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Entwined: Part 16

They spent several wild, heady days together, just the three of them; learning all over again what it was like to be with each other, to share each other. Learning how all three of them could fit together in so many different ways. They moved from room to room, kissing, touching, playing, never seperating from one another for too long.

Jintesh discovered just how alike he and Taisho were, and how best they could gang up on Krispin. He also discovered how much he enjoyed watching Krispin and Taisho together; there was something intrisically sexy about two such different bodies twined together. Whatever jealousy that Krispin had spoken of did not occur to him at all. It made sense to him, that the three of them belonged together. Wasn't it what was meant to be?

His game deadline loomed again, and Krispin and Taisho taught him a new game of their own; how to spin the looms while being seduced and ravaged in real life. While his mind tried to weave the essence of the cyberlooms into another part of his game, his body writhed and distracted him as two teasing sets of hands and lips moved all over him. When he'd finally finished, he had an idea that this part of the game might be a little less coherent than the previous ones. But he left it for his boss all the same.

Krispin and Taisho practiced almost every day with Crustacean, preparing for a recording session that was soon to come, and Jintesh came to watch them practice as often as not. He liked to sit in the corner, all but forgotten, and listen to the magic that Crustacean created when they played. Their music was so intense, so beautiful, that he was always disappointed when they stopped playing.

He skipped a few sessions to pick up some belongings from his apartment, and as the days went by and the three of them settled into some sort of a routine, it seemed to him that he was all but living with them now. Despite his desires for solitude, it was an arrangement that he liked, for he felt completely comfortable with these two; able to be himself at all times, and know that they would accept him for that.

They seemed to be at a different party every other night, but with Krispin -- and Taisho -- at his side, he felt safer amongst so many people, and he began to be accepted into the closeknit groups of friends that made up this crowd. Everything was so normal, so happy, that he could almost forget Krispin's Haze addiction, and his association with Nimbus. It was only in the dark hours of the early mornings, a warm body curled up on each side of him, that worry plagued his mind. He was always glad when he was too tired to stay awake agonising.

It was over a week later that he finally heard from Rhys, via his boss. The thread she left was a bland 'hi, how are you?' message, and he skipped past it without reacting outwardly, but his insides clenched and he had to supress a desperate urge to thread her back on the spot. Not from Krispin's place; if she was right, they probably monitored every thread that came through there.

It wasn't until the next evening that he got a chance to return her thread. There was yet another party happening, and he pleaded tiredness; he was too worn out from all this action, and needed some peace and quiet, he said. Krispin and Taisho were understanding, and left him alone in their apartment, and he waited only ten minutes after their departure before he was pulling on his coat and heading outside as well.

He blessed Krispin silently for his streambike, and took a wild ride to the nearest commercial area he knew of with a public datathread. He checked the street, feeling suddenly paranoid, but there were people everywhere; there was no way he'd be able to tell if anyone was watching him. He gave up and hooked his chargechip up to the threader.

Rhys' answered, for a change, and her frown vanished as she recognised his face.

"Ah, Jin. I was wondering how long you'd take."

"Sorry. It's hard to get away when you don't normally do anything outside."

"I know the feeling. Can you come over? Got some stuff to show you. I don't trust even these public threads."

"Sure. Just gotta leave a message in case Krispin gets home early."

"Okay. See you soon." Rhys cut the thread and Jin paused to think only a moment, before he entered Krispin's thread. He left a message telling them he'd gone for a quiet dinner with an old friend, and would be back soon. Then he was back on his streambike, heading for Laran's place as fast as he dared.



Rhys answered the door as soon as he'd knocked, and beckoned him inside. Laran waved to him from across the room, where he was sorting through his disc collection, and Jin greeted him briefly. But Rhys dragged him across to her home console, a powerful piece of equipment that put his own to shame.

"We finally got inside Nimbus," she told him.

"We?"

"Yeah. Took three of us." Her eyes were bright, delighted, and despite his worry, Jin couldn't help but grin at her. The more dangerous and complex a job, the more Rhys loved it. "But we did it! What a hack. It's been a long time since I did anything so satisfying."

"I hope it was worth all the effort."

"Yeah, I think so. I got Krispin's file. Everything they have about him. I made a copy and made sure the tracings point to a deadend console on a street somewhere. Then I brought it out and put it in here. Should be safe for now."

"What's in it?" Jin leaned over the console, suddenly desperately curious. And scared, at the same time. Did he really want to know?

"A lot of stuff. I haven't cracked it all open yet. They encoded every single part of it in a different way. Most of them are multi-encodes, too; voice, print, retina, dna, and a dozen other locks. But I've got some of it." She tapped the console, bringing up a diagram of a brain. "They record his brainwaves, patterns, cell mass, and chem levels every time he visits them. Jin, he's been involved in this whatever-it-is for seven years."

"Seven?" Jin felt suddenly numb with shock. Seven years? Krispin had given them several days of his life every month for the last seven years? Why? What the hell were they doing to him?

"Yeah. If you remember, that's when Haze first hit the streets. From what I can tell, Krispin's been on Haze for all that time, too." She was tapping fast, bringing up wave patterns and other images that were beyond him. "But they're doing something -- I don't know what. His brain hasn't deteriorated yet. Well, not by much. To look at his patterns, you'd think he was only a two or three year addict."

"How can they control that? I thought there was no way to fix Haze.." The words trailed off to nothing as he realised what he'd just said. No way to fix Haze -- at least to the people on the streets. But if Nimbus had made it themselves..

Rhys was nodding. "You said it, Jin. The streetsleepers are right. It's a corp job."

"Why?" He felt his anger burning. "What do they care about what we do down here? Why does it matter? We're not hurting them. Why do they want to destroy us?" And more importantly, at least to him, why did they want to use Krispin as a part of it?

"I don't know, Jin. I don't understand the corps. But I'll tell you something -- having proof of it scares the hell out of me. Nimbus aren't small. And they've got backing by big corps, like WeaveLock. I don't want someone that big on my tail. Once I crack this thing and get all the information I can for you, I'm going to delete every trace of it."

"But can't we do something? Tell someone?"

"Who would you tell? Who cares enough? This is the slums. We don't matter. Tell it to anyone else and you're just risking their lives as well." Rhys' face was blank, but he could see the bitterness in her eyes. It was hurting her to know it, too. But she was right. There was nothing they could do. They weren't important enough, and they didn't know anyone important enough.

"Understood," he said softly. "Did you crack anything else yet?"

"Nothing mindblowing -- all the good stuff has double the encodes. I got his credit flow, though." She tapped the console and pulled up a long list of credit data. "Whatever else they're doing to him, they're supporting him pretty well. Pay him a nice sum everytime they check up on him, and give him other stuff, too. That apartment he's in was a gift from them. So was his original implant. And three streambikes so far."

"Streambikes? One recently?"

"Yeah. About two weeks ago."

"Damn." Jin's mouth went sour. Pulled some favours, wasn't that what Krispin had said? He wondered just what sort of favours Krispin had done to get Nimbus to give him that bike. No -- he didn't want to know. There was no point getting angry about it. Krispin had just wanted to give him a gift, regardless of how he'd gotten that gift. But Jin still felt leery of riding the bike again, now that he knew where it'd come from. "That all?" he asked, trying to distract his thoughts.

"For now. Breaking the rest of this open is going to take me awhile yet. But I figured I'd give it to you in little doses, rather than scaring you shitless with one big information overload."

"Thanks." Jin couldn't help but sound bitter, though. Even this 'little dose' had scared him. He wasn't sure he wanted anything more. "We're not gonna be able to help him, are we? How do you get out of something like this?"

"Good question." Rhys' turned back to the console. "It depends why they're doing it. I'd say it's all or nothing for him. There's not gonna be any nice little ten year contract that he can finish and then say thanks and walk out the door. Haze kills, sooner or later. As far as the looms are concerned, Krispin doesn't exist. They didn't do that for no reason." She glanced up at Jin, shaking her head. "Sorry, but that's the way it goes. Nothing short of disconnecting completely from the looms and skipping the city without getting IDed is going to save him. And even then, tracking roamers isn't all that hard for them if they want you badly enough. You leave traces wherever you go."

"Little doses, huh Rhys?" Laran had wandered over, and now he laid a gentle hand on Jin's shoulder. Rhys shrugged, looking back at her console.

"He asked." But she sounded contrite. Jintesh just stared blankly at the diagrams flashing across her console. All or nothing. There was no way to save Krispin. That's what she was telling him. No matter what else she discovered in that file, there was nothing he could do that would make any difference in the long run. He was going to lose Krispin to Haze.

Jin didn't head straight back to Krispin's apartment. He couldn't, not the way he was feeling; like this, he'd probably take one look at Krispin's vibrant face and burst into tears. So he headed to the one place that had always made him feel better. His bridge.

He left his bike at the end and walked out to the middle of the bridge, aimlessly running his fingers along the safety rail. He stopped, finally, and leaned on the rail, staring down at the city. The lights winked, beneath him, all around him, above him, like the sky of stars you could see if you were high enough. These were false stars, for false comfort. This city was all he'd ever known, the place that had always been home and cared for him, but now it was turned against him.

It hurt, it ached, welling up inside, and he felt the tears rolling down his cheeks. He slammed his fists against the rails, wishing he could take the whole city, smash it and shake the wrongs out of it, destroy everything that wanted to hurt him.

It was as if everytime he actually tried to live, they cut him down. Last time he'd actually cared about someone, she'd waited until he couldn't live without her, and then she'd made him have to. She'd cursed him, crushed him, proved his worthlessness, and left him with nothing but his pain. He'd never thought anything could ever hurt like that again.

And now, Krispin. He'd taken that risk, dared to let himself be seduced, let himself care again -- and he cared so damn much, now! No matter how it ended, it would be the same; Krispin would be gone and he'd be left aching and alone. He could almost feel anger for Krispin. The boy had known what was to come, why had he let Jintesh into his life? Why had he made him care?

But he couldn't. He couldn't curse Krispin. He adored him, worshipped him; so much as to love him. Love -- a word he'd sworn never to utter again. And maybe he'd never say it aloud. But it consumed him all the same. He loved Krispin desperately. To know he had to lose that.. what was he going to do?

What could he do? Nothing. Unless Rhys uncovered something startling, Krispin's existance was in the hands of Nimbus. All Jintesh could do was hope these tests or whatever they were would go on for a long time. Because if he was going to lose Krispin in the end, he wanted to hold onto the boy for as long as he possibly could.

He wiped away his tears, trying to calm his whirling mind. Enough self-pity. Enough pain, and blame. He had to learn to live the same way Krispin did -- in the now. No worries about the future. He just had to take things as they came, and enjoy everything he got. And so he clenched his fists, walking slowly and calmly back to his streambike.



When Jintesh finally returned to Krispin's apartment, it was dark and empty. He spared a moment for relief that the other two were not home yet. And then he headed straight for bed, wanting to sleep away the pain that was still crushing him deep inside, despite his resolve.

He found, over the next few days, that he could get used to it. The pain became something that was just a part of his life, and for the most part, he could ignore it. He could still smile, laugh, and have fun, and he could still find pleasure in Krispin and Taisho's company. He could still make love to the both of them with the same wild passion as before -- perhaps now even more so, because the mindless abandon of sex allowed him to forget, for at least a short time.

Before he'd even realised, another whole week went by and the time came for Crustacean to record for their next disc. The experience was as new for them as it was for him; the last time they'd made a disc, it had been in Naiya's building, recorded by whatever gear they could scrounge from their friends. This time, an entire section of a studio was reserved for their use.

SpyraTech, the company that had signed Crustacean, were bowing to their every whims, which the members of the band found almost laughable. Jintesh had noticed the same kind of reaction from his own boss, as well. As if people from the slums were pets to be pampered in the hope that they would do special tricks in return.

If nothing else, it gave them the chance to order corp members around for a change; it amused Yuu no end to demand for an expensive drink or some rare type of food, and watch an overdressed errand boy become all flustered as he tried to find it. But for the most part, they didn't ask for much. They just wanted to make their music, and actually get paid for it, too.

Jintesh was allowed to sit in on the recording sessions -- another favour that SpyraTech were happy to agree to -- and he loved sprawling in the equip room, watching Crustacean through the thin plasglass, and hearing their music pour out of the speakers over his head. The speakers were huge, and always turned up loud, so that he could feel the bass vibrating up his legs and into his chest, making his whole body shake with sound.

Jin was glad to be a part of it all. It meant he didn't have to sit at home alone through all the recording; because if he did that he knew he'd start thinking again. He'd still not heard from Rhys, and he was starting to wonder if she'd found something so bad that she didn't dare tell him. Or if Nimbus had perhaps caught up with her. He'd rather just settle in and forget about Krispin's problems.

So when Krispin disappeared five days into the recording, Jin was more than a little upset. He didn't even know how it happened; Krispin had been riding ahead of them when they left the studio, but when they skidded their streambikes to a halt outside his apartment building, he wasn't there.

Jin and Taisho sat waiting on their bikes for a good half hour before they finally gave in and admitted that he was gone. Taisho was the first, powering his bike off with a sudden slap against its display panel, and sliding off it onto the ground. Jintesh watched him a moment, seeing the frustration on his face, and hastily followed suit.

"Another wander, you think?" He asked, and the singer shrugged his shoulders.

"Yeah, I guess. Damn, his timing on these things is getting worse."

"We've got a weekend. Maybe he'll come back before the recording starts again."

"He'd better." Taisho shook his head and strode towards the building, and Jintesh followed, hurrying to keep up.

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