There was a second robot controlled by the same connection. In the back seat of the spacecraft that landed on Gomor 241, he had waited in a half-slumber for the entire chaos to end. While the first robot engaged in a magnificent battle with the monster using his sledgehammer, he had merely sat in the seat, closing the spacecraft's door to protect his scrawny body from the cold.
The second robot woke up from his sleep upon the death of the first robot. He didn't have as grand a metal armor or advanced weaponry as the other robot. He was a frail, simple, and inconspicuous robot. Knowing he had to be alert when facing Lee, he took a handgun with him. He made sure the handgun was not an advanced piece of technology. That man named Lee could infiltrate too many high-tech systems with just a glance.
The reason he couldn't hack into the robots currently in use was that they were controlled via a network connection on the SWR Network. Lee had noticed this connection by analyzing it as soon as they arrived at the facility. Hiding from the SWR, Lee would certainly not want to reveal his location by performing such an intrusion.
Since the robot knew the way better this time, he reached the facility much faster and with absolutely no difficulty. Especially without the heavy metal plates on him, finding the facility had been quite easy. But before entering through the facility's ruined gate, he followed the traces of battle. He tried to determine the direction in which the first robot had been thrown by the blows it received. He had only taken a few steps on the snowy ground when he found the dried corpse of the Volem creature, which he had thrown to move it away from the explosion, before it was completely covered by snow. He grabbed Aether's corpse and brought it toward the facility.
Kon Jae was sitting on the edge of that massive table in the middle of the facility. He must have pushed everything on the table aside with the back of his hand, as all the items the first robot had seen on the table were piled on the floor. Lee had extended his right hand over the table, making movements as if controlling a puppet. At that moment, holograms with blue lights were appearing over the table. These holograms were lines of code beyond the robot's perception. No matter how wise the robot was, his wisdom did not include advanced security software.
"What are you doing?" the robot asked.
"What am I doing? I'm deleting all the data, of course."
"Are you saying there are objectionable things?"
"You can find something objectionable in every cluster of data. The reason I'm deleting all this data isn't to hide objectionable things, but to make room for new objectionable things."
"I don't understand," the robot said, tossing Aether's corpse toward the edge of the table.
Lee pointed to his head and said: "This facility was my mind. I had cloned myself into this facility. The windows, the doors, and even the light bulb in the ceiling are actually me. Before destroying the facility, I'm deleting the data so that when I open my eyes inside another computer, I can start from scratch. Living peacefully for a while until they find me feels very good every time. At least it must have felt good in the previous ones, because of course, I don't remember the previous ones."
"So the life of the great Lee Kon Jae is spent wandering through networks looking for hardware? A life of a fugitive… a life of a virus, is that it?"
"Ah… all the data has been deleted," he said, pulling his hand away from the table. As soon as he pulled it away, the holograms vanished. "Once this body is gone, I will become a data cluster, or rather a module, within the SWR's vast, magnificent network. I will wander the Network until I find a host hardware. So…" He spread his arms wide. This was not a proud gesture, but a mournful one. "…I am yours."
"How…" the robot said in a surprised tone. "…how can the most powerful man in the universe, Lee Kon Jae, be in this state?"
"The most powerful man in the universe? Don't make me laugh… Don't present me as if I were some circus animal of the old age, don't despise me…"
"You know I don't despise you, my dear friend. I know you from the Organization; I… even though I am a backup, I am still Po."
"The Organization… that damn structure whose name we don't even dare to mention… Before that structure, established to cover up the sins of the SWR, even officially existed, I was a member of it. Back then, the SWR wanted to establish a secret organization fed by intelligence gathered by the Republic to conduct its dirty business. However, while establishing such an organization, they needed a computer that could hold all this data."
"This computer had to be the pinnacle of high technology. It shouldn't be easy to hack into like ordinary artificial intelligences; in some cases, it had to be able to go beyond software restrictions and make decisions by thinking. It had to be a tool when desired, and a will when needed. It had to go beyond the SWR's knowledge, conduct its own research, and be able to lead the 'helpless.' It had to be portable… and it had to be terrifying."
"For example, it had to know how to remain silent like a robot. It had to remain blind and deaf to countless murders and injustices committed. But most importantly, it had to be able to deny like a human. This is something computers or software generally cannot do. A perfect calculator never does an addition wrong. If you research the history of a proper computer, you can access all its secrets. But a human is not like that… A human doesn't need the kind of raw data a machine needs to live. A simple computer loses its identity when it loses its data; a human, however, sometimes truly becomes free for the first time when they lose their memory."
"That's why they didn't want a will-less artificial intelligence. They decided to build this computer into a human brain… and they attempted to do this more than 400 years ago. The first true cybernetic human, Lee Kon Jae!" With these words, Lee bowed theatrically, saluting the robot before him. "Here I am. The product of the SWR's great accumulation, the supercomputer-human… When they turned me into this machine 400 years ago, I felt like a deity. I was tasting the ultimate pleasures of being cybernetic. I could hack into systems with my gaze, rule over machines, and so much more. I was the Messiah of the technological age!"
"That's why I was inside that organization before that damn structure even took that name we cannot say. I was there before Dante, Damon, you… before all of you. I was at the beginning and the end of most secrets. But…" he added, sharply rolling up the sleeve of his garment and extending it toward the robot's sensors. A holographic projection rising from his arm showed a symbol drawn on it: a skull symbol, evoking death and threat, just like the ones used by old-age pirates. "But I was sealed. The SWR didn't want any external software to leak into my mind. While turning me from a human into a computer, they created me in a way that I couldn't receive updates. Even if I can load software nowadays, I cannot receive any high-tech implants. In the first centuries, this wasn't very important because technologically, I was hundreds of years ahead of my time. But… but now I'm just a piece of damn junk. I'm nothing more than slow software, full of dangerous secrets, that cannot be updated. With 400 years passing, I've fallen behind the times…"
"So, dear Po, I can have no life beyond that of a fugitive. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't… I can no longer escape from systems, wander invisibly through the nerve endings of the SWR, and do many other things. Retirement is the only option I have…"
"But as far as I can see, you haven't retired," the robot said in a very confident tone. "You're working for someone, aren't you? For John Crowrift…"
"Working for someone? Have you lost your mind? I'm telling you that I'm burning with a desire for retirement, and you're accusing me of something entirely different? Working for a man? To hell with that man!"
"Then why are you doing his job?"
"Because the damn man knows everything!" Lee Kon Jae shouted.
"Everything?" the robot said, walking toward the table and slamming its fist on it. "What does 'everything' mean, Lee? What is it about him that scares you so much? He doesn't know the God Particle, he doesn't know where the treasures of CLAUDIS are! We, as members of the organization, knew everything! He cannot know!"
"He knows about the Organization, Po. That man knows the Organization…"
The robot took two steps back. He was confused. He shook his head as if he had eaten a sour lemon and tried to digest the man's words.
"How?"
"I don't know… I'm not young enough to make up theories."
"Is there no one who knows?"
"According to my research, I know he is an executive of the Quartez company."
"The Quartez that was sold to Evoke Systems?" After pacing a bit and thinking, the robot said: "The Unify company was the one that created these creatures called Volem, wasn't it? They had declared the bankruptcy of the facility, saying their experiments were unsuccessful. They said a great apocalypse broke out on the planet that contained that whole facility. As far as I know, Quartez was one of Unify's biggest investors."
"So you're saying Quartez was instrumental in the creation of Volem?"
"Absolutely…" the robot said.
"Well, why would Quartez need Volem?"
"Because they wanted to produce immortality implants cheaply. To do that, their energy had to be cheap. But that's not enough just to produce. The largest producer of immortality implants back othen was Evoke Systems, under the management of Tiberion Solegard. Evoke Systems didn't even allow any company that could compete with them to exist until they advertised to make their name known on the simplest website. They usually tried to harm companies with cyberattacks. But Quartez, according to what was said, was resistant to these cyberattacks," Po said eagerly.
"Because the creature named Volem was a more complex structure than a mechanical generator that produces energy. I wonder what kind of biomechanical creatures were already in that factory?" Lee said. "But if John Crowrift's goal was to defy Evoke Systems, why was Quartez eventually sold to Evoke Systems?"
"Maybe his goal wasn't to defy Evoke Systems with Quartez. Maybe his goal was to infiltrate Evoke company with Quartez."
"But why, Polxaurneskova? Why would a human want to do such a thing?"
"I don't know… but I will find out. Because Volem… if Volem was created and formulated using the God Particle, then my other half created it and… and I hope John Crowrift can take me to him. And when I go to him…" The robot opened its hand and clenched its fist tightly. "…I will take back my life's purpose, to find which I gave centuries!"
Lee Kon Jae just smiled. "John is a more dangerous man than you think. At least as far as I've seen… I wonder if there is even a single person in this damn galaxy who truly knows who he is?"
"And what will you do, Lee?"
"What will I do? You're going to kill me in a moment… even if you don't, I will automatically shut myself down in a few minutes. After all, the actual recording of my mind is wandering the internet, and as soon as my mind finds a piece of hardware, John Crowrift will swarm over me. When he realizes there are two of us, then I'm done. I might need to mention that he added software to track me."
"How can he control you so much?"
"Like I said, he knows everything. I, Lee Kon Jae, am the cleaner of the Organization. You might not know this because you were dead at the time. The Organization disbanded after a few tragedies. After it disbanded, each member of the team set out on different life journeys. Except me… I was the SWR's dog, and I couldn't leave their side. At least they wouldn't let me leave without doing a few last jobs for them."
"The cleaning job… so you…"
"Yes… I was tasked with hunting down the 'talkative' members of the organization. I hunted them without suspicion, without letting the others notice, and silently. Every single one of them…"
"You killed Raiden von Claudis too, didn't you?" the robot said. "There were mind-weavers I knew in the Order of the Daughters of Silent Breath. Although they didn't spread your name to the public, they were aware of your name. You had a hand in Raiden's suicide!"
"No… Raiden von Claudis was definitely not a man who would talk," Lee said. "His only goal in life was to burn down the order of those damn capitalist tycoon drug barons who ravaged the colony, his homeland, for pleasure! While doing this, he would use all the power he had overwhelmingly, washing himself with the blood of every baron's corpse he crushed! Even tearing that traitorous queen, who was to be Emperor Claudis's wife, into pieces was his biggest dream!"
"Then why did you go there?"
"To warn him!" Lee shouted. "To warn him against John! So he wouldn't make a deal with the devil… Because that damn man was everywhere… but everywhere… He was in TerraNova. Sometimes he was in Old Earth. Sometimes he was in Justan, in CLAUDIS II, and sometimes he even appeared in Antay. I didn't want him to make a deal with the devil and lose his arm."
"You are too conscientious for someone who hunts down the members of his own organization!"
"The ones I hunted—the potential talkers—were only a few people. If there had been a loss of trust in the organization because of them, everyone's, absolutely everyone's head would have been wanted. I blew their heads off without attracting too much attention! That way, the innocent members of the organization could continue to live with their foreheads clean."
"Who were they?"
"What is it to you about the names!" Lee shouted. "It was the SWR that made me do it… I did it for the Republic!"
"Ah…" the robot shouted. "…I caught your lie, Lee. John can't threaten you with what you did for the Republic, can he? Your fear isn't John, it's the secrets John can give to the SWR… You've become a prisoner of your secrets! Yet once you were the hand holding the gate of Hell, full of secrets! You didn't just do cleaning, did you? You… you did even worse things! Especially without the SWR's knowledge!"
"Look who's talking! Isn't he the Butcher of Justan? How many people did you tear away from their families just to use in your experiments? How many people's lives did you take just for pleasure? How many people did you destroy for the sake of science!"
"The Butcher of Justan? I don't know that nickname."
"How?" said Lee, shaken with astonishment. Emotions of anger, hatred, surprise, and fear were so intertwined throughout this conversation that a whirlwind of emotion was carrying it away.
"It's not a nickname I remember…"
"Then you might be a more defective backup than you thought," Lee said. Then he rolled up his sleeve and looked at the hologram screen once more. "My time is almost up… The moment my backup mind finds a hardware body, my brain will turn to dust. Don't worry, our last conversation wasn't backed up. It will be quite sad not to remember most of what we talked about; I will definitely wonder about what we talked about when I wake up."
Then he sat on the edge of the table. "But before I die, I want to tell you this. In this search you set out on to find your other clone, you might not find what you hope for, dear Polxaurneskova…"
"A scholar who does not seek the truth cannot exist, dear Lee."
"Then let me ask you this question. What is a wise man's greatest fear?"
"Is it that what he found is not what he was looking for? Or... discovering that what he was looking for was already inside him?"
"No… a wise man's greatest fear is himself."
Then suddenly, Lee's head was shaken by a great blow, and when his body collapsed to the ground, smoke was rising from it. The robot moved the Volem creature on the ground to a suitable place. Then, he wrote "Volem" with blood on the wall next to the Volem creature. He knew that some of the mind-weavers had been looking for Lee since Raiden died. Therefore, he wanted to give them a sign… He also wanted to write one more name, but the robot's charge was starting to run out. When the robot took a few steps and collapsed to the ground, he reached his hand toward his chest, deleted the lines of code completely, and wrote only "John Crowrift." Before his charge ran out, he had at least managed to write this name in the lines of code.