A Mermaid's Tale

"She wasn't." Booker said.

"Not even close. I only discovered recently that the Omaha personality was so afraid of dying again that she manipulated the A.I. into divulging the scanning technology and she built her own and copied herself into a data crystal. She installed that crystal as the A.I. running the Zoo. She also stole and created multiple puppet boxes which have been reclaimed and destroyed. The next part is only conjecture, but I think she either fooled Jason into believing the A.I. was Mags or he knew from the beginning. Without questioning him we may never know. What I do know for sure is that Mags was capable of infiltrating not only other A.I.'s but human beings as well."

"Through their BMI's." Kusanagi chimed in at this point.

"Exactly. She forced poor Pendergrass right out the damn window." Nick snapped angrily. "Who knows the full extent of the damage done to Sherlock and the like. He was the A.I. running Scotland Yard." He explained. "Over time the schism inside of Omaha and the Mags A.I. only grew worse. Mags was a kind, if greedy, woman that had a wonderful childhood. While the woman that would be known as Omaha lived a nightmare until she escaped an obscenely abusive childhood. I only found out later about the murders. I do not know if anyone else will piece together just how prolific her body count was before the water took her."

"Ghost in the machine?" Elrica asked and only Nick seemed to understand her question.

"I have purged every A.I. that she could have come in contact with." Nick stated. "I have sent out the seventh generation A.I.'s early with no extra charge. It is the least I could do, and it got rid of any lingering vestige of Mags or Omaha."

"How generous." Surfer chided her creator. "What he has not said is that some of us are more advanced than others. I am a ninth gen digital personality."

"That is why you left when we faced Mags." Booker added.

"I am far too valuable to risk. I know too much about a great many things." She bragged. "I am his first born."

"I am going to miss Japan." Mephala, the four-armed spider girl, announced from above the group. "I love the sunsets here."

"Surfer pull up anchor and let us get this party started. I figure by the time we reach the Bahamas Garrett, and the others will be ready and waiting for us."

"Thank you for letting me see my homeland again," Kitsune Ninetails purred in Booker's ear. "May I play for you?" She asked holding up her flute.

The haunting beauty of the music fit Booker's mood perfectly. There were unanswered questions and Jason's disappearance nagged at his happiness. Iris had been hit with an injector during her fight with Jason and yet he had talked to her and Ivy over a video call a week after events at the Zoo. So, that injector was not phase two of Ariel. It had restored her instead, well, back to her pure blooded Sidhe form. Who had thrown the injector? There was no footage of Jason's escape after the satellite weapon hit the area. All that data had been lost. Maybe this time the bad guy gets away with untold millions. He stands out in a crowd so why can't we find him. Unless he had an injector that was his final disguise. He was smart enough for that. He let go of the angst, looked around at all the beauty around him, and consigned to his fate smiled.

Elrica, the albino mouse girl danced with the music. Mephala, who reminded him of an ancient Hindu goddess, watched everyone from the safety of her web. Anuba and Cloud talked about playing with and breaking a former commissioner of Scotland Yard. Kusanagi, Niamh, and Qadira lounged around the pool sharing war stories.

"He backflipped and slammed his foot under the guy's jaw I tell you." Kusanagi said with her hand mimicking the action. "That should have broken any normal man's jaw, but this was a..."

The weight of the last few weeks and the death's involved laden Booker down. It was not simply physical exhaustion but emotional as well.

"I am tired. I am going to take a nap." Booker announced. The women watched him rise and head off. Strange he thought none of them offered to join him. Maybe they sensed his need for some quiet time. Booker walked down the steps to his darkened cabin. His keen eyesight let him enter and undress without the need for external lighting. The pale moonlight that shone through the porthole was more than enough for him. He let out a long heavy sigh before turning to face his bed. Two pairs of amethyst eyes shone in the pale illumination. Eye shine from twins keeping his bed warm for him.

"I told you he was tired," Ivy purred.

"Maybe, we can get rid of some of that nasty stress." Iris moaned.

"Come to bed Booker," Ivy directed as she pulled down the sheets.

"Yes Booker, come to bed." Iris growled playfully.

He crawled from the foot of the bed and settled between the sisters. He was about to ask a dozen questions, but their kisses stole away his curiosity and replaced it with simple hunger and passion. It could wait he thought. Hell, the whole world would keep on spinning while he made love to them. He surrendered and they in turn gave him everything he needed.

George Inkpen lay recovering from his open-heart surgery. The old heart had been cut out and discarded. A new young organ beat in his chest. His daughter had done this. His Ivy had made this possible. He wanted to be angry with her, but he could not. She loved him and he knew her twin would have done the same thing. They were of one mind those two. They were strong willed and independent, like their mother. The longing rose like a whale from the depths of the ocean. She had lit his life for so many years and now he was in darkness.

"I should have gone with her. I was a fool." He said as one of the nurses entered his room. "Do not let love slip through your fingers young lady," he said barely looking at her. "If it is true and strong it is worth a little sacrifice to maintain it. I wish... what is that?" He asked as the nurse took a hypodermic needle, stabbed it into the IV feeding tube and injected the contents. George felt woozy and feverish. "I am dying."

"No, you old fool." Ivory Inkpen laughed. "You are being reborn. I will sit with you my love as the devilish concoction does it work. When you wake, I will show you my world and beyond. The elders have answered my prayer and with my blood such delights we shall share together. Now, sleep and dream and know that I am here when you awake."

Tears of joy streamed down George Inkpen's face as his eyes closed. True to her word Ivory stood the watch as the change took place. She smiled and waited to be reunited with the only mortal to win her heart completely.

"I love you George."

Then: A transitory moment of time occurring in the ever-receding past.

One million gallons of water. The aquarium was one of the largest in the world and yet it was nearly empty. She swims alone. This tank is closed to the public. While the families watch the sharks and other aquatic wildlife swim in carefully prepared ecosystems she swims alone. Only a few and all of them extremely wealthy visit her and watch her swim. She is alone because she is to be moved soon to a military black site for training. If she musters out successfully, she will be the mother of the next generation of aquatic warfare. She swims alone.

A solitary figure stands near the thick glass wall watching her frolic and swim. The hoodie is up, dressed casually in jeans, and brand-new tennis shoes. The figure reaches out and a loud clack of a wedding band strikes the glass. She moves like a living torpedo and hovers near the other. Her long mane of colorless hair hangs behind her like a cloud of spider silk or fine-spun glass. She places her webbed hand against the glass mirroring the solitary figure.

"You do not remember me, do you?" The figure asks and sees the blank expression on the mermaid's face. Her eyes, protected by nictating membranes, are gorgeous yet empty. "They took your long-term memory did they. Pity. I am leaving. They are coming for you soon. They are going to turn you into a weapon. You are going to kill until, if you are lucky, they will breed you like a racehorse." The bitterness is like poison and she flinches and swims away. "You will never be able to swim fast enough to escape them." Iris Inkpen-Rainwater pulled the hood of her sweatshirt down and smiled. Her identical twin Ivy joined her from the shadows.

"We need to go." Ivy urged. "You have seen Jason let us move. Booker is anchored off Japan. It will be like old times. Japan! Besides, I want a tour of that yacht of his."

"You want what I want." Iris purred hungrily. "He made us whole. I want that more than anything."

"He did... they are coming! Hurry!" Ivy hissed softly as she pulled up her own hood. Iris mirrored her sister's gesture. The sound of a door banging alerted the hooded figures. They dash silently to an access tunnel and flee with a smile on their lips.

"There she is gentleman," the barrel-chested General harumphed as he and six others approach the aquarium. "She has to be kept alone. When she is placed with fish she goes on a killing spree. Vicious bitch really."

"A good beginning." The man in the thousand euro suit chuckled. "I hear she performed at the Zoo for a time."

"That was our initial cover for her. She performed well enough." The General snickered. "That was before the chemical lobotomy became necessary. She went psychotic. She killed the lead developer and had to be put down, per se."

"They never found his body, did they?" The American asked as he placed a THC patch on his throat. "Anyone?" He offered from an open platinum case containing more patches. "Takes the edge off."

"That would be the crew," the General rumbled as the double doors leading to this aquarium burst open and four men wheeling a glass and metal cylinder entered. "She is all yours gentlemen. Do you wish to stay and watch or perhaps you would prefer lunch at my club?"

"I have never been to the Janus Club," the American said his voice tinged with a dreamy quality. The rest chose food over watching the mermaid be drugged, netted, and stuck into the portable tank.