Cyber Thought Police

by Kyle Robertson

  “You stayed up until tomorrow to make sure I wouldn’t get caught?!” You must be hungry and tired.”

  “I can stay up. This should take approximately three minutes twenty-two seconds.”

  “You’ve gotten it down I see.”

  “Just run the course, Di. Now since you can’t see in binary, the guard’s avatars may look a bit scary. They won’t see you so don’t panic.”

  “It’s a computer program. How ‘scary’ can the security look?”

  “Whatever freaks you out to the core? They’ll look like that. It’s different for everybody. The Program’s security protocol is designed to scare hackers away, so they’ll never attempt another unauthorized breach again. No one has ever hacked it.”

  “What was your image of the scariest thing in your mind?” she asked.

  “My fear has no relevancy to yours, so it won’t make a difference.”

  “Come on, Chip. I didn’t ask for tactical reasons. You’ve been all in my mind, so I just wanted to get into yours.” She smiled at him.

  She knew how tense he was, trying to get this infiltration perfect, so she wanted him to loosen up before she went for it.

  “Dominatrix borgey Succubae,” he said quietly.

  “So, if I put on some fishnets and scream how worthless you are, you’ll cower?” she asked jokingly.

  “You’re not a borgey, Di,” he pointed at her. “If you want to wear fishnets and yell, that's entirely up to you. Whatever floats your boat,” he said.

  “I’m a lady, Chip. Fishnets and yelling sinks my boat.” She was trying to relax him, to get his mind off of her daunting task.

  “Okay, Di. You’re about to access the logic core. Can you hack that?”

  “I was a tech-ripper. I can hack,” she touted.

  “Okay, but just in case you run into a multi-digit alternating algebraic problem quiz lock, I put in a breaker.”

  “You’ve always wanted someone like me,” she said sultrily. “Your own toy to trick out with every upgrade you could think of.”

  “What can I say? You’re a transiton’s dream.”

  “When I break in, just record everything?”

  “You don’t want to corrupt anything. Its anti-virus programs are Special Forces deadly. You’ll be kicked out and your location discovered. We definitely don’t want to reveal our location to it. Just scan and I’ll download it all.”

  Cole surprisingly came into the lab.

  “I was about to turn off the lights because I thought you forgot,” he said. “You all are still here?”

  “We’re about to make a breakthrough, Cole. She’s goin’ in.” Chip thumbed at Alikira.

  “It’s two in the morning. Aren’t you two bushed?”

  “We both are very alert.”

  Alikira interrupted.

  “You’ve been on your feet for twenty-six hours straight. How are you ‘alert’?”

  “Well, she’s alert. I just brought her back online. I’m just pumped.”

  “You have to understand something, Alikira,” Cole told her. “Chip’s an info-maniac. Once you get in and out successfully, he’ll turn off.”

  “And they think I’m the machine,” she said under her breath.

  “Okay, let’s get you in,” Chip said. “Just access your course. I’ll watch you on the monitor. If there’s any problem, I’m pulling you out.”

  “Just don’t be squeamish when you see my worst fear,” she said. “Don’t pull me if there’s no danger. I’m ready.”

  “What’s her worst fear?” Cole asked.

  “I have no idea, but we can see it on the monitor when she gets in,” Chip pointed to the screen.

  Alikira accessed her course through her REM method. Cole and Chip saw her view of the environment. It looked like the Australian wasteland.

  “Each individual has their own image of the environment. It’s the same course. It just has that person’s environmental skin covering it.”

  “I guess this is new to you too.”

  “I’ve run this course multiple times, and I’ve never seen any eucalyptus trees on it.”

  They saw Alikira’s avatar run through the wasteland and saw monster roaches eating Koala bears.

  “That’s her fear?! I won’t pull her out for that.”

  Cole remembered how heated she got when he joked in the abandoned hangar.

  “Some people have psychosomatic phobias of certain things. Look at her twitch.” Cole pointed to Alikira’s slight jittering.

  “I didn’t notice any twitching when I saw all those dominatrix borgey succubae,” Chip said.

  “What?!”

  “Uh… never mind. The Program’s security fashions themselves to embody your worst fears.”

  “And yours are slutty mean robot chicks?”

  “I said never mind. This is Di’s run.” Chip avoided the chiding.

  Alikira was doing well avoiding security. They were tidying up all other digital anomalies and didn’t see her.

  “Can’t those things catch her? I mean, they’re everywhere,” Cole said with concern.

  “I’ve been running this twenty hours straight. I’ve run into every random aberrant pattern sweep and plotted the perfect course. They’ll seem like they’ll catch her, but they won’t. The Program is efficient. When I got caught, the pattern changed. It just made me figure out an undetectable course. Now, since it doesn’t know there’s an infiltrator, the pattern won’t change...”

  “This is why you’re pumped. You want to see if she can run it.” Cole realized.

  “Exciting, isn’t it?”

  “And if she gets caught?”

  “If she gets found out, then it’s time to relocate.”

  Cole got closer to the screen,

  “Come on, Alikira. I like this place.”

  The one problem Chip didn’t calculate was how difficult the security lock on the logic core was. Since Alikira was a tech-ripper, she could break the lock. She got in and Chip downloaded the information, but her picking the lock took more time than he ever expected. It was a trigonometric causality puzzle lock, so the route back’s timing was severely off.

  “We got it all, Di. There’s just one problem. The course back has been scrapped. I didn’t expect the trig causality logic core lock. That slowed down the escaping route. You’re going to have to get out on your own.”

  “That’s a very big ‘one’ problem. So, now I’m dealing with super roaches. Thanks, Chip. “It’s not like I was frightened out of my boots earlier.” She was upset.

  “You were a tech-ripper. Stealing data was your job. Just use your skills to get back here.”

  “You had to run this for twenty hours to get it right, and you just want me to run it flawlessly on the fly? If I get back, I’m punching you in the crotch.”

  Cole got concerned.

  “Can’t you just pull her out?!”

  “Haven’t you ever heard of a fallacy coercion? She was scared out of her wits when she knew she had to go in there. I told her I could pull her out whenever to calm her. She can only get out by her skill. I could never pull her out without being discovered.”

  “So, you lied.”

  “I encouraged, Cole. She wanted to do this to be accepted by the people. She just needed that little push to actually do it.”

  “Now she’s in very deep,” Cole said. “You’re going to deserve that crotch punching.”

  “If she gets out without detection, I’ll accept it.”

  

  Alikira saw all the security. They looked like ravenous giant roaches. They were eating Kiwi birds, Joeys, platypus, and Koalas. They were relentless. She had to avoid them.

  One giant roach passed her and sunk its mandibles into a poor wallaby. It began to suck the insides through its back. She saw it scream in terror as it was being sucked inside out.

  Cole looked over at her dormant body, and it was shaking severely.

  “She’s losing it, Chip. I don’t think she can do thi
s.”

  “It’s not a roach, Di. It’s just a boring anti anomaly securer. You can do this. You’re just in the land of ones and zeroes,” Chip transmitted.

  “You’re not in here. Those ones and zeroes are evil.”

  Cole grabbed the com.

  “Remember your skill? I bet the country’s army was evil and you beat them. You can beat what you can see. Just remember this. They’re not searching for you specifically. Just get outa there. You get to punch Chip in the crotch.”

  Chip was surprised at Cole.

  Cole smiled. “Fallacy coercion.”

  Alikira caught her fright. She began to sneak to the exit. It was just around the virtual corner.

  That’s when she saw a joey get ripped apart by a menacing roach. The screams shocked her into paralysis.

  “This is too much for her. Alert Sledge to let him know we’re about to leave,” Chip said in a panic.

  After the giant roach tore a joey apart, it saw Alikira. It advanced to her frozen avatar and went for her head.

  Alikira’s eyes focused from her REM activity. Chip put his hand on her forehead to calm her.

  “I got caught by a binary hunter.”

  “It was my fault. You couldn’t do this. It took me twenty hours to even try to make it.”

  “What happens now?” she asked.

  “Good and bad news. We got all the information, but the Program knows we’re here. We have to leave, now”

  Alikira was shocked they had to leave. It was all because of her.

  “Where will we go? What about the plane and trucks? The Program is everywhere.”

  “We have to leave them for now. We don’t have any time to process the fuel to refuel them.

  Cole went to Sledge and he has an idea,” Chip said. I think we’re going to a secure place the Program isn’t; the Shen Leung prison.”

  Chapter Six: The New Approach

  The entire camp arrived at the prison. They had to put all of their equipment in the building. It only took 3 hours to grab all they needed. They always knew their camp was a temporary location. Some got comfortable while others expected their nomadic moving.

  Sledge had his crew set up all his equipment in the correctional officer’s monitoring station. Cole waked up to him.

  “I guess you’ve always expected to be discovered.”

  “You can never get comfortable with any hidden location. I thought we would just run. This prison location you suggested actually works,” Sledge said.

  “It was my fault we were found, so another secure location is the least I could do.” Cole felt he was the one to blame.

  “You actually spurned our resistance into activity. We were just hiding, getting nothing done. Sure we had to leave. Big deal. Because of the rookie squad you took over got vital information to damage the Program, I can finally see the light,” he said. “By the way. How is Alikira doing?”

  “She’s feeling guilty making us move. She can’t understand this war isn’t scripted. It has a roller coaster plot. We just did the death drop and we’re in the lower dip. With all the data she pilfered, we’re going up another hill. I’ll talk to her.”

  Sledge saw all the camp members rather upset they were forced into a prison. They felt as if it was Alikira’s fault.

  “Talk to your entire squad. Make sure they understand it wasn’t her fault and to back her. Alikira will need some support while she's in here. The people are kinda restless.”

  “I know they think she’s the cause for them leaving, but she was thrust into an impossible situation.”

  “You and I know that. You just have to explain to your squad,” Sledge said “We have a very unstable, delicate difference maker. I don’t want to lose her from ignorance. They really don’t know what they’re doing. Just make sure your squad does.”

  Cole understood and went to his squad’s new cell block.

  

  “I guess Alikira’s in a bad state,” Steve said.

  “She’s destroyed, Steve,” Linda said. “All those people blame her for them being forced to escape.”

  “It wasn’t her fault,” Chip said. “I couldn’t calculate the time elapse factor to a cyber lock I could never study. That screwed up the escape timing. It took me twenty hours to perfect the timing of the escape. She could never just get away clean the first time.”

  “So, all this scrambling is your fault then,” Gaia assumed.

  “It’s nobody’s fault,” Cole said as he walked in. “Chip is a great calculating tactician, but even he can’t negotiate the unknowable.”

  “Live and learn,” Chip said. “At least we have the data we needed to stop it.”

  “How are we going to stop it? Alikira has to go back in to augment the logic block, and she’s nowhere near ready to do that again,” Steve said.

  “Hey, I was there,” Cole interrupted. “Alikira’s a warrior. She did things none of any of you would or even could do. She just needs to snap out of her mania. I need you guys to protect her and to help her snap in the good way.”

  “I don’t know, Cole. Di’s pretty messed up,” Chip said.

  “You’ve obviously never helped a girlfriend through a break-up before,” Linda said. “Gaia and I are getting Kayleigh to help her through this, Cole. Have the guys do that leave her alone defense thing. We’ll have our difference maker back when we finish.”

  “Okay, let me just talk to her.” Cole began to walk to her cell.

  “STOP!” Linda yelled rather vociferously. “You’re a great squad leader, but I think she needs the women right now.”

  Just as Cole was about to protest, Kayleigh walked in.

  “Where is she? Are we too late?”

  “No, Kayleigh,” Linda said. “I just had to stop Cole from doing his ‘leader’ thing. She’s brooding two cells over.”

  Steve walked to Cole.

  “Don’t get upset, Cole. She just saved you from inadvertently damaging our asset. I know you don’t think you would, but trust me. Linda knows how any explosive fuse gets triggered.”

  Cole calmed down.

  “I guess this is too big for me to conquer,” he said. “Do me a favor, Linda. Treat her with kid gloves.”

  “You men always deal with sensitive situations with a black and white approach,” Linda said. “I’m going to treat her as a friend.”

  The women went to Alikira’s cell while the men looked at Cole.

  “What do you need? Chip said you got very intense when this all went down,” Carlos said.

  “I don’t know now. Linda threw me off my game.”

  “Okay. We’ll smooth things over with the other Neo-Khaos squads. They probably need some help moving in, and we’ve been here before.” Carlos tried to put Cole back on his game.

  “First, I gotta go,” Steve said. “Where’s the bathroom?”

  “A floor down at the end of the hall.” Cole pointed down and to the left.

  “You don’t remember from last time?” Chip asked.

  “I was too busy collecting bodies and deactivated automatons for disposal to notice. I didn’t have to go then,” Steve said. “You were too busy trying to free the prisoners, and saw every room on the digi-blueprint to haul the dead and those metal bricks to disposal.”

  “You’re the brawn. I’m just the brain. I use my mind to avoid lifting heavy things like you do all the time.” Just as Steve began to step to Chip, Cole used his leadership skills.

  “What are you gonna do, Steve? Beat up a noodle armed transiton? I bet that would put an extra point on your toughness meter. Go use the bathroom downstairs and get ready to calm some paranoid Ne-Khaos soldiers. We’ll wait.”

  

  Linda, Kayleigh, and Gaia went to Alikira’s cell. She was tearing, looking very despondent.

  “Knock, knock,” Linda said while lightly rapping on the open bars. “Can we come in?”

  Alikira looked at the women.

  “Why? Are you here to tell me it’s all my fault
we had to leave the camp for this dank rat infested prison?”

  “No. You got us some war ending vital information we could never have gotten without you. Moving is no big deal. At least we don’t have to search for and filter water now.”

  Gaia added.

  “So, the Program found you. That tells me you’re fallible. A human trait.”

  “What got you caught?” Kayleigh asked. “If we know, we can beat it.”

  “What got me caught isn’t a technical flaw. It was my guttural fear of roaches,” Alikira admitted.

  “I think Jules is a hypnotist. He can cure you of that.”

  “You girls really don’t know about my life. I’ve been through horrid dissolution.”

  Gaia countered.

  “We want to know of your life. You just never told us.”

  “You never asked.”

  “We’re asking right now,” Linda said. “Tell us what happened to you.”

  Alikira never had anyone who was interested in her life. It felt strange when she became the center of attention. She wiped her eyes and began.

  “I was of the Owanguttha tribe of Australia. Our lands were called Pangerang, and we were happy before they enacted the Drumf doctrine centuries ago to place us into a societal community where we were forced into housing.

  I was born in a cheap project dwelling because our government deemed us living off the land was too ‘unsightly’. Our dwellings were radically different and our life condition became much worse.

  My mother and father, Macalla and Kadir, had three children. I was the oldest. I had a twin brother and sister named Gadiel and Galiena. We struggled, but we got by until Gadiel turned up missing.

  He said he found out about our tribal origins in the letter he wrote, and wanted to become a tribesman. He ran off into the Outback.

  Gadiel really didn’t know how to live that way. Our tribe was groomed for centuries to live the way we did. Gadiel didn’t like it, but he never realized he was actually part of what he disliked.

  I found his body three months later. He starved to death in the Outback. When I touched his dehydrated emaciated body, a swarm of roaches ran out of his mouth and nostrils and covered my arm. That’s the main reason I lose it when I see a roach.