My Ride is a Bitch

by Michael Anderle

  “Roger, Terri,” Ryan checked off the task, “Clear.”

  Ryan did this again for five more sets of outside perimeter guards watching the main building Ryan was in as well as the two extra buildings. One outside building was temporary quarters for those staying less than two weeks, and the other was for meetings with external contacts.

  No one outside of the company was allowed inside the headquarters itself unless they were with upper management, and that was very rare.

  Ryan’s video system hit sixty different locations within the main building and ten inside the other two. Personally, none of the guards much cared about the two outside buildings. If something happened there, it was treated as a nuisance.

  Inside this building? That would be a problem.

  —

  Tabitha and her guys got ready in the same room. They helped her make sure her weapons were strapped on properly.

  Ryu was selected as her backup and would carry a backpack with the electronic equipment she would need to hack the system. Hirotoshi was with Katsu, who was Tabitha’s hacking backup. They all had electronic devices Team BMW had specially built for her team.

  Small computers with Etheric communications to ArchAngel and ADAM, with the special E.I. that the two had pulled together for Tabitha.

  Named Achronyx, it was a specially programmed subset of ArchAngel running off of hardware presently staged on ArchAngel. Eventually, it would reside in the ship being designed for Tabitha’s team. The etheric connection stopped the tablets signals from discovery but allowed Achronyx the option to sniff and subvert the surrounding assets if possible.

  Usually through poor Wi-Fi as a first choice. Then, through other means as available.

  “Ranger Team 2 to Pod Bay, Ranger Team 2 to Pod Bay,” ArchAngel’s voice announced.

  Tabitha and her team silently left the compartment.

  Minutes later, they had boarded one of the larger Pods and were strapped in. “Take us down,” Tabitha spoke, and the video screens showed their Pod lifting off the floor and heading out of the ArchAngel. Soon, the Earth was in front of them, and they were on their way.

  —

  The black pod stayed up half a mile as the team watched the heat signatures walk the grounds beneath them.

  “Here, here and here,” Hirotoshi said, pointing to three locations. “They are uncovered at all times.”

  It had taken fifteen minutes for the micro-drones to settle in and locate most of the external security sensors.

  “That’s because,” Tabitha hit a couple of buttons to pull up the heat sensors, “they are trusting the motion and heat sensors in those areas, and the walls have no entrances.” She hit a couple of other buttons, zooming in on the roof, “I don’t see any options dropping on the roof, either.”

  Kouki spoke up, “Why not just hit them hard, take down the humans and power our way in?”

  “We are trying to leave people alive. These guys aren’t bad, they are just in between us and the computer information that I need,” Tabitha answered. “We can’t be the good guys if we do a lot of bad things to innocent people.”

  “I didn’t mean kill them, Kimosabe. I meant render them unconscious,” he clarified.

  “Oh,” Tabitha turned and looked at the vampire. “I’m sorry, I’m so used to everything being black or white.”

  Kouki shrugged, “We are just as capable of rendering senseless.”

  Tabitha turned to Hirotoshi, “What is the downside to Kouki’s suggestion?”

  “I would think video,” Ryu stuck in, and Hirotoshi nodded his agreement.

  “This location is over fifteen miles in the middle of nowhere,” Tabitha said.

  “I thought they were in Kentucky?” Shin asked.

  “Ask most people, and they will tell you that this is nowhere. Well, except for the fine people of Kentucky, I’m sure,” she added and played with the controls again. “Achronyx, I need power supply information coming into this set of buildings.”

  “Do you want to include local power sources, or strictly those arriving from external locations?” the EI asked.

  “Both.”

  A solid line came into the camp from the west, and a portion behind the main building was highlighted.

  “Send a drone around the back of the building, I need to see what that looks like.” Down below, a small insect, the size of a fly, sped around, heading towards the large building and then around the side to hover above a large metal skid. It had a rectangular half and a circular half.

  “That half,” Tabitha pointed to the side with the large pipe jutting out of the other side, “is the momentum device to provide quality electricity to the computers inside. The power is going to come into this device, get cleaned up, and then go into the building. If the electricity dies, the momentum of the massive weight spins enough to keep the power going. Then, they probably have additional batteries inside to maintain the power at least a few hours in case they run out of diesel.”

  “We need the power, or we can’t use the computers,” Katsu commented.

  “Teach your granny to suck eggs, Katsu,” Tabitha murmured while she played with the controls highlighting the building schematics they had been able to pilfer from the local government offices. “Here is the central office, and here looks like the primary location for the computer geeks.”

  “So, we hit the main office to connect to the server?” Katsu asked.

  “No, you go for the computer admin’s computers. If there is a backdoor, those fuckers will have one because they won’t want to walk through the security to get to the servers if they don’t have to.” She spoke a little louder, “Achronyx, do we have a count of internal people?”

  “I have located eight heat sources walking outside around building one. None in the smaller buildings two or three.”

  “Plus, count on another one or two in a control room to be safe,” Ryu added.

  “That seems reasonable,” Tabitha agreed and stood up, “So, is the plan hit them fast, knock them out, hit the security and kill it and then the servers?”

  She looked to Hirotoshi who seemed to be accepting input from the rest of the team just by looking at them, “Yes, it is.”

  “Achronyx, take us down as soon as you have scrambled all available security.”

  “Understood, one moment please.” the electronic voice replied.

  Down below, seventeen small devices angled towards any wires that were available. Six of them, larger than the rest, pulled out metal pins that stabbed the cables, seeking a way to penetrate to the wires within.

  “Core security has been infiltrated. Please stay away from all areas marked in red as I have been unable to take control of those signals.”

  The team locked in the areas in their minds and nodded.

  “Just keep the video off of us, Achronyx,” Tabitha said.

  —

  Ryan kicked back, sipping on his coffee. It was always the midnight to three o’clock shift that was hardest for him to stay awake. On his third sip, two of his twenty monitors went to static.

  He leaned forward, setting his coffee down, “What the hell.” He hit the call-all button, “Stay sharp people, we have interference on the video cameras.” He barely got out the last word when the audio squawked a piercing loud high note, and he slammed his hand down on the mute button.

  “Shit!” He said, and grabbed the walkie-talkie and hit the button, “I’m on mobile walkie-talkie people, what are you seeing?”

  “Nothing is wrong out here, boss,” Terri replied, “Building three is clear.”

  “Nothing here either,” Deith answered.

  “Where are you located, Deith?” Ryan asked. He waited a few seconds, “Deith, where are you located?” Ryan swore, “Terri, can you see Deith?” He barely got the question out when four more of the videos went to static.

  Shit, shit SHIT! “Terri, can you see Deith?… Terri?”

  He doubled checked his channel, he was transmitting on the right one for t
he time of night. A blip on one of the video’s caught his eye. Two more video cameras, these inside the building also had something flash in front of them.

  “Hey, boss?” A female spoke.

  Ryan pulled up the walkie-talkie, “Terri, where the fuck are you?” his frustration destroying the calm demeanor he had meant to project. “We’ve got people inside the building somehow, get whoever you can and get your ass in here!”

  This time, he practically yelled the demand as two more of his internal video cameras went out. He reached across and hit the prep-button to warm up the final server defense system.

  Then, the power dropped for a microsecond before the backup came online.

  There was a rap on his door and a ‘boss, open up’ from a female on the other side.

  Ryan pushed his chair back and took two quick steps to the door and pushed open the armored door, “Terri, get your ass….”

  “Hi sugar,” a pretty Latina all in black smiled at him as all of the camera’s behind him blanked off. “Terri is asleep right now, but she gave me this to play with,” she waved Terri’s walkie-talkie back and forth, “So,” she stepped into the room and grabbed Ryan’s shoulder.

  The smaller woman easily forced him down on his knees, “you are going to take a short nap after you give me the code to the server room honey.”

  “I can’t!” Ryan shook his head, “I don’t have the combination to the lock.” He had grabbed the lady’s arm and tried to dislodge, then twist it. She popped him in the head.

  “Stop that shit!” Ryan slammed to the floor, grabbing his head when the pain from her slap registered.

  Tabitha looked back at the door, and Ryan’s head moved slowly to see someone all in black, a covered face who shook his head negative.

  She looked down at Ryan, “Dammit, that makes things annoyingly more difficult.” She stepped over Ryan who was still seeing two of everything, “Put him to sleep.”

  —

  Tabitha walked towards the server room, Ryu walking behind her. She came up to the area and pulled the small Achronyx device out of a pocket. “Achronyx, can you do anything for this?”

  “According to location sensors, you are in front of the research area. The servers are located in a room beyond this area and past another door. This door is on a simple alarm system that is bypassed. You can break it down.”

  “Who can break it down?” Tabitha asked, her voice going an octave higher, “I don’t have bones like Bethany Anne, do I?” she turned to Ryu, “Do you?”

  Ryu, stepped forward, Tabitha stepping back. He looked at the slice of glass six inches wide, traveling up the door with tiny wires in them. He turned around, looked and then walked to a bathroom and stepped in.

  “Seriously?” Tabitha asked, “I ask him about opening a door, and he goes to take a piss?” A second later, she heard a loud screech and then a bang from inside the bathroom and the door opened once more.

  Ryu stepped out with a misshapen metal box, and Tabitha took another step back. Ryu walked up to the door and then the door glass shattered as Ryu sped up and shoved the metal box through the glass. He reached in and unlocked the door from the other side.

  Tabitha walked in behind him, noticing the tiny wires that had cut rips into the metal box. “Oh, those would have hurt like a bitch,” she muttered.

  They walked across the crunchy floor, glass not bothering them in their shoes with the leather soles. Ryu looked at the final door. A metal one with no window on it, “You need in there?” he asked.

  “Yes, maybe, hold on,” she told him and clicked her call button on her collar, “Katsu, any luck?”

  “None Kimosabe,” came back, “It seems these admins are not as lazy as most.”

  “Fucking great. Ok, thanks.” Tabitha nodded to Ryu, “I need in there.”

  Ryu looked around and the up to the drop ceiling. Turning to his left, he took two steps then pushed off the nearby wall and popped two of the drop ceiling tiles. They fell on the floor, and he did it again, but this time he grabbed something up in the ceiling and then his body and then his feet disappeared.

  “Always fucking leaving when all I need is a door opened,” Tabitha muttered, “Imagine what he would be like on a date.”

  There was a small noise from the other side of the door and then a click, and it opened, Ryu waving her in.

  “Wow, that was impressive,” she admitted and noticed an air vent had been ripped off the ceiling and parts littered the floor.

  She looked at the three rows of server systems, each twenty feet long and back to back. “Wow, deja-vu.” She walked to the first monitor and keyboard system and pulled it out. She called out, “I need you, Ryu, so badly,” as the man came up and turned around.

  She zipped open the bag and pulled out her very small laptop and two very tiny USB keys plus three cables, “Sorry, just wanted you for your tool, buddy.”

  Ryu snorted and then started walking around the room when she was finished pulling the electronics equipment.

  Achronyx called over the team band, “We have a 911 call to the local emergency. ETA seven minutes.”

  “Don’t ever tell me time,” Tabitha muttered.

  “I didn’t, it was actually six minutes and forty-six seconds. I rounded up,” Achronyx answered.

  “We need to work on your manners, Achronyx,” Tabitha said as she looked over to see what was happening as she tried to hack into the system. “Some other time, though. When you tell me the time on…” she paused and frowned, “Dammit, that doesn’t look right,” she changed ports and typed additional commands.

  Moments later, her eyes opened wide, “Oh’ fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck no!” She started typing rapidly then started cursing in Spanish.

  Ryu walked in when he couldn’t understand the cussing, it was coming so fast, and noticed she was typing much more rapidly than the computer was able to register. Finally, she slammed her hand against the cage next to her, causing it to dent in a few inches.

  “FUCK!” She screamed. “Tabitha, you idiot! You tried amazing them with stupidity, now try a few tactics you hack.” She looked over at the door and punched the lock and twisted it to the side. Grabbing one of the USB keys, she put an arm back into the cage and turned to Ryu, “Do me a favor and fuck up every one of the cage doors, so none look any more special than the next.”

  Ryu shrugged and started walking down the lane, punching, kicking and delivering head buts to the cage doors, messing them up. By the time he was done with the last row, Tabitha was coming down and chose a door mid-way and opened it up. Reaching in back, she spoke, “The bastards did a melt job on the primary access. We tripped something, and they fucking scrammed the main hard drives. I’m placing a USB on the back in an out of the way place. Maybe we will get lucky, and we can get access in a few days after they fix everything.” She pulled her arm out, closed and locked the door, walking back the other way, feet stomping on the ground.

  “Maybe we will get lucky, and the fuckers won’t be so damned good a second time,” she said, with exasperation, as she turned the corner.

  A second later, Ryu heard her voice in the room, and over the comms, “Tontos, let’s shag ass, this was a bust.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Chapter 17

  Dulce Lake, New Mexico, USA

  The underground base had been around for well over seventy years. The natural tunnels under the base opened into a deep underground cavern system which went off in multiple directions. Their base entrance, one location only, went to a shaft which descended over two thousand feet down using a large elevator, over twenty feet in diameter.

  However, for operations, various large doors were opened into the deep cavern system, and if you had the right map, you could come up in any one of a hundred different exits spread over almost two thousand square miles

  Some barely broad enough to allow a man with a backpack to squeeze out into a forested area, a couple of others allowing their large craft options to fly out in the night time,
hidden from civilization.

  Mostly.

  Occasionally someone might see something, but their technology had gotten much better in the seven-plus decades since they were formed in 1947 by the Executive Order of President Harry S. Truman. Their job was to facilitate recovery and investigation of alien spacecraft.

  Over the years, most of those who knew about their base and their operations passed away. When age, or strategic removal, took out all the main players in the creation of the group, they went totally beyond black.