It might have been only a matter of time before he was caught. But he still wanted to know. The closer he got, the more he wanted it. If there was something he didn’t know, he had to know.
Indeed, this was a Type S’s fate. The commander was right in saying that, and continuing to supervise him. Even her order to assassinate him might’ve been justified.
The next memory was of yet another room of the Bunker. This time it captured the commander from the front, rather than the back.
“Type S’s are unsuited for battle. I doubt I’ll have trouble dealing with him.”
“They are unsuited for close combat, but it’s not like they can’t fight. And Type S’s are sharp. There’s a high possibility that he’s already aware that Command has sent someone to supervise him.”
“It doesn’t seem that he’s aware …”
“You aren’t suited for observation. Just like how Type S’s are unsuited for battle.”
The commander was also correct here. 2B hadn’t realized that 9S knew about her real role.
At first, he thought 2B was just pretending not to have realized. But that doubt soon escaped him. 2B was not that shrewd. In fact, she was quite inept. The glimpses of kindness and concern—maybe 2B thought she was hiding them well, but they were easy for a Type S to discern.
“Either way, if we attack him, 9S will undoubtedly counterattack. Using hacking, which is a Type S’s specialty.”
How sharp. 9S wanted to applaud her. The commander’s prediction had come precisely true.
Now he had half of his answers. 2B needed to kill him because he knew too much. Now, where could he find the other half?
“Let 9S go ahead and activate my weaponry then. I’ll try to ambush him when we run into each other.”
A random memory shard interrupted the conversation between the commander and 2B.
“If it’s over quickly …”
This was clearly an older memory compared to the conversation. 2B had been thinking of how to kill 9S long before the order came to do so.
“Don’t let 9S realize what happened to him … That way, I’ll spare him some fear and pain.”
Now he had all the answers. I see, he thought, as the random memory disappeared.
“Even you, a close-combat specialist, would not stand a chance if 9S hacked and took control of your chassis. That’s why.”
What? What did she make 2B do? The ambush was not an order from the commander. What did the commander make her do?
“I want you to set a trap in the hacking dimension.”
He felt uneasy. Suddenly, black walls appeared in the previously white hacking dimension. Orange and purple balls of light chased 9S as he turned. It was a trap-style logic virus.
They could effectively attack 9S’s personal data if they set up some viruses in the memory block. However, the virus would affect 2B as well. 9S hadn’t expected them to go this far.
“Shit! I underestimated them!”
It had been more of a desire for 9S, not a prediction. The commander had mercilessly chosen to put 2B in danger.
He needed to escape before his personal data was infected.
“But logic virus attacks might not be enough. That’s why we’re going to set one more trap.”
Where was the escape route?! He had made sure there was a way out?!
“We’ll block everything off, and trap him in the logic circuit.”
All of a sudden he couldn’t move. Spheres kept multiplying within the dimension. It was a firewall created by a self-shutdown algorithm.
“Pod! Create a new escape route!”
But Pod did not reply. Not only had the logic virus attacked 9S’s personal data, it had also cut off any communication with the outside world.
His escape route was gone. In a few seconds his current personal data would be purged and cease to exist. 9S looked on as the white hacking dimension’s environment became a sea of black.
“I guess it’s over …”
2B had received the assassination order at the desert access point. Since then, she’d had countless chances to assassinate 9S. The desert, which had no places to hide and bad footing, put 2B at an advantage. But 2B didn’t make her move until they were inside the temple. Looking inside her memories, he understood why. 2B was very adept after all.
It was to end it as quickly as possible, so 9S could die without realizing what had happened.
The spheres filled in his surroundings. But he strangely felt at peace. He didn’t feel fear or pain.
“Bye, 2B.”
Then, darkness overtook him.
Control of her body came back just as fast as it had been taken from her.
“Self-shutdown activated. Logic circuit blocked off. Quarantined.”
After blinking a few times to check for control of her body, she slowly sat up. There were no problems with her motor capabilities either.
“ … Delete.”
She hadn’t felt anything, not even a slight pain, like the prick of a needle. She just knew that the command had been executed.
She looked down at her side, at the chassis of 9S. While his black box response was still active, deleting his personal data had left his chassis nonfunctional.
It would have been fine had she finished him off in combat; even if she failed to do so the rigged logic virus would attack his personal data. Even if 9S succeeded in eliminating the logic virus, the self-shutdown sequence would trap him in the logic circuit. Then the whole circuit could be disposed of. The whole ploy had been constructed by the commander.
9S had thought two steps ahead by hacking 2B after close combat, but the commander had thought three steps ahead. It was her win.
2B held her sword with a backhand grip, and swung once.
“Head destroyed.”
She felt a strange sensation in her arm. She had never experienced this before. Even though this wasn’t the first time she had killed a comrade, she had never felt something like this when she had “relieved” her comrades on the battlefield countless times before. Was her assassination not thorough enough?
“Chest destroyed.”
She thrust her sword one more time. This was strange. The sensation was spreading. At first it had only affected her arm. Now the pressure had spread to her whole upper body. She wasn’t being physically suppressed. But it was hard for her to breathe.
“Black box response confirmed to be unresponsive.”
She had completely destroyed the chassis. His personal data was erased as well. 9S was dead. Her task was complete. But she felt like she had missed something. A nagging feeling of helplessness. Perhaps her breathing mechanism was experiencing some sort of issue.
“Bye 2B.”
She replayed 9S’s parting words in her head. His last words, stored in her memories. She realized what had been bothering her, what had been nagging at her in the back of her mind.
“I see. So this is …”
It was an emotion called guilt. Or perhaps self-condemnation. Either way, emotions were prohibited.
Something resurfaced when she tried to kill her emotions. They were memories of 9S.
“2B,” he called. “It’s exciting to operate alongside someone else,” She remembered the bashful smile as he had told her that. What mission was that, when he sounded irritated and had said, “2B, you can be surprisingly careless sometimes …”
She felt a lump in the back of her throat. She felt her chest tighten like she was being strangled. She just kept gritting her teeth. She understood for the first time what it felt like for the living to be tormented by memories of the dead.
This was her fault. She had accumulated more memories than was necessary …
“Bye, 2B.”
Again. The same voice, again.
She vigorously shook her head and brushed away 9S’s thoughts.
“I won’t apologize.”
It was a mission. She had no guilt. Never. If she got the same order, she would do it again.
That’s my job, she told herself, and raised her head.
“Pod, a transmission to Command.”
“Roger.”
Pod brought up the transmission display.
She was going to do the same thing again, that was for sure. But the next time she was going to keep unnecessary interactions to a minimum.
She was going to minimize their time spent together, and their conversations, so she wouldn’t accumulate unnecessary memories. So she wouldn’t have any prohibited emotions.
“This is Command.”
She took a deep breath one more time, and exhaled, clearing her chest of all the pain.
“This is 2B. The mission is complete.”
Traces of something like grains of sand were sprinkled in her otherwise indifferent tone.