Under My Heel

by Michael Anderle

  Both men seemed to stand a little straighter at her complement.

  “The opportunity, gentlemen, is literally the stars. The budget,” she waved her arm back behind her to make sure that they understood that she was discussing their present project, “Makes this project looked anemic by comparison. In fact, I imagine you will be using computing power at least five times what you’re presently playing with.”

  Five times? If you’re referring to Kurtherian computer in your skull, that is a ludicrously low assessment.

  TOM, get back to what you are supposed to be doing. These gentlemen don’t have a clue about that computer. At least they don’t now, nor will they for the foreseeable future. I am not trying to besmirch your computer capabilities.

  It’s MAC vs Windows all over again, she thought.

  At her comment related to playing with more computers, Tom’s expression started to glaze over.

  Jeffrey asked her, “What is the catch?”

  Bethany Anne replied, “There is no catch. However, it does require that you, and your families if you have them, move to Colorado. A little bit greener area, I’m sure. It doesn’t quite have the same dry dust and cacti motifs that you do here. Probably a lot colder. Let me amend that it could be significantly colder in the wintertime. And certainly will be cooler during the summer times.”

  Bethany Anne really wanted these two gentlemen on board. She knew that she would have to get Jeffrey’s wife involved as well. She needed some hook to allow Jeffrey to dangle in front of his wife. “Plus, we will be taking over a military base for our top-secret efforts. Should the school district not be up to your expectations, the company will pay for private school teachers to come in and teach all children on the base.”

  There, private schooling for their children just might be the hook that could influence a parent’s decision.

  This time, it was Jeffrey’s eyes that seem to glaze over a little.

  Tom reentered the conversation, “You say five times? Are we discussing blade servers or some other method of computing power? “

  Bethany Anne bit her lip in concentration. “You know what Tom? I would have to ask the new head of information technology what his opinion would be.”

  Tom interjected, “Who is that?”

  “I have no idea who the new head of information technology would be, if you turned down the position.” Bethany Anne watched Tom’s eyes grow a little wider and then look over her shoulder at the computers behind her.

  While he stared at the computers behind her he asked, “What did you say the computer budget was going to be?”

  Bethany Anne looked over her shoulder where Tom was looking, “Depends on what we need when you get the assessments done. However, I can tell you that it will make you’re $30 million budget seem tepid in comparison.” Turning back around she spoke to the two men, “My company, and the research facility, that we are setting up Colorado is very lean. I am expecting to use high-quality people and significant investments in technology and infrastructure, to mitigate the need for more people. We are a tight group, and we rely on everybody pulling their own weight.”

  Jeffrey asked her, “What if some of the people here, don’t wish to move?”

  “We have a very good HR research person. If you tell him what you need, he is able to search government records and other databases to find the absolute best who will fit within the team. If you have anyone on your present team that you don’t trust? Absolutely do not bring them along. We will give them a one-year severance package, no questions asked, and a fifty-thousand-dollar exit bonus. You can say that the exit bonus is for keeping their mouths shut about the existing technologies that you’ve been working on for the last three years. In fact, we can have the HR person write that as a clause so that they know that the money is dependent on them keeping their mouths shut.”

  “Why us?” Jeffrey asked. Tom looked over at his boss, wanting to punch him.

  Bethany Anne smiled, “Gentlemen, I gave you a tough project, a significant budget, and no time, to accomplish the impossible. You have finished the project, you didn’t blow the budget, and you did accomplish the impossible.”

  Tom looked confused, “What do you mean we have accomplished the impossible? We haven’t asked you to sit down to input any data with ADAM yet.”

  Bethany Anne reached up and tapped her cranium, “Gentlemen, my team and I have been testing ADAM the whole time I was in here. Why do you think your Wi-Fi device kept pointing at me?”

  Tom raise the device and looked at it, with Jeffrey looking first to the device and then back at Bethany Anne.

  Jeffrey asked Tom, “I thought there was no way for communication signals to get in and out of this place? Didn’t we make this as tight as a Faraday cage?”

  There was a sharp rap on the door and the three of them looked over to see John impatiently waving someone to come to him. Jeffrey went over and unlocked the door allowing him to step in.

  John got to the point, “Boss, we have a situation.”

  John quickly explained the problem Eric noticed outside, and that Frank had informed him about when he returned his calls to get an update.

  Bethany Anne fumed, “We have the fucking Air Force breathing down on us? For what reason?”

  Jeffrey turned his head, sharply, from speaking with Tom when he heard Bethany Anne’s outburst.

  “What’s with the Air Force?” Tom and Jeffrey stepped into the circle with Bethany Anne.

  TOM, can you communicate outside this room on regular signals?

  No. They really do have good shielding, but since we are in here I can easily communicate on the WI-FI. The bandwidth, with so many hundreds of devices, is substantial. ADAM can split files and send them to me in parallel. So the communications between us are going incredibly fast.

  Damn, ok.

  Bethany Anne thought at vamp speed. “Guys, we can’t have the Air Force looking through all of this stuff. Any ideas why they would be here in the first place? You guys didn’t do anything illegal, did you?”

  Jeffrey sighed, “Short-sighted, maybe. Illegal, no. When we had to find a building so quickly we didn’t think about the fact that we were loading in this much computing power right next to an Air Force Base. The first captain responsible for security visited us when we were just setting up. Since we hadn’t been visited since then, I rather figured that we had dropped off their radar.”

  John interrupted, “You did. However, a new officer is in charge and somehow you guys have tickled his fancy. He is waiting on the final approval to raid your offices.”

  Bethany Anne turn to John, “What? That’s bullshit. What justification would they have for taking a legitimate company’s computer power?”

  John shrugged his shoulders, “Where there is government, there is a way. What do they care if they stop you from working for couple of months? So long as they can claim the country is safe, that is all that matters to them. Maybe in a year, maybe two years, we might get the computers back with a big ‘I’m so sorry’ to go along with it.”

  Bethany Anne turned to Tom, “What would the Air Force think if they got to see all of this software working?”

  Tom thought about her question his eyes going from the servers back to the monitor. “With the code the way it is right now? An I.T person could almost make you believe anything they wanted you to. If they put the wrong input into the system, it could be modified to become an automated network attacking device.”

  Bethany Anne said, “Seriously? That’s interesting.” John rolled his eyes. “But not what we want the Air Force believing we are doing here. That could cause all sorts of problems for us. Do you have a backup for the system?”

  Jeffrey was taking in all of her responses, thinking this woman seemed to be interested in proactive, rather than only reactive, measures. “In a way. We have the code as it was when we loaded ADAM originally. Nothing since then. ADAM is unique at this time. You can’t presume that we can get back to this ADAM even if we drop
in the same data. There are a number of any possible things. If the code accepts just one item differently, early in the process, the changes down the line could be substantial. For better or worse, he is a one-of-a-kind right now.”

  “Shit!” Bethany Anne said, exasperated.

  TOM, I need your honest assessment right NOW. Do we try to take ADAM with us, or fry him?

  She asked, “How do you do an emergency shutdown of the computers?”

  Jeffrey turned to Tom, whose face was showing his panic. “What? We have to scram the computers?”

  Bethany Anne said, sharply. “Guys, we can always rebuild ADAM. We’ll make him better the second time based on what you have learned. However, I cannot have the Air Force making stupid accusations that are not based on reality.”

  “Make him better?” Tom’s voice trailed off, he was looking at all of the hard work and sleepless nights.

  “Look, stop pussy-footing around here.” Bethany Anne said.

  Take him with us.

  Ok, can you do that? Grab his code or whatever and shove it into the computer in my head?

  Of course, we just have to…

  Please, not right now. Tell me how amazing you and your computers are later. Just get it fucking done already, we are on a tight time schedule. You can have your own bedroom if you get this done before we have to leave.

  When is that?

  Probably ten minutes sooner than you need us to.

  Ok, but I want a second floor bedroom…

  She could feel TOM’s focus leave her mind and she started to get a small headache, never a good thing to happen when TOM was using the computer.

  Bethany Anne returned her focus to Tom, “Tell me how to scram this shit. Then, you and the other two guys need to step outside and go to another building, acting as if you don’t have a care in the world.” She turned to John, “I’m going to need Asher in here with me. You guys will have to get back to Florida on your own.”

  John nodded and turned around, calling over his shoulder. “Show her the button guys, let’s get a move on!”

  Jeffrey nodded to Tom who turned back to the desk, his shoulders slumped. Bethany Anne went behind him. He picked up a metal box on the desk and pointed to a button under the box. “Hit that button and then get out. You have ten seconds to be outside of the building.”

  Bethany Anne pursed her lips, “You have a literal ‘red button’ to hit in case you needed to make this happen?”

  Tom was looking at the button, the button he never had to expect to hit. It would kill his baby. He had put all of the blood, sweat and tears into this code and was expecting… Well, he wasn’t sure what he was expecting but it wasn’t an inglorious end like this. Fucking Air Force, he thought.

  “Yeah, I thought it funny that we would have a ‘hit the red button’ device.”

  Bethany Anne put a hand on his shoulder, he barely registered that he felt it.

  “Tom? Don’t worry, my team and I will do our best to get what we can from ADAM before the Air Force has a chance to come inside, ok?”

  He nodded his head and placed the box back over the switch.

  Jeffrey spoked up, “Are we sure that the Air Force is going to do this? I would hate to scram the computers only to find out they had decided against this.”

  Bethany Anne shook her head, “My team is some of the best out there. If they say this is going down, you can damned well bet your ass it’s going down.” She looked around, considering what Tom and Jeffrey would have the willingness to hide from the Air Force. “Okay guys, let’s step outside and I want you to close the security doors.”

  Jeffrey answered her, “if you’re on the outside of security doors, how are you getting in? Did you already memorize the security codes?”

  She shook her head, “No, I haven’t touched the keypad yet, either. If they should check for fingerprints, I only want either yours or Tom’s on there.” She ushered them out of the room.

  Jeffrey turned around and made sure the door was shut and locked. When he turned around he was startled. He tried to step back and but was stopped by the door, “Holy shit! Who let the wolf in here?”

  Ashur was looking between the two men.

  “This is Ashur, he’s my seeing eye dog.” She grabbed Ashur behind his neck. “John, you guys go next door. I don’t want anyone back in here until the Air Force makes you open the doors, ok?” She turned to Jeffrey, “Is there anyone else in that secured room?” Jeffrey shook his head no.

  Tom interjected, “If you want evidence that is rock solid, have Jeffrey enter the management override and set it for a few hours.”

  “John? How much time do we have?”

  John lifted his arm and looked at his watch, “I doubt that long.”

  She nodded to Jeffrey, “Do it. That way, you guys are covered if anything happens.”

  Jeffrey shrugged and did what she said. There would be no opening this door without a serious screaming whine going off. No one would confuse their alarm for a car alarm, that was for damn sure.

  Now, there were four red lights on the keypad.

  “Now what?” Jeffrey asked.

  “Now, you guys go play poker or something until the Air Force shows up, or it’s time for John and Eric to get back to the airplane.

  John nodded his understanding and started towards the front door. “Move it men!”

  John’s command voice got both men moving towards the door, Jeffrey looking over his should at Bethany Anne who just smiled at waved at him. “See you in Colorado, right?”

  Jeffrey just nodded his head, not really thinking about what she was asking.

  Jeffrey thought, how the hell is she going to do anything, now?

  As soon as the men left the building, Bethany Anne grabbed Ashur's neck and they trans-located back into the room.

  Now TOM! hurry up and download our digital friend.

  Working it now, Bethany Anne. We are expanding the wireless devices to create more throughput.

  We?

  Figure of speech. The computer software and I are working together to facilitate the download.

  Bethany Anne looked over at the box and walked to the table. Ashur followed her and laid down on the floor next to her.

  Twenty minutes later, Tom and Jeffrey watched as two Air Force vehicles came down their street.

  Jeffrey watched the two vehicles, “Here comes the cavalry…”

  Tom muttered, “Not my cavalry, not this time.”

  John was reaching into his pocket as he spoke to Eric, “Erase your phone, just in case.”

  Both had just unlocked their phones when all of the electronics went dark.

  Eric looked around, “What the hell?”

  John asked, “Power outage, guys?”

  Tom said into the darkness, “Not possible, we have a very expensive backup system. We might as well go up front. None of this shit is going to work for a while, if ever.”

  John turned and started towards the front, “Why?”

  “Because the shielding apparently wasn’t perfect. You can kiss your phones good-bye.”