Freelancer

by Jake Lingwall

  “I’m not here offering threats, Miss Tahe. I’m on your side. I want what is best for you. I want you to be able to reach your potential. I want your parents to be released from their holding cells and allowed to go on with their lives.”

  “What? Why are my parents in cells?” Kari jumped off the flat holding-cell bed and onto her feet. “Let them go right now!”

  “Sit down and calm yourself,” Henderson said.

  “No! I’m not going to sit down until you let my parents go!”

  “We cannot continue this conversation until you sit down and show me you are in control of yourself.”

  Kari wanted to yell, she wanted to scream, she wanted to send a hundred drones to swarm him with their stingers, but she sat down. She hated herself for it, but she sat down.

  “My superiors do not believe that you could have acted alone; thus, your parents have been arrested for willingly disobeying the law, assaulting enforcement officers, possessing illegal weaponized devices, and committing tax fraud. They will face trial once the matter with the Middle States has been resolved and will ultimately face the inevitable minimum life sentence.”

  Each word that Henderson spoke slapped Kari across the face. I’ve ruined my parents’ lives. They’ll never be free again. For the first time, Kari felt more guilt than she knew how to do deal with.

  “Now,” Henderson continued, “if you were to work with us, I believe it is possible that I could convince my superiors you were fully responsible for the unfortunate events of the past few days and secure your parents a full pardon. It will take time, and you’ll have to prove your capability, but I believe it is a possibility.”

  “And what about me?” Kari asked.

  “After you have proven your loyalty and we are no longer in a state of emergency, I can foresee a future where your freedoms are slowly restored to you over time as you earn them,” Henderson said.

  So that’s the deal. I work for you and my parents are freed, and eventually I might regain my freedom as well. It wasn’t much of a choice. I can’t sentence my parents for what I’ve done.

  “I don’t do well with bosses.”

  “It would be a shame if you let that get in between your parents and freedom, now wouldn’t it?”

  “What would you want me to do?” Kari asked.

  “Whatever we ask,” Henderson said, his comforting voice all but gone now. “But you can start with delivering us the code for those drones you demonstrated for us earlier. Then we can talk about whatever trick you used to evade our sensors the other night.”

  “Oh, whatever you ask, is that all?” Kari said. It was clear the situation had changed to a business negotiation, as Henderson’s persona was no longer as friendly and sincere. He had asked for more than what Kari was willing to give. Her response was her best attempt at a counteroffer. Henderson eyed her skeptically, taking his time to respond.

  “If I have my way, you’ll have a wide level of discretion on what you work on. All that matters will be that you produce value to the United States.”

  “You mean the coastal states?” Kari asked.

  “I mean the United States of America.” It was clear that Henderson wouldn’t tolerate the line of thought suggesting two separate countries.

  “You let David’s family be,” Kari said. She was pushing it now. Henderson frowned, but Kari refused to blink.

  “Continuing to show concern for Middle Staters isn’t going to help convince my superiors that you are on our side,” Henderson said.

  “I’m not asking for a pardon or anything, just that you let them slip between your fingers. They are helpless, and you know it.” Careful, you don’t have much to negotiate with here.

  Henderson nodded. “OK.”

  Kari knew it was the best deal she was going to get.

  “Can I take some time to think about it?”

  “No.”

  “Fine. When do we start?”

  Chapter Twenty

  Having the processing unit returned to her mind chip had felt better than Kari had thought it would. She was able to see clearly after spending a night in the darkness. Her head hurt a little less. She imagined this was how people felt when they had their first drink of water after being stranded in the desert.

  I’d feel even better if there weren’t someone else in my brain with me.

  The capabilities of her mind chip had been restored weeks ago, but she was never left alone with her personal computer. Her stream was constantly connected to other people who were able to monitor her actions. Occasionally, those people would step in and ask her questions about what she was doing. They were trying to be safe, but all they were really doing was keeping Kari from being able to get work done.

  It’s hard to think straight and solve problems when people are always jumping in and demanding answers every five minutes.

  At first, working for the government had felt dirty. Kari had cried when she’d delivered them the design for her flock of drones. Every design she’d given them after that had hurt a little less. Eventually, they had run out of things to ask from her, and she had run out of things she was willing to give them. After a few weeks of altering her designs for their specific use cases, she’d convinced them to let her use her own development environment again. No wonder they need me to do things for them; their dev environment was a dinosaur.

  Kari wouldn’t have made the request if she’d realized they would demand she turn over the code for her environment as well. That had been the last piece of technology she’d delivered to Henderson three weeks ago.

  Henderson had been excited at first to “turn her loose” and see what she created for him. Every time they spoke now, the enthusiasm waned. The last time they spoke, Henderson had seemed agitated. Apparently, he doesn’t realize these things take time, especially when they don’t allow me to use the net to find answers or won’t leave me alone for longer than ten minutes. He’s just like another clueless client, except he could have me killed, and he controls my parents’ destiny. Besides that, he’s just another clueless client who thinks he’s my boss.

  The limitations they placed on her were nearly as frustrating as being forced to work against her will for a boss she disliked more and more every day. Yet she still had the freedom to create. She was confident that if she weren’t allowed to work on things, she would explode from all the ideas and creativity bottled inside her. She needed an outlet; right now, working for a monster was her outlet. In her development environment, even while being constantly monitored, interrupted, and held back, she was still Kari the freelancer.

  Kari carefully stepped through her latest changes, inspecting every detail imaginable. She was actually proud of what she’d been able to accomplish in the past several weeks. Once she completed her review, she mentally stepped back and admired the design for a moment. Not my best work; however, considering the circumstances, it’s not bad.

  “I need permission to simulate the device,” Kari said. The government agents weren’t able to read her thoughts directly; therefore, when she needed to communicate with them, she had to speak the words out loud.

  “And what are you going to be simulating?” Henderson replied. Kari was slightly startled at hearing his voice. Henderson had never communicated with her this way before. She’d assumed he had better things to be doing than to monitor her work directly.

  “How my new device works in a combat situation,” Kari said.

  “Very good,” Henderson said. He sounded pleased to hear that—perhaps too pleased, like a child being told he’ll soon get candy.

  A moment later, Kari’s ability to execute her code in simulation was restored, and she immediately projected herself into the simulation environment. She began defining what the simulation would look like by adding soldiers on both sides of a conflict. Advanced weaponry, plenty of drones, and the Appalachian Mountains filled out the rest of the required details. The simulation environment took a second to load, and then the desired scene came to life
.

  Kari ordered herself a standard, heavy-caliber, graphium gun. It dropped into her hands, and she looked out over the battle scene. Drones engaged in combat in swarms, and mechs and cheetahs traded fire furiously. Soldiers in command tents shouted updates to each other while controlling the battle from a distance. In front of her, a group of ground soldiers was rushing forward into the fray.

  Kari joined their ranks and jogged toward the front lines. The surrounding explosions gave her chills as her unit made its way closer to the conflict. Drones floated above them, destroying shells and activating shields as they could. I can’t believe people actually do this. Every one of these soldiers is likely going to die, yet they’re still jogging forward. It seemed wrong, even for a simulation.

  Kari sent an order, and all the soldiers were instantly replaced with copies of Henderson. There, that feels a little better. The Henderson soldiers broke formation and sprinted to various firing positions, where they lowered their weapons and joined the fight.

  This shouldn’t take too long. Kari watched as the Hendersons used their mind chips to communicate and slowly and silently move forward together. They held their ground for a few minutes and then pressed forward again. Oh, come on already. Kari got tired of waiting, pulled up her gun, and shot the closest Henderson in the leg.

  A second later, Kari’s persona was separated from her simulated body as the other Hendersons quickly dispatched the traitor. Kari ordered herself a new body; this time, she was a medic carrying her new device. The Hendersons waived her forward to their wounded comrade. Kari rushed forward and pulled out a few standard medical devices and quickly closed the wound where the Henderson’s leg used to connect to the rest of his body. Despite her desire not to, Kari also administered a painkiller.

  Now for the real field test. Kari pulled out a small disk from her backpack and tapped its button in the center. The disk expanded outward rapidly, growing to the size of the fallen soldier. It hovered in the air for a moment before diving down and cutting into the ground below the wounded Henderson. It then lifted the soldier from the earth and floated slightly above the ground.

  I might need to increase the power on these. If a soldier were heavy enough, it may have problems lifting him over rough terrain. Kari inserted a review point into the simulation and ordered the device to carry the soldier back to the nearest medical center. She smiled proudly as the wounded Henderson floated away from the front lines.

  Screams alerted Kari that another Henderson had been hit. Excellent timing. She pulled out another disk and walked over to the newly fallen soldier. The simulation froze.

  “What is this?” Henderson said, furious.

  “Well, you see, you’ve been shot, and I’m trying to save your life by using my new invention.” Kari explained as if she were talking to a child.

  “You’ve spent all this time making a better stretcher?” Henderson’s voice was the perfect mix of rage and disbelief.

  “Absolutely. In just a few weeks, I’ve created a far-superior way to extract wounded soldiers from a battlefield. It’ll probably save a bunch of lives.”

  “I thought I had made it quite clear that you were to invent things that were going to help us end this conflict with the Middle States.”

  “And I did! Think of all the soldiers you can save with this. You can fix them up and send them right back into the fight!”

  “You know that’s not what we wanted.”

  “I thought it was exactly what you wanted, to be honest. I thought you cared about saving the lives of US soldiers.”

  “Yes, by preventing them from being shot in the first place, by defeating the enemy,” Henderson said. His patience hadn’t returned yet.

  “I’m sorry I can’t invent a way for people who are supposed to be adults to get together and talk about their differences in a reasonable fashion. But perhaps you could use the stretcher as a table for them to talk at?” The real way to save lives would be not to fight at all.

  After a moment of silence, Kari’s access to her development environment was revoked. She blinked and was back in her cell, lying on her bed once more. Several minutes later, her door opened, and Henderson stormed into the room. Kari greeted him with a smile.

  “This isn’t a game. Lives are being lost out there,” Henderson said.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t know. The Internet reception here is horrible. I haven’t been able to check the news,” Kari said.

  “Careful,” Henderson said. Fair enough.

  “This felt like the best way for me to contribute,” Kari said, this time without the sarcasm.

  “Well, if this is the best you have, it’s not going to be enough to secure a pardon for your parents,” Henderson said.

  “They were supposed to have been released already.” Kari growled at him. I should have known.

  “These things take time, and you really aren’t helping,” Henderson said.

  “Not helping? I’ve given you a dozen designs already!”

  “True. But none of them are the golden ticket I promised my superiors. I told them you were a modern-day Tesla or da Vinci. I told them you could create something that would change the rules, something that would help us reunite the states. So far, you’ve given me some improvements on things we already have and a hover stretcher.”

  “I’m sorry, I never made the claim to be able to do that,” Kari said. “I innovate. I take things that exist and make them better. If you wanted a weapon-inventing genius, you enslaved the wrong girl.”

  Henderson clinched his teeth, and his eyes filled with fire.

  “If I were wrong about what you are capable of, then that’s my mistake. But, for your parents’ sake, I hope you are the one who is wrong about yourself and I am the right one,” Henderson said.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Kari responded. The anger and fire that infected Henderson was spreading to her now. She didn’t take kindly to her parents being threatened.

  “It means that if you don’t give me something in the next two weeks that I can use to significantly change the battlefield, then your parents will never see the light of day again.” He turned and left the room before Kari could respond with the proper curse words.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Kari screamed her response to Henderson a moment later, but she feared it was too late for him to hear it. She lay back on her bed, opened a programming window, and started writing code as fast as she could.

  “What are you doing?” asked one of Henderson’s monitoring agents. Kari executed the code snippet she had just written. Instantly, her connection to the Internet was restored, and she sent out commands to bring in as much news as possible.

  “Henderson just threatened my parents’ lives if I don’t create something to change the battlefield, and I can’t do that unless I know what’s going on in the war.” Kari shouted her response as if she were still speaking to Henderson. Her connection was cut a few seconds later, but she had already downloaded the news she wanted. She wrote more lines of code and cut through the defenses the monitors who controlled the capabilities of her mind chip had just reestablished.

  “You’re not allowed to go on the net,” the agent said.

  “Then why don’t you stop me?” Have they really forgotten how good of a hacker I am? The only reason I haven’t been on the net is because I was playing by the rules of their game. They change the rules, and then so do I.

  Kari saw them attempt to sever her connection again, but this time they weren’t successful. She pulled in more news and information as fast as she could. She also logged into Sarah’s network accounts after she found that hers had all been deactivated. She quickly searched for any comments about David’s family or an arrest. Instead, all she found was Sarah’s most recent post, which was garnering a lot of attention.

  “Is anyone really surprised that Kari and David’s families are missing? I tried to tell you all that they had secrets.”

  Aubrey seemed to be the lone person wh
o tried to defend Kari in the lengthy conversation, but it was obvious she was taking a lot of heat for even trying. Remind me to send her something nice when I’m out of here. Kari hated Sarah, and she wouldn’t stand for Sarah attacking Aubrey on her behalf. She quickly typed a message on the thread from Sarah’s account.

  “Because I don’t believe in secrets anymore, here are the login credentials to all my personal accounts. Feel free to see what I’ve been hiding!”

  Kari posted all the credentials to Sarah’s accounts that she could remember—and she had a great memory. She knew she had only a matter of seconds before the monitors figured out a way to cut her off from the Internet, but this had felt like a good use of time. That’s for all the crap you’ve given me over the years. I wanted to leave you alone, but you just wouldn’t have that, would you? You and Henderson should be friends; you’d get along great.

  There were only two ways Henderson could have her cut off from the Internet now: he could either send someone physically into the room and knock her out and remove her processing unit again, or he could drop a communication bubble over the prison. But using the bubble would cut him and his agents off from the Internet as well. The door to her cell opened again; they had once again chosen the brute-force approach.

  “If you take the processing unit from me again, I won’t be able to do what Henderson wants me to do,” Kari said to both the enforcement officer who was entering the room and the people monitoring her activity.

  “I’ve been instructed to accept that scenario,” the officer responded. He stepped closer.

  “Wait,” Kari said desperately. “How about I give you some security software that will keep even me from hacking through? You can use it, have better security, and be guaranteed that I can’t do this again.” The enforcement officer stepped forward and struck her on the side of the head with a shock stick.

  They really like their blunt-force trauma here.

  Kari’s head hurt. Again. When she awakened, she found the mind chip was still connected to the processing unit behind her ear. The enforcement officer who had struck her stood next to her bed with his shock stick out and ready. Sitting across the room from Kari was a small man on the plain chair that her captors always brought in when someone wanted to talk. He was middle aged, his hair was graying, and his face was starting to wrinkle, but he looked at her with respect.