"then it must be said that our love is scientific as well -"L'Ève Future" "Repo 202 to Control." "Arrived at target airspace." "Commencing data relay." "Fill me in." "then took off." "an unmapped alley." "All access points are blocked." "We storm it in 2 minutes." "That's the cyborg cop from Section 9." "Keep your distance." "I hear his bum luck catches like the plague." "E-police want to horn in on us." "They're asking for a data link." "now the E-Police." "Decline their request respectfully." "Help me." "We've had eight cases of gynoids murdering their masters." "electronic brains reformatted." "Hadaly" type. they were provided free of charge to contractors." "they've recalled all the prototypes. they've identified no defects in either software or hardware." "You get all that? company panics and recalls every one. inevitable liability trials and mammoth damage awards." "I get it all except why Section 9 is involved." "You get it?" "What you call getting it may be just wishful thinking." "Section 9's involved for two reasons." "not one single family has filed a lawsuit." "In every case they've settled with Locus Solus out of court." "the victims included a politician and a retired Public Security official. it's our job to consider if it's a matter for Section 9." "Ishikawa and Azuma are getting background on the victims." "You two check out the gynoids." "No questions." "Go." "I didn't volunteer for this." "There's no way I'll measure up to the Major." "That's beside the point." "I hear she's still listed as missing." "The Major could only call her brain and her ghost her own." "Although even she doubted whether they were real." "Her brains and hardware were government property were part of the deal." "The top brass only cares about recovering that memory." "Her life is not an issue for them." "where do we start?" "Locus Solus is located in the northern frontier." "The first step is to check in with local Forensics." "[POLICE]" "You guys..." "About the gynoid this guy wasted yesterday..." "She cost us two young officers." "Don't tell me you want her back?" "That's part of what we've come to determine." "a right at the end of the hall." "we'll skip the tour. they wait until the fruit is ripe. you would've had a choice word or two for guys like us swooping down to horn in on your case." "That's why it's so irritating." "It's like watching my old self." "It is no use to blame the looking glass if your face is askew." "The mirror is not an instrument of enlightenment but of illusion." "neither of us has looks worth staring at in the mirror." "I'm not sharing this investigation." "I'll have you detained." "Public Security Section 9." "This scary-looking fellow..." "Blew her apart with double-0 buckshot." "A 50 caliber hollow point would've left her easier to reconstruct." "two of 'em cops." "She was trying to commit suicide before you shot her." "Isn't that right?" " "Commit suicide" meaning..." "Miss..." " Haraway." "how exactly would a robot kill itself? these gynoids are capable of self-authorizing attacks against humans." "This liberates them from Moral Code #3." "Maintain existence without injuring humans." "Isn't "self-destruction" more accurate?" "If you assume differences between humans and machines are obvious." "Are such "suicides" confined to a particular model?" "Not necessarily. especially among the "pets"." "The cause? functional defects from wear-and-tear." "but..." " But?" "I say it's because humans discard robots once they're redundant. and degenerate." "Perhaps it's a protest against their own obsolescence." "Absurd." "Humans are different from robots." "like black isn't white." "It's no more helpful than the basic fact that humans aren't machines. weren't designed along utilitarian or practical models. an idealized one at that." "Why are humans so obsessed with recreating themselves?" " Do you have children?" " A daughter." "Children have been excluded if you define humans as beings who possess a conventional identity and act out of free will." "Then what are children who endure in the chaos preceding maturity?" "but they obviously have human form." "are not surrogates for real babies. as they are experiencing something deeply akin to child rearing." "What on earth are you talking about?" "Raising children is the simplest way to achieve the ancient dream of artificial life." "that's my hypothesis." "Children aren't dolls!" "animate from inanimate." "He lost his beloved five-year-old daughter" "Francine." "He doted on her." "At least that's what they say." "Can we get back to reality here? manufactured by Locus Solus." "Right." "It's very well designed." "but it's intended for particular functions." "Particular functions?" "It's equipped with organs unnecessary in service robots." "Meaning?" "It's a sexaroid." "but hardly illegal." "I get it." "Scandal." "No wonder those families settled out of court." "the electronic brain reformats." "That's standard protection for manufacturer's proprietary software." "what?" "We found a file in the audio buffer." "Care to hear it?" "Help me." "Help me." "Help me." "Thanks for your help." "but..." "I've never raised a child." "Nothing registered at the ovum bank." "Miss..." "Haraway." "No need for Miss or Mrs." "She's not really the type for technical work." "just like mine." "Which held you back from promotion." "We secure that gynoid's brain for the labs at Section 9." "That's the last we'll see of her." "I like older women." " Next?" " Follow procedure." " Investigate the Hadaly inspector?" " 09 calling 907." "There's been a 602 in the District 201 boathouse." "Victim is inspector for Locus Solus." "Scene secured two minutes prior to local police." "907." " Unbelievable timing." "A fine spring day." "A carriage sprints between this world and the next." "You're all alone here?" "Koga got reacquainted with his dinner and went back with the corpse." "What a wimp." "22 minutes ago." "You made a rookie deal with this mess?" "Life's a learning curve." "Here's what we've got." "Analysis of victim's brain yields... age 54." "Consignment inspector for Locus Solus." "He applied for leave five days ago and vanished." "he rented this boathouse." "kitchen utensils." "Inspection of the area turned up a vehicle license linked to organized crime." "We're checking it out." "presumably the victim's." "Investigating transaction history." "38 caliber SW Model 2602." "Looks like he ran out of time." "Doubt it would've done him much good." "or maybe a professional faking a psycho." "don't touch." "Not a thing." "Let's leave this to Forensics." "907 calling 09." "We're handing the scene over to 969." "Roger." "It's my daughter's birthday." "huh?" " I'll drop you off." "either." "Okay." "Daughter's birthday takes priority." "You're a cheerful bunch." "The chief showing up at a scene?" "that's why." "The place is all yours." "Take your time." "What's the big deal over a local case?" "The boss has taken an interest." "Found it!" "Divided up in jars in the refrigerator." "even the pancreas." "Conscientious bastard." "huh?" "Stick to dry food and he'll last longer." "I can't feed him that." "You're teamed up with Togusa?" "Beats being paired off with a rookie fresh out of training." "he's got his uses." "I've got no complaints." "Except that the only one up to your standards was the Major." "Ishikawa." " Later." " Batou..." " What now?" " Stick to the dry food." "it's better for the dog." "He died from a blow that severed his cervical vertebrae." "not murder." "Someone took their time dismembering the corpse?" "So it appears." "We've confirmed the organs in the refrigerator were the victim's." "They reveal gastritis and cirrhosis of the liver." "Apparently an alcoholic." "Why'd the perp bother with the organs?" "Maybe to create the impression he was a psycho or a freak." "Or to underscore an element of retribution or revenge." "So we're not looking for an assassin posing as a thrill-seeker." "What's with the warped doorknob?" "model NR26." "Known as the Crab Claw." "Strictly military." "anyway." "too." "Did you track down the license on those yakuza wheels?" "They've covered their tracks with a lot of illegal modifications." "Stick to the facts." "We tracked down records from a nearby parking lot." "The vehicle in question's registered to a crime group called Kojinkai." "with a reinforced chassis and rear shocks." "It's been linked to a number of assault scenes." "Custom wheels for a cyborg." "An illegally modified bodyguard at that." " So this was yakuza payback?" " But where's the motive?" "The Kojinkai's an entrenched Japanese crime syndicate. an anything-goes yakuza operation." "Inoue's head 3 days ago." "took over the show." "It's a no-brainer." "Avenge the boss' death and his throne is yours." "Hold on. why'd he take the trouble of hiding out on their turf?" "We don't know." "so the car's our only lead." "Let's leave this one to the locals." "The terrorists-masquerading- as-deranged-robots scenario? so I think that's a dead end. this one included." "get back to your regular shifts." "That's it." "Togusa." "See me before you go." "Talk to me." "We'll check out any links between the Kojinkai mob and Locus Solus." "I mean Batou." "Your job includes monitoring your partner's emotional state." "but I'm not a cyborg or an electronic neurologist." "One need not be Caesar in order to understand Caesar." "right?" "Do you consider yourself to be happy?" "sure." "Most of us are neither so happy nor so miserable as we think." "The key is to stay engaged with your life and your hopes." "I don't understand." "Batou's reminding me of the Major before she disappeared. like an elephant in the forest." "why did you pick me for this job?" "Because it was the Major who plucked you off your local beat." "What'd he want?" "Apparently you don't need to be Caesar in order to understand him." "That goes without saying." "The world cannot live at the level of its great men." "You planning on starting a war?" "but we'll need weapons." " I want to get something straight." " What?" "right?" "You dislike yakuza?" " Sure." "Detest them." " Same here." "right?" "you don't need to be a yakuza..." "I know." "To pay them a visit." "But you also said we need weapons." "I'm a family man." "I can always go alone." "I am your partner." "But I want your word." "Okay." "We're just going to chat." "Avoid shooting as best you can." " Happy now?" " Just fine." "pal." "Who the fuck are you?" "Here to chat with Wakabayashi." "Go get him." "Avoid shooting?" "I did as best I could." "you're on point." "Here comes their back-up." "Images!" "That son of a bitch infiltrated our vision!" "Blame your own cheap shit electronics." "What's up?" "dark stairs." "What's the program?" "I'll lead." "I can't cover you." "Your little gifts exploded above my head. you think two grenades are going to drop an armored cyborg?" "You insult me. then spill your connections to Locus Solus." "What... ?" "look who's here." "but I'm ready." "Betting on that obvious a move?" "Moron." "They told me where to find the consignment inspector so we whacked him." "I'm fresh out of 3 years in the pen." "I know jack shit about what the boss was up to with that outfit." "pal?" "All I could see..." "were my wife and daughter's faces." "That wasn't your wife or daughter." "It was the grim reaper." "I ordered you to conduct an investigation." "I never said skip the paperwork and act like vigilantes." "I certainly don't recall ordering you to barge into any yakuza office." "This isn't the jungle and you're not Special Forces hit men." " You still pissed off?" " I am not pissed." "And I hate to sound ungrateful to the man who saved my life..." "But being your partner is definitely gonna take a toll on me." "it's only the two of us on this case." "A half-assed approach just won't cut it." "they'll come after us." "So that's why you put on that yakuza gun show." "he'd have suspended us." "will you?" "Later." "You're in the kill zone." "Don't tamper with the settings on that new arm of yours. rendering it entirely useless." "Then you'll have to reformat the thing." "where are the remains of my old arm?" "Don't even think about it." "Not much left." "The organic components in this new one match your DNA." "it'll feel like my own." "just hold on." "The fact that you carried him here means that..." "Yeah." "I broke into your love nest. waiting for you." "I'm a dog lover." "But I'm the one that took him in for the night." "My daughter's in heaven and my wife's fuming over her dirty carpets." "When did you start tailing me?" "man." "it is a big deal." "You used me as a smokescreen." "you would've caught on." "Blame it on the boss." "Is this pooch a clone?" "Aren't originals outrageously expensive?" "His was the first line bred by artificial insemination." "It's hardly your style to let them hack into your brain." "And any daily routine just makes you vulnerable to traps." "I told you to stick to dry food." "But he likes the fresh stuff and that's the only store that carries it. and nearly blowing away the store owner." "but it's a rare bird that can hack into this guy." "Except for the Major." "And why didn't they make me blow my own head off?" "not wipe you out. unload your weapon in a grocery store." "So we think either you've gone mad or your cyberbrain's shot." "But this was a planned attack." "It proves that our case wasn't random." "We can't pull out." "We'd jeopardize the whole point of Section 9." "That's what the Major'd say." "too." "but no more official Section support until you come up with material proof." "Locus Solus." "Nothing preserves secrecy like speed." "You're going to the northern frontier immediately." " Far north?" " You two can't handle it?" "but what about the basset?" "A single man in this line of work keeping a dog is preposterous!" "you choose a high-maintenance hound." "It's not my problem." "You guys figure it out!" "This area was once intended a Special Economic Zone in its heyday." "These towers survive as a shadow of the city's former glory." "Its dubious sovereignty has made it the ideal haven for multi-nationals and the criminal elements that feed off their spoils." "beyond the reach of UN or e-police. is as much an expression of DNA as the body itself." "But the same applies to beaver dams and spiderwebs." "I'll take the coral reefs as my metaphor." "Though hardly so beautiful. then society and civilization are just colossal memory systems simply a sprawling external memory." "How great is the sum of thy thoughts." "they are more in number than the sand." "Old Testament." "I'd say your own external memory's pretty twisted." "Look who's talking!" "but we're about to fly over Locus Solus." "so take a good look." "So much for the free tour." "Prepare for landing." "who lay entranced." "Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks." "but we are not Satan." "Batou!" "Lin." "Since when do you skip the "Sir"?" "I haven't forgotten the debt I owe you." "The less one forgets the less one can remember?" "Batou..." "Sir." "Now you want to butter me up with "Sir"." "I beg you." "I beseech you." " Know a guy called Kim?" " Never heard of him." "they're a dime a dozen up this way." "I'm just looking for a particular one." "We have loyalty even in my line." "There's loyalty that protects secrets and loyalty that protects the truth." "so which loyalty is yours?" "They say there's no truth without secrets." "do you know a guy called Kim?" "they're a dime a dozen..." "Life and death come and go like marionettes dancing on a table." "they easily crumble." "He used to be a long-range military scout. fit only to languish by the wayside. and got into black market weapons." "His reputation turned to shit." "Wound up your garden-variety hacker." "Sounds like quite a story." "it won't come back a horse." "His downfall came when his reach exceeded his grasp." "Let's go." "the study on the top floor." "I guess we were a little late." "Pro-active firewalls must have fried him hacking in somewhere." "doesn't look like he would've been of much use." "The deceased firmly declines offerings of fresh or artificial flowers or birds released in his honor." "Sleep not you of the dead." "Even Confucius says you should never pretend to sleep like a corpse." "Kim." "Haven't seen you since that landing operation in Nemuro." "I'm here on a job." "Meaning Locus Solus? but expanded rapidly once they focused on high-end gynoids. even crime syndicates. they shifted all production to a multi-national factory ship anchored in international waters." "They turn out some mighty fine dolls." "Fine enough to commit suicide after murdering humans?" "it's pretty unseemly." "That would mean replicating humans by breathing souls into dolls." "Who'd want to do that?" "The definition of a truly beautiful doll breathing body devoid of a soul." "tiptoeing on the brink of collapse." "Or reduced to a ravaged body with a cyberbrain..." "like you. its very being." "The inadequacies of human awareness become the inadequacies of life's reality. or perhaps endowed with infinite consciousness." "for dolls and for gods." "Shouldn't we get back to business?" "there's one more mode of existence commensurate with dolls and deities." "Animals?" "instinctive joy." "can never know. it is a condition more elusive than godhood." "And this conundrum compelled you to inhabit a doll and play dead?" "Is that your reason?" "how can we know death?" "That's what Confucius says." "It is a rare human who knows death." "armed only with ignorant familiarity." "people die simply because it is inevitable." "But death is a precondition of life for a doll." "Kim chose to become a complete cyborg." "That was his reason. and got into black market weapons." "His reputation turned to shit." "Wound up your garden-variety hacker." "Sounds like quite a story." "it won't come back a horse." "What's wrong?" "Lets go." "Batou! 'I have attained my own celebrated death.'" "isn't it?" "I really understand. really is." "the doubt that a lifeless object might actually live." "That's why dolls haunt us." "They are modeled after humans." "nothing but human." "They make us face the terror of being reduced to simple mechanisms and matter. all humans belong to the void." "Enough." "Let's get down to business. brought about this terror." "The notion that nature is calculable mechanical parts." "The human body is a machine which winds its own springs." "It is the living image of perpetual motion." "the twin technologies of robotics and electronic neurology resurrected the 18th century theory of man as machine. to expand the limits of their own functions. this human determination to beat evolutionary odds also reveals the desire to transcend the very quest for perfection that gave it birth." "The mirage of life equipped with perfect hardware engendered this nightmare." "God's everlasting geometry." "Here goes!" "Batou!" "How do you feel?" "How did I..." "Looks like a tangle of virtual experience hacked into your cyberbrain." "misfortune also arrives three times." "advice unbidden." "we welcome catastrophe." "let alone all three." "I don't have time for your stupid jokes!" "When did you catch on?" "No one's easier to trick than the trickster. but you forget my line's intelligence." "And besides..." "I come complete with a guardian angel." "Try digging up the hall image in your external memory database. the clay man lived by drawing energy from the word for "truth". returned the Golem back to inanimate clay." "That prophecy told me that no truth would be found within these walls." "Someone broke through the firewalls I devised?" "Preposterous." "Who on earth could?" "!" "my guardian angel." "Kim." "It's time you started talking..." "That's just a doll." "Kim." "I won't fall for another diversion." "how can you disprove this reality is genuine or an extension of false illusions generated by virtual signals?" "My ghost is whispering to me." "Humans are nothing but the thread from which the dream of life is woven." "even ghosts are no more than rifts and warps in the uniform weave of the matrix." "though we walk very different paths. either. but continue to function until you meet a suitable death." "Are we actually back in physical reality?" "There is no way to distinguish reminiscence from true memory." "they can only be analyzed after the fact." "so it's tough." "now that our cyberbrains share external memories." "really exist? only dreaming of that family." "Don't you want to verify what actually happened back there?" "why?" "I had to ascertain his motives. inserting the virtual reality to shake us off." "That's about the gist of it. making me dance to his tune and blow away my right arm." "not many could have pulled that off." "Locus Solus suspects as much." "So you anticipated all of this." "then beat him at his own game that was my plan." "But Kim was pretty sophisticated." "I only made it out because of the hallway clue." "The guardian angel you spoke of..." "She's gone." "Somewhere beyond that "rift in the uniform weave of the matrix." "She's definitely alive." "or with the entire domain." "Though that's not for me." "There are as many paths to proving your existence as there are ghosts." "And you've got your daughter. back when he and I were in the jungle together." " At least I've figured one thing out." " What's that?" "That I'll never cut it as your partner." "Lost your nerve?" "I've got a daughter to go home to." "but you'll still need to pay your way out of here." "Don't you have enough?" "We can nail Locus Solus with the data from Kim's cyberbrain." "We can only prove he interfered with an investigation plus the ethics violation." "our investigation's officially off the record. - we need material evidence." " And Kim's a dead end." "he's not." "but his cyberbrain's still tied to Locus Solus." "We've got to settle this case before they clean out their operation. it's time to beat the drums and attack." "it's time for violence." "this isn't like barging into some yakuza office!" "Then I won't count on your Mateba revolver for cover." "fish dive deep into the sea." "I've made contact with the escort." "Roger." "Diving's risky for a heavyweight cyborg." "we'd never retrieve you." "I used to know a cyborg whose hobby was diving." "Don't know what got into her. but they say no one's come back from that ship alive." "Then I don't know what's got into you." " Exactly." "Let's go." " Hold on!" "we'll trip their sensors." "I'll send two seconds of camouflage signal." "Roger." "I've routed this thing into the chief's cyberbrain." "Initiating synchronization." "I'm in." "Forward the vessel data." "Download complete." "Tapped into my visual system?" "Recording now." "Wouldn't want to miss my mentor's assault." "You're a real smartass." "Infiltrator detected." "Rebooting security." "Review status of all onboard cyberbrains." "Scan for matches in memory usage and virus size." "It may be a latent virus." "Cross monitor." "Logical contact with the chief's cyberbrain denied." "Just go ahead and reformat!" "Rebooting of level 2 security system complete." "divert the infiltrator." "Rebuild the logic firewall." "Load antibodies." "Scanning virii." "prepare decoys for ambush." "Deploy all latent viruses along firewalls." "Security wall 014 breached." "Error type 280 in security wall 032." "Rebuilding level 1 external security wall." "Fluctuation in enemy's proactive firewall pattern detected." "Transmitting virus." "Togusa." "You're in danger." "They're onto you." "They'll fry your brain!" "a little further." " You idiot!" "Don't be crazy!" "Illegal access at gynoid production area." "Suspect an unconfirmed latent virus attack." "Release all vaccines to thwart." "all systems activated." "Cannot establish logical contact." "Currently loading combat robotics control software." "Warning." "Abnormality on the TH07 Line." "I repeat." "Veni sancto spiritus." "Major." "How shall I address you now?" "it's just a fragment of me downloaded via satellite." "This gynoid's cyberbrain lacks capacity." "It can only handle the combat robotics control system." "This is the best I can do for facial and vocal expression." "There should be an emergency access terminal 50 meters down this passage." "we'll take over the whole system." "You haven't changed." "Move out." "You're on point." "I'll cover the rear." "Just like the old days." "Who can gaze into the mirror without becoming evil?" "but creates it." "now?" "We're running low on ammo." "but not scrutiny." "isn't that risky?" "It's just until I shut down the operating system." "Plug into the auxiliary inputs in the floor." "I have to gain system control or this gynoid's nonfunctional." "I'm counting on your 30-caliber arm." "but I've only got one clip left." "And I have my doubts about going hand-to-hand with them." "Here goes!" "Illegal onboard breach of main system." "erect proactive firewall." "Multiple camouflage signals identified." "No fluctuation in any terminal." "It may be an outside access." "Terminate all external network links." "Physically disengage external inputs." "Emergency control system not responding." "Diffused viruses coalescing." "Breach in system area firewalls." "Prepare for system reset." "Isolate level 1 data." "Multiple illegal access in core system." "Our countermeasures can't keep up." "We're in control." "All external links severed." "The ship is in standalone mode now. leaving international waters for sovereign territory." "This entire ship will be the material evidence that proves Locus Solus' crime." "They'll come after us." "we'll have an escort vessel." "There." "It's already done." "And we have the time to examine the Locus Solus technique that infused dolls with souls." "Haven't you cracked it?" "too." "Right?" "It's absolutely silent." "Electromagnetic shielding..." "Ghost dubbing. but had to abandon the practice as it destroyed the original being. dubbing their ghosts onto gynoids." "It was the ghost that made Locus Solus gynoids so desirable." "Help me..." "Help me..." "You came to help me." "Mr. Volkerson promised... the police would come and rescue me." "is already stage five." "She can't hear anything and never answers anymore." "revised their ethics code." "the yakuza served him up to avenge the crime boss." "But Volkerson was right." "someone would notice." "Someone would come to save us." "Didn't he consider the victims?" "Not the humans." "What about the dolls endowed with souls?" "But... but..." "I didn't want to become a doll!" "but not for the blood of a fish." "Blessed are those who have voice. "I didn't want to become human." "do you consider yourself happy?" "I suppose." "At least I am free of qualms." "with few wishes." "Like an elephant in the forest." "Batou..." "I'll be by your side." "I'm going." "didn't she?" "Your guardian angel." "eh?" "Why?" "You think I'd report you?" "I'll pick you up at 8:00." "I owe you for looking after him." "Why don't you come in?" "Hanging out with someone else's family just isn't my thing." "my present!" "see?" "re-encoding:" "NeoRenegade"