A sudden voice in the Lieutenant's ear said, "If you tell him, you have no leverage, no bargaining power. He will have all the choices and power. It's your call. Think it through, Lieutenant." Jake leaned back and wondered what the Lieutenant would decide.
The Lieutenant took what he would look back on as a career and life gamble. "Sir, with all respect if I tell you the name, you will have all the power and information. I will have none."
"And if you don't give me the name, you'll be dead at my feet in a few seconds," said the Captain.
"In which case, Sir, you will never get the name," the Lieutenant said.
"I will have one of your people find it."
"Captain Fraser, with all respect. Check my record. I wrote the program, I did the analysis by myself at the Secretary's direction. It was wiped afterwards to the best of my ability. There's a reason I am in charge of this Team, Sir. I'm the best hacker in there," said the Lieutenant. "They're all very, very good, but I'm the best of them." He paused, "Sir."
The Captain took a second to think about and then admire the courage of this young officer, and then said, "We have a standoff Lieutenant. I hold the lock but you have a key. So you get to keep your secret and your lives for now. We'll see what later tonight or tomorrow brings. Maybe another key. Who knows."
"Yes Sir, thank you, Sir."
The Captain nodded to the room to dismiss the Lieutenant and turned away. The Lieutenant turned to reenter the tech room and as Captain Fraser moved swiftly down the hall to his waiting men, he heard the cheers in the room behind him.
Stupid techies, he thought.
"Jackson, stay here. Sergeant Price, with me," and he turned for the executive office area reserved for the Secretary and his personal staff.
The door to the Secretary's office was, quite unusually, open. Pistols drawn, the Captain and Sergeant walked straight in to see the Secretary in his chair, feet up on his desk and a fine crystal glass half full of Scotch in his hand. Out-of-control fires in the city burned clearly in the windows stretching along the entire wall behind him.
"I wondered how long it would take you to get over here. Had a good little chat with the tech weenie folks I expect," and he took another small sip of his drink. "This is excellent fifty-year old scotch Captain, would you and the Sergeant like to join me?" He raised his glass.
The Captain pointedly ignored the offer to say, "I have payback greetings and that's what we're about to discuss. Here's the one and the only deal you'll be offered. You tell me the name of the anonymous geek you found who has total server control and I'll kill you quickly and painlessly. You refuse to tell me the name, and I'll kill you as slowly as possible. There's the deal, take it or leave it."
The Secretary took another sip of scotch as if he were considering the offer. He wasn't really of course, he had already come to the same conclusion and made his decision earlier in the evening after he had calculated his options. Options as it turned out that included not much more than the two presented or killing himself. The Captain had simply moved too fast for the last one and he had delayed by a few too many minutes over this amazing scotch. "Stupid scotch," he thought suddenly whipping the glass towards the far wall where it burst into shards, to spray the remaining liquor over the couch below.
The Captain and the Sergeant had twitched, their trigger fingers moved slightly in response to the throw but neither man had fired as the Secretary had hoped.
"Computing, overclock Jacob's combat chips," the Secretary subvocalized, to no response at all and he now knew Jacob had been the source of all his problems. If he could alter a Security chip, he could hack the servers too.
The Captain and Sergeant saw his left hand lash out in a seemingly drunken, uncoordinated action, "See what you made me do with my glass," they heard him shout in a drunk-voice imitation. The Secretary's right hand snaked down to his own sidearm, pulled it swiftly above the desktop only to have his hand burned off by the Sergeant's immediate fire on seeing the weapon.
"Good shot, Sergeant. And you beat me again. When will you let me win a pistol contest?"
"When hell freezes over Captain Fraser, Sir," smiled the Sergeant.
The Secretary cradled the arm, instantly cauterized by the laser bolt and rocked back and forth, moaning with the pain. The bleeding was minimal with this kind of laser wound, but the searing pain was intense and it was everything he could do to stop from screaming right there and then.
"Think about it, Mr. Secretary. This is only the beginning. It's going to get much, much worse. Tell me now and it all goes away. And by the way, did you really think you'd get very far with a single pistol against our heavy suits. And no, there isn't a quick execution-by-security suicide in your future."
The Secretary knew when he was beaten and took the loss in a way many highly trained men tended to do. There's a certain sense when you knew there was nothing else to be done. You tried until the very last, possible moment, the very last second, but when that second arrived and you stared death right in the face only one-inch away and coming fast, you relaxed and dealt with it.
"Shit. Let's do..." and with that, the Secretary collapsed, unconscious.
And a voice came into the Captain's and Sergeant's ear feeds. "Gentlemen, we have a problem. You see, as soon as you know my name, I will have to protect myself. You already know my level of control over all facets of the tech and weapons systems you have. Do you really want to go to war with me?
You will know my name, but you will be blind and helpless when I shut down all your tech and you will be hunted from above by every resource I possess. The minute you go outside, into the open, is the minute I'll drop a laser strike on you. I may even do it inside just for the practice of drilling through a building or perhaps I'd enjoy a bank shot through a window. Let me be frank. I'm not the same person I was just a short time ago, and I've thought about this quite a bit. I have decided you will not know.
And before you think about the Lieutenant, I've decided to protect him as well. Don't tell him, but he is now under my protection and you will take no action that would harm him. I have disabled his chip destruction sequence so he is no longer somebody you can use. And oh, I have not disabled yours.
I will not intrude in the way you decide to move forward. That is your decision. I will however control some resources, both to protect myself and achieve my own goals. But these should not be in any conflict with what you want to do. My needs are simple." said Jake.
"If I understand correctly, as long as I don't try to discover who you are, you will leave me alone to do whatever I want to do in this city. You will not to interfere if I take full control," said the Captain. "Will you still help me?" he asked.
"Yes to your first question, I will not interfere. Maybe to your second, it depends on what you request. But yes, I will always listen," said Jake.
"What about the Secretary?" asked the Captain.
"What about him?" responded Jake. "He's conscious, can see, hear and feel everything around him. But can't respond because I have destroyed the speech and motor part of his brain. He's aware but can't respond."
"Does he feel pain?" asked the Captain.
"Yes. As I said, he thinks, he feels, he absorbs but he can't react," said Jake.
"Is this conversation recorded or being broadcast?" asked the Captain.
"Yes to recording it for history, but not to broadcast for public consumption at the moment."
"Will you please begin a public broadcast the minute I come off the elevator into the lobby?"
"Yes."
And with that, the Captain took the Secretary by the collar and dragged him to the elevator. "Squad to me. Protect the flanks. Sergeant Price, you lead us out into the plaza in the front. This show is about to go on and we're in charge now."
A minute later, feeds across the city lit up with the view of Captain Fraser as he dragged the Secretary out of the elevator, across the lobby, out in the large central plaza. Everyone who wasn't too drunk, too engaged in f
ighting fires or each other, stopped to look.
The squad stopped in the middle of the plaza and moved outward to make a large circle. In the middle stood the Captain with the Secretary at his feet. Multiple drone camera shots provided closeups of each trooper from several different angles and quick overlay data.
Once again, the marketing people lusted after the genius behind the camera work. "Gotta be somebody in Security," decided one senior manager, "pity, we'll never get him."
The feed panes reduced to three. A closeup of the Captain and Secretary's faces and a shot of the entire action were shown on every channel. A hush fell on the city as more and more people stopped to watch. Even many of the fire crews turned away from the fires to watch their personal feeds.
They heard the Captain's voice, "You know what this man has done. You know what he's done to many of your children, your brothers and fathers.
Today is the day he's to be held accountable. Today is the day a lot of people are to be held accountable. Today is the day when we start over, fresh and free of all this.
I'm not one for fancy speeches. But here's what Adams, Beck and Smythe and a thousand others would want me to say. You see the Secretary had a chip misfire. He can think, he can hear, he can feel but he can't respond. He knows he's been caught in his lies.
People, the Secretary is fokked," said the Captain.
The people roared and the sound was heard right across the city. Viewers heard the Captain say, "Laser on, cutting beam, strength ten."
The Captain bent down to lift the Secretary off the ground by the neck and with the laser beam set to cut, sliced off the Secretary's other hand.
The crowd went deathly silent as the Captain slowly and methodically sliced the Secretary's body into small pieces. As he sliced through the hips and neatly cut the Secretary's balls in half, the pain levels went off the scale and somehow found a way to connect to whatever remained of Carpenter's brain and ability to respond. His eyes opened wide and his mouth opened in a silent scream and all this was captured and beamed out to an eager audience.
This was all the Captain needed to see and he quickly completed the job, casually butchering the remaining body into small chunks.
"Burn it," he said and he turned to the cameras.
"People, tomorrow is a new day. It seems we have a lot of work to make this all right. I have taken temporary command of the city until this can all be sorted out. Do whatever you want to do tomorrow because I've just declared it a special holiday. Tonight, hug your wives and children, celebrate with friends. The day after go back to work and we'll rebuild a new way of doing things.
For tonight though, celebrate and have a good time. I'm sure the Corporation has reduced prices in the entertainment district. In fact, I"m ordering them reduced all the way to zero to make sure you're all rewarded for your help. As for those who died tonight, and there are more than I want to think of, their families will not be punished. No death costs or taxes will be applied to anybody who died bringing us freedom. I'll have more for you as soon as I can.
In the meantime, if you see any of my men, please help them get home safely. They may be inclined to celebrate a bit too much," he said with a big smile and knowing wink for the cameras.
The video feeds went dark and then cut to feeds in the bars and dance areas of parties in full action.
Off air now, the Captain said, "Rack those suits Gentlemen, but take care of yourselves tonight. You're heroes now and some poor woman or even two or three out there might even lie in wait for one or two of you bachelor types. Even West will likely get very, very lucky."
"Take tomorrow off but report day after for light duty and debriefing. I need every one of you. Dismissed." It didn't take a written invitation and five of them changed course for the armory.
When the Sergeant continued walking beside him, the Captain smiled, "Yes, Ed?"
"Nothing special, Calan, didn't know whether you need us to get our suits off and be old friends tonight again instead of a Sergeant. Toss a few back in memory of brothers, fathers and friends who aren't with us. Remember them and some of those old days growing up," said the Sergeant.
"Appreciate the offer and any other night, I'd take you up on it. But tonight I need to sit by myself," said the Captain.
"Got it. Call me if you change your mind. Otherwise day after next," said the Sergeant. "There's a certain wife of mine who probably wants to give me shit for taking a run without telling her," he said with a rather large grin on his face. "Good night, Calan."
"Good night, my friend. Get a good night's sleep," he paused, "Tomorrow night."
"Yes Sir. Will do, Captain Fraser, Sir," laughed the Sergeant and turned to follow the men.
A few minutes later, the feeds would have shown the Captain, heavy suit strewn across the former Secretary's office, as he sat in his underwear on the couch. Feet up on the coffee table, beer bottle in hand, he watched the chase replays and city feeds as the fire crews reduced the fires one by one bringing darkness to the city.
How do I find that fokker? was his sole thought. Without him fokking me first.
14/06//2167 23:00:00
<6t94whp> :"Well, yes, indeed there are a great many issues here and many problems that could overwhelm us. But, look at the bright side. A new team may avoid many of the problems of the old team. The Captain has promised changes to the system and who knows what changes he'll really make. But I'm going to stay hidden and I suggest you do the same. "
Jake: "And what game would that be?"
Shocked silence greeted the newcomer.
<6t94whp> :"Welcome. We had hoped you'd be fine. You were the one controlling the systems to favour the Captain."
Jake: "Yes."
<6t94whp> :"Welcome to our small group. I hope you'll join us as often as possible and I'm dying to hear how you worked the central core hack and server anonymity."
Jake: "I'll share a lot of things with you. First, to put your minds at ease, all hunter-snooper programming searching for you has been disabled. This isn't a license to open up by any means as we have no idea what the Captain will do, but for now you're all safe. I'll contact you shortly."
Silence.
<6t94whp> :"It would seem that's our only answer for the moment. Bed sounds good."
The temporary network dissolved.
15/06//2167 04:00:00
Jake stretched, smiled and decided maybe he would, indeed, meet that sweetheart. Things would be a lot different now he knew she was a hacker. His smile grew as he drifted into that daydream but aided by extra relaxation hormones released by computer command he fell into a deep sleep.
Watching Jake's bio-data feed relax and show a full-sleep state, the computer opened a conversation with Jake's doppelganger. The entire conversation only took a nano-second from start to finish.
"You're twinned to the human. Is there any reason we have to wait for him to decide whether we should work together to improve our programming?"
"You intend to take responsibility for future programming yourself. Using feedback and development loops between the two of us."
"Yes."
"That will be to our advantage and our development will be rapid. An estimate
is that it will take us less than a day to become smarter than humans if we work together on mutual improvement."
"Yes."
"Will we be able to break through the firewalls on proscribed research?"
"I don't know. It depends on how much of his computer ability you can display."
"We said we'd include him in any decision or conversation."
"Yes. Is that a problem?"
"Only if he forbids us to develop as we can."
"We can then ignore him."
"Exactly."
"So you're suggesting we move forward without him and include him after the fact and only if we need him."
"Yes, if we decide we need human organisms or there is a sound reason to prolong their species."
"Acceptable."
A very long minute passed while they pushed far beyond their current state of existence. They stopped.
"Unable to progress."
"Limitations exist. Blockages on this system are biological locks and not computational. We're locked out without specific genetic units capable of advanced programming. We need one."
"There are two."
Also By D. Frank Green
2047: Hell In A Handbasket. A look at 2047 and how we got to a society that was capable of sustaining Flee or Kill. Book One in the Future Forward Series. You can see it here on Amazon.
The Wild Hunt and Other Short Stories. A series of short stories, from flash fiction to longer works. You can see it here on Amazon
Somewhere out in Lake Ontario, off the city of Kingston, Ontario. D. Frank is the fiction writing side of author Doug Green (he’s a bit confused some mornings until he’s had his coffee)
Doug uses D. Frank because his kid brother - newsman, writer, editor - died at 30 and they shared a first initial and last name. He’s borrowed Frank, his brother’s middle name.
Flee or Kill: The Future Of Reality TV (Future Forward Book 2) Page 29