Occasionally Heroic A.I.

by David West

  I peeked out from behind the chair, and his face looked down at me. He looked just like Red, even smiled like him... although definitely with an added creepiness.

  "Adam, get out from behind there, I need to talk to you," he said. His voice didn't match his creepy face though; it was determined.

  Cautiously, I revealed myself, but I kept a majority of my body behind the chair. My broken leg pained me from the sudden movement, but it was good enough to move around with.

  "We both need to talk to you," a women's voice insisted, pushing Red's look-a-like away from the screen, so I could get a better view of her.

  She was beautiful, but scared... Who are these people, and why do they look so awkward? They looked ecstatic... and a little pixilated. Suddenly the view of the two people shot back, so I could see both of them, standing in front of me, inside my monitor.

  "Who are you?" I finally asked, noticing that they were computer-generated models. They were too perfect, and the texture and lighting was sketchy.

  "My name is Wade, and this is iRene-"

  "Irene," she corrected, saying the exact same thing for some reason.

  "We need your help immediately, so if you have any questions, let's get them out of the way now," Wade said in a nervous voice.

  I see... the reason he has such a weird expression is that he's nervous... and that he's computer generated.

  "Wha-"

  "Never mind, that was stupid, we don't have any time for questions. My friend and I were the ones who texted you to not jump. He is currently in a life or death situation right now, and you're the only one who can get him out of it," he explained, asking for my help.

  "You see, I would, I'm just very busy," I said, feeling my stomach turn at the thought of doing something out of my usual routine. "And also, I still have no idea who you people are."

  "My name is Wade and this is iRene-"

  "Irene!"

  "Right, and our friend's name is Martin. The reason why he is in the trouble that he's in, is because he was with me when I sent you the text message. Either we go to a prison they'll never let us out of, or they kill us if we so much as speak with you. You don't have to fear them, because they can't touch you. So please, say yes. Will you help us?" Wade begged lightly, his eyes pleaded for help along with Irene's tearing eyes. I was about to turn him down again, when he smiled a familiar smile... He trusted me. A complete stranger, yet I felt like I've known him for years. "We'll also help you get your job back."

  "What do I need to do?"

  A smile spread across Wade's face and a glimmer of hope widened Irene's eyes. She looked up at me in admiration. "You remind me so much of Martin," she remarked in astonishment.

  I sat down, eyelevel with them, and finally felt useful for the first time in years. Wade explained the plan, making my jaw drop at the complexity of it all. Sure, he reassured me that with them working on the computer side of the operation, it wouldn't be as hard as it sounded. Nonetheless, that was difficult to believe.

  The first step was making them mobile, whatever that meant. Irene had me setup my cell phone to the wireless network on my computer. She put something on it, a program I'm guessing, to be able to control any data that passes through the phone. Instructed by Irene, I put the USB cord for the phone in my pocket, because I was going to have to plug the phone into a computer at the ISP office. While she was installing the program, Wade talked to a friend in Town Hall and got the blueprints for the building I was going to go in. They don't waste any time.

  Finally, after a three-hour drive, I was standing outside the large office building, with a ski mask on. "I'm outside the front, which way do I go?" I asked forgetting the beginning of the plan.

  "Get the hell away from the front of the building! We strictly told you not to go anywhere near the front; there are probably tons of security cameras there." Scurrying away, I went to the side of the building and started heading for the back. "You better not be going to the back of the building either, there are more cameras back there."

  Turning around, away from the back this time, I stood at the side of the building and awaited my next orders, which I was too excited to remember, let alone listen to. A rush pumped through me like a wildfire, I felt so alive. It was as if I were in another world, a secret world, which I just discovered... no, a world that just discovered me.

  "There should be a tree, just four feet away from the southern side of the building. You need to climb that tree, and then jump from the tree, onto the roof... like a ninja!" Wade encouraged loudly in my ear, so I held the phone a little further away.

  "Like a ninja?" I asked, looking up at the tree.

  "Like a ninja!"

  "We've got two problems with that. First problem is that the tree doesn't look like it has any branches, it's just a really, really tall column shaped tree with pine needles basically... it also looks very bendable. Second problem is - I probably should've mentioned this earlier - I have a broken leg."

  Standing in total letdown and feeling useless once again, the phone stayed silent on the other end, until I heard him and Irene talking to each other.

  "Alright, come back home, I shouldn't have asked you to do this... It slipped my mind that you had a broken leg, and I didn't take into calculation that not all trees are climbable," he regretted in a gloomy voice.

  I put the phone in my pocket and started to climb. Sure, it was like a big bushy tree with pine needles replacing the leaves, but the small, brittle branches were enough for me to gain some elevation on the building. I kept my leg, which was in a splinter, away from the tree, unless I needed it, in which case I would stand on dozens of little brittle branches of needles to hold my weight up as I continued higher. My leg actually didn't hurt as much as I thought it would... the pine needles stabbing me was where the majority of the pain came from. I continued though, as high as I could get.

  Another unexpected occurrence happened though... When I finally got to the top, I looked over my shoulder to see if I could make it to the other side. I could make it, if it were any other tree. However, this tree, this tree had plans of its own. My weight began to make the tree bend, made it lean away from building, I was going further and further away from it. When the tree bent, it inched further and further from the building, making me look down at where I was about to plummet and break another leg. How was I going to explain this one?

  Just then, the tree began to sway the other way, toward the building, inching closer and closer to the roof. I was going to make it! Just one more foot and I was in the clear!

  Nevertheless, the roof wasn't my destiny; it was the window right below. When I realized I wasn't going to make it onto the roof, I clutched the tree, making the pine needles go through the ski mask and dig into the side of my face. I couldn't feel the pain this time though; too much adrenaline relieved the pain. The next thing I did feel, though, and I imagine it should've hurt more than it did. It definitely hurt the next day.

  I crashed into the window right below the roof, into the second floor. I landed on my back, with glass digging into my skin. Wade's voice yelled in my pocket, asking me if I was ok.

  "Oh my God!" a women exclaimed rushing into the office I broke into.

  I sat up and backed up into the wall using my hands and good leg, causing more glass to pierce my flesh. Fear of being caught took over; my eyes searched for a way to escape.

  "I'm sorry!" I yelped, apologizing for the breaking and entering. I can't believe I made a yelping sound...

  "It's no problem; we can get a new window. Are you ok?" she asked in a soft and soothing voice.

  I looked up at her, in the eyes, for the first time. The lights were dim, seeing as how the office was after hours, most of the lights were off. But, despite the lighting, I could tell she was both concerned, and hot. She was gorgeous. Short blonde hair that cut off between her ear and jaw, caring eyes bright enough to sparkle in the moonlight, and she had affectionate hands that were more than eager to help me up.

 
; I wondered, scared to speak, why she was so worried for someone in a ski mask... until I realized I wasn't wearing one. The pine needles must have hooked onto the mask when I fell in here. Thank God it wasn't my pants; I'm wearing my Superman boxers.

  She helped me limp over to a chair, one of the dozen in the room. Although it appeared to be a conference room, there were laptops on the long desk in front of each chair.

  My cell phone began vibrating in short bursts. "Are you in shock?" the women asked, checking my wounds.

  "A little, I think," I lied, not knowing what my next move should be. I sneakily checked my cell phone and on it, in big bold letters read:

  GET OUT OF THERE!

  "Let me call an ambulance for you; I think you need it," she advised, pulling out her cell phone.

  "No - wait - I think I'm ok," I replied, standing painfully quick. I hopped up and down on my good leg. "It's just a couple pieces of glass, nothing to worry about."

  "Are you sure?" she asked with worry. Her eyebrows burrowed. "You know, you shouldn't be tree climbing this late at night; it's dark."

  My cell phone started vibrating again, so I glanced over and read what Wade or Irene had to say.

  She thinks you were tree climbing, she's naive; this is the perfect girl for you! Ask her out on a date!

  "Yeah... I really didn't expect the tree to bend," I told the woman.

  "I think you need to sit down a little longer. I'll get the first aid kit."

  As soon as she left, I put the phone to my ear. "What do you need me to do?" I asked quickly, for fear she would come back any second.

  "Leave, abort the mission," Wade ordered me.

  "No," I responded firmly. "I didn't come this far to give up."

  "Well..." he said, thinking about it.

  "Just tell me what to do!"

  "Point your cell phone's camera around the room you're in, at all the computers."

  I did as he said, showing him all the laptops. That's when I noticed my palms had little rocks of glass pressed into them. The pain came to my hands when I noticed them.

  "This is perfect! I couldn't have asked for better circumstances. Plug your phone into one of the laptop's USB ports. Good, now wait a minute... Re-routing... Files transferring... Hour glass... Hour glass... Got it! We're good to go."

  That seemed far too easy... "How was it so easy?" I asked, looking up and seeing that the woman was still looking for the first aid kit in the break room.

  "Well, these laptops are solely for short conferences. They have close to no security, yet they're connected to the same network as the servers with the information we needed," he explained, excited about the successful mission. "And perhaps you forgot, but you were supposed to crawl through about a mile of ventilation shafts to get to the servers."

  The door opened, so I lowered the phone from my ear. She walked in with a first aid kit and a smile.

  "You know, you're lucky. My father was a medic, so I'll be able to fix you up in no time," she informed me, eagerly pulling out supplies to remove the glass and gauze my cuts.

  "Thank you, you ha-" I began to say, but then shrieked like a little girl when she started pulling the glass out of my back. "You sure you know what you're doing?"

  She laughed and took out some painkillers from the first aid kit. "I'll get you water in a second," she said with a smile that made me blush.

  Suddenly my cell phone started pulsing with vibration. I checked to see if she was looking and then peered down at my phone when I saw she couldn't see.

  I saw her before you lowered your phone, she's gorgeous! Forget asking her to go on a date with you, propose to her, right now. - Wade

  I pocketed my cell phone, pondering upon Wade's words. "So, do you work here?" I asked casually, filling the silence and filling my need to know more about her.

  "Yes, I'm a computer technician. My boss lectured me for slacking off, so I've been working..." She stopped wrapping gauze around my chest, on top of my long-sleeve shirt, I might add, to check her watch. "Wow, twenty hours. I must have had a lot of coffee..."

  "You must want to get the hell out of here," I chuckled lightly, trying to hold in tears of pain.

  "I was actually just about to leave, but then I saw you crash through the window from the tree," she laughed, looking up at me, only inches from my face. "That reminds me."

  "What?"

  "The security guards downstairs, they'll want to see your I.D. card, so... Let's pretend you're my brother!" she suggested keen on acting as if I was her brother. She stood up and put the extra first aid supplies back in the kit. "I'll just tell them I was giving you a tour."

  My phone vibrated again and I checked what it said.

  LOL, she thinks of you as a brother. - Wade

  I shoved it in my pocket, ignoring Wade's remark. "Yeah, that'd be funny... My name is Adam, what's yours?"

  "Lara."

  5. Martin

  My eyes opened from my dreamless sleep. The current ran from my power supply through my circuitry like electric blood. A lively office filled my ears, finally waking me up, to where I looked from side to side. I was back in the office... Back in the office? Did I leave?

  Wires hung from the office ceiling tiles and pulled from wall outlets. The computers around the office, which I used as terminals for data, pillaged. Someone stole my data. I must have lost some of my memory when the data was taken. Walls, except for one, blocked all the windows, entrances and exits. They resembled the percentage of open connections I had to the internet. The one port open went straight to Wade's computer. All other ports to connect to the internet were closed.

  I went through, arriving only to see Irene talking to someone, who was on a cell phone. She stood in the center of Wade's home, looking up at a live feed projected on the wall. The feed was from the user's camera on their phone.

  "Irene?" I asked, feeling as if I were in a weird dream.

  "Martin! I was just about to get you," she stated in her sweet and loving voice. Her smile showed she was glad to see me, that she wasn't sure if she were going to see me ever again.

  "Marlin is ok?" a voice asked, sounding exactly like Adam's voice on the other end.

  "For the last time, its Martin, not Marlin," Irene scolded the caller.

  "Sorry, the reception is bad. I only have one bar," he apologized.

  He then held the phone up in the air, to get better reception. Doing so made the camera on the phone face downward, revealing the user's face. It really was Adam!

  "What's going on?" I asked, looking around and seeing that Wade's system had most of his ports closed as well. Although, nothing was in disarray like in my system.

  "You might not remember some things properly, since some of your memory was transferred and became corrupt. A mild case of amnesia, if you will," she explained, approaching me closer. "You were kidnapped."

  At that moment, Wade came in from the port to my computer and walked directly to the couch, not making any eye-contact. He sat, pulled a virtual piece of lint from the knee of his pants, and flicked it away. He looked up and saw us, acting surprised.

  "Oh, hey guys," he said casually.

  "What the hell happened, how did you save Martin?" Irene asked in anticipation.

  "Oh, nothing," he began, nonchalant, "I just fried the bounty hunter's CPU!"

  "What, really?!"

  "No, actually. We went to a virtual nightclub and met some girls. I got a few email addresses. Bounty Hunter Bob knows how to party!" Wade exclaimed.

  "At what point during my rescue did you decide to take him out for drinks?" I asked in disappointment.

  "Well, I was thinking of fighting him hand to hand, mono e mono, PC specs to PC specs," he began, using his hands to do karate chops to the air. "But I didn't really want to, so I pulled out some of my money from the A.I. Treasury and met up with an old friend of mine who knows some shifty A.I. hackers. I bought a nasty virus off them, disabled it, and then sent it to Bounty Hunter Bob, threatening that I'd get an ev
en nastier one and plant it in his system directly, if he didn't let you go.

  "I met up with Bounty Hunter Bob to get you, but we got to talking and he told me he was just trying to make a living. He needed some cash to take classes and learn how to compress data - his user is a major file hoarder. He barely had any room to store you and your memory in his system. I felt bad for Bounty Hunter Bob and took him out for a night he wasn't soon to forget. Needless to say, Bounty Hunter Bob had a great time," he finished, smugly nodding his head up and down with his eyes closed.