Chapter 16: Fear and Trembling

[Annika 25]

To Alter and Durante

Annika and Aubrey spend some time looking into the attack at Keitoleinen's mansion, then return when they are told by the Global Bank that they can cooperate with members from the Invisible Hand. So, they both (if you want to come along, Aubrey) head back to the mansion to meet up with members from the Invisible Hand.

Annika 25 spots two people upstairs investigating the explosions. "Hello, I am Annika 25. Aubrey and I can assist you if you are in need of any assistance." The android offers the both of them. She brushes some invisible dirt off of her crisp white shirt so that she looks presentable to these humans.

[Alter Grossman]

"Alter Grossman, Invisible Hand," Alter says to the newcomers. She doesn't stop what she's doing, although she does make eye contact. Alter is never sure how to react to Creditors, since they're machines.

Alter also finds Creditors a little disconcerting. It reminds her of an article she read about "the uncanny valley," a hypothesis that the closer to human an android looks, the more disturbing it is, unless it is indiscernible from being human. Creditors are almost there, but not quite. It's just something off about the way they conduct themselves. It's creepy.

"I'm in charge of this investigation, and Dante here is an explosives expert. He will give you instructions. Currently, we are examinig the blast site. We will begin interviewing relevant persons and apprehending suspects shortly, which you will be more useful for."

[Archer Aylmer]

"I don't listen to ugly people."

I yell this back into the other room at Horatio. I don't like being told what I should and shouldn't do. It's not as if the world isn't going to end anyway. However, I do like the idea of inviting different rebel groups to the party. That might make things better. All of these Nihilists are... Typical.

[Annika 25]

"I saw the man who caused the explosions. He used an exploding yoyo to escape out the side of the wall. He jumped down and managed to escape from me. He must have had a vehicle waiting because I could not find him. There were two others who I saw as well. They were not involved with the explosions as far as I could see, but may have been connected to that man." Annika offers. This is the most useful information that she has. She keeps back and lets them work.

[Malak Al-Dabaran]

"Having a party might be a waste of time." Malak replies to Hilja. "Though, taking over a radio station or M Tv would be too risky. I don't know.." Malak states. He begins writing in his tablet, going over notes from the party.

"Well, since I don't have any ideas, I guess both of those ideas are better than nothing." He says dismally.

[Alter Grossman]

Alter takes a deep breath, but completely fails to control her anger. She turns abruptly toward Annika 25.

"Let me get this straight... You are a super-powered, flying, laser-shooting robot and you didn't manage to stop a lipstick wearing man and his two accomplices from blowing up this party and kidnapping someone!?! What the hell are you good for then!?! Kusemek, you're worthless!"

Alter balls her fists and does her best to keep from smacking Annika. Alter knows that would be a fight that she'd lose. Alter can't shoot laser beams out of her eyes, after all. She takes another deep breath.

"How do you propose to rectify this situation, you piece of junk?"

[Lucio De Saldanha]

"Why don't we give the Blessed a Manala gift...copies of my new book....once it's published!" Lucio chimes in. His book is not published, but he is pretty obessed with it. He is getting bored at this unproductive meeting though.
He gets up and somehow produces a Michael Jackson Cd from ..somewhere...he pops it into Tuesdays' CD player and starts dancing.

[Annika 25]

"If he had explosives, he either bought them or made them. If you can determine that he bought them, then we can visit the person who may have sold them to him or where they came from. That might help us to prevent other terrorists from getting weapons." Annika says calmly. She is not in the least bothered by Alter's outburst, since she is aware of her failure. "It may help us track him down. There is also no footage of him leaving the city via teleportation booth. But there is footage of the man who was with him leaving in a teleportation booth to Munich, Germany. It is possible we could travel to Munich to track down the man who was with him." Annika suggests.

[Alter Grossman]

Alter crosses her arms. "Fine. You stay here with Dante and find the source of the explosives, so we can find the clown. Maybe Dante will be able to keep you from fucking up too badly. I also want Dante to interview Mr. Keitoleinen's head security, Bargrin. When you finish, meet me in Munich. I'm going to Germany to find the guy in the gas mask and the woman."

Alter tosses the bag with the string in it to Dante before disposing of her gloves. "Send this to the lab and have them figure out where it came from. Here's my card," Alter says, handing each of them a card, "Even if you don't find anything, I want you to call me regularly."

Alter puts her on her outerwear before heading for the nearest teleportation booth. She takes out her company PDA and checks Munich's surveillance for anyone who looks like the party crashers. She gets a match pretty quickly. Alter is embarrassed that she didn't think of this herself, but still considers Annika 25 an incompetent pile of scrap metal.

[Emmet Fawkes]

“No women's as sharp as an axe,” Bishop noted flatly, his attention drifting to the window with the wide-open lake. It was so tranquil, he wanted to just lay outside beside it, forget everything, let the world rot where it was. That wouldn't be any fun though. He waited for Archer to put on Bonifaz' jacket and slowly moved around the couch. The weather was pretty nippy, chill to the bone, but something about it made him feel alive. The colds bite was unpredictable, it reminded him of a rabid dog.

“Hi-ho, lumber jack!”

When Horatio spoke out, and Archer called him ugly from the other room, he stood in front of him for a moment. Then he pointed towards the television. “Were all becoming like cats, slyly parasitic, enjoying an indifferent domesticity, y'know? Nice and snug in the social, our historic passions have withdrawn into the glow of an artificial coziness, and our half-closed eyes now seek little other than the peaceful parade of television pictures. It's all bullshit, you know that, I know that. You and I, Boni, and all of us—I believe, are anarchists, agents of returning things as they were. Countries! Instead of being force fed commercialism. Yes yes, we should get to work, but what fun is it sitting down and being all sappy?” He took a deep breath, patting the man's shoulder. “You should have some of Heikki's dessert, it's delicious. And the trees, no matter what we do, no matter how many sanctuary's we put up, they'll sell those off too for whatever their making.”

Bishop turned on his heel and followed Archer to the door, breathing in the nippy air.

“Ready to go tree-hunting?”

[Durante Dushkriti-Fahid]

Dante seemed uncertain of what to say, so he just shut his mouth and took prints from a nearby table. Creditors were something he didn't really understand, he didn't understand robots or anything like that—they looked human, so they must act human, right? He debated it for a moment, thinking, what the heck, she had cool bubblegum hair—but Alter started yelling at her, Annika 25.

Laser-beams? Flying? Super-powered? Was Annika 25 some kind of super-hero? It sounded like something out of X-men to him, then again, he reminded himself he read too many comics as a kid. Stupid comics. Annika 25 was completely calm, even after being nearly punched by the commander, and even if Alter threw a punch he doubted the robot would've done anything. There was something extremely weird about the Creditor—she was all business and no fun.

“You have footage of the man who... was working with the terrorist.” Dante repeated, just to get things straight. When Alter announced that Annika 25 was to stay with him, he nodded his head, glancing towards the Creditor. He noticed now why women made him so nervous—sometimes they had random outbursts like that for no reason and sometimes they acted as weird as Annika 25 did.

Dante caught the bag with the string in it, slipping it in one of his many pockets. “Bargin? Aye-aye, Commander! Munich...” The names of the countries were foreign to him. He really didn't learn much of the world outside his cell and the river glade tribe. He reached out for the card, and looked it over. While she was heading out the door, he called out, “Will do, Boss!!”

For a moment, Dante was silent as he looked at the card, then glanced up at Annika 25.

“Uh, do you know who Bargin is?”

[Archer Aylmer]

I walk outside with Bishop and stuff my hands inside my pockets. I hate the cold, I hate the cold, I hate the cold.

After walking a little ways from the house, past several clusters of trees I come across one that I feel is perfect. It's only about 10ft tall, but it looks healthy and still has many leaves despite the cool weather. I walk up to the tree and put my hand on it.

"This one. You can set up the explosives, but I want to push the button or... Strike the match. Whatever it is that needs to be done."

[Alter Grossman]

Alter follows a few leads and eventually discovers a nihilist meeting is taking place in Munich. She figures that's as good a place to start as any.

Alter knocks on the door of the house where the meeting is taking place. She makes a note to find out who owns the house, and if anyone is renting. Nihilists are usually trouble.

[Annika 25]

"I do not have footage of the other man here in the mansion...but there was a man that I punched at the party because I believed he was a terrorist. He was not the one involved with the explosions, but he may have information. He was caught later on camera by a teleportation booth...it was determined the booth was used to go to another one in Munich." The android explains.

"I do not think it is right for Alter to go alone to Munich. She is merely a human." The Creditor adds.

She then thinks about Tyler. "Tyler was security at the party and that is all that I know."

[Heikki Toivonen]

Heikki hears a knock on the door as he is on his way to the kitchen to make some cookies for the bake sale/party/drug sale...

He passes the room where Amelia is partying by herself and overhears Archer call Horacio ugly. All of this gives him a headache.

When he goes to the door, he expects to find another nihilist so he is friendly to the woman on the other side. "Hello there...I'm Heikki, who are you?" He asks the woman at the door. She doesn't look like a nihilist, so he tells himself he should be careful.