Partner

Nearly any time any ... governing body? Announces a large change, the people will split. Either they love it or they hate it and people of both groups will clash.

This isn't just a love hate thing. Paw threatened people on live television and not everyone was blind to the threat. Of course. With a priest line backing it, the program isn't exactly defencless and the way that the one group is coming out...

Like bitch slapping someone bigger than you.

And then calling their god a pussy.

Just saying.

It's my Tuesday/Wednesday thing so I'll see you all tomorrow night. Let's try a live chat at 7pm Pacific (thats west coast of North America) time tomorrow (Wednesday the... er.. 21) and we'll see how it goes. Maybe we can get a better time for the rest of you all.

To get to the chat, go to www.ayatostales.net and click the appropriate button (are you old enough kind of thing) then at the intro page click STORIES and the chat box is there. Kind of sucky, but it's the only one I could really find...

Read, Review and Enjoy.





Back at the apartment, Mik slid onto the couch beside Paw with a laptop and kissed the Sidhe’s forehead, “Mari dropped off a list of possible partners for you.”

“Want Mik, not partner.” Paw snapped back at Mik.

“But. Paw. To be part of the program, you need a partner. Someone to fill out the paperwork and do the stupid things. This way. I don’t have to do those things.”

“And Paw meets stupid people.”

“All people are stupid, just to varying degrees. It just so happens that a number of journalists are stupid. They’re journalists for a reason, you know.”

Paw sighed and set his head on Mik’s shoulder, “But just because Mik not doing partner stuff, not mean Mik not doing other stuff. Ambassadors have to go to meetings and press conferences and-”

“Well. They can do as they please. I’ve just been instated and hardly count as a real ambassador. Besides. I was kind of hoping you would come along. I’m sure the president would be pleased to see you. And I’m not going to just go out and say, the Sidhe don’t agree on this law, when I don’t even know your own mind.”

“How can Mik know the mind of entire species, if Mik not of entire species?” Paw murmured in response.

“Exactly. And one of these people here,” Mik flicked the list up, “is going to stay home and do all the paperwork for us and, maybe once we have him properly trained, will be another hand to help with the mesa.”

Paw sighed and jabbed his finger at an ugly one. Mik clicked it, brought it up and then clicked it back down. Both men looked at each other and then around the apartment.

“Okay. So man with one hand, not so helpful,” Paw murmured, “give him to someone else.”

“Someone… else?”

“This one,” Paw pointed.

Just as Mik clicked the name, it disappeared from the list. Mik swore and scrolled down as a hundred more names dropped from the list. Paw pointed at the screen as several names went red. Mari slipped into the living room, lips pressed together, arms crossed.

“What is it?”

Mari seemed to take a moment to get her mouth to work, “over half of the candidates have dropped out. Four partners are asking to be removed. Three are being charged for crimes they didn’t commit and you, yourself, have been fingered as a traitor. Ten times someone has tried to hack the system so we let them get through the eleventh time. Terrorists claiming that the death of the Sidhe is a good thing.”

“Look into the ones who are wanting to resign, check their families. See who could be blackmailed. See who could sympathise with the …” Mik looked past Mari, to Taln explaining to Lillow how to use a camera, “Taln…”

“I asked Souse if it was okay to take pictures,” Taln responded, “Then Lillow wanted to see how it worked.”

Mik looked at Paw, the Sidhe shrugged, “If Lillow want to play, then Lillow play.”

“Do you want your picture taken?” Mik asked Paw.

“Oh. Yes. Sure,” Paw shrugged, “why not.”

“Mik… as per the partners?”

Mik motioned with his head to the nest room, collected up the laptop and the papers and whatnot and moved to the nest room. Paw moved with him. Mari closed the door behind them.

“Search them all. Anyone we know wanting to quit?”

“Mork. Edno.”

“Ed…” Mik’s mind stumbled, “he wasn’t young when he dealt with Piho, how old is he now?”

“Old enough to retire,” Mari murmured, “which is the reason stated on his resignation. I’ve already sent several family members to scour their records, including Edno’s. Don’t. Even mention the cost of such a feat. The highest of our family, my great-grandfather, has deemed it necessary to put whatever resources we have into the program. In aid form. As per the hacking. This person, this hacker is absolutely stupid. He could not get past the standard fire walls.”

“Why he?”

“Ninety percent of hackers are males, single, little to no family contact.”

“And the other ten percent? Why not a female?”

“Because the other ten percent, in order to cut it amongst a male majority population, that other ten percent must excel. Under pen names, of course, females are the top ten percentile of hackers and if it was a female, she would have gained entrance to the system in under ten seconds. Trust me. I know.”

“If they are using hackers, we use better hackers. Country policy is to not negotiate with terrorists, to take the fight with them.”

“It is thought that that is what they want us to do. An ambush attack.”

“Have these terrorists choosen a name?”

“They,” Mari looked down at her hands for a moment, gaining control of herself, “they call themselves Ayato Aniege.”

“Not even followers, calling themselves Ayato?”

“Yes. Implying that they are in possession of the old powers, capable of a hive mind.”

“Impossible,” Paw chimed in, “Mountain line was only one to be able to do that. Aniege never went to Mountain line. To claim to be Aniege and not be Aniege.”

“The line is dead,” Mari said, cutting Paw off, “People claim it all the time. Ayato is the… what kind of sick bastards claim that name? To claim to have that reference to Mother? To claim to be a lover of the people, a piece of the gods as you destroy lives?”

“Shush,” Mik said to both Mari and Paw as Paw opened his mouth to respond, “Now, I don’t want all the references for Ayato, as, if this is the reference file for Whisper,” Mik waved at the disc, “I would hate to see the one for the other.”

“It takes up fourteen floors and is contained in the Illuen Hall,” Mari responded quietly, “each floor is three city blocks squared. So no. You cannot have all the references for Ayato.”

“Okay. Look at Ayato as a normal person does, then take a step up. Check all web references, those multi-edited things that nearly anyone can alter. Web chats, websites. Hackers work on the electronic level, they’ve left their signature somewhere and in those things, we will find their hints and be able to tell what kind of Aniege they are.”

“And once we know?”

“Then we pull out the big guns.”



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