The virtual door vanished and Alikira plugged into the mainframe with her finger info-tentacles.
“As long as it takes for this hack to complete. We’re almost finished.”
‘DING’
“That Chip is lightning fast. Let me replace the door, grab the correct escape scenario, and let’s get out of here.”
Alikira replaced the door like she was never there and got the correct scenario. They left with an expedience.
Chip was chewing on his thumbnail wondering if they were fine. In prison, there was no special outlet to plug in any virtual mind screens, so Chip was on pins and needles time.
“Don’t get caught, ladies. I would hate to have to build a new lab,” he said to himself.
That’s when he heard that anticipation killing moan.
He ran to Alikira to see her REM slow down. Then he saw Linda open her eyes.
“Linda! You’re alright! How was it in there?”
Alikira woke from her trance to say, “She thought I was joking about the size of those roaches.”
“I just didn’t think your rendition of a roach was a six-legged mini-bus with fangs,” Linda said as she rubbed her eyes.
“It was a timed chaos theory lock mechanism. The next level of security is overkill.”
“It just never expected a cyborg tech-ripper with a grudge. It thought it was pragmatic enough, but you defeated our foe.”
“We were both right. What did that hack do?”
Chip took out a small PA device and pressed the screen.
“Unbeknownst to the Program, we’re controlling every new borgey in a two hundred kilometer radius from this location. When they get in range, they’ll be your new troops.” Chip smiled. “Welcome to an effective resistance.”
They finally felt in control. This war could be over soon. All Chip had to do was give Kayleigh the device’s schematics to Morse to Liham and once everyone has it, the war could turn to their favor.
As they began to celebrate, they didn’t know the complete security protocol of the Program. Whoever infiltrated the core contracted a virus which couldn’t be found unless you knew exactly what you were looking for. Alikira was infected with that time bomb tracking virus. Once there was any major glitch discovered, the tracker would activate. They were on borrowed time until they fully executed. The Program had no imagination but was surprisingly pragmatically clever.
Chapter Eight: The New Deleterious Faction
Cole was checking food reserves when Steve exploded into the C.O. booth.
“Charge up, Cole! We gotta slew of new borgeys about to breach our parameter and I don’t think our old ones can handle them!”
“Calm down, Steve. They’re our new borgeys. Chip finally got Alikira in to disrupt and control. She hacked the Program to pilfer some new borgeys from it. The Program has no idea about the traitors. Alikira might need some help equipping them.”
“You mean Di got in and out with no problems?”
“She executed cleanly. She and Linda were working on it for weeks.”
Linda?!” he was shocked. “What did she do? Just watch her?”
“They mentally bonded, so yeah. I guess she did watch… in one hundred eight K liquid fluidity. She was actually in the same course telepathically accompanying her.”
“Chip is disturbingly smart,” Steve said. “We really need his ‘uber’ brain to defeat the Program.”
“I love my elite squad. Yes, the rest can deactivate, but you’re a hardcore marksman, Gaia feeds us and can access any physically locked area, Carlos can fly, Linda can blow everything up with household cleaning supplies, Chip can hack anything with any digital language, and Alikira’s our ‘Program’ mirror. I like the rest, but you people are special.”
Steve felt good about being one of his ‘elite’. Most of the Neo-Khaos just thought he was a dumb brute. They just didn’t know of his constant practicing at all hours of the night to make him as good as he is. He never had a gift. He just worked very hard at having everybody thinking he did.
“What are we gonna do with the hack? We’re in Japan and the Program is in Maryland Virginia. We can’t fly there to ‘storm the castle’.”
“We don’t need to take down the Program directly. Chip is simplifying the hack’s schematics, so Kayleigh can Morse them to Liham. He’ll send them worldwide to every camp. Before you know it, humanity’s back in charge.”
“We’re doing a birthing spider tactic,” Steve realized. “We’ll get the new borgeys to proverbially ‘eat’ their producer.”
“Like I said, we don’t need to attack directly.”
“Di is making me bored,” Steve said. “With all this behind the scenes maneuvering, she gives me nothing to shoot.”
“Time to take a break. Alikira’s making your life easier not boring.”
“When a highly trained marks man’s main job is to neutralize the enemy, it gets very boring with no enemies in the vicinity to neutralize.”
“You just have a new task for now. You should be used to hauling equipment to ones that need the equipment.”
Steve nodded and turned to leave for Magrupt distribution, saying under his breath, “I thought I left my construction gopher job in the ‘old world’.”
Marc hauled many Magrupts with a loader to their parameter for the newer borgeys. Some of the Neo-Khaos took those Magrupts to equip them.
“Okay, people! I did this earlier! Just present the Magrupts and the borgeys will take them!” Marc guessed he was one of the veterans.
“Stop being so authoritative, Marc!” Kayleigh yelled at him. “You didn’t even want to touch the old ones! You called all borgeys junk piles then!”
“Well, for your information, Kayleigh, after they blanked a squad of the new ones right in front of me, I called them allies. You were too busy futzing with your range to witness my epiphany, ask Nugget.”
“So you’re saying you needed confirmation, so you could finally use your brain,” she said. “That still doesn’t make you an authority, it made you understand.”
“Just give these new borgeys the Magrupts and I’m out of a job,” Steve said.
“They’re just the front line, Steve,” Gaia said. “When the first wave is obliterated, it’s still your job. If the Program finds us, we’ll still need you.”
Alikira spoke.
“I’ve been in there. We can stop calling it the Program. Its designation is Circumscriber.”
“That beast doesn’t deserve any respect by calling it Circumscriber. It will always be the Program to me,” Marc said.
Everyone agreed.
“It’ll be called deactivated soon. Kayleigh just has to Morse Liham the hack schematics when Chip simplifies them. Then the rest of the world will have a new borgey army built by it to dismantle it,” Steve said. “It’s only a matter of time.”
Kayleigh called Chip on their closed communique to ask about his progress.
“Okay, gotcha, Chip. I’m on my way.” Kayleigh went to everyone. “I’m sorry I can’t keep you all company distributing Magrupts, but Chip simplified the schematics. My real duty is calling me, so I have to go.”
As she went back in, Marc kept up his authority.
“Let’s get these new borgeys weapons, people!”
Kayleigh went to the medical laboratory where Chip was going over his diagrams.
“I thought you said you completed the schematics.”
“Oh, hi, Kayleigh. A transiton always quadruple checks his work, and since I knew you were coming, I wanted it to be perfect for your cerebral boyfriend.”
“So, you heard me say Liham’s brain is sexy,” she assumed.
“That was the main reason I got up the nerve to interrupt you, girls, to talk to Linda.”
“You deduced just because me, a lesbian, said brains were sexy, you thought your mind fit the bill. I’m glad you think I think you’re smart.”
He gave her his notes.
>
“Smart is just a state of mind, dear. If you get these schematics to Liham, that’s when I’ll know you’ll think I’m smart.” He smiled.
“Why don’t you have this type of confidence when you want to talk to a woman?” she asked.
“I know the technology well. I don’t know women at all.”
“When all this is over, Jenny and I will teach you. Call us your lesbian secret weapons.”
“What do you mean by lesbian secret weapons?”
“Who else would you learn how to please a woman other than a woman? We have the manual, your male friends don’t,” she said. “Now let’s get this started. I kind of like a naïve brainy student.”
Chip wanted to learn from the best, so they went to the C.O. booth.
“How’s the distribution going?” Marc asked Steve.
“We’re almost out of Magrupts and I’m not giving up my custom calibrated Magrupt to any machine or man.”
Marc knew how possessive Steve was with his Magrupt, so he didn’t even ask.
“Okay, if we get thin, stack the front line. If the enemy can’t penetrate our wall, our backup lines shouldn’t need many Magrupts anyway.”
“If they take out strays immediately, there will be no horde attacking, but if they get through, My Magrupt is charged.”
Marc looked at Steve’s gleeful bloodlust.
“If it happens, you kinda want them to get through,” Marc assumed.
“I like manual instead of automatic. You get better control that way.”
“What’s with you, Steve?” Marc asked him. “You don’t have to protect us for once. When the first borgeys took my job as gate monitor, I was relieved.”
“That’s because being a gate monitor is the equivalent to being the head janitor,” Steve said. “I don’t clean toilets, I fly stealth jets.”
“Okay, Fly Boy. Just don’t get target fixation and plow yourself into the ground.” Marc wanted to set him straight.
Kayleigh was having trouble trying to contact Liham.
“Are you sure you have this thing plugged in right? I got to Liham with no problems in Chen Lei.”
“I checked our communications when I set it up here. Liham confirmed it. I’ll check the connections.”
Chip went behind the console and everything was in working order.
“Electronics suck,” he said. “Hold on. I have to get my signal meter to see if we’re transmitting out.” He left for his cell.
Kayleigh sat there wondering if a faulty connection wire was the main culprit in halting their success. If so, at least Chip could find and replace it.
After a few minutes, Chip came back with his meter to scan power flow.
“Just tap out an S. O. S. to see if it’s working.”
She tapped it out, so Chip could scan it.
“Transmission is fine outgoing. I just have to track it to see if it’s Liham’s equipment. Tap it again.”
She complied.
“What the? It’s stopping about thirty kilometers from here. I have to pinpoint the snag. Keep tapping repeatedly.”
Kayleigh kept going until Chip told her to stop. He looked at a map.
“It’s stopping right outside a city called Tsuen Wan. I don’t know what’s stopping it, but I think Steve will finally get his wish. I’ll call Cole and have him gather a team.”
“Do you think there’ll be more borgeys?” Kayleigh asked.
“Di’s controlling all the borgeys within a two hundred kilometer radius. I’m going too. It’s probably a downed transmitter most likely. This mission will be some relief for Steve. When he sees it’s just a broken box then maybe he’ll realize we’re safe and take a paranoia break.”
“Steve’s just feeling like Alikira inadvertently took away his job. Now, everybody likes her and he caused his own unemployment. He’s just kicking himself for being so eloquent on the stage.”
“Carlos said he told him his words were much more powerful than his fists. I think he’s realizing that now,” Chip said. “I think he’ll get his fix to calm himself.”
Chip left Kayleigh to find Cole. He was playing velocity ball with Sledge in the auditorium.
“You’re one up, Sledge, but you haven’t seen my lazy Z move yet.”
“I invented the lazy Z move. Practice all you want. I’ll still kick your ass!”
Chip interrupted the verbal melee.
“I have a mission for you, Cole. Our Morse communication is getting blocked near Tsuen Wan. That’s about thirty kilometers from here. I think it’s a downed transfer box, but you can get killed for thinking without any proof. Can you make a defense team to back me up?”
“Sounds like it’s time to get Steve out of his bore cloud,” Sledge told Cole.
“Okay, Chip. We’ll be ready in an hour. Is that enough time for you to prepare?”
“All I need is my Magrupt and my toolbox. When you gather your squad, knock on the bars of my cell.”
“Have you seen Steve?”
“He’s outside distributing Magrupts to the new borgeys.”
Cole looked down.
“Wow. That’s gotta hurt. Giving your replacement the equipment so it can replace you. Well, he should be happier in the next few minutes. I’ll have him assemble his Magrupt squad and we’ll be ready quickly.”
“Just don’t have Mister Itchy Trigger Finger blanking any transmit boxes. I don’t think we have any spares,” Sledge said.
“I’ll be back by lunchtime tomorrow. You still owe me time to catch up.” Cole pointed at Sledge.
“Go protect Chip in his box fixing. I’ll be right here when you get back to beat you silly again,” Sledge taunted.
They both left to get prepared.
The squad was navigating the terrain on the way to Tsuen Wan. It was strangely silent in the country.
“Stay alert, fellas. We don’t know this area,” Steve told his Magrupt marksmen.
“It’s probably just a downed box, Steve,” Chip told him. “Their deactivating skills may not be necessary.”
“You didn’t bring us along just to have some thoughtful conversation while you repair a box. You aren’t nervous of an inoperable transmitter. You’re nervous for the reason behind it not working.”
Cole and Chip knew Steve would be ready, so they accepted his hardcore arrogance.
Steve stayed steely-eyed during their journey. He saw all the animals running away from the city. He didn’t really know, but paranoid experience stated there was an unsavory presence up ahead.
“Tell me something. Chip,” Steve began. “Is a transmitter dangerous enough to have bats, wolves, and bobcats run from it?”
“Animals run randomly throughout this place.”
“But these animals are running uniformly in one direction away from our destination,” Steve corrected him. “My Magrupt’s charged because if a wolf runs in the opposite direction, there’s some bad juju up ahead.”
“Okay, Mister Paranoid. If it’s just a damaged transmitter, I get to punch you in the chest.” Chip challenged.
“And when I’m right, I get to punch you.” Steve accepted.
Cole put his hand out quickly.
“Don’t take that bet, Chip!” Cole yelled. “What’s out there, Steve?”
Cole remembered Carlos’s chest. He didn’t want Chip to share the same fate.
“I don’t know. It can’t be borgeys. Di’s controlling all of them around here. It must be a lot of automatons mucking the transmission. We won’t know unless we scout ahead to do some recon.”
Cole understood what Chip couldn’t.
“Okay, Steve. Bring two of your best. Stay here, Chip and thank me for saving your chest later.”
“I can’t believe you’re falling for this,” Chip said.
“You never saw Carlos get hit when Steve was right. I’m just trying to keep my squad ready to stop the enemy, not each other. We’re a kilometer
out. We’ll be back in fifteen with more accurate information. Let’s go, Steve.”
As Cole, Steve, and two other marksmen went further through the tree line, Chip stayed put.
As Chip and the rest of the squad waited, they began to get bored. It was just a broken transmitter box. The main reason they brought Steve was he was going stir crazy not going out in the field. They just threw him a bone to stay sane. He just didn’t know Steve would go commando on him. Sadly, he never spoke to Carlos.
“They’ve been gone half an hour. I could’ve given them my tools and we’d be on our way back by now.”
“If an exercise becomes longer than calculated, they probably found something, Chip,” Nugget said.
“They’re just playing with me. Making me nervous. There’s nothing out there, Clarence.”
Just as Chip finished, three of them came walking from the tree line.”
“Real funny! You didn’t spook me!”
Cole ran up to Chip.
“Quiet! Be lucky I saved your chest. Steve was right.”
“A bunch of automatons?!” Chip asked.
“Worse,” Cole said. “A band of Program worshipping radial humans! We left Snark to record and we’re returning to the prison because you can’t deactivate crazy humans with Magrupts!”
Their plan had to definitely change.
Chapter Nine: Progress Always Hits a Snag
Sledge was waiting for Cole to come back. He wanted to embarrass him in velocity ball one more time. Cole was an excellent smuggler, but Sledge was a true ‘baller’.
Cole finally came back with his squad.
“Ready for your velocity therapy?” Sledge taunted.
“We got a much bigger problem than playing.” Cole became serious.
“What happened now? Alikira’s controlling a gang of borgeys and there’s no more animosity in our camp.”
“The problem we have is more organic than borgeys. A new radical faction of humans are blocking our signal transmission.”
“There’s more?! We can recruit them!” Sledge got excited.
Cyber Thought Police Page 10
