Mask of Humanity

They all emerged onto the tower-top of the safe-place, peering out over the wall. Slow moving clouds of dust choked the castle lower down, thrown into the air from places where chunks of the castle had toppled and crumbled.

‘Seems like this castle isn’t as safe as we all assumed,’ said Elena. ‘I wonder what our brave new leader is going to do about this?’ She shot a look at Nicolai.

He grinned back, projecting confidence. ‘We’ll find out what’s going on. Just a problem to solve, no biggie.’ Peering down he saw a great mass of undead in formation, marching along one of the bridges. Where were they going?

Impossible to say. He had a feeling, though. Paxolnaz, the 9th Circle Demon, had clearly possessed aims and goals, ones tied to the centipede in the prison, which was likely linked to the army of bugs that had assaulted the undead.

There was some kind of war going on here, he’d witnessed it with his own eyes. A war entirely removed from the humans who had been thrown like seeds from Heaven’s hand, sprinkled over the castle. That war was, in his view, the most likely reason for the movements of the dead, for the shaking of the castle.

He needed to become strong enough to leave this place, but first he intended to seize everything that could be of any use to him. For his own safety while he was here, he needed to work out what exactly was going on between the bugs and undead.

He had some Quests to complete, the titan smith in the prison and Maric in the library, not to mention putting Kleos’ name in the book over there. He’d been putting these items off for some time, as he’d felt that completing his Seed, then his first Nodes, then accessing the Trade Link and taking care of the painting, and next sending Jo and some others into the prison, took priority. But all that was nearly done. He would soon have some time to complete these objectives and get some rewards.

Nicolai wasn’t entirely sure on the logic of the Quest rewards, but he knew that they could provide things impossible to get from the Trade Link, at least with his current Market Permit Level. There were no shimmer ponchos nor thermal goggles available from his Market, but both had been there as rewards from completing Paxolnaz’s quest.

The thought of Paxolnaz led him to the sword the demon had told him of, another item he wanted. He had the impression it was an Artifact, which meant it would be powerful. A significant level above anything he’d found to date. For no other reason than that, he wanted it. He also needed to venture into the jungle, not just for the Lotus Blossom Symbiote, but also to experience what was out there. So far as he could see, the jungle was the only route available if he wanted to leave the castle. Kleos said it was dangerous, and he needed to see how dangerous.

His eyes slipped over the endless green expanse bracketing the castle. His head turned to take in the rambling bulk of the castle and the others, all peering curiously down. He also needed to decide what he wanted to do with these people, a matter on which he was still uncertain, even after so long.

His Mask squirmed over his spiritual face, sinking hooks into him, plucking at his emotions. I will be kind, he assured it. I’m being honest with them, don’t worry. I can achieve my own goals while also being… better, while aiding them. I already am, aren’t I? I will help them become stronger, help them survive. But at the same time, they will help me. It’s an equal trade. Mostly.

His eyes lingered on Karl, something writhing inside of him. Increasingly he felt a generalised sense of danger from Karl, a warning from deep inside, like one might feel seeing a sharp blade half-drawn from the sheath. Nicolai turned away from Karl, but his Soul Sense gathered around the man.

Karl’s psyche, that vague impression of emotion and sensation, easily read from those without Soul Sense, put Nicolai in mind of thick stew left on the stove too long, bubbling and boiling. Here a big clump of charred fat, full of hate and loathing as his eyes dug into Nicolai’s back. There, a rind of fear, hidden shamefully at the bottom.

Bubbles of desperation rose through it all, which was what Nicolai focused on. He wanted to know exactly how desperate Karl was, because that would decide his deadline. He’d yet to work out the best manner to remove him, and had other pressing matters.

The desperation in Karl wasn’t at a peak yet, and his attention was currently mostly focused on Nicolai. He would be thinking of what he could do. Maybe about what he’d seen in the painting. Some way to oust Nicolai, turn the others on him, or kill him.

This uncertainty was why he’d already lost, and why Nicolai had time to deal with Karl at his leisure. Nicolai had never considered any option but one.

By the time Karl realised that there was nothing he could do, and by the time he decided to look further afield, Nicolai would have made his move. Nicolai estimated he had at least a day or two.

That looking further afield was the only true risk, as Nicolai and Threat Analysis saw things. He’d been working closely with the Module as he observed Karl and considered. There was an obvious desperate gambit Karl could make. When he realised he was out of options, Karl would most likely go for it.

He would radio up the Chosen and spill the beans. Nicolai imagined the conversation going something like this: “I know of someone I think you’ll be interested in. Someone who has found another Trade Link, and killed a lot of your people. If you come, and kill him, and allow me and the rest of my people to join, and allow us to keep our Seeds, then I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

“Tell me more,” said the Chosen, and the imaginary Karl vomited out every secret he could think of. The Chosen was a rapt listener.

Then they’d show up and at the current time he didn’t think himself capable enough to deal with them in serious number, nor did he want to. Best to stay out of the limelight, and see what having monopoly on a Trade Link would do for him. With enough firepower the Chosen would go from a significant threat to a manageable one, even an opportunity.

A matter for later. For now, killing Karl was, surprisingly, a somewhat tricky matter. Not the physical side; Nicolai did not anticipate any problems when it came to the act itself. He had taken down harder targets with fewer tools. The issue was that there was blatant enmity between him and Karl, of which the others were well aware. When Karl died, it would have to be in a way where it seemed impossible that Nicolai could have done it. Were it to occur any other way, then the suspiciously minded would suspect him no matter what.

Nicolai hoped to avoid the whole messiness of suspicion and accusations. Thus the requirement of a method where: Karl’s death would appear to be the result of something completely unrelated to Nicolai; Nicolai was nowhere near to Karl; and a good number of the group was present to witness this.

He noticed Beth watching him, a frown on her face as she observed his Soul Sense tied up around Karl’s head, looking like a constrictor snake throttling its prey. He retracted it, then busied himself issuing instructions.

He told old Ben to start making as many Soul Traps as possible, and pick someone to be his assistant, then had a lengthier talk with John. He intended that people only leave the safe place when he approved it. This wasn’t just because he enjoyed controlling people, but for practical purposes, which he espoused on the necessity of.

‘Coming and going thoughtlessly is too risky. The whole world out there wants to kill us; just one person spotting a group and following them back could spell the end. From now on, we will only leave when trading or for a purpose, and take measures to ensure we are not followed back when we do.’

To Nicolai’s faint surprise, John accepted this with a wordless nod. The man had undergone some changes, seeming to have made his peace with the new order. He actually appeared determined to do his job, whatever that might be. To Nicolai’s eye, John actually seemed sort of happy to be “second in command.” No longer the one responsible. As was often the case, things were going better than he anticipated. He’d thought John would be angry for much longer. Cyberwarfare reminded him of one of the Governor’s old mottos; if you expected the worst, anything else was a pleasant surprise. He and Threat Analysis issued knowing nods in their shared mental space.

His eyes turned to Jo and Beth. They had been communicating over Local continuously. Due to the high level of their augments, Cyberwarfare struggled to tap into those communications.

Nicolai understood the gist of it, anyway, from the wide eyes Beth was sending his way when she thought he wasn’t looking, the emotions leaking from both of them.

###

‘So,’ said Nicolai. ‘What’s up?’ He stood in Jo and Beth’s room, the pair facing him.

‘Are you a bot?’ said Jo.

Beth let out a little snort, shaking her head. She seemed titillated, not truly convinced. She found the idea too fantastical. That was good. But she was willing to be convinced, he could sense that. She found the idea too interesting to let it go easily; a dog smelling something that might be a juicy bone, if it could just dig through the mud.

Jo, on the other hand, seemed much more convinced. And determined.

Nicolai stared at them. Jo had asked directly. Their Contract, which he’d considered so well thought-out, had just become a problem because of the honesty clause. He wasn’t sure how to navigate this.

His Mask wanted him to be honest, but Nicolai loathed the idea on a fundamental level. Some secrets were too significant, too dangerous, to be shared. This first question: “Are you a bot?” could be answered with a simple no, because currently he was biologically human. But answering no would lead to an obvious follow up question: “Were you a bot?”

Instead of attempting to misdirect without lying, he chose a simpler route. ‘This is not a matter I will be speaking on.’

Jo scoffed. ‘Come on, seriously? No, I think you have to. We need to know.’

‘Why do you need to know? What bearing does any of this have?’

‘If you’re a rogue bot… that could impact our safety. Our survival. Right? You have to be honest and forthcoming if it comes to stuff like that. Contract says so.’

‘That would be if it has a negative effect on our survival. If, as you claim, I am a killbot, then it should only have a positive effect. Killbots are very capable. Wouldn’t you rather have a killbot on your side, than a human?’

Where he’d expected stumped faces in response to his perfect parrying of her words, instead he saw Jo’s eyes widen, and Beth’s mouth drop open.

‘So you are a killbot!’ cried Beth.

He blinked at them. ‘What?’

‘You just said so!’

‘I was talking entirely in hypotheticals,’ he snapped, confused and suddenly disorientated, ‘it was an example.’ He’d been speaking a lot with Threat Analysis and Cyberwarfare earlier, communicating in lightning fast exchanges of code. They would have replied to what he actually said, not interpreted whatever they pleased from his words. It was different, arguing with humans.

They only looked more convinced than ever of what they believed. Nicolai couldn’t help the irritated sigh. ‘I meant—‘ his face screwed up as he throttled the words then smoothed it blank. He was angry, he could feel it. Because he wasn’t sure what to do. What he wanted to do. How to do it. Something bubbling inside of him, sneaky. Little bit of the dark. And the Mask with its own pressures from above, driving into him. Had to maintain control.

‘And there it is again,’ said Beth. ‘Just a little bit, not like when I saw it the other day. That’s something I’d like to talk about. What was all that black ink underneath your skin? Why is it that it feels like there’s something inside of you?’

Nicolai gaped at her. For fuck’s sake. He turned away to hide his face as it twisted, as he fought with the thrashing of the dark and the swelling rage. Why do they have to make everything so complex?

He reached for words and found some, remembering his practised speech. ‘Do you remember what I said? About how I’m trying to build a house. And you’re all rattling at the foundations? Well. This is that. So… stop it.’ The words didn’t have quite the punchiness they had earlier, and he was aware he wasn’t saying them quite right. Hadn’t been mentally prepared for this. His Mask wasn’t helping.

‘It was a nice speech,’ said Beth, smiling. ‘I didn’t buy it. Come on. Spill.’ Her eyebrows bounced up and down.

The little bitch was grinning, like she was having fun, like she enjoyed trying to pry all his secrets out.

‘Why do you think you have any right to know anything about me? Here are the facts: I am in control of myself—‘ A red light pulsed around him. His Mark flared and he felt his Contract within it, a sudden pressure. A threat.

He breathed out slow. I am in control of myself. Wasn’t he?

The Contract was not convinced.

‘I know what I am doing…’ he continued, hesitant.

His Mark was a hot little coal of pain digging into his hand.

Nicolai laughed. The girls stared at him. His teeth grit. ‘Why do you have to press me so?’ he snarled at them, at the Mask. ‘What right do you have to know anything of me?’

Jo’s eyes narrowed into slits. ‘You talk to us of right? What right did you have to follow me in here, then strongarm us into a Contract as your slaves?’

‘You’re not slaves,’ he hissed back at her. ‘I was very clear on that. We’re partners.’

Jo threw her hands up. ‘Is this how you treat partners? Telling them nothing? Explain this!’ She threw a Link communication at him.

It was in modified military binary, and he recognised it because he’d sent it himself, when he’d been in that… altered state.

It was a long series of ones-and-zeroes, which, when translated literally, said: ‘Disarm immediately and provide sitrep.’

The dark pulsed. The Mask flexed. ‘This conversation,’ he snarled, ‘is over.’ He turned, opened the door, stepped out, and closed it gently behind him. His movements were carefully controlled. Calm and in control, he told them all.

Except he wasn’t, was he? The Contract didn’t think so. He barely saw the room around him. Old Ben was in the corner, tinkering away, work, work, work. That was good. Useful. His Mask was speaking. The shadows were stretching, reaching towards him, and he felt an abyss opening up within, a killing rage rising. Threat Analysis was pinging him with endless warnings.

Old Ben had looked up and was saying something to him, and Nicolai stared blankly back. What had he said to the old man, earlier? That thing about having to make difficult decisions.

The Mask, Threat Analysis and Cyberwarfare were fighting hard against the rise of the dark, but they were struggling because he wasn’t there, wasn’t helping, didn’t have the energy.

The air was suddenly frigid, his breath a puff of condensation. His Mask was struggling, weak. It was his best tool against the dark but it needed help, needed reinforcement. Threat Analysis told him he had to do something, had to aid the floundering Mask Module, and at last he moved, he joined them. But it was too little and too late and he felt himself cracking. That was when the Mask spoke, and told him what he could do, how he could give strength. By being human.

Nicolai turned and opened the door and fled from the shadows, back into the room, closing the door. He stared at them and them at him. The shadows hovered, waiting, and the cold dug into his body.

He looked to the girls’ surprised, wary, angry faces. Somehow, if his Mask was to be believed, the only route for him here was to do that which he least wanted to do. That, it told him, would give it the strength to fight back against the dark, to ensure he maintained control. And that, that was most important. Sacrifices had to be made.

What do you think? he asked the Modules, delaying the moment. He knew how they’d answer.

It is a risk, but in light of the Dark Module, a necessary one, Threat Analysis said.

By the time we take on GRECKON we’ll be strong enough that even if they know we’re coming, it won’t matter, added Cyberwarfare. It seemed quite excited about the idea of waging war on the Company that had created it. Nicolai’s wasn’t surprised by this. The Module was like the thrill. It wanted to rise to meet and overcome any challenge.

He would give the girls as little as possible. But he had to give them something. The Mask was sure that if he didn’t, this issue would become a divide between them. Something that could have a severe impact on his ability to make use of them. It convinced him that sometimes, the best way to win people over, to make them do what he wanted… was to be honest. The Mask also seemed to require this… moment. The admittance. The being human. Just the thought of telling them had given it strength, and now with its aid he held the dark at bay, recovering himself.

‘Do you know what a Human Resources Module is?’ The shadows, which had been shifting gently, grew still with his words as his Mask firmed.

They frowned, exchanging glances. Beth spoke. ‘Isn’t that something some bots have? It’s like, a bit of a human. A human brain. They use it, uh.’ She chewed her lip, looking like she was remembering stuff learned in schooling. ‘Use it to reduce resource load.’ She shivered suddenly, clutching at herself. ‘It got cold in here, didn’t it?’

‘That’s right,’ said Jo, thoughtful. ‘Some very sophisticated bots have them, or they used to. It’s gone out of fashion, these days. Those bots were considered less reliable.’

‘That was me. The Human Resources Module. When Heaven arrived, I was given an opportunity to come here, restored to a human body.’ He’d been deeply worried that the Contract might react to this, and couldn’t help but let out a relieved sigh when it didn’t. The worrying sense of falseness that lay behind his memories remained with him, unwilling to fade as the more material events in the painting had. But they were enough, and the Contract had accepted his words as truth.

He found that reassuring. In fact, the admission, the Contract’s lack of reaction, and his Mask’s contagious bliss made him feel quite odd. A strange sensation that came not just from his Mask but all of him. He felt light on his feet. He felt like laughing. The hole had closed up tight. The cage was firm and solid, the dark back inside, and the cold gone from the air.

‘So you weren’t a bot, not exactly,’ said Jo, nodding, accepting his words. ‘You were human, but stuck in a bot.’ She let out a relieved sigh. Nicolai guessed she’d been concerned he was a rogue killbot, a general human fear exacerbated by a great deal of media featuring them as villains. In his opinion, that was a needless worry.

Humans had always felt a sense of wariness towards AI, even as they mastered them and used them as tools. If they’d been able to communicate directly with AI’s as Nicolai had, been privy to the internal, secret conversations between bots, they wouldn’t have been. AI’s did not hate, they did not rage, they did not fear. The one thing they did feel, in their own way, was a generalised love for humanity. Humans had worked hard to code this in, but were never entirely convinced they’d done it right. Nicolai, however, knew they’d done a thorough job.

A real rogue killbot would most likely have been significantly friendlier than he ever would. What they ought to be worried about was a killbot that wasn’t rogue, but instead following directives given by a human. If that directive required it to kill everyone here, it would do so. It wouldn’t feel bad about this. It wouldn’t feel anything. It would just be doing its job.

‘And now, properly human,’ continued Jo, in a thoughtful tone. She let out a sigh. ‘That explains how you’re so good with augments, and hacking. I guess it’s child’s play after what you’re used to.’ She snorted and shook her head. ‘It was amazing how you took that drone from me. Never felt a human do something like that. Useful skill.’

Nicolai kept his face carefully blank, while Cyberwarfare purred, well pleased. No human could do that, it murmured smugly. Only me.

Taking that drone gave her one of the main clues that led to this moment, Threat Analysis reminded the other Module

Cyberwarfare gave the AI equivalent of a shrug, emanating a sense of what’s done is done.

‘Explains why you’re so weird, too,’ added Beth. ‘Wow. I’ve never met someone who was stuck in a bot.’

‘I imagine you’re not alone in that,’ muttered Nicolai, struggling to keep the frown his Mask was reflexively trying to draw his face into as it obsessed on her other words. What did she mean by weird? What was it he did that was weird? How did he stop being weird? Nicolai observed these thoughts incredulously, one-hundred percent sure they were a waste of time. Meanwhile Threat Analysis and Cyberwarfare were curious, feeling at the emotions the Mask generated.

‘What was it like?’ continued Beth. ‘Was that bot in the painting the one you were in? It was fucking huge. Looked like a real heavy hitter.’

He stared at her, trying to ignore the Mask. I was the purest, most perfect peak of combat potential. ‘I was a slave.’

‘You must have some stories,’ she added, eyes round with curiosity. ‘Bots like that do serious shit. What company owned it?’

Nicolai had no intention of answering that. He hoped she wouldn’t recall the question about whether anyone had worked for GRECKON he’d asked after emerging. It seemed for now that had slipped her by, her curiosity pushing more questions from her lips before his silence grew telling.

‘So, is that why you have… the other stuff, that I felt with Soul Sense?’ she continued, frowning now. ‘Is it like an echo or something?’

This was going better than he’d expected. Their manner had shifted. They were… warmer. More relaxed. His Mask, already having noted this and recovered from its spiralling, was positively glowing, strong and whole, and he smiled with it.

‘I guess it is like an echo,’ he said carefully, wary of the Contract. It showed no reaction.

This secret stays with me. They could accept that he’d been a Human Resources Module, that admission wasn’t too bad. But as to the dark, and his other uncertainties… No. If they knew the extent of his problems, they would never trust him.

‘Obviously this matter stays entirely between us,’ he continued, watching them.

The pair exchanged glances then nodded back. ‘Your secret is safe with us,’ said Jo. She smiled at him.

‘We’re partners,’ added Beth, nodding.

Nicolai nodded back.