by J P Waters
Olie took a deep breath and began.
“Mr. Parker I’m sure you are aware of the roke discoveries all over the world right now. Jayson and I have been talking to Mona and we believe that Sebanic could help. Mona has already proved to be an incredible asset in preventing human death and injury.”
Parker smiled the smile of a man who was holding all the cards. It made Olie feel uncomfortable, and she swallowed hard.
“You call them rokes? That’s…. Never mind. I think what you are telling me is that I should let my creation be used to kill these animals. Is that right? Create a Sebanic army to exterminate this threat?”
Jayson took over, “Mr. Parker, I don’t think we need an army. Based on what Mona is capable of…”
Parker held up a hand. “Mr. Belsey, I’m going to have to stop you there. I’m fully aware of Mona’s capabilities, and what you are suggesting is a total override of the fundamental value I have instilled in all Sebanic. They cannot, and must not, harm others.”
“What about defense mode? When Mona has been in defense mode, she has the ability to harm the rokes.”
Parker exhaled deeply, “Defense mode does not allow Sebanic to harm any known species, but the… rokes, did you call them? They are not known. It is a simple oversight we should be able to patch in a few days.”
“Patch? Mr. Parker, you can’t do that. We don’t want to violate their values,” said Jayson. “We simply want their assistance in dealing with what we think is a considerable threat to mankind. People are dying, Mr. Parker. Many of our friends have died already.”
“I am sorry for your loss, but harming others is a dangerous path. One I cannot let the Sebanic go down.”
Already their plan of attack was falling apart. Parker was controlling the conversation and seemed unswayed by their pitch so far.
Olie was panicking inside, she could feel Parker dismissing their argument, as if he had known their question before they even arrived. She expected him to end the meeting any minute. Time to get his attention.
“If I may, Mr. Parker,” Olie chimed in. “The Sebanic are already being organized into task forces to deal with the outbreak. Infinite Water Systems is using them to collect specimens in large quantities.”
“Yes, I’m aware of that, Ms. Manning. Go on.”
Olie and Jayson shared a look. Clearly, they had underestimated Parker. If he knew about IWS, what else did he know about?
“Then I hope you’re also aware of the risk the animals are to the region. We’ve brought some videos not only from here in Washington but—”
“From Russia as well? I appreciate your preparation, but yes, I’m aware and have seen the reports as well. Most recently they’ve been spotted on the Chinese coast near New Shanghai. News is a bit slower to trickle out from that region, but my business interests keep me well abreast of any major events in the area.”
“And those animals are killing people! If you’re following the situation as closely as you say, then you have to—"
“I don’t have to do anything,” interrupted Parker, fire brewing in his voice.
“Yes, we know,” Jayson stepped in to placate. “But at the rate the threat is increasing, your creations’ minds and bodies are far more capable of a rapid response than human soldiers.”
“Ah yes, there’s the heart of it!” Parker exclaimed. “That magic word—soldiers. Sebanic are not soldiers.”
“They’ve served with the military before…" said Jayson.
“Exactly. Served with, not as. Now I’m sympathetic to your plea—I really am. You may not believe me, but it’s that sympathy—and your dear deceased grandfather’s support—that led me to entertain you here today. It’s not an issue of who can do what best, it’s an issue of philosophy. Of the very identity of the Sebanic line. And this outbreak, as you call, it doesn’t change my philosophy, or my mind.”
“I’m… not sure what you mean?” Olie said.
“Allow me to give you a lesson, then,” Parker replied, checking his watch. “Take Mona here. You come to me with news that she’s a capable soldier. The solution for the biological threat on the world’s doorstep. Our best and last line of defense.”
“Yes, exactly,” Jayson said.
“And what purpose did she serve before that?”
“She was my personal assistant.”
“Precisely. But now her primary role is as an exterminator. Is she any less capable as a researcher or housekeeper? Of course not. Mona here will excel at anything you set her processes to. But observing that excellence in action has shifted your view of her. Now she’s violent. A protector. The old Seba is dead, and a new definition has taken its place. Humans will fear Sebanic, resist having them in their homes. It will be the end for them, Cerebral Bionics will no longer be able to distribute Sebanic.”
“So, you’re worried about sales?” said Olie with digust.
“Yes, that. But also, my legacy. I’ve worked hard to get Sebanic welcomed into homes, not to mention the frontrunners in the science of manufacturing. They’re the pinnacle of productivity—the ultimate in luxury. The leisure class is now a reality—the gentleman philosopher within the everyman’s grasp. Do you really think I would let my legacy become one of a bug-catcher? Or worse, a war profiteer?”
“No, but you could donate—”
“Oh, so you’re requesting my services for free, then? This is becoming more of a waste of time by the moment. Have you even entertained the idea that humanity might be up to the task on its own? Or were you simply so wowed by my Sebanic that you latched onto it as our only option? Not that I’m surprised—it’s understandable—but we’ve weathered ecological crises before, we’ll do it again. I have faith in humanity.”
“But you’re willing to watch them die?” Olie shouted.
“People die every day, Ms. Manning. I believe you are ex-military—you should understand that.”
Olie couldn’t figure what made her more furious, that Parker was willing to let people die to preserve his legacy or that he knew so much about them.
“Excuse me,” Mona said, before Olie had a chance to act on her anger.
The room fell silent. The Seba hadn’t spoken since being spoken to by Parker, and in the heat of the moment the group had forgotten she was there. Parker blinked for a moment, surprised by the intrusion, but then leaned back and interlaced his fingers.
“Yes Mona, please,” Parker said. “I apologize for ignoring you. We need a voice of reason here. What are your thoughts on the situation?”
“Am I correct in my assessment that neither party is likely to change its opinion on the aforementioned matters?”
Parker glanced to Jayson and Olie before cracking a smile. “Yes, I believe you are correct. Your companions seem to be dead set on convincing of something that I have no intention of doing.”
“And you are aware of Infinite Water System’s intention to use rokes in their water purification process, and of their use of Sebanic to handle the rokes?”
Parker’s face looked like the face of a 12-year-old who just got a new bicycle. He was fascinated with Mona’s interaction.
“Yes, I am. Sebanic are well-respected within the workforce and fully capable of overseeing such a process. I also trust Ms. Kaif. She has operated at an extremely high level and I trust her to solve any problem no matter how difficult. Many believed my innovations in technology to be dangerous as well, so you could say I’m sympathetic to her situation.”
“I believe we are done here, then,” Mona said, turning to Jayson and Olie before walking towards the door. “Thank you very much for your time, Mr. Parker. It was very illuminating.”
Frederick Parker sat silent, working his mouth as he searched for words. A moment later he found them.
“Yes, I believe Mona is right. Mr. Belsey, Ms. Manning, I hope our conversation was as illuminating for you as it was for me. I appreciate your concern for your fellow man, and I respect your dedication to your point of view. Azura will see you
out. Mr. Belsy, do not contact me again.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Once they were back in the car, Jayson immediately turned to Mona.
“What were you thinking in there?” he snapped.
“Was I incorrect in my assessment? We received all the information we could hope to get from him.”
“Honestly, Jayson,” Olie said, “I think she’s right. And she managed to get a confirmation that IWS is using rokes to purify water, too. We suspected that, but we never had proof until just now.”
“What? When?”
“I asked if he was aware of Infinite Water System’s implementation of rokes in their water purification process,” Mona said. “Parker was enamored with my response and let down his guard for a moment. Confirmation of this fact is important for our current endeavor.”
As the realization dawned on Jayson, his mood started to soften. “Oh… Oh. That’s huge. Still, we could have gotten more out of him. What if we’d stayed and pumped him for more info?”
“It’s unlikely the same method would have worked a second time. And likely, it would have betrayed our earlier deception.”
Olie cut in. “Plus, I think Mona was right. No offense, but we were getting nowhere fast. He was light-years ahead of us as far as thinking out the situation. He seemed so prepared, like he knew why we were there.”
“So, you agree with him?”
“No. But he had a point.”
“Really? Sorry, Olie, but I think you were right earlier when you said Parker is just another out-of-touch asshole.”
“Thank you—I know—but I meant about all that philosophy and identity stuff. Take Gerry, for example. I wasn’t afraid of the rokes at first, because when I saw them, I thought pet and friend. It wasn’t until I was confronted with what they were capable of that my definition finally shifted to killer.”
“So, we failed to change Parker’s mind about the Sebanic. The whole servant to soldier thing didn’t land. What next? Do we convince IWS to see rokes as a threat?”
“It’s not IWS we need to convince,” Olie said, a grin creeping to her face. “It’s the public.”
“Olie is correct, Jayson,” Mona concurred. “Our footage of a roke on the scene of an attack at Olie’s apartment complex, paired with images of my defensive maneuvers, should convince the public of the animals’ threat as well as of Sebanic being well-suited for their removal.”
“Then Parker wouldn’t have a choice,” Jayson said, the logic dawning on him. “If the public wants Sebanic as protectors, that would preserve his legacy, or it might lead to government interference. Maybe they would force him to do it. What are we waiting for? Let’s contact the media.”
“We can’t just yet,” Olie said. “We don’t have proof of what IWS is doing. We have a few attack vids, but there’s not enough to really break the story open. Plus, these huge companies are so connected and well-informed, I’m sure they have a huge team of PR spinsters. We need concrete proof of IWS involvement with the rokes. We need to hit the media with everything at once—including IWS and the government involvement—if we want to prevent them from covering it up.”
“What are you proposing, then?” Mona asked.
“Jay, you remember on Mars - when we used to hit those Russian rock bunkers? We would have to get in and sabotage the escape vessels so the full unit could attack. We were a great team.”
“Olie, you can’t be serious.”
“Somebody has to expose this. For Dim. For Leon. For Raquel. We can do this. In and out without being seen. We’ve done it before, Jay.”
Jayson looked uneasy, but he nodded in agreement.
“Okay, let’s do this. What do we do next?”
“You and Mona round up some gear, tactical like we had on Mars. I’m going to put in a call to a man named Frog.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“You understand what we need to do, right?” Olie asked, taking a deep breath.
Tracking the roke retrieval from the police department to the Infinite Water Systems building was simple once they decided to take matters into their own hands. Olie doubted they would have found it without Frog’s lead, though. Like the van, the water plant was completely devoid of any markings. And since it didn’t rely on the ocean for desalination, it was far from the coast. No one would suspect it was housing a water purification operation, let alone hundreds of monsters.
Jayson nodded. “Find out what’s going on and upload pictures or video to Janie.”
“Find the rokes, collect proof, send to Janie.” said Olie, succinctly.
“It would be wise to avoid capture as well,” added Mona.
“That too.”
“Right, find the rokes.” Jayson then handed Olie and Mona each a black mask. “At least put this on. We want our identities hidden as much as they can be.”
“Are you kidding, Jay? With gait analysis these aren’t going to help.”
“They’re effective.” Jayson argued. “Gait analysis takes time, video is instant. If we run into trouble that time is going to matter.”
“What kind of security are we expecting?” asked Olie as she slipped the nylon mask over her head and positioned the eye holes so she could see.
“There are a large number of Sebanic on the premises,” Mona stated. “I’ve masked my signal from our common network, but I would advise the utmost caution.”
“Can you track their movements, Mona?”
“To a degree, yes.”
“I vote we let Mona lead, then.”
“Agreed,” said Jayson, “They aren’t expecting us, but we need to be careful about the rokes, too. It’s basically a facility filled with deadly little monsters.”
Olie nodded, and double checked her gear pack.
“You okay?” asked Jayson.
“Yeah. I’m okay,” said Olie.
“Well, good. It’s just like on Mars. Get in, get out, radio for the cavalry.”
“Roger that, Belsey…”
Jayson grinned. He then opened a small case and pulled out new dart guns. He began screwing long black barrels onto the three guns inside. “I printed us all new dart guns. They’ve got more range than the old ones, and the tranq has been upped to a dose adequate to incapacitate a man. It’ll put them to sleep for about 4 hours, but that should be all the time we need.”
“Do you think they’ll have alarms?” asked Olie.
“An alarm system is a certainty in a facility like this,” said Mona.
“If they do, we move fast. If anything, an alarm sounding in the video will be even more damning. But we need that proof before any alarms start going off.”
“Couldn’t have said it better myself.”
They waited until midnight to make their approach on the IWS building. Like SeaCrest, the building was a massive grey structure that shot up more than eight stories tall. The moon shone down as they approached a thick wire grid fence that ran along the perimeter of the property.
“Do you think it’s electric?” asked Olie.
Mona reached out and took hold of the fence without receiving a shock.
“No,” she said.
“Well, that’s one way to check…” said Olie as Jayson got to work using a laboratory-grade laser cutter to burn a hole into the wire mesh.
“Maybe they’re not as worried about keeping people out as they are keeping the rokes in?” Jayson asked as he finished.
“I sure as hell hope so,” Olie replied, climbing through after him.
Mona led the three of them closer to the facility, occasionally holding up a hand to stop them, or gesturing for them to wait behind a transport or silo while a Seba passed by.
“Hey,” Jayson whispered as he pointed at two men in a small guardhouse near the front of the facility. “I think those two are human.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Well, they’re pretty, uh, plain, for one.”
“Plain? Those guys are fat, Jay.”
“Fine, but they
don’t make fat Sebanic so...”
He was right. Peering through her binoculars, Olie saw that both men were heavy looking.
“I’m not picking up any passive signals from them either,” Mona stated.
“I’m gonna get close and put a couple darts in them.”
“I’m coming with you,” Olie said.
“No, just stay here.”
“We both know I’m the better shot.”
Jayson sighed but began a military crawl. Olie followed him for about fifty yards, and they met up hiding behind a small concrete wall that served as a decorative bench. Jayson then took his dart gun out, steadied himself against the edge of the bench, and fired. The first guard shifted in his seat; the dart ricocheted off an open door and landed several feet away. The other guard immediately jumped to his feet and turned his light in the general direction where Jayson and Olie were hiding.
“I’m going,” Olie said, already rising into a run.
“We both go,” said Jayson.
The pair ran towards the guardhouse as the light swept the opposite direction. Olie fired on the guard who was examining the failed first shot, puncturing his neck. Jayson shot the second directly in the chest. Within seconds, both guards were slumped over on the ground. Olie and Jayson dragged them into the guard house, where Olie began to strip one of them.
“What are you doing?”
“Putting their uniforms on,” said Olie as she removed her mask and pulled off her shirt. “Come on, you too.”
“What? Right here?”
“Soldier up, Jay. It’s nothing new for either of us.”
As they left the small guard house, Mona approached them with what Olie swore was a twinkle in her eye, wearing a white IWS jumpsuit.
“Where did you get that?” asked Olie.
“It was hanging in one of the vans.”
“Yeah, but—” said Jayson with an exasperated sigh. “Never mind. Let’s just get moving.”
Mona once again took the lead as they moved toward the back doors of the facility another hundred yards away. They passed through a series of loading docks before spotting several large vans and semi trucks, some unmarked and some emblazoned with the letters IWS above an infinity logo. They saw four Sebanic carrying cages full of rokes. Each Seba carried a clear plastic cage in each hand. The trio crept up and hid behind one of the trucks. Jayson and Olie zoomed in with their bands and took as many photos and videos as they could before the Sebanic disappeared behind a set of double doors.