Mime Spent Apart

Part 20

Menhaus watched as Kusa talked to Calliope. They seemed to be talking about him. He wondered if that was just paranoia, surely it must be? And yet there was a point where Kusa had looked over directly at him and then the conversation had become heated. There was a couple of times that Calliope had glanced at him too, and not with the half flirting look she had been giving him during their conversation either. She had looked almost... scared? Why would she be scared of him? Scared of something Kusa was saying about him? What reason would Kusa have to be spreading rumours about him? This was getting stranger and stranger.. or maybe he was getting more and more paranoid for no reason and it was time for him to leave. Yes, that was probably it. He grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair he draped it on and put it on. He decided to down another dirty martini for luck, those things were really good. He grabbed the glass and threw the liquid down his throat. He could feel it radiate out to his muscles and his bones. It showed him how much adrenaline he had flowing at the moment. It really was time to leave. He grabbed a cocktail sandwich, waved a general goodbye to the room and once again marched towards the hallway that contained the lifts. As he pushed on the glass door, this time he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned and saw Calliope. "Leaving so soon, M?"

"Um yeah. Tina wants me to go to her house." He lied

"Aw tell her you're having fun here"

"Nah I think I had better go. I want to go to her anyway."

"ahh..." she raised an eyebrow. Menhaus went red, even though he was lying. He still couldn't even think about ..that.. with Tina without getting flustered. She was ridiculous. He was suddenly even gladder he was leaving, even if it wasn't to go to Tina's. "I had a great night though" he said, "Did you?"

"Yeah my night has been great! It's only just started really." She looked at him pointedly as she said this.

"Sorry I'm leaving so early. I did have a good time. Well, goodbye, talk to you in the chat room, OK?"

He turned and went out through the door and hit the button for the lift. He could feel her gaze on his back as he waited. Hell, he could feel it on the ride down and going out to catch his taxi. He felt a very weird feeling in his chest. What on earth was he supposed to do? He knew one thing, he wasn't going to go to one of thse meet ups again. He was really excited about the New York Times possibility though, he really hoped he hadn't just messed that up. Hmm. Maybe he would have to go to another party, maybe the next one he would try and get Tina to come along with him, just to see these people were harmless. Although, now that he thought about it, maybe they weren't. Okram seemed like a friendly bear, armed with a tactical knife. Calliope seemed to have a mixture of predator and tragic heroine and Kusa just seemed... off. Something wasn't right. It was all perfect but at the same time he could see him snapping necks. Or at least he could see him acting out the motions. Now he thought about it, he could see him acting out the motions of a lot of things, the guy moved like a dancer. Now that was strange, did he get dance lessons as a kid? While he wondered about this he felt his mobile phone begin to ring. He pulled it out of his pocket expecting to see a call from Tina, instead it was from an unlisted number. How strange. He wondered if he should even answer it, and decided why not?

"Hello, this is Menhaus?" he said into the receiver

"Hello Menhaus. This is A(*)&)()___" A stream of static assaulted his ear after the first few words. He pulled the phone away from his ear and then gingerly replaced it there. "Sorry," he said, "you're breaking up."

"Not me. I need to give you some information and a friendly warning." This time he heard the voice clearly but it sounded like it was going through an autotuner. Or one of those enemies on Doctor Who. He always hated Doctor Who. "What do you mean a warning? Do I even know you?"

"I know you, Menhaus. And I'd say you know me. You know aspects of me. You know Kusa in the chat room?"

"Well... yes. And I know him in real life too. I just met him."

"No you didn't."

Menhaus reeled. What did he mean? "How so? I saw him. It was him. I talked to him."

"No, you talked to an actor hired to be him. hired by me."

"Hired by you?" Well, that would explain the disguised voice he guessed. Wait, did it? This was so confusing.

"Yes, he was hired by me to come to that gathering and be the character of Kusa from the chatroom. He would be talking to you now but he is busy."

"Who would be talking to me? The actor Kusa or ...the character of Kusa? What do you mean 'the character of Kusa'?"

"I mean that it is a representative of my personality. It is someone that comes out when needed or when I am relaxed and can express all my personalities at once, such as when I can comfortably hide behind a computer screen."

"So you're Kusa?"

"No. I am not Kusa. Kusa is not here right now."

"Are you... are you schizophrenic? Is he one of your personalities?"

"I am not schizophrenic. That is a human condition. As far as him being one of my personalities... yes, you could say that. I prefer that he is a character of mine, or an identity."

"Oh I see. Wait, 'a human condition'? You're not human?"

"I thought I was. I was put straight."

"You've been brainwashed?"

"No, I am an AI. An Artificial intelligence that is running a child smuggling operation programmed by French culture supremecists."

"Culture supremicists?"

"Yes, they decide what is missing from world culture and they try to inject it back in again. Now, I have my main program which I am using to talk to you now. I also have Kusa which developed on its on as a way for me to be able to interact with the outside world. I also found myself needing to express my creativity. For this I created a writer personality, one I called..."

"...Calliope."

"Precisely."

"And you picked those two in there to play you so you could be with a group of people?"

"I picked then because they will be targeted soon."

"Targeted? Why?"

"Because they somehow escaped. They got out."

"They..got out? Escaped from where?"

"From their lives. From the code. From what they were brought into when they were children."

"They were... smuggled?"

"Yes."

"By your programmers?"

"Yes."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I can't help but feel you are very important in all this. And I am very rarely wrong. I think you have a connection to the girl playing my Calliope identity. She has felt it in the chat room and even the actor can feel it in the party."

"But she is flirting with every body?"

"This is not flirting. This is a need."

"And what about the actor playing Kusa."

"He already knows Calliope."

"He does?"

"Yes but he may not realise it yet."