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At half past ten I woke up this morning with a shock. I slept very troubled and much too short. What had happened last evening and this night. Oh yes, Rosanne is gone. Escaped is a more proper way of saying. Hamilton will go searching for her. By the way, everyone will search for her. I am now the only person who knows where she is. I shall miss her. We are brother and sister in crime. What do I tell the others? I don’t know yet. I must think of that first before I show myself. If I tell that I put her on the plane I’ll be one of the accessories and my privileges will be stopped immediately. I could say goodbye to my work for Kodjiro. That’s not allowed to happen. Now I can’t, after Sonja’s e-mail, continue putting my money on Braintec’s horse. I must keep this door open here for as long as possible to continue my work for Kodjiro. I can of course always choose for Braintec if Sonja’s story turns out to be a storm in a glass of water and Kodjiro in Japan a pig in a poke. I assume that possibility is rather small. The team in Japan is growing in power. Including me we are already with five and who knows who else would follow.

There is a knock at the door and the door opens immediately. I’m scared stiff. It is Steward. “Oh sorry, you’re still lying in bed” he says when he enters. And he asks me if he can speak to me in private “You can push off if you close the door behind you”. I say.  He sets down, very amicable at the edge of the bed. He asks if I know where Rosanne is. At the same time I understand that’s not his reason for coming. He doesn’t mind Rosanne. Those two hated each other. I say to him that I have no idea. Maybe she’s in town for the moment, or in the park. “Have you paged her?” I ask. “No I didn’t but she is nowhere to find. Maybe you know, after what happened tonight, if she’s still around?” “Well tonight was kind of a shock indeed. Hamilton was really furious, but he must be calmed down by now I think” I answered. “He wanted to apologize for his behaviour tonight, but she is nowhere to find.” I could see he was lying. He didn’t look me straight in my eyes and he thought of something else in the meantime. “About being missed” he started. “Yes you can say it”. “I had a box of M-stores in the closed this week and they are gone as well.” Steward said. I thought I died. I had “borrowed” a whole box from his room earlier this week to copy them for Kodjiro and I had left the whole package, approximately thirty of them, in the back of my car. They were already copied, but the stress with Rosanne made me forget to bring them back. “Usually I wouldn’t miss them, but these are kinda private” he said with a fat wink. What the fuck, how dirty. I knew it. I know exactly what’s going on.

To go short: Hamilton is for science, there’s nothing wrong with that, Kodjiro for big money in the Japanese gaming industry, nothing wrong with that either. But Steward is sneaking for money in the sex-industry. The “feelings” Aldous Huxley describes in his book Brave New World would be nothing compared to this. The optimal pleasure, no matter what kind in a simple M-store. And how would these M-stores get their data? By the use of men like Steward who get their pleasure with press-ganged women, girls boys and perhaps even children. Using these memories as uploads. This is how you could earn a lot of money. Ugh! How disgusting! Everything is abused for the sex-industry. As if the Internet pollution alone isn’t horrible enough!

“Maybe Rosanne brought them with her” I said lightly. “Hamilton said that it was for the best if she went home, that she wasn’t welcome here anymore. A souvenir is important if you leave”. I smiled, but Steward was seeing more and more sour. “If she doesn’t show up today or tomorrow she might be safe in Amsterdam”. These words hit him quit hard. Steward became deathly pale and started to stumble. He said something about:”There goes my plan” or something like that. He left the room.