Mardock Scramble

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.

Tweedledee and Tweedledum turned to each other.

–What shall we do?

–You should go call the Professor, Tweedledee. I don’t want to end up disposed of just for opening up an outside line without official clearance, you know.

–You’re right.

Tweedledee pushed up against the ledge of the pool and jumped out.

He brushed the water off his body and slipped into his pants.

–Wait here, Balot. I’ll introduce you to the god of Paradise.

He headed off straight back into the rainforest, leaving Balot behind.

Balot swam with Tweedledum as they waited for Tweedledee’s return.

As she gave herself up to the water, her medicinal compresses began peeling off, and even the bandages on her wrists started to come loose. Eventually all her bandages started floating to the surface, and before long they were swallowed up by small contraptions at the edge of the pool that looked like miniature garbage disposal chutes.

It truly was a well-designed pool. The water was maintained at a perfect temperature, and it was kept constantly clean.

–What did Tweedledee mean by “god of Paradise”?

–Oh, just that he’s easy to anger—the wrath of god and all that.

Then Balot heard laughter. Through her earphone, but also with something at the back of her mind, using her interference abilities, her snarc. It was almost like telepathy. And it seemed to be unaffected by whether she was on the surface of the water or underneath it.

–He’s the Supreme Warden of all of Paradise’s creatures—that’s one of his titles, anyway. If I said that he was one of the Three Magi, would that ring a bell?

–I heard that the Three Magi made this place…but I don’t know the details.

–Not to worry, babe, all will be revealed shortly, Tweedledum said as if to say that was the end of the matter, and dived below Balot. Her body was lifted up, and Tweedledum’s head appeared right in front of her, nostrils flaring.

–Are you the only one who lives here, Tweedledum?

–Nah, there’s plenty of others, but I’m the best value. Should I call the rest here? Some of them are at death’s door, though.

–It’s okay. I don’t really want anyone to die on my account.

Tweedledum laughed again.

–Not many of the others can really speak like me, anyway. It probably wouldn’t be much fun.

–The others—are they all dolphins too?

–The majority, yeah, but not all. There’s also whales, but they’re too big to make it into this section. There’s also sharks and orcas, but they’re in the minority, and they’re blocked from entering here, so don’t you worry. I don’t really get on with those guys, truth be told. Tweedledee is pretty good at handling them, though.

Balot was clinging to Tweedledum’s back now, and she snarced Tweedledum’s silver sunglasses directly.

–You know Oeufcoque, right?

–Yeah, I know him. He was here up until about six years ago. He’s just like me, a creature that was created to order on commission from the military.

–Did you get along with him?

–I got along with him well enough, yeah. I have no problems with that type of person. He’s a good egg. Handy having him around too. He’s not perfect, of course, plenty of character flaws, but basically I’d say he’s a good choice for a lover, babe.

–It’s only you two who refer to him in that way.