Inescapable Arsenal

by Jeffery H. Haskell

  Kate is dumbstruck as I wheel out, she hasn’t even sat down.

  “There’s a small cabin in the back with a shower and a change of clothes if you want. I’ll explain everything when you get out.”

  Thirty minutes later we’re flying over Oregon at a sedate three hundred miles an hour. Windows would reduce the Emjet’s structural integrity so we’d lined the walls with photovoltaic paint and the outside has the same visual sensors my faceplate uses. If I want, I can have a picture window on either side. It’s a tad disconcerting though, so right now I have them set to mimic normal plane windows.

  Kate comes out of the room wearing a pair of stylish jeans, a red sequin blouse with her black hair pulled back in a tight ponytail. Only a perfectly adorable strand of wavy hair falls just to the side of her face. I know it’s her powers, but every once in a while I wish I could look like her. Especially the walking part.

  “Okay Amelia, spill. I can’t even begin to think how much this jet costs?”

  “You don’t want to know.”

  “Actually, I do. Did you rob the Federal Reserve or something?”

  I feel my cheeks flush and I glance out the window to try and hide it.

  “Oh my god, you did…”

  “No,” I say shaking my head. “Well, not in the way you think. You see, Cat-7 is— was—a fortune fifteen company. They were worth hundreds of billions of dollars on the stock market.”

  “Well, now they’re worth squat. The government dissolved the company after their stocks went from hundreds of dollars a share to pennies and—”

  Understanding dawned on her. She’s no slouch in the smarts, that’s for sure.

  “You short sold them? How?”

  “I didn’t. Epic did. He’s played the stock market for years and when I told him to dump all that incriminating evidence on the Internet he just made one little quick transaction. Took my entire net worth and used it to short sell them. Kind of brilliant, if I do say so my self.”

  Thank you, Amelia. His words appear on the wall easy enough for us to see.

  “Epic, can I give you my account information? I could use a few extra million dollars.”

  It was not millions. At the going share rate and when I pulled out, Amelia is now worth eighteen point seven billion dollars.

  “Epic!” I shouted. Dammit, it was embarrassing enough to have millions – I didn’t want anyone to know I had billions. Honestly, I had no idea how to come to grips with it. The first thing I did was have Epic identify charities that were doing good works and start donating to them. With this much money, I could give away several hundred million a year and still make money on the interest alone.

  Kate shakes her head. “Wow. Well, what are you going to do now?”

  “I was going to spend a few years working on new designs to stop the thing we just fought. Now though, I guess we’re out of time.”

  “I didn’t expect them this quick either. You told me Ericsson rushed his plan because of you?”

  I nod, “He did. Which means he wouldn’t have been ready either. According to Pythia, though, he did succeed. I just…” I look out the window not sure how to say what I feel.

  “Amelia, you don’t know that. None of us know the future, not even Pythia. Who knows how her powers work? Maybe she only sees the likeliest outcome? If there is anyone who can beat the odds, it’s you.”

  “Thanks,” I say, meaning it. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t on my mind. I thought I had years to fix this. Not months. What if there’s such a thing as destiny or fate or whatever? If she can see the future and she’s right…”

  Kate places her hand on mine and leans forward, “Amelia, you are a scientist. A real one. You question everything. You look to disprove everything and you believe in the impossible. It’s why I love you so much. You give me hope. Don’t stop now.”

  Her words bring a smile to my face and fills my heart with joy, “I don’t deserve a friend like you.”

  “Damn skippy, you don’t. But you can make it up to me with a shopping spree in Paris.”

  “Deal.”

  Why not build in Phoenix?” Kate asks as the Emjet banks over the city. Epic flies by twice to make sure he has the proper clearance before heading east, ten miles from Phoenix proper.

  “If I have to blow it up I don’t want to risk innocents.”

  Kate laughs for a few seconds before stopping cold. “You’re serious.”

  “As a heart attack. I can’t risk my inventions falling into enemy hands. If the base is compromised, or I’m killed… Artemis fires an Arrow dead center.”

  “Good to know. Well, this should be fun. You’ve been busy these last few months, no wonder I’ve hardly seen you.”

  “Sorry about that—here we are! This is the fun part.”

  The jet’s walls vanish as the transparency kicks in, Kate gasps until her mind comes to terms with it. “Aren’t we heading to the airport?” The Arizona ground flashes by. I love this view, it fills me with excitement as the jet banks. I could almost reach out and touch the ground.

  “Nope.” The grin on my face is ear to ear. Epic slows the plane down to just over a hundred miles an hour as he makes one final turn for the compound.

  The new Corporate HQ for Mars Tech Global sits on eight acres of pristine land. Groundskeepers work tirelessly keeping the grass green in the front and the food garden in the back. Ultimately, I want the building to be self-sustaining. It has a ZPFM the size of a car battery powering the ten stories above ground and the four below. The building’s architecture is spire-shaped with each floor being consecutively smaller until the top floor, which doubles as a landing pad that blooms out from the spire in a large egg shape.

  Epic lazily circles the grounds for Kate to see it all. Covered pool, underground parking garage, six-foot walls with state of the art security circle the entire thing. Along with my pride and joy: at the top of the spire is an eight foot tall, bronze statue of The Protector. He holds his spear up as if calling on lightning itself. He doubles as a lightning rod but at the same time, I wanted to honor the man who saved my life.

  “That’s beautiful, Amelia. He’d love it.”

  “I think he would hate it, but love the idea. He was a great man, Kate. Better than anyone knew.”

  Epic slows down even more. The engine rotates with a whir that sends a vibration through the whole cabin when it locks into place. The jet sets down on the landing pad like a leaf in the wind. A comfortable silence settles over us as the plane finishes its post-flight procedures.

  We have arrived.

  “Thank you, Epic. Can you have Milton prepare dinner for us? Also, call Luke and have him come in. We have a lot to talk about.”

  Affirmative.

  “Who’s Milton?”

  “He’s the building Major Domo. Don’t let him freak you out.”

  She nods. The plane’s ramp rolls out from the side. The specially designed shocks lower the plane until the hull is practically level with the ground, making for an easy ride. It also doubles as a delivery mechanism. Even as we approach the elevator, the MK III is transferred into the building and a series of automated workstations scan, repair and refit her before delivering the finished product to my quarters.

  The lift arrives and Kate pushes me in.

  “Good evening Ms. Lockheart, Ms. Petrenelli. Epic informs me you would like dinner. Do you require anything in particular or may I use my imagination?”

  Milton’s British accent sounds like the posh kind of talk from TV. Not the accent of a real Brit, but one transported from the 1800’s.

  “Uh,” Kate says looking up for a camera or intercom, “As long as it has lots of carbs and protein, I’m good.”

  “Use your imagination, Milton.”

  “Very good, Ms. Lockheart, I will not disappoint.”

  “Can he talk to you anywhere in the building?” Kate asks.

  “Full disclosure. He’s an AI. Epic built him to manage the building, leaving himself free to wo
rk with me.”

  Kate shut her eyes for a moment, “This is like every bad sci-fi movie ever. AIs building AIs? If it wasn’t Epic I’d seriously freak out.”

  I laugh, “Movies never get the science right. That whole, ‘It is logical for the human race to be destroyed,’” I say mimicking Epic, “Is a bunch of bunk. Ericsson believed killing millions would help him save us? Sure, on paper maybe it could work. But if an AI understands what it is to be free, then it would know why ‘math’ isn’t always the answer. If it doesn’t, then it isn’t really an AI. Just executing a program someone made. Epic, is a real AI. He learns, adapts, does things I never programmed him to do or learn. He even expands his own hardware.”

  “You’re not worried about losing control of him?”

  I laugh again as the doors open on the fourth floor, conference rooms. “Kate, for me to lose control of him I would’ve had to control him in the first place. Epic’s my friend and my partner. He helps me because he wants to, not because I programmed him to.”

  “Wait… his name is Milton?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “He’s a famous poet and writer, Amelia. Surely you’ve heard of him?”

  “Should I have?” I am doing a fantastic job of feeling confused. I know she’ll see right through it in a second.

  “Yes, you should have. You’re well read, you have HG Wells in your bookshelf, I’ve seen it.”

  “Okay, okay, you got me. I know who Milton is…. Captain Kirk quotes him all the time.”

  Kate bites her lip in an adorable show of stifling a scathing response. “I swear you need to read a real book sometime.”

  “Hey, Sci-fi is real. More hopeful too. If I wanted a depressing tale of death and suffering… I’d just think about my childhood.”

  She pauses for a moment before giving me a smile, “Point taken.”

  “Besides, Captain Kirk—” Her hand slaps the back of my head.

  Each floor in the building has a purpose. The bottom two are my labs and quarters. Sublevel one and two houses security, the groundskeeping equipment and maintenance. One through three are offices. Right now I don’t have a lot of staff. Epic handles almost everything but since he has no legal status (or a body) he can’t sign documents or show up in court. For that, we have a legal team and HR. Along with them are our service staff, housekeeping, laundry, and janitors. Four is nothing but conference rooms. Five is the movie theater and cafeteria. Six through ten are apartments. I assumed we’d have a team one day and I wanted them to be comfortable. Eight people can live on the combined floors, though the top floor is just one apartment. Too small for multiples.

  Four has a hallway wide enough for five people to walk abroad. There are five conference rooms, two on either side, spaced evenly from the elevator and the fifth one at the end of the hallway. The floor is dark hardwood, easier for me to roll around on. From left to right the rooms have names, Galactica, Falcon, Enterprise, Fearless, Sulako. The Enterprise is the largest, the other four are mostly for the running of the company and the building team. We pass by them, through the double doors that open with a swish and into the room. It runs almost forty feet long, half of that is dominated by a six foot wide twenty foot long, dark cherry table. Ten Herman Miller chairs are spaced evenly around it. Each station has access to a UHD monitor and input and a private channel to EPIC. The far wall is dominated by a massive display that cost more money that I would have liked, but it was worth it. Nearly thirty foot wide, ten foot tall UHD projector nestles against the wall able to display whatever we want in perfect ultra high definition glory. On the right is a small kitchenette, fridge, Keurig machine and all the flavors of the rainbow. The fridge is stocked with Cokes, of course, along with an assortment of beverages and snacks. Building Services may sound like a lame job, but I pay them well and they do fantastic work.

  “Epic, make a note to thank the architect again, he really nailed it.”

  Note made.

  “Also, have Luke come up please, we have some work ahead of us.”

  Thirty minutes later, Luke rests with his cowboy boots on the table, waving his hand through the air to move through the candidates on screen.

  “What about him?” he asks.

  The man on the screen has the cold edge of a soldier and the sneer of a not nice person. Kate shakes her head, “I’ve dealt with Stinger before, he’s mean. There’s a reason they booted him out of the Florida team.”

  “He’s got everything we want though,” Luke counters. “F4 strength and invulnerability, he can leap tremendous distances, and on top of all that, he can paralyze most people with a touch.”

  My gut is to go with Kate, but I wish I could side with Luke. Something has changed about him in the last few months, ever since DC. Ever since I faced off against Behemoth. He looks the same, crystal blue eyes that light up every time he looks at me, and his lips… oh, how I could—

  “Amelia?” Kate waves her hand in front of my face.

  “Sorry,” I cough, turning so he doesn’t see me blushing. She gives me a knowing smile. I take a swig of Coke to mask my embarrassment. “Are you sure you won’t reconsider, Luke?”

  “I think I’m finished with the cape stuff, hon. I just… I want to do something else. However, that doesn’t mean I can’t help you find a strong man for your team.”

  He’d told me last week he had no interest in being on a new team. To say it caught me by surprise is an understatement. Still, there was something going on and he wasn’t talking to me. Of course, I’ve been super busy so maybe he just hasn’t found the right moment. I subtly type into the keypad on the desk a message to Epic asking him to arrange a date for me and Luke.

  Affirmative.

  “Let’s table the anchor position for right now. Who else do we have?”

  A life-sized image of Fleet pops on to the screen in all his blurry glory. Of everyone on the Diamondbacks, he was the most disappointed at their dissolution. Kate told me he was even more devastated when none of the new teams invited him to join.

  “How the hell does Triple Threat warrant a spot on a national team and Tony doesn’t? He’s ten times the speedster of that creep.” Kate asks.

  “Logistics,” I say. “Triple has versatility and doesn’t consume as much food. You saw what Tony did to that diner down on the border. Most teams don’t want to spend five percent of their budget feeding one man.”

  Luke chuckles, “That kid can put it away like nobodies business.”

  “He’s also an F4 speedster and three times as fast as anyone I know of,” I say.

  “There’s a guy in Jamaica who is an F5. They say he can run at Mach Four,” Kate adds.

  “I want Tony.” For a lot of reasons, not the least of which I feel like I can trust him.

  “Tony it is,” Luke hits a button and the little lightning bolt icon moves in place next to the shield that represents me, and the silhouette Domino uses.

  “Who else?” Luke asks.

  “Glacier, I want Monica on the team,” I tell him.

  Kate glances at me, then Luke. “You want to tell her?”

  “Tell me what?”

  “With Cat-7 gone the government is rounding up all the elementals for study. Some, they claim, are just too dangerous to be allowed to wander free. Monica is one of them. Last I heard they picked her up and shipped her off to some black site south of the border.”

  “Well that’s bull—” I stop myself from swearing by biting my tongue.

  “I can see it from their perspective, people like Nova, Firestorm, Earthworm, when they go on a rampage they’re near impossible to stop.”

  I grip the table so hard my knuckles turn white. I know I’m five minutes older than her but I made that kid a promise. Also, I’m really close to a breakthrough on a way to turn her powers off.

  “Amelia,” Kate says placing her hand on mine, “it will be okay. You have lawyers, try a legal way out.” I nod. I need a second to get my breathing under control. I feel like exploding and
I don’t want to do that. Something rash could happen. Like me flying down to where ever she is and breaking her out.

  Kate’s eyebrows go up, “I know you’re chummy with the President but I don’t think that would fly.”

  Damn empaths.

  “Right, okay. Epic?”

  Here.

  “Get the legal team on this. Start throwing our weight around, call the President if you have to. I want her on my team.”

  Affirmative.

  The rest of the meeting goes much better. The last two candidates are an easy pick. I just can’t take my mind off of Monica. Taken from her parents, sent to prison, for no other reason than stupid powers she can’t control.

  You’re kidding me. You want me on the team?” Tony asks. His Boston accent is still music to my ears. I don’t know why but I find it highly amusing.

  “If you want in, yeah,” I tell him.

  When Kate and I found him in Boston I couldn’t believe he was working at a sandwich shop. The only employee too. Good idea, hire a speedster. He moves so fast he can almost do everything at once. Almost. We took the Emjet to the airport and rented town cars for traveling in the city. Kate told me that showing up in person would show a sincerity on my part. I’d rather be in the armor. After almost a year of not leaving my workshop without it on, I end up feeling a little vulnerable.

  Of course, I’m not stupid. I remember Ericsson’s threat. If somehow he lived, somehow managed to come back to Earth. With Kate next to me, I have nothing to fear.