The Bloodless

by Andrew Gibson

  “Well I’m sure we’ll find out for sure in due time,” I said looking at my watch. “So you gave them Abiyah’s coordinates?” Burns nodded. “The open lot east of here?” He nodded again. “Good. We’ll have to figure out a plan for their arrival.”

  “I think a little test ought to be involved,” Fox said suddenly. Unbeknownst to everyone, Fox had walked up behind us.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Just a test, one that will show us their true character and intentions.”

  “You got something in mind?”

  “Oh, I may have a few ideas. I’ll set it up.”

  I wasn’t really sure what Fox had in mind but I knew I could trust him to come up with something good. While we waited for the others to return from their mission Burns and Saturn showed me a few more aspects of their weapons. Truth be told, I wasn’t nearly as excited as they were about them. Sure, these were huge finds and would absolutely help increase our survival rate. On the other side of things however, these guns weren’t going to do the missions for us. We still had to lay our lives on the line to get this done, so I couldn’t get that excited. The guns were neat though, I’ll give them that.

  After some time, Crowder and Pillar were spotted by Buggs as they came into view just on the horizon. The day was getting late as the sun began to bow lower and lower in the sky. The approached from the south and as far as I could tell they weren’t dragging any large crates behind them and they looked no worse for the wear. It wasn’t until they were a little closer that I noticed a few new bumps and bruises on their persons.

  “You two okay?” I asked as they walked through the gate.

  “I’ve been better,” said Pillar who was wearing her usual grumpy face.

  “I didn’t hear from you two the whole time. I thought I asked for regular updates,” I said, sounding like a disobeyed parent.

  “Sorry,” said Crowder, “but we have a lot to report now.” And without preamble Crowder went right into a breathless retelling of their encounters. He talked about how they were constantly followed by the probes and then about the warehouse assault and their run in with some mercenary group.

  “Wait,” I interrupted him when he got to the part about the mercs, “you ran into other people trying to take down the Bloodless?”

  “Yeah. Why, what’s up?” Crowder asked when he saw the looks on our faces.

  “We ran into a group claimin’ to be Armed Forces,” answered Burns.

  “Really,” said Crowder. “Well these four definitely weren’t military, at least not in this country. Their leader was Russian but you can never tell with those people.”

  “Yeah, don’t forget about the android,” Pillar interjected nonchalantly.

  “Android?” Fox asked, his curiosity was obviously piqued. Androids, while not unheard of, were still very uncommon at the time. They hadn’t yet gone into large scale production yet, although there was talk about doing just that.

  “Yeah,” Crowder said nodding, “some android they called Blink.”

  “Do you know him?” I asked Fox when he didn’t immediately reply.

  “It sounds familiar but I don’t think so,” he said looking uncertain.

  “Okay,” I said trying to move the conversation along, “do you think any of this is connected?”

  No one answered right away, we all were thinking hard. After some time Fox finally spoke up, “At first glance I would venture to guess that these are two completely isolated incidents, though a very big coincidence. My overall assumption is that these two encounters are related, though not directly in the sense that they are working together but rather working towards the same goal unbeknownst to either group. If this is the case I think it is safe to conclude that the possibility of more groups is plausible. We will just have to play it by ear, I think.”

  “Couldn’t have said it any better,” I said. I walked over to my work bench and pocketed the maps that were strewn over it, as well as a few notes.

  “Daniel,” Burns said looking at his time monitor, “those guys should be arriving soon.”

  “Perfect,” I holstered my sidearm and stood in front of the group. “Maybe we can get some information out of them. Remember, there is no such thing as too much information around here. Let’s go.” With that we set off as a group towards the open lot in the middle of Abiyah where at least one group was likely to show up. Burns gave Brantley, the leader of the AF group they ran into, coordinates that would lead him to this lot and we wanted to get there to see if he would be true to his word and arrive by himself.

  We arrived at the open lot and set up camp around the perimeter and since we knew the area really well we were able to hide ourselves completely. We sat and waited for what seemed like over an hour, but when it’s dead silent and life has ceased to exist as far as the eye can see, time seems to slow down. Finally we saw them approaching, a small contingent, still more than one, was headed in our direction.

  “That fucker,” Burns whispered over the communicators.

  Brantley and his soldiers arrived exactly on the spot Burns gave them and looked around. “Fox, we’re on your mark,” I said, “let us know when to engage.”

  “Hang on,” he responded. A few moments passed. “Okay, clear to engage.”

  I was a little confused because I was under the assumption that Fox was going to do something but I didn’t see if he did or not. Nevertheless, Burns pulled a lever and activated the defenses we had installed at that spot and enclosed the group in a small cage that forced them into close quarters. We all charged out from our spaces, our guns pointing into the cage.

  “What the hell are you doing,” Brantley yelled from somewhere in the middle of the group.

  Burns charged up and kicked the cage, rattling it pretty hard. “I told you to come alone,” Burns yelled back. “This don’t look alone to me!”

  “It’s not like you trusted me anyway, so what’s the big deal?”

  Fox walked up to Burns and put a hand on his shoulder, “It is okay Burns there is no need to worry. They will not be doing anything dumb.” Burns hesitated slightly but hit the release button on a remote he held in his hand sending the cage back down. “Now,” Fox started before anybody could do anything, “it would behoove all of you to know that your movements, while not restricted, are going to be very closely monitored. I have taken the liberty to place a small sensor somewhere on your person. If any of you act aggressively in any way towards any of us, you will be disintegrated.”

  “So we’re captives,” some guy spoke up from the group.

  “No,” Fox said simply, “you are free to go if you please, but once you do these sensors will also wipe your memory for anywhere up to twelve hours after its installation. This will only happen once you reach a certain distance north, south, or west of this location. Since you arrived I assume you are interested in helping in the battle against those who have taken control of the GoD Laboratories’ compound. If you decide to stay, in a couple hours you will be debriefed on the plan and our next steps. In the meantime, we’ll take you to our headquarters while we wait for others to arrive.”

  “We’re expecting others?” I asked even more confused as the others lead Brantley’s squad away and towards HQ.

  “I am,” said Fox.

  “Who?”

  “Crowder and Pillar encountered people as well, remember?”

  “Yeah, but they never said anything about telling them where we’re at,” I said trying to get a gauge on what Fox was thinking, though that was always next to impossible.

  “That is true. However, you would have to be a fool to think they were not bugged or followed to some degree.”

  He was right. After a short amount of time we were able to see in the distance another group, smaller yet, heading in our direction. There were four of them and they seemed to glide over the ground, it made them look very polished, very professional. I looked over to Fox to see if he was going to do anything but he stood there and watched as
they approached. Then I saw him nod slightly and knew that whatever needed to be done had been.

  We waited until they were passed us before Fox and I stepped out of the shadows and pointed our weapons at their backs. “Who are you and how did you find this place?”

  I saw the woman twitch slightly, as did Fox because he quickly cut her off, “Wait,” he said causing the woman to stall her movement. “Before you make any movements, be aware that a small sensor has been installed on each of your persons.”

  “Yes,” said the woman in a thick Russian accent, “this I know. We intrude on your lands without permission, we accept surveillance.”

  “You haven’t answered my question,” I said with my gun still pointed at their backs.

  “May we turn around?” she asked dryly, not a hint of concern in her voice.

  “Fine,” I conceded, “Slowly. Hands up.” She looked to the men on either side of her and nodded at them. They nodded back, half raised their hands and slowly turned around. “Happy? Now answer my question.”

  The woman slowly reached behind her head and pulled out a small metallic colored insect with some sort of crimson insignia on its side that I couldn’t make out. She held it up and Fox went over and took it in his hand. He examined it for a brief moment before crushing it and throwing it on the ground. “Autonomous tracking device,” Fox explained in response to my look.

  “I set it to follow young boy and rude little girl,” the woman said. “I am Natalia and these are my comrades.”

  I eyed her suspiciously, “Why did you come here?”

  “We are curious about operation. We came here for more information,” she said.

  “So you want to help?” I asked.

  “In a manner of speaking, yes,” she said.

  Her general tone and choice of words had me slightly confused. I couldn’t really tell if she was being serious or not but I just chalked it up to a language barrier. I looked over to Fox because I really didn’t know what to say to these people. “Why do you want to help?” Fox asked, alleviating me of any more responsibility.

  The question definitely took Natalia by surprise which showed in her face for a brief moment. “We are mercenaries, we go where the action is. All action currently at GoD.”

  “How do we know you aren’t here to kill us?” I asked even though I already knew the answer.

  “If we were here to kill you, you would already be dead,” Natalia said simply. “Looks like you will just have to trust us.”

  I didn’t like it and I could tell by the uneasiness of Fox’s body language that he didn’t like it either. They had a point, however, because we didn’t really have a choice. I wasn’t going to turn down ostensible help, especially when it seemed so efficient. After some silent debating we decided to take them to headquarters since it was time to start going over the plans anyway. “So who are you friends?” I asked as we walked back towards the shack.

  “Lukas, Ares, and Blink,” she responded, still in her dry tone. She didn’t seem to be very friendly, which was fine by me as long as she was deadly.

  “Which one of you is Blink?” I asked. A very perfect looking man waved his hand at me. “Android?”

  All four of them looked at me shocked. “How did you know?” Blink asked.

  “I think I know my own work when I see it.” And when they looked even more confused, “Not you in particular, but your model in general. SLI model, yes?” Blink nodded. “I designed the base software for that model. You look like I expected them to.” I actually noticed him right away but I had to hear his name before I knew for sure. All the Androids that were created in that model were named similar in fashion to the way Native Americans named their children. Not exactly the same but suffice it to say there are about fifteen-hundred “Blinks” out there just as there were countless “Running Buffalos” in the Native American family.

  Once we got back to the shack, they were introduced to Brantley and his team and everyone actually seemed to get along just fine. It was a pretty amazing sight to see such a bolstered group in front of me. My confidence grew leaps and bounds that day. We can do this, I thought to myself. Confidence is a heady brew if you didn’t already know, not one to be taken lightly, but it works quickly, often with deadly results as we would come to find out. Everyone felt the confidence I was feeling, I could see it in their eyes. A rare glimmer of hope flitted in everyone’s eyes, but most pronounced in the eyes of my people.

  Fox and I gathered everyone into a large group and began to discuss the plan for the next power station assault. While we were relaying all of the information that had been gathered it dawned on me that we would have to alter the plans in order to incorporate the new influx of bodies. It would certainly be harder to move undetected with more boots on the ground not to mention quite foolish to bring all of those people along at the same time. However, when I brought it up there was a great outcry.

  “We didn’t come all this way just to be left behind,” Brantley shouted angrily.

  “No way we get screwed out of taking these bastards down,” Ares yelled, which was odd because usually Natalia did all the talking.

  “Look,” I said trying to quiet them all down, “there’s just no way we can take everyone with us. There are too many of us and we need the element of stealth and surprise on our side. We can’t just bull rush this place, we’ll get annihilated, trust me.” I looked around and watched as they struggled internally with their decisions.

  “Fine, no problem,” Natalia finally said with a scowl on her face. “What you propose we do?”

  “I think the best course of action is for my people to continue on with the plans we already had laid out and for the rest of you to be on standby in case we need backup.” It seemed like the most obvious and logical thing to do. The way I saw it was that we haven’t had one go our way yet and it was inevitable we were going to have to do some fighting. Hopefully it wouldn’t get too out of hand but if it did, at least this way we’d have adequate back up.

  “We should just storm it,” Brantley shouted out. “It can’t be that fortified.”

  “The fortifications aren’t the problem,” I said exasperated. These people were obviously not getting what I was attempting to convey. “Getting in is not the problem, getting out is what’s been the problem in the past. It’s proven difficult up to this point. The way we’ve drawn up is the best possible way to do it, given the present circumstances.”

  “So you just expect us to be backups?” Brantley was a prick.

  “Yes,” I said firmly. “And I’m serious on this,” I reiterated when they didn’t look 100% compliant, “anything else could result in major losses, trust me.”

  “Okay, we act as backups,” Natalia said.

  “Very good,” I said relieved to finally have a modicum of faith in the fact that we might know what we were doing, even if I didn’t fully. “Let’s get prepared to head out.”

  The crowd dispersed and everyone broke up into their groups to discuss strategy amongst themselves. Before I could make my way over to Fox, Pillar cut in front of me. “Hey,” she said, “how about if I hang back on this one?”

  “What?” I can’t say I was surprised, it was something I had been expecting the entire time, but I had to play the part. “Why would you hang back?”

  “Why do you think? Look, there are all these people who are willing to lay their lives on the line and then you have me who would rather not even be here. I’m more than happy to give up my spot so one of these assholes can die in my place.” The thought of not having to put herself in danger certainly lit Pillar’s face up like I had never seen before.

  “As much as I would love to let you hang back this time, I can’t trust any of these people, I barely know them.”

  “Then get the robot or whatever to do it,” she suggested. “He would follow orders good, right?”

  I hadn’t thought of that but clearly she had it all figured out and was playing it as cool as possible. If there was one thi
ng that we all knew about Pillar, it was the she didn’t want to be there, but more importantly, she didn’t want to die and if someone was available to die in her place, that was just fine with her. However, I was excited about the prospect of having a top of the line android amongst our ranks for this mission. The only problem was going to be convincing Natalia to let him accompany us, but she didn’t seem to mind.

  “Of course Daniel,” she said when I asked her, “Blink would love to be part of mission.”

  “Really,” I said taken aback by her eager willfulness. “Shouldn’t you ask him first?”

  She smiled, “You’re right. Blink!” yelled Natalia then she rattled off something in Russian. Blink stiffly rushed over to where we were standing.

  “How may I be of service,” he said in his pleasant tone.

  “I would like you to go on mission with Daniel, take place of bratty little girl. Do whatever Daniel asks of you.

  “As you command.” Blink smiled at me serenely.

  “Very good,” Natalia said with smile on her face as well. “Oh, Blink, before you go,” she pulled him near and whispered into his ear. He nodded as she withdrew and patted him on the back. “We are counting on you.”

  Blink nodded again and then looked at me expectantly. Ok, I thought to myself, let’s see if I remember how to do this. “Follow me Blink,” I said aloud and was relieved when he nodded his head and followed me as we walked back to the shack. Nodding with this android model was a sign that orders have been processed and accepted within their operating system. This meant Natalia had turned him over to me but I had to find out what kind of programming she was running through him.

  “What’s your autonomy level set to?”

  “Level one.”

  She had him on lockdown, that’s for sure. “Ok, well let’s raise that to a level four, you’re going to need some freedom to act accordingly if you’re going out with us.” He nodded. It was crucial not to set the autonomy level too high as it could result in the android never obeying another command. That was usually reserved for when the android served its purpose or neared the end of its life cycle and rarely any time sooner. Of course there were some activists out there, there always are, who were adamant that all androids should be allowed to live freely because they believe that the androids had souls, for whatever reason.