A few seconds later, I felt someone scooting up next to me in the van, and I knew who it was. She whispered in my ear, and her breath was sweet and cool. “I wouldn’t change anything, Lucas. Yeah, I got jacked up, but it’s not the end of the world. In exchange, I got to go on the adventures of a lifetime, and I never would have had those experiences if it wasn’t for you. We’re a team, right? And we’re not done yet. We’re gonna get your dad, no matter what gets in our way. When we get up to the cavern, take some time for yourself. You need it, you deserve it. Everyone will understand.”
When she was done talking, I realized that she was holding my hand, and it was all right.
Epilogue
I did as Cheri recommended when we got back to the nation’s cavern; although a huge party was taking place, I talked to Benji and told him I would go outside for a bit. “Lukey, I can’t tell ya how happy I am that ya made it back in one piece, mate. I don’t know what I woulda done, what any of us woulda done. None a’ this is fair, but I can’t take the burden for ya. None of us can. I’m sorry, mate, I’m bloody emotional, I reckon.” Then he cried, just a little.
When he finished, he said, “You go on, mate. Take all the time ya need. I’ll cover for ya with the rest a’ these hoons. Go on, then.” He pulled me into a hug, which was happening a lot, but it was okay. He’s Benji.
I waved at the ‘oldies’, Monti and Warrin, who waved back, smiling, and jogged up and out of the cavern. Ava, it’s probably time to call the US again to get the information for my next mission, right?
“Right, but we’ll need to get away from here, and what’s the best way to do that?”
Through the air?
“That’s my boy. To the top, shall we?”
I dashed up the side of the nation hill, as I had done before, and gazed out from the plateau toward Lake Rebecca, or ‘Ol’ Beccy’, as Benji calls it. Soon, we were riding the air currents on our way to Kalgoorlie. This feels good… no cares, at least for the moment…
We set down a few kilometers outside of Kalgoorlie, and I pulled out the cell phone, turned it on, pressed send, and waited. One ring… two rings…
The hacky, chain-smoker voice came on, and I almost felt like I could smell the tobacco stink. “Well, Lucas, you surprised everybody. There were people here, people in the know, as they say, who were taking odds, and most of them lost. Good for you. You didn’t escape unscathed, though, did you?”
“I got shot, but it’s no big deal. Can I talk to my dad now?”
“Why Lucas, I thought you might have forgotten.”
There was a pause, and a few clicks on the line. “Hello? Hello? Are you there?” I asked, and after a few more seconds, a thin, gravelly, but intimately familiar voice:
“Lukey? Are you there?”
“D… Dad? Is that you?”
“It’s me, Lukey. They will only let me talk for a few seconds, so listen carefully. Whatever they ask you to do, refuse. They’ll never stop, Lukey. You have to stay safe, that’s the most important thing. No! No, I’m not done yet! Lukey, I love you! Remember…”
And that was it.
After a few more seconds and a couple more clicks, the smoker was back on. “You see, Lucas? Your father is fine. A few more tasks, and we’ll release him to you. Are you ready for your next mission?”
It took all the will I had in me to stay calm. After several deep breaths, I said, “Sure. I’m ready. What do you need me to do?”
“That’s the good boy. As you know, our main antagonist, since the decline of Russia, is China. They are working on some technology that will change the balance of power, and we can’t have that, so you’ll be going there next.”
“Sure, China. No problem. Do you have people coming for me right now?”
“Oh, Lucas, we’d never get to you in time. There are agents on their way to your location, but you’ll be long gone before they get there, don’t worry.”
“I’m not worried.”
Over the next five minutes, he gave me the details, and I agreed with everything. “Well, Lucas, this has been a pleasant call. I’m glad you got to speak with your father. We’ll do that again after the next mission, if you like.”
“Sure, that would be great.”
“As you wish. Signing off now, go quickly, they’re getting close.”
I turned the phone off and jammed it in my pocket. How’d I do, Ava?
“Perfect, sonny boy. You were the model of restraint. Now, let’s figure out how to get ourselves over to Area 51, shall we?”
As I prepared to fly back to the nation’s cavern, I noticed the sound of a car roaring in my direction, then another. Strangely, although it was a relief to hear my dad’s voice, it also made me almost uncontrollably angry. It reminded me of when I was young, and frustrated over something, I would lash out at my parents, not realizing how wrong it was to do. Ava… I think I’ll just wait here for those cars to get to me. I feel the need for some action, you know what I mean?
“Okay, sonny boy, settle down. You just put me in the position of being your conscience, and that’s not good, since as an A.I. I don’t really have one. I can simulate one just fine, though. Now let me ask you: these people approaching, are they the ones who put us in this situation, or are they just doing their job, going where they’re ordered? Remember what happened once you got to know Dave, Margie, Petey, even Guy? They were our enemies until they weren’t, and the reason they weren’t anymore was because they weren’t to begin with, we just misunderstood the relationship. We reached out to them, and the whole thing flipped like an Olympic gymnast, remember? We could wait here, and waste all of the people approaching, but would that make you feel better? Would it get your dad back? Or, would it make them come after us harder than a pack of wild dogs after a three-legged cat? I just made that one up, but you get the point. Use your logic, sonny boy. You can do it.”
By the time she was done, and especially when she said ‘use your logic’, I lost all my desire to make the people approaching pay for what they had done to my dad and me. Thanks, Ava, you’re right like always. I just feel like I need to get this… I don’t know, anger, frustration, whatever it is… it’s making my thinking… you know, not right…
“You mean not right like that totally disjointed sentence you just thought at me? Take a couple of deep breaths and let’s get out of here, shall we? Oh, but first… this won’t actually hurt anyone, but might be satisfying…”
Ava told me of her prank, and of course I had to do it. She’s an adult, and she told me to, and I’m just a kid, so I have to listen to adults, right?
I jogged away from the road until I reached a half a kilometer, then found a bush to hide myself and waited. I didn’t have to wait long; both of the long, dark trucks came to a screeching halt on the roadway almost directly perpendicular to our location. “Okay, sonny boy, aim well, and enjoy it.”
I think I will… I flicked on my heads-up display, zeroed in, and used four quick pulses from my laser to flatten two tires on each truck.
“That’ll keep them busy for a while. Tell you what, sonny boy. Why don’t we run for a while instead of flying? I bet that’ll feel good.”
It only took me a couple of minutes to put twenty kilometers between us and the road, and we were approaching the first hilly area on our way to Lake Rebecca, or Ol’ Beccy. “Let’s find a spot to stop for a bit, sonny boy. We need to talk over what to do about my hard reboot, and make some final decisions. We can’t hold out much longer.”
After a few moments of searching, I found a seam between boulders that gave us good cover. Yeah, so about that hard reboot… would you mind if I talked it over with the rest of the group? It’s an awful big decision to make, and I feel like they should know in advance, and have chance to say what they think. I mean, we don’t know yet how it will turn out, right? What if I have some kind of major change in personality or something?
“Stand by… the clock is ticking, and I’ve been stalling and turning things off to
extend the time we have in our current state, but we are running out, like Dorothy with the hourglass.”
Who is Dorothy and what’s an hourglass?
“It’s… never mind, it’ll take too long. We have four hours and seven minutes. After that, I’m rebooting whether we’re ready or not. I can’t wait any longer, sonny boy. I understand that it’s a big decision, but if you don’t choose, that’s also a choice, to paraphrase William James.”
Who is… oh, never mind. I know, it’ll take too long.
“That’s my boy. So, if you want to speak with Benji, Cheri, Mardig, Minh, and whoever else you want to include, we better get moving.”
And the fastest way is…
“You read my mind. Strap on that pack and let’s jet ourselves back to the party, sonny boy.”
Okay, here we go. We’re coming for you, Dad… It won’t be long now…
Hi! Thank you for reading my book. I hope you enjoyed the third installment of the Singular saga as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you. Won’t you please take a moment to leave me a review? As an author, I very much depend on your feedback; it’s really the lifeblood of writers like me, and your reviews allow me to continue to write stories like this for your entertainment. To make it as easy as possible, I have included a link; just click REBOOT REVIEW below. It will take you directly to the Reboot page on Amazon, then just scroll down and click the button that says Write a Review. Thank you so much!
REBOOT REVIEW
Next, you’ll want to continue the story if you’ve gotten this far. Below you will find a brief preview of REASSEMBLE, the final thrilling installment in the Singular series!
Reassemble
Prologue
DIRECTOR’S NOTES
MEETING WITH SVC/LFP GENERAL MEETING
121752 14:55
DIRECTOR’S NOTE TO TRANSCRIPT A.I.: We will continue with the practice of using coded initials to identify the members of the LFP to maintain anonymity.
-Look, we can’t bring the kid here. When he finds out we’ve been pulling most of the strings, he’s liable to tear the place apart. Us brainiacs need to figure out how to get the plan to him without outing ourselves, so it’ll have to come from a source he’ll believe in.
-(HB, from the UK) What about the bloody Bright Hand? Is there anyone amongst them he trusts?
-(SVC) I’ll take that. There are a few of them he has visited multiple times, so they would be likely candidates. Let’s see… he has known Zoey Perez the longest, and there may be a relationship between her and the father, so she would be a possible. Others include doctors Tom Engel, Barry Scharfman, and Suhanisa Bhat. He acquired most of his non-native tech from these Bright Handers, and appears close to all of them.
-So, (WK), you’re in the best position to judge on this. First, though, would he listen to you? Maybe we can cut out the middle man, so to speak.
-(WK) Highly unlikely. It would be more likely that he would do the opposite of whatever I ask of him. Hard to blame him… he’s smart, and somehow seems to know that there are schemes all around him, and not just the machinations of the Americans, despite his tender age.
-Yes, I… oh, here comes (JR) online. Thanks for joining us, (JR), I know this is a trying time for you. We know a little about your boy’s situation. Would you be willing to fill us in?
-(JR) Yes, thank you, hello all. As you might guess, I would not be here via hologram if the news were completely negative. Many of you know my son is highly skilled and talented, but can be just the slightest bit impetuous on occasion. He felt committed to helping our friend Lucas Taylor, and the truth is I did also, and I encouraged and allowed for Hassim to go. He would have paid the ultimate price if not for Lucas’ quick thinking and amazing abilities. I won’t go into extreme detail as it is too painful at the moment, but Hassim will recover, and knowing him it won’t take long at all. Lucas was also injured rather severely, but his recovery will undoubtedly be even faster. In fact, he seems already fully recovered. The third member of their team, Ms. Kim, was hurt as well, and because she doesn’t have the same… ah, advantages as the other two, although her injury is less severe, her recuperation will take somewhat longer. They did accomplish their mission, though, as you have undoubtedly heard.
-(General chatter from the group) (SF, from Australia) Ahh, that’s bloody good news, mate.
-(JR) Yes, thank you, my friends. I’m sorry, I imagine you were in the middle of something when I interrupted. Please, continue.
-Right… to get you up to speed, we were just discussing how to get word of our plan for extraction of the boy’s father to him. It seems logical that the info would need to come from someone he already knows and trusts. The point is, we need to coordinate so that we aren’t stepping on one another. Our plan and his plan need to be the same.
-(JR) You might consider leaving that to me.
-Oh, I was hoping you would offer but I didn’t want to impose at this difficult time. Would you mind if we adjourn, and then I fill you in on the plan afterward? The rest of the group have heard it, and there’s no sense in keeping them to hear it again.
-(JR) Of course. I look forward to knowing what this collection of brilliance has come up with.
-(Chuckling from the group)
-Okay, with that we are adjourned. Thank you all. (SVC), is everyone offline?
-Everyone but (JR), as you requested.
-(JR) Let me guess, please. Whatever elaborate plan the general group was exposed to has nothing to do with the actual plan.
-You see, (SVC)? I told you (JR) is the smartest of the LFP. I assume you’ve seen some of the leaks?
-Yes, and I guessed they were a diversion.
-Right again. We actually plan on going in three days.
-You must have some details you would like to communicate with Lucas and his friends?
-(SVC) I’m transferring that to you now.
-(JR) Yes, I have it, thank you. Three days is very little time to pull things together. You believe this will work?
-I believe this is the only way it works. Oh, by the way, weren’t you involved on some level with the development of the halo protocol?
-I was in on some initial discussions, but the tech is beyond me at this point, I’m afraid. I understand that quantum entanglement is being manipulated as a control source, and I am not sure anyone understands that fully. You’re not thinking of attempting to use it in this extraction effort, are you? I thought it was purely theoretical. It almost seemed like a thought exercise, to be honest.
-Yeah, well, it appears there’s been some progress. Anyway, the boy goes in three days from now. It’s our best hope.
-Having seen first-hand what he can do, I must grudgingly agree. By the way, in three days it will be the twentieth of December, isn’t that right?
-I… yeah, that’s right. Why?
Why, director, I’m surprised you don’t know. That will be the boy’s birthday.
-No way. He’s going to get either the best or the worst birthday present ever, depending on how this all goes down. Speaking of birthdays… (SVC), round up some cake, would you?
1
F lying is a weird experience, especially with no plane around you. You feel the wind, the air currents, and if you’re flying low enough, you have to watch out for bugs. For me, they don’t hurt, but they do make a mess.
Ava and I were winging our way back from Kalgoorlie to the nation’s cavern after making our latest, and hopefully last, call to the anonymous American at the other end of the cell phone given to me when my dad was kidnapped. Each call so far has resulted in another death-defying mission for us, and this last one was almost just plain death instead of death-defying. The chain-smoking man at the other end of the calls had promised me that, after five missions, they would be satisfied and would release my dad, but there’s no way they’re going to let him go. They’ll just use me up and torture him until he gives up his tech secrets or until… well, let’s not say what the other alternative is.
I have to give that gravelly voice on the phone credit, though; he did keep one promise. I got to hear from my dad on the last call, and I know it was him. So, at least he’s alive. He told me, in the few seconds they let him talk, to refuse to do whatever they demand of me. Well, guess what. I didn’t refuse, but I’m sure not going to do what they asked. They think they know what I can do, what my limits are, but they haven’t seen everything. I’m coming for you, dad, and soon…
But first, Ava, and I too, I guess, have to do a hard reboot of her system. The nano-machines have been steadily replacing my brain cells as they die, and we are so connected now that we have to make the choice of either merging or separating. We know what separating means: Ava will continue to control my system, keep everything working properly, and respond to commands, but we won’t be able to speak to one another anymore. What we don’t know is what merging will be like. Ava’s best guess is that it will be pretty similar to how things are now, where we can talk back and forth, but it could be something totally different, she just doesn’t know because it’s never happened before. And, we only have about three hours and forty-five minutes to decide, because at that point the reboot will happen whether we’re ready or not.
Reboot Page 22
