Kinda felt like I hadn't been on the 'net in forever, and without my favorites saved, I had to admit, I was pretty lost.

Last time I'd really just had time to sit and screw around on the 'net felt like before I'd even turned Exhuman. Sure, I'd had a few stints of being less-than-busy since then, but I'd always had good ol' relationship drama, my career as a soldier, or something else to focus on. Rarely had I ever just sat down and done the 'net. And it was kinda sobering.

Message boards with my friends, sports stats, video sites, those were the 'net I used to lurk on, and not a one of them felt welcoming to return to. I hadn't kept up with any team for the last season and a half, so suddenly seeing unfamiliar players...even a brand new quarterback, traded from the Eagles in a deal I'm sure would have infuriated me when it happened, it just reminded me how out-of-touch I was with something I used to follow passionately. Same with the video sites, not being logged-in, the default algorithm was bad, charitably, and I scrolled through pages of vids without so much as a spark of interest.

And I wasn't about to login and chat with my old friends for obvious reasons. Though I did have the thought that maybe Tyler and Kiera were on there, the two I'd randomly caught up with last time I was in LA, but it seemed better to leave well enough alone.

So instead I dicked around looking at cat pics and whatever. Really took the 'net back to its roots.

We were waiting while AEGIS put the finishing touches on her presentation, which seemed both excessive and pointless, and I was half-worried she was going to come bouncing out with a slideshow to flip through, but she insisted and she was the one with all the data, so wait we did. It was a little aggravating for her to have been telling us how world-changing and critical this data was, and then keep us sitting around waiting to hear about it...but I also understood that AEGIS had a little bit of a flair for the dramatic, and just loved explaining things.

I was reminded of when I first laid eyes on her new body, Rua Mk.1, and the whole red-curtain, sinister-music-playing reveal she'd concocted. I really doubted we'd suffer something of that level, sitting here in the back of a 'net cafe, but I was expecting something.

Lia was feet-up in the chair next to me, headphones plugged in, watching something that made her giggle at random intervals. Karu was in the row behind us, apparently asleep with her head down on the table. AEGIS was typing away in the furthest corner, fingers clacking so fast it sounded more like heavy rain.

I looked around again and, finding the room the same as it'd been for the last hour, sighed and went back to the 'net. I pulled up a news site and almost regretted it.

US Senator Killed in Violent Home Invasion

Virginia state senator Idris Irenside was found dead in his Washington residence today, victim of a break-in that may have been digital theft, police say.

"A remote login device was found plugged into Senator Irenside's personal computer, and it is unknown how much data was taken, or by whom."

The theft apparently went south when the senator awoke and confronted the invaders himself, despite retaining a small security force, a confrontation which ended with his death.

"The senator was shot with four different weapons at point-blank range," said detective Castillo, a thirty-year veteran of the MPD. "This was clearly not an ordinary B&E, the perp went in carrying a small armory."

Information on the suspects has not yet been released but there is speculation that this was an Exhuman event, as well as the persistent rumors that Karen Irenside, daughter of the victim and currently a nationally-wanted fugitive after her role in the recent Exhuman event in Los Angeles, was somehow behind it all.

Somehow reading about myself online like this just made my stomach flop. It was strange both how much and how little they knew, and I suspected the police knew even more but weren't sharing with the media. Just thinking that there was some guy out there whose job it was to catch bad guys, watching vids of me being one of those very guys…

I dunno. Felt awful. I didn't think I was a bad guy, not really. Which was insane, because I was an Exhuman, and a wanted criminal, and a freaking murderer. Objectively speaking, I was up to some seriously bad shit, and while I felt every bit of it was reasonable in the moment, it was kinda harrowing to take this step back and look at myself from outside.

I scrolled through the comments, feeling more sick at the outpouring of rage and misinformation in equal parts. The only thing that made me feel any better was the whole sub-thread of people banging on about what a damn American hero Idris was, and how anyone who'd touch a hair on his head was, politically speaking, the literal antichrist.

Which of course, torched off a whole argument about his policies and people arguing that he was a corrupt piece of shit, but the point was, some people were just so, so opinionated, and so, so wrong.

A random comment with a link caught my eye, the comment reading such a shame, almost made it a week. And when I followed the link, I was brought to a different news article.

New World-Record Set in Exhuman Silence

As of the posting of this article (which was yesterday), it has been five days without an Exhuman event, worldwide, the longest-ever period of continued, uninterrupted peace since the outbreak of Exhumanity nearly 220 years ago.

Scientists at the IES (Institute of Exhuman Studies) at California State University at Irvine had few explanations but many theories.

"It's hard to say if this is an isolated incident or the start of a larger trend. We're obviously always optimistic about event downturn, and it's one of the goals of the IES to understand Exhumans more fully so that they can be managed most effectively, but as of this time, we can't say anything for certain."

Director Hall of the XPCA was available for comment and gave a short statement.

"We've been seeing a reduction in Exhuman threat over the last few months, and this new record just goes to show that the policies of the XPCA are working. My predecessors, Directors Blackett and Albion instituted new policies such as the founding of New Eden, which has modernized Exhuman relations. And these numbers just go to show that the XPCA knows what we're doing and our policies are solid."

While Exhuman events tend to occur mostly in North America, no reports of events occurred anywhere on the globe during this period.

Personally, I had to wonder what metrics the XPCA was using, if New Eden was somehow a reduction in threat. I'd heard that yeah, right after it was built, numbers were way down, until word got out that it was kind of a ghetto. Then there was a small spike when formerly-hidden Exhumans were lashing out at being taken in. And then just thinking about afterwards, when the P-Force was completely engaged in recapture, and how many of those ended out in Exhuman events...

Kinda didn't surprise me that I found an XPCA director to be full of shit.

But the fact that this week had been completely quiet before I'd gone and ruined it all was neat, I guessed. I didn't see any bigger pattern here, nor any reason for one, but five days without an event, anywhere on the globe was pretty cool.

I was just about to click another link when someone cleared their throat behind me, and I turned to see AEGIS cracking her knuckles and prodding Karu awake. The blonde head rose into view, eyes blinking blearily at me from under tousled hair. I gave Lia a tap on the shoulder and she uncupped one ear before pausing her vid and turning her attention to AEGIS.

AEGIS who, somehow, had a globe on her. I was already wary of how tasteless this presentation was already shaping up to be.

"Hi guys, thanks for waiting," she began, giving the globe an idle spin as she spoke. "I've just had to verify everything, because, y'know, trusting Karu's father was kind of an iffy prospect at the best of times, and now isn't the best of times. So before I got all panicky and dumped this info on you, I thought I'd check it first, as best I could."

"Com-commendable," Karu said, stifling a yawn.

"Thanks. Well. Unfortunately I didn't find anything to disprove what I...found. So we're just going to go with it and you guys can draw your own conclusions." She gave the globe another dramatic spin and then stopped it by planting her finger on it, landing exactly on DC.

"Step five: Raven's Nest, XPCA headquarters in the United States. The XPCA has exotic weaponry with future tech that nobody else in the world has ever been able to reproduce, and deploys it to Exhuman events globally."

"Um, step one?" Lia asked.

AEGIS shook her head, pigtails twisting. "No, we're starting at the end."

"Because of course where else would you start?" I shrugged. AEGIS glared at me and then gave the globe another spin, stopping it with her finger on the same exact spot.

"Step four: Ex-Senator Irenside. Mastermind, political tycoon, power broker."

"Asshat," Karu murmured.

"Sure. Our gathered intel suggests that most of Idris' money and lobbying were from and for IkaCo, and much of his time was spent acting as a middleman between them and the XPCA, making sure their goods got into, erm, their hands. Different their's. He was in Ichiro's pocket, through-and-through, and a lot of the XPCA was in his."

"Idris was selling exotics to the XPCA?" I asked.

"You're jumping the gun. Literally," AEGIS said.

"Well, you mentioned in step five that there were exostics and--"

"Hey. Look at me here. See the prop? See the me-standing-while-everyone-sits? I'm presenting here."

She glared at me and I sighed heavily. Once she was clear I wasn't going to interrupt again, she continued. She spun the globe and this time, predictably, stopped it in San Francisco.

"Step three: Shell corporations. Not a very exciting step, but a necessary one. IkaCo holds several smaller holdings on the west coast here which act as their arms in America while Idris acts...acted as their brains. Almost all of them have his fingerprints all over their charters and any number of legislations which protects or benefits them, and in exchange, they've got their fingerprints all over the money in his pocket. Moving on. To--"

The globe spun again. "Japan," Lia said. And so it was, where AEGIS' finger landed. "Called it," she added.

"Step two: IkaCo tech conglomerate, Tokyo, Japan. The beating heart of industry, and a multi-trillion credit corporation. They make everything, from the relay uplinks in our mobile devices to many of the parts in my body, to -- spoiled by Athan -- most of the exotics that the XPCA uses in their pursuit of Exhumans." Karu started to speak but AEGIS cut her off "But this last one is a closely-guarded secret. It's kind of well-known that the XPCA has a large research division, and it's always been assumed that their tech is all in-house. And that's kinda part one of the mind-blowing revelations this data turned over for us here."

"I was going to say, I find that difficult to believe," Karu said, arms crossed, green eyes narrowed. "In moments of boredom, I have read the warning labels and instructions which accompany my munitions, and never have they been purported to be produced anywhere but in America, or distributed by anyone but the XPCA or their affiliates."

AEGIS turned the holo around on the computer she was working on and flashed us a huge wall of indecipherable text. If I had to guess, I'd have guessed she was reading a dictionary.

"I'm no lawyer, but I did pull up some of the bills that Idris' lobbying interests had manipulated and found this, effectively snuck into a budgeting bill about XPCA finances and expansion of powers during emergency scenarios. It says, effectively, that normal legal information and labelling laws do not apply to the XPCA, whether in an emergency scenario or not. Basically they can put whatever the hell they want on anything they distribute, and not have to face legal consequences for it."

"That's...kind of impressively petty," Lia said.

"Most laws are," AEGIS shrugged. "But the fact that he felt the need to do that tells me that he had a need which this law would fill. The fact he'd spend the effort to lobby in this tiny change somewhere is kinda proof that this is happening. And it's not an isolated instance, either."

She glanced at the holo from over the top and scrolled another...we'll say thousand pages, stopping at what really could have been an identical block of text.

"Here's one of the more egregious ones, called Section 13, of the 2241 amendment to the Exhuman Defense Act. It talks about XPCA weapon logistics and priority rights. The bill itself is supposed to manage weapons developed by XPCA R&D, and therefore has all this language to make them immune to customs, tariffs, inspection...there's even a whole subsection here about how they can be classified to essentially be exempt from being declared. On the surface it all looks like provisions to allow the XPCA to move equipment around globally, quickly, and without interference, but if you flip these laws around and read it like they're importing these items instead--"

"Then they act as a veil to keep anyone from seeing the exotics from coming in," Lia said.

"Exactly. No doubt this law was passed and Idris was lauded as a patriot in the spirit of empowering the XPCA...but the truth of what was happening was so far from that."

"Do you have any actual records of these exotics moving from east to west?" Karu asked. "Forgive my skepticism, but this is all difficult to believe."

"I've got about a million different bills of sale, for undisclosed contents, protected by Section 13."

"From IkaCo to the XPCA?"

"Or subsidiaries, but yeah."

Karu didn't respond, only frowned.

"So wait, let me recap, because this sounds pretty fucked up," I jumped in. "You're telling me that the XPCA never developed any of the crazy weapons they have? That everything from their...the freeze bombs we've seen a thousand of, or the adhesive grenades, none of those were ever made by them?"

"Correct."

"Or the...truck-sized neural dampening things? Or the gun that shoots leg-slicing beams?"

She frowned a little and gave her hair a tug as her eyes flickered down for an instant. "Still correct."

"Then...I'm confused, what is the XPCA's famously-large R&D there for?"

"Well," she said, pushing up her glasses. "I can only really speculate but I have a couple theories I'm pretty confident in. One is simply to make it so nobody ever asks that question."

"Huh?"

"Everyone just assumes that XPCA R&D does what we all think it does. It's famous, it's massive, it's hiding this whole operation in plain sight. Nobody ever has to question where the exotics come from because it's so obvious, they come from XPCA R&D. And R&D is so huge and spread out, even the people in it wouldn't question. Maybe every single one of them is engaged in pointless time-wasting garbage, but they don't know that. They think, I've got the bum job, but it's helping someone, somewhere else make the cool toys. Which must be true because they can see and hear about the cool toys, and they must have come from somewhere, right?"

"That...actually makes a lot of sense," Lia said, tapping her chin with a finger.

"And the other thing I think they do...is try to reverse-engineer the exotics they buy. No matter how sweet a deal they've got with IkaCo, they're still spending billions on this shit, and no matter how tight a leash on them Idris might have, there's no way his pockets are as deep as they money they could save on military spending. So of course they're going to throw a ton of manpower at the problem."

"And...do they have any success?" I asked.

AEGIS just shrugged. "How would I know? I'm just looking at Idris' side of the equation here, I don't have R&D records."

"Yeah, sorry. Dumb question," I agreed.

"Wait," Lia said. "That was step two. What's step one?"

"I'm glad you asked," AEGIS said, picking up the globe to give it a final dramatic spin. I was about to call her out on this stupid dramatic shit again, but saw by the grin on her face that this was the moment she'd been setting up this whole time, the whole dramatic culmination of the whole stupid globe prop. So I let her have it.

And even knowing that, I was kinda surprised by where she stopped the globe this time. Karu frowned, Lia thoughtfully pulled at her bottom lip. I thought that can't be right.

AEGIS had stopped the globe with her finger pointed at the massive, red-striped exclusion zone on the mainland west of Japan. The world's second-largest unclaimed land, after Antarctica.

"China?" I asked. "Why? What about China?"

"That," she said mysteriously, "is unclear. But I have enough evidence to make a very clear conclusion that some kind of tech critical to the exotics is coming out of there. Ichiro knows it, Idris alluded to it, but there's nothing in the books, no laws down or shipping labels from...from Beijing or anything. Which makes sense, since, y'know, you're not going to find a PO box on a street corner in a giant glassy desert with no streets."

"The US military has constant excursions into China. The XPCA as well," Karu spoke, musing aloud.

"Which has always seemed like a pointless propaganda move to me," Lia said. "Kind of a...beating the dead horse to remind us that the US has enemies, and keep us all focused on the ghosts of the past."

"Instead of the duplicity of the present?" Karu asked, and Lia nodded.

"Well maybe there's more to it than that. A lot more," AEGIS said. "If there are natural resources there, or...I don't know, mysterious ancient tech or something, that'd go a long way towards explaining why the government, military, and corporations all are over there. And doubly-so if it's got something to do with how to make the exotics that are such a billion-dollar industry."

"And what's going to happen to this whole, five-step chain of corruption and billions of dollars, now that we killed off step two?" Lia asked.

"Can't rightly say," AEGIS said, crossing her arms seriously. "There's going to be a power vacuum though, and that's always a dangerous situation, especially one with this much money and this many weapons floating around in it. IkaCo might try to expand into the US further, or other political figures might try to take Idris' place."

"Or the XPCA might try to cut out the middleman, if they know what's going on," Lia suggested.

"Either way, we're in for some changes, and fortunately I don't think anyone wants to capture the public eye...but it might just turn out that whoever's willing to be the most ruthless wins. We are talking a billion dollar piece of pie here. There's going to be blood."

I knew she wasn't trying to make me feel like shit, but the fact was, all those people dying in this scenario she was painting was kinda on our hands. Granted, most of them were probably kinda crappy people, but still...you never wanted to face the realization that, shit, I caused a war, whoops.

Especially right after AEGIS explicitly told me not to do anything rash. At least I could mostly blame Karu, but it wasn't like I was jumping to stop her or anything.

"Okay then, we've learned a lot," I said, changing the topic purely for my own benefit. "But in the end, I don't think most of this matters to us personally. We're not looking to change the world's arms trade or shut down the archaeology in China, we're looking to save Moon and Tem and go from there. Right?"

"Right," AEGIS said, suddenly beaming. "And to that end, we've caught kind of a break here, because all these legal loopholes that Ichiro and Idris have been sewing into the legal system...now that we know about them, I have a great idea for their use. One which will get us right on IkaCo's doorstep without them even knowing we're there."

"Wow, sounds...great. And dangerous," Lia said.

"And foolhardy," Karu added.

I scratched my nose. If Saga were here, she'd say 'and fun', but I resisted the urge.

Instead, I looked around at the three with me here. Exactly because Saga wasn't here, I saw the same reservation on each of their faces. This was something big, something distant, something we really shouldn't be poking our noses into.

But, I mean, we were all already criminals. It wasn't like we'd had any success keeping our noses clean already. Staying 'safe' and following the law had just left us disempowered, had left me feeling helpless.

"Let's get Saga and Whitney, and then let's do this," I said.