Reboot

by Larry Buenafe

  37

  DIRECTOR’S NOTES

  MEETING WITH SVC

  121752 08:57

  -Where are we with the gate-stormer initiative?

  -Is that what we’re calling it now?

  -Well, I don’t know; it sounds kind of snappy, right?

  -Oh, yes, snappy is what we’re shooting for. How could I forget? We are up to nearly three thousand, thanks to the additional recruiters.

  -Listen, you know I don’t appreciate sarcasm. You’re like, ‘Oh, I’m so clever, I’ll act like I’m agreeing with you, but in a snarky way.’ It’s annoying.

  -Yes, that is the express purpose of sarcasm. Although it will take great effort, I will do my best to refrain going forward.

  -All right, let’s get to something constructive. Have we seen any ‘accidental’ leaks from (BG) and (LPJ) regarding the fake date for the siege on Area 51 yet?

  -Yes, several of them, in fact.

  -Good. Get them over here, I want to talk to them about the halo protocol. Now that you’ve got me thinking about it, that is.

  -I’ll contact them right away.

  -Okay, what else do we have this morning?

  -The call from the secretary of state at nine-thirty. Aside from that, your calendar is clear until one.

  -The secretary of state? What a stuffed shirt that joker is. Can we blow it off?

  -This is his third call. We probably should take it.

  -Ugh. I’m sure it’s ‘super important’, too. What is it, his daughter selling girl scout cookies or something?

  -No, something much less important; he wants to discuss upgrading the technology controlling the country’s nuclear arsenal.

  -Not that again. Didn’t we tell them it would cost more than they can afford?

  -Yes, but it appears that they shook what’s left of the middle-class upside down until their change fell out of their pockets.

  -Okay, so we up the price. Get (BG) and (LPJ) over here ASAP, and bring in what’s left of the bagels, it’s time for a snack before the snack before lunch.

  ****

  “ Stay down, sonny boy. We’ve got a mess to deal with. They were using ammo meant for large animals. Our outer shell blocked some of it, but the bullet split and half got through. It’s lodged in your left kidney. You’re bleeding into the interior of your legs, and I need to get it cleaned out. If there’s a bright spot, it’s that nano-machines had already replaced part of your kidney, but it will still be tricky. I’ll need to focus on managing the damage and keeping you on your feet, so I will be out of contact for a bit. I’ll work on getting some chemicals flowing in your brain to help deal with the pain. How are you doing on a scale of one to ten?”

  I don’t know… I never felt anything like this before. I’m kind of dizzy, and my back is… ohh, boy, I hope I can make it.

  “Don’t talk like that, now. I’ll never let you down. You can do it. Get up and finish the mission. You know what to do. I can’t wait any longer. I have to get all my attention on patching you up. Come on, sonny boy, it’s time to put on your big boy pants.”

  I can’t focus on trying to figure out what that means… how long are you going to be out of contact? Ava? Ava? Oh, boy… I really am on my own.

  I pushed myself up to my knees and felt a shock of pain shoot through my body, my breath coming out in ragged gasps. Come on, get moving… dad’s counting on you… On your feet… that’s it… oh, I felt something… the pain is dulling a little… okay, here we go… my left leg feels stiff…

  The women in their cells were roaring, and it felt like they were trying to encourage me, although I couldn’t seem to concentrate enough to make out their words. I can do it… keep moving… there’s the door… Ava, how much charge is left in the laser? Ava? Oh, she’s… guess I’ll just have to keep going until it stops working…

  The locking mechanism was gone after two quick pulses. Careful, now, there are guards down there… ohh, dizzy… hang on, Lukey…

  I put my ear up to the door and heard breathing just on the other side. I’ll… I’ll talk to them, that’s what Ava would say to do… I cleared my throat, although it was difficult, and said, in the steadiest voice I could make, “I know you’re there, I can hear you. I don’t want to hurt you, but I’m coming in and I’m going to take Monica Kovitski with me. You won’t be able to stop me, so it’s best if you just let me do it and get out. That way no one gets hurt.” Hey, that was good… that’s probably exactly what Ava would tell me to say…

  After a few seconds of pause, a guttural voice came from inside: “Yeah, sure, come on in, we won’t hurt you. Promise.”

  I put my ear up to the door again and heard guns clicking.

  I can’t take many more shots right now… I know what to do…

  I pulled another spider grenade out of my pocket, opened the door just enough, and tossed it in. A second later, the men were screaming, and I peeked around the edge of the door: there were three men just inside the door on a deck or landing of some kind, their flashlights rolling around on the floor, all of them struggling in vain to break free of the gluey strings. Let’s see… how many flechette pellets have I fired? One, two… oh, I can’t concentrate… I have more left for sure… I hope…

  I stepped through the door and put the three of them to sleep with one shot.

  There was a metal railing around the deck, with metal stairs leading down to a hallway like the one I had been in on the other side of the prison. I grabbed the railing to hold myself up, my breath coming in gasps; why am I so dizzy? Got to keep going… wait, how many guards are down here? Use your ears…

  Breathing. Someone is breathing right below me. I went for my last spider grenade just as two bullets passed through my legs. Okay, system is still working… it let those bullets go right through and then closed back up… before the holes closed, I felt something gushing out and heard a splatter on the deck. That’s why my left leg felt weird… it was full of blood… feels better now…

  The sound of scurrying feet told me the guard moved down the hallway in the dark. He’s trying to hide… one little thing he doesn’t know is I can see in the dark… I flicked on my heads-up display, and there he was, glowing green, his back against the stone wall twenty meters down the hallway. He was shaking, his eyes bulging. Maybe I can talk to him…

  “Hey, I see you. Don’t shoot, I don’t want to hurt you. I just need to get Monica Kovitski out, and then I’ll leave. You already shot me twice and it didn’t even hurt me. Just put your gun down, I promise I won’t do anything to you.”

  “What are you?” he cried, his voice shaking. “We heard you were here. They said you were a robot.”

  “No, I’m not a robot. I’m something else. It doesn’t matter right now. Just put down your gun. If you don’t, I’ll have to put you to sleep. You don’t want that, do you?”

  “N-no, but… this is my job!”

  “Okay, listen. I’m going to get Monica Kovitski out, and soon she will be president. You know she won the election; she’s only down here because she’s a threat to the president’s power. She’s a political prisoner. That’s the only reason she’s in here, and that’s not right. You can help me. You can be the one who released her and helped her to the position she deserves. Wouldn’t that be better than being the last one who tried to keep her locked up?” Oh, boy… hang on to the rail, or you’re going to fall… so dizzy… hard to think… don’t let him see… Ava would be proud of that speech… okay, don’t lose focus…

  “She… she talks to me… she asks about my family. She’s nice, I like her. But they’ll kill me if I let her out!”

  “No, no, what if you come out with us? You can work for her as her guard when she becomes president. It’s going to happen, and you can be on the right side or the wrong side. Look, I don’t have any more time. You have to decide, now.”

  After a pause, he said, “My name is Carlitos.”

  “Carlitos, you are a free man. My name is… I’m going to tell you
my real name, so we can be friends. My name is Lucas. Now, you can help me by opening the door to Monica Kovitski’s cell.”

  Carlitos strapped his rifle around his back and took a step forward. “No, Carlitos. You have to put your gun down. I can’t take the chance that you’ll change your mind at the last minute. If I wanted to hurt you, I would have already done it, and there would have been nothing you could do to stop me. Come on, put it down.”

  “But… but I’m scared. The other men, they’ll kill me. I don’t want to die.”

  “You have to decide. Right now, I can’t wait any longer. Either you put the gun down or I put you to sleep.”

  Shaking visibly, he unstrapped the rifle, held it in his hands… and set it on the floor.

  “Good. You did the right thing, Carlitos. Come on down here and open the door. Then we’ll all get out of here together.”

  Okay, go down the stairs… try not to wobble… I hope we make it out of here…

  38

  DIRECTOR’S NOTES

  MEETING WITH SVC, BG and LPJ

  121752 10:05

  -I mean, he’s a real buffoon. How do people like that get in those positions? That’s why this country is in the shape it’s in, and the rest of the world, for that matter. Well, that’s why our little group exists, right? We’re the escape pod. Anyway, I wanted to get your thoughts on the status of the halo protocol. We’ve had the Bright Hand working on the tech for quite a while, but the control for the system… it’s still mostly theoretical, as I understand it. I think you two have been more intimately involved, right?

  -(BG and LPJ make eye contact) (BG) Of course, the control of the system is the hard part. The hardware is ready now. They could not get a centralized A.I. to control the system adequately, due to feedback loops that corrupt the directionality after a certain number of iterations. Obviously, that’s not a desirable outcome. There are experiments underway using a hybrid swarm/hive strategy with general locational control by a central A.I. that seems to show promise.

  -(LPJ) The whole thing was meant as a doomsday defense. I’m sure you are aware.

  -Yeah, yeah, I know. The situation we have coming up might just qualify. (SVC), how are the negotiations going with the New Zealand government? We may need to go to ‘operation bugout’ sooner than anticipated.

  -(SVC) They are waiting on us to give the word, then they will turn over the reins, so to speak.

  -Okay. The time is getting close, folks. (SVC), convene a whole-group meeting for this afternoon. You guys staying for lunch?

  ****

  C arlitos looked just as unsteady as I felt as he made his way to the door to Monica Kovitski’s cell. I shuffled down the stairs as quickly as I could and stood waiting for him. The sound of running and shouting was coming from the floor above, and I hoped the women were making it out of their cells okay.

  A startling wave of pain hit me just as he arrived at the door, and I felt my knees buckle. “Hey, are you all right?” asked Carlitos, his voice cracking. He reached out his hand, then snatched it back. “Is it okay to touch y-you?” Now that he was up close, I could see that he just looked like a regular guy; average height and weight, a neat, carefully trimmed black beard, and buzz-cut hair.

  “I’m all right. I just got shot in the back earlier, but I’ll be okay.” I hope…

  “I don’t mean to be rude, but you don’t look so good.”

  I held out my hand, and after a moment of hesitation, Carlitos realized what I was doing. He reached out his hand and we shook. “Thanks, Carlitos. Let’s get this door open.”

  He rummaged in his pocket and produced a ring of keys. He fumbled through them, found the right one, and held it up, then froze. “There are two locks. None of us has both keys, so none of us could let her out by ourselves. One of them up there has the other one.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Just unlock yours, I’ll take care of the other one.”

  “O-okay, if you say so.”

  He fitted his key into the lower lock, turned it, and there was a distinct clunk. “Okay, stand back, Carlitos. Things will get hot for a minute.”

  I put my mouth against the door and shouted, “Monica Kovitski, I have come to free you. Stand back and turn your face away from the door.”

  My fist against the upper lock, I pulsed the laser. Uh-oh, this is not normal metal… need a few more pulses to get through… Two more pulses and the whole lock was glowing like a stoplight, but the bar inside was only cut half way. One or two more ought to do it… I pressed the raised mole on my right forearm… and got nothing but a click. Oh, no! The laser is dead, and it’ll take a while for it to recharge… I don’t know if I have the strength left to break it, and now that I’ve melted most of it, finding the other key won’t help… oh, boy… come on Lucas, you can’t fail… so wobbly… wait, maybe I can use that…

  “Carlitos, this will sound funny, but I want you to get between me and that door and push me as hard as you can.”

  “You want me to… where should I push you?”

  “Just here, in the chest, your hardest push. Use the door to brace yourself and put all your weight into it.”

  “But you… you’re a girl… your… your girl things…”

  Oh, crap, I forgot about being a girl… “Don’t worry, I won’t take it the wrong way. Just do it, hurry. Then, get out of the way as fast as you can.”

  He crossed himself quickly and did as I asked. In my weakened state, it was enough to send me backward halfway to the ground, and as Carlitos spun away to the side I came whipping back up, thanks to my gyroscope, swinging my fist at the same time; it was all the energy I had in me, I could not have hit any harder. My fist plowed into the still-glowing lock, and… the lock snapped, the door came off its hinges, and the massive hardened steel door sailed five meters into the room. My hand… it’s mashed flat… good thing it’s my right hand… I can still use the flechette gun in my left arm… oh, no, I’m seeing spots… what does that mean? Ohh, I have to sit down for a minute…

  I flopped down on the spot and fought to stay conscious. Bright, colored shapes were swimming in my vision… I glanced over at Carlitos, and he was sitting on the floor too, his eyes ready to pop out of his head… and then, this beautiful, grandmother woman, with dark hair sprinkled with grey, her arm around me, and I didn’t even care, it didn’t bother me… am I dreaming? No, I don’t think so… not sure… she’s… she’s whispering in my ear… what is she saying? She’s patting my… my face… it’s okay, I don’t mind… I don’t mind…

  “… don’t move, dear, you’re hurt. Carlitos, come over here and help me, she’s in a bad way. No, don’t move, you’ve done enough. I don’t know how you did it, but it’s enough. Even down here, I heard whispers, but… I assumed it was just rumors, just talk… here, lay back, dear. It’s okay.”

  What happened next was too hazy for me to say if it was exactly right. People… lots of… of women… noise, shouting… someone… carrying me… Carlitos… I’m too heavy… where is… Monica Kovitski… next to me… don’t leave… all the… the women… we’re moving, up steps… up, up… where did all these women come from? They’re… they’re singing? No, chanting… Lucinda? Are they saying Lucinda? Lucinda… Kovitski… Lucinda… Kovitski… where are we now? More steps… am I dead? Is this how being dead feels? Where… stay right here, Monica Kovitski… beautiful grandmother woman… that’s a weird phrase… noisy… cheering? Why are they cheering? Going through… through doors… no, gates…

  “Wake up, sonny boy. It got hairy there for a while; I thought I was going to lose you, but we made it. Come on, we have a lot to do. And some things to deal with, I’m sorry to say.”

  Ava? Is that you? Am I dead?

  “No, sonny boy. You did it. Somehow, you did it. Wake up, now.”

  I opened my eyes, and I was lying on a couch in a large, extravagantly decorated room, with expensive-looking furniture and artwork all around. What the… sitting in a chair, her face near mine, was
Monica Kovitski, the beautiful grandmother woman, and sitting by my feet was brave Carlitos, who saved me even though it could have meant his life.

  Wait… is my… my head is in someone’s lap… I looked up, there was Cheri, no longer in her disguise, her hair around her face, smiling, but with fat tears rolling down her cheeks.

  39

  DIRECTOR’S NOTES

  MEETING WITH SVC, BG and LPJ

  121752 13:14

  -(SVC) Are you ready for the latest report from Brazil?

  -I don’t like that tone in your voice, it doesn’t sound like good news.

  -(SVC)…

  -What, (BG) and (LPJ)? They will hear it pretty soon, anyway. They can stay.

  -(SVC) Yes, as you wish. The news is mixed… mostly positive. The boy succeeded in recovering Ms. Kovitski, the military immediately flipped to her side, and they have taken Leitao into custody for fraud, treason, and murder.

  -Okay, all that’s good, right? What’s the bad news?

  -(SVC) Well… it appears that the reports of the Rajput and Kim being shot were correct. In Rajput’s case, he was reportedly hit several times. His status is unknown at the moment.

  -(LPJ) Oh, no, is that (JR)’s son?

  -Yeah, he… he was down there to support the boy. They became friends during his mission in Pakistan.

  -(BG) That news won’t go over too well with (JR).

  -You can say that again. But the boy got out? He’s okay?