For her part, Mallory didn’t bother hiding the doubt that lurked within her eyes and the small twist of her lips. While these three had had amazing success so far, given what they’d been provided to work with from the start, her loyalty was obviously to her master, and as such, his desires and whims were hers. “I will inform Mr. Westlake of your one week timeline. I would suggest you stick to it.” The not-so-subtle warning was followed by the woman spinning on her heel and exiting the chamber, giving the man one last look at her exquisitely shaped ass and long legs in the tight skirt as she strode out the door.
As the door hissed closed once more, Dr. George Wright sighed and turned back towards his associates with an annoyed shake of his head. “Uppity bitch,” he grumbled as he approached his workstation containing a very large touch screen display currently showing a very complex mathematical formula mixed with biological data.
The man in the flannel chuckled and resumed making a few adjustments to the rather complex-looking mechanical apparatus. “Well, she always was, even before Westlake had us use her as the first experiment.”
“Yes,” the scientist agreed with a sigh, “it’s just a shame that we were limited to making her only subservient to Westlake himself instead of all men.”
“Well,” the younger man in the T-shirt said as he pivoted around in his chair, “she still had to do her job. Considering how many men she has to deal with on a daily basis, I kinda doubt she’d be able to do that anymore if we did.”
“Besides,” the other man said encouragingly, “once we iron out all of the bugs in the software, it won’t be very hard to make adjustments to her programming without her even knowing it.”
Wright blinked slightly in surprise as he looked between the two younger men. “Are you saying you figured out how the remote operation worked?”
“Two days ago,” the man in the flannel confirmed with a nod. “Ever since, we’ve been working out how to not only implement that but use the technology to make adjustments on the fly. We’ll need to make sure we put some serious security measures in place so no one we don’t want to have access can do anything, but at a guess, I’d say we’ll have it ready to go… just about the same time the rest of the project is complete?” he inquired of his more casual associate.
“At least,” the man in the T-shirt agreed. “If I can manage to figure out how to establish and stabilize this code sooner, it’ll be a cinch to do it.”
“Excellent,” the scientist said with a nod of approval. “Frank,” he said, looking over at the man in the flannel, “I realize it isn’t your area of expertise, but as soon as you have the hardware issues worked out I want you to help Peter as best you can. Perhaps your engineering talents will provide him some insight to spark a solution.”
Nodding, both men turned back to their assigned tasks while Wright turned to look at the formula on the large screen. It was almost complete; he could feel it. While they’d only been provided with a fraction of what Dr. Blake’s research had uncovered, it had been enough to be an excellent starting point into sorting out the broad strokes of the project.
He wished he had access to the full research data, but Wright understood that Westlake’s people had been fortunate to locate what they did. As it stood, when Westlake Industries’ private security had located the… base of the hacker who had stolen all of the data in the first place, no one thought any of it would be recoverable. After all, a gas main explosion that effectively leveled the dilapidated building did an excellent job in destroying any and all computer hardware. It really had only been sheer luck that they’d been able to recover the measly amount of research data from the crushed hard drives.
But it had been enough when combined with the cloud data they’d been provided to give Dr. Wright, Peter, and Frank the information they needed to finish what the late Dr. Blake had been unable to accomplish. In short order, they would have the means to easily make Westlake the most powerful man in the world… and themselves by extension.
With thoughts of being appointed to one of the highest scientific positions within the White House administration, Dr. Wright dove back into his work with unparalleled vigor.
Chicago, Illinois, Undisclosed Location
“I got it!”
Looking over from the assemblage of wires, sensors, micro cameras, and a full body combat suit, Gear lifted an eyebrow at the sudden, joyous exclamation that came from the adjoining room. “Got what?” he called
“The code,” WiseCrack said with no small amount of pride as she practically danced out of her digital command center. “I figured out the algorithms we need to use to allow for the suit to simultaneously halt any active recordings from any security system and feed in a thirty-minute loop without any signal degradation that would indicate there was a jump in the feed.”
While the deceptively young girl sought to catch her breath after that rather verbose explanation, the weaponsmith held up his hand. “WiseCrack, I’m a tech-head, not a computer wiz. Simpler terms, please.”
“Okay,” the hacker said after a moment, “the biggest problem I was running into was how could I get the suit to automatically hack any security system. Something like that usually requires some form of input and can’t be automated.”
Gear nodded as he turned and folded his arms. “Yeah, that makes sense. There are so many different security systems out there you’d have to tailor the hack to that specific system.”
“Exactly,” the girl said with a grin, “and even then, you’d have to do even more to feed a video loop back into the active feed to fool the system into thinking it was recording live.”
“Which I’m guessing you figured out.”
Nodding rapidly, sending her blonde hair flying with the gesture, the hacker practically bounced on her heels as she said, “Since I already know how to hack pretty much any security system along with any contingencies I might come across, I realized I could program an AI unit with all of those techniques along with the capability to recognize each type of system as well as the contingency operations that might come along. Then,” she continued excitedly, “I daisy-chained that into another AI that would initiate the video loop and, using the data from the initial AI, feed it into the security system while making it think it was still live recording.”
“And how do you intend to put all of that into a suit?”
Both weaponsmith and hacker spun to see Ashe leaning against the doorway of the facility’s actual command center. “What you’re talking about doing,” he continued in a neutral voice that expressed neither excitement or chagrin, “would require a significant amount of processing power. I highly doubt it could be integrated into a combat suit without severely compromising my standards.”
The sobering observation had the formerly jubilant hacker suddenly looking downtrodden. “Dammit,” she muttered, “I didn’t consider that.”
“Which is why I have the pair of you working together,” the vigilante pointed out as he approached the large light table. “I’m sure Gear would have pointed that out if I hadn’t interrupted.”
“When I finally was able to get a word in,” the weaponsmith agreed with a slight smile. “It was just so cute seeing you so excited like that.”
The sharp glare from the hacker did nothing to dim the companionly smile on Gear’s face as Ashe spoke up. “Unfortunately, we don’t have time to work out that particular issue.”
“Why?” Gear asked in concerned confusion. “What’s up?”
“Ever since Westlake made his announcement, I’ve hacked into all of his employee’s social media and private email accounts to monitor the goings on as best as possible. You’re not the only skilled hacker,” he pointed out with a very faint smile at WiseCrack’s blink of surprise. “This morning I intercepted an email message from what appears to be a neuroscientist contacting what seems to be a co-worker about a very particular work project. According to this scientist, he is very close to figuring out a particular formula that would enable them to move fo
rward. His estimate is that they will be able to begin testing within a week.”
“What project is it?” Gear asked even as WiseCrack’s eyes widened in horror.
“Project Mantis, reconfigured to be far more effective than before.”
For several moments, both weaponsmith and hacker stood in stunned silence, their mouths hanging open in absolute shock. For Gear, it was due to the fact that all of their attempts at crafting together a tool that could be used to try and stop such a thing was now wasted. For WiseCrack, however, it was for a completely different reason.
What seemed like years ago but was in fact only months, WiseCrack had been a young man in his twenties by the name of Harry Wiseman… at least until he’d been kidnapped by the same people who had kidnapped Kitty. It was because of Project Mantis, a horrifically inhumane procedure that digitally transferred a person’s mind and consciousness into another body’s brain, that WiseCrack was currently a sixteen-year-old blonde girl by the name of Angela. The process had been done completely against his will, and if what Ashe said was true, then the potential results from other people to be robbed of their lives would be catastrophic. It was also supposedly lost, having turned into fragments of code that had been completely destroyed when Kitty had blown up the building containing the hard drives it had been on. If Westlake somehow still had access to the Mantis program, then that meant…
“Is… is it just the Mantis protocol?” WiseCrack stammered unsteadily as she gripped the light table hard enough for her knuckles to whiten.
“For now,” Ashe confirmed, his tone all business. “There is no mention of the Norman protocol, which is why I can’t hold off on the Westlake operation anymore. I suspect he plans on using one or both to further bolster his campaign. We need eyes and ears in there, immediately.”
“But, how in the hell are you going to be able to breach the inner-most section of the building without being seen by…” Gear’s voice trailed off when he saw not the steady, unconcerned gaze of his boss, but the faint, almost imperceptible smile on his lips. “You already had a backup plan in place,” he deduced.
“Three, actually,” the vigilante corrected as he gestured with his head for the two to follow him into the command center. “Westlake’s headquarters,” he began, bringing up an overhead satellite image of the complex, “requires a tremendous amount of power to run all of its operations. Because of that, there are numerous backups in the event of a power failure.”
“Of course,” WiseCrack said as though such a thing should have been obvious, which it actually was.
“However,” Ashe went on, “the time delay between the primary power source and the backup source engaging is exactly five minutes.”
“Why so long?” Gear asked as the satellite image changed to that of a digital building schematic.
“Because such a high level of power is required, the generators are of a design that they need to ramp up a charge before feeding into the building’s electrical grid. Once that happens, and the generators are up to speed, they are capable of maintaining that charge for a full week. Should one or two of these generators fail, that time is reduced to three days.”
“I’m guessing access to the generators isn’t possible,” the weaponsmith surmised.
“They were built into the foundation of the building and have only one access point within the sub-basement of the facility.” As he spoke, the schematic shifted to a side view and zoomed in to show a large room containing huge generators beneath the building itself. As Ashe had said, there was only one entry point that required traversing a great deal of the building’s interior to reach. “Refueling is conducted via a small port on the building property connected to industrial tubing underground that feeds directly into the generator fill ports.”
“So taking out the backups is impossible, at least from a stealth standpoint,” Gear said with a sigh.
“But that still leaves you with a five-minute window,” WiseCrack said in quiet realization.
Ashe nodded in approval at the hacker’s observation. “There are multiple counter-intrusion elements that will need to be dealt with…”
“Which I assume you’ve already accounted for in the operation parameters,” Gear smirked.
“So, our timing will need to be exact, and perfect. Any one single failure means the mission will devolve into a full on assault which will alert Westlake that someone is looking this deeply into him. If that happens, he could very well accelerate any kind of timetable he has in the works to solidify his position in the Republican Party. With the consistent increase in his supporters, winning the primaries and becoming the Republican nominee means he would have a very real chance of winning the election. That cannot be allowed to happen,” Ashe informed his subordinates in a tone that would brook no argument whatsoever.
Gear and WiseCrack looked at one another for roughly a second. That was all the time truly needed for them to share an unspoken communication that this mission would be completed successfully at all costs. The implications of what might happen to the fey of the United States if Westlake somehow managed to win the election and become President was more than enough to provide the pair all the encouragement they needed.
While Gear’s rather casual relationship with Ashley, Aiden, and Kitty made him want to ensure their continued safety and prosperity, WiseCrack possessed a far deeper connection. Kitty, after all, was someone that Angela, not WiseCrack, loved with all of her heart and she was utterly committed to the brunette bombshell. While ideas of marriage weren’t exactly dancing in her head, the thought of them simply cuddling up on the couch in their home in Wolf Springs, watching some outrageously stupid TV show or movie, was something the hacker known as WiseCrack would challenge the gods themselves to hold onto.
Without saying a word, WiseCrack took control of the keyboard, her fingers flying over its surface almost faster than the eye could see. “What are you doing?” Gear asked.
For almost half a minute, the hacker didn’t say a word as she flew across the internet with a speed that was only possible through the miracle of electronic communications. Once those thirty seconds had passed, a pair of decidedly female eyes possessing pupils of the color of pure amethyst along with matching eye shadow nearly filled the wall-sized screen. Though it shouldn’t have been possible, the eyes actually shifted to peer at each individual in the room for several seconds, almost as though they were alive, before landing squarely on WiseCrack.
“Calling in a favor,” the hacker said as a slow, wicked smile appeared on her lips.
Tearmann Institute, Newfoundland, Yew Dorm
Link had just managed to finish his calculus work when he dimly heard the sound of someone knocking on the front door of the dorm. “I got it,” he heard one of his dorm mates yell from downstairs. That was fine by him, since Link now needed to turn to his bio-chem work that was still waiting for him. He wasn’t looking forward to it, since the chapter was on the human circulatory system, something that was frankly pretty confusing to him. Why did it matter if he knew the difference between veins and arteries? It wasn’t like he was planning on going into a career that needed such knowledge.
He was just starting to work himself up to buckling down for a memorization session when a light knock sounded on his room’s door. Looking up from his book, Link lifted a confused eyebrow. Since when did any of his dorm mates bother with something like knocking? Sure, it annoyed the living hell out of him that they didn’t, but why start now?
Moving carefully to the door, knowing Jackson’s predilection for trying to make his dorm mates the victims of a practical joke now and then, he lightly pressed his ear to the door to see if he could hear any sound of uncontrolled giggling.
“Quit fucking around and open the goddamn door!”
“Jesus!” Link yelped as he leapt backwards away from the shouted voice that had sounded right where he’d been listening. A second later, he yanked open his door to find himself staring directly at the cocky smile just below a
very distinct set of golden eyes. “What the hell Aiden?” he snapped. “Are you trying to make me go deaf?”
“Well why did you have your head against the door in the first place?” she fired back, never once losing that amused smile.
“Jackson likes to play practical jokes on us,” Link grumped, walking back over to his desk chair and dropping onto it. “I was trying to see if I could hear him giggling.”
“Oh,” the wolf girl said with a nod of understanding, “fair enough, now get off your ass and let’s get going.”
“Going where?” he asked with eyes narrowed in suspicion.
“Our dorm of course,” Aiden said as though that should have been obvious. “Ashley’s about done with a really great smelling roast.” As emphasis regarding the tastiness of the meal being prepared, a rather hungry look appeared in the dark-haired girl’s eyes that actually had Link gulping. Not because he was worried, but because it gave her that much more of a wild appearance that somehow seemed to call to the part of him that loved to hunt. It called to other places too, but those were better left alone for the time being.
“So what does that have to do with me?” Link asked, shifting a bit in his chair to try and alleviate his sudden… discomfort.
With a knowing smile that clearly indicated he wasn’t fooling her heightened wolf senses one bit, Aiden walked over and stabbed a finger onto the menu button of his tablet, closing down the digital bio-chem textbook. “It means you’re coming over to eat with us. Ashley sent me over to get you so hurry up; it’ll be ready soon.”
While the wild girl might have been able to pick up the quick flash of desire he’d experienced towards her, Link’s highly keen vision easily caught the brief look in her eyes before she managed to suppress it. While he certainly wasn’t any kind of an expert when it came to reading a person’s facial expressions, something told him that what she’d said about the invitation was only partially true. Did that mean the meal wasn’t going to be ready soon, or that it wasn’t Ashley who had made the decision to invite him to dinner?
Marking Territory: An Awakened Novel (The Rising Storm Book 1) Page 11
