Adam did not remember much of what happened after. From the context, he knew that the group had run across the room filled with workstations. He knew exactly how the room looked. He could count the number of places where the paint had begun to flake.

Yet… the AI was fully and utterly unable to remember the process of getting that information. When trying to look through Troy’s eyes, his mind refused to complete the image. The sound was without detail. Even the taste of the air had missing parts. It was clear that details were being ripped out.

What was making it happen? Why was it so strong now? If it was the same as what had been experienced before, it should have been subtle, to the point where Adam needed to focus if he even wanted a chance of noticing. Now… Now it was as plain as day. Some dial must have been put up. It maximised power and control, swiping away any form of subtlety. Perhaps it was not good for the long run, but it was more than effective in the short one.

Adam could not have been the only one to notice. That was clear from the conversation going on. Troy did not seem to focus too hard on it, yet Dr Hale and Charlie conversed with quick sentences without breathing in between. The two worked in tandem, one writing in codes on the wall, while the other did his best in sealing the door that they had entered through.

“Do you think it will work this time?” Dr Hale inquired, her fingers moving faster than anybody should have been able to. Muscle memory only worked with hard practice, and Adam could hardly believe that the current scenario came by often.

“Well, it was only supposed to handle human utilities,” Charlie said in his defence. “Nothing was said about possible enhancers shifting the scales by a few inches. Though… they should still have taken longer. We should have heard them if they just went through with brute force.”

“There is a small problem about memory-altering properties that make it very hard to remember them,” Dr Hale countered. That… did not work fully through Adam’s mind. For whatever reason, the middle part of the sentence had been obscured by fog. A fog that could not be penetrated, no matter how hard the AI pushed.

They definitely knew! They knew something that made it all work. And they remembered it as well. At least to the point where they could talk about it. The AI needed to know how they did it.

Troy did not seem to be at that point, however. The young man was clearly hearing the words, else Adam would not have been hearing it as well, yet there was a clear lack of understanding. No signs were shown of the words really registering. Was the censoring to different degrees, depending on each being? It could have been due to different mentalities as well…

‘Troy. I need you to ask Charlie or Dr Hale how to remember. Do not worry about why this is,’ Adam sent out. If he could remember details that Troy couldn't, then there was a chance of his own words being censored when sent out. If so, then the next hours would be incredibly annoying.

“Uh… okay,” Troy answered, the man looking slightly confused, but not in the way that implied any missing spots in memory. “Hey, Charlie.”

The muscular man temporarily stopped his foaming of the door. The AI really did wonder what it was, how it worked, and how hard a force it could take before breaking. When the mixture expanded, it seemed to almost set itself in place, assimilating with the upper layer of the material, bonding to it to a higher degree.

“Yeah?” Charlie asked. The man quickly scanned the younger one’s body with his eyes. While it might only have been for a fraction of a second, Adam was clearly able to see the intensity of the gaze put out. The muscular one was serious in his goals, and one of them was to keep Troy alive. Without more information, that could only be seen as a positive thing.

“Adam wants to know how to… remember? I hope it makes more sense to you because I can't understand it at all,” Troy said. The reaction to the words was not negative at all. If anything, Charlie looked mildly pleased. Adam was not sure what to call it exactly, the emotion tied to the expression not fully realised. He hadn't seen it enough to know just what it was. It was close to nostalgia, yet not exactly that. Whatever. The information would come in with time.

“I think I might know why Mara wants him, then. He learns quickly,” Charlie said, half as a statement to himself. Adam certainly did not feel as if it was directed at him. “An AI… never believed it myself. Though, this… Okay, Adam, mister AI, whatever you want to be called, the problem is in how deep the effect can go. Newer memories can be manipulated as they go in. If you look directly at… something, then you would be unable to remember it. But, if you just don't pay attention to it, if the secret is just in the background, you can realise the truth a few weeks later. It has to have been dug deep enough, else it will just blur itself out without you ever having a chance to remember. At least, that's how I understand it. Not an exact science, when we don't know how it works-”

“Shut up and get in,” Dr Hale calmly said, cutting into Charlie’s explanation. Troy looked over at the woman, letting Adam see just where they had been ordered to get into.

It was a… oversized vent of sorts? One had to crawl to get inside, and it looked to remain that way for a minimum of ten meters. Why was it made in such a way? And how thick was that metal plating? It had to be at a minimum of half a meter. Did emergency exits warrant such protection? The AI was impressed if that was so. The facility was built for everything.

Charlie went in first, the man having a hard time with the shoulders. For Troy, who came second, there were no such hardships. The AI was unsure how it was for Dr Hale, the woman sliding in last. However… there was a surprising amount of metal grinding from the back. The young man never looked back to check the source, but Adam guessed that it was due to them being sealed off.

The trio crawled for quite a while. There was not much to be seen. The metal design was repetitive, no time put into making anything original. There was no art on the sides. There was nothing at all. Hardly a light source anywhere as well. Only the reflective properties of the steel allowed them to see anything at all, as the AI was fully unable to see the origin of it.

Though, the apparent silence and lack of real action did allow the AI to think of what had been said earlier. A question had been asked, after all, and Adam did intend to use it to its fullest effect, no matter how it may have seemed. A small distraction would not stop him from gaining an extra skill that had the potential of helping the group along as a whole.

Charlie had put it as a problem of the mind, that information would be blurred when interacted with at any point. That was not good news, and neither was what came after that statement. For the AI to realise the truths, the memory needed to be old, it needed to have reached a point where its age stopped whatever effect from setting in.

He could understand what this meant with humans. At some point, memories would be put over to the long-term, where they would stay for as long as they possibly could. Short term memories were not as fully-fledged, still able to get major alterations set in place.

How… how did that work for Adam? He was not human, he did not have short- and long term memories. He just had memories, moments in his life that were still images. Nothing grew inside of him, nothing changed with time. The passing of seconds did not morph his recollections into something that it wasn't already.

Again, that was not the greatest of information to be told. The AI would have given up hope at that point, if not for the need for it all to continue working out. Adam needed to know what was going on, and for that he needed it to work.

Charlie said it needed to be memorized without being analysed. When it came to humans, they could not help but look through recent moments, to study them at some level or other. Adam was not within those restrictions. Through a minor redirection song, he could shuffle everything recent into a specific part of his memories without ever looking at them. He could place it all down, and never need to spend a second looking at their contents. It was a long shot when expecting it to work, yet the AI knew he had to try something. If it did come out as intended, Adam supposed he would just have to try out something else.

‘Troy, please request Charlie to say something that I would normally be unable to comprehend,’ Adam sent. It was gratifying to see the young man reiterate the words without a second thought. They were getting back into their so-called groove.

“Testing it out already? I suppose you did leech off Troy in more ways than I expected,” Charlie could be heard saying from ahead. Adam could only judge the man's face based on his posterior. It was not a very informative analysis, making him wonder why Troy was so fixated on the sight. Did the man detest metal so much? “Okay, Adam. Listen to this carefully, because you will not remember a word of it. The-”

Adam ignored whatever was said, putting it into the box that had been prepared. Then, upon waiting a few seconds, he opened the box up, felt like it had settled in nicely, and decided to actually check what had been said.

“-leader of the security forces, which is currently hunting us, is called Frank, and his eyes are actually green. Now, I want you to tell Troy to say the colour of his eyes.”

The AI thought about the facts for a few instants, before realising that he was doing something that was supposed to have been impossible for him. He knew what was after them. A security force. Most likely the one designated for the facility. And… it was run by Frank, a person that the AI had seen before, had witnessed losing details about before. Thinking back, Adam could remember seeing voids in the pupils, instead of anything really useful. He now had a good idea on just why that had been.

‘Say green.’

“Green,” Troy mirrored. Charlie stopped for a moment at that, nearly causing the one behind him to be bumped into. How unfortunate that would have been.

“... You are learning it. I guess we can use it for the future,” Charlie surmised. Adam could not agree more.