act19side

Here, the data you asked for.

Thanks, Ferdinand. I didn't think you'd hand it over personally.

We were able to retrieve most of the Loken Watertank data thanks to you. The fewer that know about this, the better.

And I'm curious as to why you wanted these data.

She gazes at the monitor in front of her, so focused that even her breathing slows down.

A video of a girl with white hair is playing.

The girl spends most of her time sleeping, eating, or sitting in a corner with a blank look on her face.

From time to time, she is led into a lab, where she crushes furniture placed in a room separated by a 1-meter thick wall.

What a beautiful child.

You remind me of Loken Williams. I thought only madmen boast about their test subjects.

Sure, he's been accused of crossing a moral line.

Morals are shackles that the short-sighted impose upon themselves.

Science has never been bound by common sense. There is no greater insult to a scientist than to be judged by moral standards.

Williams's problem was that he allowed the infinite unknown to get the better of his sanity, and he abandoned the logic and reason a scientist must grip.

See at the end of the video how your 'beautiful child' turned the lab into a nightmarish catastrophe.

The monitor is showing a different image.

There is no recorded sound, but the screams seem to pierce the screen and fill a lab from another time.

The fallen debris does not hide the bloodstains.

What happened to the girl?

Records pertaining to her have been tampered with. Like the other legacies of Loken Watertank, she has value to somebody, somewhere.

I want to find her.

May I assume you're considering ending Williams's experiments?

She is too difficult to control. A risk Rhine Lab cannot afford.

She didn't volunteer to be a test subject. I can't ask something so cruel of her.

You want to heal her?

We're not doctors, but anyone whose seen the experiments in their entirety should not harbor such delusions.

No, Ferdinand.

All I want to do is find her... and give her a hug.

A... a hug?

The girl... she's all alone.

They took her family from her, and made her something entirely different from all other people.

I can't help but think... where is she now?

Has she made new friends? Or new enemies?

I want to hear her voice...

I can't change her past, but the future may not be lost yet.

You know, Dorothy... I really have no idea what you're thinking at times.

Not many scientists are as sentimental as you are. You're not bound by logic or reason either. Perhaps, one day, your madness will put Williams's to shame...

Madness? I've seen this in my dreams, many times.

That's why I want to find the girl.

If she's still alive... if anyone can save her from her past...

Then maybe someone will be there to stop me, if I really do go over the edge.

...It's me.

You were right. The cop chose to help the Pioneers. And Elena Urbica turned on Director Clooney.

A sigh leaks out of the communicator.

What a shame.

Ferdinand has lost.

Why do you say that? Sure, I couldn't stop them, but there aren't too many.

I just happened to see your old boss returning to Rhine Lab headquarters.

Director Saria?!

Gah...

Settle down. You've taken quite a beating, yes? From whom? The cop? I believe you said she's like Saria in some ways?

There's nobody quite like her.

I... I just don't understand.

Why would she do that? All the hard work she put in... Rhine Lab meant more to her than health or fame.

I wanted to follow in her footsteps and defend Rhine. Why would she betray us?

Did she...? Or did we let her down?

What do you—

Ah, the follies of youth.

The young seek out those they think are of like mind, but true understanding only comes with time.

They may argue incessantly now, but there was a time when they treated each other with sincerity, more or less.

Director Parvis... do I hear music?

Ah, have you not heard this tune before?

Oh, that's right, you joined after Rhine Lab's first New Year's party.

We didn't have our own building back then.

Kristen rented half the floor of an office building next to the Trimounts Institute of Technology, and shared an old apartment with Saria nearby.

Ferdinand talked about bringing in funding for us, but once he left his old job, his former associates stopped answering his mail.

I was still at my old lab, and only went back to Trimounts a couple of times per month.

On New Year's Eve, I got a message from Muelsyse ordering me to attend the party.

It snowed heavily that night, and the roads back from Max D.C. were packed. I didn't want to go to all that effort, but Muelsyse didn't give me a choice.

She said she would soak my pillow in icy water if I didn't get back on time.

I stepped into the office, just before the clock struck twelve.

Then I heard the song.

It was a dreadful song.

As a Leithanian, I have never understood, to this day, how Muelsyse, an authority on Originium Arts, could have such vulgar taste in music.

But the others didn't seem bothered. Ferdinand asked Saria to dance with him, and she said yes. Could you believe it?

As for Kristen... she watched from the sides. That night, she spent more time looking at the people in the room than outside the window.

Those days... I can hardly remember them now.

How did that song go?

Sigh...

I suppose I really am getting old.

Director Parvis?

Are... are you asleep?

There is no response from the communicator.

The tune keeps playing, looping over and over again.

He does not know if the old Caprinae is still sitting by the communicator.

All he knows is that when he returns to Rhine Lab headquarters at dawn, he will see Parvis standing at his usual spot, a teacup in his hands, watching young faces come and go below with a smile on his face.

3:56 P.M. \ Overcast

Main District of Trimounts

This is the third time you've paged through Ptilopsis's personal log, Doctor.

Any new discoveries?

Ptilopsis keeps some detail-rich records.;Pioneer Team leader had a good education.;Elena's coffee ought to be pretty good.

Ptilopsis has a kind of special chip implanted in her brain.

'Device #9'—Mayer calls it. Guessing that's Rhine Lab's internal codename for that tech.

It's plugged up there directly into her nervous system. Functions as a regular part of her mind, and logs data on neural activity in each region and lobe all the while.

Which means you've just been looking at every last thing Ptilopsis's visual processors—her own two eyes—have been seeing.

Columbia's Pioneer Team members come from all backgrounds.

Youth dissatisfied with their lives, middle-aged couples drowning in debt, petty criminals who don't want to end up behind bars—

And of course, Infected powerless to cough up exorbitant insurance, who don't resign themselves to being shut away in quarantine zones for 'treatment.'

I'm more interested in the agrypnotic Franks has been using, personally.

I love a drink after work as much as the next, but all that fluid intake on the job's bound to cut up your train of thought.