It had been a month since the last time. One emotion dominated her more than anything, stronger than stress or any longing: a simple reluctance to begin their final Dive.
Echika tapped her heels against the floor a few times, trying to relax the nervous stiffness that gripped her. She kept eyes to the floor, trying not to look at Harold opposite her. His leather shoes reflected the lamplight. She absentmindedly counted the small scratches on their surface.
She had to do it now, before her emotions melted over and shattered the glass bottle. She had but one task to accomplish here.
Echika carefully closed her eyes, letting the serene darkness of her eyelids wash over her every thought.
There’s nothing to worry about. Just keep looking forward and let it all flow past you. All information, all emotion, everything. Just like you did every time until now.
She breathed in, feeling her lungs expand. Her lips, so stiff they felt glued together, finally parted.
“Begin.”
Echika was pulled in, overcome by the sensation of something gripping her brain. Suddenly, pieces of countless Mnemosynes rushed at her like a violent blizzard. Instead of being greeted by a serene sea of electrons, she had been plunged into the tall waves of a raging storm.
Muddled Mnemosynes.
Just as she suspected, Greg had received the same protection as Talbot. The stratum she was in was already shattered, with no concepts of up or down. The only thing she saw and felt was a vast deluge of information that rushed at her brain, like it had been lying in wait, expecting her to intrude. Pain burned and overflowed.
This is all just an illusion. Shake it off.
She reached into the whirlpool of nondescript data.
“—that were involved with the murder of six investors… Is everything I just stated correct?”
“…Threaten me all you want, I won’t talk.”
Her fingertips brushed against his surface Mnemosynes. But no, this wasn’t what she wanted.
Focus.
Her skin was hot. It felt like she’d been enveloped in flame. The vast rush of data was overwriting her thoughts, bumping against her extended hand and shattering, piece by piece. How many thousands of people did this data include?
Don’t let this flow carry you away.
She forced herself to hold her breath. Faster, she needed to sift through this faster, to find only the relevant bits of information. The unnecessary Mnemosynes dispersed, slightly clearing up her field of vision, but in doing so, this made her feel as though a heavy weight was pressing down on her. Echika managed to blink, but she still couldn’t see what she needed.
More. Strain your eyes.
She stretched her body as hard as she could, feeling like she was about to tear in half. Her forehead hurt so much, it seemed on the verge of splitting. But she had to bear it. She couldn’t stop now, nor did she want to.
Not yet.
But then, the thunderous whirlpool of data weakened. Echika opened her eyes wide and looked around. The Mnemosynes rushing by her suddenly slowed. Or maybe she herself had sped up and was going too fast for them? She couldn’t tell. It didn’t matter.
But she could see.
All obstructions subsided, and Greg’s Mnemosynes alone floated before her.
“I can’t believe they’re threatening me to get me to obey.” She felt his fear, his pulse thumping. A tablet shone in the dark, displaying the hornet’s schematics. “So they took in Jacob to effectively hold him hostage.”
Jacob—that was Investigator Gardener’s first name.
“It’s not my fault if the investors start dying. I have to do this. My son’s life is on the line.”
His field of vision shook, and noise ran through the Mnemosynes. Echika felt the weakened storm once again intensify.
Not yet. I haven’t gotten any real information. Who’s involved with the Alliance? I have to expose them.
But her body already felt like it was on the verge of being crushed. Echika desperately hardened her focus, but she couldn’t quite manage it.
She was out of control. Countless voices bashed against her.
“Dad, they appointed me as head of the Special Investigations Unit today.”
“You know what happens to your son if you don’t obey?”
“If you’re that afraid of being arrested, Greg, I can put the bulwark on you, too.”
“If you could supply the British Army with drones, then surely you can help us, yes?”
“No one will ever know. The coroners are all in our pocket already.”
“Seeing as you align with our ideals, you’ll help out with the purge, yes?”
“We can’t let Totoki and her people get their hands on evidence of the system.”
It was hard to tell one burned-out thought from the other. Echika tried to tighten her focus again and picked up only on Greg’s Mnemosynes. The storm was gradually growing stronger again. Echika held her breath once more. Her field of vision swam and wavered.
Still—this might be my last Brain Dive with Harold. I can’t go back empty-handed.
She forced down a Mnemosyne and grabbed it. Greg was inside his Volvo—the memory was from this afternoon. Through the windows, he could see Birmingham’s scenery drifting by. When Greg saw his son’s message, he hurried back to Robin Flutter’s offices.
“They didn’t enter the study, did they?”
“It’s fine so long as they don’t discover the blueprints.”
Greg’s heart thumped with panic as he glanced at a tablet—he wasn’t using his Your Forma for this, so as to not leave a record in its history. The monitor displayed a single message, the date of an online meeting. It included a data matrix that contained a link to download the meeting app, as well as an access password and a line of English text.
“If something happens, I won’t be able to talk my way out of this.”
“Their intentions are just too fearsome.”
“I have to keep Jacob safe, at least him…”
Her hazy consciousness instantly cleared up from alarm.
Are these details for an Alliance member meeting?
Echika turned to look at the Mnemosynes sailing past. She just barely managed to glimpse the date and time written on the message. And then, like a dam had broken, the flood of data rushed at her again. She couldn’t maintain control anymore. Like a leaf blown in the wind, Echika was carried away. Her thoughts were shaken to their core, and she lost track of her identity.
And then everything vanished like it had been smashed against the rocks.
Echika barely opened her eyes, feeling a light impact against her back. She could hardly see—her vision was hazy, as though droplets of water were dripping from her eyes. She felt sick to her stomach, and her head felt like someone had stirred its contents with a spoon.
Things gradually came into focus, and she realized she was back in the sitting room. Totoki peered into her eyes, and Harold was in front of her. Totoki was saying something, but Echika couldn’t hear it through the ringing in her ears. However—
“…It’s, tonight.” Echika slurred out the words. “At ten PM. An Alliance meeting. The password should be…in Aide Lucraft’s…memory—”
Unbearable exhaustion and fatigue overcame her. Unwilling and incapable of resisting, Echika let her consciousness slip.