“Please play nice, and Luna Nova won’t be harmed.”
Lambda turned back to Corson, aggression rising in her voice. “You wouldn’t dare!”
Corson’s eyes perked with intrigue. “The intensity of your emotions are unforeseen. The rate of development . . .” He turned his head towards the girl standing next to Cecilia. His tone sounded oddly cold.
“Nerine, this shouldn’t be possible, at least not at this rate. Care to explain?”
Nerine fidgeted, not knowing what to say now that she was put on the spot.
“The Lambda unit must have absorbed more knowledge and experience than originally estimated. It’s not completely outside-”
“I’ve heard enough,” Corson interrupted dismissively. “Can it still do the job?”
Nerine was a little slow on the reply. “It should still be able to perform the necessary-”
“Good.” Corson leered into Lambda’s scarlet eyes.
“Please don’t make this messy. This game of chess is over. You are coming with us.”
Many black holes spawned in the open area once more. Lambda then saw the large man called Peter bend over and pick up Zack’s limp body. She was about to cry out but was silenced by Laura.
“No harm will come to the boy . . . for now,” she said with a vile smile.
Lambda managed to hold back her rage as she simply stared coldly at the woman. She was now moving past rage and finding a calmer center. Though that center was a frigid wasteland of malcontent.
“Do follow me, Lambda,” Corson said arrogantly as he ushered her toward the black hole behind him.
Lambda was hesitant to move at all. Corson saw this defiance as a waste of time.
“You don’t have much say in this matter now. I’m sure you deduce the obvious choice here,” he hissed darkly.
Lambda didn’t like it, but she reluctantly obeyed. With a limp, she followed Corson and the rest of Stigma into the black hole. As she vanished into the blackness, she couldn’t help but feel completely defeated.
Have I really become weak?
Her thoughts trailed off into oblivion, as the silence of the wormhole moved her through the hulking abyss.
* * *
[January 7th - Washington D.C. - Cyber Research Plant - Day]
Dead Eye’s car stopped outside the Cyber Research Plant that held his next objective. He couldn’t help but smile as he exited the vehicle. However, he hadn’t taken two steps when a call came through his Com-Linker. He was quick to reply, still smiling villainously.
“Hello, my dear Ares. I trust you have completed your task?”
“Stigma arrived before I could claim the target. I’m currently-”
“Oh my . . .” Dead Eye’s knuckles turned pale white as he clenched his fist. “That was a very good opportunity you just blew.”
Ares fell silent. Dead Eye’s tone was beyond malicious. Each word felt like he was sharpening a knife in preparation for his own torture.
“I’m sorry. They arrived faster than I-”
“Useless! I swear, the one time you couldn’t screw up! The way I see it, I should just break off the deal now-” Dead Eye cut himself off in his outburst as a sick grin spread over his face.
“Yes, not only will the deal be off, but I will ensure that your goal will be made impossible. Humans are such fragile things, especially the state they are in.”
Ares’ anger boiled inside. “I swear, if you do anything to them-”
“Hold your tongue. You are but a sacrificial lamb. You weren’t given special privileges as one of my banner men because I felt sorry for you.” Dead Eye’s eye widened wickedly. “I allowed you into the fold because you were easy to exploit.”
With a graceful flick of his hand, Dead Eye ended the conversation, leaving Ares to fume in complete turmoil. The thought of his plagued expression brought pleasure beyond his delight.
“Now, where was I.” He paused for dramatic effect. “Oh yes . . . cutting off the head of a little rat.” His sneer was wild.
Dead Eye approached the entrance to the research lab and simply winked at the two guards standing stiffly in attention. With a wave of his hand, the door before him opened without any trouble. He then turned to one of the guards.
“Do be so kind to inform Director Charles that I have arrived. I wish to speak briefly with him,” he said with a pleasant grin.
The guard nodded. It took everything to keep his stomach from turning.
“Very good. Continue the good work . . . insects,” Dead Eye muttered as the door shut behind him. He chuckled lightly. “The vermin I must put up with, I swear.”
* * *
Charles sat alone while anxiously tapping his fingers on the glass table within the private council chamber. He was reading several documents on several emulated displays hovering before him, all regarding Margret and her recent activities. He didn’t have feelings for much anyone, similarly trusting no one. However, above disapproving of Margret’s actions, he hated Dead Eye. For the sake of his own pride, he would do what little he could do to screw with his plans.
Another screen appeared to Charles’ left. The face of one of the guards stationed at the front gate was on display.
“His majesty is on his way. He wishes to speak to you first,” grumbled the guard.
Charles frowned. “So it begins,” he muttered. “Very well. Thanks for informing me,” he added promptly.
“Sir, something is off about that man-”
“That will be all. Back to your post,” Charles stated firmly.
“Sir!”
The screen vanished, leaving Charles alone once more.
So, he comes for his prey . . .
The door opened without warning.
Charles rolled his eyes and groaned. “I thought we discussed all the matters regarding Miss-”
Dead Eye marched in. “Sorry, time’s short. I was only asked to check up on a certain issue before I concluded my business here,” interrupted Dead Eye monstrously.
Charles narrowed his eyes in disgust. “You’re in a rather wretched mood. Did something not go according to plan?”
Dead Eye snickered and shrugged. “Minor setbacks happen. It is up to those of greater minds to plan around them.”
His sneer made Charles’ head play a somber tune that almost made him contemplate homicide.
“So, if you aren’t going to ask about Miss Powers, then what does Babel need to check up on?” he snarled.
Dead Eye snickered. “The status of the Epsilon unit,” he said with whimsical cheer.
Charles’ snarl remained. “What of it? Project Epsilon is still undergoing recoding. Besides, it is supposed to be on standby as a last resort method in bringing in the Lambda unit.” Charles’ eyes narrowed. “Why bring this up now?” His expression softened as a small grin purred onto his face.
“So, your setback has made you worried Epsilon will be used?”
Dead Eye leered with a wild grin. “Best not to probe, Director.” He pointed to his patched eye. “Wouldn’t want to have to put you in my crosshairs as well.”
Charles’ eyes hardened. “Babel can rest easy. Besides, you surely won’t fail,” joked Charles rigidly.
Dead Eye didn’t find the joke as amusing. “If that thing deploys, it signals my failure,” Dead Eye growled darkly.
Charles found the sudden change in expression disturbing. Dead Eye’s scowl was beyond menacing—it was pure wrath.
“Anyway,” Charles said, shaking off a chill. “More time is needed in Epsilon’s recoding. In its current state, it only has the basic mission parameters to seek the Lambda unit.”
Dead Eye returned to his calm demeanor. Charles was half disappointed in seeing his sick grin return.
“That is all? Surely you have prepared more than that?”
Charles stared sternly. “Babel appears to be forgetting the hostile nature that the Epsilon unit displayed during its first tes
t phases.”
Dead Eye’s smile grew. “On the contrary. They are quite aware of Epsilon’s nature. It’s that primal power and learning capacity that Babel wants in order to conquer and subdue Lambda, should it be necessary to use it,” he added with a negative tone.
Charles grinded his teeth. This only made his anger soar. “If so, how could they want to risk such an incident again!”
“Calm yourself, Director. That is why we have you and your team. Babel didn’t ask you to bring great minds together so you can make failures. We brought you together to make results. Am I right?”
Charles slammed his hands on the table as he shot out of his chair. “This AI program is far too dangerous to even begin considering a reboot! Even now, it fights the codes and programming we install into it. Don’t you get it?! It’s aware of what we are doing!”
Dead Eye’s smile only grew larger. “Isn’t that marvelous? Such a discovery and evolution in technology no? You should be rejoicing at such a find.”
“I would be if I didn’t know what this thing did to my personnel when it went on its rampage. It wasn’t just self aware, it enjoyed what it did.”
Dead Eye rubbed his chin, fascinated. “Did it now? That reminds me of something, divine.”
Charles didn’t like the black sparkle in his eye. He shuddered to think what Dead Eye could possibly be reminded of by Epsilon’s homicidal spree.
“Regardless,” Charles interjected. “We will do as ordered by Babel, but you ought to have a talk with your superiors-”
“Exactly! You will do as ordered. Do I make myself clear?” Dead Eye shot harshly, but with a wide smile.
Charles thought he would draw blood if he clenched his teeth harder from rage. However, his ears began to ring as the blaring shrieks of a high pitched noise over the intercom system quickly derailed any anger he might have had.
Dead Eye’s face turned to stone, now losing all sense of humor in his words. “This better be a drill.”
Charles ignored the threatening tone as several screens appeared before him. Displayed in front of him was the floor plan of the research facility. The whole second floor was flashing red.
Another screen appeared to his right with a frazzled guard.
“Sir, there has been some sort of breach!”
“What is going on?!” Charles roared back.
“Sir, it appears several server meltdowns have been triggered on the second floor. The cause is unknown at the time but-”
“What of the servers! Has the emergency Cloud Fail-safe been activated?!”
One more screen appeared, overlaying the floor plan screen before Charles. This one was of a woman from the research team.
“Director! We have a problem-”
“Has all the data and work been moved to our emergency server through Babel!” Charles yelled. He didn’t want to sound too panicked given his position, but something smelled very bad about all this. The timing was just too good.
“Director, that isn’t the problem!”
Charles’ eyes widened. “What is then? Care to enlighten me?!”
The woman seemed unsure how to say what she wanted. This only made Charles more worried. He was on the verge of losing his patience when . . .
“Where is Margret Powers!” bellowed Dead Eye.
His look of wild fury made it almost impossible for the woman to speak her next few words.
“W-we are unable to account for any personnel a-at the m-moment,” she stuttered.
Dead Eye spun on his heal and made haste to the door.
“Where do you think you’re going?!” Charles barked after him.
Dead Eye whirled around with a maddening stare.
“To tie up a loose end!”
* * *
Margret felt like she was on fire. After all, the distraction Karen came up with was far more ridiculous then she had imagined. As she ran, she could only run the whole conversation over and over again. She rounded the flashing halls of red, trying to block out the wailing echoes of the fire alarms.
This goes beyond collateral damage!
Margret recalled their plan as she visited the memory of their conversation.
“Are you mad?!” Margret had yelled.
Karen didn’t seem fazed at all. In fact, she thought everything was fine.
“Of course not. This would be the most logical way, yes?”
Margret’s eyes twitched as she tried to hold back from strangling someone she saw as a close friend.
“What’s logical in threatening all the lives of the people in this facility?!”
Karen merely shrugged. This didn’t make controlling Margret’s rising temper any easier.
“The meltdown is necessary in order for me to bypass the few thousand firewalls in place.”
“Can’t you do that without causing such a scene?” Margret shot back.
Karen shook her head. “You aren’t thinking this out for the long term. Babel is coming to silence you. This will stall them and give you a good running start.”
Margret didn’t like the idea of endangering other people just to allow her own escape. On top of that, Karen’s cold nature to the entire scenario was starting to make her worry.
Even for her, she seems too calm.
“You seem to be taking this well,” Margret said harshly.
Karen seemed removed. “Come now, is that any way to talk to a friend trying to help you out-”
At that point, Richard broke his silent streak and cut Karen off. He too was done with her little game.
“Enough of this, Karen! We know it was you who cracked Lambda’s stasis and allowed it to escape. Come clean, what are you trying to do?”
Silence hung for several seconds before anyone made a move. Karen’s face never changed as she faced the monitor in front of her. She then pulled up several screens up on her monitor, displaying many windows with blueprints and data that both Margret and Richard were all too familiar with. It didn’t take long for her to realize that she was looking at the Epsilon unit’s specs and design.
“What are you getting at?” Margret asked, seeming confused now as she stared at the rotating model of the Epsilon unit.
Karen broke the silence hanging in the lab. “I want to destroy the AI units we have created. This will be the first step.”
Richard reeled. “What?! If that is your plan, then why send one to our son?!”
Karen remained unchanged and in control despite Richard’s outburst. “For his protection. I am his mother, after all.”
Margret was unsure what to think. Karen appeared to be telling the truth, but what was this feeling of apprehension she felt?
Richard shook his head. “I can’t believe you wouldn’t tell me about this,” he fumed.
Karen made little effort to defend herself. “I have my reasons. How you two comply next will determine if I’m successful.”
Both Richard and Margret looked down on Karen with hard stares. It was hard for both of them to simply abandon her after such a reveal. At the core, they were family, and both Richard and Margret held that in high regard. If you couldn’t trust family, who could you trust?
“What is the plan?” Richard asked reluctantly.
Karen didn’t take her eyes away from the monitor.
“Turning off the cooling vents for the server towers and cranking the heat will cause a chain reaction that will trigger a stage two meltdown in the computer labs. I need you, Richard, to secure Margret’s route of escape while I prepare to break the security codes.”
Margret spoke up. “But again, that will cause unnecessary-”
“It is necessary to ensure they are too preoccupied with saving their precious research to bother looking for you. In addition, they won’t notice me putting to rest the AI units before they move them.”
Richard still didn’t like the idea. “Is this really what you want, Karen? We have spent years on this research. To have it a
ll end like this seems like such a-”
“I’ve made my decision, Richard. So, are you going to be a devoted husband, or are you going to sell me out?” she asked, never once looking at him.
Richard watched his wife race along her translucent keyboards, sighing deeply.
“As if I could turn in my own wife. How much time do I have?”
“I just hacked the security cameras and noticed a black limo pull up to the research plant. I’m guessing you have less than five minutes to get Margret moving and ensure she is out before the chaos starts,” Karen replied quickly.
Richard nodded. “Fine. We still need to talk after this. I’m sure there will be a lot of explaining to do anyway,” he said, pointing his index finger at Karen.
Karen hardly registered the action, merely shrugging. “Whatever floats your boat.”
Richard ignored her and turned to Margret. “So, you ready for this madness?” he joked.
Margret took in a breath. “No, but that has never stopped me before.”
Now, as Margret ran like her life depended on it, she couldn’t help but recall the last thing she overheard as they had both left the lab. As they were rushing out the door, she could have sworn she heard Karen quote Shakespeare.
“Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.”
She shook her head as she raced for the emergency exit Richard had told her to take after the alarms began to sound. She didn’t have time to think about the meaning in Karen’s words now. All that mattered was getting out of the facility. After that, she was on her own. That part alone frightened her more than Dead Eye himself.
* * *
Back at the central core of the research facility, Charles burst into the room with heated purpose. Below him, several dozen researchers and Tech Agents pounded on keyboards and forced themselves to not blink as they stared at their hovering monitor screens.
Charles didn’t waste any time. “What is the location of Margret Powers?”
“We have no way of locating any one personnel-”
“Fine! What of the meltdown?” he demanded.
“The backup cooling systems have been activated. We were able to move ninety-six percent of the data on the towers to our emergency Babel server before the server rooms went critical. The cause of the malfunction seems to be linked to an error in the cooling systems.”
The Genesis Code 1: Lambda Page 26
