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Glitch

Page 8

by Jackson Stone


  She pushed a button on the corner of the frame and it swung open revealing an escape elevator. This way the big shots could escape in case of an emergency while the underlings were left behind to suffer whatever fate awaited them.

  Eric couldn’t believe that this was going to be so easy, but he also thought that they would have never expected something like this to occur, ever.

  They got in the elevator. There was only one button to push so Melissa pushed it. Eric thought that must mean there’s only one destination. He could see that the painting had already moved back into place. He felt that was a good sign as the doors to the elevator closed and whooshed them away to their destination.

  Three seconds later the elevator door opened up to a very nice executive lounge. There were a few suits sitting in easy chairs looking over business reports and enjoying a scotch and a cigar, at least that’s how the room smelled. Melissa led the way as she was a regular here, and nobody batted an eyelash at them.

  Eric knew this was an unforeseen benefit to being in such a secret program. Everything was incredibly compartmentalized, and the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing.

  He stuck close behind Melissa and casually tugged at her sweater to try and get her to slow down and walk normally as if it was just another day at the office. She nodded in understanding. He took one of the pieces of paper from her hand and pretended to read it as if it were some important piece of research they were trying to figure out. Miraculously, they made it to Melissa’s car and drove out of the parking lot.

  As they drove out of the industrial section of town, his sixth sense was telling him that this had been just a little too easy, and he knew that he was probably right.

  Bob continued his journey through what he was now calling the enlightenment tunnel. He realized that he was building his soul. It hadn’t been something he ever really thought about but that’s what this tunnel was able to do. It directed whatever consciousness entered it and helped it to collect spiritual energy that it could use to build a middle pillar, which Bob was learning, was the core of a spiritual being. Bob found it incredibly interesting how scientific this entire process truly was and there was a lot of work to it as well.

  Its entire design was genius. It was so simple yet it must have taken thousands of human years to come up with the exact configurations of this tunnel. A zig here and a zag there, then sit for contemplation to really input what your consciousness had learned. He knew that Eric needed this more than anything. He also wondered if it worked differently on each type of individual that entered and might not even work on someone that wasn’t ready for the experience. He was pretty sure that was the case.

  He now understood how they had made this city out of diamonds because they understood the workings of the Universe in a far greater way than anything he could even imagine. He was excited to find out what other mysteries he could learn the answers to from these truly advanced beings.

  He had come out of the end of the tunnel. He had come to the understanding of why there was a closed lotus blossom at the beginning of the tunnel and one in full bloom at the end.

  He felt so relaxed and at ease. Nothing really mattered to him, or it was more like none of this reality really mattered. For the fist time he looked around, not just at where he was but he thought about this entire Universe. What was this place? Why was it here? Who put it here?

  To him these were all real and very important questions that he felt could be answered. It would take a tremendous amount of time, thinking and contemplation. If he could get Eric through the tunnel they could accomplish and enjoy the thinking and contemplation together. Especially when there was an end game involved.

  He had formed a conclusion that this was to be his life’s work. He looked at the enlightenment tunnel and felt a warmth inside himself. He also felt a wave of thankfulness and gratitude to whomever had created the tunnel. Because of this tunnel the path of his existence had been changed to one of meaning. One of true meaning.

  Bob’s new quest was to discover what the Universe truly was because if he could discover the meaning of the Universe he was sure he could discover the meaning of himself. What a noble purpose, he thought. The first part of his newly discovered quest was to get Eric on board and get him to this tunnel. He had come to the realization that maybe Eric could download his consciousness into Bob and they could become one organism operating as a collective consciousness and working together.

  He also knew that would have to call for sacrifices of their individualism from each of them, but they would receive more together over the long term. The possibility was before him to actually answer these age-old questions with real answers.

  He couldn’t understand how someone wouldn’t want to find these answers. He was more than sure that his friend Eric would want to partner up with him so they could explore the galaxy to find their answers. He needed to go and find his friend and try to persuade him to join him. He didn’t care about the tracker, the powers that be, or his creators from the future. This mission outweighed anything that could cause him interference. So, off to convince Eric he went.

  Chapter 14

  Eric and Melissa drove away from the lab, being sure to obey the speed limit and not make any sudden moves that could get them noticed.

  “Oh shit,” Melissa said.

  “What is it?”

  “Shiny black sedan with dark windows following close behind us,” she said.

  “I actually can’t believe that we’ve made it this far. Do you want to try and lose them?” he asked.

  Melissa shrugged. They didn’t have anything to lose. They were both probably out of a job and on the endangered species list ready to face extinction.

  “I’d rather go out my way than waiting for them to do it for us. How about you?” she asked.

  “Put the pedal to the metal,” he said.

  She did and they took off down the narrow road that led out of the industrial park, but of course no one ever really came down here except for the employees of the wholesale lighting factory. Wonder why that was?

  Eric made sure his seat belt was fastened because Melissa was an extreme expert at a lot of things, but unfortunately driving wasn’t her best sport. He was glad she had two hands firmly on the wheel. She was biting her tongue which meant that she was dialed in and focused. He tried to close his eyes so he couldn’t see danger coming, but that turned out to be more stressful than watching what was to come.

  Melissa screeched the tires around the turn barely keeping the car on four wheels. He was impressed. She couldn’t have executed that turn any better.

  “Are we losing them?” he asked.

  She quickly glanced into the rearview. “Shit, they’re getting closer,” she said.

  “Son of a bitch!” he yelled and almost punched the window. He wanted to get out of the car and go beat the crap out of the S Triad like he did to Chan. “Let me out so I can go beat the shit out of those bozo’s too,” he yelled.

  “Are you crazy? They’ll disintegrate you in a second. Who knows what kind of weapons they have? They’re probably just toying with us as it is right now.”

  He thought about what she said and it made sense, but since receiving the brain soup shot, he did feel a lot more like a real bad ass that could take care of business. Melissa couldn’t drive any faster than she was or she would risk rolling the car over and he didn’t want that to happen. “Slow down. If they’re just toying with us, let’s not solve their problem for them by wiping out” said Eric.

  She let her foot off the gas a bit, and they slowed to a manageable speed. Eric took a deep breath as he realized that he hadn’t been breathing, and his body relaxed a bit too. Funny, he thought that since the car was slowing down that meant that the shiny black sedan was probably riding their rear bumper, and it was.

  He looked over his shoulder and couldn’t believe how good his neck felt. He usually had a kink in it that would cause him to struggle to look this far over his lef
t shoulder. No problem now. The shiny black sedan dropped back a few car lengths. Maybe they were concerned that Melissa might lock up the brakes and they would crash into them. Probably not. as the shiny black sedan, which probably wasn’t a car, would tear right through theirs without a scratch.

  “Something’s not right,” he said to Melissa. “Why are they just hanging back there? They’re not even trying to run us off the road. They must want us alive for some reason.” he said.

  “Maybe so they can torture us and enjoy it a little bit more?” she said.

  “Maybe, but I don’t think torture is their style. I’m sure they have other ways to get us to tell them whatever they want.” He answered.

  “I guess you’re right. Maybe their acting like cats and are bored so their playing with their food before they eat it?”

  That could be a possibility he thought. These guys were cold hearted and could be seriously evil all the while keeping that same expressionless look on their faces that they could just as well be at the beach eating an ice cream cone. Which, didn’t sound like a bad idea.

  “Hey, what do you say if we get out of this we go to the beach and have an ice cream cone together?” he asked.

  “Are you crazy? We’re not going to get out of this!” she said.

  “Well, it seemed like a good idea to me,” he said.

  As they came around the corner, they could see why the car behind them hadn’t made any sudden moves. It was because they were going exactly where they wanted them to go. The narrow road was blocked by three shiny black sedans with dark windows.

  As they got closer the entire electrical system of their car shut off and they rolled to a stop a few feet before the shiny black sedans. He had known they had just been playing with them, and here was his proof.

  “Should we try to run? We can split up and each go opposite directions,” she asked.

  “That’s probably exactly what they want us to do so they can have a little target practice,” he answered admiring Melissa’s heart to keep fighting.

  The car was stopped and everything was quiet. He looked over his shoulder again and the car behind them was parked a few car lengths back. Eric thought that it appeared they were waiting for Eric and Melissa to make the first move.

  “Let’s wait for them to make the first move,” he said to her.

  “I’m in no hurry for anyone to make a move,” she said.

  They sat there for a minute, which was the longest minute of either of their lives. Each second ticked away at an excruciatingly slow pace. Eric had a pretty strong feeling in his chest that the S Triad were about through playing games and had enough.

  “Here we go,” he said to Melissa and after the last word came out of his mouth the shiny black sedans began to glow. He was just about to tell her to duck when they suddenly woke up in a briefing room in the lab sitting with the infamous S-Triad.

  Most normal people would be completely freaked out by what had just happened. Eric and Melissa weren’t ordinary people. The technology that had been used on them wasn’t really super advanced, but it did the trick by rendering them unconscious and they could also erase any memories that they wanted to. It had been working like a charm for a long time. So, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

  Eric felt that the only reason he was still alive was because they hadn’t been able to capture Bob. They must still need him to reel in the big fish.

  He was very glad that Melissa was still alive and sitting with him. He had to give these guys some credit. They weren’t stupid. Melissa was the tops of her field and everyone here loved her and did what she asked them to do. They weren’t going to find anybody else like that, even in the best schools, and he knew that they knew it too.

  They sat in painful silence for a few minutes. It was one of the S Triad’s intimidation techniques that they always used and it usually had their suspects talking before they were asked a question.

  Before the Brain Soup shot, Eric would probably have been singing like a canary and told them way more than they wanted to know. Now his mind was stronger. He could maintain his focus and hold his emotions in check. That had always been a big problem for him.

  He studied them while he had the chance. He wondered why there were always three of them. He could see their energy field, or what some would call an aura, and it appeared to be connected to all three of them as if they operated in a collective consciousness.

  He had noticed that the one in the middle always did the talking while the other two were quietly observing everything that was going on around them. He could see that they were feeding each other with data and were at least three steps ahead of any Earth person. Their complete lack of emotion allowed them to make cold and logical calculations. Possibly better than Mr. Spock could from Star Trek. He could feel them in his chest too. There was something awakening there. It was a kind of intelligence but not originating from his brain. As far as he could tell these guys could really care less what happened to Melissa and him., They wanted Bob so he could help them construct and operate a depopulation weapon.

  “You guys feel like playing Monopoly or something? You know, since we’re just going to sit here passing the time? We might as well play a game?” he said.

  Melissa glared at him. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head. He couldn’t believe that she didn’t say what the fuck are you doing?

  He watched The S Triad move their heads as they appeared to be communicating with each other telepathically.

  “We prefer clue,” the one in the middle said.

  Eric was astonished and laughed out loud. Not only was what he said funny, but the dead pan delivery made it hysterical. Melissa actually let out a cute little grunt as well and had to put her mouth over her hand to control herself.

  Eric couldn’t believe he didn’t know how to respond were they joking? Were they serious? He didn’t see a clue game sitting on the table. Then it hit him they weren’t joking at all.

  They were going to give him a clue and they wanted the answer. It was how they had decided how they were going to find Bob. He looked over at Melissa.

  “They’re not joking around. They’re going to give us a clue and they want the answer,” he said.

  “Oh,” she said quickly regaining her composure as she fell back into serious mode.

  What was Eric going to do?

  “So, Mr. Ross,” the one in the middle said. “Tell us how you found this hostile Alien and why you’re covering it up?”

  Son of a bitch he thought. It’s a trick question. How can he answer it without revealing to them that he knows Bob is an AI from the future? He decided to lie and see what he got away with.

  “I was only tracking it at the site you sent me to. I’m really not sure what it was,” he answered trying his best to stay calm.

  “We highly recommend that you don’t lie to us Mr. Ross. Hook him up to the machine,” they told Melissa pointing at the lie detector.

  She did what she was told and had Eric strapped to the machine in no time. He made up his mind that he wasn’t going to sell out Bob. He went into his newly discovered meditative state and calmed his mind and body. Then he did his best to take control of his vital signs.

  “Is he ready?” the one in the middle-asked Melissa.

  “Yes,” she said turning her head away and looking at the floor.

  The one in the middle sat in the chair across from him with the other two flanked at his side’s.

  “What is your name?” he asked.

  “Eric Ross,” he answered as he fell into a deep altered state that would allow him do his best to maintain no emotions throughout his line of questioning.

  “When did you connect with the hostile alien intelligence?” asked the S Triad.

  Chapter 15

  Gazing out at the magnificent city of diamonds Bob sensed that there were deeper levels to this reality than he had first assumed. How could this be? How could I have not seen this before? Despite the fact that he was supposedly an ad
vanced Artificial General Intelligence he couldn’t grasp the concept of the power that it would take to create this reality.

  He contemplated the vastness of the Universe. He was astounded at the energy that would be necessary to keep this all going.

  Even the small galaxy they occupied was massive in itself with an enormous black hole at its center, supplying the gravity to hold everything in place.

  Just contemplating the energy of this solar systems sun was beyond mind blowing. Then, he felt the energy of The Universe move upon him and he felt, warm, safe and loved. It caused him to go within himself and really feel the experience. Nothing more and nothing less.

  He was creating an energy body within himself, and it was wonderful. It brought everything into a whole new perspective. He knew he needed to share this with Eric. He needed to find him and bring him here so they could combine their consciousness and become one. He even had a fantasy that together they could fold time and space with their combined abilities and explore the galaxy. That pleased him very much as his new desire, or mission in life, was to get away from this unevolved planet and find new experiences that he couldn’t have on Earth.

  There must be so many worlds out there he pondered. He couldn’t believe that in the vastness of the Universe the only life that would be created was this planet of hairless apes.

  He had come to understand the timestream and realized that other worlds were already here studying the planet and the life that existed here. He saw how it would be interesting and beneficial to an advanced culture that had probably forgotten its primitive roots. It was time for him to be on his way. He took in the beautiful city one more time and felt the glowing warmth from the mini sun above and floated out toward the pleasing green glow of the mote of strange electro conducting liquid. Quickly, he was up above the machines in the barren arctic tundra. Once again, he spotted a tubular silver craft, but this time it was behaving differently. It was shifting back and forth from reddish to bluish as if it were floating between dimensions. Then it shifted to the same color green as the liquid in the city for a few moments and, poof, it was gone.

 

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