Stairway to Somewhere

Miguel's Visit

"Why-"

"Why you?!" Frederick cut him off, sounding irritated. "Why you, huh? Well let's go down the list. She was slash is your client. She escaped from your office. And you destroyed a very very expensive machine, enabling her escape. They have the footage. The have the data from both the automaton you destroyed and the version of her you left in local."

Lloyd looked at the gun, and looked at Frederick, who was sweating.
"This is insane, what if I-"

"Say no?" Frederick interjected, turning away from him to look through the peephole.

"What if you don't do it?" He continued, slowly turning around.
"Those automatons outside aren't for my protection. They're for Manifest Digital's protection. If you don't tie up loose ends, they will."

Lloyd backed up until he felt his couch behind him, then quickly slumped down.

"They really want me to kill Phoebe." Lloyd said quietly, almost to himself.

"Yeah," Frederick replied bluntly, getting on his knees to check out the black box and Lloyd's computer.

"Can't have her running around screaming about duplicates. People wouldn't understand."

"Oh and you do?" Lloyd snapped, nearly ready to chuck the gun at Frederick's head.

"As a matter of fact, yes. I had an impromptu meeting after today's accident. Against my will, I might add." Frederick glanced up from the computer to see Lloyd's face, but he still looked angry.

"The digital self and the living self are one and the same, until they branch off. And branching off means the digital self-experiencing things the living self can't, or usually wouldn't, due to the current state of the world. Do you have some water?"

Lloyd pointed to the kitchen and watched as he went to go get it. Then, when Frederick was out of sight, he ran to the peephole. The automatons hadn't moved a single inch. These weren't human operated; these were soulless killing machines.

"Anyways, as I was saying -" he stopped when he noticed Lloyd at the door.

"You won't be outrunning those." He said grimly. "They won't be as easy to destroy either." He sat back down and continued to check Lloyd's files.

"Why is Miguel active by himself?" He asked.

"I was giving him time to get over his panic attack, and then you showed up."

"Ah." Frederick noted. "Anyways, the cryogenics process isn't just to keep our bodies safe for the duration of the Earth purification project. It's to stop us from having overlapping memories at the same time. Think of it like this, if you go eat a pizza at 4, but digital you went to the movies at 4, that would create confusion in your brain. Now expand that to days, months and years. You could go insane. Government issued schizophrenia."

"So the upload is supposed to be our future or current memories while the body is in stasis? There isn't a way to stop them from overlapping?" Lloyd asked.

"There is a way, it's called not letting it happen in the first place, hence, the cryogenics." Frederick answered.

"But... That's just what I've been told. I've also been invited to a new years Eve party."

"What's special about that?" Lloyd replied.

"It's in person. For the managers of the satellite offices, like ours. I don't think I'm going."

"You gave that whole spiel and you don't trust them yourself?" Lloyd scoffed.

"Maybe I'd trust them if we knew this earlier, but now... It's too late. You have her data on here with Miguel's. You could either look up her address through your files, or if she isn't there, ask her yourself." He said, tapping the computer.