Chapter 19[] After a few blocks, David and Vanessa met up with a couple more me where we're going, then at least tell me how far we have to go." At that moment, I saw David and his trio disappear into a dance club. I glanced back at Tom. "It's right up the street here, Okay? Now stop yer complainin'," I grinned. We continued walking, and I saw the young lady disappear into the club. Not long after, Tom and I reached the front doors. I stopped and looked the place over. <A disco dance parlour? My God, David... Have you no taste?> A grumbled moan from Tom told me he was thinking pretty much the same of me. I gave Tom's arm a tug and said, "C'mon, Tom! It'll be fun." <I'm not so sure about that, but I'm hoping it'll be informative.> His grumbles were soon drowned out by the loud music as I opened the door and dragged him inside. It took several minutes to locate David's group and their shadow, sitting at some tables a ways away from the dance floor. Kim and Sammy were both pulling on David's arms, trying to get him out of his seat, while Vanessa stood in front of them. <Well, David, maybe it's not your taste, but still...> Their shadow was sitting at a bar, being talked at by some fellow in a cheap jacket. She wasn't paying him much attention, as her eyes were locked on Vanessa. Now that I was getting a good look at her, she didn't look quite so young anymore. In fact, she looked more than slightly familiar. Unfortunately, the floor lights were flashing on her face and I couldn't figure out who she was. Tom's voice rose over the din, saying, "You want something to drink too?" I looked back at him; he had managed to snag a waitress. "Not tonight, Tom," I answered, looking back over at David and his girls. Vanessa had a hold of his belt and, together, the three girls were dragging him towards the dance floor. After a few steps he gave in and let himself be brought out. Little miss shadow saw this and immediately grabbed the guy in the jacket, dragging him to the floor after them. I hardly gave Tom a glance before I followed suit. <As if the dance floor wasn't already crowded,> I thought. It wasn't difficult to keep an eye on the unknown lady without being spotted, as most of her attention was on her target. She hardly said a word to her dance partner, who wasn't quite having the time of his life. Nobody likes being ignored. Unfortunately, I couldn't come up with anything to do, other than just watch her. If I was going to find out what she was up to, I'd just have to let her start it. Tom's energy gave out after an hour or so, so I let him go sit down and rest. I stayed on the dance floor to keep an eye on my quarry, but it was several hours before anything but her partners changed. David's group eventually grew tired of dancing and started for the front door, and the lady immediately disappeared from her current partner's arms, following closely behind. <Oh shit,> I thought, looking around for Tom. He was nowhere to be seen, so I took off after them. I followed my quarry, who was following the group as they walked back to the barracks for the night. Unfortunately, she was beginning to get a little nervous. <I think she's beginning to figure out that she's being followed,> I thought. <I might not be able to catch up to her tonight.> I started checking my pockets, looking for my micro-camera. <It'll be easier to find her later with a picture.>I found my camera and pulled it out, getting it ready and waiting for my quarry to glance around again. After a few moments, she did, and I snapped a couple shots. As I did so, I became aware of a noise coming from the next alleyway. It sounded like a cheap horror movie sound track, with tinny, hollow screams and fake-sounding bone crunches. My curiosity peaked, I stepped up to the entrance of the alleyway. The sound stopped, and so did my heart. Thallin Braywater was walking out of the alleyway, covered in blood and gore, leaving a slick trail of red fluids behind him. I couldn't help but gasp in surprise. "Thallin?!?!" He stopped walking and swayed a bit before turning his head in my direction. "Eh?" He mumbled, then he spotted me, "Oh... Hello, Kay..." Then his eyes rolled back and he fell to the ground, unconscious. The tape player in his hand continued playing, "`Jhirite T'sen! Jhiri micron!` <silence> `...oh boy...`" "Oh my God! Thallin?" I leaned over him, rolling him over on his back. I looked him over and didn't see any obvious wounds. <Where'd all this blood come from?> I glanced back up the alleyway, where a trail of blood led into the darkness. <Damn, I wish they hadn't set up that night/day cycle already. I'd still be able to see.>I opened Thallin's collar to ease his breathing and did my best to clear away as much blood as I could, looking for any cuts or gaping wounds. I didn't find any, but I noticed the tape recorder again. It was still playing, but this part of the tape was blank. <What the hell was it playing before?> I wondered, taking it from his grasp and hitting the rewind button. After a second or so, I hit play again. The little speaker broke out with the same tinny screams of terror and some cursing in a foreign language. <That's not any language I've ever heard.> I glanced back at Thallin and thought a moment before ejecting and pocketing the tape. Then, struck with another thought, I pulled another tape out of my purse and put it into the recorder. <He'll wonder if the tape's gone missing. Better to replace it.>I looked down the street, but my quarry was long gone. I sighed, "Oh well. I'd better get you to a hospital, Thallin."
[] Twenty minutes later, I was waiting in the emergency room, being stared at by everyone who walked by. I looked down at my clothes, which were as covered with blood as Thallin was, and leaned back into my chair. "This has been one hell of a night, Karl... One hell of a night," I breathed, closing my eyes against the bright fluorescent lights above me. "Yep. It sure has," answered a voice. I sat bolt upright. "KARL?"
[] "Ah... <sniff> no," the man replied. He was an elderly fellow with a large nose and what sounded like a bad cold. "I was just making conversation. <sniff>" I just stared at him. I couldn't think. "Er, ah... AH... <sniff>. I just heard you talking to yourself, and it looked as if you needed some company. I'm sorry if I disturbed you." He blew his nose with a tiny paper tissue. He gestured with it towards my blood-stained clothing and continued, "My guess is you've had a bad day." I leaned my head back and closed my eyes again, "I guess you could say that. I would call it more... interesting." "What happened to that fellow you came in with? He get attacked or something?" "I really don't know. I pretty much found him like that. I think he'll be alright, though." <I've got to wonder how he ended up like that myself.> Suddenly, I remembered a clue and sat up. <The tape. That might explain it. I've got to figure out what the hell happened.> I smiled at the old man, "Thanks for the chit-chat, Pops, but I gotta run." "Doctor." I turned as I stood up, "What?" He smiled and said, "Call me 'Doctor.'" "Yeah. Sure, Pops. See ya 'round!" I called, leaving the waiting room. I went straight back to my quarters, not really noticing the stares I got from the people I passed. I rewound the tape and started it playing while I got ready for a shower. It was a recording of Thallin's voice as he spoke to himself about a meeting he had had earlier in the day. <Lang, huh? Not good to get him pissed at you. Artificial Intelligence? Who's Eve? Bahamoud? My God, Thallin, what have you gotten into?> I wrapped a towel around myself and tossed my clothes into the hamper, still listening. <Why don't you want to dismantle it? Not technically alive? Now I'm really confused.> Then a new voice came onto the microphone. It sounded terrifyingly familiar. "Hey, man. Are you with the Nighthawks?" There was silence for a moment before Thallin answered, "No." and got decked for it. What followed sounded like Thallin was getting the shit kicked out of him by a couple of kids. Then a new voice came on. It sounded almost like Thallin's, but... different. "Jhiri domillanyar del deng." "what the hell was that?" I stopped the tape and played it back. "jih REE... doh MIH... lahn yahr... dehl dehn .. g?" I sounded the words out. "Some funky language. What I managed to grab of Thallin's dossier only said he spoke French, Dutch, German, Italian, Russian, and Japanese. That doesn't sound like any of those languages. In fact, that doesn't sound like anything I've ever heard before." I sat down at my terminal and clicked it on. I started the tape again and listened some more. There was a laugh and one of the boys spoke, "The man speaks gibberish." <That's what I plan to find out.>Another boy spoke up, "Hey man, did you escape from the asylum?" Then the strange voice again, "Delyarkam devlandaka?" "Just stick him. Stick him..." "Dengyar!" the player screamed, followed by a painful crunch. I winced at the sound. I could guess - all too easily - what it meant. "Jeezus... Frank! Did you see what he did to Frank?" "You're dead, man. Dead!" I couldn't help but sit there and listen to the sounds that followed. Screams of agony. The sickening cracks of bones breaking. The sound that flesh makes when torn apart. All of it was real. This was no cheap sound track from a bad horror movie. It couldn't be fake. I had seen... touched... the blood. "Oh God... Thallin... Thallin..." <What in all of hell are you?>I stopped the tape and took a deep breath to regain control of myself. I called up a few multi-lingual dictionaries along with some database search programs. I combined every language I had available to me through the SDF-1's mainframe data storage and set my programs to searching for these words I had heard. Together, they should find all of these words and some that were phonetically similar. If they were gibberish or something real, I was going to find out. The 'Time Til Completion' counter told me it wasn't going to be soon. <That's to be expected, I guess. Next time I want to search every language known to mankind I'll try not to be in such a hurry. I guess I've got enough time for a cold shower and a long walk.>
Forward to Chapter 20.
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