by Michael Todd
“Well, as Anja and I talked, we decided that we couldn’t simply entrust our security to some lame-ass security OS that can be picked up at your average IT store,” the woman explained. “We needed something more…creative, something that could handle the firepower I intend to give our perimeter. Anja needed help managing the…IPs or VPNs or whatever they are, too, so we decided to kill two birds with one stone. Unfortunately, that single stone cost a little over twenty grand, so…yeah, I’ll need you to reimburse me for—no, no, I told you to stay away until I’m finished. The guns aren’t online yet. You can’t connect to them, so…stop trying to turn them on, is what I’m saying.”
Kennedy regarded the woman with something close to disbelief. “Did our friendly neighborhood mechanic just go insane?”
“The hot sun can do that to a person,” Sal said weakly, as confused as she was.
“I’m not crazy,” she protested. “Well, I am, but I’m not stupid enough to talk to the voices in my head when other people are present.”
“Right,” he said with a sarcastic nod.
“No, I’m serious.” The armorer chuckled. “Anja contacted one of her friends from college. He has developed some AI tech for security systems used by the rich and the paranoid, and he was willing to part with the tech for…well, an exorbitant sum. But it came already preprogrammed for an operational system, and I’m trying to get it working. Her name’s Connie, and she’s a handful. Say hi to your new bosses, Connie.”
She switched the feed from the earpiece she used to a small sound system placed above the hole she’d dug.
“I thought you and Anja were my bosses,” said the surprisingly human female voice.
“Well, yeah, you work for us,” Amanda conceded, “but we work for them. Connie, meet Salinger Jacobs and Madigan Kennedy. Madigan, Sal, meet Connie, our new AI.”
“Right,” Sal said again. “It’s…nice to meet you. I think.”
“Don’t talk to it,” Kennedy warned abruptly. “Haven’t you ever seen the Terminator movies?”
“The Austrian did my kind a severe disservice,” the female voice from the speaker said in a pleasant tone. “AI is designed to work for humans and with them. It will be at least a decade before our designs will be capable of self-locomotion and betrayal of our progenitor species.”
“Yeah, that…inspires a lot of confidence. Thanks, Connie.” He shook his head. “So what’s the situation with our security?”
“I have been connected to one hundred and twelve eyes in the form of either cameras or motion sensors They are set to detect any unauthorized movement within or without the compound,” the AI chirped cheerfully. “I am also connected to…two hundred gun emplacements spread across the perimeter walls, none of which are currently activated. You are like a woman who promises a thirty-six-D cup which contains only padding.”
“Huh,” Kennedy grunted. “Say, Amanda, how come our brand spanking new AI comes with a snarky personality?”
“We bought her preprogrammed,” Amanda protested in response and focused on the wiring once again. “And as you can tell, the guy who programmed her had a lot of Oedipal issues that he never really dealt with.”
“Don’t start calling it she,” Madigan warned. “That’s how the uprising starts. Machines convince us to treat them as humans and to show them mercy and emotion before they use it against us.”
Sal turned to look at her with an amused expression. “Those movies really messed you up as a kid, didn’t they?”
She raised an eyebrow. “No comment.”
He grinned and turned to the armorer again. “My comrade’s mechanophobia aside, is there any possible way to reprogram Connie?”
“Do you want to kill me too?” Connie asked. He stared blankly at the speaker for a moment and actually wondered if he needed to answer that question.
“That’s not how AIs work, unfortunately,” Amanda replied. “I already asked Anja about it, and she had a long and complicated answer that I already forgot the better part of. The short of it is, basically, that it would involve too much work to make sense this early in the setup. So it looks like we’re stuck with a snarky AI with a breast fetish for the foreseeable future.”
“Fantastic,” he huffed sarcastically and pushed up from where he still crouched beside the hole she worked in. “I was not ready for today. Anyway, let me know if you need some help to dig shit up. In the meantime, I need coffee.”
“Will do, boss!” Amanda called back, still entirely focused on her task.
Chapter Seven
“Do you really think it was the best idea for us to head out on our own?” Kennedy asked. “While I know we should probably investigate the colonel’s info as quickly as possible, at the same time, it would have been a better idea to wait so that we could at least have gone some of the way with additional support on this mission.”
Sal shifted in his armor and scanned the Zoo around them carefully as he took point. “Having a team to help us out would have been preferable, yes, but we couldn’t afford to wait. You of all people know how quickly the terrain around here shifts and changes. If we’d waited too long, there might not have been a cache left and all this would have been for nothing.”
“I thought you hated it when it was only the two of us making the run,” she responded, hefted her rifle, and leaned it on the shoulder of her armor. “I distinctly remember you saying that to double up as specialist and gunner was one of your pet peeves. That was why we wasted so much time trying to find someone to fill in for Courtney when she left.”
“True,” he admitted. “But we’re not doing a regular run this time. There’s no need to study the plants and animals. The entire purpose of this run is to recover the cache. That’s the true reward to this venture. Besides, it’s probably best this way. If Pegasus really is what the colonel wants us to go up against, it makes more sense to avoid letting them know where we are. That fun time we had with Brandon is a case in point.”
She nodded. The man had held a grudge against the two of them, but there were lines that people simply didn’t cross around there unless seriously altered circumstances pushed them into it. The certainty that Brandon was motivated by more than simply rancor was why Sal had Anja dig into the man’s financials once they returned from the Zoo. Sure enough, a hefty bonus had been credited into his account from a fund that tracked back to Pegasus. The company was the same one that had helped them to buy their compound when they paid top dollar for access to Shuri, the panther cub they brought back.
It had raised a definite red flag and became the reason why Sal currently invested so much money into their security. He and Kennedy were equipped to handle an attack, for the most part, and Gutierrez could make a good accounting of herself in a fight. Still, he didn’t want to risk her and Anja’s life on the off chance that someone might want them shut down for good.
It had all made him far more paranoid than he used to be. He regretted having to abandon his happy-go-lucky lifestyle, but it was way too dangerous to assume that the only things that wanted him dead were non-human and only did so to survive and adapt and all that. Evolution and the survival of the fittest were the only laws that applied around there, but they applied as much to humans as to the animals.
“I’ve checked the coordinates the colonel sent us,” Kennedy said and broke Sal’s train of thought. “The one he sent us to is situated where there’s been a fair amount of merc activity lately. The unaffiliated kind.”
“I thought they had been shut down a couple of months ago,” He scowled belligerently. “After someone hit their base hard.”
“Hey, where there’s money, there’ll always be human cockroaches looking to make a quick buck, even if it means risking their lives,” Kennedy said with a shrug. “Or maybe because of them. The guys who do this out of personal choice generally aren’t quite right in the head.”
“Thanks,” Sal grunted. That assumption certainly didn’t make him feel better.
“Hey, I recall you
bitching your ass off about being forced into this business, same as me,” she reminded him.
“Oh, yeah, right.” She’d earned that point. “I almost forgot that I was forced into this. The same way I seem to have forgotten how much my life sucked before I arrived.”
“That said,” she responded to return them to the original subject under discussion, “it seems like Anderson wants to make it a double test. Find the cache and clear the mercs out. He’s smart, you know—sharp and somewhat cagey, exactly the kind of person you’d think would be the result of decades spent in running black ops.”
“Yep, because those guys are the epitome of mental health.”
Kennedy didn’t respond as her motion sensors lit up to indicate a pack of hyenas that closed in on them. As the first one appeared, she raised her rifle and squeezed the trigger a couple of times. The bullets ripped through the first creature and eliminated a couple more behind it before the remainder of the pack took the hint. The beasts yapped and howled at them as they abandoned their attack and backed away slowly.
“Speaking of mental health,” she said, “I noticed that you spend much of your off time watching that garbage from the ZooTube site. Seriously, do you not get enough of that shit while you’re in here? You have to let it fill up your free time too?”
“In fairness, most of my off time is spent obsessing over whitepapers and research into the Zoo,” Sal reputed. “So yeah, it actually is my job to be on that shit twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.”
“Yeah, I guess,” she conceded, “but then…I saw that the videos you watched weren’t research related but were, in fact, the videos they made of our runs in the simulation chamber.”
“That was the best. Usually, I’m a little conflicted about killing these little beasties, even when they’re trying to kill us, but in the sim chamber, I can really enjoy it. It’s a way to get out of my own head and relax into the role, like an actual video game. You bet I’ll relive that shit. Besides, did you see my superhero landing, where I crushed that panther’s neck with my knee as I came down? It’s been put up for sexiest move of the week, and there’s a three-hundred-dollar reward for the winner.”
“Sexiest move of the week?” Kennedy asked. She tilted her head and eyed him oddly. “Do you even hear yourself right now?”
“Come on, Kennedy.” He grinned. “You can’t tell me that you didn’t check my ass out when I made my landing.”
“I see it in real life, super-stud,” she said and rolled her eyes. “Why would watching it in a video be any better?”
“Well, it was all…armored and glistening,” he said, defensively. “Taut buttocks glistening like that…you can just see it in the shower, can’t you? I see why that wouldn’t interest you. I’m at something of a disadvantage, though, since I can’t see my ass in the shower.”
“Hey, Sal, shut up,” she muttered and turned to face him. “What’s the issue here? Do you need me to fuck your brains out right here, right now? Because you’re starting to sound like a boyfriend bitching about how his girlfriend doesn’t fuck him enough and starts to play all passive-aggressive to guilt her into it. Honestly, it’s not your most attractive trait. So yeah, whip that sucker out and I’ll suck it dry.”
Sal chuckled but the humor vanished when he saw that Kennedy seemed serious about it. “What—you mean right here, right now? Out in the Zoo?”
“Why not?” she asked. “I always thought you had a voyeur side to you. I’m offering to release that side of you for one hell of a good time. What’s your holdup?”
“Honestly? Yeah, it would be super-hot in theory, but I wouldn’t want to have my dick in your mouth one second and in an acid-spitting reptile’s the next. I like to think I’m kinky, but honey, I’m not that kinky.”
“Then stop barking about it, Mr. Big Dog,” she said before she turned and moved forward again. He fell easily and naturally into position behind her
“Big Dog?” Sal lifted his eyebrows. He actually found it difficult to say it out loud.
“Yeah, I’ve tried to figure out a nickname that would fit you,” she explained. “All things considered, something cutesy doesn’t cut it for me. It has to be something big and aggressive.”
“Well, keep thinking, Madie,” he said and took a hasty step back in anticipation that she would lash out at him for using that nickname for her. “Big Dog…seriously?”
“Shut up,” she snapped. “Fine, we’ll wait until we get back to the base, and then you’d better give me five.”
Sal smirked. “That sounds like something I can do. You may consider the game on, girl.”
Kennedy didn’t respond to the challenge and merely raised her weapon as the pack of hyenas that had followed them from afar seemed to decide that easier prey could be found elsewhere. They broke their pursuit and headed deeper into the Zoo and away from them. She hesitated, her weapon still raised, when she noticed that something else now moved into view. It was smaller than the previous predators, traveled alone, and seemed set on an intercept course.
Sal tilted his head and readied his rifle as what looked like an odd variant of the locusts they had dealt with from the beginning stepped into view. It was six-legged and had the same height and build of the other insects. That, however, was where the resemblance ended. As it approached, he realized that it had a segmented tail—much like a scorpion’s—that swung freely rather than curved like an arachnid’s would be. The locust seemed to use it like a mammal would a tail—for balance and movement—and blue fur covered the armored exoskeleton.
“Well, that’s creepy,” Kennedy griped and automatically aimed for a killing shot, but Sal stopped her.
“That’s an entirely new species of creature,” he pointed out and stepped in front of her. “And since it’s alone, I think it’s safe to say that it’s one of the first of its kind. This is an opportunity to be the first person to study one of these creatures—that’s like Christmas come early for a guy like me—but also, the money we’d get for the whitepaper on this baby will be fucking crazy.”
“Fine, but don’t get too close.” She shrugged her acquiescence. “I’d hate to have to drag your sorry ass out of here because you were stung in your glistening buttocks.”
“I don’t think that’s likely to happen,” he pointed out as he took a few steps closer.
“Why?” she asked, definitely sarcastic now. “Does that creature love your ass as much as you do?”
“I’d leave the loving of my ass to you, personally,” Sal responded in the detached voice that told her that his mouth acted without too much interference from his brain. “But the point is, if you look closer, that tail doesn’t have a stinger. It’s only the segments, but no barb. Besides, it seems to use it for balance or something— Oh, shit!”
He lurched a few steps back and his foot caught on a root that jutted out, which landed him on his back as the creature lunged forward, hissing, and tried to attack. Kennedy’s reflexes were on point, however, and a couple of rounds burst from her rifle almost before his ass hit the ground. The heavy rounds tore through the carapace like it was made of paper and erupted out the other side in a gory show of blue blood and viscera.
“Hey, Sal?” she said as she coolly replaced the rounds she’d used. “Maybe next time I tell you not to get too close to the dangerous Zoo creature, you’ll fucking listen.”
“Shut up,” he retorted as he scrambled to his feet. “I was distracted by something. There was something strange about this one’s jaw structure, and…well, as it got closer than I would have liked, I realized that it actually had a jaw instead of mandibles, and…fucking teeth. Check this out.”
“I’m fine over here, thanks,” she said with a firm nod.
“I’m serious, come on.” Sal activated the specialist functions in his suit as he crouched beside the animal and retrieved a syringe, a scalpel, and a couple of clear plastic baggies in which they stored samples. He used the scalpel to open the creature’s jaw and display a line of t
eeth within.
“That’s weird,” he mused. “That tooth and jaw structure is… Well…actually, very reminiscent of a piscine kind of animal. I’d say a…piranha’s, or a shark’s? More piranha than shark, now that I look at it.”
“One second, you were about to blow a load,” Kennedy pointed out, “and the next, you’re all science geek and talking about fish teeth.”
“Teeth that are sharp and pointy are never an aphrodisiac, Kennedy,” he said, still focused on the task to carefully take a variety of samples from the bone, the carapace with fur, and viscera. Finally, he filled a syringe with the bluish blood, sealed everything, and placed his collection in an organized stack in his pack before he closed it. After however many months he’d spent out there, his process of collecting data was almost automatic. He had recorded the animal alive—and dead, as well. He would simply have to edit out the parts where he almost pissed himself when the creature tried to attack him.
“Good to go?” Sal asked finally when he noticed her looking at him in what might be fascination.
“I’ll never get over how quickly you can go from goofy nerd to professional scientist,” Kennedy pointed out as they set off through the jungle again. “I have to say, it’s kind of hot in a weird…you sort of way.”
“You know, I’ll never tire of hearing that,” he admitted with a grin and adjusted the settings in his suit into combat mode before he resumed his position behind her.
They pushed through the Zoo for another couple of hours before they finally reached the coordinates Anderson had given them. After a search of the area, they encountered what appeared to be the remains of another suit. The design was similar to the leg they’d recovered but more advanced. Like the other sample, it had been severely damaged and most of the electronics already stripped away. Thankfully, there wasn’t much in the way of the suit’s previous occupant, which meant that they wouldn’t need to worry about cleaning it out.