couldn't place it, but there was a slight rise in Blaise's internal temperature. There was a sliver of excitement in his voice, but only a sliver.

Roshe stood and headed to the back of the tent. Blaise returned to the cool temp of before, his even cadence returned like he was aware of the shift. Gavin's eyes lowered as something seemed to have caught his notice too, but he seemed to see how it played out. LUCAS measured his own breath and sensed Roshe grabbing the projector from the room in the rear. He remembered seeing it when he had been talking with Gavin, but paid little notice to it originally.

He returned and grunted slightly as LUCAS could see it had considerable bulk to it. As he got eyes on it he could see it was handmade—nothing you would have seen on store shelves in the old world...not that he had any personal experience with that. It was just another thing he was programmed to know.

Knowledge of the old world was relegated to mundane details. Basic ideas of how things were—typically learned through the written works produced in that time. Commonalities shared, basics every writer of the era knew and inserted into their works. Things the fiction wrapped around.

"Got it, here," Roshe said, lifting the machine onto the center table. "Boy'll have to come here. Cable's not long enough.

Luke listened, and nodded slowly. He stood up and quickly found a hand on his shoulder.

"Still," Blaise commanded. His grip was tight, forceful. LUCAS didn't like it. "If he moves, his head spills out. We lose everything."

"What do you expect me to do?" Roshe asked.

"Bring it here."

"Carry it, you mean?" Roshe asked. "You can do that part."

"Do you know how to navigate to the map?" Blaise's head cocked. The look from the mask was intimidating enough. Roshe groaned and Gavin stepped forward, holding out a hand. "I got it."

His eyes started to glow golden, a sort of fierce look as the machine lifted in the air by itself.

"You tellin' me you could have done that the whole time?" Roshe called.

"Yeah, but I try not to if I can avoid it."

"Why the hell'd you sit there and watch me struggle with it?"

Gavin shrugged. "I thought you could have used the exercise. Been sitting an awful lot today." A wicked grin passed along his face.

Roshe showed him the finger, and Gavin smirked even wider. He nodded and brought the machine over, slowly. It hung in the air just beside LUCAS. He wondered what he would feel if he waved his arms underneath the machine—would he feel nothing? Or would there be an essence of the telekinesis? He wasn't sure if he'd be okay with either. He dared not test it.

"Let's begin," Blaise said, taking the cable from the side of the projector and slotting it inside the back of his head. He was forceful with the insert, it shoved LUCAS's head forward.

"Still, I know," LUCAS murmured.

Blaise said nothing as he worked his tools to the right spot, then a click sound echoed across the silence in the tent. They all stared at the spot where the projection landed on the side of the tent.