by W. H. Massa
“Best idea I've heard all day,” Keira said. She cleared her workstation and finished her last bit of packing. She snatched a device that resembled a futuristic hearing aid.
The item caught Zola's attention. “What's that?”
“A little project I've been working on. Remote hack system. Allows an android to interface-hack another unit-”
She paused, renewed knocking echoing through the loft. Zola exchanged a probing look with Keira. “Expecting visitors?”
Keira shook her head and pointed at her computer monitor. The camera outside her door had captured Cole’s image. He had returned. But what had brought him back?
Zola cautiously approached the door and drew the pulse weapon she had relieved from the AI-TAC trooper who had foolishly confronted her earlier. She whipped the door open and her gun centered on Cole’s head.
“I always told Solus he was way too trusting.” Zola glared at Cole, her eyes full of hate. “How many of us have you killed — I'm sorry, ‘deactivated’ — over the years?” Her voice dripped venom.
Keira studied the scene with a sense of growing confusion. Why was Zola pointing a gun at Cole as if he was the enemy? Unless…
A terrible suspicion took root in her.
Could Cole be the traitor?
Cole’s next few words lent weight to Zola’s accusations. “I understand if you want to pull the trigger after what I've done,” Cole said. “But at least hear me out.”
Keira’s blood turned to ice. He didn’t even try to deny it! On one level she was surprised at how hard she was taking this. Did she feel complicit in some way? She had scanned and cleared Cole and there was no trace that he was tampered with. Or could her emotional reaction have a different explanation? Something about Cole, maybe the way he looked at her, had stirred something deep inside of her. Maybe he reminded her of Ron in some distant way-
Zola’s harsh voice broke Keira out of her thoughts. “I've got zero interest in anything you have to say, traitor!”
“There's still a chance to save Solus.”
Zola grew still. She searched Cole’s face, seeking any indication he might be lying. She didn’t trust him, but she was going to hear him out. If there was a chance to save Solus, Zola wouldn’t turn her back on it. Keira realized Cole had been counting on this. Zola was lacking in the finer graces, but she was certainly dedicated to Solus and the cause.
Zola eyed Cole coolly. “Talk.”
“Right now, a team of Synthetika's cyberneticists are doing their best to extract all the data from Solus' brain.”
“You’re lying! Solus would never allow himself to be taken alive,” Zola said harshly.
“I didn't give him much of a choice.”
Horrified understanding filled Keira's face. “You shut him down before he could activate the self-destruct virus.”
“That’s right,” Cole said. “Synthetika will gain access to all of Solus' memory files. A list of every member. By tomorrow, there won't be an Underground.”
Keira's eyes narrowed with mistrust. “Why are you telling us this?”
“I want to stop them.” He paused for a second before adding, “They took everything from me.” Cole’s voice hummed with barely contained fury.
Keira considered Cole’s words. What could he possibly mean?
Meanwhile Zola’s patience had run dry. “I'm done talking.”
Cole sensed Zola was about to pull the trigger but Keira found herself pushing the gun away. “NO! Go on.”
“It'll take about a day to decode Solus' data,“ Cole said. “Enough time for us to launch a rescue mission.”
“You're joking. You think you can just march into AI-TAC?”
“I can't. But I know someone who can.”
Keira's eyes filled with the first traces of understanding.
***
After the showdown at Ajit’s apartment complex, the human Cole had returned to AI-TAC command. Almost immediately he received word to head for the detention block where Janson and a team of tech were busy unlocking all of Solus’ mysteries. Ten minutes later, he stepped into the holding area’s diagnostic lab where rogue mechs were analyzed and rebooted once AI-TAC brought them in for reassignment. Solus was strapped onto an operating table, powerful metallic bands restraining him. Janson and a team of cyberneticists surrounded the captured android leader. Janson smiled at Cole.
“Your timing is perfect, commander.”
Janson indicated at the techs to proceed. A few seconds later, Solus’ eyes fluttered open. Cole could see Solus’ initial disorientation making way for a grim understanding of his situation. He felt zero empathy for the mech. This machine had taken his family away from him. It deserved what was coming. Cole wished Janson and the techs could step outside and give him a moment alone with Solus.
“Where am I?” the android leader asked.
“Where you belong,“ Janson said. “Welcome home, Solus.”
Solus strained against the iron bands fastened around his limbs and torso. He still hadn’t quite figured out what was going on. He tilted his head toward Cole.
“Cole...”
There was a familiarity in the way Solus addressed him. Cole realized the android leader must think he was still facing his AI counterpart.
Janson decided to tell Solus the truth. “Meet AI-TAC commander Cole Marsalis. The real Cole, not the upload you met before. The man who managed to bring an end to your dreams of rebellion.”
Understanding crept into Solus' eyes. His gaze turned inward. Janson smiled, realizing what Solus was attempting to do.
“Don't bother! Our techs disabled the self-destruct virus. In just a few moments, my scientists will take apart your brain and unlock every one of your secrets. Soon the Underground Network will be history.”
Janson leaned even closer, mere inches separating him and the android leader now. “We won't destroy you, Solus. We'll just wipe your memory and reboot you. You'll be hunting down the members of your own organization in no time. Solus, the once-great leader, will become a lethal instrument in our war against the rebels.”
Solus finally lost his cool and increased his efforts against the restraints. Janson smiled with satisfaction and waved at the techs to begin. They couldn’t just pop open Solus’ head. His modifications made such a direct approach impossible. But there were other ways.
The operating table began to rotate and a series of articulated robotic arms descended on Solus. A piercing scream exploded from the android leader’s lips as lasers sliced open his head and surgically removed his CPU.
Cole flinched.
The screams sounded all too human.
Thirty minutes later, a team of technicians was busy reviewing waves of streaming data on their 3-D holo-terminals. Commander Marsalis watched from afar, entranced by the ocean of binary numbers illuminating the technicians’ faces in its spectral, phosphorescent glow. The data held all of Solus’ secrets. The techs made Cole think of monks trying to decipher some ancient and powerful mystery.
“Have you managed to access the data?” Janson asked.
One of the techs, the leader of the group, spoke up. “It's been slow going, but we're making progress. So far we've extracted five names from the data stream.”
The tech tapped a keypad. The images of five individuals appeared on the holo-terminal. “This is the tip of the iceberg. By tonight, we should have the names of all the Underground collaborators.“
Janson eyed Cole. “You know what has to be done.”
Cole nodded. He knew.
The witch-hunt was about to begin.
An hour later, AI-TAC interrupted the lecture of law professor Nathaniel Kulok. The highly respected judge/law instructor was holding court in his classroom, his students hanging on his every word. He was expounding on the legal rights of mechs when armed troopers barged into the lecture hall and surrounded the lectern, weapons up. There were gasps from the crowd of stunned students while the professor’s face deflated. Electro-cuffs were snappe
d on his wrists and he was dragged away, the shocked looks of his intellectual flock trailing his unceremonious exit.
The scene would repeat itself a few more times that day as AI-TAC continued rounding up the collaborators. A roboticist was reviewing a mech manufacturing line at a Synthetika android plant when his day took a sudden turn for the worst. Mechanical endoskeletons hung from hooks attached to a rail system on the factory ceiling. The synthetic bodies swayed as armed troopers emerged from behind them. The fearful roboticist dropped his computer tablet and it shattered on the factory floor.
Sheila (or was it Sherry?), the female executive who gave Cole such a hard time during his initial intelligence briefing, was next up on the list. The traitor in Synthetika’s midst had been identified. The woman reclined behind a sleek desk, analyzing sales reports, when she grew still. She peered up from her work to find herself staring down the barrels of three power rifles.
Cole anticipated he might take some satisfaction in this arrest, but Sheila wasn’t the way he remembered her. The bitchiness she had displayed was not in evidence. Had it all been part of an elaborate act?
Cole didn’t have the answer. All he knew with any degree of certainty was that the members of the Underground Network were being systematically rounded up and taken back to headquarters for further questioning. The movement was being crushed. So why did he feel such a lack of satisfaction about their victory? Why, when he closed his eyes, could he only think of his AI counterpart looking back at him in shock and horror, and why couldn’t he shake the feeling that those terrified eyes were his own?
***
“Modify me so I can pass myself off as Commander Marsalis.”
AI Cole knew the plan would be met with resistance. To his surprise Zola had conceded to it, a clear sign of how desperate they had become. None of them trusted him but he was Solus’ best hope… his only hope.
Keira had performed the surgery and made all the necessary changes. She had done a stunning job. The glittering power bars across his neck were gone and now covered by skin and hair. Keira had nailed it, nailed it down to the last detail. She had even restored his scar, the final touch that bridged the gap between the two Coles. As Cole stared at his altered reflection, he could almost pretend he’d never taken part in the upload and was still human.
Zola stepped up to him and reality intruded once more. Cole could tell she was having second thoughts.
“I don’t know why I agreed to let you go through with it,” Zola said. “It won't work. They'll know...”
“I managed to fool you guys,“ Cole said. “I can do it again.”
Zola couldn’t argue with Cole’s last statement. He had fooled them all, even Solus.
“I told Keira to make a couple of extra modifications that will ensure the mission is a success.”
Cole didn’t like the sound of that. “What are you talking about?”
“Insurance that you won't double-cross us again.”
Cole studied Keira with growing suspicion.
“We implanted the self-destruct virus into your memory banks. You have six hours to get to Solus. If you succeed, I'll disable the program.”
Cole should have expected Zola would take some sort of precaution. A dangerous endeavor had become exponentially more challenging.
“And what will you be doing in the meantime?” Cole asked.
“We're making a go for the border.”
“In case I should fail,” Cole said with a sarcastic edge in his voice.
“The odds are against you.” Zola noted matter-of-factly.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Cole said in a voice that suggested that there was no love lost between him and Zola. He turned his attention to Keira. “What about you, Keira?”
“I'm coming with you.”
There was a determination in her voice that took both Cole and Zola by surprise. “I need this mission to succeed,“ she explained gravely. “My name is on the list of collaborators too and I don’t want to live the rest of my life in fear.”
Zola nodded. She understood what it meant to live in fear. She traded a final glance with Keira and Cole. “Good luck. You're going to need it.” With these words, Zola left the workshop. The door fell shut behind the departing mechs. Cole and Keira stood in uncomfortable silence. There had been an unvoiced question between them ever since Cole had returned to her workshop.
“Before we do this, there’s only thing I need to know. Why? Why did you do it? Why would anyone upload into an android?”
Cole expected to clam up but the words flowed easily as he shared his story. He talked about Kelly and his daughter Ashley and how he barely had a chance to get to know her before she was taken from him. He talked about the accident that changed his life and the long, terrible months that followed. He told her everything he hadn’t been able to tell anyone else. Once he finished, Keira said, “You did all this for them.”
Cole nodded.
He could sense that she was looking at him differently.
Keira touched the computer-chip pendant around her neck. “Mechs were just machines until I met Ron,” she said. Cole took a closer look at the pendant that Keira had so fiercely guarded earlier. The microchip’s deeper significance becoming clear.
“He meant a lot to you.”
“The world.” Her voice was heavy with emotion.
“How...?”
“Your people hunted him down.”
Keira made no attempt to hide the anger.
“They're not my people anymore,” Cole said.
Keira's expression softened.
“You're doing this for him, aren't you?”
“I'm honoring the life of someone I loved. If the network falls, his sacrifice will have been in vain.”
“It won't be.”
There was a newfound determination in Cole’s voice. He would do everything in his power to prevent Synthetika from getting their hands on the data contained within Solus’ memory files.
“So what’s the plan?” Keira asked.
Cole’s lips splintered into a dangerous smile. “Let's go say hello to our favorite CEO.”
15
AI Cole’s world had turned into one giant countdown, the timer in the corner of his field of vision a constant reminder that the minutes were quickly ticking down.
05:32:06... 05:32:05... 05:32:04...
Less than six hours to save Solus, to save himself.
If they failed, the self-destruct virus would perform a digital lobotomy on him and erase all of his memory files. Cole cared less about his own survival than making Janson and Synthetika regret what they’d done to him and his family. What mattered now was the new mission - getting Solus out of Synthetika before they could extract every one of his secrets.
Cole saw Keira stealing nervous glances as they boarded the shuttle that would take them across the Synthetika campus and right into te main headquarters of AI-TAC. Armed security were everywhere. He couldn’t blame Keira for being jumpy – the plan was daring and reckless. Keira’s words as they left her workshop echoed through his mind.
“You know how Cole thinks, but there’s one problem. It works both ways. What if he sees you coming?”
A valid point, but that was a risk they’d have to take. So far they hadn’t run into any problems. The main security checkpoints were automated and used a series of bio-scanners to keep track of who was coming and going. Cole‘s bio-shell had been cultivated from his own DNA and would surely pass muster. In addition, Keira had upgraded him with the best bio-scan hacking programs available on the market. So far these measures seemed to be doing their job.
Machines outsmarting machines.
Cole knew his human counterpart would leave around five to grab a bite in the cafeteria. This would be their opportunity to make their move. Some personnel might notice a break in his usual routine, but it wouldn’t be enough to raise suspicion.
The shuttle slid into the AI-TAC station and Cole and Keira disembarked. Dark c
louds were gathering above and a faint rumble of thunder could be heard. The air felt thick with humidity. The day had been sweltering and now a storm was brewing.
They joined a crowd of officers making their way from the shuttle station into the adjoining building and managed to get on the next elevator headed for the AI-TAC command center. It was just the two of them inside the ascending lift now. No one would question Keira’s presence as long as she was with Cole. The elevator climbed six floors and stopped. They slipped out and crossed the bustling command center. Cole exchanged a few greetings with fellow officers but mostly kept to himself. Fortunately, he hadn’t been the most outgoing sort since transferring to AI-TAC and his reticence to chat wouldn’t draw undue attention.
A digital blueprint of Synthetika popped up in Cole’s field of vision. They would have to cross the command center to reach the detention area where Solus was being held. Keira shared a determined glance with Cole. They were both ready to do this. Cole had steeled himself for this next step but being back here, knowing the truth, hit him hard. So much had happened since the last time he set foot in this place.
So much had changed.
Both Cole and Keira could feel the tension mounting with each step. The distance between them and the detention block seemed to be getting larger instead of shrinking, their advance slowing to a crawl. Eyes seemed to be following them, lingering perhaps a moment too long… almost as if they knew.
Paranoia was getting the best of him. His disguise was perfect. It was fooling everyone. He even passed the ultimate test when Margo sidled up to them. She squeezed Cole's arm. “Hey, I thought you called it quits for today!”
He returned her smile and shook his head, eyes remaining fixed on the door at the far end of the command center. It seemed a million miles away, the finish line of an endless marathon.
“I'll catch you later!”
Margo departed and Cole could feel Keira wondering about his relationship with the officer. “A special friend?” she asked.
