<span style="color: #FF0000"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 150%; line-height: 116%;">Isolde Devonhard</span><br/>The Shadow</div></span><br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;"><a class="postlink" href="http://i1343.photobucket.com/albums/o793/Galvin_Fugazi/38f1727d-3417-4713-a9a2-7e9f2871cb3a_zps469c3edd.jpg">[ img ]</a></div><br/><br/><div style="text-align: justify;">Isolde sighed once more and then she wiped her eyes and took a deep breath. She rarely allowed herself a moment of weakness and it was gone as quick as it came. Steeling her face she looked to her older sister. Sintrina was right, the two girls would return safe and sound and they would become friends. There were always possibilities to help with that…<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">„You’re right. They better return in good shape and Carine better starts to function, like it is her goddamn duty. Or I will have to ask for some surgery too. And the first thing I want to have removed is that damn addiction to drug-using. I want my girl back and I want her to be like I intended her to be.“</span><br/><br/>Isolde’s face had grown hard. Her features were usually soft like those of a mid-twenty woman, but most of it had come from the talented hands of plastic surgeons. They may have altered her looks, but they could change her characteristic. And Isolde was no sweet and soft woman. She was as determined and as cold as her older sister. Damn, she was sending as many people to the Arena as Sintrina. And she never felt bad about that. <br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">„Speaking about surgery. You know that our docs are working on the next generation of their little mind manipulators? In principle the layout of those sound very promising, with eliminating all the side effects of the ones implanted in Freya. The new devices are more integrated, more powerful and they have integrated flash logic. In principle they are able to operate alone, without trigger signals and they can be still reprogrammed overnight with wireless download of a new OS in the flash memories.“</span><br/><br/>Isolde remembered how intrigued she and the doctors had been, when Donna had presented the new layout of the devices to them. Of course Deanna had asked for it, but Donna had delivered. But then Donna had said a few words that had raised some alarms in Isolde, especially as Deanna had quickly tried to make those words forgotten by directing the talk to other areas. ‘The OS and the devices are so powerful, they can take completely over and operate you in a state, I would compare to hypnosis.’ Those had been Donna’s words and Isolde had not forgotten about them. Getalia’s power was concentrated in a few hands and it would be easy to implant those devices in the brain of relevant people and then flash some program in them to take over control. Intriguing if you want to create perfect soldiers, frightening if you are in control of the country.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">„But their micro-electronics specialist Donna kind of bragged in the presentation, that those devices may control you totally. Deanna had played it down, clearly wanted to make me forget about those words, but you know: I rarely forget something I have heard. I don’t trust Deanna with this, she may have some motives in this study, being not in our best interest. And her daughter is far too ambitious for my liking. She is too intelligent as it may be good for her and too cunning. I have heard stories how she treated her lovers, when she got tired of them and that makes me wonder, if she has any humanity and love inside her.“</span><br/><br/>Isolde remembered the display of Kira’s determination some minutes earlier and it made her again worry a little about her own little girl being with this person for the next days. But Carine was headstrong and stubborn, she would stay safe. She simply had to trust Carine in that.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000">„One of the doctors in Deanna’s team kind of misstepped some months ago in, let’s say, a matter that may have brought her into the arena. I decided that having an eye in the middle of Deanna’s work would be more worth than having another person in the Arena. So I coaxed her into cooperating with me and to spy for me. She is terrified, as her daughter is in one of the slave’s rooms, one of my slaves, but so far the good doctor came up with empty hands. Maybe I should increase the pressure by actually using her daughter for a while… Because my gut feeling tells me that Deanna is planning something and Kira is planning to take over once Deanna has implanted it.“</span></div>