The Vienna summit concluded without advantages with a stifling dead end. Somnus-Omnia was the dream revealed to the public. Nevertheless Ben trusted in business horrors. He claimed the shown product was consistently a distraction, from the military-level prototype.
His informant, a data dealer working within Tallinns leak marketplaces ultimately provided the material. The cost was steep: the entirety of the crypto funds, from Veronica's emergency reserve. The file came as a highly encrypted bundle named AETHELRED/EYE-ONLY/GENTLE HAMMER.
They solved it in the cramped Vienna attic the laptop's casting shadows over their stern expressions.
It was not an operating system for cities. It was a weapon system.
PROJECT GENTLE HAMMER was an idea, for "-kinetic population control." Designs depicted mobile transmission systems installed on armored vehicles and high-flying drones. Their goal: to emit a high-intensity variant of the Somnum frequency across a conflict area.
The attached white paper was composed in a detached style. It discussed "lowering enemy resolve to fight to insignificant levels" and "triggering widespread bystander effect among civilian groups." It described waveforms crafted not to soothe but to provoke a condition of "catatonic openness" and "purpose-driven indifference."
Devon browsed through reports. "The 'Hammer' frequency disrupts the link between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex. It doesn't merely induce calm. It renders the ideas of 'enemy,' 'threat,' and 'retreat', into tiring intellectual notions. You wouldn't run from a tank. You'd… faintly observe its visual inelegance."
Ben focused closely on a simulation clip. A computerized village square. Characters labeled as "combatants" discharged firearms. A Gentle Hammer system, on a hill triggered shown by a gentle blue ripple. The shooting ceased. The combatants put down their weapons. Some took seats. Others roamed around without purpose. A group of avatars marked "civilian" remained motionless while "hostile forces" passed among them their indicators revealing no terror, just slight indifferent curiosity. The effectiveness indicator, on the system blinked: POPULATION PACIFICATION: 98.7%. COLLATERAL DAMAGE: 0%.
"Zero damage " Ben murmured his tone strained. "They've created the humane weapon. It doesn't destroy the body. It eliminates the desire to continue living within it."
Additional files revealed collaborations. Not with developers but with defense departments. Field trial suggestions in " areas." An allocated budget for "-exposure psychosocial reintegration" was negligible barely noted. The premise was evident: once subdued a population would remain docile indefinitely compliant, for occupation or "administrative restructuring."
Devon recalled Haldenwyck's avenues, the Vacants tending to the Quiet Deep. That represented the gradual method. Gentle Hammer was the counterpart. A tool of apathy. A city could be seized without shattering a window since no one indoors would feel compelled to glance.
"This is the purpose of the alliance " Ben said, moving away from the screen. "Somnus-Omnia serves as the front. Gentle Hammer acts as the unit, behind the scenes. Aethelred acquires a weapon that secures victories without damaging its reputation. Somnum has its protocol strengthened and tested in the field by the rigorous evaluators: the military."
They needed to relocate. This information was a nerve. If Aethelred or Somnum sensed it had been breached their narrow safety buffer would disappear.
Ben started erasing the laptop moving the files onto encrypted physical drives as small, as fingernails. "We divide the data. You get half. I get half. We separate. If one is caught the other could…"
He didn't complete his sentence. The noise from the door opening, below wasn't a creak. Instead it was a well-oiled click.
No voices. No shouted commands. Just the soft, deliberate tread of several people on the stairs.
Ben's gaze locked with Devon's. He remained silent. Without a word he indicated the window in the room—a tiny dirty dormer that looked out onto a sharp tiled roof and a slim alleyway. Then he pressed half the drives into Devon's palm. Pivoted toward the door positioning himself between it and the window.
Devon paused for a moment.
"Move!" Ben snapped, his voice sharp, as a whip crack. "The information is our weapon! Move!"
The attic room door swung open abruptly. Not crashing,. With a sleek powerful motion. Two silhouettes appeared in the entrance. Neither law. Aethelred security. Their plain grey tunics adorned them their expressions serene. Vacants.. These moved with a synchronized intentional elegance missing from the Polish attendants. Enforcers. Luna Lorelei guided them her presence emanating a unmistakable menace.
Ben avoided combat. He hurled the laptop towards them creating a diversion. While Luna effortlessly dodged it he rushed forward not to strike. To seize and obstruct.
Devon flung open the window allowing the chilly night breeze to flood in. He caught a thud and a grunt, from Ben. Without turning around he hurried out onto the slick roof tiles the drives tightly gripped in his hand.
From, within he caught Ben's voice, tense yet distinct yelling not at him but toward their jailers: "You're merely noise! Can you hear me? You're merely noise!"
Then a soft, wet impact, and silence.
Devon descended the roof grabbed the gutter and fell into the smelling alley. He hit the cobblestones sharply a pain traveling up his ankle. He kept moving. He sprinted onward driven by the memory of Ben's deed—a sacrifice cloaked in a borrowed eerie statement—pushing him onward through the maze of Vienna's quieted roads.
He sprinted until his lungs ached, until the noise of his footsteps was the sound in his ears. In a doorway he paused, gasping for breath. He glanced at the drives in his hand. They contained the design for a weapon of ending war by eliminating the fighters and the plan, for a world that would voluntarily embrace its mental chains.
Ben was gone. Swallowed by the quiet. Devon was alone with the most dangerous knowledge on earth, and a crushing certainty: the Industry of Idleness had just declared total war, and its first move was to erase the only ally who truly understood the battlefield.