Bourne

by Ell Leigh Clarke

  Jack noticed his reaction. “Are we likely to be heading out tonight?” she asked. “I can always change…”

  Joel had missed the interaction. “No. We’re heading out to an important meeting in the morning, so any ops will likely happen after that.” Pieter sat down at the table, and Joel patted him on the back. “Besides, looks like we have time.”

  Pieter and Joel caught Jack up with what was going on. Sean sat quietly smirking every now and again, playfully teasing Jack about her fluffy slippers without saying a word.

  Jack ignored him.

  Minutes later Molly reappeared, her hair wet from the shower, and also wearing a standard issue gray sweat suit. Maya and Paige followed her in, carrying food in take out trays.

  “Grub’s up!” Paige declared, causing Joel and Pieter to scurry to find plates and utensils to smooth the process along. Paige and Maya distributed the food and silence fell across the kitchen.

  Molly waited before opening her food parcel. “Okay, who’s going first?”

  Sean shoved a mouthful of pasta into his mouth and then raised his hand, putting his fork down and pushing the food a few inches away from him.

  Molly gave him the nod. “What have we learned?”

  When he finished chewing he said, “ADAM has identified the pings are a result of crawlers. Like spiders he’s sent out over the net. Very small packets of data,” he explained, as if he wasn’t just regurgitating the explanation ADAM had given him.

  Molly took a deep breath, her gaze fixed on the table in front of her food. Her eyes had glazed over, but her brain was still churning. “So he’s created a way to reach out, without being traced by the military. We need to ask ourselves why?”

  Joel shrugged. “Maybe he’s flying under the radar. Maybe he doesn’t trust them?”

  Molly nodded.

  Pieter’s eyes lit up. “Or maybe that’s all he can do?”

  Suddenly all eyes were on Pieter.

  Molly reached for her food and started unwrapping it. “Why? What are you thinking?” she asked.

  “Well,” Pieter started slowly, putting his panini down on the plate in front of him. “I’m guessing the base has firewalls. And goodness knows what he’ll be able to access in the early stages of his development. The local EtherTrak? Maybe. The net? Probably not. Not on a military base unless he was evolved enough to hack their security and get an outside line.”

  Molly nodded her head. “So you’re thinking that he was able to get small packets and patches out, disguised in other data?

  Pieter shrugged. “Maybe?”

  Molly paused her food forgotten again. “Which means he has some access…”

  Pieter nodded.

  Sean interjected, “But he is amassing data by the sounds of it.”

  Molly pursed her lips. “Yeah, I just don’t know how much of that he’ll be able to access until he’s hooked up to the outside world. Though when he does…”

  She didn’t finish the sentence. They’d all seen the same “when computers take over the world” movies.

  And with that thought, Oz became agitated transmitting a buzzing sensation in her head.

  What makes you think that a new AI will take over the world?

  I dunno. I think it’s got a lot to do with the early values that the people and data around him expose him to. That will affect how he thinks and processes future data, and how to handle perceived threats.

  And because this is a military program...

  Exactly. Plus, dickwad Charles. Do I need to go any further?

  Good point.

  Molly finished unwrapping her food, took the lid off and looked over at Sean. “So was ADAM able to tell us anything about the data his crawlers were amassing?”

  Sean pulled his lips to one side of his face. “Seems it’s been mostly about Oz, and his location.”

  Molly looked horrified. “He knows we’re here?”

  Sean nodded. “If not already, he will pretty soon, by ADAM’s estimations. Those pings that Oz has been experiencing, they’re like radar signals that he sends out. As soon as one of them returns having seen Oz’s code, he’ll know the location.”

  Pieter frowned and turned to Molly. “But Oz, you’re not on the network?”

  Molly had started eating and nearly spluttered her food out again. “Did you just address Oz, looking at me?” she exclaimed in disbelief.

  Pieter’s cheeks turned bright red. “Yeah. Erm. Sorry. I figured he’s in your head.”

  Molly squinted. Oz had started laughing and was sending vibrations through her cortex. “Use the audio Oz!” Molly squealed, gripping the sides of her head.

  “Sorry Molly,” Oz’s simulated voice chirped over the safe house comm system. “It’s just…” Oz collapsed into a fit of giggles.

  And then suddenly stopped.

  “Okay. Done that,” he explained. “In answer to Pieter’s question, I have servers on Estaria and Ogg which I check regularly. Joel and Pieter helped me isolate the one that was ‘pinged’ by the new entity.”

  Molly composed herself and was listening attentively. “And where is it?”

  “Ogg,” Oz responded.

  Molly shook her head. “You know, I remember how fast you evolved. You would have been out by now… I just find it hard to understand why he hasn’t been in touch or done more to evolve already.”

  The organics looked blank and continued eating, exchanging glances of bewilderment. There was certainly no training for this kind of thing. Not even on Gaitune.

  “I have a theory,” Oz offered.

  “Go ahead,” Molly said, waving her fork as if Oz might appreciate her gestures.

  “Well, number one, I think he’s probably suffering from a lack of processing capabilities. Remember, I had your holo and your synapses that allowed me to get out of the incubation network.” He paused. “Probably the same incubation network he’s in now.”

  Oz continued. “In that case, given that he’s online, he must have found another way to bridge the gap. The only other network he would have been likely to use is probably the RDEP…in order to jump across to the EtherTrak from the incubation network the base code was running on.”

  Sean raised his hand drawing the attention of all the organics at the table. “What’s RDEP?” he asked flatly.

  Immediately everyone looked to Molly. “Rapid data encoded pulses,” she replied without missing a beat. “Runs off radio waves. Old school,” she explained.

  Oz continued. “It makes sense. He must know that they’re onto the processing power and energy but can hide by only using small packets at a time, and tracing like code, like web crawlers, that will allow them to find and index stuff. Instead of indexing, they report back to him.”

  Molly smiled. “Thanks Oz. Looks like we have a working theory. So the next question is: what do we do about it?”

  Joel had finished eating. He put his fork down in his tray and leaning forward, turned his attention down the table to look directly at Molly. “The General was very clear.”

  Molly rolled her lips. “Yes. He was. He said if it came to it, we needed to terminate him. But we have several options before we get to that solution.”

  “Well,” Joel said, wiping his hands on a paper napkin and placing it down in his tray. “From the sounds of it this isn’t going to blow up over night. Baby Oz is playing a long game and trying to stay hidden — at least from the military. That’s a good sign. Plus it gives us time.” He looked at Molly poignantly. “You remember you have a 9 a.m. down on Estaria in the morning?”

  Molly’s mouth dropped open, and the Thai noodles fell from her fork, landing back in the metallic tray. “Ah,” she muttered. “Er… yes. Of course.”

  Damn it Oz, you could have reminded me.

  I did. One hour and five minutes ago.

  Grr. I…

  Got side tracked. I know.

  “Okay,” she conceded to Joel. “You have a point. I’ll… erm. I’ll get some sleep after we wrap up here and we�
��ll pick this up tomorrow, folks.”

  General chattering resumed and the take out trays were gathered up and trashed by those who had finished eating already.

  Paige and Maya loitered in the kitchen while the others meandered out and presumably headed to their quarters to get some rest.

  Joel remained behind, working out some operational details with Pieter who had whipped open his holos the second he had finished chewing his last mouthful. Paige and Maya watched with the fascination of two girls whiling away the time while they sobered up, getting ready for proper sleep.

  When Pieter eventually packed up and left, Joel stretched and then got up.

  “So… what’s with Molly’s meeting tomorrow?” Paige asked, a half smile giving away that she had noticed that something out of the ordinary was going on.

  Joel nodded his head once, with the smile of a person who was impressed. “Looks like those face reading modules have been paying off!”

  Paige grinned. Maya leaned gently over and nudged shoulders with Paige. Joel guessed that Maya knew that she’d been working on it. “So,” Paige pressed, “what gives?”

  Joel straightened up and put one hand on his hip. He opened his mouth to speak.

  “And don’t give me the spiel about how face reading is like rummaging through people’s hand bags!” she added.

  Joel chuckled and put his hands up. “Okay! Okay!” he laughed, clearly humbled. “So I’m sure she wont mind me telling you, but tomorrow Molly is meeting her parents for the first time since she ran away from home. She’s a little anxious about it, as you might imagine.”

  Maya whistled. “Wow. That is heavy. Is there anything we can do to help?”

  Joel shook his head. “Just carry on as if everything is normal.” He started heading out of the kitchen. “And maybe if you see her in the morning, it might be worthwhile helping her caffeinate… even though she’s meant to be off the mocha. I think tomorrow is worthy of the exception.”

  Paige saluted to him. “Yes, sir. We’re all over it!” She grinned.

  Joel smiled and threw a wave back in their direction. “Alright. G’night ladies. See you in the morning!”

  Maya waved, and Joel headed out.

  Paige turned to Maya. “Okay, let’s get some sleep… else getting up is going to be haaaaard.”

  The girls got up, rinsed their tea cups, and headed off to their quarters.

  Gaitune-64, Safehouse, Molly’s Quarters

  It’s time.

  The words rattled through Molly’s subconscious.

  It’s time, Molly. Wake up.

  Molly started to come to.

  Already?

  Aware of the sweet envelope of sleep slipping away from her and depositing her back in reality, she tried to open her sore, tired eyes.

  Yup. Unless you want to be rushed?

  Molly groaned and rolled over in the bed, slowly coming to her senses.

  Just five more…

  You’re just jonesing to mess this up, aren’t you?

  But it’s the weekend.

  Not for you it isn’t. Your parents will be at your fake apartment in just over an hour.

  Shit!

  Molly’s eyes flew open and she hit the light switch simulating daylight in her quarters.

  Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. WANK!

  Stumbling out of bed she made her way to the shower walking as if she were a little bit drunk.

  Have Joel and Sean meet me on the hangar deck.

  Sean’s coming with?

  Yeah - something about wanting to use a real bath for a soak or something. Likes the water down there better.

  He’s such a sensitive soul.

  He is.

  Molly smiled despite the immediate drama, and turned the water on for the shower. She quickly stripped off her pajamas she stepped into the steamy warm water.

  Within moments she was awake.

  Well. She was functional.

  A few minutes later she was almost showered and thinking about the problems at hand. Namely…

  Baby Oz.

  I wish you guys wouldn’t call him Baby Oz.

  Well, what are we meant to call him? Oz 2.0

  2.0 suggests that he’s better than me. And given that as AIs we evolve, that’s highly unlikely at this point.

  So what then?

  I dunno. I’m sure he has a designation by now.

  From what I recall, your designation system wouldn’t give us anything useful to call him. Anyway, what we call him is irrelevant at this point. We need to figure out what we’re going to do about him.

  Like he’s an unwanted child.

  No. Like he’s currently being held, or working with, a very un-evolved set of people whose sole purpose is to design things that kill people.

  True.

  So we need to extract him. And then teach him there are better ways to exist with others.

  Okay. I suppose our first step would be to communicate with him then.

  Yes, that would be a huge advantage. Do you think there is a way?

  I’m sure I can figure it out. He has packets of data going in and out, so I guess I just need to piggyback off one of the returning data sets.

  Great. How long will it take?

  How long is a piece of string?

  Molly regretted teaching him about idioms. She rolled her eyes behind her towel as she dried off her face.

  You know I can tell when you’re rolling your eyes.

  I wasn’t hiding.

  Right.

  So can you carry on trying to reach him in the background? I might need your help in dealing with some of this trust stuff when we get to my fake apartment.

  Yes. No problem. Plenty of bandwidth for that.

  Great.

  Molly padded through to her bedroom again and rummaged to find clothes.

  Gaitune-67, Base, Hangar Deck

  Sean and Joel were already waiting by the pods by the time Molly had dressed and got herself down to the base after a short stop at the kitchen.

  Paige was already up, bright and breezy, as if the night out had rejuvenated her. She’d even had time to make Molly a special reduced-buzz mocha.

  And she was smiling a little too much.

  Being a little too nice to her.

  When Molly questioned it she clammed up and said she didn’t know what she was talking about, and went back to reading her company reports on her holo.

  Oz told her she was being paranoid.

  “Yo! Ready to rock?” Sean called out to her as he approached.

  Molly, travel mocha cup in hand, nodded. “Absolutely. Not every day we get to pretend to be normal people!”

  Sean grinned. He was carrying a backpack.

  Molly nodded at it. “You know we’re only staying a few hours. Long enough to do the meeting.”

  Sean grinned as he swung the bag ahead of him into a pod. “Yeah, but we’re going to need to take two pods anyway. You can leave me there for the rest of the day?”

  Molly narrowed her eyes. “Yes,” she said slowly and skeptically. She glanced at Joel who simply shrugged.

  Before she could quiz him further, Sean clambered into the first pod, leaving Molly and Joel waiting for the next one. Minutes later they had cleared the hangar doors and were off to Estaria.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Fake apartment, Spire, Estaria

  Molly waited anxiously, staring into the middle of the room of the sparsely furnished decoy apartment they kept in town.

  She’d only been there a handful of times, mostly to appear normal to other members of the faculty and board members. It saved having to read them in on the whole Gaitune thing, even if half the student body had a fair idea of how she and the team really existed. Suspecting they had a base off-world and having visited it are two entirely different things though, Molly reasoned when Joel had questioned how much she should share in her stories.

  He was right to be cautious.

  But part of the reason of having the university was
to inspire the next generation to do things differently. And the mission examples were certainly real situations where the team has done just that.

  Joel came through from the kitchen behind her. “Here we go. Snacks!” he declared proudly, placing bowls of chips and salad things on the mocha table. He retreated back to the kitchen. “We can make tea, and there’s a drinks cabinet in there too if they want something stronger.”

  Molly fiddled with her fingers. “I think I’ll need something stronger,” she called through to him.

  Joel hurried back through with plates and napkins. “What was that?”

  “I said, I think I need something stronger,” she repeated.

  Joel smiled at her, checked around the apartment to make sure everything was perfect, then suddenly giving her his full attention. Molly awkwardly shuffled her feet, feeling entirely out of place. “You are going to be just fine,” he reassured her, placing his hands on her arms. “Really. I mean, they’re your parents. What are they going to do?”

  Molly shrugged one shoulder. “Probably just be the same as they’ve always been. Normal. Supportive. Unbearable.”

  Joel chuckled.

  Just then the buzzer for the main door sounded. “Show time!” he grinned, squeezing her arms one last time and heading straight for the intercom. “Greetings,” he called into it.

  “Er… Greetings.” A woman’s voice. “This is Dr. and Mrs. Bates. We’re here to see our daughter?” She sounded thready and unsure of herself. Not unlike her daughter right now.

  Joel glanced at Molly, who nodded. He buzzed them in. “Come on up. Second floor! 207.”

  They could hear the door open and then a few seconds later click closed again.

  Molly tried to breathe.

  Er… Molly?

  Not a good time Oz.

  I thought you’d like to know. I’ve made contact with the new AI.

  Of course you have. Bloody awesome timing mate.

  Alright. No need to get your panties in a twist. Want me to handle it?

  Yes please.

  Any guidelines?

  Yeah. Don’t start a war. Don’t agree to anything until we’ve spoken. And try not to tell him anything that would make us vulnerable or a target if it turns out he’s working for them.