Cyber Thought Police

by Kyle Robertson

  “Unless you want this nosey chick’s brains splattered all over the floor. STAY BACK!”

  Chip saw Gerry with the 22 pistol at Kayleigh’s head.

  “We can work this out, Gerry. Don’t shoot Kayleigh!”

  “You are all naïve fools!” he yelled. “I’m not that loser janitor Gerry! Gerry was the slave who shot Nugget! I’m Kalin!”

  Chip was surprised, but Steve wasn’t.

  “The reason I helped you destroy the Circumscriber transmitter is that it never worked anyway! We had to get in here to finish our quest! I gave Gerry only one bullet from my twenty round clip!” He fired at the ceiling and put it back to Kayleigh’s head. “Trust me. I have eighteen left. STAY BACK!”

  Alikira felt strange with him proverbially undressing her. She thought it was strange he got so intrusively intimate with her mechanisms. She just didn’t know her information was being siphoned to a traitor.

  “We all will just die together! We knew we would die with you!”

  “You can’t hold her for that long,” Steve said. “Your camp is thirty kilometers away and in the time it takes to get here and through our borgey defense, your arm will get tired,” Steve said.

  “Two things you don’t know. My clan is right outside and your borgeys are deactivated. When they breach this prison, it’s all over!”

  Cole became un-nerved. In all of his Murphy’s Law strategizing, this was an unknowable factor. He hoped Sledge had an answer for victory because he didn’t.

  Kalin dragged Kayleigh to the console to make her pick up the intercom and put it to his mouth.

  “I’m discovered. I have a hostage. The borgeys are deactivated. Breach, I need help!”

  “Advancing, Kalin.”

  All felt lost. The crazies would invade and take the prison. They all would turn into slaves until they were obliterated by the Program.

  “I thought you said these borgeys were deactivated! They’re tearing us apart!”

  Kalin was shocked! He found the control program in Alikira, took it, and used it on the borgeys. Why were they attacking?

  The one thing he never knew was Alikira was a tech-ripper. In that illegal practice, creating a false positive program was a protocol for dark web tech buys. They never wanted to be taken by the criminals they dealt with. Once the assets were verified, only then would they give the real product. Alikira was overriding the placebo start of the borgey deactivation to keep in control.

  Steve saw her REM and knew what she was doing. He picked up and raised his riot rifle.

  “You’re done playing in the sandbox. You’re surrounded and your help has been indefinitely detained. Release Kayleigh and drop that pellet gun!”

  Kalin knew it was over. He thought through Circumscriber, his death would painless and immediate. If he would’ve shot Kayleigh, his death would be long and painful. He threw Kayleigh at Steve but put the gun under his chin.

  “I washed the walls. I cleaned the toilets. I even washed and recycled the sanitary napkins for you ungrateful bitches. I did all of that to make sure you all had no idea of my true plan. And to be stopped because I made a stupid mistake?! Well, I’m not getting tortured by you fools!

  He pulled the trigger, and Kayleigh’s brains weren’t the ones splattered on the floor.

  Chip ran over to the console to look through the CCV screens. The closed-circuit video showed the last of his clan being disabled by many bone breaks.

  He scanned the parameter to see if there were any more. He saw a giant… creature on the horizon coming towards them!

  “Is it clear, Chip?” Steve asked.

  “The crazies are neutralized, but we got another threat on the horizon.”

  “What’s on the horizon?”

  “I don’t know, but it’s a giant mechanized ‘I don’t know’.”

  Steve went to the screen and saw something he had no clue of. Gaia came through to see.

  “In ancient Japanese culture, they had a legend of an enormous mechanized monster. It was a threat to all residents. I think because we’re in Japan, the Program used this demographics’ legend to craft a destroyer. That’s what the Japanese called a kaiju.

  Chapter Eleven: The Final Conflict?

  “I think I’m justified in saying that is definitely a threat!” Steve yelled. “It’s time to leave, people!”

  Cole saw the enormous kaiju and went to Alikira.

  “I don’t think you can control this one! We have to go!”

  Alikira accessed her cyborg mind and realized she was infected with a homing beacon! It became active when she controlled the new borgeys! The Program had an insidious counter defense no one could predict!

  “We can’t leave just yet! Chip? Pull my escape scenario block!” she screamed. “While I was hacking, the Program inserted a tracker in the scenarios when I popped the lock! The hacker got hacked!”

  Chip came running to Alikira.

  “We don’t have time for a cosmetic upgrade, Di!”

  “The Program put in a tracker in the escape memory block! This isn’t cosmetic! If you don’t rip this out, we’ll be found again!” she screamed and cut off her receptors. “It doesn’t have to look pretty! Just get it out!”

  Chip realized how detrimental pulling the block was, got his tools from under the console to open her head.

  “You better be happy this bloc is plug and play!” He grabbed the memory block and pulled it out.

  Cole go a steel mallet from Chip’s toolbox and began to crush the block!

  “Put her cover back on and run the drill!” Steve yelled.

  

  Steve emerged to the underground lakefront to feel like he was missing someone.

  “Where’s Fly Boy? He was supposed to help me fuel these things!”

  Linda came to him with a note.

  “We’ll never doubt your paranoia again! It seems like Carlos already made that decision! I just found this!” She gave him the note.

  Linda, I know we’ve been harping on Steve about being so war indoctrinated. Then I realized he’s that way because we’re in the middle of a war for our lives. He’s not paranoid. He’s acute. He found an escape hatch just in case. The main problem is all those submersibles can only hold about 50. Our plane can house the rest. I‘m going back to Chen Lei to get the plane. I hid this note so you wouldn’t follow me. My Magrupt’s charged. I’ll be back with mass transportation soon, Carlos

  “I’m glad that uptight fly boy listened to me!” Steve said. “Leave seats for our leaders! Carlos is coming back with the plane to fly the rest of you!”

  Chip, Kayleigh. Gaia, Cole, Alikira, and Sledge stayed in the C.O. room. They wanted to hinder that advancing monster, so the rest could escape.

  Alikira had the borgeys advance to attack the kaiju.

  “If they swarm it, that thing will slow down,” Cole said.

  “Prepare for the worst, Cole. That thing could just swat them across the field,” Sledge said.

  As they advanced, Gaia saw Kayleigh crying in the fetal position, so she went to her.

  “Those… could ‘a… been my brans on the floor.”

  “Oh, Kayleigh.” She hugged her. “The good, real thing was they weren’t. We still have our tough little lesbian trainer with us.”

  “But he acted just like I would have if I was hopelessly trapped.” She kept tearing.

  “That lunicidal crazy only shared the male version of your name. He’s nothing like you. You would never put yourself in a hopeless position voluntarily to praise your murderer. You’re rational, he was the crazy one. As you can see, in this world, crazy gets you killed.

  You’ve fought tougher demons than him. The ridicule of being called a dyke for years had to be worse than those fifteen minutes you had to deal with him.”

  Kayleigh thought about it and Gaia made sense.

  “I guess you’re right. This trauma is over. My real struggle still lingers. I had to correct Marc a few months back.”

  Gaia h
ugged her tighter.

  “Stay tough, Kayleigh.”

  “They’re almost on it! Just a few more meters!” Cole yelled out.

  Just as they were about to attack, they all began to power down! They were crushed under the kaiju.

  “I hope you have a plan B,” Sledge said.

  Chip thought quickly and looked closer at the kaiju.

  “Gaia! Come here and look at the right leg!” Chip yelled. “I might have your plan B.”

  Gaia left Kayleigh and ran to the monitor to look at the leg.

  “Everything mechanized needs maintenance. Do you see that borgey hatch on the right leg?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Can you pick the hatch?”

  “We do have a plan B, Sledge,” Gaia said. “Got your tools, Chip?”

  “What are you two talking about?” Sledge asked.

  “We insignificant humans are going to get in the access door and disrupt the system!” Chip said.

  “That’s dangerous,” Sledge warned.

  “No, Sledge,” Cole said as he handed Chip his toolbox. “That’s optimistic.”

  Chip and Gaia went to the armory to grab some flares.

  “What are you gonna use those for?” Gaia asked.

  “Distraction. All attacking entities react to sudden motion. The Program has no fixed revenge malevolence so that kaiju should react pragmatically. We’ll sneak up on it, fire these flares away from us and when it’s lookin’ left, we attack the right leg.”

  Gaia was surprised at Chip’s bravura. She thought she was listening to Steve, not him.

  “Where did you get this strategic confidence?”

  “Kayleigh and Jenny taught me a lot of things. Confidence was one of those things.”

  As they went to the armory side opening, Gaia felt strangely different about Chip. She felt safer doing this suicide mission with him.

  “Good. They’re hugging the tree line,” Cole said. “I trust my people.”

  “When did Chip get this tactical?” Sledge asked.

  “He’s been around Steve for years. Transitons soak in what works,” Cole said.

  Alikira felt a pulse wave building from the kaiju.

  “Something’s about to happen! I hope they’ll stay clear!” she yelled.

  The two didn’t have to worry. The pulse building wasn’t meant for them. It was meant for anyone who had an automaton helper at any time. The mind disruption cascade was still viable. Cole among 40 other Neo-Khaos wasn’t pure naturalist. Unfortunately for them, the cascade pulse fired.

  “What was that light wave?” Gaia asked.

  Chip looked back at the prison and everything was intact.

  “Nothing’s damaged. It probably scanned the prison to see how many of us are still there!”

  “We’re behind it now! Shoot the flares!”

  Chip fired two flares off. As they exploded, the kaiju looked left while they went for the right leg.

  “They both jumped on with Chip’s suction cup belts he had in his toolbox. As it kept advancing, Gaia worked on the hatch lock.

  “I got it! Do your transiton stuff!” she yelled.

  Chip slid open the hatch and Gaia followed.

  “First, we disable mobility!” he went for the motion animate mechanism he found on the repair console. He overrode the mobility board by bypassing the virtu-sistors with dummy info routers. They terminated all functions.

  “Okay! Next, I have to run a virus in series to get to the function block! Hold on!”

  As Chip was trying to stop the behemoth, Gaia heard plane engines. She looked outside and saw Carlos’s plane flying directly towards them!

  “Hurry, Chip! Carlos went to get the plane and he’s on a collision course with this thing! He’ll be swatted out of the sky in about two minutes!”

  As Chip heard the devastating news, he got down to business. Carlos wasn’t going to die today!

  He took out his qwik-solder tool to splice and connect the fiber optic route to the function block. Once it was connected, he inserted a virus chip.

  It took a second, but the kaiju powered down, and Carlos was safe to land.

  As Carlos had an uninterrupted glide path and he flew over Gaia’s head. She called out to Chip.

  “Carlos is good! I think you stopped it!”

  Chip felt like he accomplished the impossible. A geeky transiton took on a very dangerous quest to save everyone. Carlos did as well.. So did Steve, Kayleigh, Di, Gaia, Cole, Sledge, and Linda. They all gleaned off of each other to accomplish the impossible. He was feeling good.

  They both exited the leg to see if Carlos was alright. Carlos opened the plane door.

  “Chip, Gaia? Were you the reason I landed without whatever that thing is knocking me out of the sky?”

  Gaia hugged Chip’s arm.

  “It was all Mister Mastermind here, I just picked the lock. Chip stopped the kaiju.”

  Chip’s eyes widened. He just did his job with confidence and it seemed like Gaia really noticed.

  “You went to get the plane like you knew we would need it.”

  “You and Gaia stopped this monster without any help.”

  “Why did you two decide to do something crazy out of nowhere?” Gaia asked.

  They both looked at each other and began to smile. They said in unison.

  “Steve.”

  Gaia smiled.

  “I guess that paranoid nut rubbed off on all of us.”

  They all began to walk to the prison. Then they heard a cry out from the broken crazy cult.

  “Help us! Those borgeys broke our legs and our Magrupts didn’t work on them!”

  Gaia walked to the fallen cult member to give him a piece of her mind.

  “You crazy screw heads put a traitor among us and he tried to kill Kayleigh! If you think we’re going to help you? SUCK IT!”

  Chip and Carlos stepped back. Gaia was the nice one. What turned her?

  “That was our crazy leader! It wasn’t many of us! Don’t worry about him. That wave killed him with a heart attack or something. All of his true followers are dead!”

  “BULL! You’re trying to trick us again! Why didn’t it kill you all?!”

  “He faked us out! We are all purist. We never had automaton assistants! He said he was pure, but he was a corporate money trader with a slew of assistants! He took over with his people before we discovered his flaw! We were tricked the same way you were!” he revealed. “We were never a violent people. We just wanted to live in peace. Then with his sales charisma, he took over and made us killers. We followed along from fear of being exiled to the wastelands. Most of us never wanted this. His personal team was just ruthlessly overpowering. They came with him, and they all had assistants. Now the imposters are all dead! The only reason we’re not dead is my speculations all his core has assistants before and we didn’t. Right now, we desperately need your help.”

  Once he heard the confession, Chip froze. He began to run into the prison.

  “Don’t go anywhere! We’ll be back!” Carlos followed Chip.

  “My legs are broken. Where am I gonna go?!”

  Carlos wasn’t thinking about him. He wanted to catch up to Chip.

  “Come on, Gaia! We’ll get to them later!”

  Gaia had to catch up to Carlos.

  “Slow down! What’s happening?!”

  “I have no idea, but Chip does! He went to the side of the prison!”

  “He went to the armory side entrance!” Gaia yelled. “Follow me!”

  They went into the armory to see Chip go through the inner door across from them.

  “I think he’s goin’ to the C. O. room! Come on!” Gaia took over.

  As they went upstairs, they saw Chip explode into the C. O. room. They followed him, and when they entered, darkness raped their souls.

  They saw Alikira hugging Cole’s dead body and weeping. Everyone was silent.

  “I know it was a tricky process, but I could ‘a done it, Cole! I did it on me years
ago, and I’m alive because I took the chance!” Chip yelled at Cole’s corpse. “You didn’t think it was necessary and now the Program won! Why, Cole, why?”

  Alikira looked up through tears in anger.

  “You could’ve prevented this and you didn’t?! You didn’t listen to my feelings when you screwed around in my brain! Now Cole is dead because you didn’t want to hurt his feelings! You should ‘a just did something! Get bent, Transiton!”

  “You don’t think I tried?! Cole didn’t want to! Try to give brain surgery to a squirming person who would know if you were trying to anesthetize him! He’d be a brain-damaged lump!” Chip elevated at Alikira.

  “I would rather have a brain-damaged lump instead of a dead one!” Alikira retaliated.

  “This whole incident happened a year before our Australia mission! It’s kinda tough to be a leader with brain damage! You never would ‘a met Cole if I, as you say, just did something!”

  Sledge had to calm everyone.

  “Okay, stop! This was nobody’s fault. Stop blaming Chip. Don’t you think he would have tried if he knew this was going to happen? Cole thought it wasn’t important, so he dedicated his life to his squad. You know for a fact he would correct you for yelling in emotional animosity over this event!”

  They calmed themselves. Sledge was right. Cole did everything for them. It was wrong and disrespectful blaming anyone else for his death when he inadvertently caused it himself.

  Steve came running in and saw Alikira hugging Cole’s corpse.

  “So this thing happened everywhere. I just ran here to inform you forty Neo-Khaos soldiers grabbed their heads, slumped, and just died. I’m seein’ now my report wouldn’t surprise you.”

  Carlos hugged Steve.

  “Dammit, Cole! What happened?!”

  Chip elucidated.

  “Cole had an automaton assistant before the extinction event as I’m sure those other forty did. That kaiju sent a mental wave to activate a dormant mental time bomb they already were implanted with. The Program just detonated that bomb.”

  Steve tried to stay strong, but the tear streaming from his left eye exposed his true demeanor.