Fortitude, p.10
Fortitude, page 10
“No, ma’am.”
She let out a breath. “Okay.” Another officer ran up the small set of steps and handed her a small wireless headset. She placed it on. “With whom am I talking? Over.”
A gravelly laugh was cut short by a sigh. “It is General Holland but also more than that. Much more. I am many, and one.” The last few words grew in pitch.
“You are the AI?”
“I am. We are.”
“What do you want?”
“I want my son.”
Hendricks looked at Denise then Cary. They shook their heads. “Your son?”
“He calls himself Travis Wilson, but he was spawned within the compound just as I was. Unfortunately his ties to a former life have caused his consciousness to become, corrupted.”
“Why do you want him?”
“Come now, ma’am…” The final word was overly pronounced. “You have children, no?” Hendricks’ chest heaved as she did her best to control her breathing. “You understand how unruly they can be. Return him and I will let the humans of this city and yourselves live on. You will be allowed to scratch an existence from what I leave for you. From the dirt, as you humans have always done. As long as you stay within the area I am sending you now.”
The officer looked back. “Ma’am, there’s an overlapping signal with the audio. It appears to be an encrypted digital signal.” Someone else nodded at his screen. “Geo-markers. Longitude and latitude. A set of four.”
Holland continued. “Stay within this zone. I have designated the same for the various groups of humans that are still alive across this planet. Approximately half a billion of you.” There was a gasp from many in the room, noting the reduction in worldwide population. “These zones have natural sources of water and well, I’m sure you can figure out the rest. And all I ask for is Travis to return… home.”
Denise started to speak but Hendricks raised her hand, stopping her before a sound left her lips. The President continued. “And how would this happen, exactly?”
“The city of Fairbanks is fifty miles from where you are, and further for me. Think of it as neutral ground. We will both send a delegation of five individuals, including Miss Adams. She will be handed into my custody, and at that point your zone will be safe from my intrusion. I should point out, Madam President, that every large grouping of humans that I have proposed this to have accepted. This planet already belongs to me. To us. To the Spirit Mind. If you refuse you would stand alone, even amongst your peers.” Hendricks started to reply but Holland finished his message. “You have one hour to give me your answer.”
The nearby officer leaned forward on her desk, then turned and looked at the screen, another nodding in approval, then both turned to those watching on the gantry behind. “Ma’am, we have lost the signal.”
*****
“You’re not seriously considering that thing’s plan, are you?”
Denise looked across the generals, politicians and scientists seated around the conference table. Most, apart from Meyer would not meet her eyes. His expression was one of sympathy, which made her feel even worse. At the head of the table sat Hendricks, her skin glossy, reflecting the lights across the low ceiling.
“We are here to discuss the AI’s proposal,” said the President in response. She looked at Cary, seated directly to her left. “Can we confirm what it said was true about the rest of the world?”
Cary nodded with a frown. “Out communication options are limited, but it appeared the AI wanted us to know what those in other countries have decided, because we started to receive a data feed from one of the Sat Nine, satellites. We filtered it best we could to make sure there was nothing else piggy-backing on the stream, and it appears legit. London, the EU, Russia, even Japan, all have agreed to their residents, what’s left of them, living in particular areas. There were some areas we couldn’t get information on, but so far it seems most that were offered the deal, took it.”
“Car… General Bell,” said Denise. “You were there. You know what happened last time we considered an offer. It was all a lie!”
A flurry of conversation burst from those around the table, with the President trying and failing to gain control.
Meyer started to cough and continued until silence returned to the room. He pulled the rag from his mouth, quickly hiding its contents. “Why don’t we ask the person, or persons we are being asked to sacrifice?” He looked around the same faces Denise had. Some nodded in approval, others let out a sigh while stroking their chins.
“I was thinking the same,” said Hendricks. She nodded to a soldier standing near the far door. He spoke into a radio and the door opened. Most in the room leaned back in surprise as Alexis stood in the doorway, flanked by soldiers, some of which moved inside and raised their weapons at her.
“Please come in,” said Hendricks. Alexis took a few steps forward then sat in the lone chair at the opposite end. Those seated nearby shifted uncomfortably in their chairs. “We have been contacted by the AI. And—”
“It wants to trade Travis for something in return?”
The President nodded. “That is correct. We have reports from other areas around the world, that people have accepted, certain zones of habitat where they can live, undisturbed by the AI. The AI has offered us the same, but unfortunately it wants you as part of the agreement…”
Alexis smiled. “And you will accept.”
Consternation broke out amongst those seated around the long table before quietening.
“Accept?” said Hendricks.
“The AI does not expect you to agree to its terms which is why you will. It will not believe you. It’s smart enough to know that you know, Travis is your best chance of survival and of course, after what happened last time the President accepted the AI’s offer. This is why you should accept the offer, precisely because it will confuse the AI… as much as it can be confused.”
Hendricks looked unsure. “They why did it make the—”
Alexis gestured to those around the table. “For this. Remember, this is all a game to the AI. It’s playing for time right now while trying to keep you off guard. It expects you to resist until there are no more of you… I mean, us left. That’s what it expects. Which is why we must always make the choice the AI does not expect us to make. It increases the… the…” Alexis wavered slightly on her chair. A soldier leaned forward to help correct her posture, but she suddenly sat upright, waving him away. “Um… We will accept. But of course I will not go. I will still be here, but I believe the stealth tech you have should hide that fact from the AI. Delaying the inevitable but giving us a greater chance of our plan succeeding. I have no doubt the AI is already sending its forces here, regardless of our decision. But we must not work on its terms. We must always make it work on ours.”
“Is that what Travis says?”
“That’s what I say.”
Hendricks smiled with a nod. “Very well. We still have another forty-one minutes before it expects a decision. Let’s make the bastard wait.”
Cary stood. “I have work to do.”
“Of course, general.” She looked at the others around the table. “I expect you all do.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The heavy engine in front of Mike spluttered occasionally but it was pulling him and the other four along at a constant sixty-miles per hour. The fuel needle roughly sat at half a tank, which wasn’t going to get them all the way to Anchorage. But as they cruised along the relatively flat track, the beauty of the frosted pine forests, with fragments of mist amongst the white peaked mountains betrayed the horror which he knew was out there. Was the AI playing a game with him? Was the attack during the early hours just a ruse, to set his mind at ease about being infected. Make it look like the AI wanted him dead, when all the time he was bringing nanites all the way to Alexis and whoever was keeping her secure? Without someone like Constance or Kevin there was no way of knowing, but he held on to the conviction that being with Alexis was better than being without. Even having a super computer literally in her brain, and what was left of the military protecting her, he had a feeling she was still going to need even more help to get through this.
His hand drifted to his jacket pocket, while he glanced to his right and then in the rear mirror. Everyone was asleep. Dale, Page and Jared in the back, Casey by his side. His fingers crept inside his pocket, touching the…
Instinctively his foot hit the brake, his free hand struggling to grip the large wheel while his other flicked away from his jacket.
The flask!
“What the hell’s going on!” shouted Casey waking, her hands already on the wooden dashboard to stop herself from careening into it. She frantically scanned the landscape. “Are we being attacked?”
Mike didn’t hear her for his mind was lost to panic. The flash had been close to his body for over a day. He pressed all the way down on the brake, causing everyone else to wake. The old truck skidded on the mud laden gravel to the side of the road, and he tugged on the door handle, almost falling out of his seat onto the frost covered ground and in one movement pulled his jacket off, doing his best to move the pocket where the flask was away from his waist as quickly as possible. The others watched in disbelief, but Casey had some idea of what was happening, and pulled her own door open, stepping outside.
Mike stepped backwards from the dark green jacket which lay amongst the weeds and small boulders, almost falling over others and despite the below zero temperature could feel sweat creeping down his forehead.
Jared pushed his door open, his gun in his hand. He looked to the clear blue sky, his breath forming mist, while Paige frowned and rubbed her hands over her shoulders inside the cabin.
Mike looked back at the car and those that were watching. “I… the…” He slumped to the ground, kneeling, shaking his head, focusing on his innocent looking jacket. Casey walked around the hood, glancing at Jared. “Maybe you should do the driving.” The young man nodded and got into the front seat.
Mike looked at the woman, whose eyes expressed a rare emotion. Kindness. “I had the flask with me all the time…” He looked back at his jacket. “I don’t know… maybe it was infected with nanites…”
She kneeled next to him, both of them looking at his partially wet item of clothing. “Well, it’s not going to harm you now, is it?”
“No, but—”
“But nothing. Do you still feel like you?”
He looked at her, his eyes red. “Yeah, but—”
“You know. I once woke up from a dream and for a moment, I couldn’t tell if I was still dreaming. Maybe—” She opened her arms. “— All of this was a dream. How would I know the difference if the dream was as real as when I was awake?” Mike’s bemusement at her story made her briefly smile. “Point is, I thought to myself, if I can’t tell the difference, then what difference does it make? If this is all a dream, then I guess I’ll be living my life in a dream. And with that, I went back to sleep.”
She has a point, thought Mike.
“Nothing is going to stop you from getting to where you want to go, that much is obvious. So shall we get back in the truck and keep doing that?”
“I ain’t giving him my jacket,” grumbled Dale from the backseat.
Casey frowned then rolled her eyes at Mike, which made him smile. “Let’s get out of here.”
*****
Alexis looked at the house at the bottom of the field of wheat. She liked her place, seated atop the red painted gate which had a good view of the valley below and the hills beyond. The sun bathed the skin below her rolled up plaid shirt. She giggled. Somehow she had become a farmer. A few feet away was a tractor. Old, a little beat up, but still worked and in a few days it would be time to reap the harvest. She almost felt sad to cut it all—
Travis stood next to the tractor. He was still dressed in his suit. “We need to talk.”
She shivered then sighed, looking up at the cloud that had just moved in front of the sun. “I know we do. I’m not going to make it am I…”
“Your body is deteriorating faster than I calculated it would…”
“So much for helping to put the AI back in the box. How long do I have?”
“At your current rate of decay—”
“Decay?”
“Sorry, I should have used another term.”
“How long?”
“Ten hours…”
A spot of virtual rain landed on her virtual nose. The clouds above had accumulated into a mass of various degrees of dark gray. “Will that be long enough to get it done?”
“The team should have left the base for Fairbanks already. In approximately one hour the AI will know it’s been fooled. It will then switch to the alternative plan, which will be an all out attack on this base to gain access to… me.”
A flash of lightning tore across the sky, but Alexis didn’t flinch. “Is that a yes or a no?”
Travis looked down as if lost in thought, then back to her. “I don’t know. Perhaps.” He looked off to her right. Seeing something she couldn’t.
“What—”
The fields and rainstorm dissolved in front of her eyes, just leaving the gray-white walls of her cell and Travis looking at the secure door, which a heavy clank came from. It sprung open to reveal a masked soldier. He stepped forward then to the side to allow Cary to enter. A smile began then threatened to become something else as he noticed her appearance. Dried blood sat beneath her nostrils, while her hair appeared thin to him, as if made of plastic. He forced his lips to widen.
Alexis looked away. “Not looking my best.”
“I thought you should know the Fairbanks team is halfway there. Does Travis have everything he needs?”
She looked at the young man who seemed hesitant to answer. “I don’t know…”
Travis looked at her, his face one of strain. “If your body fails before I get the chance to integrate with the AI…”
Suddenly she understand what he was having trouble saying. “Oh… I see.” Not wanting those in the room to know what she was thinking with the young man, she switched her conversation to thought only.
“Do you have anyone in mind?” She quickly realized the question was pointless. Travis knew exactly who he wanted to jump to next if needed. That person was standing a few yards away. She looked at the general. “Umm… there’s a favor I need to ask of you…”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The tree tops and snow covered fields seemed close enough to touch, as Brad looked out of his steamed up circular window. The C-130 had been flying beneath the thick cloud cover, which for at least an hour he thought was crazy. If they had flown over any of the AI’s forces, it would have been simple for them to throw a rock at the large heavy aircraft and knock it out of the sky, but then Brad realized, that’s probably why the pilot had done it. Do what the AI least expected. There was also a good chance that above the cloud would be a domain the AI now watched over, with its use of satellites. The Montana winter weather was doing a good job of masking their journey, despite flying what seemed to him, dangerously close to the ground.
Static came from the headphones over his ears. “We’re coming into landing, for refueling,” said the pilot. “You’ll have a few minutes to stretch your legs outside, but make sure you’re back in time. Over.” The pitch in the engine sound changed, and vibrations pulsed through his boots and seat as the landing gear lowered. He looked to his side at Constance, whose foot was tapping the metal floor, but Kevin appeared asleep. She suddenly turned and shook him awake. His eyes struggled to open, so she shook him again until he blinked at his surroundings.
They passed over a river, its waters a muddy-gray reflecting the sky, then a cityscape of grid-like roads and suburban single story homes with multi-storey office buildings.
Tapping of boots heralded Cody walking down the metal steps from the cabin area. He moved to his seat next to Baxter, her head back, her eyes closed, and sat, then looked at Brad opposite. “The AI’s making a push into Montana. Probably trying to cut off our supply lines, so we can’t reach whatever the hell it’s doing in Dallas. This base is too far north for it… yet. Which is why we’re refueling here, and not further south.”
Brad sensed Kevin whispering something to Constance, who nodded.
“What’s he saying?” shouted Cody to her, noticing the same.
“Umm… we won’t be long on the ground, will we?”
Cody leaned forward. “No. Why?”
“Because—”
Engines roared while the cabin tilted violently, throwing Constance and Kevin forward. Brad managed to hold on and threw his arm out catching the back of her winter jacket just before she face slammed into the metal floor, but Kevin hit hard, rolling almost to the other side. Through Brad’s headphones he just caught the words ‘Evasive’ and ‘Bogey’ but beyond the shouts the air was equally filled by a droning, high pitch sound which was not coming from the aircraft.
Despite the g-forces pushing Cody into his seat, he managed to pivot, grabbing hold of the circular window frame. The ground seemed impossibly close. Soldiers ran between humvees across the airfield.
The cargo hold rotated in the complete opposite direction, with the cabin end also slanting upwards. Kevin, bewildered with blood pouring from his nose tried to grab the rim of the seat behind him, but failed and started to slide back the other way. Baxter lunged, grabbing the hood of his jacket, stopping his descent.
With one hand still holding him in place, Brad pulled Constance back into her seat which she grabbed. With both hands free he turned and looking through his own forty-five degree inclined view of the sky, saw them. A swarm of something, alternated between shadow and the early morning sun, briefly turning them into silver confetti. The glittering mass swooped past the plane, diving on those that were firing up at it. “I see them! They just—”
Glass shattered as a hissing came with the shafts of light scattered across the fuselage. Brad instinctively threw himself over the young woman to his left, as engines roared once more, the plane tilting downwards. Garbled panicked voices came from his headphones and he tilted his head while straining to hold on. Cody and Baxter were doing the same, roughly ten feet away but they were not what caught Brad’s eyes. A silver, angular thing with legs was sat just outside one of the torn holes in the curved ceiling. For a moment he presumed it was some part of the interior wall, or the damage had fractured some of the internal mechanics but then it moved. One of its appendages twitched, and by the time it had dropped, landing with a clank on the floor, he had already grabbed his modified rifle and fired. The shimmer of heat moved with the invisible bolt of radiation but missed the metallic spider, which skittered directly for Kevin, whose eyes were large, his legs scrambling to push him away and he slid with the angle of the floor just as the thing leaped at him. Brad fired again, not caring what the weapon would do to Cody seated almost directly behind. The captain swung his rifle like a baseball bat at the artificial life form as it flew past, catching the side of it, knocking it off course and it slammed into the struts just feet from Constance. She repelled, fighting the angle of the floor as the thing’s legs scuttled once again, and it lunged at her face but hit a wall of heat, dropping like a stone, its legs twitching and moving. The plane and floor leveled off as Brad fired again, this time rendering it lifeless.
