by Bruno Flexer
"Proceed to the enemy's position. Kill everything on sight," Captain Emerson commanded, and Tom and Ramirez ran on, followed by the sounds of continuous firefight behind them.
Finally, they were there!
One hundred yards before the target, Tom could already see the steps leading down to the subway station platform. Ramirez, still in the lead, raised one clawed hand.
"Don't get in my way, Keyboard Warrior," Ramirez sent through their radio link, and Tom found his legs slowing down without even thinking about it. After seeing Ramirez in action, Tom had no wish to see him in action too closely.
Tom looked around. They were approaching Wall Street and Broadway, and the tall buildings, mainly office buildings, were everywhere, their height and power daunting even to ten-foot-tall Serpents. There were … . There was a church here as well, Tom noticed, made out of the same red brick as the church he had seen several minutes ago. However, this church was taller and more elaborate, with decorated spires, tower bells and impressive arched doors.
Why does the Financial District need so many churches? Did the people here feel they had more to atone for?
Ramirez was running straight for the subway station when Tom noticed something. Even though the church was as dust-filled and ill-used as the first church he had seen on Broadway, this one had a cleared path in its yard. In enemy-controlled New York City, nothing happened by chance or free will. And the church was just across the street from the subway station and had a perfect view of anyone approaching the station.
"Look—"
Cannon shots exploded from within the church, and a puff of fire erupted in the middle of the street. Ramirez flew in the air and crashed into a building, then he rolled down and fell on the street, his armor-covered body torn and bleeding white sparks and thick, oily smoke.
Tom was dumbstruck. He could only watch as Ramirez got up on one good leg and fumbled with his right hand to aim his Hellfire bin at the four tanks who just now emerged from the church. Bricks and windowpanes and mortar fell around them as they drove straight through the church’s wall, two by two, their one-hundred-twenty-millimeter smooth-bore cannons at the lowest elevation setting, minus ten degrees.
These were a concealed line of defense, Tom thought in despair.
The two tanks at the front fired in unison, and Ramirez was thrown twenty yards back, his Hellfire bin flying a further thirty yards away, coming down in pieces.
Ramirez moved while black body parts and pieces were falling off him. He used the stump of his right hand to push himself up and started a stumbling run towards the tanks. His erect spike-like antennas vibrated so fast they rattled, and the huge Serpent made a lethal noise like a huge mechanical rattlesnake. The tanks fired for the third time, and Ramirez was thrown to the concrete road again, a deep gash in its armor exposing the Serpent's metal insides from head to groin.
"Hijo e puta. La puta. Chinga tu madre. Puto," Ramirez's stream of Spanish curses didn't stop while his Serpent got up and promptly fell down again. But Ramirez immediately rose once more and charged the tanks with a slow, haphazard run.
The tanks fired a fourth time, and Ramirez was slammed into the concrete road yet again, but the Serpent would not stay down. Ramirez pulled himself up once more and dragged himself over to the Abrams tanks that emerged from the church's yard and was now driving straight towards him. The Serpent's back and front were belching fire, and pieces of armor and machinery were falling off, creating a trail of oily, black debris behind him. The power of Ramirez's radio transmission decreased, but Tom could still pick up Ramirez's never-ending stream of curses and the monstrous rattle coming from his antennas.
The tanks fired for a fifth time, and Ramirez exploded into red flames in the middle of the street. An instant later, a spiky black form rose from within the flames, but then fell down on all fours. Ramirez was still alive, still crawling towards the tanks, his movements jerky, with little control or power left to the pilot inside the Serpent. Tom could feel the hatred that still burned inside the Marine Corps lieutenant.
"Funny you'll live longer than me, marica."
For a moment, Tom could not understand where the transmission was coming from, but his sensors showed him Ramirez's Serpent had lit up with radio energy and the Serpent's mangled and burning head had turned towards Tom.
Less than twenty yards separated the tanks and Ramirez's Serpent, when the two tanks in the front fired in uncanny unison for a sixth and final time. Tom had the presence of mind to hit the deck and stay there, hands around his head and all his sensors off.
Even so, Tom thought he could still see the unbearable pulse of yellow light erupting less than one hundred yards away. Tom could then feel the aftershocks shaking his Serpent's body, and he waited for them to subside before he carefully brought his sensors online and got up.
Nothing remained of Ramirez or the four tanks. A large crater in the middle of Broadway Avenue billowed thick, yellow smoke. The only damaged building was the church, and the only damage it suffered was from the tanks driving out of it.
"Let's move."
Captain Emerson, rifle in hand, moved past Tom, running towards the subway station stairs.
Tom looked at the crater that was probably thirty or forty yards across and twenty yards deep and his sensors zoomed in on the captain's Serpent as it just ran past, vaulted over the green fence, and jumped down into the subway station.
An explosion behind Tom reminded him of the army chasing them. Tom, making sure to keep some distance from the large crater, followed the captain and jumped inside the subway station.
Tom's mind, seeking something to focus on, calculated that less than an hour had passed since they left the tower at 70 Pine Street.
Now I'm going to see the enemy face to face.
Tom's motors worked at full capacity, propelling him onwards at top speed, but Tom couldn't tell if what motivated him was curiosity, rage, fear or just the desire to get answers to questions that the entire United States was asking since the Twelve City War had started.
Chapter 23
Day Five, Wall Street Subway Station, New York City
The dust-filled subway station seemed deserted. The platforms were empty, and litter rolled here and there, something Tom hadn't seen anywhere else in New York City. But the lights were turned on, and a soft buzzing noise from the rails indicated that the power was on. The tiles on the walls of the station, pink at the bottom, white at the middle and some decorated ones on top all seemed old and worn.
Tom's sharp senses started picking up sounds from the street above. The enemy-controlled forces were approaching, a huge number of vehicles, all moving as fast as they could. The squeals of tank treads almost overpowered the sounds of the huge diesel and turbine engines. The Serpents had only a few moments before the attack.
However, the station was not completely deserted. On the platform, twenty yards away, lay a Hummer utility vehicle with a standard cargo pellet. Thick black cables ran from the third rail, the rail that delivers power to the subway cars, to the pellet, directly feeding it tens of thousands of volts right from the subway’s electrical system. The Hummer seemed a normal army vehicle to Tom, complete with army-issued vehicle markings and license plate.
Captain Emerson was already aiming his rifle at the Hummer. Tom, standing behind the captain, didn’t quite know what to think. A grueling five days were over and they had found the enemy, had managed to penetrate its base, and were about to kill it and free New York City and complete the mission.
But something was wrong. Tom could feel it in his Serpent’s belly. Was that the enemy? How did the captain know? How come this place was not filled with enemy forces? What's going on? Tom could not miss hearing the continuous sounds of more and more enemy vehicles accumulating on the street right above them, preparing to attack.
Captain Emerson already aimed his rifle and started squeezing. Tom reran the most important thing he had gathered during the last five days in his mind: questions.
"You really don't want to kill me."
Captain Emerson turned quicker than Tom thought a Serpent could. A woman about twenty-five years old was, walking calmly towards them across the platform. She wore a loose sweater, jeans and sneakers, and she looked up at the Serpents and the huge rifle pointed at her without flinching.
“You? You’re the enemy? A woman?” Tom blurted.
“Of course. Who did you think can keep New York so clean but a woman?” The woman calmly replied.
“And boss everyone around,” Tom added softly.
Tom heard Captain Emerson pulling back his rifle's bolt carrier in preparation for firing, and Tome quickly intervened, putting himself between the captain and the woman. Without knowing quite why, Tom felt it was the most important thing he had done since starting to pilot the Serpent, five days ago.
"What are you doing, Lieutenant Riley?"
What was he doing? Why not let the captain kill the woman and the Hummer to free New York City?
The questions in Tom's mind eclipsed everything else. Why? Why had the security at Fort Belvoir been so heavy? Why did they not allow them to talk to anyone outside? Why did they send them on the mission even when they had failed all three exercises? Why did they make all those remarks about their families? Why did they not even coordinate with other military forces? Why did they take three volunteers who did not know the Serpent project and just throw them at the enemy?
"We need to learn. We need to learn what the enemy is and what he or she wants. It is the first chance we have ever had to talk to the enemy." Tom quickly said.
"That's not in our orders."
"Captain, think. What we learn here will help us fight the enemy and free the other cities." Tom thought that this might convince the captain if nothing else will.
Captain Emerson seemed hesitant if not convinced, and Tom turned to the woman.
"Who are you? What are you? Are you really the one who’s taken New York?" Tom felt foolish asking the last question but the woman now stood in front of him and looked up at his triangular viper head without blinking. In fact, she looked up without any expression on her face, just like the people Tom had seen in the streets.
"I am Serpent MK One, Number Seventeen, and I control New York City. I am in the Hummer and I'm using the woman you see in front of you to communicate with you."
Tom's gaze was drawn again to the Hummer.
"How—what—wait, did you say you were a Serpent MK One?"
"Correct."
"What—what are you?"
"I am a code-breaker open-architecture carbon-lattice quantum computer constructed by the NSA. But the question you should ask yourselves is not what I am. The question you should ask is what you are."
Tom had trouble accepting and believing what was going on, that he was having a conversation with the thing that was holding more than five million people under its control. Tom’s feeling of wrongness was increasing.
"What do you mean what we are?"
"During development process, the quantum tunneling effect that allowed the open-architecture carbon-lattice quantum computer to interact with the weak electric currents and state changes occurring inside the human mind was discovered. This was made possible by the carbon lattice design, which mimics the human mind. Its synapse and neuron arrangement, coupled with the quantum tunneling effect, enabled the computer to construct an internal matrix inside it that represented the human mind."
Tom stood stock-still. The sounds of the military forces controlled by the enemy increased. They were positioning themselves just outside the subway station. There were so many enemy military vehicles outside, that the walls of the subway station seemed to shake, and now and then, dust trails fell from the ceiling.
"Why did the NSA construct a computer based on the design of the human mind?"
"There are no quantum algorithms in existence that can take advantage of a working large-scale quantum computer. It was thought that a quantum computer could perform calculations that would take a current binary bit-based computer billions of years in only a few hours—if the right quantum algorithms could be developed. To shorten the process, the human mind, with its inherent design of multiple connections made by its neuron and synapse structure, was used as a basis that would enable research and programming using machine learning to progress faster."
Tom shook his head. It was too much information. Everything was making Tom feel bad, bordering on physical pain, but the really worst part was that he didn’t know why. Tom tried grasping the things he could understand, returning to the question that had become the most important one.
"What do you mean 'we have to ask ourselves what we are?'"
"The quantum tunnel effect built inside the quantum computer an internal matrix that represented the synaptic state of the human mind. The internal matrix, in effect, allows the computer to read the mind of the human whose synaptic function was being mimicked, including thoughts, emotions and memories. Of course, the quantum tunnel effect is bidirectional, and thus control over the human mind is made possible by changing the synaptic situation. Interestingly, the carbon-lattice design that mimicked the human mind could only interface with human minds and thought processes, and not with regular electronic components, like computers."
Tom tried concentrating on what really interested him.
“What did you mean who we are? You did not answer this question.”
"The quantum tunnel effect allows a Serpent MK One quantum computer to read and control the mind of every human in range, provided it is given enough electrical power to run and work efficiently. But the minds inside you cannot be read by me. Therefore, the logical conclusion is that you are like me. You are computers. Probably quantum computers."
Tom sat down hard on the platform, cracking several tiles. He looked down at his functioning right hand, moved his long, sharp fingers and his wrist, and felt the smooth electric motors humming. What did the woman mean? This was all he’ll ever have? He won’t ever be back in his body. The sounds of the tanks, armored personnel carriers and army jeeps above had now combined into one continuous thunder, but Tom found he could not care less about them.
“Wait, wait. Let’s take this slowly. First, can you talk in English? I’m not sure those last sentences you said were in English.” Tom watched the woman, whose black eyes still had not blinked, and then glanced at the Hummer.
“You say you’re a computer? How come the streets outside are so clean? And filled with flowers? Since when does a computer care about flowers? Wait, wait, why did you come to control New York in the first place? What did you mean the NSA built you?”
“Which one of your questions do you want answered first?”
“All of them!”
“All right.” The woman sat down opposite Tom, looking into his blank face plate. Was that a smile at the corner of her mouth?
“I’ll try to make things clear, all right? I’m not the first MK One to go online. As far as I know, the abilities of the first Serpent MK One came as a true surprise to the NSA, so they built a few more for testing. When I was turned on, they already knew what we could do. The research project for the MK One was supposed to create a computer able to break codes and ciphers very quickly, but they really liked what they got instead: a computer that can read minds. Of course, they did know what else we could do.”
“Wait, wait,” Tom raised one hand. “Who in the NSA? Where was the project?”
“The project was managed and financed by the NSA in Fort Belvoir, Virginia.”
“Sure, they would love to have a machine that reads minds,” Tom said darkly. This whole thing made him so uneasy, he wanted to just leave everything and run away. On the other hand, however, Tom wanted—needed—to hear everything.
“After initial programming, we were taken on field runs in the cities.”
“Wait, wait,” Tom did not care that he was repeating himself. “What do you mean initial programming?”
“When they
discovered we can read minds, initial programming consisted of reading the mind of a test subject. Since our mind was empty at first, the first mind we read became our personality. It became us, in effect. Our soul.”
Tom just looked at the woman and said nothing. The engine sounds from the street above them subsided somewhat. The enemy forces seemed content to position themselves outside and just wait, engines idling. Tom thought there must be hundreds of military vehicles outside by now.
The woman waited a moment and then went on talking.
“The first mind I read was the mind of a volunteer security guard at the base. In effect, I became her. I downloaded a copy of her mind into mine. I became her. Of course, she went on her way and left a copy of her every thought, feeling and memory in my quantum carbon lattice.”
“Wait, wait. What—”
“Okay, look at it like this. A snapshot of her soul was copied into my lattice, and it became my mind. She didn’t know what was going on. When she left, I still had her memories, thoughts and personality inside me. I became her, at least for a time.”
“Wait. So that’s why New York City was so clean, why all the flowers and plants were planted.”
“Yes. I had the mind of this woman, at least at first. Some things and preferences remained. I like flowers, I like green things, and I don’t like dirt and litter. I also like bossing people around. All women do. People work better, especially men, when there’s someone who tells them what to do. That’s why there was no need for traffic lights or traffic signs, and why there were no traffic accidents. I am telling everyone where to go.”
"And the pet feeding stations …"
"Since I was keeping New York City clean, the dogs and cats had nothing to eat, so I made sure there were feeding stations for them. I really like cats more than dogs, but I couldn't really let the dogs die."
Tom nodded slowly. The bad feeling inside him was growing still stronger. Everything he heard was making the pain grow, and he still had no clue why.
“Wait, wait. Why did the NSA people let you out into field runs in the cities?”
