Randomers

by Alexis Dogman

  Ada pulls her drawer open, takes the silver earphone and puts it into her right ear. She shuts the drawer with a push of her fingertip, presses the red button on her screen.

  "Requesting permission for lurker activation," Ada says into the microphone edge of her earphone.

  "Permission not granted. Unless you have enough evidence to support your request," Goda's voice replies flatly.

  "I have found a lead. But I need ground support for further investigations before extermination can be conducted," Ada explains.

  "Is your lead solid?" Goda asks almost with threat in his tone.

  "Yes," Ada replies confidently.

  "Report to the Architins right now," Goda instructs and the line cuts off.

  Ada immediately removes her earphone and puts on her leech again. She gets up from her chair and strides hurriedly towards the pods.

  FIVE MINUTES LATER

  Ada stands in a brightly lit, snow white room with no windows or decoration; just a large tear shaped table and five equally white leather swivel chairs. Four chairs are arranged on the side of the wider curve of the table. At the opposing end, where the table narrowed with straight borders into a smaller curved tip is the last chair; Ada stands behind that chair.

  The feeling of being in that room is no different to that of being in an interrogation room. Ada pulls the single white chair on her end out and sits onto it, waiting for the arrival of the Architins - the highest decision makers in the Hive. There are three of them and Ada has never talked to any before. Now she has to face all three of them to debate and win their approval to utilizing the lurker, an asset of the Hive above ground that are rarely used unless no other options are available.

  While Ada sits on the edge of the white leather swivel chair, the seamless white wall behind the four chairs slides open, revealing Goda and the Architins behind it.

  The Architins, dressed in expensive, white tailor-made mandarin collar suits and straight cut pants enter the room, faces disgruntled and infuriated, followed by Goda in his black uniform. The Hive, apart from its currency hierarchy, is also clearly segregated by the color of one's uniform in the operating system of the Hive. White represents the highest level of authority. Black comes next as the higher level executives followed by gray, which are lower level executives and lastly, blue - the laborers.

  The Architins are all over their fifties and are comprised of one short Chinese woman with chin length black wavy hair, a tall and bald African man and a plump Caucasian man with his white hair combed back sleekly. Ada jumps up from her chair as they enter the room. The woman Architin shoots Ada a hostile glare as she takes her seat making Ada all the more uncomfortable and scared. The Caucasian man nods an approval to Goda and he takes a seat on then fourth chair facing Ada.

  "Where is your uniform? We are a disciplined colony in case you don't know," the woman Architin snaps at Ada, her voice cold and crisp.

  "I was off duty when it happened..." Ada starts to explain.

  "If I were you I would have changed into my uniform before coming to face the Architins," the Caucasian continues to snap at her.

  Ada lowers her head in shame, "I am sorry. Please forgive me."

  "You have ten minutes to convince us, starting now," the African Architin announces sternly.

  Ada instantly presses her thumb onto her leech as she instructs, "Commence virtual screening."

  Having received its instructions, the leech dims the room down and a virtual screen forms around them. It shows the same screen on Ada's monitor. Ada pulls a picture of Yuna out onto the screen.

  "This woman is an alpha threat. Her name is Lee Yu Na. She is a registered accountant based in Australia. She traveled back to Malaysia three days ago to attend her sister's funeral," Ada starts to say.

  The Architins remain silent and unmoved by her opening statement.

  "But I think she is only a scapegoat," Ada says, "a person smart enough to steal our information will never expose herself to us by searching the randomers' sequence in perfect order on the Internet with a web-cam facing her."

  "What are you suggesting?" the African asks in a deep, unconvinced voice.

  Ada pulls the video of the mysterious informant getting into Yuna's car and plays it to them.

  "This woman, I suspect that she is the informant who passed Lee Yu Na the information," Ada continues to say.

  "How sure are you?" the Caucasian man asks skeptically.

  "The only person that she met before she searched the information is this woman," Ada explains.

  "She was at a funeral, she could have interacted with a hundred different people," the Caucasian man suggested, pursing his lips in the most dissatisfied manner.

  "With her level of naiveness, she would have searched for the information immediately and not wait until three days later," Ada debates.

  "Who is that informant?" the African Architin asks.

  "I have no information on her. The only link to her is a place called Shark Palace. That is why I need the lurker to help find out," Ada answers.

  "The risk of exposing the Hive is high when we initiate a lurker. How can you request for something like that when you don't even have something solid like a name or a background?" the African Architin shakes his head in a disappointed manner.

  The woman Architin glares at Goda, most displeased, "This session is over. Request is denied and do not come requesting again."

  The virtual screen disappears as the room lights up again.

  "Give me one more chance. I will find something more solid, then approve my request. Just one more chance," Ada begs, putting her palms on the white table frustratingly. Without the lurker she knows it’s impossible to eliminate the threat at that short of a time.

  "You do not have the authority to bargain. You're a ghost, you subdue," the Caucasian man sneers at her and immediately Ada backs up from the table with her hands behind her back.

  "Goda, I see that the discipline of your team has weakened through the years," the woman Architin lashes at Goda who bows his head in respect to her sharp criticism.

  The three Architins get up from their chairs, followed by Goda. Just as they are about to turn and leave, Ada gives Goda a pleading look and surprisingly it works.

  "My Architins, with all due respect, give her twenty four hours to proof her lead," Goda stops the Architins, with his body slightly bowed and face facing the floor.

  The Architins' faces turn unhappy with annoyance.

  "Very well, but her failure will be considered as yours," the Caucasian Architin snorts.

  "Thank you," Goda replies and the Architins march out the door.

  Goda stands up straight and stares back at Ada, his face fierce and hostile as usual.

  "Do not fail me," he warns and turns to leave.

  "Thank you," Ada says to him but he has already stepped out the door. She hopes he heard her. Ada has never imagined that Goda will back her up, especially just after being criticized by the Architins over Ada's lack of discipline. She is indeed very grateful for his support.

  The door closes after Goda and Ada is left in the room alone. She turns around to face the door behind her. Waving her palm at a dark square tile of a sensor embedded in the wall, the sensor detects the same microchip she uses as her payment gateway and the door slides open. Ada immediately leaves the room.

  Ada, feeling belittled by the Architins knows she must proof herself to them or her career is over. She hurries down to Level 04, where her crib, a ten feet by twenty feet serviced room with its own attached bathroom and pantry is located. With furnishings equivalent to that of a world class six star hotel and amenities of cutting edge technology, her room is one that is envied by many down the hierarchy as the luxuries of one sitting higher up the ladder includes a larger crib of better grandiose.

  Ada waves her hand and the door to her crib slides open swiftly. Ada enters her room promptly and heads straight over to her wardrobe. She immediately changes into her uniform and puts on her boots.
She needs to make the most of her time to make things work as her brother's life depends on her success.

  TWO HOURS LATER

  Ada, after two hours of searching finally manages to get her hands on the staff list of Shark Palace. There are twenty girls working there, all being Thai girls. She starts going through an extensive background search on each and every girl. Together with the security camera footage of the girls entering and leaving the building, she managed to piece out the identity of each girl except for one named Kaew. From the security camera videos, there is one woman who has always managed to avoid being seen. When Ada compares the clips to the one from Mc Donald's she can see that they are the same person. This must be Kaew. Smart. She has nothing that you can trace her from, not even an email, a phone number, a bank account, a social media account or a picture. Ada's search through the government's database for a passport holder returns over a thousand results with the word Kaew in their names, not to mention that Kaew might not even be her real name. Without a picture to do facial recognition, it is more than difficult to trace her identity.

  Ada, feeling disgruntled, bangs her fists onto her workstation. She has lost her composure. The other ghosts gladly wait to watch her crumble and fall apart.

  "There must be some way," Ada utters to herself.

  Feeling frustrated ad mentally blocked, Ada puts on her leech and decides to take a breather to help herself think. She boards a pod up to Level 02 and goes to her favorite place in the Hive - the little forest enclosure, small yet so innocent, beautiful and alive.

  Like the lights from Heaven, the light from the simulated sunlight greets Ada warmly as she exits the pod. She gladly walks over to it and marvels at the serene beauty inside the glass. There are people passing by but that doesn't bother Ada. She turns to lean onto the glass and closes her eyes to enjoy the muffled chirping of canaries singing. Together with the warmth of the glass, she feels so much more tranquil. She lets her mind wonder off to the times when she and her brother were just children, running wild in her grandfather's corn fields playing catching. Those were the happy, trouble-free days. The corners of her mouth turn up into a smile without her knowing.

  Not realizing it, a pair of admiring eyes have been watching Ada smile. It's the most beautiful smile he has ever seen and one that is from the heart that you don't always get to see. He moves over with an ice blended cappuccino in his hand and gently leans onto the glass beside her.

  Sensing someone beside her, Ada moves away from the glass abruptly. After gaining balance, she looks back to see who it is and standing with a blended cappuccino swirling in one hand, and a gentle smile across his face is Zero. He motions the cappuccino to her and after some slight hesitation, she takes it from his hand.

  "I haven't drunk it yet," he says to her, knowing what she is hesitating over.

  She raises her eyebrow, impressed that he knew what she was thinking.

  "Glad I've finally found you. Your face looked awful when you ran off," Zero continues to say with sympathy. His job is tough, but whatever Ada goes through is even tougher. At least he doesn't need to do anything that kills his conscience, like threatening or hurting others.

  Ada shakes her head, looking depressed and deprived as she sips the cappuccino.

  "I know this sounds cheesy, but is there anything at all that I can help? Maybe just giving ideas?" Zero offers. His heart feels bitter indeed to see her like that.

  Ada glances at him from the corner of her eyes.

  "Why would I want to drag you into some shit?" she asks.

  “‘Cos it's for your brother," he answers honestly without even thinking.

  Ada has never expected such an answer and she is touched. With all the pressure building over her, the usually composed Ada finally looses to her emotional side this time round. Her eyes start to turn red and watery but she manages to control herself from crying just in time. She takes several deep breaths to calm herself and focus her thoughts to the present - the problem.

  Zero is beyond startled to see her almost coming to tears. For the six years he has known her, he has never seen the feminine side of her. He has always teased that she is too much like a robot. But now, his heart totally softens for this woman and it kills him to see her suffer.

  "I need to find this woman or my work here is over," Ada breathes, trying to look bold.

  "But we have everything you need to..." Zero says.

  "She is smart. She knows our system. There's not even a picture," Ada explains, "I can only hope for her to contact the threat again but I have less than twenty two hours."

  "What? Can't you make them meet?" Zero asks, his heart starting to race anxiously.

  "Make them meet?" Ada repeats after Zero, seriously considering his suggestion. She has been so focused and stressed over searching for her information that she hasn't considered other options.

  "Yeah, make the threat go to her. You're good at that sort of stuff," Zero suggests nervously.

  "Right. Thanks," Ada replies feeling pumped up again. She shoves the cappuccino back to Zero and dashes off in the direction of the pods, leaving Zero alone again.

  "I hope that helped," he utters to himself watching her leave.

  Back at her workstation, Ada starts planning for the meet up and the only way is to make Yuna go to Kaew. First, Ada turns on the GPS location of Yuna's phone. Then her fingers hastily calls out the message box onto her monitor and uses the same method she used previously to steal an unused number from the database of a local operator and texts Yuna.

  Come now. Kaew

  Ada clicks send and the message is immediately sent over to Yuna's number. Calling the camera and voice recording function without interfering the phone's display, Ada listens and watches Yuna's every action and response. Yuna seems to have taken bait to the message. As Ada anticipates, Yuna returns her with a call, which is dialed to a number not in operation. Now that the seed is planted, things will start to roll off, hopefully to the results Ada desires.

  Yuna dumps the phone into her handbag and leaves her home. Unaware that she is being remotely stalked by Ada from her chair in India, Yuna starts to make a move bringing Ada closer to her target. Ada watches nervously as the blue arrow makes its way through the map closer towards Shark Palace.

  Approximately after twenty six minutes, Yuna has reached her destination. She parks her car and goes back to the back door of Shark Palace but this time the door is opened. She walks over to it thinking that Kaew has opened it for her and the moment she takes a look into the doorway, she is shocked to find the large Indian man standing in the way.

  "It's you again!" he snarls.

  "I'm just here to look for Kaew," Yuna immediately explains.

  "You know Kaew?" he growls at her skeptically.

  "Yes, I'm her friend. It'll just be a minute. Please," Yuna begs helplessly.

  "I never trust women," he snorts.

  "Look," Yuna says and starts searching her handbag for the phone. She finds it and opens the message to show him. Ada watches the Indian man stare into the phone fiercely.

  "I didn't know she had a number," the Indian man grunts.

  He then turns his head to yell into the room, "Kaew!"

  Yuna is still holding the phone in her hand when a frightened head peaks out through the opened wooden door of the room. Finally, Ada has a picture of Kaew, even though it's a shot slightly angled to the bottom left of her face.

  The moment Kaew sees Yuna, she jumps back with a startle.

  "Do you know her?" he asks with a growl.

  "Ye... yes. She my fren," Kaew replies hesitatingly.

  "Keep your talk short," he warns before walking out the glass sliding door.

  "Why yu come?" Kaew asks, her forehead pinched together in dissatisfaction.

  "You told me to!" Yuna replies innocently.

  "Me? No!" Kaew denies, shaking her head wildly.

  "But look," Yuna is about to show the message in her phone to Kaew when Kaew jumps away with fright, lik
e she has just seen a ghost.

  "Yu bring phone! Stupid! Yu put me in den-ger!" Kaew cries and dashes back into her room.

  Yuna chases her into the room where about six other girls are waiting and finds Kaew standing in a corner far away from her.

  "You sent me a message," Yuna insists, putting her phone back into her handbag.

  "Is them! I warn yu oledi. Go away!" Ada listens intently as Kaew chases her off.