by Colin Weldon
Wise cleared his throat and turned on the sofa towards the president.
“Much of her upper skeletal structure was replaced with a graphene polycarbonate. Both arms were replaced with cybernetic implants along with both shoulders. Parts of her upper cranium have also been replaced along with one of her eyes. I have brought along a full file on the asset,” Wise replied standing up and placing the file on the large desk.
Royo picked up the file and opened it. He was surprised at the face that looked back at him in the picture.
“Nora Stone,” Royo said out loud to himself. “She’s just a kid.”
“Sir, I wouldn’t let her file fool you. I can assure you she’s extremely dangerous,” Wise said.
Royo began to feel anger at Wise’s condescending tone.
“And you let her out,” Royo replied, quickly shutting down the director.
Wise looked back at Hammond.
“What do you need from me?” Royo asked.
“Full access to military assistance if required, including authorisation for first strike capability,” Wise said.
Royo continued to scan through the file. She was young. Too young, like all of the weapons of war that they had created to combat a world gone completely mad.
“So, the United States wants to go to war with a twenty something year old girl,” Royo said breaking the absurdity of the situation down as succinctly as he could.
“Yes sir, that’s correct,” Wise replied.
“General?” Royo said looking at Hammond.
“Sir, as always the military is at your disposal to clean up the CIA’s mess,” Hammond said.
Wise was clearly agitated by the general’s taunt. He remained silent.
“Who was she before we got our teeth into her?” Royo said.
The Oval office was silent for a moment as Wise considered his response.
“A nobody, sir,” Wise replied.
That vexed Royo even more. He slammed the file shut and glared at Wise indicating that he wanted an answer and wanted it now. Wise took the hint.
“Nora Stone was off the grid. In truth we don’t know that much about her before the program. She was an outcast sir, no family. She came to us through the medical donation program following an automobile accident. She excelled in training and in truth became one of my best agents,” Wise said.
“And now you want to kill her?” Royo said.
“Not necessarily sir, but if she’s cracked she must be contained,” Wise said.
Royo looked at Wise.
“This turns ugly Ben I swear to god I’ll have your head,” Royo said.
Wise nodded and stood up from the sofa. He made his way over to the door.
“Director,” Royo said, making Wise turn on his heels, “get her back alive, and no civilian casualties, is that understood?”
Wise clenched his jaw.
“Yes Mr President,” he nodded.
The door closed behind him and Royo glanced at Hammond.
“Well?”
“Mr President I know how you feel about augmentation but we are facing things in this world our forefathers couldn’t have possibly predicted. Our men on the ground are doing their best but extreme circumstances call for extreme measures. I don’t like Wise any more than you do, sir but he sure as hell knows how to get the job done. Jaguar has intercepted more covert threats against this country than any other agency. I wish I had a clear battlefield sir, I really do. My boys know how to fight. But this… this is something different. This is religion and fanaticism so extreme it’s changing the very nature of mankind.” Hammond said sitting forward on the sofa, “and believe you me it’s gonna get a whole lot uglier before it gets better. If it ever does.”
Royo looked at the general.
“And what must we lose in ourselves, general?” he asked.
Hammond looked him in the eye.
“Perhaps everything, Mr President…Perhaps everything,” he replied.
* * *
Sudirman Train Station
Jakarta
“Ok, where did you go?” Eddie said to himself looking up at the camera perched on a wooden beam above the platform.
“What was that?” said Hiran.
“Nothing. What have you got?” Eddie replied, looking around as a passer-by clipped his shoulder.
There were hundreds of people standing precariously close to the edge of the platform as they waited for their rush hour train home. Whatever trace Nora Stone had left in the station was long gone at this stage.
“According to the timetable, she got on the 04:32 to Manggarai but I pulled the feeds from all the stops and there was no sign of her. I also pulled the on-board camera feeds and by the looks of things she didn’t even get on board. It’s weird,” Hiran said.
Eddie looked around the station. It made no sense. Why use the worst form of transportation for covert travel to escape? There was no reason to get on a train. It was a traveling cage. She would have known that. He was beginning to feel like a fool. She had come here for another reason. The oldest reason in the book. A diversion. He let out a long sigh and looked at the crowd of people on the platform. They were gazing up at a large screen hanging overhead. Eddie followed their stares. On the screen was a news report from a local station. It showed the wreckage of a building in flames. It bore the unmistakable signs of having been blown up. He looked at Abigail.
“Translate that!” he said pointing at the screen.
Abigail looked up.
“It says there was a huge explosion in North Jakarta, one hundred and twelve confirmed dead, possible terrorist incident,” Abigail said.
Eddie looked back at the screen. His earpiece suddenly bleeped. He pressed it.
“Go,” he said.
“We have satellite tracking of a projectile from an unknown bogey Commander,” said the voice on the other end.
“What? When?” Eddie said.
“Eighteen minutes ago sir. It looks like an unmanned drone. Not one of ours. The bogey then changed course and ditched twelve miles east into the Java Sea,” the voice said.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Eddie said as he began running down the platform.
“Where are we going?” he heard Hiran ask behind him.
He ignored him, knowing the pair would follow suit.
“Why wasn’t I notified of this until now, for fuck sake?” Eddie said increasing his speed and shoving people out of the way as he ducked and dived through the crowd.
“Sorry sir, the eye in the sky just relayed the data,” said the young male voice.
“Goddam it. I’m on my way. Make sure you clear a path through the civilian authorities. I want full access to the scene now, and get me Miller on the line,” he said.
“Yes sir,” came the swift reply.
Eddie looked to his right and saw that Abigail was beside him keeping pace.
“What happened?” Abigail said as she stepped right to avoid hitting a support pillar.
Eddie was about respond when Julian Millar’s voice interrupted.
“Eddie it wasn’t us,” Miller said.
“Who else has tech in the area?” Eddie said, slowing his sprint as he approached the station’s entrance barriers. Without thinking, he grabbed the top of the rotating turnstile and leapt over it, to the disgust of an elderly looking man whom he nearly crashed into.
“Christ, Eddie, it could have been Santa Claus for all we know. We’re working on it right now. Just get your ass down to the scene.” Miller sounded frustrated.
“Yeah, no shit, Miller, where do you think I’m headed.” Eddie tapped his earpiece and disconnecting the transmission.
He reached the entrance to the train station and made for the car, which was parked directly out front. It was hot out. He could feel lines of sweat make their way down
his face as he flipped the car door handle and got inside. He looked behind him as Abigail followed suit. She was a lot less out of breath than he was. Pushing a desk had done him no favours physically, he thought. The pair waited a few moments as Eddie looked out the window to see Hiran struggling to get to the car. His backpack was leaping up and down on his back and he looked like he was about to have a coronary. He reached the car and leaned on it. Eddie rolled down the window and poked his head out.
“Seriously? Get in the fucking car, Hiran,” he said angrily pointing to the door.
Hiran exhaled deeply before opening the door and collapsing inside on the passenger seat. Eddie looked across at him and gave him a perplexed look.
“I never said I was an athlete,” Hiran said through strained breaths.
“Get me a sat link over that building,” Eddie said as he flipped the engine on and pulled the black BMW out onto the busy street.
He had requested something fast but conspicuous and this is what they had delivered. It was certainly fast but hardly conspicuous. He didn’t have time to worry about that. There was another player on the field. Someone using brut force. She was probably dead already along with the civilians in the building but if she was there, then his job was still to extract her before the civilian authorities discovered the highly classified tech implanted in her body.
“Got it,” Hiran said as he looked at his laptop.
He was suddenly thrown forward into the glove compartment as Eddie braked hard, trying to avoid a young boy driving a moped. Eddie felt Abigail’s hand on his shoulder as she was forced into the gap between the two.
“Sorry!” Eddie said manoeuvring the car skilfully around the young boy and zig zagging around several other cars to pull off into a side street. He increased his speed as they travelled down the road, which was clear of traffic.
Hiran pushed himself back and tried desperately to find his seat belt. Abigail followed suit.
“Were you a fighter pilot?” Hiran asked Eddie.
Eddie smiled.
“Something like that,” Eddie replied. “Don’t worry, talk to me about what’s going on over there.”
Hiran took a breath. Eddie could tell he was terrified. He had to be sure to keep an eye on him. If things got hairy, the new kids had a habit of locking up and bugging out.
“Eh… nothing by the looks of it. Fire teams seem to be on the scene. It’s a real mess, Eddie, looks like a missile strike not an internal explosion. Christ…” he said pausing.
“What is it,” Eddie said.
Hiran tightened his jaw.
“There’s bodies all over the place,” Hiran said.
Eddie looked back at Abigail through the rear view mirror. Her gaze looked distant.
“Ok, we’re gonna take this nice and slow,” Eddie said pausing for a moment to make a drastic right turn at the bottom of the street.
The car galloped onto the road forcing the three passengers to grip hard on door handles and windows. Seat belts locked, holding them in place as the force of the turn took hold. Eddie controlled the car with skill and straightened it out.
“I need you to focus on finding any compounds present in Stone’s arms. In situations like this, it’s gonna be messy. Put it out of your head,” Eddie said looking at Hiran.
He looked nervous.
“I’ll be fine Eddie, really,” Hiran replied.
“No you won’t,” Eddie said, “but we don’t have time for you to freak out so we’re gonna keep this tight, we get in, we look for her, we get out.”
“She won’t be there,” Abigail suddenly said.
“Oh?” Eddie said looking in the rear view mirror.
“You honestly think that if it was that easy Jaguar wouldn’t have just done it already?” Abigail said.
“Miller says it wasn’t us,” Eddie said.
Abigail looked at Eddie then turned her attention out of the window. Eddie got back to driving but knew she was right. What the hell were they dealing with now?
Jakarta International Container Terminal
Ade Agusalim lit his last cigarette and leaned up against the container. He inhaled deeply and let the warm feeling of the nicotine course through his veins. He looked up at the crimson sky as the splitting colours of the sun cut shafts of orange through the light cloud. It had been a long day. The five minutes that he was granted by his supervisor had been well earned. He had worked straight through the sixteen-hour shift and this was the last load. His wife Syifa would be mad at him when he got home. He had left without taking out the laundry again. That made her crazy. He secretly liked it though. There was something about her when she was angry that he had found irresistible. He lifted the cigarette and took another long drag. This was not quite the life that he had promised her but it was still better than most. He made good money and worked hard. He was happy. He was about to take another drag when he heard a thud coming from the container he was leaning on. He moved away from it and looked up. It sounded like something had landed on it. It was probably a bird. He took one last drag and dropped the butt on the ground, stepping on it.
He jumped up, grabbing the edge of the large metal box, and lifted himself up to see what had landed on the roof. His eyes peered onto the container and looked left and right. There was nothing. He dropped down and glanced around. He began to walk around the container inspecting it. The doors were sealed tightly. He checked the bolt mechanism. It was tight. He then continued to walk the perimeter of the container checking the ground for large stones or dead things. It was probably one of the others just fucking with him during his only break. Assholes, he thought to himself. He moved down a small gap between it and another container just to be sure.
The last thing he needed was to be blamed for any damage to it and get fired. Something moved up ahead that made him stop. A dark figure that was blocking the light from the end of the narrow gap.
“Annas, is that you asshole?” he shouted.
He was always playing silly pranks on him, thinking he was funny. The figure remained still for a moment before moving closer to him. Ade stopped and took a step back. The dark figure suddenly lurched forward towards him at speed. Ade had no time to react before he felt a mighty grip around his throat stopping him from screaming. He was thrown against the side of the container and lifted cleanly off the ground. He gripped both hands around the enormous strength of the person who had attacked him. He could not breathe. He made muffled choking sounds as he tried to make out the features of the person who he was sure was about to murder him.
“Listen carefully,” said a female voice from the black face looking at him.
It was a girl? He thought to himself through his panic.
“You will open this container, you will seal me inside, you will load it, you will say nothing, or your family will die tonight,” said the female.
His oxygen was running out. He could not think straight. Images of his beautiful wife flashed before his eyes. He would die without her. The world began to close in on him. A dark tunnel was beginning to form inside his eyes. He had no time to think. He nodded furiously hoping this female devil would let him live. He forced his throat to try and make a sound.
“Yes!” he spluttered.
The fierce grip was released and he dropped to the ground in a heap. He looked up at the dark figure towering above him and took a gasping breath. He could feel his throat expanding as the air began to flood into his lungs. He reached his right arm down and began to get to his feet, moving slowly past the girl. He could see her now. Her gaze bore a hole into him. He looked away quickly and began walking to the front of the container. He could hear her follow him. Still holding his throat, which felt like it was on fire, he rounded the corner and took a firm grip on the long metal rod that held the strong double doors in place. He looked around quickly and scanned the yard to see if there was anyone who would see, or any
one who might help. It was a shift change, which meant the yard would be empty for the next ten minutes while the workers handed over. He looked back at the large doors and pulled them open. The container was empty. The dark haired woman stepped inside and turned to face him.
“Not a word Ade, for Syifa’s sake, not a word,” said the woman, “now seal these doors and load it.”
Ade’s mouth opened. How did she know his name? How did she know his wife’s name? He nodded, now terrified, and sealed the doors shut locking the woman in. He moved quickly to the crane and began climbing up the ladder to the control box. He wanted this woman as far away from him as possible, and where she was headed it would be far enough.
CHAPTER SEVEN
One of the main problems with the Tarsis program was overheating. While his processing speed of ninety seven petaflops, or ninety seven quadrillion floating point operations per second enabled his CPU to perform complex calculations while regulating his bio neural central nervous system, it was his brain that was the problem. The brain was still the mystery. In early tests the brain required far too much coolant surrounding it. Earlier test subjects had had the unpleasant side effect of liquefying after thirty minutes of activation. Some had gone mad the moment they had gone online and in one case their head had exploded while performing dexterity tests in the lab, covering one of the cyberneticists in a mixture of blood, grey matter and polymer. Eventually, a solution to the heating problem was found by installing a secondary circulatory system containing liquid nitrogen, which flowed around the body, cooling the affected systems. The downside was that the liquid nitrogen had to be drained and replaced every forty-eight hours due to contamination. It was limiting in terms of Tarsis’s operating range. To combat this, Jaguar had created ‘safe houses’ specially equipped to ‘refuel’ Tarsis at key strategic points around the world and always had a jet or a helicopter on permanent standby to fly him directly to those locations when the time came.
Tarsis was currently nine hours into his operation and would be good to go for the next thirty-nine hours at least. At a push he could continue on for one, maybe two hours over but at extreme risk, and with a price tag of six billion dollars, Wise was not ready to take that risk just yet. He looked up at the large screen and watched. The station in the basement at Langley was currently occupied by the director and several technicians monitoring Tarsis’s systems. There were multiple screens across the room relaying various bio-feedback data back to the engineers, from coolant levels to artificial heart rate to neural pathway feedback responses from his human brain. Wise was not interested in any of that for the time being. His eyes were fixed on the high definition visual feed being sent back via satellite from Tarsis’s eyes. It showed a destroyed building surrounded by fire engines and local law enforcement agencies. It was dark but the video feed from Tarsis had been augmented and his night vision was perfect. The image was a hazy blue colour but it was crystal clear. Tarsis was currently looking at a trio of people ducking under a police cordon and making their way towards the ruins of the building. Wise reached over to a control panel next to his large leather seat. He typed in a passcode and activated the system.
