Marvin was talking to Ben and Renee in the living room when he noticed Ella put on a jacket.
"You heading out?" Ben asked.
"I need some air," Ella said. She disappeared down the stairs.
Marvin exchanged a concerned look with Ben and Renee. Then an idea crossed his mind. Not just an excuse to talk to Ella, but something he'd been wanting to do for a while.
First, he found Caroline and asked if she needed him around.
"Not today," Caroline replied. She squinted. "Where are you going?"
Marvin thought he heard a slight inflection in her voice, like she was anxious of him leaving. Then it was gone as she continued, "Is it Ella?"
"I just wanted to check—"
Caroline pursed her lips and nodded. "Yeah, you should."
They said goodbye, and Marvin walked a bit faster than he intended to.
Why does Caroline care so much about me? Is there some part of her that knew me beforehand? Some part that was put in the Memory Bank?
All the more reason to do what he was doing now.
At the front door, he managed to intercept a rather surprised Ella.
"Are you okay?" he asked dumbly.
"I, uh, need some air. Are you okay?"
"Could I… come with you?"
Ella looked even more surprised, and Marvin wanted to die. Why did he have to pause so long? Why did he phrase it so weirdly? Why—
Then, Ella replied, "Sure."
-----
The streets of Sector 58 were loud. Action seemed to occupy every inch of Marvin's periphery: kids skating, delivery drones flying by, people talking behind restaurant windows, giant holo-ads showing mech duels. The buildings around them were not the gray and neon Marvin was used to, but cream-colored and arcane, with marble pillars and intricately patterned walls. Though more easy on the eyes than Nagatown, everything kind of looked the same.
"Where are you going?" Marvin asked.
"Where are you going?"
"What?"
"I just wanted to walk around," Ella said. "You have some place in mind?"
As much as he would have liked to say he had no preference, or maybe even propose a coffee shop if he was brave enough, he did have a place in mind. Ben and Renee were too close to Caroline. Ishaan seemed to like her as well, and probably wouldn't buy into Marvin's suspicions. And Amir… he did not trust that man at all. So it came down to Ella.
"The Memory Bank," Marvin said. "I've been wanting to go."
Ella scrunched her eyebrows in concern. "Are you sad or something? Losing your memories isn't the solution, man."
"It's Caroline's memories," Marvin said.
"Oh. Did she give you permission to see them?"
"No," Marvin admitted. "But I feel like she's hiding something."
"She got a stroke when she remembered something last time, didn't she?" Ella said. "Of course she'd want to keep you guys away."
"We're trying to solve murders," Marvin argued. "My murder. If this could help in any way—"
He caught himself from finishing his sentence. What kind of cold logic is this? Do you not care about your friend? Have you not thought about how even referencing one of her memories might affect her?
"Okay, that's fair," Ella said, to his surprise. "We shouldn't push it, though."
"I agree."
"We skim through the files, if we're even allowed to. If there's nothing interesting, we're out and we never mention this again."
Marvin nodded, grateful for his friend's support.
-----
They took the tram to the Memory Bank, sitting alone in the corner of their car. Since Sector 8 was on the flipside city and trams could only transition gravity at select destinations, the ride would take thirty minutes. Hopefully the others wouldn't get suspicious.
They zipped through the bright skies of Sector 88 and the sparkling, interconnected waterways of Sector 78. Ella pointed out some random things along the way, and they talked about Marvin's teammates, talked about the mech standings, but Marvin felt that familiar wall between them.
After some time, he forced his voice box to say the words. "Can I ask something… personal?"
Ella gave him a look. "How personal?"
"Um, Luyan. Immortal Ignition."
Ella looked out the window for a bit. Every second that passed made Marvin want to implode. How else would he have asked? Was this even the right time to ask?
"Immortal Ignition is with the scavs," Ella said at length. "That's fine. It was the right thing to do."
Marvin nodded, but he noted a tone of distaste in the word "scavs."
"And Luyan…" Ella's eyes grew hazy. Gargantuan buildings rose to the tram's window level as they entered Sector 8. "I'm just confused. You know?"
Marvin wanted to say he knew, but he had to be honest. He shook his head.
"I mean, someone tried to kill you, too," Ella said. "What would you do if you met them?"
The question had crossed Marvin's mind many times, and he'd never thought long about it. There was nothing personal to his death, nothing he wanted or needed to say.
"I would just ask why."
"Isn't it obvious why?"
Marvin shrugged. Killing him was one thing, but why make him a consciousness implant? "I thought you were confused," he said.
"I wasn't talking about myself."
"You were relating to me."
Ella crossed her arms and sighed. "Yeah, I don't really know what I'm saying." She sat back and her expression darkened. "I'm confused. As I said. I don't know why, but I don't hate Luyan. I think I understand why he did it."
She shares his view on legacy. Maybe if she were a bit more extreme, she would've done the same thing.
"And the scavs didn't have to kill him. What he did was terrible, but he meant something to me. They should've known that. They should've let me talk to him again."
Marvin didn't say anything. He was in no place to assert his own morals. He simply nodded, trying to see what Ella saw, think what she thought.
"I'll be alright, though," Ella continued. "I'm talking to my parents more. I've got you guys. I've got the second-best mech in the megacity."
"Were you serious when you said you might not make Mecha Realm?"
"Some teams got really good this year," Ella said. "This shitter called Iono beat me last week. I've never even heard of them before."
"It's okay. I lost to Legionnaire, and I used to be better than them."
Ella poked him lightly in the head. "And you're happy with that?"
"Did I say I was?"
"With that tone, yes."
I always talk in this tone. But Ella was right—he had just accepted his loss against Legionnaire; he hadn't trained more, he hadn't studied his fight, he'd just accepted that Legionnaire was a better mech and had a superior sponsor company.
Marvin cleared his imaginary throat and tried again. "That shitter Legionnaire—"
Ella burst out laughing. Marvin blushed, and Ella shook her head apologetically. She kept laughing, though, and for some reason, Marvin didn't feel bad.
-----
The Memory Bank sat on the edge of Sector 8, a big black box that seemed to swallow the light of everything around it. Similar to Ainsel AI's lab, it carved out an eerie hole in the city.
The inside was pretty much a library. When they first stepped through the double doors, they were greeted by a long, semielliptic desk with a lone robot behind it dressed in all black. Behind the bot was a glass wall, and behind that were endless rows of shelves, a hundred feet tall and stacked to the brim with data shards. To think this was only one of five levels.
"Hi," Ella said to the clerk. "We're looking for Caroline Sand's memories."
"I'll need your UIDs, please."
They gave him their personal IDs, with Marvin providing his fake "Steve" alias, and the clerk opened a section of the glass wall for them. A black square floated down from somewhere in the labyrinth. The platform was the size of a dining table with a single control panel sticking out of the center. Marvin typed in Caroline's name and NID and the square lifted off, taking them into the dizzying matrix of files. A few drones flew around, but otherwise their aisle was empty. It felt like they'd stepped into a realm of giants. A low hum lulled the room, growing and fading in sync with the pulsing blue lights on the shelves. The lights didn't come from the hard drives themselves, but tiny capsules behind them that contained each subject's neurons. The operation for removing memories involved cutting out specific synaptic networks.
Marvin and Ella made their way deeper into the Memory Bank, quiet all the while. It didn't seem appropriate to speak here. How many lifetimes were stored away in these files? How many sorrows, regrets, and triumphs were at their fingertips?
The Bank was not in any sort of order. By the time they'd gotten to Caroline's little home on the megalithic shelf, Marvin could barely remember where the exit was. If he was a human, he would've definitely forgotten. Like the other files, Caroline's memories were in two forms: data file and cell capsule.
Marvin tried to direct the platform closer so he could reach the shelf, but it didn't budge. Without Caroline's signed consent, they could not access the file. However, on the control panel, there was a preview option to see generic details of the file. Marvin pressed that command, and a progress bar appeared on the screen.
Beside him, Ella moved away from the control panel to look around the bank. She probably didn't see the reason for this, but Marvin wanted to know how large Caroline's file was. He suspected that a heavier memory, perhaps one of murder, would take up more storage.
She didn't kill you. You're being ridiculous.
The progress bar reached 100% and the details of Caroline's file were displayed.
Empty.
Marvin leaned forward and tapped the screen. This was an error, surely. He rescanned Caroline's file. Still empty. Her cell capsule was still there, glowing blue, but there was no way of knowing if there was anything inside of it.
Marvin hit another button to call the building's AI for help.
"Are there supposed to be empty files here?" he asked.
"Many people register but don't end up removing their memories," the AI replied. "Or some people choose to move their memories to a personal location."
So Caroline's keeping them with her?
She didn't seem to know that, or she was hiding it really well. Maybe Amir or her parents were keeping it? Who even were her parents?
Speaking of Amir…
"Can I check if someone else is registered here?" Marvin asked.
"Yes."
"Amir Kaleid."
There was silence for a moment. Then the AI replied, "I'm afraid I cannot complete this request."
"What do you mean?"
"I cannot complete your request."
Ella tapped the console in annoyance. "You just said he could check if Amir was registered."
"I must have made a mistake. I deeply apologize. We cannot disclose the names of those registered."
"What the hell?" Ella mumbled. The call ended, and she offered Marvin a sympathetic look. "Sorry about this."
"It's okay," Marvin said absentmindedly. Is the AI trying to protect Amir? Why would it do that?
"We should go back," Ella continued. "If Caroline has her memories, maybe she'll share them when the time is right."
Marvin nodded reluctantly, but he wanted to protest. Aren't you suspicious? Don't you agree that having Caroline's memories now will help us?
But Ella was already guiding their platform back to the entrance. Maybe she was right. Maybe it was better not to invade a friend's privacy.