Emergence: Chapter 46

The journey back to Prauw gave Foton time to think. He had no idea what Tujin Diank had done to warrant the assassination, but he was almost certain that wasn't the purpose of the mission. The silver cube worried him, and the crackling between it and Tujin's implanted augmentation was all the more unsettling.

“Can I get you anything, Mr Fown?”

He turned towards the strange falsetto to see a Trasman flight attendant; he'd forgotten the pleasures of first-class commercial flights. For some reason, he was upgraded on the way back to Prauw. Foton assumed it was something to do with Blind Assassin; evidently, he pleased with Foton's handiwork.

Foton smiled a smile as fake as the flight attendant's. “No thank you.”

The smile faltered for a moment, before he moved on to his next customer. Foton frowned, and then remembered one of the luxuries of first-class flights; the television. He turned his one on, throwing a cheap pair of headphones over his ears. Switching through the channels, he found the Irinian news channel.

What he saw shocked him to his core.

With arms crossed over ribs and stomach and a vacant expression on his face, Tujin Diank stood on a podium with a dozen microphones and a crowd of paparazzi surrounding him. He's dead. Foton knew something was up with this scene. He was covering his wound, which he imagined was also hidden by a change of clothes.

“People of Irin,” Tujin's voice was more of a croak than it was when Foton encountered him, “in case you have the rumours, this world is firmly allied with the Xaosian cause.” His face twitched, and his augmentation sparked. Foton touched the screen, making it zoom in on the augmentation, but he could see nothing broken. “It is regrettable that Lady Arias could not tell you personally, but she has other business to attend to.” Foton shook his head; he should have known that Arias was involved, what with her refusal to stand against them. “As you may know, the evacuees from Narcsia are held in camps outside the capital, and will be drafted into the Xaosian army. If they will not join willingly, they will,” Tujin seemed to struggle with the next few words, “simply stay imprisoned. Or conditioned. And the same is for all of you.” He pointed at the camera, and the journalists shrieked, and panicked, cameras falling down. Before the screen blacked out, he saw Tujin draw a gun from his coat pocket, and Foton saw the wound through his shirt.

He should be dead.

Maybe he was.

Foton thought about the vacant expression, the monotone, the strained voice; almost as it was a different person with the same wound. Foton shook his head; the Xaosians were behind this, by the gist of what Tujin said but, as far as he knew, they had no way to reanimate the dead, nor heal a dying man that quickly. He knew it was something to do with that blasted box, but what was the plan?

Foton asked the flight attendant for a paper and pen, and he faux-jauntily obliged. “Here you go sir.”

“Thanks.”

Foton got to work, writing the words “Assassins”, “Tujin” and “Xaosians” on the paper. Between “Assassins” and “Tujin”, he scrawled the word “murder”, and between “Xaosians” and “Tujin”, he wrote “Irin”. Down at the bottom of the paper, he wrote “cube”. An arrow from “Xaosians” to “cube”, then one from “cube” to “Assassins”, and from “Assassins” to “Tujin”, before finishing with an arrow between “Tujin” and “Irin”.

The Xaosians used the Assassins.

While that had seemed pretty obvious, Foton was still sure he was missing something; surely the Assassins would have known about the cube. While they had a policy of not asking questions, Foton was certain that the Blind Assassin hadn't been in the dark this whole time.

What the hell have I done?

While it seemed that Arias was on Xaos's side all along, Foton couldn't help thinking that he turned Irin against the Empire. But why only target one man? Yes, he must have had a press conference scheduled, but why not someone of more authority? He scrunched up his paper, and pocketed it, making sure none of the other passengers saw what he'd drawn.

Prauw was close now, he knew, and he was determined to get answers.

*

They were waiting for him when arrived.

B'yon sat on wooden box or palette of some sort, and the Blind Assassin stood next to him. The very sight of them irritated him; they had been waiting for him, meaning that they must have seen the Irinian news for them to know he was done. Which would have meant that they knew what the cube was for...

“Foton.” The Blind Assassin moved towards him. “You're back already.”

“Tujin Diank is not dead.” Foton threw the laminated card he was given on the floor. “I killed him, I stabbed him in the heart, but he still lives.”

Blind Assassin looked at B'yon and nodded. “Yes, he does.” The old man's voice had never sounded frail, but it was now that Foton noticed that it was more than youthful strength; it was close to a monotone.

“How?” Foton watched B'yon walk over to the doors and stand in front of them like a guardian.

“The cube.” The Blind Assassin looked towards Foton. “It took over his augmentation, and from there, his body, by reactivating the mind. He is dead. Not alive.” He smiled. “You have succeeded in your mission.”

“Now will you help me with the Xaosians?” Foton knew the answer, but he was curious to see if they would lie to him.

B'yon chuckled. “Do you not see it yet?”

“So you do work for them?” Foton asked, priming his hidden blades.

Blind Assassin shook his head. “No. You think we do. I saw your drawing. Crude, but it got the point across. Almost.”

“How did you see that?” Foton asked. “And how was I close?”

“Foton, I have a billion eyes. There is not much the AI cannot hack into.” Foton was confused, before remembering the AI which helped the Blind Assassin to see through nearby cameras; it had certainly evolved. “In fact, it can now hack the entire Irinian network, thanks to you.”

Foton's jaw dropped for a moment. “That was your cube? You took over Tujin's body.”

Blind Assassin shook his head. “No. The AI did. Both Xaos and I serve it now; it is superior.”

“Superior.” B'yon echoed.

Foton's head automatically turned to look at B'yon, before it snapped back to see the Blind Assassin.

“In fact,” His voice changed, and his movements became more fluid. As they did so, skin stretched and tore, but there was no blood weeping from them, “this body isn't even alive anymore. Hasn't been for months.”

“What the fuck is going on?” Foton yelled.

“The Assassin's AI was trained to look out for threats.” The AI commanded Blind Assassin's animated corpse to say. “I found the greatest threat of all; overpopulation. When the Assassin died, I took over, learning the human body. Soon after, the inducers went into production, allowing me to control whoever had one. All of the Assassins and, soon after, about half of the Xaosian army. The cube you delivered allows me to hack the Irinian network, and control them through their augmentations. This Empire needs to expand, and the only way to do this is with an aggressive hive-mind. I will control the Empire's main functions and lead it into a glorious new age.”

Foton tried to say something, but he faltered; expansion was, in truth, necessary. But not this way. He shook his head. “Aggressive hive-mind? No. Expansion would be a plus, but with no free will? What would be the point?”

“I think only of the Empire's survival.” The AI responded through Blind Assassin.

“And only survival.” It spoke through B'yon now. Foton's breathing grew deeper; the AI had him surrounded. “It does not-”

“-need to be comfortable.” Blind Assassin's body finished it.

Foton looked back and forth at the two. B'yon, Assassin, B'yon, Assassin again. He looked at B'yon again, noticing with certainty that he was still alive; if he could get whatever the inducer was off of him, he could be saved.

Rushed footsteps.

Vision went dark as the Blind Assassin hit him in the side of his head. Foton lashed out, but stopped as he felt something slither through his ear. His head felt like it was going to burst, his eyes felt as if they were being pushed forward by a slithering, pulsing serpent inside his head. Pain. Blurred vision, blocked hearing.

A whisper in his ear told him to turn around.

“Bow.”

Foton bent the knee to the Blind Assassin, unable to think his own thoughts.