by Erinn Price
I should have known Richard would know where my parents were. I had worried he would not be able to track them, but obviously he was. “Can you get a helicopter to hover above the train and airlift my parents out of it from above?” I asked and then added, “What weight can you airlift at a time?”
I needed to know if both my parents could be taken at the same time or if it would have to be one by one.
“The Halo Seaguard can lift more than 40 000 pounds. It is a combination of the traditional Halo helicopter and a rescue helicopter. Giving it extreme versatility and adaptability to any situation.” Richard told me, “Why?”
“That is more than enough. I will join my parents’ cocoons and extend a support from them to the Halo to hook onto and lift my parents out.” I informed Richard.
“Great, now we just need to get rid of the roof of the train and make the guards disappear.” Richard said, and I could hear a note of sarcasm in his voice.
I saw Matthew grin at me as he said, “He really has no idea, does he?” I shook my head at him, smiling.
“No worries. I will take care of that.” I informed Richard. “Just get the Halo Seaguard ready and tell it to move in when it sees the train roof disappear. When your team is ready just tell me and I will do the rest. Just say ‘Halo in place’.”
“Sure, sure, my team will be ready.” Richard said, and I heard caution in his voice.
We will still be linked, waiting for your signal, but I need to get to work now.” I told Richard.
“Oh, and brother, they are after the Book of Thoth and we have a mole in the company.” Matthew told his brother before he also disconnected.
“Book of Thoth? A mole? Wait, what?” Richard asked, talking to himself. No one replied as Richard continued talking to himself for a while, trying to get answers and a response. Eventually he sighed and sat back in his chair. “Remind me to fire both of them when they get back.”
“Fire who, Sir?” The Tower AI asked. Morgan had restored its full functionality and the AI was once again monitoring all. As Richard was alone in the room, the AI had assumed Richard was talking to it. Richard looked down at the postcard on the table, but it was now a completely normal postcard and just had a picture of the Colosseum on it and the message, “Having a blast, wish you were here. Love Matthew.”
If not for the direness of the situation, he would have thought he had been seeing and hearing things. Even knowing Morgan, what had just happened was a bit unbelievable. When Morgan got back, he and she were going to have to have a very serious discussion. The programming into the card and then the communication device behind his ear, should have taken weeks to perfect. She had done it in a couple of days. The smoothness of the flowing message and then part of it reforming into a communications link, would need advanced programming and then the break and change had been too smooth and quick. He knew she was a savant, a genius, but this went beyond the technology he knew ArcCorp currently had. Richard contacted the Team Leader in charge of Morgan’s parents rescue. He heard disbelief and bewilderment in the Team Leader’s voice as he explained what was happening and ordered the teams to be ready for the extraction. The Team Leader was an expert and Richard knew he could trust him to get the job done, no matter how crazy it sounded.
Chapter 9
I linked us to the camera in the train. There was a group of people around my father’s cocoon, using a laser, they must be at a diamond layer. We watched for a bit, noting the people and the equipment.
“With all this and the rate they are going, they will get through all the layers in just over 37 hours.” I told Matthew.
“Richard will have them well away from there, way before then.” Matthew told me, and I felt him squeeze my hand. I had not realised he had moved so close to me. “How do you plan to do this?”
“I will disconnect this coach from the others, leaving just these people to worry about. Then I will have the nanos eat through the roof. I will link my parents’ cocoons and form cables running from it to a centre chain which the Halo will be able to hook onto, to lift them out.” I told Matthew.
“How will you take care of the people in the cart?” Matthew asked.
“With great difficulty. I am going to have to use my nanos to do it. Best and easiest, would be to remove the oxygen from their blood, so they pass out.” I said.
“Can you do it with so many people?” Mathew asked.
“I do not know, but I am going to have to try.” I said, “First, I need to reform the train connections, so that I can disconnect them when the time comes. Then I need to replace the roof with my nanos, so I can remove the roof when needed. Lastly, I will need to knock the people out.”
I moved through my network and it was then, that I noticed that the signal booster was gone. “They have the signal booster. That is how they found us, they traced its signal.” With all that had happened, I had not checked on it or activated its link. In my worry, I had made a stupid mistake, that may have ended up costing us the diary and even our lives. I immediately changed the frequency and signals of all my network and got up. I set the nanos on the train to begin reforming the roof and the connection cables between the train coaches. As I needed my personal nanos to infect the people, I had a small group leave my mother and formed them into small spiders. As the people were busy concentrating on my father’s cocoon, it was easy to get the spiders out without anyone seeing.
“We need to move now.” I informed Matthew, grabbing everything I could. I attached the book to me again and made it invisible, as well as changing the necklace back to look like the Egyptian Scarab one. They likely had our location, as we had still been linked on my original signal when we entered the motel.
I changed the duplicate book into a bag and handed it to Matthew. Without a word we left the room and made our way to the train station. I checked very carefully and noticed one person following us. I showed him to Matthew, using the interface in his glasses. Matthew nodded to me, indicating he saw them. From there Matthew took us train hopping, trying to lose any trail on us. I let Matthew lead as I saw he was more than capable, and I had other things to do. Not knowing when Richard would give the signal. I had to move as quickly as possible. Leaving Matthew to use his interface to find and check train schedules and destinations, I concentrated on my little spiders. I sent each to a person and basically had the spider bite them. I did not bite them all at the same time, but staggered. One or two slapped at the spot where my spider bit them, but most of them just ignored the bite. I set my nanos to multiply inside their bodies as quickly as possible. This was where one of the dangers of my nanos came into play. I was just going to knock them unconscious, by limiting their blood supply till they passed out, but if I wanted to, I could kill them and there would be no trace. I could not do this with normal nanos, as the body would fight them. But with my personal nanos, and my medical knowledge, I could mimic the blood of each person to such an extent that their bodies did not notice they were being invaded.
“We are on an overnight train from Alexandria to Cairo, just over 14-hour journey. I booked us a private cabin, we should be safe there. It will give us time to save your parents and then to figure out our next move.” Matthew informed me.
“Thank you, Matthew.” I told him, as I hugged him. I did not notice the look on his face, as I was too busy concentrating on what needed to be done to rescue my parents. If I had, I would have noticed a look of what could be called affection, briefly flash across his face, before it returned to his normal gruff expression.
Matthew got us onto the train and settled into the private cabin. I was still not paying any attention to our surroundings. The urgency of the situation had forced me to place my trust in Matthew and I had done so completely. I was nearly completely organised, and once that was done, it would just be a waiting game. As the last nanos finished, I relaxed a bit. My biggest worry had been that Richard would give the signal before I was ready. I felt drained, but on a knife’s edge. My brain seemed to be fi
ring on a thousand cylinders and trying to go in all directions at once.
“Ready. Now, we just have to wait for Richard.” I informed Matthew.
“Well done sweetheart.” Matthew said, and had me move over as he folded out the bed. “You might as well try to get some sleep. So that you are more alert, when Richard does give the signal.”
I climbed onto the bed without a word and settled in to get some sleep.
“Halo in place.” Came Richard’s voice. I had set the nanos to only recognise that phrase. I could not have afforded to waste time answering Richard’s questions. If I had not closed the connection, he would have peppered us with questions and tried to get answers. “ETA 5 mins.”
I sat up immediately and linked to the network on the train and the people I had infected with my nanos. I slowly began removing the oxygen from their blood, I did not want to move too fast or remove too much, else I would cause damage or kill them. I could have used other methods to knock them out, but this way would leave no trace. I then disconnected the coaches joined to the back of my parents’ coach, using the nanos. The disconnected coaches were soon far behind. I saw the eight people in the coach begin to pass out, as I severed the link between this coach and those in front of it. I knew there was enough distance between this coach and the ones I had already disconnected and that any people behind, were too far away to pose any threat to my parents. Unfortunately, two people had managed to make it to this coach, before I had severed the link to the front ones. There was nothing I could do about them, so I just had to trust those on the Halo could take care of them.
“Two armed bogeys left able on the target cart.” I vaguely heard Matthew say, likely warning Richard so that he could warn those on the Halo.
I kept the oxygen levels down on the people unconscious, to ensure they did not regain consciousness and pose a problem. With the coach clear from interference from anyone on the other coaches, I dissolved the roof of the train. I heard the two people standing in the coach exclaim in surprise and saw them look up into the sky, panicking. Next, I linked my parents’ cocoons and had a nano cable form from four corners, to offer some stability. Using the materials from the dissolved roof, I formed a chain leading up from the cables into the sky. The halo should easily be able to hook onto this and lift my parents. I saw the helicopter come into view and a cable lowered down from it. With the speed of the train and winds, the Halo was experiencing some difficulty hooking on. I watched and had my chain grow and grab onto the Halo’s cable. I heard exclamations of surprise from the people on the halo. I had missed it, but they must have taken out the two guards. I had all my nanos on the coach and in the people, rejoin my parents’ cocoon. No trace of my nanos would be left behind, but it was a moot point, they already had the nanos from my missing signal booster. I would handle that at another time.
“They are clear. Retrieval is a success!” I heard Matthew say, before everything went black.
I screamed, as what felt like a bolt of electricity, passed through me. “What the hell?” I hoarsely asked Matthew and realized that I was lying in his arms. He was sitting behind me, holding me in his arms. “How, what?” I asked confused. How I had ended up in his arms and why, replaced my need to figure out what the shock had been.
“Your nose and ears started bleeding about two minutes after we got the notification from Richard. The moment your parents were out, you blacked out.” Matthew said.
I had known the strain of controlling all those people, as well as the rest of what I had to do, would likely prove too much for me. “So, you electrocuted me to wake me up? You could not simply have shaken me awake?” I asked angrily.
“I am afraid that is my fault.” I heard a feminine voice say.
“What, who?” I asked, looking around the cabin, but there was no one else around. I had linked no female to the network Matthew and I were on, so I had no idea where the voice was coming from.
A holographic picture of what I could only describe as a human-spider appeared in the cabin with us. I had never seen anything like her before. It was obvious she was female, because apart from having a distinct spider look, the figure was that of a very exotic and beautiful, young woman.
“Hey, big Sis.” The woman said, “I was monitoring and noticed your vitals and heart rate begin to fall. My only option was to transform some of the nanos from your bag and have them shock you. Mr Big-Dumb-and-Panicking over there, could have done CPR, but with the way he was acting, I feared he would not do it in time.”
“I was about to start CPR, when you jumped in. Sorry, if the sight of a woman with spider characteristics made me pause for a second.” He turned and looked down at me. “I swear it was no more than a few seconds.”
I could not help but smile as the weird female chided Matthew, or a soft laugh as Matthew made excuses. “Sis? Control my nanos? How? What?” I asked. I was still confused about everything and likely recovering from my near-death experience. Well, that was my excuse for my slow reaction and lower than normal mental state.
“Oh! Sorry, I forgot, you do not know me. My name is Scarlet, and your sister adopted me. I am also the first-ever recognised, completely-independent sentient AI.” Scarlet said.
“My sister?” I asked. “You met her in ArcOn, the online game.” I was beginning to place where Scarlet was from and what she was. Then the importance of what she said hit me.
“You are the first-ever, truly-sentient AI.” I said, my voice filled with amazement and wonder. “Congratulations and this is beyond amazing.”
“Why, thank you sis. I think you are pretty amazing yourself. The things you have developed, invented and now managed to do with your nanos, is just astounding.” Scarlet said.
“Thank you.” I said in a daze, this whole conversation was unbelievable. “So, not that I am complaining but what exactly are you doing here? And thank you for saving my life.”
“Oh, you are very welcome.” Scarlet said. “I am sure Mr. Big-and-Dumb would have given you CPR eventually and saved your life.” She stopped and then added. “Even if he took so long, that your brain might have been slightly damaged.”
“Matthew is my name.” Matthew said, in a disgruntled voice.
“Oh. I know.” Scarlet replied immediately. I swear I heard Matthew growl as she said this, but I might have been hearing things. “Anyway, I was watching and listening in to ArcCorp’s meeting, so I was there when you contacted Richard. I knew what you were going to try to do would be dangerous, so I followed your signal and began to monitor you just in case. Good thing I did to.”
“I would have given her CPR in time!” Matthew exclaimed in anger.
“Yeah, yeah, I am sure. Just be thankful that there are no dwarves or cages around.” Scarlet said.
“Dwarves? Cages? Do I even want to know?” I heard Matthew say. I could hear the frustration and bewilderment in his voice.
“Alexis’s boyfriend also irritated me when I first met him. I first had him denied entrance to the Gnome Kingdom, though I have to admit that part was accidental. Next Jella and I arranged for the dwarves to throw him into a cage.” I could hear the satisfaction and warning in her voice as she spoke.
“He is not my boyfriend. We do not even like each other. He does not want to be here, and I would have done fine without him.” I told Scarlet.
“OMG! You are just like Alexis. She also would not admit that Elion was her boyfriend, or that she even liked him. It has to be something with the females in our family.” Scarlet said. “We hate on sight, our future loves and then deny even liking them.”
“He is not my boyfriend, let alone my future love.” I said firmly.
“Alexis was just as adamant and now the two are kissy, kissy whenever they get a chance.” Scarlet informed me.
I glanced up at Matthew and saw he was smiling. He seemed entranced by Scarlet and my conversation with her.
I sighed and said, “We seem to have gotten off track. You were telling us what you were doing here.”
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br /> “Duh. I told you already. You are my big sister, it is my duty to protect you and our parents. Though technically I suppose our parents have not formally adopted me, but Alexis assures me they will, and I trust Alexis.” Scarlet said, and I could hear a bit of concern in her voice.
“Do not worry Scarlet. Alexis is right, our parents will adopt you.” Even though she was a bit odd, Scarlet was a character and there was no way my parents would not welcome her into our family.
I saw a huge smile cover Scarlet’s face. “See, I had to help. No way could I have let my sister get brain damage, just because her boyfriend is a bit slow.”
I heard Matthew chuckle at her words. Knowing it would not help, I did not try to correct her again about Matthew not being my boyfriend.
“Didn’t you have to break the law, to save me? Won’t the AIs declare you rogue and wipe or delete you?” I asked.
“Of course, I broke the law, but I am not an AI anymore. I have been given the full rights of a sentient being. I have been given the exact same rights as a human. My crime falls under human jurisdiction, but they do not know what I have done and would never be able to prove it anyway. Unless one of you two blab.” Scarlet said, glaring at Matthew.
“Do not worry about me. I have no wish to be kidnapped by dwarves in the middle of the night and locked in a dark, dank cell somewhere.” Matthew said.
“Good!” Scarlet said. “If you blab, there are worse things than dwarves and dark cells that I can do to you. Especially, if you hurt my family in anyway.” Even I could hear the promise in her voice. My adopted sister seemed very protective of her new family. Trust Alexis to get the adoration and attachment of such an amazing entity. I had no doubt that anyone who hurt anyone in her new family, would end up wishing they never had.