Leo Snow can build an android shell in a day and a half. SNOWMAN isn’t where Leo is now, but he’s still master of his own tech. It takes less than a day to get him back in some kind of working shape.
The crypto farm is a whole lot of GPUs - computer video cards - wired together. Alex promises that an unholy alliance of open-source software, some extremely classified algorithms, and something they call “Omnislash Version 6” will be ready to handle the traffic, once SNOWMAN taps into Hong Kong’s data pipeline.
The android makes an exploratory dive, reports back on what he found, receives a briefing from Alex on what to do, and goes back. Eighteen hours later, a flood of data coming through fiber-optic cables routed through sewers and pipes is ready to feed into the farm. Alex’s software is ready, and they strut like a rooster as the dashboard metrics flip over from red to green, one by one.
Emma is now the full-time cooling technician. She hates it, and she complains about it, but Alycia promises her due compensation for her time, once the project pays out dividends. Privately, Alycia finds this the best part of the whole plan, since Emma will hold Alex responsible if it fails, and that keeps the both of them out of her hair.
That leaves SNOWMAN and Nono. The robot neuroscientist is busy reformulating Nono’s wonder drug, and as per usual doesn’t play well with others. So Alycia takes it upon herself to step up Nono’s training. Demanding physical exertions, a grueling exercise routine, and a strict diet are where she starts.
“This isn’t what you promised,” Nono pouts.
“These are the fundamentals,” Alycia explains, somewhat impatiently. “Everything else depends on your body and mind being a high-performance tool for your will and your skills to employ.”
By the time Alex reports interesting findings, Alycia has gotten Nono’s routine down from ninety minutes to a solid hour.
Alycia spends an hour reviewing the data. She spends another hour double-checking it.
“This is indeed Chin-type activity,” she concludes.
“Cool. Then we’ve got actionable intel. When do we leave?” SNOWMAN is antsy, ready to be out doing stuff again.
“Not yet. I want to emphasize that my father’s style is to weave a web of influence, then tug on the strings of that web to achieve his ends. We’ve found strands of that web. We’re only ready to strike once we spot the spider.”
SNOWMAN throws up his hands and walks away. In his place, Alex brings something else to the group’s attention.
“Hey remember those dudes in Khartoum? The guy who took a fall? He didn’t make it.”
The room is solemn for a moment. Nono, who threw the vase responsible for his fall, cringes. Alex keeps going anyway, doing their best to sound reassuring. “Hey that was all self defense, but listen, it wasn’t the fall. He poisoned himself. The Khartoum cops got the report from the hospital. Also, anyone know an Inspector Lee Yan of INTERPOL? Because they requested a copy of the report.”
Alycia shakes her head, and glances at Emma, who does the same.
Alex clears their throat. “Okay, well, uh. I’m really curious how we’re not all gonna be arrested after all this is over. But anyway! The report. Those guys pissed the Khartoum cops off really bad, and the General Intelligence Service even got involved. So they went over everything with a fine-toothed comb. Get this. The guy was kitted out like a soldier, but the medical examiner noted he’s got calluses and scars that look like he’s a manual laborer. He’s ethnically a Khalkha Mongol.”
Alycia thinks. “Some of the intel pings were in Mongolia. That may be worth investigating, while we figure out the rest of our plan.”
Emma finds Nono crumpled into a pile in the corner, crying.
She sits adjacent, and strokes Nono’s hair gently. She’s not sure what to say, so she pulls Nono’s head down onto her shoulder.
Finally some kind of words come. “Training is tough, huh?”
“Yeah…”
This isn’t sad sobbing. This isn’t terrified blubbering. This is just a human being giving into their own weaknesses. Emma has heard it plenty of times. She used to exult in causing it.
“I’m not gonna tell you I told you so.”
Nono doesn’t respond, and Emma winces. She tries something else. “How about instead, I told you so and I was wrong, because you’re still here, toughing it out?”
The crying retreats into sniffling.
Okay, good, that worked…
A need for honesty burns at her, and she opens her mouth before she can really stop herself. “I cried a lot too, or used to. Things were hard on me too. Now I only cry on the inside. You haven’t failed, Nono. You’re just… you’re just not finished succeeding yet. The stuff you’re doing is incredible, but it’s gonna be tough too. And I’ll be here with you.”
Nono sits up slightly.
Emma watches her, feeling like maybe there’s something she’ll say. When it turns out there’s not, she tries a question. “Hon, why is this so important to you, anyway?”
“Because–” Nono’s explanation is interrupted by a hiccup, but she tries again.
“Because… my folks… people at school… nobody notices me. Nobody cares. There’s nothing special about me.”
She rubs at her eyes with a forearm, ineffectively. “But… then there’s people like the Ponies, an’ you, an’ Leo, an’ Alycia, an’ other folks, and they care, they listen, they want me in their lives, and…”
She coughs. “An’ then I go back home, or I go to school, and it’s just invisible weird Nono again. Little Nono who doesn’t matter, or who’s a freak, who’s gonna light something on fire, who’s ugly and plain. And… and…”
She starts slapping a fist against the wall. “And I-- am-- worth-- more-- than-- that.”
She draws her legs up and hugs them, forehead against knees. “I am gonna be better than that.”
Emma rests an arm around Nono’s shoulders, and leans in. “You’re already worth the world, hon.”
The rest is silence, but now silence is okay.
Alycia is cleaning her guns when SNOWMAN interrupts her.
“I’ve figured you out.”
Her eyeroll doesn’t interfere with the cleaning, which she could do eyes closed. “And I’m sure you’re here to share your marvelous insight.”
SNOWMAN props himself up on the table where she’s sitting. “You gotta be the one to do this. Sure sure. Not because you know your dad best - sure, that helps, I get that like nobody else on the planet gets it.”
“As insights go, that’s rather unspectacular.” Alycia spares him a withering glance and keeps working.
“Nah.” SNOWMAN swings his legs up, adopting a cross-legged sitting pose on the table, staring down at her. “Tomorrow - metaphorically - is the day you nail your dad, or your brother, or whatever the fuck is out there waiting for us. You’re thinking about the day after tomorrow. When does Alycia Chin get to stop being a terrorist? When does she get a normal life? Stop the life of gun battles and black ops and infiltrations? When is it over?”
Alycia lets out a long breath, and puts the pistol’s pieces down. She stares up at the android. “I had a talk with Leo about this, actually. I asked, basically, how does he deal with the constant observation AEGIS has on us? He compared it to having a disease, with AEGIS as my physicians. That I might be contagious for life, so to speak.”
SNOWMAN takes this in. “Huh. Yeah, I can see that analogy.”
Alycia raises an eyebrow. “What? No impassioned pleas for empathy for your situation? No attempt to say how trapped you are in a similar dilemma?”
The android snorts. “All you’d give me is sarcasm. Your defense mechanism.”
Alycia draws back ever so slightly. “Sorry,” she says finally. “I’m not good at caring for other peoples’ situations.”
“And maybe I need to get better at looking past my own needs,” concedes SNOWMAN.
Alycia nods in acknowledgement. “Fair enough. And so, what about this day after tomorrow?”
“Well, I figure, if you’re the one who brings down the remnants of the Chin empire, all on your own - minus us, but we don’t count - I mean without shit such as an AEGIS strike team or the vast Quill empire - if you pull that off, you figure there can’t be any doubt any more. People will have to accept you as Good People, in spite of whatever shit you did before. Did under your dad’s thumb, I’ll add, because that distinction matters.”
Alycia looks thoughtful. “So I see the defeat of Pyrrhus Chin as my real redemption?”
“Maybe.”
She resumes the gun cleaning. “I’ll admit it’s not a bad theory. Now, what’s your point? Are you trying to earn your Psychology merit badge?”
SNOWMAN hops off the table. “Nah. I just came to say that if that’s your deal, I sincerely wish you luck and I’ll do what I can to make it happen. I mean obviously, here we are.” He gestures inclusively at the school-turned-crypto-farm they’re bunked out in. “But beyond that, y’know, as far as some of us are concerned, you’re already Good People. Just remember that.”
He walks off, only halting when she calls out. “Hey, SNOWMAN.”
He turns, and smiles. “Call me John. John Black. We’re all about reinventing ourselves on this team.”
“John. Thank you. That means a lot.”
The android waves, and is gone.