Corpses for Clues

Once he left the boring room that he woke in, Jonathan learned that Console Ghost's headquarters was an abandoned hospital. It had an Old World feel to it, which led him to believe that they were in Tunnel City, one of the subterranean districts of Clifton. At a glance, Jonathan could not reconcile that with his surroundings. The halls were lined with tin sheets covered in various graffiti, both animated digital pieces and artisanally sprayed paint. The overhead lighting had been torn out and replaced by subatomic particle separators that cast a vibrant blue light as they carried their charge.

The only way he knew they were in an old hospital was the layout. Years of serving as an enforcer taught him to look behind the decorations, the alterations, and look at his surroundings for what they truly were. He saw the art. He saw the Cyber Gang's trace all over as he followed Blink. He saw the clusters of punks hanging around screens and holograms but Jonathan could also see past them to the building's original purpose.

He saw lobbies, offices, medical storage cabinets, and rooms for waiting or examination. He saw doctors treating sick children, families waiting for care, and he saw the stressed out providers that were low on resources because just like their patients they were low on the totem pole.

Reality blended with memory and Jonathan felt his heart twist as he saw his father bleeding out on a table as those same doctors did their best. They could not tell if he was gone or just hanging on by a thread. The bullet that tore through him might have ruined any chance he had at his charmingly handsome appearance but Jonathan did not care how his father looked. He just wanted his father back.

If the doctors had better equipment they might have been able to save him or they might have been able to say with certainty that it was a lost cause. Instead, Jonathan waited with bated breath as they struggled to save a dead man. In the end, that was what he had been. The shot had caught him in the side of the head, people had survived worse, but the nanite damage to his brain was too severe.

Jonathan shook himself back to reality. He was no longer a boy waiting for a doctor to tell him his father was gone. He might only be a pawn in someone else's game, but he was strong enough to make waves and every piece on the chessboard has its purpose. Blink led him down to the lowest floor of the hospital; a place for records, servers, and people to hide in case of emergency. There was another room in the basement, one that Jonathan hadn't thought Console Ghost would be using. Let alone bringing him to.

Despite his thinking, Jonathan found himself standing in a morgue. Blink had excused herself before he had realized what was going on. Now Jonathan stood in a cold room with four dead men and a doctor that looked like he belonged on one of the slabs. The doctor was leaning over one of the corpses; as Jonathan approached he realized that corpse's rib cage opened up and organs removed.

The doctor noticed Jonathan approaching and pointed lazily at the purple skin around the corpse's misshapen neck. "I heard that was your handiwork."

Jonathan nodded.

"Did you notice any resistance?"

Any resistance? Jonathan's mind stuttered for a moment.

The doctor clarified as he reached a gloved hand into the corpse's chest cavity and started to pull on something. He continued pulling as he said, "I mean more resistance than normal. No one snaps a neck in one motion without experience in doing so. Did you find more or less resistance when you broke this mudak's neck?"

Mudak... Jonathan chewed on the word for a second, it was an old way to say asshole. Jonathan shook his head, "No more, no less. Why do you ask?"

The doctor's brow furrowed and whatever he had been pulling on finally gave way and a bloody vertebrae came out in the doctor's hand. "Because, after I finished my autopsy and was looking down at the empty hole, I saw something odd."

Jonathan frowned, "What did you find?"

"Not sure if they'd want me to tell you, v'yazen, but we are the same I believe. Take a closer look..." The doctor paused as he offered the bloody vertebrae over to Jonathan. It was hopefully going to be the most disgusting thing he had to touch today. As soon as he touched it, he could tell what they doctor had noticed. There were fibers, metal fibers coming out of the vertebrae like grass growing from soil. "Odd, no?"

Jonathan nodded and looked at the vertebrae. While he turned it over in his hand, he realized that the doctor had called him v'yazen… Prisoner. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

"Probably nothing, but I think the girl waiting outside would like to see it or at least hear about it and she is too squeamish to come in here."

Jonathan nodded, moved to a wash station and carefully washed the blood off his hands as well as the vertebrae. He took care when drying it to not break off or harm the fibers in anyway, but when he rubbed it on the towel he noticed that it shredded the fabric like it was nothing. Before he left, Jonathan added, "You know, maybe she's a little squeamish because you're a little too open about your… autopsy."

The doctor sighed, "Bark bark bark… I told you, v'yazen, we are the same you and I. Me with my corpses and you with your violence. Just wait until they see you in action. Let's see if they are just as squeamish."

Jonathan bid the doctor farewell and left the morgue to see Blink leaned up against the wall opposite the door, waiting for him. As soon as the door shut behind him, Blink shuddered and Jonathan did his best to ignore what the doctor had said about him. "Did he find anything?"

"Just that their vertebrae are growing metal hairs." Jonathan offered the bone and metal over to Blink but she insisted he kept it with a frown. There were cogs spinning behind her eyes, "You know something about this."

Blink nodded and reluctantly took the vertebrae. As soon as she took it, she dropped it into her pant's pocket. "We've got other things to talk about though. You raised some concerns with your claims of being a pawn of Those On High. Legend wants you to prove it."

Jonathan sighed, "How am I supposed to do that?"

"If you are a pawn, if you truly have no free will. You won't mind when we drop you into the middle of a firefight with your former brothers in arms. If they arrest you and you get out easy, then we know you're a pawn. If you refuse to fight back, then we know you're a pawn."

Jonathan sighed, "And if I fight my way out… then you know I'm not a pawn?"

Blink shrugged, "Or you're a deranged and detached psychopath… or you're a pawn and only Those On High know it… or none of this matters anyway and nothing will reveal anything. Like you said, I can eloquently say that we pawns have no way of knowing what means anything and who is really pulling the strings."