Mardock Scramble полностью

Balot was silent. She had never thought about the world in quite such terms before.

“There’s something that Oeufcoque once said to me. That he would die one day. And in realizing this fact, he had felt a sense of identity for the first time—the thing that psychologists call the ego. That’s why he needed to do something. The budding sprouts of self-fulfillment—it wouldn’t have been fair for anyone to try and stop him,” Faceman said in a soft tone. “But we…we’re like actors who haven’t learned their lines yet—who don’t even have a script. In our harsh reality, improvisation is the order of the day. We don’t know how the plot is meant to unfold, and there’s no director standing in the wings ready to prompt us. We’re just thrown straight on stage and left to get on with it—and this is what we’re told. Live. Until you die. That’s the wild for you. We may be social creatures, but we’re still wild animals. But we don’t have to live lives of improvisation forever. We need a world that frees people from the pressure of constantly having to improvise. A world like this one, Paradise. That is what it means to be civilized.”

Then he looked straight at Balot with his gentle eyes. “In time, as your body starts to mature, your natural aptitude for your abilities will have a strong influence on your mental development. It could even drive you to the brink of madness. If that happens, will society as we know it be there to save you?”

Balot pondered this question for a moment. Her answer came to her much quicker than she had expected.

–At the beginning I was so scared of becoming the Concerned Party for this case. Now, though, it feels like the right decision, and I’m glad I made it. Society might not be able to rescue me. But it did at least show me that there was such a thing as a path to salvation.

“As the victim in the case? You fight in order to request permission from society for your own existence?”

Balot nodded and then shook her head a split second later, as if to contradict herself. Both were her true feelings.

–I used to be a victim, an object. I was always under the influence of some exterior force. Of someone or something. And, in the end, I was killed for it. But fortunately I was brought back and became a survival case. So if I’m offered the opportunity to help with some other case, one with nothing to do with Shell or OctoberCorp, to be the one to solve it, then I’d like to take it.

Faceman smiled benignly, as if he were a priest listening to confession from one of his flock. “So, you’re prepared to be in the same position as Oeufcoque and the Doctor, are you? You know that if you fail to solve your cases, your very existence is likely to be seen as a threat to society?”

–I understand, sir.

“Very well, then. As long as we get our valuable samples of your precious data, you go ahead and swim anywhere you like within the pool. We will just sit and observe your criminal acts.”

–Yes, sir.

“Tweedledum should brief you on how to use the Transmission Core.”

–Thank you very much.

Balot was genuinely grateful. She realized that the bargain that she’d just struck was a big one, with her own life at stake. Curiously, though, she felt neither fear nor agitation. All she could think was that she had done the obvious thing.

Suddenly there was the sensation of another person approaching the pool.

Dr. Easter approached, combing his tie-dyed hair upward.

He had the impatient look of someone waiting for a conversation to come to an end.

“Ah, Dr. Easter. I’ve just been listening to the valuable opinions of your client.”

“Professor…we’re most grateful for your cooperation.”

“Will you sojourn here for long, do you think?”

“Sadly, we have work to be getting back to…”

“Important work, no doubt?”

“Yes.”

The Doctor then turned to Balot. “I’ve finished my maintenance work on Oeufcoque.”

Balot searched for something to snarc so that she could reply, but while she was looking the Doctor carried on. “So, it looks like the Professor has put you in the picture?”

Balot nodded.

Faceman smiled. “She seems to have made up her mind to taste of the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, Dr. Easter.”