Liberi Reader

This smell is familiar...

Too bad there's still work to be done. I miss the sensation of alcohol rushing through my body.

Have you found your man, Saria?

He spends twenty hours a day here.

Two Trimounts Sunshines, please.

You don't look like someone who drinks during work hours.

I'm not.

I've never been one to let alcohol interfere with my brain, regardless of the hour.

Live a little, Saria.

Both of these are yours.

And you'd better pull yourself together, because I'm not buying a third.

What? Have you gone homeless too, after leaving Rhine?

How many drinks I'm willing to buy for you depends on how much your information is worth to me.

Well then, spit it out. What do you want to know?

See the liquid in this test tube?

Hm? Hmm...

It's not for drinking.

Well then, why are you asking me?

Show me your right hand.

What are you doing?

You're right-handed, but you're holding the glass with your left.

Does your right arm still hurt from the subdermal Arts Unit implant?

The what?

Saria...

Who's the helmet, and the hood?

Rhine Engineering? Volvort Kochinski? Maybe... one of those places whose name we dare not speak?

Did they change their minds? Decide to shut me up forever?

I promise you, I have nothing to do with any of the organizations you mentioned. Not now, not ever.

Promise? Words like that ain't even worth the booze in front of me.

Doctor, he may not be willing to talk with us here.

It's you I don't trust, especially not that getup.

You reek of the Columbian tech elite, know what I mean?

The hood can stay. I feel better about you.

......

Alright, I'll be over there.

Saria, you've picked up so many tabs for me, let me give you some honest advice.

Don't dig any deeper, if you don't want to end up like me.

This test tube of yours, that power armor—you're biting off more than you can chew.

......

Yes, more than even you can chew.

Do you understand what it is you've just said?

Of course.

It was you who reminded me. I'm not senile yet.

This is a very serious accusation.

Is it now? An accusation?

Oh, the accusation that you have something to do with Muelsyse's disappearance? Or the one that you're trying to seize control of Rhine Lab?

......

You need stronger evidence than that to blackmail me.

Relax, old friend.

How long have we worked together? Ten years and then some?

Did you think I was the type to come chat with an old friend carrying a bunch of papers, voice recordings and legal drafts?

You...

Just because you did it to me doesn't mean I intend to return the favor.

Columbians like to put everything on the negotiating table. But you forget, I'm a cunning old Leithanian goat, who likes to play dumb.

What exactly do you want?

Just passing by, and to encourage an old friend.

I don't understand. I thought you were on Control's side.

You don't understand? We're researchers, after all. There's always more we don't understand than we do. That's part of the fun.

You're a lot like Kristen. Too young, and too smart.

You're always trying to fly high, not realizing how difficult it is for the others to keep up with you.

All I want is to be left in peace to do my research, and not be dragged along the ground.

It may only take a couple of years of your administration for the military and big capital to pick Rhine Lab to the bone, but it won't happen tomorrow.

I'm surprised you have such a high opinion of me.

You'll need to deal with the Director of Defense first, however, in order to get to Kristen.

I didn't think Defense had a director.

Look at you, your memory failing at such a tender age.

Kristen never accepted Saria's resignation.

I never understood how you think, Saria.

No one talks about that ever since everything went down at Loken... my old employer.

They all chose to cut ties, no matter how much or how little they knew about the experiments.

That's what smart people do.

Does that mean you're not smart?

Ha... tongue still as sharp as ever, huh?

I would run if I could. They won't let me.

You ask if my right hand hurts? Of course it does! But did you think they would let me live this long if I didn't give up my hand and become a test subject?

I was the goddamned surgeon! Even if I had no idea what they wanted me to implant!

Still capable of anger, I see. Looks like alcohol hasn't completely numbed you.

You've changed, Saria.

I could see you were angry when you first came to me, a few years ago.

Oh?

You weren't exactly wearing it on your face.

But I could see it. I felt the same way, when I learned what kind of experiments I was involved in.

There are other ways, if you want to take down Rhine Lab.

You're one of the founders. Anybody after Rhine will be queueing up to take your hand.

Taking down Rhine won't solve anything.

Kill one beast, only for its flesh and blood to feed yet more beasts. The fall of Loken Watertank is proof.

Excuses.

You've gone all over the place for Rhine. You're opposed to them on the surface, but what you're actually doing is cleaning up their messes.

When I saw you, I knew the rumors were true.

You were willing to go to jail for Rhine Lab.

Not the smartest thing to deal in rumors.

The fall of HydeBro was a headache for the Director of Energy, wasn't it?

The loss of a key supplier has thrown a wrench into his requests for a new laboratory site. He lost a few major orders, didn't he?

It was a setback to whatever experiments he had going on.

It wasn't me who sent the Hyde brothers to jail.

You played a big part.

I know the rules. With the Hyde brothers locked up, the prosecutors no doubt wanted to use them to hook bigger fins.

Why was there no mention of Rhine Lab in the news? Why does Rhine always emerge unscathed from these things?

The truth is you've been following the trail, cleaning up all Rhine's little mistakes left along the way.

That's why you came looking for me...

You wanted to know whether or not Rhine had anything to do with this reagent.

Deep down, you're still the Rhine's Director of Defense. You still think it's your job to pick up after them.

There's something at Rhine that you can't let go of. Or maybe it's someone. Some sentiment.

Ha, looks like you do have emotions after all, Saria!

At the end of the day, we're all flesh and blood.

The subject is out of control!

Restraints have failed!

Not getting any neural signals from the subject! Attempting sedative injection... negative!

The subject is activating Originium Arts!

A monster... it's a huge monster...

No, the flames are manifesting...

Get the Director on the line, now!

Fire... the fire... cough...

Ifrit, where are you...?

Ifrit!

Saria...?

Are you okay, Doc Silence?

I...

You've gotta be tired.

You've been taking care of Doc Moore, and the rest of us.

I'm wicked sorry I acted like that, and almost got you hurt.

Rhodes Island isn't like Rhine Lab. You and Greyy have been so good to us, and you never asked for nothing for it.

Is that true?

I'm no saint, Sonny.

I was a Rhine Lab researcher. My experiments almost wiped out an entire city block, countless people along with it...

Huh?

There was a girl. She was close to me... almost like family.

She was the subject of the experiment.

What happened to her?

She's still alive.

But only alive. All these years, I've tried and failed to give her back the life she should have had, a normal life.

But I couldn't stop the situation from deteriorating.

Don't blame yourself. I'm sure you never meant to hurt her.

Ha... haha...

Funny, that's how I comforted myself in the past.

I didn't know. It was others who were truly to blame.

But was that really so?

Perhaps the one I truly could not forgive was...

......

I never knew your story.

It's more than just a story. It's why I came here.

Aren't you trying to save your friend?

Of course, I have to save Joyce.

But I want to save you, and Elena, and Director Franks.

I want to stop all this, before we get to the point of no return.

You believe me?

Like I said, I believe in the truth, in what I see for myself.

And I recall that I've seen something like it.

The silver things following us—they look like the result of Originium Arts gone awry.

By the way, I had Ben bring you something. It should be on your desk now.

Ben?

You forgot again? You told him to have tea with me. He talked so much that he nearly drank my entire stash.

I don't remember you owing me anything.

Oh? That wasn't what you said when I'd just completed my chimeric organism experiments.

The Diαbolic Experiments.

Glad you remember.

My student used an anesthetic of her own design during the final phase.

To shocking results.

Silence was such a smart girl. I miss her.

After the project was suspended, I reviewed the data logs and found that it was no coincidence.

What data?

You're not the only one who digs through the trash.

You mean Loken Watertank? Those data were...

Let's not dwell on clerical matters, shall we?

Loken Williams was a genius. Reviewing his data made me realize that I was taking the long way round.

I was trying to increase the subject's cell activity, in order to increase sync rate with the energy contained within the embedded shards.

Who would have thought that suppressing the subject's neural responses would be the way to go?

Suppress?

I made some small changes to your formula based on this conjecture.

I hope you'll forgive the initiative.

You're a sly one, old goat.

Why the irritation? I simply offered a gift before you asked for it.

Is it really so disappointing to lose a weapon against me?

It had better be of use to my experiments.

I promise you'll like it.

Oh, and if you're successful, could you pick up the tab on the ten boxes of black bean tea that Muelsyse owes me?

I would have won that bet, if not for my formula.

Back on topic.

The reagent.

I had a sniff when you took it out.

Yes, it's the exact same smell.

Ha, it's the ghosts of the ones who died on my operating table, back to haunt me.

Thicker and more numerous...

Who?

Who, you ask?

Who salvaged the most from the ruins of Loken Watertank?

Time to go home, Saria.

Rhine Lab.

See, you knew the answer all along.

You already met the Tin Man. He helped you find me.

Who was the main sponsor of the Diαbolic Experiments? Who was Loken Watertank's investor?

Who had the means to hire multiple labs to engage in similar experiments at the same time?

How irresistible did the order have to be, to make those labs put their petty patent feuds aside and sit down to share data?

And...

Whose hands did the surviving subjects pass through before they were sent out of Columbia?

Looks like a pretty lively conversation.

I hope I didn't miss too much.