by ROUNAK PURI
I sat back astonished and chewed on my pancake. The sun peeked over the horizon filling the diner full of cool morning light.1
"My failure at the church was the excuse they were looking for. I was dismissed. At factory seven I have begun to find a new way to live. You destroyed all that, you and your YCF reference. Why was I so stupid to think that it wouldn't be another woman wouldn't betray me again? I guess it was my woman's brain."
"I'm genuinely sorry'" I said.
Suddenly Araneae flew to the left. For a moment, she was a black blur and disappeared. I looked to my right there is a trail smoke. I looked to my left and Araneae had been harpooned into a far wall. The room was filling full of dust. I rushed up to see huge amounts of hydraulic oil spurting out of Araneae. The rocket engine which fired the missile was running spluttering still smoking.
I got up but the rope around my ankle stopped me getting too close.
Araneae was pined to the wall like some surprised hunter-killer art piece.
"You are not a good person. You know that, right? Good people don't get here. Falling for the monologue trick once shame on you. Falling for the monologue trick twice shame on me. One day you're going to die so horribly when you do remember me being stepped on. Remember all womyn have to do to succeed is never betray each other and you can never do that so, you will fail. All hail... the new.. mechanical... ord..r' Araneae said then the red LED on her eye went out.2
"Tish why couldn't you die ten minutes ago while I still hated you?" I said.7
I heard the door open behind me. There was the sound of a gun being cocked. There was a rich deep man's voice.+
"US Marines, I'm here to rescue you. Come with me if you want to live" he said. 41
***
Chapter 80/Resistance/Loop Guru
"US Marines, I'm here to rescue you. Come with me if you want to live" the soilder said.
I took stock for a moment. Araneae's smoking remains were pinned to the wall by a missile driven harpoon. Her leg's drooping. In the doorway as a large solider. He had long blond hair a thin blond beard a round face striding a thick neck and a dark body with broad shoulders and six pack stomach so defined you could sand wood with it. He wore loose fitting military camouflage pattern clothing which was currently open showing off is physique. The combat boots and heavy rifle suggested he was either with the resistance or the ultimate survivalist. Either were good with me, with that body he could be a Avon sales representative and I would have gone with him.3
"Sorry I've always wanted to say that as my first line" said the solider pointing his gun at Araneae.
"That's strange me too" I said.6
He came over took out a hunting knife big enough to gut a whale and cut the my rope around my ankle.
"I have dee gun" said the man. My rescuer had a weirdly french sounding accent.3
"Your right , you have the gun, I don't, so that must make you the rescue guy and me the helpless victim" I said lifting my hands up and getting up. The man waved his gun towards the door.1
"Where are we going?" I said.
"I don't know I'm making this up as I go along" said the man.6
"I think you should know this is my first rescue by an improv group" I said.
"Look my first job is to get you to safety, slave girl" said the Man.
"Well stop waving that thing around at me!" I said.
He looked at me confused.
"I mean the knife" I said.
He nodded and grabbed my hand in his firm muscular grip. For some reason I picked up the makeup printer. I know it was stupid, like he's going to rescue me and then take me to a party some were. I guess I didn't feel like I was leaving somewhere properly unless I had a handbag as luggage. He went out of the diner backwards keeping his gun trained on Araneae who still looked like an enlargement of a pinned spider in a museum case. We ran through grass bush for 100 meters then dropped to the ground. My stiletto heels didn't work well in this soft ground. We lay there panting for a second and then he pulled me towards him and kissed me. Not having anything better to do I kissed him back.15
"Welcome to freedom's first kiss," said the man as we parted lips.2
"Dam there I was thinking I thought you liked me. Who are you?" I asked.
"Your saviour" he said he pulling out an odd black cloth and waving it.2
"Last time I looked I wasn't religious" I said.2
"Everyone is religious, they just haven't found the right god yet" he said turning away from me and looking back to the building. I guess He had shot Araneae through the open window.2
"What was with the kiss? I hope you know I don't normally kiss on the first rescue." I said.
"That was your first breath of freedom. It tastes sweet, What's wrong don't you want to be free?" he asked looking at the building down the scope with his dangerous but seriously scratched gun.1
"Well yes but I always thought that being free would leave things a little more in my hands, free as in freedom or when you said I was like free did you mean I had been discounted down to zero?" I said.
"Who's the fem?" said a voice behind me.
"Don't know. Who are you?" said the man.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"We asked first" said the voice hidden away, there was a pause. "We are the resistance" said the man.
"Well your managing to resist explaining who you are well enough. What's your name?" I said.1
"Captain Loup Aukland Garou of the former United State Marines but the boys call me Loop Guru, call me Loop" said my rescuer.13
"This is sergeant Guy Rodi" said Loop pointing to the other man who popped up.
"Weird, you dress like a slave but you don't have a collar" said Rodi. Rodi Also had a french accent.1
"I was stolen" I explained.
"So what's your name ?"
"Hm well either #160A or 5642 or Pet, but my friends call me Jenny Banks" I said.2
"Well my friends call me Jenny Banks. Was your owner the only robot or cyborg with you?" he said.
"She was until you killed her" I said.
"We don't call it killing we call it retirement" said Rodi.
"Pretty lousy pension scheme." I said "that will teach you not to fill in your 411" I shouted back at the dinner. "She wasn't my owner she was my thief slash kidnapper" I said.1
"Excellent we rescued a slave and stopped a crime. That's a double success. Welcome to the free world" said Loop.
It took me a second to process everything. Wow I was free I could do anything. I could pee with out permission. touch someone. Talk with out permission, what to do first? I was over whelmed with choice.2
"We get out of here now" said Loop " Red shirt bring up the humvees" shouted Loop.2
"Hang on you can't leave me here. I don't even know where here is " I said.
Then I realised I had no survival skills. My best guess was to punch a tree until I had enough wood for a wooden pick axe, then start digging down until I found coal and iron ore. this place didn't look like it had any sheep so I was stuffed as far as making a bed went. The only spider was now disgruntledly harpooned and unlikely to supply any silk for a bed or bow. D@M despite all that time in mine craft I still had zero survival skills.31
"Now you're free, you have to do what I say" said Loop.2
"That's a sack of horse poo" I said then realise I no longer had a PG 13 filter. "Horse S***T. Ohh that was nice B*****R, F**K, N**K, L***K what a lovely word. C****P"4
"Hay Tourettes girl" said Rudi "we freed you OK. Now we go before more machines turn up"
"Listen Rudi. that's a terrible slur on those suffering with Tourettes. Did you know less than 1% of people with Tourettes swear. Mostly it's visual or verbal uncontrollable ticks but they are likely to be very musical" I said voicing one of my favourite peeves along with misuse of the word 'literally'. As in sentences like 'he stole that ball like he literally ripped the guy's head off'. That complete 180 degree misinterpretation really gets to me, ditto Tourettes people swear. I had a fr
iend with Tourettes OK? Its bad enough having Tourettes with out people not inviting you to their kids birthday parties in case you say something bad before the kids. Rant over where was I ? Oh I remember having the best minutes of my life, how could I forget.7
At this point the one they called Redshirt turned up with three bicycles dripping with green touring gear. He was followed by about twenty other military types all on camouflage covered bikes.
"I thought you said you had humvees" I said.
"Humvee also make tactical bikes. It's one of the few forms of transport that works without gas" said Loop.2
"Seriously bikes" I said. "It' doesn't say 'victim rescued', like a helicopter does "
"It doesn't say blast me out of the sky like a helicopter does either" said Loop "Look do you want to come with us or not" said Loop getting on. He patted the middle bar. Before getting on, I took what looked like a tactical coat and used it as a saddle. Handing my makeup printer to Rodi, I got on and put my feet on the handle bars. Loop's large thick strong hands grabbed the handles around me and pushed off.
We cycled hard for an hour. OK, They cycled hard for an hour to get enough space between them and the diner. We were cycling in a forest which gave lots of cover from drones and satellites. Then they slowed down and got to an easy pace. It was flat and once up to speed the pack joked and chatted with each other. We cycled in pairs Loop was next to Rodi. Looked like Loop was finding it easy to peddle with me and his gear.
"What are you guys doing here?" I asked.
"It's a secret" said Loop.
"Seriously ? You just rescued me" I said.
"Most slaves carry about a pound of metal widgets in them so either way I'm not saying what I'm doing for the moment. Let's just go with rescuing you" said Loop.2
"Not saying or not decided?" I said feeling his huge frame around me.
"So where you from slave Princess?" said Loop.
"San Fransisco" I said "I was studying at Cal tech"
"What, were you studying geography? because you are seriously lost" said Loop.1
"Hay Loop I recognised her" said Rodi. "she could be the slave their hunting"
"What do you mean?" I asked
"Town back we checked out a couple of days ago. It had posters up. The machines are offering a big reward for a runaway slave number 5642."
Loop looked down at me.
"Diss U?" he said.
"Sorry could someone translate" I said.
"You heard me" said Loop.
"OK - I'm 5642. I don't know who offered the reward? Please they make me do terrible things" I said.
"Like what?" said Rodi.
"Like wearing more make up than RuPaul, dressing me up in expensive clothes, perfumes and jewellery personally designed by one of the top designers in the machine city. Stopping me from swearing at any time. An owner who lies and kept telling me he loved me, Eeerr" I started.12
Rodi and Loop looked at me
"Your right that sounds really terrible, I can't imagine why you would want to go back to that" said Loop.
"You got my frowny face for you girl" said Rudi
"I'm not saying this right... look what reward are they offering for me" I said changing the subject regretting I hadn't preprepared an elevator pitch for the misery of my slave existence.
"Oh Lordy Rockwood. Offered 10,000 Bitcoins Or 50,000 packets of Soylent green . Or freedom eternal life and a key to the Eternal City. Guess he wants to see his property back big time" said Loop.1
"So are you going to give me up I thought you were with the resistance?" I said.
"We are the resistance So we won't give you up." said Loop.
"So how big is the resistance?"
"Well we are small but growing. We grew 2.5% in the last hour" said Loop.4
"Really how?" I said
Loop smiled at me - the kind of smile you just want to see all the time "We are 40 and then you joined us"
"Seriously?" I pulled a face.
"We work in cells. Each cell doesn't know of the others" said Rodi.
"That's good because I was started thinking the resistance could seriously do with a bath" I said.1
"Well let's get you to a Best Buy" said Loop.
"Yeh freedom and shopping what kind of day is that!" I said. +
Chapter 81/Resistance/I didn't know your caboose had suicidal tendencies
Wintermute is an full A.I. which means physically it's spread over multiple data centres around the world redundantly networked together any 60% of which can be removed and still be a fully functional intelligence. If you want a picture think of one of those room filling 60's computers with spinning tapes but being felt by a network of blood in transparent tubes, listening to Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen.2
Wintermute's POV.
I watched the video of Araneae's body still pinned to the wall. A fully armoured war trained Hunter Killer who had already guessed the secret of her mission and so you expect was on her guard. Yet still easily stabbed by a supposedly petite human slave. If Araneae needed proof that the cyborg Rockwood was training a stealth assassin her body was her own evidence. Pity I didn't belive the whole 'we fought bitterly while the assassin managed to force a top of the line slave to flee against her will in the RV' . Now the quarter of a million bit coins Araneae was asking for the cyborg's pet seems so small change. The assassin somehow get's a top of the line luxury personal slave to drive for at least five days before abandoning the R.V near Austin. Pity they cannot find Zola's personal slave she would be most informative. Then while the RV leads Rockwood and Zola away on a false trail, the assassin then allows Araneae to recapture her, such a master stroke. Such a shame there are no records. I could imagine the assassin sitting there, silently working on the optimal moment to escape. The fear growing in Araneae's mind as she realises what a dangerous weapon she is transporting. Once Araneae has served her purpose the girl has little trouble in disposing of the hunter killer.7
She does it in such a showy way. Obviously, she's sending a message 'I have a taste for machine's blood, you're next'. Then we are expected to believe that a slave girl, without any prior training, was able to disappear leaving no foot prints behind, then avoid all kinds of surveillance systems. This is a major malfunction, no wonder Rockwood is so desperate to find her. Araneae was dead the minute she hid her self on the Osprey.
So what's going on - clearly the cyborg's wanted their own A.I killer. Their equivalent of a night-death cyborg killer. Rockwood trains one in secret, Zola, discovers and wants it for herself. Perhaps in struggling over their bomb they managed to set it off. A rogue cyborg's assassin, free, able to strike at will at the New Mechanical Order. I must double my security, ... no perhaps the statement killing of Araneae was designed to make us do just that, perhaps she knows that she cannot attack me but has knows a slight chink when my system is doubled. Yes, you are a most formidable opponent miss assassin. Why the huge sign leaving no foot prints? You want me to track you but this is just bait for your larger trap, a trap within a trap. A trap, I will not fall into. Clearly my optimal strategy is to be far away from you where you cannot hurt me. Still a valuable prize one which would be difficult to catch. She must be stopped and stopped well away from any of my data centres. If Rockwood can make one, your sure they will be other hyper-trained machine killers following I need her.13
JENNY's POV
I'm now rescued by the US Marines, bad news the have given up on their kick ass tanks and are on bikes, you know with peddles not like they are kind of a khaki hells angels or anything. Think of it as a highly weaponised spin class. 4
"CONTACT DRONE REAR DRONE REAR" came a voice from the rear of the troop.
"Not again, break left" said Loop.
Suddenly everyone veered the trees by the road. Loop jumped off pick me up and the bike and run behind the trees. He lay down the ground and spread what seemed like a cloak over us both. Everyone else seems to do the same.
"Don't you move an inch or say
a word or think a word" said Loop, is huge muscular body pressed up against mine. Plus he wasn't talking in metric units how wonderful, the comfort of customary units. Hello inches it's so good to see you. We carried on laying there quietly, then I heard the sound of a drone approaching. It flew a few metres, sorry feet, above the ground. I could see where the original Amazon logo had been badly covered by the new mechanical order sticker. It searched and carried on. After it went, he still covered me and stayed still? A few seconds later another tiny drone about the size of a golf ball flew by. The machines had managed repurpose a snitch for evil, those machines. Loop watched it drift to distance.6
"You sure are one popular girl," whispered Loop.
"Why couldn't you have been around to say that when I was 13 and it could have done some good?" I said1
"You build the time machine, I'll do the travelling for you princess" said Loop.
"I think if you turned up to my 13 year old self she would have exploded" I said.1
"Always willing to detonate you princess" said Loop.
"That better be you gun pressed up across my ass" I said in warning.12
"I didn't know you caboose had suicidal tendencies" said Loop lifting off.1
"Yer, it's got a permanent death wish." I said getting up and dusting my self off.
