Chapter 21

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<Oh no. I gave him the wrong tape!> I stared at him, nearly scared out of my mind, and squeaked, "I'm in deep shit, aren't I?" 

Thallin grinned a broad, evil grin that could have made the rest of his body disappear behind it. "Understatement," he said. 

I floundered, trying to find a way out. "Well, you see... I..." I almost turned and bolted for the elevator, but an old, familiar piece of my mind had other ideas. I felt the fury surge up from deep inside me, deep, congealed, confused emotion that had a few words to get off its chest. "Shit, Thallin. You've been giving me the run-around since word go! You've never given me a straight answer, you've always hidden behind your rules and regulations - and even made some up when it suited you, I'm sure! I am short one pilot all the bloody time, but Ops won't replace her because, technically, she's still on the roster! I find you covered in blood, and the alley you came out of looked like the fourth world war had started in there, but when I get back there a few hours later, the place is crawling with MIBs!" I paused to breathe and then finished my verbal explosion, "You owe me, Thallin Braywater! You owe me an explanation at least!" 

Thallin's smile turned smug and then disappeared. In a cold, flat voice, he said, "I owe you nothing." None of my words had any affect on him whatsoever. "Did you know your file was tampered with? What would it show if I called up the backups from a year ago, Lieutenant. If that's who you are. You're damn curious about my work. You have been ever since we met. What are you? AUF?" 

His words shocked me. His tone and his conclusions infuriated me. So I slugged him. 

Well, I tried anyway. He snatched my incoming fist out of the air without breaking his gaze from mine. He continued, "Is that it? What have you done with the real Lieutenant Landers? Did you bump her off and take her place? Or is she drugged up on yet some new Sodium Pentothal-derivative so that you sadistic morons can suck more info out of her brain?" 

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I could recall Izabelle's quiet voice, "Your violent behaviour is not appropriate at this time." I didn't want to get knocked out again, and something about the situation told me it _was_ about to happen if I didn't calm down. It was hard, but I didn't try to tackle Thallin in my anger. "How... How dare you?" I heard the hatred dripping from those words, and from the changes in Thallin's expression, he had too. "Lieutenant Karl Landers - my brother - was killed in the initial assault by the aliens. His entire squadron was killed. Everyone else simply assumed I was him." 

"And what about you?" I asked, turning the accusations back at him. "Skulking around the ship all the time, always looking like you've stolen a corpse from the graveyard..." <Wait a minute. That's it!> I remembered my first encounter with the Lieutenant, at an elevator somewhere in the fortress. He had been pushing a gurney with something covered by a white cloth and had been acting terribly nervous. A few quiet words escaped my lips as I realised the truth. "Oh my God." Christina's body was stolen from the morgue about the same time I saw Thallin with the gurney. "You did steal a corpse. You're the one who... Then that means that Izabe-" <Izabelle is Christina. The artificial intelligence pieces... Her behaviour...> Visions of an old horror movie were interrupted by Thallin's voice. 

"It's not as bad as you think." 

"Not as bad?! You steal a corpse from the morgue and you have the gall to tell me that it's not as bad as I think?" I had to confirm my suspicions, so I asked, "What the hell did you do to that corpse? And how exactly does Izabelle fit into this mess?" 

From behind me, I heard a soft voice ask, "Someone called my name?" 

Thallin looked around me to the door, "Izabelle?" 

I turned and saw Izi step in and walk to the center of the room. "Please, you can drop the pretence now and call me by my real name. The Izabelle persona was useful while it lasted, but it serves no purpose now." I thought, <I knew it... But how?>However, her actions took Thallin by surprise. "Hold on. I stole Christina's body from the morgue. It took it down to the lab and put it in the regen chamber. I know you're Izabelle Fate." 

Izabelle laughed, "Come, Thallin. You didn't really believe that you had managed to create life, did you? I'll admit that my encounter with the aliens left me worst for wear, but I wasn't dead." 

I tried to interrupt, but was ignored. So I thought it instead, <Bullshit. From what I've heard, your body was mangled beyond life. Besides, doctors aren't stupid. They wouldn't put a badly wounded, but living person in the morgue for any reason.>Izi continued, "The Surveillance people assigned to me tried to retrieve my body from the morgue, but by the time they got there, you had been through first. They caught up with you at the lift in time to see your little conversation with Lieutenant Landers here. They waited until you got into the lift, alone, then gassed you." 

Thallin was extremely confused, "But.. What about the time I spent at the regen chamber? What about your birth?" 

"Drugs, Thallin. We drugged you and kept you drugged while I healed up. My colleagues implanted false memories into your mind. Some drugs make people very receptive to suggestions. It was barrel the work of an evening to make you believe you'd spent more than a week nurturing my body back to health. My 'birth' was real. We brought you out of stupor a moments before, you drained the tub, and, hey presto, instant Izabelle. The rest is simply bad acting on my part." 

Thallin stared at her, his eyes wild. "But... But..." He paused a moment then said, "Izabelle, override sequence Three A Five Nine Shutdown." 

Izi laughed again. "You still cling to false hopes. I tell you there is no Izabelle Fate. She is simply a character we made up for convenience's sake." 

Thallin buried his head in his free hand and shook it. Then he looked up slowly, looking like he had found his last hope, "Izi, oboete imasuka?" 

"Remember? Remember wha-" Izi's voice stopped short. "Wh-" Then her legs folded beneath her and she stumbled into a chair behind her, looking as though her body had shut down on her. 

Thallin answered her, "A little extra I added to the software design. Just in case something went wrong." 

<So she is the AI,> I thought as I tried to pull my wrist from Thallin's grip, but I couldn't budge it. Thallin was still looking at Izabelle, ignoring me entirely. <It's amazing he has such a grip.> "Err... Thallin?" I tested. No response. "Thallllliiiiin. Could you please let me go?" Still he made no move. I started pulling against his arm, but it was like an iron vise. Absolutely immobile. "Let go of my arm, dammit!" I continued pulling as hard as I could for a few seconds, but couldn't get more than arm's length away from him. I stopped to breathe, exasperated. I didn't like being ignored, so I screamed, "What the hell is going on here?" 

Thallin snapped out of his stupor and looked over at me, looking sheepish. He let go of my wrist and put his hand behind his head, elbow out. "Ah... Er... You're still here?" Then he dropped his hand, closed his eyes, and sighed, "Oh boy." 

"Yes, I'm still here. You wouldn't let go of my wrist." 

"I what? Oh... Oops, Sorry." He looked at his hand and put it back on the bed. 

"You've got quite a grip, Thallin. I couldn't get you to budge." I paused for a moment and looked over at Izi. "So she's the AI Lang wants you to dismantle? No wonder she was such a cold hearted bitch." I looked back at him. "So who's the 'we' she was talking about?" 

Thallin slid from the bed and silently walked towards me. Cold death was in his eyes. I couldn't help but step backwards and he followed me closely, forcing me back. I squeaked, "Hey, Thallin... What..." Two more steps and I was forced against the outside wall, about a yard to the left of the room's windows. Again, I spoke, "Quit it!" His eyes told me he wasn't playing a game as he lifted his right arm and slowly formed a fist so tight the skin on his fingers squeaked. I swallowed hard. I knew I'd pissed him off, and I was about to pay for it. Then he swung his fist at me, his pale knuckles moving towards my face in slow motion. I squeezed my eyes shut before he hit me, but the impact never came. 

I heard a dry crunch from my left and Thallin's slow, quiet voice, "First of all, Izabelle is not a bitch." I opened my eyes and watched as Thallin withdrew his arm from the hole he had just punched through the wall. "Have you got that straight?" 

I just looked at him as he turned around and walked over to the closet. As he opened it and rummaged through the junk within, I snuck a peek through the hole. His fist had gone all the way through. I could see the building across the street, framed by jagged bits of concrete in the wall. 

Thallin spoke again, "Make yourself useful and plug in the cables to the terminal." I turned and saw Thallin was leaning over Izabelle's still form, his back to me. 

There were several multi-colored cables trailing across the floor from the closet to Thallin and Izi. I grabbed the far ends and walked over to the computer terminal by his bed. The connections were fairly straightforward and didn't take long to figure out. I said, "The cables are in," as I walked over to the hospital room's door and closed it. I looked over at Thallin and Izi and noticed that he had strapped some sort of small device to her head, to which the other ends of the cables were attached. 

Thallin stood up and brushed at his pyjamas. "Good." He looked at me and pointed to the bed, "Sit down, and not a sound." 

I was about to refuse to sit until he explained whatever he was doing, but he snapped again, "Not a sound." I could tell he really meant it, so I shut up and sat down as he turned his terminal on. 

The think on Izi's head started flashing all its lights, but eventually it settled down to a single flashing light. Thallin cleared his throat. "Izabelle, can you hear me?" he asked. 

I half expected Izi to answer, but Thallin's terminal did instead. "Yes," it crackled. 

Thallin asked another question, "Are you aware of your actions of the past few days?" 

"Yes." 

"Please run a diagnostics on your memory. Check for logic inconsistencies." 

"There are no inconsistencies in the last few days." 

<Yeah right,> I almost said. Thallin turned and glared at me as if I had said it as he asked the next question, "What is the logic behind your assuming the identity of Christina Leeds?" 

He paused for a second. 'Izi' didn't answer his question. 

"Izabelle, why did you become Christina Leeds?" 

"I required access to the Macross' engine compartment." 

<What for?> I wondered as Thallin asked, "For what purpose did you require such access?" 

"To sabotage the engines." 

Forward to Chapter 22.
Back to Chapter 20. 

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