Awakened Read online

  “Yeah, he can respond much quicker to their security protocols. They have an adaptive algorithm that would take me hours to break. Oz is just slipping the data past it, though—like a gauntlet run.”

  You’re comparing me to a warrior?

  I guess I am.

  I like that. I’m a warrior of data!

  Now you sound like a big fat nerd. Molly laughed out loud.

  You may not want to insult me while I’m performing such a delicate operation. If I make one wrong move and their system realizes it’s being tampered with, it will lock down the building including that secret server room Joel is in. He will be trapped, and it seems they have heavy air installed in there too.

  Molly grimaced. “Joel, heads up. They have heavy air installed in case of a security breach. Have you got precautionary equipment?”

  “Sure I do—in the fokking trunk,” He bitched.

  “Of this car?” Molly could barely believe the boneheadedness of these so-called ops professionals.

  “Of course. Why would I have it with me on such a high-risk mission?”

  Molly rolled her eyes. “Helvítis hálfviti!” (Translation: “fucking halfwit!”)

  “Hang on…” Joel’s voice came over the line, and then the line clicked off.

  Molly knew what that meant.

  Shit, Oz, something is going down. Joel has company.

  Scanning the area. I’m hooked into their security system. They have securibots in the sector where Joel is. His key card kept them clear, but his behavior has now been flagged as unusual. He’s been in there too long without any activity. If they locate him, they’ll want to check his identity.

  That’s going to be a problem. Last I checked, he didn’t take his contact’s retinal pattern. We need a way to get him out of there.

  We can’t pull him out until we’ve downloaded the patch. That peg is traceable. He needs to recover it.

  Shit! Fucking cock wank of an ops lead. We’re going to have to help him. What can you do to get the bots off his scent?

  If I interfere with the bots’ programming, they’re going to know we were in their system.

  They’re going to know as soon as this patch does its work anyway!

  Yes, but our plan was to be well clear of the building by then. And if I start altering their system, they’ll lock down and interrupt our upload.

  Shit. This is taking too long. She looked around. We need another approach.

  Molly dug her hand into the bottom of her kit bag and pulled out a smoke grenade. It wasn’t an elegant solution, but she was going to have to improvise. The grenade in her lap now, she knocked the car into drive, and swept down from the top of the building to almost ground level, with such an acceleration that everything in the car shifted to one side in the process.

  Deftly slowing parallel to a line of windows, she scanned the building surface for forcefields and sensors. Though it was mostly dark, the light from the city afforded her some visibility.

  Nothing there, she concluded with at least 70% certainty. Car back in neutral and hovering three stories up, she opened her window. The car rocked, accommodating the new air pressure. Molly pulled the pin from the smoke grenade and threw it with all the force she could muster. It barely went through the window, exploding just inside. Smoke filled the area by the windows.

  Crap. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Oz, report! What’s the status of the bot patrol?

  They’ve detected the breach. There is still one very close to Joel’s location, but the others are changing course to the third floor.

  Damn. That one bot must be locked on. Any other ideas?

  No. That one is going to stay with its original target, in case the breach is a distraction. They’re preprogrammed, but their programming has to take into account lots of scenarios.

  And if we delete those scenarios?

  Molly wasn’t used to having to work this fast. The exercises in the military were just practice. Half the time she would solve things sitting quietly while the squaddies would dick around mucking it up. The responses in the scenario would give her more data. But here, she was the one doing the messing up, data gathering and thinking.

  This wasn’t how she envisioned this going down.

  Same problem if we reprogram them. The good news is the patch has finished uploading. If Joel can reach the peg, all he needs to do now is get out without being caught or killed.

  And we have no way to reach Joel to let him know….

  ---

  The peg started beeping.

  Joel had just found a hiding place where the bot wouldn’t find him. Well, probably wouldn’t, he figured. The cold air of the cooling fan was already making his ass go numb, while the heat from the surrounding servers was like being in a sauna. If he got out of this without third degree burns he’d be doing well.

  He crawled forward on his belly, chest pressed against the dusty floor, head movement drastically restricted by the server stack he was hiding under. He heard a click at the door and the keypad being accessed. He had only moments before the bot would do a sweep of the main room, and then check behind here. And the peg was now flashing…

  Flashing!

  Talk about goddamn covert ops—she gives him a flashing peg.

  Okay, that probably wouldn’t sound dirty if he said it out loud. Maybe he’d choose different words when he chewed her out later.

  If there was a later.

  He muscled forward on his elbows, dragging dust and dirt with him. Seconds later he was on his feet, grabbing the peg and then pushing the other stack in front. He checked the marks on the ground to make sure it was lined up the way it had been.

  The patrol bot was in the next room. He could hear it scanning and processing.

  Heart in his mouth, he dove back under the server feet first so he could see the carnage coming.

  From his new vantage point he could see the stack wasn’t back where he had found it. It was a few millimeters off.

  “Andskotinn!” he muttered to himself. How could he be so goddamn lax? He used to be a fucking pro at this shit.

  There was no time; the patrol bot rounded the corner at that second and started scanning. The red laser line ran from top of the room to the bottom, touching everything, as the bot circled around checking for scumbags and interlopers.

  His butt was now burning with cold, but sweat was dripping from his neck and brow. As long as his body temp didn’t disrupt the flow of heat too much, he would remain hidden. Any anomalous temperature differentials would bring hellfire down on the sector in moments.

  Joel held his breath, wishing he could have moved back a little more. If the bot had eyes and looked down, it may be able to see his nose poking out from his cramped position.

  The red line moved past, just millimeters on the ground in front of him. There was a pause as the bot scanned the rest of the room.

  A moment later, its motor churned up again, and the bot turned as if it were leaving.

  Joel exhaled.

  The bot stopped, turned, and started the scan again.

  Did it hear me? he wondered. Shit! I’m going to get caught. How fucking embarrassing.

  He’d had a rep in the military. He was respected. He knew his shit and performed operations like the goddamn pro that he was. And now he was about to get caught on a simple commercial job, by a simple preprogrammed security patrol?

  He cringed in embarrassment. No one must know about this, he vowed to himself. No matter what happens, no one must know.

  His brain kicked into action, considering the possible ways that he could save his ass, both literally and in terms of his reputation.

  Maybe I can take it down? Low center of gravity, so it’s going to be hard. I’ll have to hit it high and fast. Weaponry: it must have a Taser or something on it. Maybe I can use something to deflect the Taser, or conduct it and fry its circuits….

  He scanned the dark room, trying to see if there was a loose panel or something he could use.


  Shit. If I get out of this I’m going to be better prepared. I’ll run ten miles a day, and do two hundred pushups, and make sure I have my goddamn kit ready for ops. I’ll never be complacent again. Please, gods, let me get out of here.

  The red laser flashed over the concrete floor just millimeters ahead of him.

  The moment of truth.

  Even over the sound of the servers above him, he could hear the processing of the computer on the bot. Any moment now….

  He readied himself for a fight at the slightest indication that he had been found.

  The bot paused, shifted its position slightly. Then the motors fired up again, and it wheeled out of the area.

  Edging forward carefully, Joel didn’t trust that it was gone. He wasn’t going to be complacent anymore.

  He ran the next set of scenarios like he was back teaching basic training again. What could be going on?

  It could be going to get its friends? No, of course not. It’s on a network. He waited, churning possibilities.

  Seconds later he heard the outside door swoosh open, and then a beat later it closed again.

  Quickly he crawled out of his hiding place.

  “Time to get out of here,” he mumbled to himself.

  He didn’t trust being able to get out the same way he came in. The bot might have sealed him in or set a trap, since he wasn't officially in here anymore. He’d have to let his contact Mac know that he might need to get a new key card before he tried to get into the office in the morning.

  Right now, he needed another exit. He looked up, running his list.

  Ceiling tiles—movable, but of no use.

  Air duct —too small.

  Water pipes—useful, if he needed to electrocute anyone.

  Ventilation shaft! Yes! That was his best bet. And shafts were all over here, because of the sheer amount of heat these servers had to dump.

  Ugh, this is not going to be fun, he thought, as he started undoing the screws that held the grating in place. At least it will mean that I can avoid being the pussy that got caught by a bot though. For that he’d crawl through the city sewers, and worse.

  The last screw came out easily and he unhooked the grating. He rubbed his poor cold ass with both hands before reaching up and lifting himself into the vent. It was going to be a long climb to safety.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Molly touched the car down onto the roof, and the passenger door swung open.

  Joel came rushing out from behind a vent one hundred yards away. He was sweating like a pig and was so filthy that Molly’s gut reaction was to stop him from getting in and dirtying the car. It’s his car, she quickly remembered, then relaxed a little.

  Joel threw his bag in ahead of him and scrambled in.

  “Let’s get out of here!” he yelled, panic in his eyes.

  “Wait. Were you spotted?” She cranked the car around and took off, sliding into traffic.

  “Hellz no. What do you think I am? An amateur?”

  “Are you sure? Oz spotted that a patrol bot had locked onto you.”

  “Yeah, he just had a poke around the server room. He’s probably searching the building for Mac, but I swiped his card in a different corridor and then made my way out through the ventilation shaft. One hell of a fucking climb, I can tell you.”

  “Let’s hope they closed the security ticket then. Your DNA is on file, remember.”

  Not anymore.

  What?

  I just deleted both of you from the military database. Joel would have left trace evidence. While I was behind the security wall, I noticed that a patrol bot had found his fingerprint on a doorframe and had already started to cross reference it with their personnel database. If there wasn’t a match on there, it was then programmed to put in a police report and request an identity. I took the liberty of scrubbing your details so you cannot be traced.

  Sweet. Great job, Oz.

  My pleasure, milady.

  Molly eyed Joel as he settled in the seat next to her. “Nut-muncher. You left prints! Oz caught it and has deleted our prints, retinals, and DNA from the government mainframe.” She shook her head. “You’re welcome.” Molly had returned to her usual levels of sarcasm.

  “Shit. I could have sworn I was careful about that. Thank you, Oz,” he said in a raised voice.

  Tell him I’m an AI. Not deaf.

  “Oz says he’s not deaf.”

  “Oh. Uh. Right. Just getting used to this whole, erm…alternative lifestyle you’ve assumed.” He quietly sat on his hands, secretly trying to warm his ass, which was still semi-numb from the cooling fan. Hell if he was going to tell her how he nearly got caught by that bot. Hopefully she was going to be too distracted by this AI thing to want to know about his escape.

  He was right. She was distracted. Molly smiled as she kicked the car into hyperdrive now that they were out of town. Even Oz felt the flood of relief through her neural cortex as she took them up and out of the city.

  Patch deployed. They’re going to have one hell of a surprise in the morning.

  Safe house, fifty kilometers west of Uptarlung

  Molly pulled the car up at the safe house fifty kilometers out of town. Joel had figured they would be pretty untraceable there. He’d paid cash to use this place for a week and in the thirty-six hours they’d been there, they hadn’t seen a soul.

  Joel woke up when the engine stopped. Rubbing his face, he was starting to feel the effects of the server heat on his back. He’d get Molly to look at it if he had to. Practically falling out of the car, the two of them grabbed their gear and hauled ass into the house.

  “I need mocha.” declared Molly, as she dumped her stuff and headed straight for the kitchen. She pushed the buttons on the mocha machine to start brewing a fresh pot.

  Joel headed into the bathroom.

  “When are we going to talk about the fact that you have a military AI on your wrist?” he called back.

  Molly was silent, watching the mocha brew.

  Moments later he came in to find her staring at the machine, the mocha now pouring into a mug underneath the nozzle.

  “You want?” she asked, nodding towards it. Her eyes were still fixed on it, unseeing.

  “Sure.”

  She swapped out her mug for another one, and hit the button again. Sitting down, she wrapped her hands around it and savored the aroma.

  “Well?” Joel looked at her expectantly.

  She continued staring at her mug. “Look, I dunno. I dunno what to tell you. I just ran.”

  He frowned. “And then didn’t tell me. You realize you have a target on your back now?”

  She shook her head. “No. They have no way to know it worked.”

  His eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

  She took a sip and then looked up at him. “Well, they ran a test on the algorithm that should have created sentience, but it was isolated from the rest of the code. What they don’t know is that this code managed to get into the base code being held on another computer, via the Ethertrak, and then that made Oz—who hitched a ride. The chances of them putting that together are pretty slim. And connecting it to me? No way. Especially given the only things they have left are a code that looks like it doesn’t run, and a base code they’ve been working on for the last gods knows how many years. Those brickheads will take another decade to figure out they need to put it all together.”