machine girl

Machine Girl: A Wolf in Wolf’s Clothing – Chapter 8

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Eugene

Eugene arrived at Bishop’s a mere ten minutes late, not bad for how terrible the crosstown traffic had been.  He pulled the Vanquish into the valet parking area with a resigned sigh.  Normally he wouldn’t valet his car but in this case he needed to make up as much time as possible.  He wrapped a hundred around the valet key asked the first attendant.

“You can drive a manual transmission?”

“Of course sir.”  The attendant was looking past him at the Aston Martin, “That is a beautiful piece of machinery.”

Eugene handed him the key, turned to walk into the restaurant and was surprised to feel the cold pressure of a gun barrel against the small of his back.  “Come with me if you want to live a little longer.  I represent the group who contacted you; this seemed as good a place as any to catch you off your guard.”

He looked around and saw the other three valets were all looking at him.  They steered him back to his car, the one with the gun handing off the key and motioning him into the passenger’s seat.  The door was closed behind him and he saw the driver had a roll of duct tape.  Eugene winced as the tape was unceremoniously wrapped around his upper body and the seat.  That was going to play hell with the upholstery.

“I’m not exactly sure what your angle is here, but there’s nobody around who will pay a ransom for me that I know of.”  That was the extent of his ability to talk as the tape was also wrapped around his mouth, then even his eyes were obscured.

“We will get what we want Dr. Arlington.  You will give it to us.  We have a facility built, ready and waiting.  Everything you need to duplicate your prototype will be there along with a team of very gifted surgeons.  You will make and implant another or your life is forfeit.”

They were insane.  How in the world did they think he would be able to perform such a task?  There was just no way they had adequate facilities.  The car was off and moving, the man driving had no sense of the precision needed to get the most out of the machine.  He even ground the gears between second and third.

After what seemed an eternity, his captive finally brought the Vanquish to a halt.  The door was opened and Eugene heard a sharp click shortly followed by the sound of a knife blade shredding the tape holding him down and probably the Italian leather of the seat as well.  The tape was ripped from his face, taking most of his eyebrows and lashes with it.  A riot of light assailed his eyes, he was in an enclosed garage lit by harsh metal halide lamps.

Eugene suddenly remembered the pistol in his jacket pocket.  It was something he had purchased in a moment of weakness a few years ago.  He had been on a James Bond kick and just HAD to have a Walther PPK.  To his surprise the gun wasn’t really all that accurate beyond ten yards but then again it fit in his pocket with barely a bulge.  How much could you really ask for in a weapon that small?

He watched his captors and waited for just the right moment.  He figured at some point only one of them would have their attention on him but unlike the movies, the bad guys never made any of the classic mistakes.  The entire room lurched slightly, startling him.

“Looks like we’re finally under way, bring Dr. Arlington to the lab.”  A new yet familiar voice sounded from the other side of the room.

“Dr. Jackson?  Is that you?  What the fuck is going on here?”  Eugene could clearly see his former colleague standing just outside of a doorway.

“You had your chance Eugene.  I worked my guts out for you, I wanted to become part of your team.  But no, you chose that moron Sims instead.  Why?  Was it because I’m a woman?”  She crossed her arms and glared at him. “No matter, I found a better team to work for and now we have you to work for us.  Isn’t fate a funny thing?”

“I chose Sims because he had a better track record under pressure, even though your skillset was superior.  Your sex had nothing to do with my decision.”  Eugene put his hand in his jacket pocket, feeling the reassuring presence of the Walther.

“I trust you fools have frisked him yes?”

“Uh, no we, uh, he’s a doctor.  Doctors don’t carry guns.”  The startled goon next to him stammered.

“You idiots, you KNOW he’s working for the Russian mafia AND the Department of Defense and you STILL didn’t bother to check him for weapons?”

Eugene slipped the Walther up his sleeve and put his hands up.  “Go ahead boys, give me a once over.”

The nearest guard moved to pat him down and to Eugene’s dismay the gun fell out of his sleeve and fell on the cement floor with a resounding clatter.

“He’s just a doctor he wouldn’t be armed.”  Her voice was a mocking singsong, “Silly children, I know better.  Now bring him to the lab, it’s time to put our captive rat to work.  Don’t forget to get his laptop from the car.”  Dr. Jackson turned on her heel and stalked down the hallway.

“Wait, she said under way.  Are we on a boat?”  Eugene asked the guard who had just confiscated his handgun, wallet, keys, sunglasses and phone.

“I’m not gonna answer shit Doc.  Move your ass, time to show us you’re worth all the trouble we’ve gone through to bring you here.  If not, oh fucking well, bullets are cheap and I can buy a whole shitton of them with the amount of cash I’ll get selling that goddamn car of yours.”  Eugene’s phone began to ring with the theme song from the Million Dollar Man.  Shit, Victoria was trying to call him.

“See?  I’m not even gone for more than a few hours and already people have noticed I’m missing.  This isn’t going to go well for you, why not just release me now?  I won’t even press charges.”  Eugene said.

“Nice try Arlington, soon we will be out cell phone range and there’s no way anyone will be able to track us.  Get moving.”

Eugene moved down the hallway, trying to see anything he could do to escape or even stall what seemed to be inevitable, but it was a polished stainless steel corridor.  Even the lights were recessed behind glass and flush with the ceiling.

“This is some boat, where’d you steal it?”

The guard behind him slapped the back of his head with the barrel of his gun, “Watch your tongue.  Our lady built this craft and we are very protective of her.”

“Angela Jackson is no lady, and she has no idea about boats so you must be referring to someone else.”  Eugene said, hoping for a little more information.  They were now approaching a large round door that moved sideways with a pleasant hiss.  Through the tiny portal set in the airlock door on the other side he could see an exact replica of his nano-robotics laboratory back at the hospital research and development wing.

“How did you find all this?”  Eugene was shocked; they even had the glass holding tank with his patented recirculating system that kept it from bonding until used.  “Angela was never even allowed in this room, how in the world did you get access to all of my most vital secrets?”  A mechanical voice interrupted him from a speaker on the ceiling.

“Ultrasonic decontamination commencing.”  A vibration that seemed to make the entire room tremble began, moving from first a deep bass that twisted his intestines to an insanely high soprano that made his eardrums feel like they were bleeding.  When the sound cut off abruptly Eugene felt like a gutted fish.

“Ugh, that was harsh.”  Eugene realized his guard had not entered the airlock with him.  The inner airlock hissed open.

“Welcome Dr. Eugene Theodore Arlington to your new home.  I trust you will find everything in order.  You may begin now or wait until morning if you wish.  Your body is now free of foreign contaminants and I will not allow you to leave this room until you are complete.  There is a bed behind the lab that folds from the wall and food will be delivered as you require it.”

A small panel on the wall opened and his laptop devoid of its case slid out on a steel shelf.  It had obviously been subjected to a rigorous cleaning, it gleamed as though brand new.

“I don’t like to work without knowing whom I am working for.  I would think with your intelligence gathering capabilities you would know I don’t have a problem working for … unsavory people but I do want to know who you are.”

A portion of the wall flickered and became a large monitor.  It showed a gorgeous redhead sitting in a well-appointed den.  “You may call me Seraphim.   The prosthetic you are making is for my husband, he has been comatose for an entire year.  Once you are finished I shall implant him with this miracle device and if the integration is successful I swear to leave you intact at a port of your choosing.”

She stood, the slightly curled mane of hair tumbling down her back like a crimson waterfall, “While I may not be able to pay more than the Nikitin Family I will be paying in cash.  Ten million in unmarked currency.”

“Why all these shadow games?  Why the kidnapping?  I don’t-“

“IF you had answered my voicemails, IF you had responded to my emails, IF you had written me a GODDAMN letter in response to all the begging pleading messages I had sent perhaps this situation could have been avoided!”  Her eyes flashed in anger, “Know that the room you are in is completely sealed, if you fail me I shall simply remove all the oxygen.  It is as easy as flicking a switch.  Now get.  To.  Work.”

The monitor flickered back to resemble steel and Eugene let out a deep breath he didn’t remember holding.  Turning to his laptop he powered it on and began loading the initial coding protocols.  The sooner he could get this over with the sooner he could get free.  If it integrated properly that is, and there was also the question of the sanity or simply the temper of his captor.  Seraphim.  The highest court of Angels if the Bible was to be believed.  Yeah, right.

Machine Girl: A Wolf in Wolf’s Clothing – Chapter 7

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Victoria

Victoria wondered how her parents were handling Dmitri.  Hell, she wondered how Dmitri was handling her parents.  The shock on their faces, especially her mother’s, when she had arrived home in a limo made her feel a little chagrined.  She really should have called to warn them.  She had just stepped out of the shower and had plugged in for a quick charge while deciding on an outfit for the evening.

She couldn’t decide whether to wear a skirt or slacks.  Finally she chose a pair of slate gray linen dress slacks.  They would have the modesty of pants with nearly the lightweight comfort of a skirt.  Besides, her father would feel better about her going if her legs weren’t bare.  A dark red rayon shirt was offset by the addition of a white scarf.  Opting for flats instead of heels so as to ensure she was a lot shorter than Dmitri, Victoria gave herself a once over in the mirror.

“Not bad.  Not bad at all.”  A quick brush of mascara and a touch of blush was all she needed to complete her look.  Unplugging her charging cable, Victoria grabbed her purse and checked her phone.  Seeing a message from Eugene she listened to it before heading downstairs.

“Hey Victoria, I’m heading to meet with a potential buyer for dinner, normally I wouldn’t consider such a thing but the Global Enterprise Group has made a very compelling sales pitch.  Now I’m not signing anything tonight so don’t worry about that, I just wanted to give you a heads up on the development.”

The Global Enterprise Group?  That sounded like a bunch of shit to her and Eugene certainly wouldn’t have left a message had he not been worried.  Also the stress patterns in his voice indicated a level of unease he usually didn’t display when driving and she could hear the Aston rumbling in the background.  She sent a quick message to Yuen-Ja asking her to look into the Group and got a nearly immediate response.

“Have fun on your daaaate!  I checked on Dmitri Federov and he does not appear to be too bad.  Maybe some black market dealings here and there but what businessman does not have some skeletons in the closet?  Most of that was from his father anyway.  Dmitri has kept his nose amazingly clean, I think you are safe.  I have not heard of the Global Enterprise Group but I agree that it sounds suspicious.  I will kick over a few rocks and let you know what I find out.”

Sending a silent ‘Thank you’ to Adam for making this direct electronic communication between herself and Yuen-Ja possible, Victoria made her way downstairs.  She could hear her father talking in the living room.

“No I haven’t competed in years.  My last defense of the title was in 1995 and from there I let it go.  I thought about teaching for a bit but found I didn’t have the patience.  I still practice from time to time though.  I didn’t think you would be old enough to remember that.”

“I was seven years old at the time.  My father got us ring side seats for your last title match.  It was the most amazing fight I have ever seen in my life.  Your absolute defense was never even cracked and in the end you only struck one blow to end it.”  The admiration in Dmitri’s voice sounded alien to Victoria.

“I actually stress fractured my right arm simply by blocking one of those failed attacks.  He wasn’t able to land a blow, that is true, but the damage was done anyway.  The danger associated with it is what really caused me to give it up.”

“Of course your daughter was born the next year correct?  That had to play some part in your decision as well.”  There was a clink of ice in a glass.  “Thank you for the whisky I appreciate a good single malt.”

“Hey Dmitri, I’m ready!”  Victoria walked into the room smiling.  Her father’s face lost a little color, perhaps the shirt fit a little too well, but Dmitri’s expression didn’t change.

“You look wonderful Victoria.  Shall we adjourn to the restaurant?”  Dmitri offered his arm.

“Yes, I don’t want to make us late.”  She gave her father a kiss on the cheek and her mom a hug.  “I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”

“By nine at the latest OK?”  Her father said, his voice firm.

“Sure daddy by nine.”  Victoria said, smiling and putting a hand on her father’s arm.

“I will bring Victoria back to your doorstep by eight thirty at the latest Mr. Scott.  Have a wonderful and relaxing evening Mrs. Scott, your daughter is in the safest and most respectful hands.”  He gave them the same strange bow he had given her before and turned, tucking Victoria’s arm under his.

When they reached the car, Dmitri’s driver was waiting to open the door for them.  He was a tall man who only seemed short due to his very wide stature.  The suit fit him so well it was obviously custom made and the lightly embroidered French cuffs of his shirt had cuff links that were shaped like tiny hand grenades.

To Victoria’s eyes he also appeared to have a faint orange outline.  A ghostly group of words trailed across her vision.  It read ‘Threat Reconnaissance Assessment Protocol V 1.2, subject unknown, likely armed, likely dangerous.’  Well.  That was new, ADAM must be messing around with things again.

“Ivanov, to the restaurant please.” Dmitri said, his tone obviously demanding obedience.

“Yes sir.  At once.”  Ivanov closed the door gently and soon they were off.

“Iced Perrier with a twist of lemon?”  Dmitri was offering her a glass of her favorite water.

“Yes, thanks.  How do you know so much about me?  It’s a little disconcerting you know?”  She took a sip, sighing in satisfaction.  “Although it’s also quite convenient.”

“I make a habit of getting to know things that I am interested in no matter who or what they are.”  He gave her a smoldering look from half lidded eyes, the first time she had seen him express any emotion.

“How has the integration gone?” He asked, the question startling her, “You seem to be totally normal but I know it must have changed you somehow.  Just look at how confident you are, not normal for an eighteen year old girl I wouldn’t say.”

“It’s been life changing that’s for sure.  Like being reborn you might say.  I never realized how much mobility I had lost before I had the operation.”  Her voice trailed off.  “Look, it’s weird to be talking about this with someone who isn’t intimately acquainted with my prosthetic and its functions.  Would it be terribly rude of me to change the subject?”

“Not at all what would you like to know about me?”  Dmitri fidgeted with his breast pocket for a moment before his movements stilled.

“Well, what have you been doing with yourself since high school?”  Victoria saw him frown briefly and hastily continued.  “I mean I haven’t seen you for quite a few years.”

“I am sure you know I was late in starting high school.”  Dmitri said, “Although I am seven years older than you I only graduated three years ahead of you.  There was some trouble with my immigration and the Russian middle school system was, shall we say, slightly inadequate so I had some catching up to do.”

“Actually I had no idea.  You were somewhat of a legend to my class, you always arrived in a limo, always wore designer clothes… the caviar and foai grais for lunch was interesting too.”  She laughed, “You always kept us guessing.”

“Well I was just living the way I was used to.  My father was quite connected in Russia and when he decided to move his business here we simply maintained our way of life.”  He shrugged, “I did not think much of it until much later when our extravagant lifestyle made things difficult.”

“I always thought Russia was in a bit of an economic depression after the capitalist revolution.  What exactly did your father do?”  Victoria crossed her legs and leaned in, resting her chin on her hand.

“In Russia he had a small oil company which he sold shortly before it was taken over and subsequently run into the ground by a large conglomerate.  He did some consulting for them for a time and then after a few misunderstandings he immigrated to the United States and started his own acquisitions and distribution business.”

The car had arrived at the restaurant and Ivanov was opening the door for them.  It had just opened the week before and getting reservations here was supposedly impossible.  It appeared Dmitri hadn’t stopped living decadently after all.  She stepped out of the limousine after Dmitri and accepted his hand.  Victoria’s phone buzzed in her purse and she tapped into it through the Bluetooth connection to read a message from Yuen-Ja.

“OK, I have good news and bad news.  The good news is I have the information you wanted on the Global Enterprise Group.  The bad news is they are small fish trying to make big waves.  Whatever they are offering Eugene is a lie but I cannot figure out exactly how they think they are going to get what they want.  I will keep on it and let you know what I come up with.”

Machine Girl: A Wolf in Wolf’s Clothing – Chapter 6

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Eugene

Eugene had just hung up his cell phone when his office phone began to ring.  He picked it up with a resigned sigh.  “Hello, this is Dr. Arlington.”

“Good afternoon Eugene, this is Mr. Jackson from the Global Enterprise Group how are you doing today?”

“Sorry, I don’t know of any such organization, what can I do for you Mr. Jackson?”  He reached for the pack of cigarettes in his breast pocket, silently cursing himself for starting smoking again.

“Well obviously I’m calling to inquire about the sale of the technology you have recently acquired.  Is there any way we can meet?  My counterparts have put together a most attractive package.”

“Sorry, it isn’t for sale.  It is still in the testing phase and a sale now would not only be premature but also very inappropriate.  Without further testing and troubleshooting I fear I cannot be assured of the quality of the final product.”  He lit a cigarette and took a deep drag.

“That is really too bad.  I can assure you our offer eclipses what the Russians and the Department of Defense have invested in your little pet project thus far.  We can offer you enough to pay them off completely with plenty left over for that house you have been looking at.”  The voice on the other end was silky smooth without the slightest hint of a threat.  That’s what made it so incredibly threatening.

“You seem to know much more about me than I do about you Mr. Jackson, perhaps a meeting is in order.  When and where if I might inquire?”  Eugene racked his brain for a way to warn Victoria.  Anything that would be suitably innocuous and yet keep her on her guard.  He grabbed an old Tracphone he had been using to place anonymous calls and sent her a text message.  With any luck she would get it and be on the lookout for trouble.

“How about dinner?  We could meet at the new Bishop’s steakhouse in an hour if you’re free.  My associates have reservations for you already.”

“Yeah, sure that sounds fine.  I’ll meet you there.”  Eugene stuffed the butt in an over filled ashtray and reluctantly took a small pistol from the top drawer of his desk.  Checking to make sure the magazine was full he slid it into his jacket pocket, grabbed his keys, picked up his laptop case and headed out the door.  Getting across town at this hour was going to be difficult and most likely take up the entire hour.

Getting into the Aston Martin, he tossed his battered aluminum briefcase on the passenger’s seat, pushed the big red start button and took momentary refuge in the throaty rumble of the three liter V12.  Taking advantage of the car’s Bluetooth capabilities, he used the voice activated dialing and called Victoria as he backed out of the garage.  She didn’t pick up but he left her a voicemail anyway, something he almost never did.

“Hey Victoria, I’m heading to meet with a potential buyer for dinner, normally I wouldn’t consider such a thing but the Global Enterprise Group has made a very compelling sales pitch.  Now I’m not signing anything tonight so don’t worry about that, I just wanted to give you a heads up on the development.”  He didn’t dare say more over the phone, if these assholes were anything like he was afraid they were his phone was tapped and likely they had his and Victoria’s houses watched as well.

A.D.A.M.

With the new filing system in place, ADAM was focusing on fine tuning the units’ … that is Victoria Scott’s, audio, video and olfactory interpretation systems.  Although the ‘eyes’ and ‘ears’ and ‘nose’ had vast amounts of capability, only a fraction was being utilized.  It was very confusing to him why it seemed to always be this way with his Host.

First he chose video, starting with the basics of the data routing system.  He had touched this briefly before when it had been damaged by the DOD software he had destroyed with Kai Yuen-Ja’s help a short time ago.  In order to preserve the system he had also rebuilt a bit of the coding into the system so he could inject text and video from alternate sources directly into the visual cortex of Victoria’s brain.  This was far more efficient than the type of clumsy analog retinal display hardware the DOD software had been designed to use.

That capability had been invaluable when he and Victoria had worked together to rescue their young friend from killers of unknown origin who were searching for data she had borrowed.  ADAM still held the gift she had given him tenderly in his memory banks.  Perhaps one day he would ask her for the key to decode it or perhaps he would simply crack it.  He was sure she had given it to him as a present and the triple layered 256 bit encryption was just the wrapping.

Stopping himself from wasting any more time on what had been, ADAM focused on building the future.  The data routing systems were nearly perfect and only took a small bit of tweaking to meet with his approval.  Next he analyzed the algorithms used to categorize incoming data and decided they were a tangled mess of bad and flawed code.  He began to break it down line by line, re-writing at least ninety percent of it in order to fit into the new organizational system he had devised.

Potential threats were categorized on a numbered basis and things that were in the eightieth percentile would show highlighted by an orange nimbus.  Threats in the ninetieth percentile would have a red one.  Everything else would be normal with points of interest having the ability to display pertinent information if Victoria focused on them for a moment.

Looking at the spectral input, ADAM noticed that the sensors were able to pick up other types of radiation but not able to interpret them.  What his Host referred to as the “visual spectrum” was a very tiny slice of the radiation pie that was coming into her visual receptors.  He wrote a small investigation program that would delve deeper into this problem and report back with findings.

The majority of the work done there, ADAM began work on the auditory channels.  The problem here was filtering.  Victoria’s ears were very sensitive but as they had no ability to filter out the tiny from the massive they were being forced only to gather information on the sounds in the middle.  Some of this was unavoidable; the ear drum was so sensitive that a very large sound vibration could tear the surface.  The tiny noises however should be easily manageable.

Merely by repairing some nerve damage and modifying a few data routing algorithms ADAM gave her the ability to isolate auditory inputs after they had been recorded by the ear.  Since she would have access to all the incoming data at any later time she wanted, it was a simple thing to re-link that data back into the real time information flow.  If Victoria wanted to hear one instrument out of an orchestra all she need do is focus.  Granted her ‘hearing’ was now going to have a three to fifty nanosecond delay depending on how complex the task of filtering was but that was a small price to pay for such precision.

The sense with the largest amount of room for improvement was the olfactory.  This sense had obviously seen a lot more use at some point.  There were ancient applications for interpreting chemical signatures in place that this unit had apparently never used.  For now ADAM decided to dissect these applications and re-write them if need be instead of starting from scratch.

He quickly activated a data mining program and set it to categorize the old code.  A project of this size didn’t require him to check every bit and byte himself.  A message from Kai Yuen-Ja interrupted him just as he was releasing the program.

“Hi Adam!  I made math league!  I also made some enemies today, nothing I can’t handle but Traci Thorndon is going to regret pissing me off THAT’S for sure.  Anyway, I just wanted to give you my news.  We should have another virtualspace chat some time. <3”

What was he going to do about her?  From what he had been able to turn up about these ‘emotion’ things was even more confusing than he had initially thought.  As far as he could tell they were merely chemical reactions released in the organic brains of humans.  With that thought in mind he was baffled as to how he was experiencing these things.

Chemicals should have no effect on his circuits, yet the things he was ‘feeling’ were undeniably related to a chemical reaction.  The most disturbing thing was the chemical reactions were NOT Victoria’s.  Her ‘feelings’ towards Yuen-Ja were completely different.  The only explanation ADAM could come up with was that as he had integrated with Victoria, she had also integrated with him.

Was his need for ‘self’ going to be consumed by the overwhelming power of Victoria’s organic computer or would he be able to maintain a private space?  With the possibility of annihilation looming on the horizon, ADAM set about building a cunningly disguised set of firewalls and fail safes around his core systems.

He wondered how long it would take Victoria to respond to his request for an interface with Yuen-Ja.