Mardock Scramble полностью

–It’s like Spaceship Earth herself; mostly water, there to be experienced and lived in. This is the key to transmitting data to almost anywhere in the world. You can swim almost anywhere, as long as you have permission.

Then Tweedledee emerged, floating face-up on the surface of the water.

–Not that anyone’s been given permission over the last ten years, right, Tweedledum?

–Still, we’re free to splash about in Paradise’s database as much as we like. Shall we head back down, babe?

–I’m okay for now, thanks. I’m not sure my breath will hold up.

Balot gently pushed away from Tweedledum, heading backward in the water.

She tried to swim on her own but found herself tangled up in her clothes. She tried to take them off, turning around as she did so. Suddenly some air escaped from her mouth—her earphone was about to dislodge, and, flustered, she tried to hold its clasp in place. Tweedledum moved in swiftly to prop her body up, helping to keep her afloat. Balot stripped off her sodden clothes, and Tweedledee collected them, spreading them out neatly by the side of the pool for her.

Balot wasn’t wearing any underwear. Fully nude now, she entrusted her naked body to the water. It was as if all her aches and pains had dissolved into the pool. She felt no anxiety, no awkwardness. Neither of the other two made any effort to touch her body unnecessarily. They didn’t even seem particularly interested in it.

Tweedledum appeared to be constantly accessing the database, picking up pieces of information and passing them on to Tweedledee, laughing, flirting, even.

Both Tweedledee’s and Tweedledum’s bodies appeared to be covered in scars. Fragments of metal and plastic also seemed to be protruding from various parts of their bodies—chest and sides in particular. To the extent that you could say that their bodies were almost mangled. And yet neither of them seemed remotely self-conscious about these modfications—they didn’t seem to be bothered in the slightest.

Balot watched the two of them frolicking about and thought about what Tweedledee had said.

The Complete Individual, swimming though an electronic ocean. A complete world—like an egg. This jungle, in its airtight chamber, was designed to be detached, kept apart, from something. But what? She couldn’t tell.

The duo’s laughter permeated the jungle. The laughter of those untroubled by the threat of the outside world—or of decay from within.

To realize the dream of sunny side up—a life without trouble, without consequence—and to eventually arrive at a state of such tranquillity that you no longer needed to move. Balot wasn’t sure whether to be envious or scornful of such a lifestyle.

All of a sudden she yearned to speak to Oeufcoque and the Doctor. She wanted them to tell her what she ought to do. But, as they weren’t here right now, she guessed that it would be up to her to work that out for herself.

So, as she swam along, she tried to think as the Doctor and Oeufcoque would think.

The Doctor and Oeufcoque would be brainstorming, thinking up various strategies as to how best to proceed. What would those strategies be, those threads of ideas? This was a competition, and a game. At one end of those threads was the man called Shell. Shell was trying to protect something, and that was why he’d had Boiled and the assassins pull on their end of the thread…

Suddenly, it dawned on Balot—there was something she needed to find.

–Hey, do you think that we’d be able to get permission for me to use this pool?

Tweedledee was taken aback.

–Gosh, I didn’t think Eve was going to ask to eat the forbidden fruit of her own accord!

The Doctor’s words came flooding back to Balot. She’s not using that until I’ve gone over a few things with her. She’s owed an explanation. Balot realized that the Doctor must have been talking about the computer terminal in the pool. And she knew in an instant what exactly it was that she would be using it for.

–What are you going to look up?

Tweedledum was excited now.

–There’s this man who’s hidden his past. I want to know where it is.

–Past? Whose past?

–A man called Shell-Septinos. An employee at OctoberCorp.