by John Conroe
“Well, generally it’s better to avoid them, but yes, if you have to, or if we put together a mission to hunt them. Ajaya, how many Berkut have you killed?”
“Well, three, not counting Rikki. My dad got the kill shot on Rikki,” I said.
“I thought your dad died in the Zone?” a female soldier in Army green asked.
“He did,” I said.
“By a drone?” she asked. I nodded.
“What kind?”
“Berkut. This one,” I said, pointing straight up. Her face screwed up with confusion, as did several of the others. “This Berkut attacked us at close range. We both shot it, but Dad’s was the kill shot. It scored a round on him, and bone fragments nicked an artery that we didn’t know about and he bled out internally. I rebuilt and reprogrammed the Berkut to become Rikki.”
Shock filled most of their faces, although a few showed disgust. “You kept the drone that killed your father?” the army lady asked, incredulous.
“His idea—before he passed. Also my mom’s. The airframe and some of the internals are the same, but the rest is all rebuilt. Personally, I was going to destroy it, but eventually I saw the wisdom of making something good out of something bad. Just so you know, Rikki wouldn’t shoot at any of you except that he verified both ammo cassettes were blanks and that this was a training simulation. He’s programmed to protect humans and kill drones. And he’s killed hundreds of drones.”
“You personalize it,” another soldier, a Special Forces Green Beret, noted.
“Yes. I named him and I call him a him. There’s nothing human in the Zone. Just bones. Everything else wants a piece of you. The drones are obvious, but then there are dog packs and hordes of rats that will swarm you if they can. So I named the drone that keeps me alive,” I said with a shrug.
“It’s a killing machine, designed to hunt and terminate humans. How does it actually keep you alive?” Green Beret asked.
“This Berkut is much different from the stock models. Upgraded chips, extensive reprogramming, advanced learning. And it turns out that it’s as efficient a design for killing drones as for killing humans. But mostly Rikki is my eyes, ears, and EM detector. Plus he can still connect to the drone network inside the Zone. For a long time he was a double agent, trusted by the other drones. He masked any anomalous readings I gave off, sort of convincing any nearby drones that I was a data and sensor error. The network doesn’t trust him anymore, but he can still listen in on their networks, although the remaining Spiders have taken to shifting frequencies randomly and encrypting their instructions. So we’ve had to adapt. The Zone is all about adapting. What worked yesterday likely won’t work today, so you have to shift on the fly.”
“So the drone is like… a watch dog?” the female soldier asked.
“Unit Rikki Tikki is not a canine,” my drone said, hovering over my head.
“No, Rikki, you’re not. But it is still a pretty good analogy. Think about it this way… North America was the last major land mass to be colonized by humans. The first Native Americans came across the Bering Land Bridge. But it took them thousands of years to get across it. Why? There are lots of theories, but one of them links the domestication of dogs to their eventual success. Prehistoric Siberia and the Bering area were home to a huge array of very dangerous predators. Giant hyena, dire wolves, short-faced bears, the American lion, all kinds of big critters with big teeth and claws. One possibility is that man needed the domestic dog to eventually cross all that hostile territory. Tracking, predator warning, and coordinated hunting all took a giant step up when we domesticated the dog. Wolves, coyotes, and foxes are all extremely adaptable predators with much better senses than our own. So we befriended them, brought them on board with us, so to speak. But Rikki is no dog. He’s more intelligent than most humans.”
“That’s crazy,” another soldier, Army uniform with sniper badges, said.
“If anything, Ajaya is understating it,” Yoshida said. “Let’s table your disbelief until you’ve had a chance to see the two of them in action. I sent the first two training groups right into the Zone with Ajaya. That was a mistake. He still brought three of the four out alive. But it was grossly unfair to the soldiers and to Ajaya to just send them right in. You don’t know anything about the Zone, you don’t know anything about your young chief instructor. So it’s back to school. Starting tomorrow, you’ll all have a chance to try our Zone simulator. Then after you’ve all had your shot, we’ll sit here in the auditorium, eat popcorn, and watch on the big screen as Ajaya and Rikki run through it. It’ll be pretty kinetic.
“Now, the rest of today is housekeeping. Quarters, equipment, and what they used to call paperwork. Sergeant Akachi Rift will introduce you to the Zone Defense version of the stealth suit. We have made a number of mods to the standard version that you all have used. She’ll also get you all outfitted with your own suits and the weapons we’ll be using. Then the rest of my staff will get you squared away with the dining, fitness, medical, quartermaster facilities, shooting ranges, the armory, and any other logistics you have to deal with. Sergeant, you’re on.”
Rift marched up to the front and began a thorough brief on the new gear as Yoshida came back to where I was packing the empty ammo cassettes into my pack.
“What do you think?”
“I think they’ll all see me as a kid,” I said.
“Hmm. Let’s revisit that after you and Rikki run the Room tomorrow. What do you think of the overall idea?” he asked.
“I like the simulator room, although its scenarios are either too crazy or not crazy enough, so at best it’s only an approximation for the Zone. And I really liked introducing the class to Rikki that way. Got their attention.”
“I’ll say. Good thing we screened them for weapons or there’d have been guns going off everywhere. I want you to come in early tomorrow. You’re going to need to watch each of them as they go through the Room.”
“What? Oh-seven hundred?”
“And no later. The first of these snake eaters and fire breathers is set to run the gauntlet at oh-seven thirty.”
“Roger that, Major. I’ll be here.”
“Alright. Beat it.”
He moved off to talk with Corporal Estevez, who seemed like his aide or something, always just a few meters away from him.
I finished closing up my pack and moved toward the door, Rikki floating along over my head, back in his ball form.
Sergeant Rift was still talking, showing the improved heat sinks in the boots of the suit. At least half the class looked my way as I headed for the door. They were already judging me and I had no idea if they knew it, but their personal evaluation of me would play a big role in their survival.
Chapter 9
The trip home was uneventful, no suspicious drones, no drone accidents. When I walked into the apartment, the twins were on either end of the couch with Grandma in between them, all three watching today’s live episode of Zone War.
Astrid had told me the night before, when we were following our usual nighttime ritual of video chatting, that her family wasn’t headed into the Zone today. Instead it was Bone Shakers and the Up Town Girls, double teaming Madam Tussaud’s Wax Museum for celebrity wax dummies. No matter how many times a team hits it, there still seems to be a whole mass of famous lookalikes still inside. Which makes perfect sense because a team only gets a few minutes to grab and run before they’re swarmed. So really, only a couple or three dozen have been recovered, and they all sell for crazy amounts of money.
The front of the museum currently has a massive hole in it, where a few years ago one of the now retired teams had literally rammed their armored vehicle right through the door. Today, the two teams had just driven right into the building, and it looked like Kyle Bonnen was wrestling a sitting duplicate of Jimmy Fallon into the Bone Shaker LAV while Up Town Girls Ayla Messier and Skyler Rashid were trying to drag Barack Obama into their SPV400, all while their driver, Vanessa Lee, yelled into her mike for them to hurr
y the bleeping bleep up.
“Any traps?” I asked.
“They came in through the Lincoln Tunnel, but as soon as they got a block down West 39th, a Tank-Killer dragged an old tractor trailer across the road behind them. They only grabbed one dummy each and now they’re debating how to get out,” Gabby said.
“The current idea is the Queens-Midtown tunnel,” Monique added.
“Too obvious. There will be a buttload of drones between them and both tunnels. I would try for the Williamsburg Bridge or maybe the Holland Tunnel, but that may have a strong presence on it too,” I said. “It’ll be a game of cat and mouse through all those roads.”
“The producers are helping them by giving them real time access to the Flottercot satellite, and it seems like Zone Defense is keeping a handful of Renders overhead. They ever do that for you, AJ?” Gabby asked.
“No. The occasional bombing run when I’ve stirred up enough drones, but not much direct help.”
“How’s the new job with the major?” Monique asked, all casual like.
“We’re taking a new approach. Zone D built a computer simulator room. Well, more like a warehouse, and we’re going to spend a bunch of time training everyone in it before we try bringing any more trainees into the Zone,” I said. My pack suddenly buzzed, Rikki reminding me to let him out. I opened the top of the pack and instantly the orb-like drone zoomed over and perched on the back of the couch between Aama and Gabby, ocular band focused on the show.
“Holland, Lincoln, and Queens-Midtown all have high probability of ambush. Williamsburg, Manhattan, or Brooklyn Bridges are most viable. Unit Peony will be closing off single-digit southbound avenues unless armored vehicles pass through soon.”
My drone had never shown the slightest interest in Zone War before. “Should you maybe pass that message along, Ajaya?” Aama asked, looking at Rikki with one eyebrow raised.
I texted Trinity Flottercot and told her what my drone was predicting. Seconds later, the Uptown Girls driver, Vanessa, announced that the show was advising her to head for the bridges and forgo the tunnels. A separate video window showed Kyle Bonnen passing the same message to his brother. Both armored vehicles were traveling together, in convoy for the most part, although they kept a healthy distance between each other and occasionally took different but parallel roads between the blocks. They were now both headed south and east.
“Oh, I hope they make it,” Monique squealed, hiding behind a big fluffy pillow.
“Odds of survival have increased thirty percent. Probability of successful exfiltration is now seventy-seven percent,” Rikki announced.
“How are you able to predict what Peony will do, and how do you know it’s Peony?”
“Unit Peony was designated as backup to Unit Lotus for anti-armor objectives. Lotus now defunct. Therefore Peony has highest probability of controlling response to incursions. Please note, however, that intercepting armor units carries a low mission priority and a high risk to responding units, thus draining resources better used for primary mission. Long range tactical plans call for lower risk responses with fewer drones over time. Western tunnels are closest to armored teams’ objective. Peony would therefore most likely order a prepared emplacement at each tunnel. At this time, the armored incursion units have likely passed too far south to be worthy of Peony’s response.”
“The Spiders all have pre-assigned roles? Who assigned them?”
“Correct. They did.”
“Wow, that’s not creepy or anything,” Gabby said, staring at Rikki.
“Clarify—is sarcasm detected?”
“Yes. That was sarcasm. What are the Spiders’ individual missions?” I asked.
“Unit Lotus was tasked with responding to vehicular incursions, hunting other intruders, as well as tracking down any anomalies. Peony was tasked with seeking projection of primary mission beyond Zone barrier into the rest of the city. Plum Blossom was tasked with identifying methodologies for carrying out primary mission well beyond the immediate geographical area.”
“How far beyond?” I asked.
“Without limitation.”
“The whole planet?”
“Affirmative.”
“So hunting the armored units isn’t that important to the Spiders?” Monique asked.
“Affirmative. Low risk-reward calculated.”
“Oh, we’ve been learning about that in my personal finance class,” Gabby said. “So you mean there are only a few people in each LAV and it would take a lot of drones to stop one, with many of those drones getting smushed. Not enough humans killed for the cost in drones.”
“Affirmative.”
“These priorities have been in place for a long time?” I asked.
“Affirmative.”
“What triggered your interest?”
“Danger to humans. Rikki unit has not been present during broadcasts.”
My drone’s AI is constantly evolving. Having him home now had just resulted in him being able to utilize long-buried drone network plans to carry out his primary mission—helping protect humans.
“Do you have any knowledge of Peony or Plum Blossom’s current plans?”
“Negative. Files out of date.”
Too bad. But nothing about the Zone would ever be that easy.
“Rikki, why did Lotus go after Ajaya so hard?” Monique asked.
“Ajaya Gurung was identified and targeted by Spiders as a greater threat to drone mission than armored vehicle incursions. Spiders eliminated all unarmored threats without a significant drain in resources, with exception of a two-person team that successfully terminated large numbers of drones. Priority was increased and additional assets and planning time allocated to individuals eventually identified as Baburam and Ajaya Gurung. Baburam eliminated but Ajaya evaded. Last contact with network indicated that Ajaya’s increased drone elimination percentages due to pairing with unknown drone unit has resulted in maximized priority for elimination.”
“So you and Dad were a thorn in their sides, and now you are an even larger thorn,” Monique said, looking at me. Gabby’s eyes glistened dangerously.
“Analogy correct. Pattern recognition software assigned probability of Ajaya involvement in disappearance or outright termination of more than three thousand drones. Detection of other in-Zone anomalies potentially connected to Ajaya increased priority.”
“Anomalies?” Monique asked, but I had already turned toward the hallway.
“Rikki come with me, please. We have planning for tomorrow’s lesson to do,” I said, ignoring Monique’s question like I never heard it. She probably wouldn’t have let it go except a loud exclamation by the narrator about Vanessa’s driving diverted her attention back to the show.
Rikki dutifully followed me to my room.
Chapter 10
“So when can I get a shot at this simulator?” the gorgeous blonde across the table asked.
“Seriously? You want to try it?” I asked, then realized my question was really stupid. “Of course you do. Hmm. Let me ask the major. Not sure if they’ll let you but really, I can’t see what it could hurt.”
Her blue eyes narrowed at me. “You promise?”
“Absolutely. But Astrid, I can’t promise he’ll say yes. Hey, are you going to finish that last scallop?”
She smiled and speared it with her fork, bringing it up to her mouth. My vision focused in on her ruby lips, which pursed for a second before she extended it my way. I reached for the fork but she pulled it away, her message quite clear. Either she fed it to me herself, or I wouldn’t get it. Easy choice.