NationStates Jolt Archive

http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/4444/invisiblenetworkbj0.png

The Invisible Network

WHAT?

I decided to put the single question into perspective: How can a social structure like that of Third Spanish States work? What leaded mankind from every single cultural shift... from the Church controlled feudalism to the merchantilist absolute monarchies of the Renaissance to the capitalist democracies of the Modern Age? What would lead a representative democracy and free market culture into a mutualist anarchist one? There are two ways to see the evolution of mankind's history. One, with more scientific basis is that history is an uncontrolled evolution of human societies and of the interaction among them. While the other, somewhat far-fetched view is that mankind's history is a succession of conspiracies and secret manipulations from Eminence Grises and even secret societies on the public ones from behind the scenes, leading to a complex world of deceit, plots and cabals. I decided to take the latter for the secret history of Third Spanish States.

Politics in Third Spanish States are much more contrived and shady than the public imagines. Behind the will of Cortez, its founder, lie an organization which existed for decades beyond the knowledge of most, behind the transparent nodes of the EDDNet lies something really big that keeps everything on the way they should be according to their beliefs and avoid everything from falling apart. But sometimes accidents lead people to stumble into things they shouldn't know about, and that is the primary motor of this story to follow.

INSPIRATIONS

I think it's a fair game to mention the inspirations I took for this story. First of course, although already quite obvious GURPS Illuminati and all those conspiracy theories in the Internets of Illuminati, Skull and Bones, MiBs, Black Helicopters, people disappearing and alike are one of the primary sources of inspiration, and also from it I indirectly borrowed some elements of The Illuminatus! Trilogy, particularly the catchphrases and FNORDisms.
Another source is the actual concept of the Invisible Network (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_dictatorship#Invisible_Network), which I twisted a bit from its idealized form because that form is far from being realistic to occur. Secrecy is an excellent form of power for those who have little or not ethics when trying to achieve their ends. Other source I also used was the Black Projects of CIA, specially the MK-ULTRA, and the Majestic 12, although I'm probably not going to add UFOs to this story and finally the whole thing is organized into covert cells (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_cell), meaning that usually each of their members know no more than 2 others, 1 being the recruiter and other his cell mate.

IMPORTANT - RULES AND NOTES

Now I have things to ask, or "the rules" if you prefer to see them that way. First this is entirely Secret In-Character, no "My uber 0wn4g3 spies discovered U!!!!111oneone" crap and similar godmodding will be tolerated, and any In-Character mention of the Invisible Network, unless you are roleplaying a "conspiracy theorist uber-geek in basement" type of character will be considered metagaming and I'll simply ignore it.

Second, do not post on this thread at all because this is a story thread and posts will clutter it unnecessarily, if you have any comments telegram me instead. I'll make an OOC thread later if a large enough quantity of people start to have lots questions on it.

Third, Expect violence and alike, and several references, although I won't describe a headshot with all the gruesome details of the effect of a jacketed hollow point bullet when penetrating and fragmenting inside a brain, this won't be a walk in the park "for all ages" either.

Fourth, I'll use reference images here and there but they are not the exact portrayals of the characters and environments, just the closest approximations I could find, so if you prefer to think up on the visual by yourself, just ignore those links with images, unfortunately artworks are beyond my skills and they would take too much of my time to be reasonable for use anyway. Not all links lead to images though, some of them I use to point explanations to certain technological concepts.

With this there is not much else to add in this preface besides the fact the prologue will be labeled "ALPHA02" and further chapters "ALPHA03", "ALPHA04" and so on, to make things easier for locating a specific part of this story. And of course, you can skip the Images Intro with one-liners from the Wisdom of the Illuminati (http://www.sjgames.com/illuminati/wisdom.html) and the Introduction itself if you wish. And obviously there'll be irregular posts in this thread as the story progresses further. Also, this story relates to a small group of character-based roleplays and stitch them together into a finale which shall be unraveled later. Finally I can add further chapters besides those four planned if I decide to further the story beyond them.

SUMMARY(W/ LINKS)


Graphic Opening Vignette* (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13391195&postcount=2)
Introduction(ALPHA01) (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13391199&postcount=3)
Prologue(ALPHA02) (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13391207&postcount=4)
Chapter 1: Of Criminals, Black Projects and Puppetry(ALPHA03) (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13391218&postcount=5)

Segments:
Smile! The Network is watching you. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13397703&postcount=6)
If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be research. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13399867&postcount=7)
If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be research.(Part 2) (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13449561&postcount=8)
If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be research.(Part 3) (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13499620&postcount=9)

Chapter 2: Will to Power, Action to Lead(ALPHA04)
Chapter 3: Into the Core, Out of Sacrifices(ALPHA05)
Chapter 4: And the Tape Runs Out(ALPHA06)


*Sorry 52k users, but at least most pics are in the 10-20k range.

http://www.ubercon.com/images/illuminati_125.gif
The Invisible Network


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b5/Majic6.jpg/250px-Majic6.jpg
Graphic Opening Vignette
All one-liners were taken from here (http://www.sjgames.com/illuminati/wisdom.html). And here is the Recommended Soundtrack ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-9L-RZkod4 ). Now watch out, they are watching YOU!!


http://thump01.pbase.com/g6/88/589588/3/82059229.tOEirLRx.jpg

Anarchy - It's not the law, it's just a good idea.

Tell the truth and run.

http://www.cratesavers.com/main/images/stories/news/blackops325.jpg

Someone you trust is one of us . . .

Truth is stranger than fiction, because fiction has to make sense.

http://www.ontopofacloud.com/images/Skulla1.jpg

Organize for anarchy!

Beware of the superficially profound

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/area-51-1.jpg

The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.

Help! The paranoids are out to get me!

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/images/AIR_K-X_MACK-type_Concept_lg.gif

FNORD

Hail Eris! All hail Discordia!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/97/Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird.jpg/300px-Lockheed_SR-71_Blackbird.jpg

If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be research.

Smash the state, and have a nice day.

http://images.abovetopsecret.com/comanche.jpg

If we do not change our direction we are likely to end up where we are headed.

A friend is someone you call to help you move. A real friend is someone you call to help you move a body.

http://www.sjgames.com/mib/images/mib-logo.gif

I don't see you, so don't pretend you're there.

This is a test. This is only a test. Had this been a real emergency, you would all be dead by now.

http://www.chapi.de/wp-content/fnord.png
Introduction(ALPHA01)

"Anarchism does not exclude prisons, officials, military, or other symbols of force. It merely demands that non-invasive men shall not be made the victims of such force. Anarchism is not the reign of love, but the reign of justice. It does not signify the abolition of force-symbols but the application of force to real invaders."
Benjamin Tucker, Liberty. October 19, 1891.

"We are the most pronounced enemies of every sort of official power -- even if it is an ultra-revolutionary power. We are the enemies of any sort of publicly declared dictatorship, we are social revolutionary anarchists. But, you will ask, if we are anarchists, by what right do we want to influence the people, and what methods will we use? Denouncing all power, with what sort of power, or rather by what sort of force, shall we direct a people's revolution? By a force that is invisible, that no one admits and that is not imposed on anyone, by the collective dictatorship of our organization which will be all the greater the more it remains unseen and undeclared, the more it is deprived of all official rights and significance."
Mikhail Bakunin, Letter to Sergei Nechaev.

"The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes."
Benjamin Disraeli, first Prime Minister of England



Some question how an essentially anarchist society could have progressed so far. In fact there is always those with a strange outlook on history which try to fight literary windmills of New World Orders, conspiracies and not so accidental events, or maybe history itself is naturally strange. But never in mankind's history a society built on the principles of Anarchism has succeeded, and much less in such large scale. The question on why did Third Spanish States succeed where Paris Commune, CNT/FAI, Freetown Christania and many others have failed puzzled historians, sociologists, anthropologists and political scientists of other parts of the world for ages.

This "awe", according to the Third Spanish States scholars and researchers, is nothing but the result of a "Statist conditioning to make people believe a hierarchy-less society is impossible spreading throughout and corrupting all spheres of knowledge including the ivory tower of universities, like a blindfold put into mankind scholars which can only be removed by refusing the State-sponsored propaganda-'education' and seeking self-learning instead". Although many refused to give credit to their highly critical view of traditional education as a form of "brainwashing" and their "explanation" still contained gaps which couldn't be filled. Primarily, elements like what has shifted the culture of a nation so drastically to the point that the majority of its citizens would commit the most gruesome suicide or fight to death rather than accepting living as an oppressed people, as demonstrated by the early and failed attempts of slavers to capture people from Third Spanish States. And how was their armed society so filled with the best and worst of freedom of speech instead of being a society of fear where respect was acquired through force? How can they balance their blatant lack of pacifism demonstrated by large amounts of civilian militias with their anti-imperialist ideals? And what puzzled even many of the most brilliant generals was how the hell did their military work without hierarchies, medals and all elements of traditional military forces? How did their non nuclear family but collective structures existed in harmony with the nuclear families? Why were dozens of coup d'etat attempts defeated with such efficiency? While those questions remained without clear answers, economists were puzzled on why the major cooperatives did not attempt to be become monopolies.

But the pivotal question to all the unconventional social, cultural, economic and military structures of Third Spanish States was the most difficult question to understand, the question of what kept everything together and united with common goals in such non-coercive and decentralized social order, as it was expected, and including predicted by a neoconservative writer, that separatism would soon split the entire Confederacy of Third Spanish States into several independent cities which did not cooperate among themselves, eventually creating a larger and larger division among people to the point of collapse of their social order.

The answer to all these questions was not something people should know about. Something very secret existed beyond the public accesses of the EDDNet. Clearance levels, classifications, an entire "onion" hierarchy of trust split through countless of covert cells, one stacked into another until the very core of the system. Such was the structure of the organization which kept everything together, a secret organization that only hushed whispers and paranoid conspiracy theorists mentioned, it was more know as the Invisible Network, although others also called it as the Invisible Dictatorship. Having members in all known direct democratic networks and public interest spheres, the Network guides the fate of Third Spanish States like a puppeteer guiding its puppet, with a precision derived from intensive knowledge of human behavior. In fact they could with little difficulties subtly suggest the people on how to vote on daily issues, while in their own secret issues, every possible activity could occur, unrestrained by any ethics except that of never harming those who are innocents in the means used to achieve their ends. And those who weren't innocents were not lacking either, as it seemed a "capitalist psyche", as they called it, continue to perpetuate through part of the youth, which took refuge in the last existing bastion of capitalism: the organized crime. Or perhaps the criminality raises were part of a larger plan, there is very little that can be ascertained from such organizations like the Invisible Network besides their existence, as their methods of operation challenged most conventional assumptions regarding politics.

Nobody from outside it knew about its existence, until now, as one of the non-innocents they took for their own purposes was also the loved one of the most powerful criminal mind of Third Spanish States, and in his despair he sought her, uncovering even the false burial and death used to cover-up what truly happened with the wife of Pablo Medellin. Having only at his side the loyal bodyguard James and a defected operative of the Invisible Network he knows only as Paco, he was about to engage into a journey to find her wife, and eventually and involuntarily, maybe find the truth and what conspiracy such Invisible Network was really up to... should he not be killed first for both his crimes and for "knowing too much".

http://www.aquariusage.com/images/artimages/De_werkelijke_Men_in_Black.jpg
Prologue(ALPHA02)

Third Spanish States, Tucker, Morgue and Forensics #7, 6:30 AM, 15th of January of 2038

The car was parked as Pablo reached to the main entrance of the still mostly empty, decrepit-looking building in that still empty street, he expected only one person to be inside, his contact known only as Paco. He then took the intercomm of it, located at the left of the large glass doors and asked:
"Any body? Home?"
"Oh, you have arrived! Everything is on the way, come on in with the body!", the familiar voice announced, although its tone was a bit uneasy.
"I am coming!", Pablo replied as he closed the intercomm, but he felt something was out of place in this situation, it seemed too convenient for him that the doctor would already have settled all for the forensics of the body

"James, there is something wrong here. Paco never was so timely before and always got everything I wanted late! Did you bring any additional hardware?", he asked
"Of course Pablo, while you was settling things with those who were to receive the shipment from Yanitaria, I took my time to hoard some flashbangs and silenced MP5 submachineguns", he said as he opened one of his briefcases where there were two H&K MP5SD-N and three stun grenades.
"Let's take them, I think this is a trap and someone seriously don't want us to discover what truly happened to Maria."
"Uh... boss? I think you are starting, with no offense intended, to look a bit paranoid", James said to Pablo with a strange look.
"Let's go there, carefully and you'll see what I mean. Stay alert!"
Pablo said as he readied his MP5SD-N to fire, putting it in full auto.

As they opened the front door of the clerk-less building, they soon headed inside, sneaking through its white corridors towards the office of Paco, finding no threat in their way. Now they were in a corridor of the second floor, and all that was between them and whatever was in Paco's office was a wooden door.

Pablo gestured to James to ready a flashbang to throw as soon as he opened a small space in the door. Then he moved his hand to the door knob as James readied to pull the pin.

As James pulled the pin, Pablo opened a quick space in the door from where he threw the flashbang, bouncing inside it as a completely strange voice shouted:
"Grenade! Run!", and two men in black, using black sunglasses ran from the door, becoming easy targets to their suppressed submachineguns. About 18 rounds pierced through both men armed with silenced pistols as the grenade detonated, emitting an unbearable noise and larges amounts of blinding flash. Both strange men were killed as Pablo shrugged: "I told you I am not becoming paranoid! Now check these strange guys while I talk Paco.", he asked to James.


As Pablo entered the door, Paco was trying to recover from the scare from behind his desk as Pablo sat down. First he remained for one hour with two guns pointed at his head, and now a flashbang. But he tried to look formal in front of the Medellin.
"What the hell happened here?", Pablo asked with his eyes resonating rage.
"These men stalked me and then kept me here and threatened to kill me if I did not collaborate with them to ambush you. But it seems you were clever enough to prevent it".
Pablo pointed his submachinegun at Paco's head without question then and asked, in a menacing tone of voice:
"Or maybe... they bribed you to betray me liar! Tell the truth and I'll kill you now, lie to me and I'll keep you in a cage for Maria to exact her revenge on you!"

The old doctor was shaking of fear: "I swear it! I never saw these men before, they never gave me any contact or identified who they worked for. They simply came out of nothing like they did not exist before!"
Pablo lowered his weapon and said "I will trust you for now. But don't you have any idea at all of who they are?"
Paco, calming himself explained: "As I said, they gave no names, identities or mentioned nothing at all on why they wanted you, I did not even know if they wanted you dead or alive, but I noticed something peculiar about them that maybe your bodyguard has also spotted, something really strange"
"Yes? and what could be so strange about these men who were here to get me in this failed ambush?", Pablo asked, trying to read the facial expressions of the doctor.

"This is really strange Pablo, but these men, they lack any form of fingerprint and I wouldn't be surprised if they had no toeprints either.", he replied, being much calmer now than before.
"Where the hell would someone make a surgery to remove a significant part of biometrics?", Pablo asked, pondering on a thought he wanted to dismiss but couldn't.
"There is only one type of place with enough technology and resources for it, and the chances a clandestine operation could afford them is very slim. These men must have probably removed part their biometrics in a public experimental hospital... and you know they watch things too much there for crooks to be allowed...", he shrugged.
"So are you implying that there are some influential people from the EDDNet behind this?", Pablo asked, with far-fetched thoughts swirling in his mind.
"Yes, that is what I am implying... and this mister Pablo, means our lives are in a greater danger than you could imagine", he explained
"But who would have the power to bypass all the direct democratic processes of the EDDNet to perform this type of black operation from beyond the view of the public? I expected all knew everything done by the government!", he frowned.
"By the public government, of course. Now, I have much to tell you considering what happened here, but... do you swear to protect my life if I do it?", the old doctor asked.
"Though it would be easier to make you say it at gunpoint, I don't see why not. Just don't keep behind my pace after we get out of here. So I promise the Medellins will protect you from whatever these guys work for.", Pablo said, smiling.

"I was a part of the Invisible Network, but they did not trust me enough and put me here as the dead who come here more oftenly than the alive never ask questions.", he then said, with a shiver as if the act of telling such thing was the formalization of a death sentence.
"Invisible Network? What the heck is that?"
"I never was sure about its finer details from my degree. But what I know is that they are a secret society operating inside Third Spanish States, influencing politics and performing scientific research of the type most people would consider ethically questionable... by using people 'everybody' hates as test subjects and forging their deaths... like probably...your wife Maria", Paco said, trying to be as frank as possible as Pablo had another nervous breakdown. He seemed to attempt trying to hide strong emotions
"PIGS! They are making experiments on her and... making her suffer! I'll hunt them down and kill them one by one! I'll end them no matter what I will! Find her! I must find her... I..."
He soon did facepalm to attempt to avoid crying. It was not a good thing for his reputation for him to be seen crying. He couldn't avoid though as he really loved her beyond the desires of pleasure. It wasn't everyday a feared criminal boss could be seen crying, but only a tear dropped from his eyes as he took a hold of himself again and stood proudly and with a cold facade:

"Where did they take her?", he asked aggressivelly
"The Invisible Network operates through covert cells, I never knew more than what I had to and they never gave me the location of a single of their facilities, so I am afraid I do not know", the doctor said

"Boss! I've found something in one of those bodies", James interrupted.
"Yes James, what is it?"
"You won't believe it!", James answered.
"Can you come here and show me it then?"
"Yes, I am coming in".
James then arrived, all he was carrying was a matchbox
"A matchbox? Is this the thing I won't believe in?", Pablo frowned
James ignored his question, simply opening the small matchbox to reveal a computer circuit and a small USB plug inside it, it was some type of portable storage device.

"Portable camouflaged experimental encryption drive", Paco explained as he saw it. "Requires a personal encryption key which would need a hundred of deep blues working in five years to be broken.", he added with a shrug.
"Would it be impossible to guess the password?", Pablo asked.
"Passphrase and no, it wouldn't if he was a normal member. Most simply use their 'new birth' last names as passwords, but you won't find them in any document. But they are relatively easy to force I believe. Because They range from Alpha to Zeta as the first character and to zero-zero to ninety-nine as second and third characters, and a 3 characters password can be broken even by a personal computer with enough time", he added as Pablo guarded the "matchbox" in his pocket.

"I suppose you will be safer if you come to me. I'll find a safehouse with some good electronics equipment in Bacconi, and I'm sure you are going to end dead soon if you stay here.", Pablo said as he started to move back to the outside.
"I am going with you, now I am damned one way or another", he shrugged as he followed Pablo and James. They then took the car, and started to head out of Tucker and back to the woods, hoping nothing would attempt to stop them during their travel.

http://www.gameslore.co.uk/acatalog/Images/SJ1375TN.jpg
Chapter 1: Of Criminals, Black Projects and Puppetry(ALPHA03)

Third Spanish States, Unknown Location, 20:00 PM, 5th of August of 2038

It was a windowless place, lightened by artificial fluorescent lights over its cold steel and concrete walls and white marble floor, probably inside a hidden bunker dug a few meters below the ground. Several beds, making about a hundred in total, were empty there, lined to its walls while a small room of unknown dimensions due to its mirrored glass could be seen further ahead, and also with several small tables filled with several types of chemicals and surgical instruments near the beds, but most of notice was that every bed was equipped with straps like those of an electric chair. It was obviously some type of secret research facility for... testing on involuntary human subjects. Inside the mirrored glass room there were three observation posts with three seats and networked computers, and two people who apparently were doctors talked about something:

"Doctor Selene Alpha-Seven (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c4/TatianaRomanova.jpg), the request from the Network operatives in MilNet to Zackaroth was accepted, they are going to wire payment for the subjects", informed an young doctor in a white coat as he looked at the young psychologist, she was a fierce and young woman at her twenties, with curly light brown hair, green eyes and a cold stare which seemed to be devoid of any feelings which returned to the experienced man. The operatives were people they had no idea on who they were, as every single contact they had were through intermediaries or several proxy computers through the use of experimental quantum encryption (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_encryption#Implementations) technology.

"Good, doctor Salomón Beta-Nine (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/79/Thomas_Grace.jpg/200px-Thomas_Grace.jpg), this will hopefully start to propel this project of our cell forward. A single subject is too little and might not bring good enough results for our purposes. And that one is a bit soft... I feel pity of her to keep her much longer", she said with a cold smile as she remembered of Maria Emmet Nansen Medellin (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3f/SydneyBristow.PNG/200px-SydneyBristow.PNG), which she identified herself to as Isabel. She knew that woman wasn't always a ruthless criminal and knew a bit about her past, when she faithfully served the Blackguards Intelligence Agency, more known as the Spy Blackguards, and her own secret organization without knowledge, until something Selene wasn't informed about changed her forever. It was commonplace to know about someone involved as a test subject in such a black project and it seemed they had an interest on her for decades, although Selene could not understand why as the information they gave her on Maria was only what she really needed to perform her mission. Then her thoughts regarding her personal project faded as she heard from her cell mate:

"Selene, we are not going to cut open these thousands of human beings, are we?", the man asked as his still unsurpassed fear of blood and gore start to become shivering.
"Why would we?", she asked back,"that will probably not be necessary, what we are going to do here is long-term sensory deprivation experiments, in a much larger scale. Now why should you care about those scumbags? I have specially suggested, considering you, that the puppets ask for only the worst of them, to lift any weight from your own consciousness. Those who are coming here... I guarantee you they deserve much worse than what we'll do to then for the sake of science... and of saving other much more worthy human lives"

"But...", he sighed, "isn't this all wrong? To keep so many secrets... to hide so much from the people. Why?", he insisted as he felt a burden over his conscience. After all he never expected that the Network activities involved such things before joining in and wasn't a supporter of the idea that the ends justifies the means.

"Salo, our organization the only thing that keeps everything from falling apart into complete social chaos... or worse. Our efforts were and still are essential for the progress of our nation and of its ideals and we must remain for as long as States and would-be dictators exist through the world."

"Yes, but what if our own organization becomes corrupted?", he asked
"What Salo? Did you forget the oath and what happens to traitorous scum?", she replied, remembering him of the gruesome execution traitors would suffer, although nobody ever betrayed their secret society, from their knowledge.
"Yes... but some still try to use the organization to their own selfish ends"
"And end in the most painful possible deaths", she added with a shrug. "There is no hierarchy among us, each keep a watch on others and question every thing others request. As long as people remember to do these practices here, nothing bad will happen", she added.

"I hope so. Now what about the first subject, Maria?"
"No news yet, the experiment should end in 2 months. Maybe this first try wasn't as good as we hoped to", she shrugged
"We have to keep trying, and I'm sure that with so many people to test these principles upon something will happen", the man said.
"Oh, I am hearing that from someone who questioned the morality of what he was doing minutes ago!", she laughed coldly.
"I thought they were just random criminals Selene, now that I know that they are the worst of the worst, well, thank you for not putting us in a truly morally questionable situation."
"Our ends aren't questionable pal, what you were questioning before were the means. Thus the correct word would be 'ethically questionable'."
"Oh, are you a grammarian too?", he laughed.
"No, no, now I guess we should give a go to our bedrooms and to the cafeteria, it'll take some additional time before things start to get busy here", she added as they exited the observation room and headed inside the secret facility.

The door they opened to leave the observation room was labeled as "restricted area", and equally was the larger double door at their left which was used to transport test subjects. As they headed through the completely gray corridors (http://www.visualwalkthroughs.com/deusex/majestic12/DeusEx-2003-12-15-20-35-54-.jpg) they took a turn to left, passing through doors which led to several storage rooms, an armory and firing range where the third member of their cell, the tall black-haired, brown eyes and gun-loving parapsychologist Daniele was busy practicing her skills, a trio of bathrooms and their personal laboratories and bedrooms, until reaching farther ahead to the end of the large corridor where a metallic door stood, painted with red diagonal stripes symbolizing the location where they were was a highly restricted area.

Selene tilted her head down and she gazed at the retinal scanner just at the right of the door, it was a simple device in shape, a small box with two eye-sized glass lenses inclined at about 45 degrees above it. Soon a two red lights started to moved from the top of her green eyes to their bottom.

The doors opened, revealing a wide elevator. They entered in the elevator and turned around as she checked the numbers of its control. But rather than simple indicators of floors, those numbers were actually part of a keypad for inserting the correct code for each floor, an additional safety system besides retinal scanners to reduce even more the chances of unauthorized accesses.

"Salo, you know what to do now", she said in an almost automatic manner as she took a surgical mask and headdress from her left pockets and covered her entire face with them. From her right pocket, there was a small protuberance which was where she kept a pair of sunglasses, which she equally wore over her eyes. Her cell mate equally hid his face with the same accessories, as they now were getting away from their highly restricted cell and would stumble for a few seconds into other members of their organization, which would always be unidentifiable through disguises and whatever masks they had. Selene typed the number "2501" and then after an exact three seconds interruption ended it with "121". This was the code to the cafeteria of their secret base. Soon the elevator started to move up as they felt its fast speed and acceleration. After passing through about 5 floors it stopped as the metal doors opened, revealing a lightly crowded hallway (http://www.derelictlondon.com/1b9a8f2c0.jpg) of retro appearance where masked people where continually getting in and out of tiny rooms which were each reserved for one cell of the organization. There were six cells in that facility with a total of only 18 members performing 6 parallel Black Projects of increasing priority and security clearance, or at least that is what Selene thought as even her had no access to certain parts of this facility and no idea whether another even more secretive floor was below hers or not. As they left the elevator a group of three people dressed in black suits with masks hiding their faces (http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/35/images/eyes_masks.jpg) entered inside without saying a single word to them. The rule was to give no way of identification, not even the voice, everything inside that facility was highly compartmentalized. Nobody knew about the faces or names of the people besides those of their own cells and they were selected to come from geographically separated regions as well to reduce even further chances of identification. Thanks to this structure, should a cell be compromised, it would not disrupt the entire organization. It was a very effective structure.

After passing through the Security room where an idle entirely anonymous bunch of two men (http://www.deusexgaming.com/images/deusex/info/DXNormalChars/MIB.jpg) and one woman in black (http://www.deusexgaming.com/images/deusex/info/DXNormalChars/WIB.jpg), part of a cell dedicated to the security of this facility, played cards and watched the input of several security cameras in this and in other areas which were not considered above top secret, Selene looked as most "recreational" private rooms were full, after going to the end of the long hallway she finally found one which wasn't locked and occupied by the members of another cell. She entered there with Salomón, and she locked the door. All those rooms were sound-proofed and what happened between those four walls or in their private bedrooms was no business of the Network. It was simply a small room, with a single table where three chairs were located, a sink, a storage with dishes, utensils and hygiene products as they were supposed to clean their own mess, a fridge with several canned foods, a tight bathroom, a large bed and... the "special closet" where some of the more promiscuous cells tended to take several objects for doing what was nobody's business to know. However that's not what they were there for, as she simply took two canned spam from the fridge, opened a drawer where there were the spoons, forks and knives and a larger drawer were the plates were located, taking them for eating as the canned sardines were dropped over the plates. Selene sat on a chair facing directly the infamous closet while Salomón was across her as they started to take the first pieces of sardine and talk. It had almost not taste, being far from fresh but still edible, but it was what they could get there considering everything and their most safe and low profile mean of transportation to that facility.

"When do you plan to visit your parents and your daughter?", Salomón asked her.
"Next year, for now I think our cell will be still very busy for a vacation", she replied as she wondered on her family, specially on her young 4 years old only daughter which rarely ever saw her. She never actually married, but instead had her as a "designer baby" to her specifications as several samples of DNA from her and from male donors were collected and analyzed for the best possible result. It was saddening to her but necessary that she had to "abandon" them all to perform her duties as she added: "But I fear I'll have to 'die' if I wish to get further into the organization. They never mention it but I believe all those of the highest degrees are officially dead, just like with the case of the subjects", she added, trying to hide a sadness through her cold, expressionless face.
"I... understand. It must be hard all the sacrifices regarding those you have love to and must abandon", Salomón said.
"It is necessary and my work here will serve to save innocent lives in the future. My daughter was born strong as a creation of science, she shall surpass it. I admit I am not a good mother or a mother at all", she replied, trying to shake off the thought of having to fake her own death and leave her daughter forever alone.
"Don't worry Selene, their higher ups are as much alive as us. After all spotting a person who was supposed to be dead is one thing, spotting an alive person without any knowledge that this person belongs to an organization like ours is another., he added as he finished that can of sardines.
"Thanks Salo, but I will have to die, I am afraid. My work is too demanding and requires me to 'vanish' for years. People will start to get suspicious about my 'international diplomatic missions' sooner or later.", she added as she... glanced at the closet as the last piece of the sardine was eaten.
Salomón looked at her funnily "You are not thinking on?"
She quickly dismissed her question: "Of course not. Let's put our masks and head back to our facility, let me clean it", she smiled as she said. He nodded as he left and waited for her.

And thus he returned to that hallway and closed the door behind them. There were still some occupied recreational rooms, probably because whoever was there was interested in more than just eating. He awaited for Selene to come as he watched the motions of that place, masked people moving through several doors. It was something very strange to witness should an non initiated ever walk in those halls, something that would never realistically happen, considering the only way to get inside such facility.
He was already bored when she arrived after 5 minutes wearing a mask, logically, and also carrying a bag on her shoulder which she did not have before. He simply glanced at her with a shifty look as he noticed the bag.

Selene simply smiled silently and gestured him to follow her to the elevator which was on the opposite end of that hallway. They went again there, and now she started to type a different password on the keyboard of the elevator, she simply typed "570284", awaited two seconds and added "138" as a hidden slot in the elevator revealed a flat retinal scanner as she lowered her head to put her eyes into its coverage. A single red beam of light came from there, which crossed from up to the bottom of her eyes, also bathing her nose, and then vanish. In a fraction of seconds the slot closed shut again and the elevator started to go down. Soon they were back at their private floor where their Black Project involved parapsychology was coordinated. They wandered through the armory, a wide room filled with handguns, ammunition and even three FA-65 assault rifles and flashbangs, and where there were four shooting practice areas with mobile targets far ahead to hit, they had countless bullet holes on the regions that were intended to be the head and heart of an actual human. It was there that they greeted Daniele Delta-Five (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f8/Melinahavelock.jpg/250px-Melinahavelock.jpg), as she gave a last shot with a silenced Glock 18C pistol before going to them. She was dressed in a red outfit and brown pants like those of a vigilante, the equivalent of a policeman in their nation. She soon putted her gun in the black handgun holster of her belt as she smiled to the two partners of her cell, particularly noticing the bag Selene brought and said:

"Already back from the recreation? I see you brought something to eat here", Daniele said to both.
"Hey Daniele! Never lets your gun away heh?", Salomón grinned.
"It saved my life too many times, so as recognition I keep her with me all times. She's my fourth partner", she said with a sardonic smile
"All right, now I am curious Selene, what did you bring from there?"
Selene smiled maliciously as she was asked about it and replied: "We live in a liberal country right, no prude pricks to complain about anything at all around, yes? Why don't we all go to my bedroom to check it?"
Daniele tried to hold herself to look a bit like a moralist: "What? No way we are going to do that! It's wrong plain and simple and some of us are married"
Salomón quickly shrugged as he understood easily what she meant as well: "You took stuff from the closet? But... we are here for so much time and we are very close friends, yet this is wrong. You have a daughter, what kind of example would you like to give to her?"
Selene simply opened that bag, hiding what was there from them, and then took something from it and started to make suspense from what it was. Then suddenly she revealed a comb which she used to brush her hair.

"Ha! Nice one Selene! Hey let's go to her bedroom Salo, don't be a prude!", Daniele said as she laughed softly.
"All right, I can already see this was a prank to fool Daniele, now what's the point of going to your bedroom Selene.", he asked with a shifty look at her, from what he knew of her she tended to not be the prude type which reject certain pleasures based on traditionalist grounds.
"Well, if you want to go, I am going there.", Selene smiled as she passed her hand over her lips in a transversal motion.

And thus they headed further in the corridors to her private bedroom. It was a quite spacious place, with its entire floor covered by a anti-allergic brown carpet and its walls covered by a common yellow stripes wallpaper, while a fluorescent light hanged from the ceiling which was painted in yellow as well. There was a large, spacious bed there and several furnitures where she guarded her personal belongings. Soon Selene closed its door and also locked. The three individuals remained inside. Whatever might have happened in her private bedroom was no business of the Network.

Third Spanish States, Tucker, Morgue and Forensics #7, 6:50 AM, 15th of January of 2038

The still empty morgue in still empty streets, like always, and now more than ever considering what happened in the last minutes, seemed like a monument entirely dedicated to death, decay and stagnation. The only change that occurred to this two floors decadent construction of quasi hexagonal shape was the deterioration of its paint, showing several cracks on its walls that were acquired with its aging, the transformation of a surrounding plot of flowers of what was before its garden, into a thick amount of uncut grasslands and weeds which served as a home to every type of carrion eater among insects and vermin that were attracted to the scent of death emanating from such building, signs that of the fact that most Third Spanish States citizens cared nothing about the dead. The grey concrete ground of the parking area to its right, which could be fitted with 8 cars, seemed to be about to split in pieces as several cracks were visible and the white paint of the stripes which separated the space for each car to park was almost vanishing. Tire marks were clearly visible scorching that wasted and dusty ground in the parking space delineated by faint stripes on the farther left of this lot. Someone came there with an utility car, and got out of there pretty fast considering those marks.

It was in this decadent scenario that soon arrived a hydrogen powered black sedan, featuring several highly streamlined, quasi-geometric features on its front, while its body became gradually more ornate and complex in curves and shapes with increasingly curved and grooved regions closer to its rear and to the top of the hood, a wide octagon with the "TdC" words beveled over it was located at its front, above the bumper, All its windows were tinted with a black color which hid whoever was inside the car, and it reeked an air of mystery. It parked at the adjacent lot to that where the car that was there before stood, its engines shutting down as soon, and its doors opening vertically rather than laterally, as a tall man of black liss hair, without any fingerprints on his fingers and of pale skin, wearing black suit, white polo shirt, black tie, black pants, black rounded shape sunglasses and shoes came from inside it and as he closed the door of that sedan, which led its electronic control system to automatically lock the car and turn on its alarm, he started to discreetly move towards the morgue, in regular and noiseless steps. A tiny, almost imperceptible phone wire took a loop behind his ear and linked some type of radio directly to a discrete earphone located inside his ear, which was currently idle as he opened one of the glass doors and headed from the empty hall with an equally empty convex desk, to the double white door behind it, labeled as "Morgue and Second floor Entrance". He quickly opened such door by pushing it forward, revealing a small entrance room, another double door further ahead and two stairways to the left and right. Both walls and ceiling were of white cement, while there was a very old and visibly used chess-like black and white marble floor through the entire first floor of the building. The man in black took the staircase to the left, climbing several white degrees as he took the entire flight of stairs to one of the the corridors of the second floor where offices, archives and storage rooms were located.

He immediately noticed what happened less than thirty minutes ago as further ahead through the corridor of pine wood floor two bodies laid down over a pool of blood, and the walls to that end of corridor, near the room of doctor Paco, had visible holes provoked by bullets. The man simply walked slowly towards that crime scene, not shocked or appalled at all from seeing the two corpses of his fallen comrades and a pool of blood, as if such sights were as common to him as was to see people carrying guns around to a normal citizen. The man had no doubts as he immediately wore surgical gloves which were folded and tucked in the left pocket of his pants and started to search the bodies, putting both on their backs. He also took a quick check for wounds. One of them had 3 bullet wounds on his forehead and 3 others distributed against his neck, while the other almost had its head disfigured and brain parts gouged out by six bullets against several regions of his head, including one that transversed inside his mouth, besides 3 others which were distributed among his torso opening holes against the thorax. But he immediately checked for their pockets, inserting his hand and scooping everything that was inside the left pocket of each of those deceased men in search of something.
´"Damn him! He killed my buddies but at least he also bit the bait and took the matchbox!", the man thought as he did not find what he was looking for, soon he adjusted a tiny microphone near his mouth as he announced through the radio device. Only one organization would be able to intercept those signals: the Confederacy Espionage Directorate, but even then quantum encryption was theoretically unbreakable. His voice announced through the device, in a cold somber way:

"Mission result was failure, my cell was drastically compromised, however the matchbox bait was captured by target, who took with him Paco, either as a defector or as a hostage, severe breach risk in Morgue number seven, requesting permission to clean up everything before civilians arrive. Both target and Paco are unaware of tracking device inside matchbox. Also requesting immediate trace of its current location"
His request was answered, by a cold, robotic voice of a text-to-speech engine, used as a way to make it entirely impossible to recognize whoever was behind it:
"Your permission granted... proceed to clean up Morgue of all evidences... recommended procedure: incendiary clean up. Target to be traced later... once he reaches one of his hideouts to give operation maximum effectiveness and allow us to break down organized crime as a plus".

He did not reply as he agreed with the procedure, instead the mysterious man quickly took the handguns from both dead agents who lacked communication devices because of the critical nature of their mission, and headed further to the corridor, passing through several offices of forensics specialists and storages as he leaved a trail of bloody footprints behind him, until finally reaching a single storage room, a wooden door with a plastic sign on its upper part signaling, with the drawing of flame and the word "flammable" in all caps beneath it. He opened the door of that storage room, which was filled with kerosene, which was used as fuel for the crematorium. He took as much gallons as he could with him and start to quickly drop the kerosene over the wooden floors of that building second floor, intending to cover every room, both adjacent corridors and the entire floor. He had a few more than 7 minutes to do it before civilians would arrive there as he took a very fast pace dropping such flammable liquid on the floor, room by room, corridor by corridor, throwing away gallons as they emptied and opening the other ones. In 5 minutes he finally managed to cover the entire second floor with kerosene as he used it to clean his shoes from blood and took a few steps of the stairs down. He looked at the entry to the corridor, at the trail of blood he left behind, everything about to be gone. He would miss them but it was part of the mission, a sacrifice needed for a greater cause. Far enough from the fumes of the evaporating kerosene, he took an actual matchbox and lightened a match, and before the flames consumed it in its entirety, leaving behind a crips burnt wood and scent of burn, he said:
"Farewell my cell mates!"

With a quick thrust of his arm he threw the match towards the corridor from the stairs where he was as he tried to get down there as fast as his agility would allow him. The match was being consumed by fires, almost running out, when it landed on the floor. Soon a trail of flames started to engulf the entire second floor, spreading throughout the corridors and rooms and consuming everything on their path. The paint of the walls melted and the woods of its floor crisped as the temperature started to raise, soon those two bodies would become nothing besides burnt bones and ashes. The man simply ran to the first floor and stormed the two double doors ahead of him towards its exit, he had only 1 minute to get the hell out of that derelict region of Tucker before the civilian staff arrived as he swiftly took the car remote control from his pocket and commanded its opening with the press of a white button, almost as he was to touch its door knob to open it again vertically.
As he got inside he putted the key on the ignition and twisted it quickly, as the car engine got on. He then started its automatic transmission to reverse-speed and maneuvered it out of the parking lot and back to the empty streets. The black sedan left, leaving behind a decadent and now burning construction which took away with the destruction of its second floor all evidences of their shady operation and presence besides a pair of human bones which could be easily be attributed to a pair of clumsy thieves through the proper contacts in the EDDNet.

As for Pablo, he had a safe, unnoticeable travel so far, and after a few hours he and his allies James and Paco would reach one of his hidden bases in the Bacconi Woods, unaware that they were being tracked by what wasn't a storage device, but a carefully laid bait that he incautiously took. He wasn't as paranoid as he should be in such situation and that was yet to bring an unexpected outcome for that trio of men.

Third Spanish States, Unknown Location, 11:27 AM, 6th of August of 2038

The observation room (http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/album_pic.php?pic_id=22) stood as cold as before with the 20ºC temperature kept constant through its air conditioning system. Metallic frames covered the walls in a post-modernist style of increasing complex detail near the floor and metallic uniformity near the ceiling, while large white tiles covered both its floor and ceiling where three white fluorescent lights were turned on, and three personal computers were located in a row on a large table with three chairs across it, where Selene was sitting down with her cell friends around her. ´"When will something happen?"`, she asked to herself as she yawned, almost landing her head into the keyboard to sleep right there as she almost drooled of boredom and monotony as Daniele shook her awake. It was more than an year since her personal projected started and they were waiting since them for its results. They were simply not experienced enough for field work and thus all they had to do is to wait, for the shipment of human subjects to arrive and for possible results from the first subject, the "defected", or more exactly, intentionally abandoned, Blackguards elite field agent and now criminal known as Maria Nansen.

The screen of their computers had a peculiar window with a piece of software which window was labeled in all caps as "ABOVE HIGH PRIORITY SIGINT UPLINK 1.58" and it showed a single filled line of a dynamic spreadsheet of the database with the fields of data named as, respectively, "Bugged phone number", "Class", "Call Number", "Call Origin", "Time", "Duration" and "Captured Data". Most of the fields were currently in blank as no call was done yet, except for the "Bugged phone number" and "Class" fields, which were filled with "(0101)777-1313" and "False Tracking Number" as its contents. They kept a vigilance over that screen, hoping that it would eventually change its static image of those empty spreadsheet fields as time passed. Each second the clock on the wall announced with a tick was stressing to her as her patience was running out. She did not join the Network to only have as function wait, wait and wait again and again. In fact the image that came into her mind was of a can of cocaine-cola to make this entire wait less bothersome.
"Tick!", the clock announced for each second that passed, irritating more and more Selene, who was the most impatient of all of them. She started to stare angrily against that round clock making its repetitive, annoying noise to her, which was getting her on her nerves as time passed and nothing happened.

´"Damn that clock... enough is enough"´ she thought as she in a fast, unpredicted movement arose from her chair and thrust her right arm towards the clock in a furious rage. The chair was propelled against the table as she turned 180 degrees to reach that clock behind her, and she quickly jumped to grab it, taking advantage of the momentum to reach for it, thrusting it violently out of the wall and throwing it with all her strength against the ground as both Daniele and Salomón looked at her with their eyes widely open in surprise. She then landed right over the clock, smashing it entirely with the weight of her body, it was more common than expected that she would had some occasional rage outbursts like when she attacked Maria as she was insulted an year ago or when she punched to death a criminal she was supposed to experiment new drugs on instead because he called her a whore. That was not what surprised them, but instead the way she skillfully reached for the clock and quickly and precisely threw it right below her at the right time before it could slide further through the ground as she landed on it. Daniele was the first to say in a surprised way:

"You aren't just a psychologist Selene. Where did you learn to do that?".
But before she could answer as she calmed down, the screens of their computers finally changed as a call to that fake number was intercepted by the SIGINT systems they were linked to, it came from that asylum... an ironically fitting location considering how such locations were covertly used during a much older black project from another entirely different nation known as the MK-ULTRA.
"Turn on the speakers!", Selene quickly said as she sat down on her foamed armchair to check the computer for it, turning on its speakers from where the voice would later be heard from whoever was calling through that bugged number. Soon a recorded voice announced that the number did not exist as a desperate voice, to the point that it seemed from someone who just witnessed a brutal murder or came out of an horrible nightmare, could be heard with a tone of absolute despair and panic calling for anyone, but only replied by the announcement the number did not exist as the call went down again.

The impatience of Selene soon faded as a new sensation replaced it, one of euphoria and enthusiasm as what they did was an entire success or otherwise nobody would have called that number. She simply cheered with a happy and loud voice: "We did it folks! We proved this is not pseudo-science! Viva!". Both Daniele and Salomón accompanied her and shouted "Viva!" as they clasped each other's hands and jumped like if their favorite sports team just won a world cup, clumsily dropping their keyboards on the ground in the process.
"This one is for all the doctors who laughed and ridiculed my theories of Extra-sensory perception! Yes and they will remain dumb about the truth! Ha!", Daniele replied with a laughter as they cheerfully and childly danced and jumped in a circle around the room. It was the fact they waited for more than an year for it, or perhaps also their complete boredom which led them to such flamboyant behavior during that moment. After two minutes of such cheerful celebration Selene stopped as the others also did and said: "I suppose those subjects will be better employed into another cell now that our program is a success. I'll announce they are available into the system. And now it's time for us to get out of here, she must be anxious... and with nowhere to go. Maybe she would forgive me. Only one way to go, let's go to the sub!", Selene said as they looked at her. They left the entire mess in their room behind as they went again to that elevator, taking the same procedures of wearing masks, but typing instead the code "071152", followed by a wait of 7 seconds and "5814" as the elevator started to go up.

"No cell is currently needing the sub, so I'm sure we can safely borrow it for our purposes", Selene said as the elevator decelerated, until finally arriving at their destination, the corridors which led to another elevator which in turn led to a hidden submarine bay inside their base. Before its metallic doors opened, Selene asked a simple question to Salomón:
"You know how to pilot helicopters Salo, right?", from which he quickly and smartly replied: "As much as I know about general medicine".
"Good, now let's shut up least someone recognize us through voice", she added as both became silent as the elevator doors opened to an empty hallway which only served as an intermediary connection point to the harbor, and had similar features to those of the bunker architecture of the hallway which led to the recreation rooms below, although it was much more white, clean and streamlined, with several fluorescent lamps above their heads. It was a quite long corridor there that they walked through, completely devoid of anyone else besides their masked selves. Soon they reached the elevator through the other end, marked as a restricted area but otherwise not actively locked as a camera filmed everything in that corridor. As she pressed the call button of the elevator with her pointer finger of her right hand, it immediately opened its doors with a small hinging noise as they walked inside it. As it closed, maybe due to a pressure sensor of some type, it started to automatically go down. It was a long vertical descent through it.
"How much will it take to reach sea level?", Selene asked impatiently as she did not use that elevator before.
"We are going down like from to the 70th to the first floor of a skyscraper, but this elevator is fast enough as you can sense, in 30 seconds were are down to sea level from the lowest floor of this bunker", Daniele explained with her knowledge of the area as she reminded the last time she came through there, not a very convenient one for her. as she shrugged: "Don't ask me how I do know, I would rather not tell you".

´A man invaded her house and took her, he completely tied her up at gunpoint as she cowered in fear, putting her inside the trunk of his car. Her hobbyist conspiracy theories were starting to make too much sense and had enough solid arguments to become a problem to the Network. She could remember the terror and fear from being inside tied up a car of a stranger, fearing that he could be a maniac or worse. She was sweating and trembling as the ropes pressed against her and the panic eventually immobilized her as she lost her consciousness during the trip as a strong bump of the car trunk thrust and knocked her head against its metallic frame.
When she woke up she was tied to a chair, with her eyes blindfolded as a featureless voice could be heard:

"You discovered too much... yet it's wrong to kill you but I will kill you if I must. But you have too many skills to be unnoticed and the way you stitched together all the small clues and fragments of information to make a sensible theory was impressive. Now... what you did not know is that by doing that you helped the enemies of freedom. Things are much more complex, Daniele, than what you expect them to be. We are not the only ones who operate in secrecy across the world... and others have other, not so noble intentions. Now, I am inviting you to join us, if you would like. We believe in the same things you believe, and once it becomes safe for the truth to be revealed, once all invisible enemies are defeated, then we shall reveal ourselves to the public. But for now our only shield is secrecy, do you understand what I mean?"
She tried to surpass her panic to answer to the male voice:
"Yes... but who are these enemies? What is happening that most do not know about?"
"Daniele... everything at the right time. If you join us your questions shall be answered, if you refuse to... all you have to do is to publicly state that your conspiracy theories were part of a guerrilla marketing campaign for a book you was yet to write and everything will be fine. But you have much to gain if you join us...", the male voice replied.
She asked, with a fear coming from her voice:
"But who are you in the first place? Can you at least give me a simple name for your secret society, organization or whatever it is?"
"We are a secret society and organization... for now just call us the Network. I'll record the oath here if you tell me you want to join.", the male voice said
It was a swirling mess in her mind as everything was turning in circles. Tell the truth and run, lie and have a normal life as before or join a secret society with no turning back? She pondered for 10 minutes as the man with her patiently waited for her reply, saying she could think about it for as much time as she needed to, and then she answered him, overcoming her fears:
"I... I want to join the Network."

"Nice choice, but first you must swear the oath and I'll witness it. After it you'll have several initiation rites to pass through before becoming a full member of the Network. As long as you do not make the oath you can change your idea, so now it's the last chance if you don't want to join after all".
"No I want to... I want to know the truth and... if you had selfish goals... you could have turned Third Spanish States easily into a dictatorship for yourselves."
"Yes, of course, if the Network had other less noble goals we would already have done that. So now, swear it with your own words that you shall never betray the cause of freedom and anarchy, that you shall use whatever means necessary to further it, that you shall keep the existence of the Network a secret for as long as necessary for the safety of our ideology, that you shall be ready to do any sacrifices to further the cause including your own if necessary and that should you ever betray the cause of freedom, you shall accept the deserving fate of scaphism."
"Scaphism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaphism)? Isn't it that gruesome and horribly painful death... with... yuck!", she asked to the man
"I won't lie to you, yes, that is the exactly the fate of all traitors. But why would you betray the ideals? You always seemed to be a very devout believer of them from what we know about you. It's more of a convenience to scare novices than anything as nobody ever betrayed the Network, and hopefully nobody ever will.", the man explained to her.

"Okay... I..., in the name of the cause of freedom, self-management, socialism and anarchism, I swear to never betray such cause, to use whatever means might be necessary to further it, to do whatever sacrifices become necessary, including my own and to, should I betray the Network, accept my gruesome fate!", she said with conviction, as the man replied quickly:
"I witness your oath and welcome you as a novice to the network, now I shall lead you through the rites that shall grant you passage to the membership", and he untied her and took off her blindfold. She was in some type of underground submarine pen where a large nuclear submarine lied ahead of her and the man ahead of her was entirely clad in a facial mask hiding all his features. As she got up from the chair he motioned for her to follow him as he led her to an elevator and they got up through the same elevator she was in the present going down to that pen. He led her through another elevator and they got down to a sinister hallway, until he entered with her in a room where a familiar face was strapped to an inactive electric chair, one of many who attempted to stage coup d'etats against Third Spanish States.
"So, you are the ones who stop these fascists from taking over?", Daniele asked.
"Yes, and fascists must have no mercy, the masked man said to her as he handed her a scalpel and said:
"You swore to use whatever means necessary. Now stab him to death! I don't care how much you take, just do it to prove you value your oath!", the man explained to her.

She looked at the would-be dictator, now a pathetic, shriveling man who begged for his life like a dog, and she simply replied him as he screamed in desperation:
"You wanted to kill those who would dissent of your rule, to send people to death and forced labor camps? Now you beg for life fascist scum? Beg for life then!", she shouted as the man smiled from behind his mask and she ran towards him with the scalpel raised, finally stabbing against his eye with the scalpel as it penetrated deep into his brain and a spray of blood came against her face. As the man died and the blood covered her face, the masked man simply muttered "Luckily they did not discover me" as she faced him and asked:
"What! Traitor!". The man quickly drew a taser he was holstering and shot against her, knocking her down and tying her again as he led her to a dark room. there he tied her to a chair as he took the scalpel and started to motion it menacingly against her, saying: "Now you are going to help me, or you are going to suffer so much that you'll want to have never been born!". He stabbed it against the left corner of her left arm as she winced in pain and he added, not taking the scalpel away from it: "This is only the beginning, I will tore you open if you do not help me!".

The pain was horrible as she weakly answered him: "Never!"
He said: "Unless you change your idea I'll make a surgery on you without painkillers!" as he started to thrust the scalpel against her flesh cutting a distorted "A" shape on her arm.
She screamed and screamed, but made no sign of giving up as he finally stopped, removed the scalpel from her surgically cut arm skin and looked at her, asking in a friendlier tone: "You are stubborn and strong-willed enough to be here Daniele, congratulations on passing the second test. Don't worry! I'll treat that wound, it will regenerate after a month" as her arm bled and she, with a large struggle shouted:
"Are you nuts? What type of insanity is this? You almost made me die of fear you freak and this hurts! This is completely wrong!"
"Calm down Daniele", he said as he brought some sutures and bandages to treat the large wound he provoked on her, "One day or another most of the people here always volunteer to go to the field because of becoming bored with laboratory work, and... you know what an interrogation is, don't you? If you did not have passed in this test and asked for a field mission, you would be refused for safety reasons. Now I can lead you to someone who can help you to forget this if you want.
"I am not going to forget this insanity masked sadistic freak! Where did you people get these ideas from?"

"Well, this is basically a much more extreme version of the SERE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SERE) and the last part of the initiation 'ritual', and you did well for a rookie, now I'm serious, some people here can help you forget this experience if you want to. Sorry for it but it's necessary and you swore to take whatever sacrifices should be necessary, remember?"
"Yes, and forget this memory-relieving bullshit! The scar will always serve as a reminder freak! I hope that I won't have to work with you here...", she said filled with anger after the painful experience.
"Well, you are a psychologist and parapsychologist right? And you have your way with guns, yes? Psychology is not the expertise of my covert cell but there is a space for one in another cell, specially for one who specialized into parapsychology, like you.
"So bring me there now! I'm tired of seeing your masked face!", she shouted in a demanding tone as she finally got up as he bandaged her left arm, now not bleeding anymore and disinfected from bacteria, which was being held by a support of the same type used for fractured arms. The pain led her to wince again but she simply scowled as she accompanied him out of that room. He then led her to that strange elevator, and finally he announced through a radio: "New recruit for your cell comrades, could you bring her down there?" as he left her inside the elevator and it closed down. That was the way she met Selene and Salomón. ´

They were already in the sub pen, which was guarded by a permanent patrol of bored guards with gas masks listening to their iPods attached to their helmets. Daniele seemed a little scared of that place, but she refused to explain why as they went through the metal pier inside it. It was literally carved from inside the rock, covered with a vertical opening hatch door below it camouflaged with rocks, and led to below the ground of Third Spanish States floating island, a perfect and near impossible to spot place for covert underwater transportation, the only way to get out of that base.
Soon they headed inside the submarine through its hatch. It was a very large one, having enough space to carry a single black RAH-66 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAH-66) helicopter inside it, and the small helicopter bay of it was already conveniently loaded with one, and enclosed to allow it to submerge as they headed inside where a small crew of three equally masked people met them, where Selene gave them a small paper explaining where to take them to, they were all males and they simply nodded to them as the cell leader received the paper and Selene's cell headed to a vacant, soundproofed crew quarters with three separated beds and its own adjacent bathroom were. They finally took off their masks as they locked its door and breathed alleviated. They were to have a long travel to their destination, although there was more work to be done as Selene said:

"I don't trust that doctor, I'm sure that if her husband fills enough his pocket he'll tell him all he knows about us, and that would be something very inconvenient and harmful. Plus if he lived here someone would already have killed him for his heinous crime of corruption anyway, so, what about killing this crooked doctor before he whistleblows us for the highest bidder?"
"He is a crook, why not? We'll be doing the world a favor!", Daniele said euphorically, being taught very well on the ethics of Machiavelli during her recent years there. While Salomón shrugged: "Won't that make it even more suspicious Selene", which was quickly answered to:
"Not if it looks like a natural death or accident! You know, with enough cyanide an immediate cardiac arrest is granted. But I would rather not risk any of you for this mission... I have other better idea and to be honest, I laid everything for it a long time ago when we came to that nuthouse. I left the equipment for Nansen, hid a loaded gun and an encrypted message on her bed and some hardware on the woods that she can find through the message once she escapes, which I'm sure she will, and a 100 thousands reward for getting rid of him. The Network can afford it, and she probably wants him dead anyway."
Salomón shrugged: "And probably wants YOU dead as well Selene, remember how your rage led you to foolish mistreat her? I don't think she forgot it"
Selene ignored his comments as she said "Once we arrive there we can settle these issues better, but don't worry, I won't personally greet her at all for her successful mission. You can go there Solomón, as you know how to fly a copter and she doesn't know you.
"All right, but if we are going to bring her back through here, what will you do?"
"I shall guide her to the tertiary crew quarters and lock her there during the rest of the travel, it shall have to do it.", Selene said as she smirked. "Now let's sleep a bit, this travel is going to take a long time"

And they laid down on their individual beds, tired from an entire year of wait... their travel would take one month at least.

(OOC Quick notes: Their submarine is basically something like based on a Astute Class (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astute_class) which sacrifices some armament in exchange a small helicopter bay. "Biting the pill" is obviously a slang for "committing suicide through cyanide" and also I'll pull a bit a leg on this segment, but the rest of the story shall happen in Third Spanish States only. Now to the story...)

International Waters, 4:18 PM, 8th of August of 2038

The large submarine continued to transverse the depths of the ocean, housing inside its compressed helipad the remaining dry and operational RAH-66 black helicopter fueled and ready to take off once it surfaces inside it. It's a cautiously hidden piece of technology, designed exclusively, coupled with the upgrades given to the RAH-66 to make it an effective stealth helicopter, for the type of black operation and "wet work" which discovery would be a "Confederacy Sovereignty Threat".

The crew quarter where Selene's cell was located was very spartan and equally claustrophobic, with nothing more than a tiny cubicle with a shower, sink and a toilet as the bathroom and cramped beds lined to its metallic walls, however it still was comfortable despite its dimensions and simplicity because of the quality of the white mattress over the beds covered by white blankets and of the softness of the white pillows. A continuous but low intensity humming noise echoed through that place, which although gave them several difficulties on managing to sleep in the first day, now they were more than used to it. Each of them were sitting down on their beds, looking one into another as they exchanged several words on the late events and browsed through a paper-drawn map of the location they were to head to.

"As you see Solo, you'll head straight from the coast to a tropical forest, and I think we arrived at the right place and at the right time. It seems a big 'coincidence' another less critical black operation is just going on at this backwash nation we are about to travel because from the last reports I had on it, there are some big dogs are fighting for it, and considering that their naval landing point to stage an attack is far away from our current position, they will draw most attention of air patrols, if this nation has any, to them. As long as the battle remains on that area we'll be very safe and hidden."

"Interesting Selene, although this might be quite risky, I am too young to bite the pill I think", Daniele said getting into the conversation.

"Daniele, remember what you swore to do? Because if for any reason our mission fails and our cell is compromised somehow, the only way to ensure the safety of the Network would be through our sacrifice", Selene explained.

"I... I know it. No one is going to spot us right?"

"Yes, chances are very, very low that a sonar could spot our vessel", Selene smiled. They continued chatting around, until Daniele opened her notebook and invited them for a multiplayer session of the popular turn-based strategy game called "Revolution: Fall of the State" all of them had in their notebooks, as there were no restrictions on what they could put in their computers, only to what they could put out of their computers.

False-flag incursion over International Territory , 10:00 PM, 8th of August of 2038

Some have remarkable navies ruling over the seas, air forces with supremacy over the skies or ground forces pounding everything with utter efficiency. But neither of those were the true modus operandi of Third Spanish States. What they sought to master was the "invisible" battlefield of espionage, memes and BlackOps where they had much more experience than with wars.

The submarine lurked through the waters, half dozen of hundreds of miles away from the heat of the battlefield where some proeminent superpowers were seeking to take over that nation. It was of little interest. Conquering lands is something that eventually loses its edge, conquering people's minds however, is something that can spread through many generations and have much more long term benefits than a simple invasion. The cramped room where the cell slept stoically remained completely static. Daniele seemed to be the most easily sleeping of them, silently laying on her back under blankets which covered all but her head and above the mattress. Salomon was a bit more noisy and snored like a pig while Selene also snored, but just lightly. Luckily for Daniele she felt asleep first than both again, or it would be very difficult to manage to sleep as the noise of snores were combined with the low humming noise of the submarine. Sometimes dreams tend to be less than pleasant as well... rescues of older memories.

´"I want yours!" the maniac shouted as he drew a knife behind Daniele after stalking her during that night she was heading back from a particularly seedy rave. And considering the way she decided to go there, Daniele, with her relatively gorgeous body, seemed like a bait for these types which still lurked around despite all the mobs grouping to hunt them. That was in Third Spanish States... and going to a party wearing nothing besides a belt with a pistol or nothing at all was not something uncommon to be seen as nudism was something accepted at all layers of Confederacionist society. Daniele was not a prude during that party and had some good moments of pleasure, but the idea of the non-consensual was a huge no: rapists were shot on sight. Perhaps it was too late for her to defend herself as the cold steel of a knife closed to her throat, already slicing through its dermis, and a voice while seemed to be coming from a pig rather than a man shouted:

"Get on all fours!"

Not much choice on such moment. But it was like a quick thought. It must be a very dumb maniac, or with his mind numbed by savage instincts, because he forgot about her pistol and she apparently complied. But in a fast move she rather than remaining crouched, rolled through the ground, until ending in the middle of the streets, drew her pistol and shot. The 9mm bullet came straight through the head of what was for her, a disgusting abomination being called human, now splattered on the cold streets of Hampshire Haven. A few drops of blood reached her body, but again her weapon saved her from having a horrible fate. It was strange of a gesture as Daniele then kissed her own pistol, as if it was a friend rather than a mere object. A family member, her precious "guardian angel" as she called it. She went through her way back home and opened its door, a simple wooden door covered by steel bars. A huge "Warning: Do not Trespass! Use of Lethal Force Legalized" message in three languages was what replaced what would traditionally be an welcome mat.

The first noticeable thing of the foyer was a A-31 machinegun attached to its white ceiling and fitted in with all sorts of electronics, with a box of ammunition and a coaxial infrared camera. Daniele looked towards it as she entered and it remained there, static. Should some stranger rather than someone in her personal data base of photographs come and ignore the message, it would have instead fired against such potential invader. As her feet touched the pine wood floor inside it, which were much softer than the rough soil of the streets, she locked the door again and headed to her own bathroom, passing through a room where two FA-65 assault rifles were visible inside a wooden locker, and several 6.5mm magazines were lined around the two rifles as well. Pistols were cluttered around the room and cardboard boxes filled with weapons, it seemed like an ammunition depot rather than a house, and even on the drawers of her bathroom there were clips and an extra Glock 18C pistol. The reason for such exaggeration was a kind of unknown mystery, but there was nobody waiting her in her home with only one floor. Daniele was, and still is single, although that has never bothered her much. The water level of the bath tub finally was tall enough, she unfastened the belt from her hip and simply went inside the tub. The hot water was refreshing after a long night where she luckily refrained from consuming drugs or alcohol, or she would have had a very bad fate. It was a good time that relaxing sensation of the water as she bathed and soon she spoke to herself:

"Indeed, I only live because of my guardian angel..."´

As she woke up only Selene was there, with her notebook on her lap concentrated on something. Daniele raised from her bed and asked:
"Good morning. Where is Solomon?"

"Good Night", Selene replied with a smile as her concentration towards the laptop was broken. "He should already be bringing our 'ally' back". Daniele simply nodded and went to the cramped bathroom to change her clothes. She spotted that old scar again on her arm and shrugged, but that was a time ago and did not matter anymore. Soon Daniele would return from the bathroom, and at the same moment the sounds of small wheels and of someone struggling were heard around as Daniele looked at Selene, also apparently surprised:

"Again? Does this mean that she knew it?"

"I am afraid yes, we'll have to take her back in a less pleasant way to herself. But maybe the cash will make Nansen forget this, knowing what I know about her current behavior and motivations."

Soon Salomon would arrive, and he had a bruise on his face as he said:

"What a crazy woman! She tried to kill me in the middle of the flight because she somehow discovered that I am your friend!"

"Yes, what did you do with her?"

"I locked her tight, she is not going to be a threat until we can leave her somewhere... or maybe we should not as I think Nansen could denounce everything to the public"

"Do not worry Salomon, I'll take care of all"

--

Escape from a place to end trapped into another. How ironic it was. Maria knew that Isabel was very close to her, but she was powerless as straps held her together laid down on a bed, and being able to turn a sheet of paper would be a miracle as those psychic prowesses were slowly fading away and weakening. It was a surprise that after all she was there again, facing her hazel eyes with contempt as the door behind her closed, she was speaking in English and Maria would reply, in her accented way as Selene spoke with a cynical smile:

"Welcome back Maria!"

"I swear I am going to kill you in a way that will make you want to never have been born before Isabel or whatever is your real name! You have done to me things that make your way of calling me a scum before pure hypocrisy because you are even more scum! And now what are you going to do with me? Yes? Is it not enough to put me to almost insanity?", Maria replied in a mix of pure hatred as she struggled attempting to free herself, but to no avail.

"You are here in this way because you are too violent, I am just protecting my friends from your reckless desire of revenge, how much further do you need to suffer to learn that your impulsive behavior won't bring you anywhere?"

"Impulsive behavior? Did you forget what you did to me? Oh yes, I know who you are. You must be of the Blackguards, you who betrayed me, left me to my own in suffering and now used me as part of an wicked experiment! All makes sense now... all makes sense", she replied to Selene, and before she could answer continued:

"Yes, you wanted to use me as a test about psychological impacts or something alike. Why? What is the point on have done all of this to me after I struggled so hard, did some much for the agency? Is that what I gain from all that I did after all? Yes! You and your group are hypocrites!"

Selene took advantage of it. Apparently Nansen did not guess it was not the Blackguards, but something very secretive that she belonged to.

"Hush hush... I was impulsive, sorry. But those sacrifices you did, even if involuntary, were a great work to our cause."

"Your cause!", Maria replied, interrupting.

"I suppose you do not believe on it anymore, can't blame you. Now, would 400 millions of credits be enough to cover all psychological and physical harm done to you? That is what I can offer... and if you promise to not hurt anybody, I can take you out of this uncomfortable condition you currently are at."

"No, I want 400 millions, and you!", she replied.

"I fear that is beyond your current bargaining power", Selene replied and laughed as Nansen started to violently shake herself against the bed.

"Yes! Laugh at me wench! Each time you laugh will be one more day of suffering once I finally get to end your life!"

And Selene laughed again, her laughters stroke like a massive dose of humiliation against Nansen, who wondered why she had so much delight on seeing helpless people. That was probably the worst of all scums: those who hide under the disguises of nobly supporting certain ideologies. However with a bust the door to those quarters opened as Daniele frowned at Selene and said in a less than polite way. Maria immediately noticed that black haired woman's face, and she was without a mask as well:

"Selene! What the hell are you doing with her? Did she not suffer enough already? Are you crazy! Stop this or she is never going to accept your terms!".
Selene angrily turned towards Daniele and shouted:

"I will just kill her if she does not accept them, well maybe killing her is better as it will save the indemnity and rewards. Yes, such funds can be better applied to some more important causes than serving as retirement for a thug."

"What? She accomplishes countless missions and now this is what you give her? There is a limit to how far means justifies end before such means become the ends themselves Selene! You can't just kill her, that would be a huge injustice and corruption of the Network ideals!", Daniele shouted, unaware she gave away the gold to Maria who immediately started to wonder what the heck was such "Network"

"Shut up! You have compromised our cell to her and... now I'll have to kill her because of you! Know what Daniele?", Selene replied angrily during the argue as she pulled a taser and shocked her "friend" at the cell.

"This is for the way you treated me!", she added as she wore a mask and putted a mask on Daniele, who was limply laying on the cold floor of that otherwise empty crew quarters;.
"Selene! Do you know what you are? You are a huge, disgusting fascist pig disguised into the opposite place! I will kill you! I will kill you!"

´"Kill, Kill, Kill"´, the mantra repeated in Maria's mind until she was suddenly shocked as well in a completely unnecessary manner and started to struggle against the straps in agony. A group of masked people brought another bed and lifted Daniele. They strapped her side to side with their previous subject as Selene finally looked at her previous friend and said:
"You'll stay here for the next few months for your irresponsible mouth giving away critical information, I hope you learn your lesson by then. I am sorry Daniele, but what you did was very grave.". Leaving her behind and taking off her mask again, across the bed where Maria was, slowly regaining her strength.

Daniele could not explain the impending confusion she felt. Who she thought that was her best friend for more than an year, now doing something like that. At the first moments she refused to believe, preferring to think it was all a long nightmare. But the senses were too heightened for it to be a mere illusion. It was as real as the cold metallic floor of that place and its equally cold ceiling, as real as the low humming noise of the submarine. She could not move not even an inch at such condition as she felt major discomfort. Daniele had little to do besides talking to Maria, and a few tears rained from her eyes as she remembered of all good moments she had with Selene, now concluding it was nothing but a delusion, she was nothing but a puppet in her hands, being lured, used and manipulated for her selfish ends of progressing inside that organization. But another thought came to Daniele's mind, the wonder of the fate of those who told too much to those who shouldn't know. Maria did not like seeing her crying, it was bothering her as her cries mixed with the humming noise.

"Stop being a weenie! Take it like a real woman! Do you know how many times I was betrayed? And I'm not crying like a baby now!", Maria shouted.

"Sniff... she... was my best... friend... I thought she... cared for me..."

"Yes, and don't you suspect of a person who takes an innocent for all forms of wicked experiments?", Maria asked.

"You are not innocent!", the way Maria answered her distracted her from the sadness as Daniele replied.

"And are you by the way? is anybody innocent?"

"I don't know. Maybe people don't go at each other because they are afraid of being killed... maybe not. There is not an absolute on these things"

"Daniele is your name, right? I have something to tell you. Just don't say anything and listen. This Selene, she is obviously someone seeking to, have her way on this Network of yours, whatever it is. I suppose... some sort of secret society? Now that makes sense. Let me guess: you run Third Spanish States, right? Do not be afraid of answering, I am going to be killed anyway."

"Yes... but not ruling... just influencing and guiding public opinion. We don't tamper voting results ever, and sometimes what we think that is best contradicts what the people vote. So we are not actually a government, but a... think-tank"

"Interesting, and what about these... researches?"

"I only told you that before because you already knew them. I do not want to end tied to a boat with diarrhea and flies eating my entrails till death, mind you, and swore to not tell about certain things."

"Yes, yes... now how did you end up here?"

"Long history, Maria Emmet Nansen. Believe it or not, before working here I researched conspiracy theories as a hobby."

"And they recruited you so you can shut up about them, right?"

"Yes... basically that. Now, I fear Selene is going to tell a huge lie to my friend about what I did here to justify this and discredit me. This... is evidence she is abusing from the organization for her own ends. And if should she be caught... she would have a terrible fate."

"So what do you expect... Daniele? She is going to shut you up... permanently, one way or another."

"And what can I do about it Nansen? My gun is not here and I am locked up to a bed!",

"Well, you can...", Maria sighed.

It was the end... two betrayed persons meeting themselves in what probably was their last moments. And with Selene's intentions now clear, all that was still to be known by both in that room was why she had such ambition and ruthlessness. Daniele had a difficult first day... and no way to measure time. Maybe it was the end of the line... or maybe something was about to change.

Salomon had his eyes opened in that small, cramped bedroom where Selene again met him. Her words seemed to be very shocking it he refused to believe it was true, but something which could not be denied was that her friend was telling everything, with no doubts:

"Yes Salomon, it is really a very sad thing, but Daniele has betrayed us partially, she told things she should never have told to Nansen, and with this, I am afraid it might be necessary to eliminate the latter rather than letting her potential and experience flow fully, it is truly unfortunate, but there is not much to do, is there?"

He simply frowned in shock more than revulsion to the news, it was not something he expected to hear, and he was not happy with the outcome:

"But Selene! Is there no other way to solve this? Maybe... we can make her forget all. I know she killed many innocents, but she suffered too much to end becoming what she is now! I know her history as well and I think we should give her a chance."

Selene simply shrugged and explained why it was not possible to him, trying to point that it would only be worser. She seemed a bit disturbed by the possibility, but something in her mind tingled there could be a second option to solve the issue of letting someone untrustworthy away knowing too much which wouldn't involve locking up this one forever... however she reluctantly denied it:

"There is no viable, safe, and much less a painless method of erasing one's memories. I am afraid death shall be the more ethically sound choice here, after all this one had a pitiful life, do not you agree? I think it is time to put her to rest... forever!"

"But Selene! We all know there is no afterlife, and this makes an unnecessary death very questionable ethically! You are not only killing a body, you are killing an awareness!", Salomon questioned, pointing to their unwavering atheist beliefs once again to reject the concept of death being less unethical. He never was comfortable with the common use of lethal force against criminals, and despite all, he went far enough to advocate jails, although his requests echoed in the emptiness and were never answered or supported. The question on whether the end of freedom or the end of self-awareness is the most unethical course of action still is a hot topic among philosophers, despite only a vocal minority standing for the latter point of view. Salomon got up from his bed, standing above in the room, and finished to say it, apparently while Selene was still trying to think up a proper counter-argument. It was one of those few moments when he would surprise her with a brilliant idea:

"Plus, it would be a so great waste of potential. Selene, this Maria Nansen, if not a candidate for the best Blackguards operative, must be at least among the best of the best, very few people do exist with the potential she was born with and with the skills and perseverance she had. I do not believe we should kill her, perhaps, no matter how painful is the process to erase her memory, perhaps we could return her back to before that fateful mission... make plastic surgeries or her to remove her scars and aging signs and make her believe that she is still 25 years old. I know it is a lie, but at least this way we might repair much of what some of us did by using her... and maybe we can rehabilitate her into a person of morals... don't you agree? And imagine the possibilities of erasing memories! We could turn the most fanatical fascist soldiers into freedom fighters! We could deprogram all those religious brainwashing processes, we could turn even the most disgusting thug into a decent man. Such tool would be excellent in our pursuit of freedom!"

An ambitious woman... perhaps, Selene always seemed mysterious regarding motivations, and it was difficult to know whether she was scheming for selfish reasons or whether she truly did everything for a greater cause. But she smiled in a very sheepishly way to Salomon this time, her green eyes shining as she wondered on the possibilities of a new research program to impress the cell leader of the cell she belonged to before forming her own.

"Excellent idea! I shall ensure, in a few months that miss Nansen will forget everything she witnessed in the last 10 years of her life, I will consult some allies regarding the correct electric current for it, and of course, she will not remember the shock 'therapy' as well after it is finished. All for her own good in the end, and for the good of the Cause! I really like your way of thinking Salo!"

"Oh, no... just another idea I had, now Selene, what do you plan to do about Daniele? I hope you would, forgive her? Because I'm sure she did not tell everything on purpose, and might I suggest you to be less mocking of miss Nansen? Because I still remember what you did.", he answered immediately, his eyes shifting a bit while he awaited an answer.

"Oh... I... no worries, that won't be something I shall repeat... you know after being so much time with me that sometimes I am a bit impulsive, and I am tired from all this travel and of living in a hole dug beneath the ground... do you not miss a normal life? I do, and sometimes I am afraid that soon I won't have any turning back to it. I... nothing. I just need a vacation soon after this! And about Daniele, I'll be bringing her soon. Maybe the scare will serve as something to strengthen her resolve. I hope she is not acting like a wussy", Selene replied quickly, as she again wore her mask and opened the door to the outside. Salomon just waited, sitting down again on his bed and pondering on whether he actually did the best thing, or if that would only lead to pain and suffering. ´"No! They'll all forget it! But... what if it does not work as intended, what if it instead makes people insane... or worse? I...". With a swallow he tried to ignore his fears, awaiting for Selene to return with Daniele.

When she returned, she encountered Daniele at the same place, while marks of tears pathetically were on the height of her eyes. Selene ignored Maria's rants as she touched Daniele arm and whispered to her, approaching from her ear:

"You... have failed this test. You must face even the direst situations with bravery, and not crying like a baby Daniele. Now that I saw how you reacted to what you would thought that was a betrayal, and the stress of being blamed on the death of someone else, I fear you'll need a long time before being ready for the field. Also, never tell anybody about us, even if you are this they are going to die, it's never a wise choice to do so, now, try to feign you are scared... I want Maria to... see she is the next by making her think that I am not taking you away back as a friend, but as a corpse"

Daniele wasn't sure on what to reply, the initial five seconds of shock passed while she wondered ´"Another of those damn tests! Is this some sort of prank?"´ and whispered back, although Maria could hear it this:

"If you are not going to kill her, I won't help your impulsive sadism by helping you to scare her and bring her more despair... I think it is time for you to control your impulses, Selene, and to take me out of here as well!"

Maria finally smiled wryly from the mattress she was strapped to:

"So, I am not going to die?"

Whereas Selene simply answered, while she unstrapped Daniele, aware that making that scene wouldn't work:

"Do not worry, I have found a worse fate for you than death"

"If you think you are going to put me into despair, think twice lady Invisible!"

"Well, have a nice day ranting to the walls, I am out of here!", Selene replied mockingly as she finally unstrapped Daniele completely and helped her to get down to the floor and wear a mask as well during their way back. The metal door closed on Maria, and they decided it was adequate to turn the lights off of that room.

Back to their quarters, Daniele started to complain with some clear anger:

"I am tired of these games! One more of these 'tests' and I am going to abandon the Network! Yes, I am full of them. You are messing with my emotions, feelings, manipulating my fears! And for what? Because you think this will help with the damn 'field'? I'll tell you what matters in the field! What matters is to lock your view on an iron sight and press a trigger! Anything else is secondary to me because I am no infiltrator, and I think you know I lack the capabilities and potentials for that. So why do you insist with these schizophrenic tests? Why do you make me cry and suffer in panic? Is this some sort of escape for your impulses Selene? Or are you just a bunch of freaks like I suspected when I first came here?"

Salomon quickly replied in his typically serious way:

"Daniele, it's more complex than pulling a trigger and you know that! What if you are captured and the cyanide pill fails? It sounds horrible, but you must be ready to stand for even the most horrible fate without telling a single word about us! That is the reason of these tests... and why there is no hint whether they are real or simulations! You must be strong, you must not cry to a real enemy to give him or her pleasure... I know it is difficult, but you must stand! You must be a paragon of resistance and freedom!"

And Selene simply complemented:

"Yes... we must be prepared for the worse Daniele, look at me! I will show you something... and Salo! Don't make a funny look on me!"

Selene preferred to never remember it again, but it haunted her memories, over her cold facade, she hid the horrible past, but a barrier avoided her from seeing the details of what she suffered before. However the physical evidence was revealed when she undressed all the wears from her torso... there were considerable scars, patterned in a too deliberate way to be merely wounds from combat, and some of them seemed to be too long in shape to be from blades or bullets and neither of them were "ritual" scars from the Network like the one Daniele refused to remove surgically. Selene became much more closed in her facial expression, and she awaited the inevitable question, it would hurt her feelings... Feelings? No, she was above them, or at least wanted to appear too. It was ironic that Daniele was the one to take courage to ask the striking, painful question, despite her shock when seeing that behind a woman she thought that betrayed her, that was a heartless individual, lied someone who perhaps had a worser past than Nansen, but who instead of answering to it with a cynical, amoral stance, has embraced an idealism beyond the limits of ethical codes.

"Selene... who did this to you?", it was like if memories were attempting to come without her will, but Selene refused to remember it again. All she remembered was superficial, the details long forgotten as a mental mechanism to surpass the trauma. But her answer was deeply frank, obviously not a lie from the way she was obviously feeling uneasy from speaking the answer to her friend's question. For the first time, the usually talkative Selene had difficulty to communicate, and after a few seconds gasping she said it briefly, in only one word, fearing that talking too much about it would trigger the detailed memories she struggled so hard to forget...

"Sl... Slavers"

The behavior of both Selene friends and cell mates was so evidently surprised that the way they expressed their surprise would only be comparable to the reaction of someone being told that extraterrestrials do exist and regularly visit Earth, such was the way neither Daniele nor Salomon ever expected that, Salomon kept his thoughts closed into his mind, aware that it would be a very horrible experience for his friend to tell further details, he only pondered.

´"Selene, I can't believe you were... a slave? But you seem too skilled in combat that you must have been in the military, and last I know all soldiers have cyanide pills and would fight to death rather than surrendering, specially against slavers! This cannot be true! Freedom is like Oxygen! How could you?´"

Selene simply continued in silence, saying no more about it. There was no problem on the fact she undressed her torso, for nudism was not a taboo among them, what actually kept her in such catatonic paralysis was her greatest fear... she feared that the memories would no longer be held, and Selene could feel them forcing their way out of her subconscious like angered monsters. A deep breath was her last attempt to leave them forgotten, and it seemed the unsettling sensation luckily stopped. She then dressed herself again, and before anything she spoke in a very serious tone:

"Never ask about this... I won't answer any further questions... now Daniele, do you understand? I hope you do, because fighting for freedom is not something easy or painless, the oath includes being ready for personal sacrifices, and I hope you understand now... that there are even worser things than being abandoned by your best friends... that... no, I do not want to talk about it!", she shouted, laying down on her own mattress quickly and putting the pillow above her head in the hopes it would drive back the memories. Selene had exposed herself, and perhaps that would prove that despite a few mistakes, she trusts both... Daniele came to her and said:

"Selene, the personal past is something to be forgotten, what matters now is only the present, and the future. Yes, the future Selene, can you imagine how far we could go here? I believe you do. Now, stop acting this way. You just said to me to be strong, and now... yes, I will be frank but if you don't stop behaving like this I will assume you were an hypocrite about they way you managed to make me cry!"

It sounded like a large jab on her ego, and like a bucket of cold water it stimulated her muscles and she immediately raised from her bed, looking at Daniele almost immediately and saying:

"I live now, not before! So I don't care about the past nor I do want to. I suppose we'll have a long travel back. Do you want to have some fun? I downloaded some new network strategy games when we were still at our bases! And this one is fittingly: an espionage strategy!"

And by having such distraction playing with her friends, Selene finally washed the few stretches of her dark memory back into the depths of her mind before it could manifest as a vivid image and feeling of despair, and their distraction also soothed the confused thoughts of Daniele about the way everything seemed unpredictable and strange during her work.

While that happened, Maria embraced the darkness of the room she was, and although pride held her, the sensation was too unsettling, and sometimes a faint sob could be heard at the door of her room. The work of such secret freedom fighters was only in its beginnings... and a risky bid of research into the sanctity of human mind and memories was about to start... perhaps the Network would soon have its most powerful weapon, the power of turning tyrants into almost fanatical anarchists through "deprogramming" could come soon, or perhaps its risks like any bid, would bring only negative results.