Reboot

by Larry Buenafe

  23

  DIRECTOR’S NOTES

  MEETING WITH SVC

  121552 00:18

  -Can you believe those idiots? They just threw it all away. Unbelievable. Okay, let’s get moving. I’m taking over the Extraction Plan Committee, and I’m including everyone, all the LFP. Everyone who’s left, anyway. Our little ruse to get the moles out worked to perfection, now it’s time to get serious. Plus, if there are any others with ‘divided loyalties’, this will make them evident.

  -I’ll schedule the meeting for tomorrow morning. There has been a… a development in Brazil. Oakes met with the boy, his cohort, and Hassim at a restaurant a couple of hours ago.

  -What? How did he know they were already there?

  -It appears that there is some kind of relationship between Rajput, his son, and Oakes, of which we were unaware.

  -Come on, don’t make me ask. You know what the next question is.

  -Yes, of course. I don’t see a reason to intervene at this point. It simply appears that they are trying to get a jump on the mission in case any others know of their official time frame. And yes, the report came in from our Russian assets in Brasilia.

  -I knew they would come in handy someday. Let’s keep close tabs on the proceedings. Next, schedule a general meeting so I can discuss current events with the whole group, including an extraction plan reboot. Got it?

  -As always. One other thing: the aboriginal and the rest of his group have left the Bright Hand HQ, heading for his nation’s cavern.

  -What? (WK) just let them go? I need to have a talk with him.

  -I’ll arrange it post haste.

  -Do we at least have eyes on them? We don’t need any more shenanigans from the Americans, especially after that last debacle. Snatching him right out of the Bright Hand HQ, and the only reason they didn’t get away with it was because the kid got there in the nick of time.

  -They are going through the outback, not the roads. On foot, no less. We are observing them, but have also noted a few tiny VTOLs just above the treetops flying in their direction. We detected some communications between the aboriginal’s group and the VTOLs, so it appears safe to assume that they are transportation to the nation’s cavern.

  -I wonder where they got their hands on the VTOLs. They’re still rare, especially in that part of the world. And ‘safe to assume’? If I remember correctly, and I do, assuming has gotten us into some hot water recently. Speaking of hot water, how about some tea, maybe some cookies?

  ****

  I t was seeming like we have a lot more people on our side than we thought. Either that, or it’s a totally convincing trap. Or, it could be a little of both.

  People we thought were enemies, organizing things to make it easier for us. Pulling together the people we needed on our side; people it would have been difficult for us to contact. Maybe we would never have gotten to them otherwise. Maybe it’s all real, and we just got lucky enough for things to start falling our way, but I don’t know. Even though I don’t have a compelling reason to doubt them right now, it just feels too… too easy.

  These were the thoughts that occupied my mind as we ate; or, I should say, as the others ate and I looked at my food. They chatted a little but mostly just ate quietly; there wasn’t much else to talk about that we could say out in the open. “Hey, Lucinda, if you’re not going to eat that, I’ll have it,” said Hassim, snapping me out of my inner dialogue.

  Agent Oakes stood, and in his rumbling voice said, “I must be going. I have some matters to attend to. I’ll be watching tomorrow.”

  He paused for a moment, staring at me. He leaned forward, his head near mine. “I’m sorry you two ever had to be involved in these matters. The world has become a strange, dangerous place, thanks to men like me, and now, we think somehow you and your little band will save us from the fruits of our hubris. What fools we are. Well, Godspeed.” Then he leaned even closer, and the odor of smoke and mints hit my nose as he whispered in my ear: “And Lucas, remember this word: Reboot. I’ll see you soon.”

  Reboot? What did he mean by that? Oh, boy…

  After he hustled out of the restaurant, Hassim leaned forward and whispered, “Blimey, who knew he was such a philosopher, eh? Hang on a minute, what’s this?”

  He motioned for us to act as if nothing was going on as two wiry men with buzzed hair from the back of the restaurant got up from their seats and hurried out of the door, turning the same direction as Agent Oakes.

  “The Russians are on his tail. You two wait here,” he hissed, as he threw a wad of cash down on the table and bolted after them. Cheri turned to me, her eyes wide. “Is that enough money?” I asked.

  “I don’t know, but I’m not waiting to find out. Let’s go!”

  We were obviously finished with trying to avoid attracting attention as we dashed out the door and sprinted after them. I could have run much faster, but I didn’t want to leave Cheri by herself; after a short sprint, we rounded a corner, and fifty meters down the sidewalk was Hassim, standing over the two Russians, lying face-down on the concrete; Agent Oakes was nowhere in sight.

  “You’ve got us wrong,” one of the Russians was complaining loudly. “Our mission is to observe. Observe only!”

  “Nothing to see here. Keep moving,” Hassim said in Portuguese to a small group of people walking by, waving his hands at them. They ran past us as Cheri grabbed my arm to get me to slow down. “Keep your eyes open. Let’s make sure that there’s no one else nearby ready to shoot us or anything.”

  To our left was the side of a tall building and to our right a narrow street. There were windows everywhere, mostly dark. I activated my heads-up display and used my thermal sensor to see if any of the windows had heat signatures we needed to be concerned with, but the area was clear.

  I wonder how Hassim got them down so fast…

  “Okay, I’m going to stand you up, but don’t make any moves and don’t try to run. If you think I’m tough, you should see this cute girl right here.” He winked at me and bent to help the two lean, sinewy men up. He grabbed each man by the back of their shirts and pulled them to a standing position with what seemed like no effort at all and forced their backs against the wall of the building. “Right, gentlemen, one at a time, explain why you followed that man, and you’d better be convincing.”

  They both blurted out a simultaneous stream of dialogue, and he held up his finger, wagging it from side to side. “Now, now, gentlemen, I know you can follow directions. One at a time.”

  The man on the right held his hand up to the other one, and began: “We were just paid to watch him, report his movements, that’s all. It was done by phone, wire transfers. We don’t even know who we work for. We see him move, we report. We see him talking to people, we report. Is all, I swear. We do similar work for Russian government, but freelance as well. Russian government doesn’t need to know.”

  “Ava…”

  “They’re telling the truth. They’re too scared to lie. They’re simple lurkers. What we need to know is whether they know who we are. That would present a bigger potential problem for us. I suggest we ‘sequester’ them until the mission is complete.”

  I told Hassim what Ava said and the Russians nodding vigorously as I spoke until I said the part about sequestering. At that point, Hassim nodded, though. “Yes, too right, Lucinda. Can’t take any chances, eh? I don’t suppose either of you have anything that will put these fellows to sleep for a day or two, do you?”

  I glanced at Cheri, and she winked. “I’ve got this one. It would probably look a little odd for anyone to see us carrying these two jokers, so I suggest we find a wooded place, maybe some grass where they can lie before we send them to dreamland. You searched them, I assume?”

  Hassim pulled a knife and a small handgun out of the pockets of his faded military jacket, and Cheri said, “Not bad. Maybe you should check this one’s belt.”

  He looked down at the belt of the Russian on the left and smacked himself in the forehead. “G
ood call. Perhaps you do have some training after all.”

  Hassim reached for the man’s belt buckle, tapped it on the top, and a small blade with two finger holes popped out the side.

  He gave Cheri a fist-bump and said, “Notice anything else?”

  “I’d have them remove their shoes. Makes it harder to run, and also just in case there’s anything in there we might have missed.” She turned and addressed the two wiry Russians in her gruffest male voice. “Do you guys have any idea what you’ve gotten into here?”

  They looked at one another, their eyes wide. “No, and I don’t think we want to,” said the one on the right.

  “Yeah, well, you won’t have to worry about it for a day or so. Then, I suggest you forget you ever had any contact with us, and you refuse any other side gigs with whoever it is that has hired you to follow that man. And if we ever hear you have done anything, anything, to identify us or get in our way, we’ll come looking for you, and next time we won’t be as pleasant. Keep walking.”

  I noticed the men’s Adam’s Apples moving as they gulped, and Hassim reached back for another fist-bump with Cheri.

  At the end of the building was a wooded park to the left, which was ideal for the soon-to-be snoring Russians. As Hassim directed them to turn into the sloping entrance to the park, one of the Russians, his voice shaky, said, “You’re not going to kill us, are you?”

  Hassim, winking at both of us, said, “If I’m honest, I haven’t decided yet. Keep walking, fellows.”

  Twenty meters or so down the path he had the Russians turn left again off the path and into the trees. “Very good, gentlemen, stop there, but continue to face forward please. There we go, that’s the good lads.”

  He motioned to Cheri, and she stepped forward, using her remaining hand to press a small tab against the back of the neck of the Russian on her left; he began to wobble almost immediately, and she quickly did the same to the Russian on the right. I caught the first one and eased him to the ground, Hassim caught the second, and I noticed that it took almost no effort for him. That’s not just training and skill… there’s something else going on…

  “That’s some impressive tech. How long will they be out?” Hassim hissed as we made our way out of the heavily wooded park.

  “Roughly twenty-four hours, and by that time this will all seem like a bad dream. For them, at least. We still have a long way to go before we’re done.”

  He/she held his/her elbow out to me, and after a moment of confusion I took it as we strolled casually out of the park and back toward our hotel. Suddenly I realized: the way Hassim moves… it reminds me of Ernie… the unusual speed and strength… he’s not all puffed up like Ernie, though… maybe whatever they’ve given Hassim is a newer, more refined version… I wonder if he would tell us if we asked…

  24

  DIRECTOR’S NOTES

  LFP GENERAL MEETING

  121552 07:53

  -(To SVC) I know we’re a little early, you don’t need to tell me that. Is everyone online? I want to get going if we’re ready.

  -(SVC) One moment… all parties are now online, all holograms functioning properly.

  -I think this is our first meeting where everyone aside from you and me is holo-present. (To whole group) Well, let’s call this meeting to order; thanks everyone for being ready early. If there are no major objections, I will forego Robert’s Rules; if things get out of hand, we’ll use them, otherwise not. At least some of you know that two of our former members have violated our strictest bylaws, and as a result are being dealt with appropriately. That means we have two openings among our group of thirty, and I’ll invite you to sponsor potential new members at the end of the meeting.

  -(General chatter)

  -(JR) I know what is in the bylaws, but sometimes what occurs in practice is different. Would you tell us what you meant by ‘being dealt with appropriately’ in this instance?

  -(To SVC) You want to take that one?

  -(SVC) Of course. As it clearly states in the bylaws, any attempt to sabotage or reveal the workings of our organization will result in indefinite sequestration, and that is the plan for our errant former members. They are being questioned, and when that is complete, they will remain sequestered until such time as we achieve our mission goals and we are fully underway. At that point, we will no longer be concerned with whom they speak to or align themselves with, so we will release them. To save time, I have prepared a brief that will confer the content of their violations. Sending to you now.

  -(Murmuring and clicking sounds)

  -Right, let’s get to business. Originally, we planned to have a small committee work on an extraction plan for Dr. John Taylor; I’m sure all of you know that the Americans have kidnapped him and have him in a secret location, attempting to get him to give up his technology. Obviously, they are intent on using it for military purposes, and to put it plainly, we want it so we might potentially live forever, free from disease or aging. If we allow the Americans to get this technology, it may spell the end of our dreams, so we need to work on recovering Dr. Taylor ASAP. The original committee had developed a plan, and it might have even worked, but it is possible that the Americans know of the plan, so although we can use it as a starting place, I don’t believe it would be wise to use it talis qualis. (SVC) is sending you a transcript of the original plan now so we’ll have a starting point. After that, though, (SVC), can you get someone to rustle up a little breakfast? These holo-people won’t mind if I eat as we discuss.

  ****

  “ So, something is definitely suspicious about this situation,” Cheri mused, almost to herself as we strolled back toward our hotel. “You contacted Oakes as we were walking to the restaurant, right?”

  Hassim nodded. “Okay, and the Russians told us they were assigned to follow him and report his movements. Right?”

  He nodded again, slower this time. “Then how is it that they were in the restaurant before him, before us, even? It seems like way too much of a coincidence to think that they were just in there by chance.”

  Hassim stopped short, his eyes cast toward the ground, his hand on his chin. “That’s an astute observation. I should have picked up on that as well. I wonder if Oakes has frequented that place during his time here; if so, they might have just expected him to be there. It’s a good question. He suggested the restaurant, so… hm. He knew the Russians were following him; he hurried to a cab and drove away just as I got to them.”

  Cheri stepped forward, closing the gap between the three of us. “There are a bunch of possibilities. Could be that someone else is watching Oakes and tipping off the Russians. Could be they were just there because they knew him to frequent the place, like you said. Could be you’re working with the Russians and this whole thing of chasing them down is a cover to throw us off.”

  Hassim’s eyes widened. “You think I might somehow be working with the Russians? Why would I do that?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. I suppose the Russians wouldn’t mind getting their hands on Lucas’ technology, just like the Americans. Maybe they’re willing to pay more, I don’t know. There are a lot of things we didn’t know about you before today; maybe this is just another of those things.”

  “Huh. What about the bloody Chinese? I wager they’d fancy a crack at his technology as well, maybe more than anyone. Oh, and you’re Chinese, aren’t you? Isn’t that interesting?”

  They seemed to be close to taking on a fighting stance. Cheri might have given Hassim a good challenge before, but with only one arm… “Tell them both to calm down. I don’t suspect either of them; the situation is tense and everyone is tight as a drum, and it’s causing them to go down some conspiracy rabbit holes. Tell them there’s something about the situation with the Russians and Oakes that we don’t understand yet, but you don’t suspect either of them and that we need to work together if we’re going to get through this crap-fest.”

  I repeated Ava’s words, and they both snickered when I said ‘crap-fest’. Hass
im held his hands up and said, “Look, I am what I say I am. I can understand your suspicion, though; after what you’ve been through, everything must seem suspicious. If I was involved in some kind of plot against you, wouldn’t it have been easier for me to put it in action in Pakistan? You were hurting and distracted, and when you were in the hospital with me Daddy, you were totally incapacitated. Could have initiated a capture easily at that point, couldn’t I? Still, if you want me gone, say so; I’ll leave now and you’ll never see me again.”

  “Ask him what you’re thinking. If he’s honest, then we have no reason to send him away. If he’s not honest, though, we send him packing.”

  You heard me thinking again?

  “You were thinking? Oh, this will have to come to a head soon. It seems that every time your thoughts take the form of words, I ‘hear’ them as if you were speaking. This is a highly unexpected development. In the meantime, ask him.”

  I crossed my arms and cocked my head to the side. “Hassim, we need to know how you got to those Russians so fast, and how you overpowered them with no problem. And how you lifted them up like they weighed nothing.”

  “Yeah, and you said me again when you should have said my,” Cheri added.

  He chuckled, just for a moment, and then his eyes narrowed, but I wasn’t sure what his expression meant. He looked around to make sure no one else was near and motioned for us to come closer. “Listen, this is a highly guarded secret, right? MI-6 would come after me if they knew it was me who gave it up. And by come after me, I mean in a permanent way. You understand? I’m going to tell you, but just like you, I need to know that we’re in this together, and that you’ll… oh, why am I even considering this? I should turn around, walk down this bloody street and never look back. I may be losing me bloody mind, but I’m going to tell you. Just please, please keep it amongst us. I have no desire to disappear. And yes, I know I said me. Just accept that I will do that.”