The Siren's Code

Know Unknowns

Now hovering back by the slightly open door of the pig pen they were still grilling Cassie, feeling his blood pressure rise prompting the amorphous sensation of anger, he was getting more familiar with these leaks but they weren't helpful.

He took a different path back to the MAT tent, the Mess area would be getting busy and he didn't want to get caught up in it, but it surprised him to see Matthew and Terrance cleaned up and in white coats – Matthew a very different picture from the man he had helped to the bird only a few hours earlier – standing while Terrence closed the door, they were having a conversation that Jay listened in to.

"God I'm hungry, it would have been nice to have been allowed breakfast before we filed the report but at least it's done, I don't believe there is any active Qualia manufacture taking place there, do you?"

"No, it was high tech alright, head gear, brain scanners, low level Augs and the usual RecS, even some old school fentanyl."

"I understand why these processing plants used to exist for cocaine when it was grown widely in the area, but why risk trafficking something across borders if you don't need to."

"The only thing I'm slightly concerned about were the cells on the far side. By the time I got close enough, they were empty but there were definitely some prisoners there."

"That's what worries me, what if their tech lab is in Mexico City, there were a few goons with Aug receptors, and obviously enhanced but I had expected to see some test subjects like ours."

"The Vacants? You heard the man, Fernandes, he hadn't told anyone about his find."

"Hence you sticking a knife surgically into him."

"Yes, I was quite pleased with that but surprised to see the man himself, strange seeing a live specimen as it were, especially in that situation."

"I thought we were informed he wasn't going to be there, but anyway he was way more grounded than the test subjects we've been monitoring but not as agile as his stats."

"No, something was off... well we can analyse his EEG output as soon as we are back in blighty, this camp's being decommissioned... as of now it looks like." They turned and headed towards breakfast as a few removal trucks pulled up.

Jay, stood for a moment processing what he had heard, his team were used to being employed on a need to know basis, no questions asked but not where this jeopardise the safety of his men and nothing about this mission from start to finish seemed to be making sense, least of all their reference to him, and more worryingly the Vacants, a word he recalled from one of the articles Bear had sent him a while ago.

The knowledge that he wasn't firing on all cylinders he knew was common knowledge to them, why he had failed his Psych report for the mission, they monitored him constantly so he shouldn't be surprised, but he needed to know how much Seven knew.

Making a physical effort to shut off the noise in his head, he watched as the Sappers arrived in their Army removal trucks, the regiment were nothing if not efficient in their combat support, and as British Army soldiers his uniform was not far off theirs. He felt for his smart glasses still in his cargo pocket putting them on as he walked in. His vision adjusted to the change in light and he headed to the main terminal, acting like he was packing it up he sourced a USB cable and jacked in uploading the apps Bear had sent him.

"You getting this," he said under his breath.

"Loud and clear," Bear responded as he gave instructions to fire up Cain, the graphical interface mimicking the 'ceaseless wandering' of Cain as it probed the hidden corners of the machine to recover password access.