Choices and Consequences

Marcel Lestrange said,"Lena-darling. We better pack our things and find ourselves a more private place for our base of operations. Since you are local, you might have some suggestions. I know that you have brains for it, not to mention your body."

Lena Marr blinked her sky blue eyes and frowned, sorry that their sexual escapade was over. It was vigorous and stimulating, for Marcel knew the erotic zones of a woman for he was a French man, and they were renowned as excellent lovers, but something was still missing. Lena wasn't sure what. Lena sat up, opening up her duffel bag to find suitable traveling clothes, then spotted the book of poetry that Kaj had given her within.

"Oh yeah, Marcel doesn't really care," Thought Lena to herself, "Well, I don't either! I'll use his body and he'll use mine for as long as both of us want to, and that is the way of the world. Everything is temporary, especially feelings, you stupid bio-man!"

Lena moved the book to the side of her duffel bag, pulling out the plaid shirt, tan pants, and brown coat she wanted to wear. In it, she looked like any other local, albeit prettier than most. Lena grabbed their bags, packing them in Marcel's car as Marcel went about the task of releasing Varus, thinking about the many safehouses - or relatively safe houses - she had in the Bay Area. Some were merely sleeping places under various broken overpasses, some were basements under the ruins of buildings, both of which she knew a high class criminal like Marcel probably wouldn't even consider, but others were actual houses. She wasn't about to tell him the location of all of them, but he was right that if their business partnership was to continue, it needed a safe base of operations and she believed she had the perfect place in mind. However, Lena believed that sooner or later Marcel would betray her, or she him, as that was her experience in the world she existed in, so she would keep most of her secrets to herself.

As Varus practically ran from the trailer up the road to the safety of The Crater, Lena laughed sardonically, blowing him a kiss, and yelling after him, "I hope you liked the show!"

Lena climbed behind the steering wheel of his car, starting the ignition and waiting for him to get into the passengers seat, which he did in a short time. As she pulled the car out from behind the trailers and past The Crater, turning left down the highway, she explained their destination during the drive, "There is a small house, a shack really, north west of here in Marin. It's deep in Raider territory, but I pay a few of them to watch it for me, and the owner is long dead. Don't look at me, I didn't do it! I'm a sociopath, not a psychopath! Most folks shun the place, not just because its out of the way, but because a violent murder occurred there. As the story goes, a local Rancher's daughter went missing, but Law Keeper Cooper was to busy to go look for her because of the Raiders in the area were increasing their violent activities, so he turns to Belle Starr for help in finding the girl. Belle came to the area as an Ark Hunter, but established herself as a self-appointed guardian of Paradise, patrolling the highways and byways eliminating the dangers lurking there. Crazy, huh?

Anyway, Cooper makes Belle an adjunct deputy law keeper, and she goes looking for the girl, finding her stabbed dead body by the side of this very road. She plays detective, deducting that the body had been moved there from some place else. She finds out that the girl had been dating a boy who working for her father, and starts to find pieces of that loser's diary, whose all boo hoo because he killed her. Joke is, he killed her as an initiation rite to join a group of Raiders, and they end up killing him to cover up their tracks, but they tear up the jerks diary, inadvertently leaving pieces of it all over for Belle too find. She tracks the idiots down and wipes the whole Raider gang out in a shoot out! What a group of morons, all of them, including Belle! The girl for foolishly thinking she was in love, the idiot boyfriend wanting to belong to something bigger than himself, the Raiders for leading the law right to them, and Belle for putting herself in danger just to help somebody she didn't even know and who ended up dead anyway! Crazy stupid! Well here we are!"

At the end of a long winding dirt road, Lena pulls up to a small decrepit wooden house next to the water. Three raiders with weapons drawn come out of the underbrush around the house, but Lena gets out of the car and waves, saying, "Just me boys, with a guest, so memorize his face and then leave him alone. He and I both like our privacy, and you like the scrip I pay you for watching the place for me."

One raider nods his head in assent, his facial expression unreadable due to the gas mask he wears, then all three fade back into the underbrush. Lena grabs her duffel, and climbs the rickety wooden steps to the small porch, unlocking the warped door with a worn key, exclaiming with a humorless laugh, "Home sweet home!  Will you walk into my parlour? said the Spider to the Fly!"
 

Lena Marr raised one white eyebrow when she found that Marcel's hand had found it's way to holding her's. She had worked for many crime lords during her short life, and Marcel Lestrange had all the drive, smarts, and arrogance to be the next crime lord of Paradise. Furthermore Marcel already had the current crime lord, Varus Soleptor, working for him, and that meant Varus' vast criminal organization working for him as well. However in her mind, the only thing worse than an ambitious crime lord was an ambitious crime lord in love. Lena had more than one crime lord, and even one crime lady, fall for her, and it never ended well; usually with Lena quickly picking up her belongings and running for her life.

Lena actually wasn't too fond of bosses period, much rather wanting to follow her own criminal schemes, but she knew her limitations in this Post-Apocalyptic World. She had learned them as a child in Lima. First, Lena was a Castithan of the lowest caste level, so other Castithans treated her as working trash from the get-go; so in the Votan Collective where the Castithans held most of the power despite their so-called claims to democracy, she was already the lowest of the low. Second, she was a woman, and women, particularly Castithan women, were merely commodities to be bought and sold in this brave new world created by both humans and Votans, or so Lena truly believed. Third, Lena started with owning nothing, not even the clothes on her back, and she was determined to not die in the same condition. Lena reasoned that the world was to blame for all her woes, so if she had to scam, steal, mutilate and even kill others to get the scrip she needed to elevate herself, then so be it. Lena believed the world owed her, like most sociopaths do.

"If my life were a poker game," Thought Lena to herself, "I started the game in the hole. But I know how to even the stakes!"

When Marcel suddenly released her hand, she ignored the action smiled demurely, blinking her long lashed sky blue eyes several times before saying, "Sounds like Volodj Uljanov and Belle Starr are cut from the same cloth - a stupid heroes' death shroud. Anyway Boss, what's our plan, besides rutting like a pair of ally cats? Not that I'm adverse to that, you really are a great lay, but that won't get me any scrip; unless I start charging you, and you're too cute and too good a fuck for me to do that. Unless I get strapped for scrip, of course!"

Lena smiled wickedly, as she did have a scheme in mind, one that would net them a great amount of scrip and gain them both revenge, although she wasn't sure Marcel would go for it as it was dangerous in the extreme. If he didn't, she had a couple of secondary plans, although they were much more mundane. She leaned towards Marcel speaking in a conspiratorial manner, "Just so you know, I really don't pay the Raiders guarding this place anything, as they pay me to go into Paradise and pick up supplies for them, so I pay them a protection fee but get back more scrip than I pay out. I tell you that so if you couldn't tell, I'm materialistic type of gal pal! Sure violence is sometimes part of the job, and can be lots of fun, but if it get in the way of gaining more scrip, forget it!

I don't think you had a chance to notice, but our erstwhile captors have some pretty sophisticated hologram projection playpens. Those holo-emitters would gain us a lot of scrip on the black market, as well as a small measure of revenge for imprisoning us. I don't much care about the latter, but I care a hell of a lot about the former. It won't interfere with their do-gooding, so I doubt they'll even care much if we are careful to make sure they don't know we are the thieves. To them, all it means is that won't be able to play with their holo-babes, and there are enough real women on the base to take care of their needs, so no harm, no foul, lots of scrip for us! As to getting in, they won't suspect us to come back so soon and I may have neglected to tell them about a couple of secret tunnels going into the base."

Lena sighed, knowing her back-up schemes weren't nearly as exciting, "While that plan is a Level 10 adrenalin surge threat, this next one is closer to a Level 6. Ara Shondu has the richest estate in Paradise. It's got a high wall, surrounded by water, with only one route in, and heavily patrolled by Eschelon guards. It won't be hard to get in, because there are vendors within the walls, including one from Von Bach Industries, so lots of Ark Hunters around at all times of the day and night, which might complicate things when we want to go out. Damn EGO units! All the Ark Hunters have them. Wish I did, it would make things so much easier. Anyway, I haven't been in her mansion, but I'm betting there is floor or wall safe somewhere within with lots of scrip in it, and with your EGO it should be easy to find. She is always hiring Ark Hunters to do side missions for her, so she has to have the scrip on hand to pay them when they finish a job. Ark Hunters aren't known for their patience, being really into immediate gratification.

My last plan is the most boring, a Level 1 Threat and way too much like a regular Joe's job, but it's one worth mentioning. You might not know it being new to the territory, but Atticus Batman was known as being quite the lawless vigilante, prone to violence and known as the Harbinger of Death throughout Paradise, although I suspect he made up that name himself and spread it as a way of scary self promotion. Anyway once he joined this team of do-gooders and got domesticated by Lady Christianna, he's been all lawful and boring. He's got to have some black op jobs his do-gooder friends won't do because of pesky morals and stuff, so we could offer our services, for a hefty price of course."

As Lady Christianna started dozing in the hot tub of the virtual spa in the holo-room, the unborn twins started to doze as well, winking out of sight and back to her womb. Atticus gently picked her up, and carried her back to their quarters. She was sound asleep as he put her to bed, thinking to himself, "All in all, not a bad first family vacation."

Volodja Uljanov woke up in middle of the night, still holding sleeping beauty in his arms. He listened her silent breathing, released himself gently from her hold and started to unbutton her flowery sun dress once again, but this time he didn't think about making love with Sandy as a first thing. It was his second thought, to be completely honest. But instead of that he whispered: "Hopefully you have at least one night when you can sleep in real bed, my love. Have beautiful dreams." He covered his adorable Sandy with a silk blanket and kissed gently her lips, trying to not wake her up after a hard day.

After that he sneaked to the table and started to look through his notes again. As long as Volodja knew, he didn't had any important meetings, discussions or world saving tasks planned for today, so he can bury himself into routine work. Somebody has to do it and he can't put all the burden to the shoulders of Wolfram and Di. He won't sneak out from their base, because it would upset Sandy. That meant dealing with daily business and small matters.

"Thou shalt not think about other things, while planning the daily routine," said Volodja to himself. "Concentrate on what's important and keep the system going while others save the day. I won't attend in that. No way. No fucking way! My pile of tasks is growing. It's growing like a hay." He had to stop his senseless wordplay, before he gets carried away. That's why he poured himself a glass of wine and dived back into his note pile, pondering about treatment of PTSD. Time to time he looked lovingly and longingly at his sleeping beauty and smiled, although she was asleep and could not see it.




Wolfram von Eschen could not sleep either, so he was also working, having Di by his side. He must start a therapy session with Erika's children, before it's too late. At moment their mental condition was stable - no progress, but no regress either. Totally dead point for them and that has to change. Now they had new emitters installed in psychiatric department, offering same possibilities than training room ones, only in smaller scale, which can be programmed to emulate a precisely detailed environment, modelled by an EGO psyche from its host's memories. They must make Erika's children relive a crucial episode of their life to help them remember how they felt back then before they were brainwashed. That made Erika's participation essential, because as their mother, she remembers lot of such detailed episodes, so they can choose couple of them to reconstruct Cael's and Kara's pasts, like they did with Lady with one exception - in her case they had to simulate traumatic episode, her mind refused to admit, but now they had to work with episodes which occurred before traumatic brain washing experience, so patients could regain their former selves and push new fake personalities out from their minds. 

Holo therapy rooms were thoroughly tested by him and Volodja, so they could affect every sense of Cael and Kara and make simulation effect flawless. One small problem remained here, because abrupt end of the simulation might cause cognitive conflicts in patient's senses, leaving their mind even more confused between the reality, the imaginary world they experienced and the remains of information they were fed during the brainwashing, because there was a chance that some of it can't be totally erased even if they win their new personalities. That meant creating some sort of buffer zone for them, so that they wouldn't notice the moment the environment had changed. In Lady's case that kind of zone was Atticus, although they had to remove him at one point, because Lady started to cure her mental trauma on her own way and began creating new positive memories, which weren't real.

They could try to use Erika as the buffer, but that could create couple of problems, depending what kind of memories they use. Childhood memories weren't good enough, because it might end up with sending Cael and Kara back to their childhood. Wolfram thought about using memories from period when they were both grown up already, but they needed to use ones, creating only positive associations to avoid their escapade into catatonia. But in those Erika's participation might have been smaller, so seeing her might not be sufficient enough to keep patients stabilized. Maybe Volodja will have another crazy idea to solve that problem? And maybe he knows how to deal with their PTSD, which will occur for sure when they get their original memories back. Wolfram rubbed his tired eyes and yawned. He must get some sleep after all. To tired to think clearly. He and Volodja had to be sharp as needles next day to be able to perform their tasks. Di didn't had such problems, so after Wolfram left his new office, she remained there and started looking through base crew's medical records.

"Whatever you want, Boss. Just put those ideas out there for consideration. Hell, if you want us to just set up a roadblock on the highway and mug ranchers and miners, I'm game!" Said Lena Marr enthusiastically, a wicked grin on her pale lips, "Whatever makes more scrip!"

The grin quickly disappeared as Lena looked out the shack's window, looking at Murray Dock with sky blue eyes. She knew she hadn't told Marcel the story quite right. The part about Belle Starr was correct, but the girl had been killed by raiders, not the girl's boyfriend in an initiation rite trying to join the raiders band. In fact, the boyfriend had died trying to avenge his girlfriend's murder but failing.

"No," Thought Lena to herself, "That version is too unbelievable. What idiot would do that? My story was much more likely - the guy wanting to get ahead and willing to sacrifice his girl to do it!"

However, in the back of her mind, a small voice she knew was her own replied, "Kaj would try to avenge your death, and he would succeed!"