by Logan Jacobs
“The nanobots,” I said grimly as the realization struck me.
“What about the nanobots?” Dynamo asked. “I know they’re important to you, but don’t you think this takes priority--”
“I don’t know exactly,” I said. “But that must be what Mayhem wanted them for. He must have used them to gain some kind of mind control over these kids, and the two adults.”
“Can they even be used that way?” Dynamo asked. “How would that work?”
“The nanobots themselves can’t be used for mind control,” I said, “but they basically function as delivery mechanisms in a medical context. It’s the most noninvasive way of getting something deep inside someone’s body when it needs to be inserted in a very specific place. Like medicine or some kind of implant. Or extracting something from someone’s body without cutting that person open. So, my guess is that Mayhem is using the nanobots to stick something inside people’s brains that shouldn’t be there, that’s giving him control over them.”
“We need to tell the authorities,” Dynamo said. “Do you know how to reverse the process? Can you program the nanobots to remove whatever it is that they put in there?”
“The nanobots dissolve within an hour of deployment,” I said. “As for sending in new ones, I wouldn’t know where to start. I would have to know what Mayhem did in the first place. What part of the brain he messed with and how. I’m sure they’re going to take brain scans now, knowing what they know. Until there’s more information available, nothing I could tell them would be particularly useful.”
“That’s so horrible,” Dynamo said with a shudder. “Imagine. Your own child, stabbing you in the back… ”
“Actually, the kids who utilized sharp force instruments aimed for major arteries,” Aileen said. “That was another instance of acting on knowledge that they did not possess.”
“I don’t think she meant… never mind… so Mayhem is trying to create some kind of slave army?” Norma asked.
“I guess so,” I said. “But he’s not really going about it in a large scale, long term wise. If he were, he’d choose physically capable soldiers, not toddlers, and he wouldn’t have them immediately slaughtering their families and attracting national attention. He wouldn’t want anyone to notice what he was doing until it was too late and he had amassed sufficient forces for a takeover of… I don’t know, something, maybe Grayville. The fact that he chose to target a daycare like this and immediately show off his handiwork suggests that his priority was on shock value.”
“But Norma has a good point, he could hypothetically create an army this way, if he wised up and started operating more subtly,” Dynamo said. “There were twelve children, and two caretakers. That’s fourteen. You said that the nanobots dissolve after a single use. So, how many more nanobots are left from that stolen shipment?”
“Well, uh, minus that fourteen, let’s see,” I said. “A mere one thousand nine hundred eighty six.”
Dynamo, Norma, and I exchanged glances. I don’t think Aileen could really comprehend the horror of the situation, even though she was aware of the objective facts. She didn’t have any concept of owning her own mind, so she couldn’t understand how it would be the worst kind of violation for someone to invade and steal your mind.
“We should go interview Mayhem in jail if we can get them to let us in somehow,” I said. “We need to get him to tell us what he did with the nanobots.”
“Implementing interrogation techniques might be kind of tricky through Plexiglass and a telephone,” Norma pointed out.
“Interrogation techniques?” Dynamo asked suspiciously.
“Yes,” I said, but provided no more details. That definitely fell under the category of topics I didn’t want to discuss with my superhero lover. At least, not until she became a little less attached to Warden doctrine and a little more accepting of mine.
“Should we stake out the prison where Mayhem was taken?” Norma suggested. “Wait for him to break out? Or, break in and kidnap him? Bring him back here and interrogate him?”
I laughed. “As much as I appreciate the aggression, I don’t think the three of us are necessarily equipped to break into a maximum security prison, kidnap the currently most famous prisoner, and get away with it. Besides, the nanobots must be stored somewhere. Mayhem must have guys guarding them. Let’s research his associates and maybe we can find and attack his lair while he’s still in prison.”
Aileen handed each of us a laptop, and we opened them and typed in the team password which was DAMN-- an acronym for all four of our first name initials-- followed by a sequence of randomized numbers.
I had a tab open to my email, and the most recent message caught my eye. The subject heading was “Thank you” and the sender’s address was “mayhemofgrayville.” My software security system indicated that it did not contain a virus, so I opened the message.
It was an animated “Thank You” card with a pink curling ribbon and an envelope that opened itself neatly. The florid golden cursive script read,
Dear Mr. Nelson,
Thanks for the nanobots.
P.S. If you would like to witness Part II of this glorious drama, be sure to attend The Grayville Opera Company’s evening performance of The Demon’s Delight on October 12th.
Sincerely,
A happy customer.
When I showed the message to Norma and Dynamo, Dynamo immediately said that we needed to warn the public about the threat to the opera.
“… There is an argument to be made for that,” I conceded.
“But you’re about to make an argument against it?” she demanded as her turquoise eyes narrowed.
“Well, yes,” I admitted.
“How can we do anything else?” she asked urgently. “This is a matter of public safety. Look at what happened to the daycare. We can only assume that he’s going to try something else like that at the opera. Maybe on a larger scale.”
“So, you’re assuming that the Shadow Knight doesn’t have everything under control?” I inquired sweetly. “I mean, he captured Mayhem and landed him in jail, didn’t he? Nice and tidy. So how can he possibly pose a further threat to the public?”
Dynamo opened her luscious lips and then closed them. She sighed. “Okay, you have a point there. I guess I am assuming that he’ll somehow escape or else continue to direct this mind control scheme from where he is. But that being the case, won’t the audience at the opera be in danger?”
“Yes,” I said simply. “But, we’ve been in Grayville for several days now, and how much luck have we had tracking down the thief of the nanobots? Even now that we know exactly which supervillain it is?”
“Zero,” Norma supplied helpfully.
“And here, he’s handing us a time and a place where he’ll be, or at the very least where associates of his would be,” I said. “If we alert the authorities, and they shut the production down, then that chance evaporates.”
“How do you know he’ll be there, or that he’ll even send any important associates?” Dynamo asked. “What if he just rigs the theater to blow up, like that warehouse where he left the tracking device and wrote the bloody message on the wall?”
“I don’t know that, but I don’t think he will,” I said. “Because what he did at the daycare, and the taunting messages he keeps leaving, suggest that he really wants to show off his cleverness. His power. His capacity for evil. In this case, he wants a literal stage for his handiwork with the nanobots. Blowing up the theater instead wouldn’t make any sense, unless his goal were maximum casualties, which just doesn’t seem to be the case. His criminal record doesn’t indicate that either. It indicates that he doesn’t have any problem taking human lives, but it was only a few people here and there who got in his way or that he didn’t like. It wasn’t mass murder for the sake of mass murder. No, I think more than he wants to kill people, he wants to make them dance.”
“That makes sense,” Norma agreed as she chewed on a piece of mango.
“You alw
ays take his side,” Dynamo accused her.
“Well, he’s usually right,” my loyal assistant said with a shrug.
“Another thing…” I began.
“Yes?” Norma asked.
“Nothing in Mayhem’s record indicates he is capable of pulling off anything nearly this complex,” I explained. “He might not be acting alone here. We have to suspect that something bigger is at hand, and thus it’s even more important we use this event to draw him out.”
“It’s not morally right for us to say nothing, when we might have a chance to avert a terrorist attack,” Dynamo said.
“If the event gets shut down, Mayhem will just plot another attack, and since he’ll know that it was us who gave the warning, he probably wouldn’t do that again,” I pointed out. “In fact, he might take vengeance against us on innocent people, to teach us a lesson about talking. That would be the supervillain thing to do.”
Dynamo didn’t have an immediate retort to that, which meant that it probably made sense to her. But she didn’t look happy with my plan either.
“Look, I’m pretty sure I’m right that this will be some kind of stunt with the nanobots, not a matter of a bomb or bullets or a fire or anything like that,” I said. “It’s going to be more about sick twisted creativity, not just efficient mass murder. I’m willing to stake my life on that by attending. But you don’t have to come. In fact, I’d rather that neither of you--”
“No,” Elizabeth spat. “If you’re going, of course I’m going.”
“Me too, I’ve never been to the opera before!” Norma said eagerly. “I can wear that dress from the C.D.S. launch gala.”
I grinned. “It’s settled then. I’ll buy us a couple of box seats. You’ll both need expensive attire for the show.”
It had worked like a charm. I knew exactly what I was doing when I threatened to walk into danger alone, and that my superhero lover would have a knee jerk reaction to that. Yes, I was aware that that meant I was risking her life too, and Norma’s, but if it turned out that I had fucked up big time, well, I wouldn’t be alive anymore to regret my mistake.
“I didn’t say I need a new outfi--” Dynamo began.
“Norma, no you can’t,” I interrupted. “Repeat an outfit for a formal event, I mean. It’s simply not done for a woman. You’ll have to go shopping together. You can use my card.”
It wasn’t that I actually cared what they wore to the opera. But I remembered how much Norma had seemed to enjoy the makeover experience for the C.D.S. launch gala, and I wanted her to have that again. And Elizabeth didn’t lack for self-esteem, but I figured that if she accompanied my assistant, they could have some girl bonding time. It wasn’t that there was any animosity between them, but it was also hard for them to get close since they both paid a lot more attention to me than to each other when I was around. Maybe they’d find some things they didn’t know they had in common.
And I could have the house to myself to work on a weapons upgrade that I’d been planning for a while. I loved having the girls around, and Norma even knew a thing or two about weapons engineering herself, but sometimes a guy just needed some alone time so he could play with his weapons.
“We have more important things to worry about than what we’re going to wear,” Dynamo said irritably.
“If you aren’t properly dressed for the opera, with a gown, jewels, and heels like every other woman there and especially the ones with box seats, you’ll attract undue attention, and that could make it harder for us to move through the theater and track down Mayhem,” I said sternly. “It could ruin everything. People could die.”
Maybe I was laying it on a bit thick, but Norma seemed too excited to notice, and Elizabeth did notice and evidently decided that I must have some reason for really wanting them to go shopping. So she just raised her eyebrows at me and kind of jerked her head to signal resigned acceptance.
Before the girls left for their shopping trip, Aileen updated us on the results of the brain scans on the suddenly homicidal children and daycare attendants, which had now been published in summary.
It seemed that they had located tiny chips implanted in the victims’ brains which were used to send impulses to their neurons and control their behavior and also sent out waves that were somehow suppressing most of their higher level brain activity. So they still knew how to walk and eat and perform other basic bodily functions, but there probably wasn’t much of a stream of consciousness. For all intents and purposes, they weren’t really there inside their own heads.
The big problem was that the medical experts couldn’t figure out how to remove the chips without causing irreversible brain damage that would leave the victims essentially vegetables. So for now, they remained the slaves of Mayhem, in restraints, and were monitored around the clock.
“That’s so terrible that your nanobots, which were invented to accomplish something wonderful for humanity, are being used for such an evil purpose,” Elizabeth said. She was probably overstating the nobility of my intentions a bit. It would be more strictly accurate to say that I invented the nanobots in response to a market demand. Yes, the original intention had been for good, but that tended to be how pure capitalism functioned.
“All publicity is good publicity,” I replied. She glared at me so fiercely that I quickly added, “Just kidding.” We both knew I wasn’t entirely kidding and we both accepted it, and both of the women left shortly after to go on their shopping trip.
“Someday, will I be able to pass as a human?” Aileen inquired unexpectedly after the two human women had left the house.
“Er, yes, that’s the goal,” I said. “But there are still a lot of steps to go before that. I mean, I’ll have to engineer some kind of material that is indistinguishable from human skin, for one thing, which isn’t an easy task. Hair will be a lot easier, we can use human for that. If you keep practicing your facial expressions, then that will be helpful.”
“I will,” she promised.
“Do you… er… want to be able to pass as a human?” I asked her. She was a self-developing AI creation, so I was intrigued by what her desire meant for her eventual evolution.
“I do not want anything,” she stated. “Not in the sense that you mean. But I recognize that it would enhance my ability to meet the objectives that you assign me.”
“Ah,” I said with relief. Aileen was programmed to be unable to deceive me, although the downside of her constantly evolving mind was that I never knew whether certain parameters may have shifted. I wondered whether Dynamo’s lie detection power applied to machines, or only to organic beings. “Well, you and I can work on that as soon as we have some spare time. Probably when we get back to The Cellar with all my equipment would be best.”
“Whenever suits you, creator,” she replied politely. “Now, how may I assist you?”
“Gather all the firearms that we brought here with us,” I said. “Actually, clear the kitchen table first while I check my email. Then do that. We can use this table as our workspace.”
Once Aileen had complied with my instructions, I got to work. My goal for the day was modifying the weapons to incorporate a fingerprint recognition security measure. I had copies of my prints, Norma’s, Dynamo’s, and the artificially created ones that I intended to engrave on Aileen’s metal hands for this purpose. I wanted the weapons to respond to the touch of any of the four of us, but not to fire for anyone else.
This was inspired by the experience we had had in The Chief’s underwater lair, when he had used his telekinetic ability to rip the weapons from our hands. Incorporating this security measure wouldn’t prevent the weapons from being potentially taken from us in a situation like that, but it would at least prevent our enemies from using them against us.
I worked for several hours and periodically consulted Aileen for technical advice. She also cast music from the house speakers based on my listening history. She adjusted her song selections in response to my facial expressions upon hearing the first few chords or
my tiny little physical responses to the beat like foot tapping and also took into account the level of precision required for my current engineering task. I lost track of time until she served me a delicious lunch.
“I like spending time alone with you sometimes, Aileen,” I remarked. “It’s pleasant.”
“You mean, you enjoy your own company,” she said. “I am simply a mirror of your own consciousness. Well, except that I know a lot more.”
“That makes me sound narcissistic,” I snickered.
“Well, that descriptor accurately reflects many of your behavior pat--”
“This sandwich is superb, go make me a second one the same way,” I interrupted.
“As you wish, creator,” she replied and walked back over to the fridge.
I sighed with contentment. She was probably correct.
Chapter Eight - Norma
I didn’t really want to go shopping with Dynamo. It wasn’t that she was ever anything less than kind to me, but she made me feel bad about myself simply by being herself. Looking the way she did, fighting the way she did, being as smart and strong and sure of herself as, well, a superhero. And it wasn’t her fault that Miles didn’t even notice me when she was around. What reasonable man would? But, sometimes I had to keep reminding myself of that. That it wasn’t her fault, and it wouldn’t be fair to dislike her for it. I tried hard to be fair.
It was still impossible.
The models on Dan Slade’s yacht had been intimidating too, not as impossibly gorgeous as Dynamo, but definitely many times prettier than me. But it had made me feel better when they started asking her all those beauty and fitness questions, and I started to realize that they had just as many insecurities about their physical appearances as I did about mine. That they, too, feared they would never measure up to the beautiful superheroine. That made me feel not only more kindly disposed towards them but also made me feel a sort of strange vicarious pride in Dynamo.