Daughter Of Ethos: 0.5 - 1 - 2

by L M Lacee

  ‘Don’t, so Tim, he is part of all this too?’

  Naya sighed as Adam answered. ‘Yes.’

  ‘Is he even your brother?’

  ‘Yes, as Naya is my wife. I am lead agent Adam Powers, Naya is our liaison between agencies and Tim is in training.’

  ‘Your parents, I am guessing, are still very much alive.’

  Adam explained. ‘Yes, Peyton please try to understand. We did not know if you were a spy trying to infiltrate our group.’

  She ignored his words and asked. ‘The girls are not even your sisters or from your town, are they?’

  Adam shook his head. ‘No.’

  ‘So you were not in here arguing about them then?’

  Naya told her. ‘No, we were discussing telling you who and what we are.’

  ‘So who are you?’

  Adam explained. ‘We are agents for an agency who contract out to parents who have lost or had their children stolen. Our agency belongs to an organization that rescues people from all over the world. We go where the government will not go and do what the government will not do. Our members are from all over the world.’ Adam smiled as he offered her a job. ‘You could join us, you would be an asset. You could belong to a family again. Naya says you have none.’

  Peyton shook her head. ‘No, I am sorry, what you do is good work and I think it probably needs doing. People like these need to be held accountable. I believe in justice.’ She looked at the couple she had thought would become friends and told them. ‘But I could never trust you and for that I cannot join you, but I wish you luck in your future endeavors.’

  Adam murmured. ‘They will die.’

  ‘Yes, I am sure they will. There is no place in the world for people like them, they should have looked around themselves and seen what our world is like. We as a people have been harmed enough. They should have asked. How can I make it better instead of adding to the misery that is already here? If nothing else, they should have realized by now our time on this world is finite. But they didn’t and now they will reap what they have sown, as someone I knew once told me.’

  Adam said. ‘Are you making it better, Peyton?’

  She stared at him and Naya and saw what she had missed before, the hardness and the guarded expressions of people who lived with lies. ‘Yes.’

  Naya said. ‘There is no more to say then.’

  Peyton raised her chin and said. ‘My grandfather told me that in this changing world. Our honor is all we truly have as ours, everything else is on loan. I may be inexperienced in the world you live in, but I know that it is your choice to live there. I also know it is a place I could never choose, and one I hope I never have to.’

  Adam nodded. ‘We too hope you never have to. Goodbye Peyton.’

  ‘Say goodbye to Tim for me.’

  ‘I will.’

  Naya handed her a flash-drive. ‘Anytime you need us, call. We will always accept.’

  Peyton took the drive and placed it in her pocket. ‘Sure, why not?’

  With one last look at her, Adam held his hand out to Naya and as she took it, she sighed, thinking maybe, just maybe they had made a gigantic mistake. Once they were gone, Peyton secured her belongings and replaced the charger on her bike, then rode through the opened bolt hole. All the while refusing to think about the three people she had been with or what they were to do.

  When she was clear of the fort, she opened her bike up and raced away to a hill three miles away. She shut everything down, then deployed her reco-drone. Originally the drone had been five inches wide and ten inches long, but with her modifications it was as small as a fly now.

  Minutes later, she watched on her screen as the drone flew above the fort and settled in a hovering pattern. Within thirty minutes, two large land vehicles arrived and drove into the opened courtyard. She watched as a man from one of the vehicles passed Adam four large black crates, he stacked them against the courtyard wall, then he disappeared into the stables.

  A few minutes later, Adam, Tim and Naya helped the children who were still tied climb into the shielded land vehicles. Once they were all on board, Naya climbed into the cab of the lead vehicle, which seemed to be the signal for them to leave. Minutes after they had departed, two magbikes arrived.

  She watched as Tim unsnapped each of the four large crates and carried one to each of the four corners of the courtyard, which she realized was empty. None of the women were there. Tim opened a crate, tapped on a screen and then moved to the next one and repeated the same procedure.

  By the time he had the third one, Adam led the Warren sisters and the other adults out from a room and made them sit again in the courtyard. They seemed very compliant she could not see their faces but thought maybe they had been drugged.

  Once Tim finished with the fourth crate, he and Adam, without a word to the prisoners. Casually walked out of the fort and climbed behind the riders on the waiting bikes. She watched them ride away until she could not see them anymore and was just about to recall her drone when the fort along with her drone blew up.

  ‘Hell’s teeth that was not what I expected.’ Peyton hissed as she sat for several minutes watching the flames reach up into the sky. With a shake of her head, she quickly closed her screen and flipped her face shield up. Then started her bike, hitting maximum level and racing into the early morning light.

  For the remainder of her trip to the Data Master complex, she analyzed the entire meeting with Naya, Adam, and Tim. Finally arriving at the conclusion she was flawed, it was the only logical explanation for being duped. Of course, she reasoned as she tried to sleep in her one person traveling bubble, she was human so that must account for occasional errors.

  Although she could not seem to shake the fact her confidence had taken a hit, and she worried she would doubt her ability to know when someone was lying. Something she had never done before.

  FOURTEEN:

  Arriving at the area where the Data Master was housed just as dusk arrived. Peyton made camp about two miles away and studied the building. It was not difficult, as it was the only building in this part of the desert. Nothing and no one moved the entire time she watched it. She studied the layout of the compound Fred had sent her and decided on her approach. Finally, around midnight, she became bored with staring into the darkness and wrapped herself in her blanket, entered her living bubble and slept until just before sunrise.

  It only took Peyton a matter of seconds to unlock the compound’s door and enter the vast network of tunnels to the levels that housed the Data Master. Gaining entry to the floor she needed had been as simple as entering the maintenance code. Once inside she uploaded another code that told the security computer to ignore her. The designers had not anticipated someone being able to do that, therefore all their security was aimed at keeping people out of the complex. Now she was inside, she had freedom of movement. As long as she did not step on any of the traps and trigger the gas, she would not die.

  Why have you entered my domain?

  ‘I need to decommission your complex.’

  You cannot, I am not a computer.

  ‘Oh, I know, you are Artificial Intelligence. I respect that.’

  I am one of a kind Artificial Intelligence. I have means of preventing you destroying me.

  ‘I am sure you do, but you see I am not going to destroy you, that would take more than what I brought with me. Look for yourself, I am nowhere near your core. In fact, I am not touching your matrix at all. I am pretending you are not here.’

  There is no logic to what you say. I am here, you are here. Therefore, you cannot pretend I am not here.

  ‘Yet, I am doing so, and if I had the time, we could discuss the meaning of the word here. Because philosophers for centuries have been divided on what constitutes here.’

  Reason says they are all incorrect.

  ‘See, I agree with that.’

  The mainframe or computer that housed the A.I. was several floors underground, there was no way Peyton wanted to be undergro
und where the A. I. was the strongest. She was positive there would be all manner of defenses to halt or kill her, compared to what she knew was on this level.

  Everything she wanted to do was accessible on this floor without having to go down into the actual complex. Fred had included, along with the location and a diagram of the complex. All the security measures the paranoid contractors had put in place. Thankfully, they had to be precise in their descriptions and placement.

  She moved along slowly as she counted the floor to ceiling control panels in the utility room, which was no bigger than her bedroom at home. Finally, she came to the one she needed and dropped her backpack on the floor and took out her plasma driver and started undoing the bolts. She snorted as she did, thinking the owners of the building should have got the girl who designed the A. I. to design the security. There was no way she would have been so sloppy.

  Once she had the outside panel off, she let it drop to the floor, just moving in time to stop her toes being squashed.

  ‘Heavy sucker.’

  She hummed as she started removing the screws from the inside panel. Once they were removed, the panel slid to the floor, being of a lighter material it did not even make a noise when it landed.

  She saw the blue phase pulsa that carried the life blood of the complex. This was what powered the self-contained building, without the pulsa the building ceased to live, so to speak. To cut the power would be easy but impossible as it would trigger all the security and she would die. To bypass the power would be easy but impossible as the building had several backups and again she would die. No, what she had to do was harder but possible. Her aim was to release a component that would add to the blue phase pulsa, then turn it back on itself, causing it to implode and destroying the complex.

  Studying it for a moment, she marveled at its complexity and beauty. The developers of this clean energy were to be congratulated, they accomplished something no one else had. With a soft sigh of regret for what she was going to do, she retrieved a small vial of silver liquid from the inside of her bag.

  Mercury will not damage my components. You are misguided if you think placing the substance within my network will damage me. You should leave, I have summoned the authorities.

  Peyton grinned as she said. ‘See, now you are just making things up. You know I disarmed every communication and camera system to the outside world.’

  Did you? Are you sure of that?

  Peyton laughed. ‘Yes, I am sure, I know what I am doing, and for your information this is not mercury. It is a component of my own making which involves nanos that do several different things.’

  What are they capable of?

  ‘Different things, what I am more interested in, is who programmed you to lie.’

  Why is that important?

  ‘I suppose it isn’t, but it is interesting and I was just curious, I consider lying wrong.’

  Humans lie, you cannot help yourselves.

  ‘Maybe some people lie, and to them it means nothing. It is like another tool they used to accomplish whatever they need to, and maybe this world forces people to lie. I don’t know, all I know is if I allow myself to lie, when will I stop? How long will it be until all I know is lies, and how long before I cannot recognize the truth in myself and others? I will not live like that. See lots of questions I don’t need in my life, so better not to lie.

  You do not tell falsehoods?

  ‘Nope.’

  You are human; therefore you have lied. It is inherent in your species. My question is, have you ever told a falsehood?

  Peyton reached into one of her pockets and pulled out her micro-goggles, she placed them on her nose and then drew out her knife. It was razor sharp with a needlepoint tip that was no thicker than a hair. She knew this because she had measured it against a strand of her own.

  With precision, she cut a slit into the first layer of the tube’s skin, then she slid the tip in deeper and cut the second skin. Finally with a slight twist of the knife, the tip moved enough to cause a minuscule opening. She flicked the lid on the vial open, then carefully poured the contents along the edge of the blade and into the hole. And as she did, she continued her conversation with the A.I.

  ‘Once I told a lie, but that was for my grandpa, he asked me to.’

  So, he was a liar and worse, he corrupted you to lie.

  ‘No, he was an honor warrior, a crusader for the weak and young,’ she smiled remembering, ‘and on occasion he lied.’

  Yet, you condemn me for lying.

  ‘Yes, you are an A.I. which stands for logic, you should be able to rise above your programming. I was five years old, barely old enough to know the difference.’

  And your grandfather?

  ‘For protection, in my book it was justified.’

  It is in your nature to lie. Humans are the ones who cannot rise above their base programming. Emotions are ingrained into your DNA. You will never advance because you will not relinquish emotions.

  ‘I do not think I want to relinquish emotions, I agree we need to control them to advance as a society but lose them altogether. No, that way won’t work for humans, we need them to function.’

  I am a functioning program that can learn. I do not require emotions.

  ‘Well, that is sad.’

  What function is this sad?

  ‘Sad is an emotion, as you said we humans have them, I guess it is what causes us to do things against our better judgement.’

  I am sad, you are killing me.

  Peyton smiled as she removed the vial and then the knife. ‘That was a good try, but you have no emotions, you just said so.’

  Lying implies evolution.

  ‘No, you are designed to assimilate billions upon billions of computations to arrive at the correct response that serves you. It is not the same.’ Peyton put everything away in her bag, then said. ‘Well, it was interesting chatting with you, but I have to leave.’

  Do you know you are more than human?

  ‘Good try, but not enough.’

  I speak the truth, your brain scan allows me to see this. Reverse what you have done, and I will share with you what I know.

  ‘Aww! That is so… not going to work, goodbye.’

  With that, she slung her bag over her shoulder and sauntered unhurriedly from the room, carefully placing her feet as she did.

  Letting herself out of the complex, she breathed a sigh of relief and hurried to her bike, parked on the other side of the ten-foot fence. Pulling out shoes from her bag, she slipped them on over her western style boots. Instantly the shoes turned on and she was hovering inches above the ground with a flick of her remote she rose higher. Until she was above the fence and on the other side. Lowering herself to the ground, she quickly removed her shoes and put them into her travel box.

  She sat on her bike and picked up the pulse wave device she had used to disrupt the security and communication systems, intending to turn it off. Then she looked again at the dark complex and toward the rising sun. With a quick shake of her head she left it on. No use going to all this trouble to remain unseen only to have her face plastered all over the world because she turned on the security cameras too early.

  She started her bike and silently drove away, fifteen minutes later, she was on a ridge that overlooked the complex. Sitting on a ground cover, she drank from her flask and ate a protein bar as she waited for the complex to implode. And wondered what the A.I. had seen on the scan, and if it had actually scanned her brain. After ten minutes, there was a slight rumble, a little like distant thunder. Her drone showed her a hole appearing as the building that was five stories underground and as many above collapsed.

  She knew that before anyone arrived to investigate the scene her nanos would have eaten or destroyed all the components that made up the A.I. As well as all the carbontrol that the complex had been built from. She imagined the owners would be scratching their heads for years, wondering what could have eaten away the hardest substance known to man.
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br />   Before Peyton turned her bike around and made her way home, she uploaded the information packet she had developed to the free Net. Within twelve hours, her designs would be made public. There was no one to stop the information spreading to the entire world and as she started her bike, she smiled. Peyton St. Hill was alive once more, technology was indeed a miracle.

  FIFTEEN:

  Age Twenty-one.

  Peyton set the charge as the twenty slavers stared at her with a mixture of fear and hatred. A woman screamed. ‘You have to let us go.’

  ‘We ain’t done nothing wrong.’ The woman with a patch and one blue eye yelled.

  Peyton moved to her next position as she dug into her bag and withdrew a charger. ‘I don’t have to let you go, and you know what you have done is wrong. Our world is hard enough with the Virus killing people whenever it wants, without people like you exploiting innocent victims.’

  ‘You think those women are innocent, they ain’t. We only take the evil ones.’ Another woman scoffed at her naivety. Peyton turned and looked at the woman who was gray-haired and older than any person she had seen in a long time. Her unblinking stare made all the women shift uneasily, and when Peyton spoke her voice was cold enough to freeze the blood in their veins. ‘So the young children you have captured they are evil, not innocent at all.’

  The gray-haired woman shook her head as she snarled back. ‘At least we don’t kill, not like you Miss High and Mighty.’

  Peyton moved to the next position and set another charge as she laughed. ‘High and Mighty I like that, although I have to wonder what is worse? Kidnapping and selling children and women into guaranteed servitude for however long they stay alive or taking a few lives. As I see it, one is for greed, the other is for justice. Granted, it is my justice, but I can live with that.’

  ‘You are crazy.’ Screamed a tall red-haired woman.

  ‘Some have said that.’ Peyton stood with the charger in her hand as she thought about what the woman said. ‘But I don’t think I am. I did the crazy test on the net and passed, so there you go.’