Andre - How is it going? Got the news? Duval will be stuck in Warsaw for a few weeks.
Kilmure - Yeah, yeah. I hear that one. For now we need to move out of here... Or else who knows who would come after us over here.
While Kilmure were gathering his suitcase, Andre walked in his tent. This notion wasn't something new to Kilmure, and that's why he was quick to gather most of his things. Andre on the other hand, was feeling somewhat uneasy, as he took a seat at the only chair in the room.
Andre - I'm more worried, wheather we would get our dolls back. They are now under invetigation or something like that. That's what Duval said. And leaving this camp... It was such a perfect place, with a purification right above our heads.
With a sigh, Kilmure closed his suitcase and took a seat at his bed.
Kilmure - Yeah... It was a great place to stay. It was our longest camp... It was like what? A two and a half years? It was nice while it lasted! But thankfully, we are going to some place better.
Andre - Do we already have somewhere to move?
Kilmure - Duval and I was planning this place for a long time... together with Harry... But yeah. If things go well, we are going to take a temporary camp at the little place up north of here, and then move out to a some place out in the west. Long lost mining town, that was waiting for someone to buy it out. But before that, it would't hurt to be a little more carefull.
Andre - Mining town? Buy out?
Kilmure - Oh, yeah... We are moving to a border with green zone.
Andre - *Huh?* Border with a green zone? Itsn't it a complete opposite to 'not suspicious' and 'far from the reach of goverments and politics'? That's the only thing Duval was always worried about.
Kilmure - Yeah... But Harry and I made some inspections of said mining town. It is said to have useless, but the mines are still out there and open... More over, tunnels of the mine are so wast and long, that some of them ended up deep in yellow zone. After hearing that. Duval was thinking of making these tunnels our main meanings of getting out and operating.
Andre - Bloody Duval and his plans.
Kilmure - That's what he is good at...That, and talking his way in and out of anything.
Both Andre and Kilmure shared a small laugh. Before taking a deep breath.
Kilmure - Any news of Harry and Sam?
Andre - They are running low on man power after last few months... So, they are out there, somewhere. Trying to gather anyone willing to risk their necks for... well... Us, I guess...
Kilmure - Yeah... That's why I stick with the dolls and myself...
Andre - Now that you mentioned it, why do you care so much about dolls anyway?
Kilmure - I don't know. But they tend to stick for me, work for me and risk their lives... I guess there is something, but I don't have words for that. It's just the way it is!
Andre - Oh, okay. We are moving out in an hour, so... | Kilmure - Yeah, yeah. I'l see you around then.
With a nod, Andre stood up and walked out of the Kilmure's tent. Once Kilmure was alone, he pulled out the terminal and checked the last recived message titled "Invitation to Moko...". Kilmure stared at that message for a long while, before finaly pressing 'delete' and 'confirm'
Kilmure - Yeah, not gonna fall for that trap again!
=== Warsaw ===
At the hotel, in a "appartements de luxe". Or how he was told "luxurious room in an apartment hotel" by a multiple "friends". Duval was both annoyed, because that meant they would want to ask favors from him once again. Duval loved taking favors and have people owe him. But when people around him are high-ranking military officers, police chef and all kinds of politicians. It was like he is in his natural habitats. But it also was tiring and annoying.
Duval - And what did they said?
Right now, Duval was sitting in comfortable chair and drinking tea. He would rather drink some wine or whiskey, but he would rather have his mind clear for now. As right now, he had only a small army of dolls and nothing else, to operate with. And that was Kilmure's dolls.
Blaze - Of course they weren't pleased. The cargo was missing from the container. And it's impossible to say for sure, where it went. I told them of a possibility, the small team of 'legion' that is still somewhere in the yellow zone could have that cargo with them. And right now, Beda is operating the JayJay and Mangie teams to deal with that question...
Sitting on the opposite side of a table, Blaze were answering questions. Nomomo and Nita were standing near 'floor to ceiling' windows and having conversation. Nomomo, Blaze and even Nita were wearing the same set of clothes due to their old outfits being damaged beyond any possiability of repair. And finaly, standing right behind Duval, were Zed, who had a pleasure of still wearing that outfit of a servant. Much to her annoyance.
Duval - That complicates things even more than it has to. I don't think that this "small team" would have that damn cargo with them... They were trying to give that cargo to someone who was waiting in Warsaw... Do you have any idea who it might be?
Blaze - Impossible to know for sure. Background check, revealed that every single close contact he had durning his military and 'legion' group career, aren't located anywhere in Warsaw. I made even deeper dive into his friend's background, and nobody ever came close to Darryl, that would end up in Warsaw, aside from a small bar owner in south-west district. Just in case, I made a check on his actions on a day of train incident. He was at his workplace and left only at late evening, after everyone else finished their shifts. So there is no way he was in some way involved in this.
Somewhere in a middle of Blaze's explanation, Duval was impressed, and then slightly shoked.
Duval - Wow, wow. And you didn all that... How and when? You are supposed to be under strict survailence and I haven't seen you using any terminal while I am here.
Blaze - While it is true, I made background check way before train accident, in attempt to understand his next move. As for a bar owner, all I had to do, was ask for a public surveilence records on a day of train event. And I was granted access while we were still under investigation.
And now, Duval was truly impressed and took a sip of a tea.
Duval - Damn... I must say, Kilmure knows what he is doing.
Blaze - That he might... But before allowing me to join his team, he rejected me four times. And I was stuck working with workshop crew and in Harry's team for a few months, before he took me in.
Duval - Do you alway has to elaborate with every thing you say? | Blaze - No.
Finaly hearing a simple question, Duval relaxed for a moment and took another sip of tea.
Duval - But all this time, I thought that... The doll with dark-blue hair...Blaze - Nomomo.
Duval - Nomomo, yes. From what I heard, Nomomo was the leader of your little team.
Blaze - There should be little explantation. Kilmure, is our leader. But if he is missing, we tend to switch leading role depending on what kind of task we have at hand. And yes, Nomomo is great at fight and great when things get... Tactical. And due to the fact that we are left to handle most of the fights, she is the one calling the shots most of the times.
Duval - Well... That's explains things.
While Duval was taking another sip of tea. A terminal on a wall started ringing. Zed quckly came over and pressed 'answer' button. Soft voice gave a short reply after Zed's rough answer.
Zed - Mister Duval, seems like it's your guest.Duval - Great! I was waiting for them.
A slight nod and then Zed said few more words into a terminal, before the call came to an end.
Duval - Well then, Blaze. Take Nita and take a seat in any other room. I don't want to scare my guest. As much as I hate to say it. But she is way to... Huge to NOT be intimidating.
Blaze - Yeah, I get your meaning.Duval - And Zed, prepare some more tea.Zed - Yes...
While everyone were busy with preporations, Duval took a deep breath and prepared for another round of negotiations. "This one will be tough" he said to himself
=== Somewhere in yellow zone ===
Beda - No, that's not... That's not them...
Looking through a binoculars, Beda stood on a hill surrounded by Mangie operators and two armored cars. A terminal in her hands were displaying "active call"
Shafir (Audio) - That damned 'red hawk' again? We are chasing tails left and right. We have spent a week out here and nothing! Are you sure this 'small team' of legion mercs even exist?
Beda - You heard reports... But I have to agree... If they at least slightly competent, then they are long gone. But they are not JUST competent. They are professionals, and if they wanted to escape, we are never going to catch them, with a trace that is a week long cold.
Shafir (Audio) - Any suggestion then?
Lowering binoculars. Beda's neural cloud were trying to come up with an answer that would satisfy everyone. Her, Shafir, JayJay and the client. But that answer would be to finaly find that lost group of 'legion' and quickly. And present situation didn't allowed such answer.
Beda - I think you should take your people and return... It is clear that this whole mess didn't worked. And it would be a pure luck to find them at this point.
A moment of silence raised through the air. It was clear that everone was almost ready to give another fight against the "red hawk", just like they did last few times in a past week or so.
Shafir (Audio) - Yeah... That's something... You have a point... Get back to command center. Everyone, gather your gear and get ready to head back. Report that *cut off*
On a half a word, that was probably directed to someone else, the call gets cut off. And Beda sighed with relief. It was tiring as hell, to comunicate and command with Mangie. And finaly, it was some well deserved time off. But it was too early to celibrate. There is just a few things she had to take care off, before she would be able to get back to the camp.
Beda - Alright everyone. It's time to get back to command center, and then you will be heading back to HQ. Finaly, some well deserved R&R. But don't celibrate yet! We still have to get back.
While nobody made a sound, everyone felt relief. Mangie soldiers and operators started climbing back into the cars. At first they remained silent, but soon started having a small talk.
And Beda... Beda just closed her eyes and pushed her own frame against the seat. She was both relaxed and thinking through all data and information on this whole matter, finding it weird. That the leader was killed in firefight, on a train station, carrying the box with cargo. But cargo wasn't there?
Knowing who was there, and who made initial report, Beda came to understand only one thing. The 'mysterious cargo' was always there, in that box. And that someone took it, and what they are doing here, is just a coverup for whataver happened back at the train station.
Beda - It's better not be your thing Blaze... But I do wonder, what was that cargo...
Sayng so to herself, Beda headed to a car. What surprised her for a momen. One of Mangie operators opened the door to a front passanger seat for her, and only after Beda took a seat, operator took a set at back of the car. For some reason, that little gesture felt wrong to her.
=== Somewhere on the next day morning ===
Nomomo - Do you ever sleepm, or just walking around in your sleep?
Walking out of the bedroom where all dolls are sleeping for the duration of their investigation. Nomomo saw Nita sitting on a couch and reading at journal in a leather cover. And at the question of Nomomo, Nita quickly put that journal somewhere into her frame.
Nita - Never had a chance to sleep. Whenever I try, my system says that this function is unavaliable. The error string leads to some corrupted entry in my data, that I can't remove.
Nomomo - Then how the hell does your neural cloud formates the data?
Nita - I don't know. But her, my corrupted data is in constant struggle to grow.
Thinking about it a little, Nomomo prepared herself some simple coffee with milk, and put three spoons of sugar for a good measure. Before taking a sean on a couch with Nita.
Nomomo - You once said that your data get's constantly corrupted. But how?
Nita - As I said, it's in a constant struggle. Sometimes corrupted data can take up to thirty two percent of my data, and sometimes it gets to a twenty two percent. And it's rather strange to keep on going like that. But some files gets successfully restored. And they never get corrupted again. But some others?... Most of the data that get's corrupted can't be restored, and get's deleted automatiacly...
Nomomo - So what's you saying... Is that you are having some really strange way of memory loss in the world? You either remember things forever, or forget them after some time? Is that what it is?
Nita - They way you say it... It does sounds right. But not everything. There are systems installed in my frame, that even I don't know what they do. And when trying to read them, it gives either error or corrupted and unreadable text with an error. And that more... Some of thouse systems and modules are online and running... And only Maria ever knew what they are.
Nomomo - Who the hell is Maria? | Casualy, Nomomo took a sip of a coffee.
Nita - I don't know... But she knew me? Most of the data on her is corrupted. I only remember how she were angry at me and calling me a 'monster', then how she was heaving a conversation with unknown man, then how she was fixing my frame, and then how I killed her...
Nomomo - Oh... Not much to go on from, does it?Nita - Yeah... And I hate myself for it...
Nomomo - Hey... Your data is corrupted! Maybe there was some explonation behind it? You can't know for sure what that was! Besides... You can't know for sure, what she wanted.
Nita - Yeah, you right. And I always took you for an constantly angry doll...
Nomomo - You what now?Nita - No nothing. It's just that you don't hesitate to shot someone.
Nomomo - And I am hearing that from someone who don't hesitate to get shot?
After a short and tence silence... Both dolls started laughing.