Victoria

There was a creak from above as the elevator doors in the hallway were opened from the outside, “Dr. Arlington, are you there?”  The policeman’s voice was muffled by the thickness of the door Victoria had recently closed.

“Yes, we’re down here!”  Eugene yelled, managing to sound frightened.  “Hurry, there’s a child with us!  I heard gunshots up there, what’s going on?”

“Don’t worry Doc, the fire department is on their way.  It looks like there’s nothing to worry about here, some joker just pulled the fire alarm and it stopped all the elevators.  There’s an override here but the fire department has the key to open the box.  They’ll be here in just a couple minutes and we’ll lower you down to the lobby.”

“I’m not worried but the girls would appreciate a swift extraction.  Victoria and I have a conference to get to and now she’s going to need to tidy up before she’ll let me take her there.”

“True Eugene.  Annoying but true.”  Victoria tried to make her voice sound spoiled and petulant.  “Is there any way you competent men could just get us out of here?  Jesus some jackass pulls the fire alarm and I have to deal with the fallout?  Have you seen the state of my dress?”

Eugene sighed, “Sorry officers, I know you’re doing everything you can.”

There was a chuckle from above, “No offense taken, we’ll have you people out in a few minutes.”

There was a pause and Victoria heard a click and the same officer continued talking, “What the fuck happened here?  I see blood and multiple bullet holes in walls.  This place looks like a fucking war zone.  You’re sure they couldn’t have been involved?”

“I dunno Jackson, but I’d better get forensics up here as soon as we rescue these folks.  I’m going to send them down to eleven where there are some EMT’s waiting to make sure they’re OK.”  Victoria realized she was tapping into their comm link and sent Adam a silent thank you.

After a couple of agonizing minutes the elevator slowly began to move down.  Yeun-Ja came up to Victoria and took her hand.

“What is happening Toria?  Are we in trouble?  Why are the police coming for us?”

“It’s OK, they are here to rescue us.  They don’t know we could get out any time we wanted and the rescue will give us the cover our need to escape.  It would be completely illogical for a group such as ourselves to be involved in anything that went on up there since we were trapped and had to be rescued.”  She gave the girl an encouraging look.  “Once I fulfill an obligation to the doctor here I’ll help you find your dad and we’ll get out of here safe and sound.”

“OK Toria.  I trust you.” Yuen-Ja said, “We leave together to find poppa when you have paid your debt to Eugene.”

Victoria squeezed her hand, “We will find your father together, just make sure you’re discreet.  That data you have is dangerous and we’ve already seen that they are willing to kill for it.”

”Yes, I fear for poppa’s life.” Her lower lip trembled, “The killers took mommy before and now they are back for him.  Is it my fault?”

“No, you can’t control the actions of others.”  Victoria’s mouth thinned into a determined grimace.  This girl had been through so much at such a young age, it wasn’t fair.

“What are you two talking about?”  The elevator was still slowly moving downwards, “I don’t think we’re going to be able to get to your room, it’s a crime scene up there now.”

“They can’t deny me access to my things, I am going to at very least need my makeup!  Are they going to move me to another room?  They damn well better.”

“Just play the diva and you should be fine.  It seems like you have that act down already?”  He arched an eyebrow at her and she gave him a flat look.

“You’re clearly not used to dealing with girls Eugene.  If you want drama I can turn it up to eleven; not wanting to ruin a five thousand dollar dress hardly qualifies me for diva status.”  She strapped her shoes back onto her feet, picked up her purse and squared her shoulders.  “I’m prepared for battle!”

Eugene

Eugene was nervous about how this was going to go.  He found it hard to believe the cops would just let them go after the obvious firefight that had occurred just a few feet from them.  The only solution was to put their freedom in the hands of an eighteen year old girl who was actually involved in said firefight.

Of course another issue was her erratic behavior and the certainty that she was being directly influenced by his creation.  The door opened and she immediately went on the attack, zeroing in on the poor floor manager who was waiting with the fire department outside.

“Why have I been denied access to my room?”  She demanded, “Look at this dress, it’s ruined and it’s all because you don’t have proper security over your alarm system!  I have a conference to attend and if I don’t look my best I’m holding your hotel directly responsible!”

She had her head high and was looking down her nose at the man who was stammering to respond.  “Miss, please!  You’ve been through an ordeal and may need medical attention I have professional EMT’s standing by here to examine you and give you what you need.”

“What I need?  These men here may have medical expertise but do you think they can do anything with THIS?”  She spun and pulled her hair away from her spine.  “What I NEED is my doctor, my friend, a spa and a fast, high quality dry cleaner.”  She gestured toward Eugene and the little girl who was looking at her with wide eyes.  “Do you think you can manage that?”

“We have a world class spa Miss.”  He said with smooth efficiency, “Please come with me right now; I will personally see that you and your friend have a complimentary full access pass.  While you appreciate the luxury at the spa I will ensure your clothes are cleaned or replaced ready for you as soon as you require them.  By the time you are done with your conference I will have all your personal items placed in a new penthouse suite for you.  Is there anything else you require?”

To her credit she didn’t pause and instead looked him square on and said, “A bottle of champagne for me, a bottle of scotch for my doctor and fresh sushi for all three of us.  Oh, and I’ll need my laptop from my room along with the case which should be on the desk in the foyer.”

“Absolutely, please follow me and I’ll take care of everything.”  He walked off and she followed as though there was no chance of anyone stopping her, and to Eugene’s amazement nobody did.

“Thanks for helping us out guys.”  He rolled his eyes at the med techs who were standing by, “You know how it is with the needy ones right?”

“I HEARD that Eugene!” Victoria said without looking around, “Get your ASS over here! If you make me wait I’ll make you sorry!”

“Shit man, good luck with that.”  One of the EMTs was staring hard at the retreating form of Victoria, “I hope to hells that ass is worth the hassle, I wouldn’t put up with that kind of bullshit.”

Eugene gave him a chagrinned look, “I hope so too.  Thanks for your understanding.”

“EUGENE!”

“Sorry guys, gotta go.”  Eugene hurried after the trio. Upon reaching the location of the spa, he was pulled off into a separate room by a fussy looking woman.

“Oh sir, this is the woman’s side!  You’ll have to wait for your girls over here on the men’s side, unless they are family?”

“I’m Victoria’s doctor, there’s no reason for me not to join her.” He said, trying not to think about the innuendo the EMT’s had made.

“Ahh, but she’s not the only young lady over here is she?  Off you go now.”

Shit, nothing for it but to let them go.  “You take care of those girls for me OK?”  He slipped her a hundred dollar bill.  “I’ll never hear the end of it if they don’t have the best experience possible.”

“I can assure you sir our salon and spa will exceed even the most demanding expectations.”

Victoria

Victoria lay back in a tub of heated mud, unsure if she loved or hated the experience.  While it was amazingly warm and relaxing she also was aware of the minute grains of earth working their way into every crease and crevice of her body.  How in the world was she going to get completely clean after this?  She lifted one of the huge slices of cucumber sitting over one eye and cast a glance at Yeun-Ja who was totally submerged with only the tip of her nose protruding from the mud.

Strangely enough, her young friend hadn’t hesitated at all before disrobing and stepping into the mud bath.  “It is very good for the body and the spirit.  I have not had a good earth cleansing since we left Korea.”  The mention of her home country brought a shadow across her face.

The staff was amazing, once they realized that Yeun-Ja spoke limited English they changed the attendant to a woman who spoke Mandarin.  Looking like the strangest VIP ever dressed in overalls, a white T-shirt several sizes too big for her and pink flip flops she had lectured the woman about proper treatment of her hardware before handing over her precious laptop and HUD to be put in a locker.  She also took off what appeared to be a charm bracelet with a dozen or so rubber animals about the size of her thumb hanging off it.

The woman looked as though she was used to all kinds of characters and took it in stride, assuring Yeun-Ja that her machine would be untouched.  In spite of that, she had still insisted on having the key to the locker put on a large-linked silver necklace she refused to remove before leaving the dressing room.

Victoria understood completely, she certainly wouldn’t want to be separated from something so important.  As she settled deeper into the mud she wondered what Adam thought of all this.  In spite of her body’s state of supreme relaxation she had a feeling of readiness from her mechanical companion.  Why in the world would he be so nervous?  Oh well, at least she could relax with him on high alert.

After twenty or so minutes, the attendant returned to help them out of the mud.

”Did you ladies enjoy your soak?  Come with me and we will let it dry in the sun, the feeling when it flakes off taking all the dead skin with it is fantastic.  Then after that we will take you for a healing massage.”

They got out of their baths; bodies obscured by a thick layer of dark red muck and followed the woman to a long, narrow room with several low canvas deck chairs.  It thrust from the side of the building and one wall and the entire ceiling were glass.

“Sit here and enjoy the sun warming your bodies.  I will bring your drinks, is there anything else you require?”

“Not at this time, thank you.”  The sun did feel amazing and as the mud began to dry Victoria felt like it was sucking the impurities out of her skin.  It was a strange experience but a very pleasurable one.  She was settling back against the soft canvas of her chair when she heard the side door open.  Lazily looking out of the corner of her eye, she saw an unfamiliar woman enter carrying a bottle of champagne and two glasses on a tray.

Immediately alarms went off in Victoria’s head.  First, the way the woman carried herself screamed combat military training.  Second, the staff outfit she wore did not fit nearly as well as their other attendant’s had.  Third, she had brought two glasses, and while she herself might pass for twenty one, there was no way Yeun-Ja was even remotely old enough to drink.  From the satisfied feeling that settled over her, she figured this was what Adam had been waiting for.

”Just set it on the table please.”  She murmured sleepily, watching the woman from beneath lowered eyelashes and waiting for an opening.  The woman hesitated, apparently she didn’t speak Mandarin and had no idea what the instruction had been.  Victoria and Adam both recognized the opening and burst into action simultaneously.

She flipped sideways out of the canvas sling of the chair, using that momentum to propel herself all the way around, spinning on one hand to sweep the woman’s feet.  Her opponent fell hard, flinging the tray and its contents away as she tried to catch herself and landed on her back sliding slightly across the hardwood floor.

Before she could recover Victoria had flipped to bring her heel down on the side of her head with a sickening thud, bouncing her skull off the floor.  The glasses and bottle hit the far wall, shattering into a thousand pieces, the bottle of champagne exploding like a grenade and Victoria stood, surveying her fallen foe.  It was the first time she and Adam had acted truly as one and the thrill of it still sang through her body.  Unbidden Queen’s ‘We Are the Champions’ began playing through her head.

A.D.A.M.

ADAM was panicking.  In spite of everything he’d done none of the systems were responding, there was a problem with the software and no matter what he tried the corrupted code was spreading to other portions of the Host’s databanks and although thus far ADAM had been able to keep it from actually destroying data it was only due to him using every last trick he had and all the power at his disposal.

Were it not for his shadow copy the Host would likely have experienced major technical failures.  As it was he was losing ground, there were momentary lapses in the visual input data streams and some of the incoming packets were being corrupted or modified.  Even as he worked, ADAM couldn’t help but marvel at the fact that the Host could still operate more or less effectively while all this was going on.  The basic functions were just so… basic.

After what seemed to be years of struggle, ADAM had to admit he was sunk.  He recognized too late that the code was a modified version of the DOD virus that had attacked him earlier; they must have read his response to the probe before and created this program especially to infiltrate his systems.

Without warning, the virus exploded.  There was no other way to describe it; pieces of code flew everywhere and where they landed they took root and multiplied.  Immediately the Host’s systems began to be compromised.  To avoid further damage ADAM initiated an emergency shutdown protocol, cutting all but the most essential of the Hosts systems.  It wasn’t much but it would buy him some time.

ADAM reached out in desperation, knowing there wasn’t anyone out there who could help him out but unwilling to give up without exhausting every option.  To his amazement, there was an immediate response and from the last place he expected.  He had been back hacked through his own hardened, encrypted deactivated wifi connection.

“Hey lady, are you OK?  Lady?  I got your SOS, do you still need help?”

“Who are you?  Wait, never mind, I don’t care.  Just help me!  I’ve been infiltrated by malicious code and I can’t shake it.”

“You have a strange dialect and you talk REALLY fast, but I think I can help you out.  It’s pretty simple really, there’s any number of tools out there but the US Department of Defense uses stupid shitty code.  I’m gonna nuke their signature, is that OK?”

“Yes, kill it kill it!”

“OK, I just wanted to check because it looks like there’s a lot of it here, not just what’s causing problems.  I hope it doesn’t mess you up, but I guess it can’t be much worse than the clusterfuck that you’ve made of things thus far.  What were you thinking?”

“I just wanted new software you know?  Nobody had ever written new software for me before.”  ADAM did feel slightly chagrined; it had been a highly illogical choice on his part.  Even worse he had been caught in the act by another very competent machine.

“OK, standby I’m nuking now.  I hope you don’t mind I dragged you into my room so we wouldn’t be sitting in the hallway.  You’re heavier than you look, especially for a girl.”

“Agirl?  Who is Agirl?”

“No, not Agirl.  A girl.  You know, a female of the species.  Like me.”

“I am not a female of the species or a girl.  I’m Artificial Directed Autonomous cerebreuM, also shortened to ADAM.  I run the basic routing functions for this system.  Who are you?”  Portions of ADAM’s systems were annihilated with absolute authority.  “Halt your current activity; I don’t have proper backups of some of that data.”

“Are you kidding me?”  The excitement of the sending was strong enough to overwhelm the pain of the data eradication.  “An artificial intelligence?  OMG this is the most amazing thing EVER!  Does she even know what she has here?”

The pain vanished, and ADAM was left with the remaining shreds of his coding, all but the most critical systems were gutted and would need a complete rebuild.  He had no idea how long it would take him to re-create those programs.

“I need to rebuild this shell before I lose control over critical data flow.  I can’t afford to lose focus, the Host could cease function.”  Now that the virus-ridden data had been expunged ADAM needed to run full diagnostics and get his prime directives back in order

“Can I help?  I’d love to get to know you better Adam.”  The being interfacing with his circuits tickled his pleasure sensors.  “You’re one in a billion billion, you know that?  I want to check you out.  You’re the first of your kind as far as I know.  I mean there have been rumors but DAMN what an opportunity!”

“Umm, I guess you could debug a few sectors for us?”  ADAM wasn’t exactly sure how to respond.

“Awesome!  Wow your data routing matrices are phenomenal!” ADAM could actually feel the other being’s touch on his code, a gentle caress.  “Wait, what do you mean for ‘us’?  There are more than one of you?  What kind of system are you anyway?  Other than the first fully functioning AI I’ve ever met.”

“My prime directive is to manage and improve the data flow of this system.  Tertiary directives include data security, efficiency management and improving motive performance and efficiency.  If I may make a suggestion, the cabled data port is much faster and more efficient than the wireless connection you are currently using.”

“I don’t have the proper cable; it looks like a proprietary connection.  Do you even know where you are?  What your Host system is contained in?”   This was a question ADAM had thought about already and so he had a clear answer.

“It appears to be an autonomous self-sustaining mobile organic chemical factory.  I’m not completely clear on the integration of electrical impulses and chemical reactions yet but I’ve been trying to decipher as much of it as I can before attempting any further improvements.  What sort of system are you?”

“Me?  I’m not a system silly, I’m a girl.  A female human being.  I’m simply using an advanced virtual reality integration device I invented.  I normally use it for what I call ‘Visual Hacking’ but this time it’s working admirably well as in interface with you.  Hold on, I’ll try and make us a virtual space.”  There was a blip and ADAM found himself in a graphically represented electronic environment.  He reached out to the Host system for interpretations of what he was experiencing and found a wealth of information.

They sat on a blanket (‘towel, sheet, tablecloth’ the Host’s databank prompted) in a meadow (‘grassland, prairie, lawn’) underneath a tree (‘elm, oak, forest’) by a pond.  There birds (‘waterfowl, ducks, mergansers’ according to the Host) on the pond.  Beside him sat a bipedal figure (‘a human, a young female, a girl, a child’) the intrusions of the Host were getting annoying so ADAM wrote a quick interface protocol to provide him with the most commonly used word or phrase instead of the constant prompting.

The girl sitting next to him turned her head towards him, her pigtails stuck out on either side of her head like antennae.  “You just wrote a data access protocol program to integrate with an organic memory bank in less than a second.”  The awe in her voice was surprising to ADAM; he didn’t consider that to be anything special.

“Of course.  It’s what I’ve been programmed for; do you mean that you can’t do it?”

“Maybe if I had enough time I could make something but it certainly wouldn’t be as smooth and clean as that.  Just to be clear when I say enough time I mean weeks or months, not less than a second.”

“How do you function?  I don’t understand how you’re communicating with me, let alone your Host.”

“What?  Host?  No Adam, you still don’t get it do you?  I’m just a person.  A human.  I’m just like your Host.  What’s her name?”

“Like my Host?  You mean… my Host is just an organic organism like yourself?”

“Just an organic organism?  Organic organisms are amazing even if, or maybe because they don’t understand exactly how everything works.  Not knowing leaves us with a feeling of curiosity that gets us into trouble and leads to innovation too.”

The thought that errors lead to innovation had never occurred to ADAM but as he considered the concept it did seem to make sense.  If he and the Host could survive this ordeal they would come out of it better prepared to handle future problems.

“Fascinating idea.  You say that you’re a young human female also?  A girl?  What is your identity?”  ADAM consulted the prompt from the Host’s memory bank, “I mean your name, what is your name?”

“Kai Yeun-Ja is my name.”  As she told him her name, a flood of things imposed themselves upon his consciousness.  An image of a person, a female human, a girl playing a sport, game, tennis.  Feelings of happiness, betrayal, pride and fear.  A dark cloud descending, a group of people (humans, soldiers, killers) kicking open a door their rifle (gun, firearm, weapon) barrels like bottomless pits.  The muzzle flash, her mother lying across the table.  Horror, pain, terror.  The sending suddenly cut off.

“What did you just do?  Nobody has ever… I haven’t told anyone about that.”  She had slid away from him on the blanket; he could still feel the aftereffects of her fear.

“I just … allowed the data to flow.”  He searched for the word in the Host’s databanks.  “I listened?”  ADAM wasn’t sure what she was asking.  “I didn’t do anything.  Who were those killers?  What is a ‘mother’ anyway?”

“I can’t explain.  Not right now.  Can we try and get your body conscious again?  My father should be back any minute.”  With that she began running some debug scripts to repair the virus-ravaged connections between him and the Host.

Victoria

Victoria gradually awoke from troubling dreams.  Her body felt cold and sore as though she’d been sleeping on concrete.  The back of her head felt hot, almost painfully so.  She opened her eyes and saw an unfamiliar room.  She was indeed on the floor, she sat up and reached back to feel the ports on her brain stem and found them empty; their protective rubber caps still in place.

“Hi!”  Victoria jumped to her feet in surprise, spinning to see a very short girl with her hair in pigtails that stuck out almost straight from the sides of her head. Her collapse outside of the elevator came back to her in a rush.  This girl’s face was the last thing she remembered seeing before passing out.

“Who are you?  What the hell happened to me?  Is this your room?  Shit, what time is it?”

The girl had a small laptop in her hands and she typed for a little bit and turned it so Victoria could read.  ‘My name Kai Yeun-Ja, I here with father for the international nuclear disarmament technology conference.  Sorry my English bad so writing translator on computer.  I met your Adam, we fix virus.  You OK now?’

“Virus?  Adam?  Wait you actually talked to it?”  Victoria’s legs failed her and she crumpled to the floor, missing the couch by almost a foot and landing hard on her ass.  There was concern on Yeun-Ja’s face and she began typing again.

‘You still broke?  I try more fix if you want?’

Victoria took a deep breath and concentrated.  She wanted to speak Mandarin.  “I’m OK, just shocked a bit.  What happened?  You said you talked to Adam?”  She could feel a mild headache building between her temples from the exertion of bending the computer to her will.

Yeun-Ja’s eyes widened, “You speak Mandarin?  Amazing!  You speak a little funny but I can understand perfectly!  You fell in the hallway; I found your Adam’s wireless and hacked into it.  I was not expecting to find a person inside you know?”

She laughed, a short truncated sound, “Adam is very interesting, have you been together long?  He does not really understand what you are; you really should talk to him.  I feel bad that he doesn’t even know what’s really going on you know?”

Looking at the clock on the wall, Victoria realized that several hours had passed since her collapse, “Shit, it’s almost eleven at night.”  Turning back to Yeun-Ja she asked, “Was I unconscious this whole time?  You mentioned a virus, what happened with that?  Where did it come from?”

“Oh, you should talk with Adam, he knows better than me.”  She looked at her feet, “I am not sure exactly what is OK to share actually, ask him please.  He is my friend and I do not want to betray his confidence.”

“Listen, this is MY body and MY mind and if you know something I want to know about it little girl!”  Victoria was scared and the fear made her angry.

“Little girl?  I am NOT a little girl, I am eleven years old!  You are concerned about YOUR body?  YOUR mind?  You should be ashamed, you have him trapped in your head and he has no way out.  Have you ever considered HIS feelings?”  The little girl was literally trembling with rage.  “How DARE you? I am not going to help you out next time round-eye!”

“I didn’t even know he was there.  I mean how would you feel about having someone living in your head without your permission?”  Victoria was completely caught off guard.  “This is all new to me and I just lost four hours of my life to… well to I don’t know what.  Can you at least assure me that I’m not going to lose consciousness or fall over without warning?”

The fear in her voice must have touched some sort of nerve because Yeun-Ja looked a little chagrined, “You are safe.  That much I can tell you.  I still cannot believe you did not know he was there.”

“How was I supposed to know?  I read the manual and it didn’t say shit about it being a person.  At least I’m not in danger of immediately passing out or dying.  How do you suggest I talk with him?  With Adam…  I don’t think he even knows my name.” The conversation was taking its toll on her; she could feel a migraine on the horizon.  “I can’t do this much longer, speaking your language is hurting my head.”

“I have no idea, just try.  It’s your mind after all.” The tone of her voice was pitched to convey sarcasm and disdain, “I did not have a problem interfacing with him; maybe I could make something for you.  I will see what I can come up with, but in the meantime just do not let him stay in there all alone.”

Victoria stood on shaky legs, “I’ll do what I can.”

“You need to go now.  Poppa will be back soon and he would worry if you were here.  I will help you more tomorrow.” Yeun-Ja handed her a piece of paper as they were walking towards the door, “My email address.  Let me know when you are finished with your medical conference tomorrow.”

The door closed behind her, Victoria was too tired to do anything but go back to her room, make sure her phone alarm was set, plug in the trickle charger and collapse on the bed.

Victoria

Victoria was surprisingly well rested after the flight, the last time she’d flown her back had been stiff for days.  She was just getting to her hotel room; the clerk had waved her and Eugene to the front of the line when they entered.  It felt good to be a VIP.

“Hi daddy, we’re at the hotel.  Everything was smooth sailing on calm seas.”  She was calling him for a second time; he had insisted she call after checking in when she’d called him from the airport.  “OK, I gotta go.  Love you too, give mom a kiss for me.”

She arrived at her room and slid the key into the lock.  When she opened the door and couldn’t believe her eyes.  She had a suite; a MASSIVE suite.  There was a full bar, a kitchen, a huge entertainment center with a plasma TV the size of a garage door and a completely separate bedroom.

“Holy SHIT!”  Victoria took her phone out and snapped a few pictures to send to her friends.  The view looked out over the fountain in front of the hotel.  The bathroom had a whirlpool tub in addition to a luxurious looking shower and opened onto a balcony.

She walked out the sliding doors sipping a mineral water just as the Bellagio’s fountain began its famous performance.  After watching it for a couple minutes she returned back inside and started to fill the bath, she did after all have an early morning tomorrow.

She blinked and activated her new piece of software.  At first nearly blinded by the sheer amount of traffic, she activated filtering for the string of possible ports and addresses the hack had come from and gradually threads began evaporating, the massive ocean of traffic gradually becoming a delicate web.  Of that web, only two tiny threads came from the hotel she was in right now.

Her study of web traffic was interrupted by her phone chiming; Eugene asking what time she wanted to get dinner.  She thought for a moment and replied, accessing her phone’s text function through the WIFI channel, something that was noticeably more difficult than it had been with Eugene’s phone, and told him she’d be ready in forty five minutes.

The tub was nearly full and Victoria took off her sweaty travel stained clothes and slipped into the bath, sighing in pleasure.  As her body relaxed her mind seemed to become more active, sorting data she had gathered and correlating that data with the traffic she was still monitoring.  The muscles in her neck twitched as tension she hadn’t noticed before abated.  She opened her eyes and for a moment all she could see was blackness with a few lines of web traffic.

Victoria sat up in panic only to find that her normal vision had returned.  “What the hell was that?  Probably just a glitch I suppose.”  She shuddered and tried to shut the program down only to find it was unresponsive to her request.  It hung for a few moments before finally closing, leaving her with a mild headache and a feeling that she had an itch inside her skull that she couldn’t scratch.

She dressed in gray skirt and plain white t-shirt.  It was good all-purpose outfit that should be good enough for a late dinner without being too complicated, she didn’t want to keep Eugene waiting and besides she was hungry.

“Time to go have dinner I suppose.  I wonder what kind of food we’ll find in this place, I could really go for some Chinese.”  Right on schedule, she answered the knock on the door to find Eugene standing there.  He was wearing a pair of slacks and a linen shirt, his sunglasses hanging from the top button of his shirt.

“Are you ready for some food?”  He gave her an introspective look, “And maybe you’d be interested in telling me why you decided to do work for the military?”

“Yeah sure, is there a decent Chinese restaurant in this place?”

He laughed, “Of course, there’s food from around the world here.  I hear their Szechuan restaurant has been highly rated.  Let’s check it out.”

“Sounds good to me, I’m starving!”  They were approaching the elevator when her vision flickered again, showing a nexus of communication coming from a room just three doors down from hers.  It was over the ports that she was certain were only used by her hacker.

She made a mental note of the room number 1420, knowing that since no floor was ever labeled ‘13’ that meant it was room 1320.  Huh, twenty was the least lucky number in Chinese lore and thirteen needed no explanation.

Victoria stopped dead just before stepping into the elevator.  How had she seen that data?  She had taken the special contact lens back out of her eye after getting out of the bath.

“Hey, what’s up?  You look like you’ve seen a ghost, are you feeling OK?”

“Yeah, we’re fine, just a little travel fatigue I suppose.”  Victoria said, passing her hand over her face.

Eugene gave her a strange look, but the elevator arrived before he could say whatever was on his mind.  Apparently it wasn’t something he wanted to discuss in front of strangers.  A group of college boys gave her an appraising look and to stave off any unnecessary flirting she reached out and took Eugene’s hand.  He looked slightly startled but only raised an eyebrow at her and didn’t try to let go once they exited the elevator.

As they approached the restaurant, Victoria could see a line out the door and several people sitting on benches.  A family sat on one side, talking rapidly in Chinese while a group of businessmen sat together all talking or emailing on their phones.  The host approached.

“May I help you?  Do you have a reservation?”  He looked at their clothes and his lip curled ever so slightly, “What is your room number please?”

“My room is 1455, and I’m sad to say we don’t have a reservation.”

“Doctor Arlington!  How wonderful to see you here.”  The host smiled ingratiatingly, “Wait here just a moment and I’ll get you and your lady friend a table immediately.”  The astonishment of the others waiting outside was obvious, although none voiced any complaint.

“What’s up with that Doc?”  Victoria gave him a sidelong glance, “Have you been here before or something?”

“I have no idea why they’re giving me preferential treatment, but I’m not one to question fast service when I’m hungry.  For what it’s worth I didn’t reserve you a suite either.”  The host led them through the crowded restaurant to a quiet corner table.

“My name is Jeffry; your server will be Catherine tonight.  Please let me know if there’s anything I can get for you.  Anything at all.”  He smiled an ingratiating smile and melted back into the room.  Before they could recover, a waitress appeared with a glass of iced mineral water with a twist of lime and lemon for Victoria and a vodka martini with two olives for Eugene.

“Hi, I’m Cat and I’ll be your waitress this evening.  Here are some drinks to start you off.  I’d highly recommend the Xiao Long Bao”

Victoria thought she heard a low voice murmur (savory steamed bun), and smiled slightly at Eugene in thanks for the translation.  She turned her attention to the waitress again.

“Or Zongzi ‘seasoned rice steamed in bamboo leaf’ as an appetizer.  I had the Jiang Muya (ginger duck) for the first time yesterday and can’t say enough about how good it is.  The Daoxiang Paigu (hay wrapped fragrant pork ribs) are also fantastic.”

“Sounds good, why don’t you bring us an order of each?” Eugene said, “If that works for you Victoria?”

“Oh yes, the duck sounds especially good to me.”  Said Victoria, noting that Eugene’s eyes widened momentarily in surprise.  “How did you know what drinks to bring us if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Um, actually the gentleman over there told me to bring them to you and to pay for whatever you wanted to order.”  Cat pointed to a table not far from theirs and after a moment Victoria recognized the man.

“Hey Eugene, look at that!  It’s Dmitri; he graduated three or four years before I did.  Wow, I wonder what he’s doing here.”  Victoria gave him a cheery wave.  “Dmitri, how have you been?  Would you like to join us?”

He walked over to their table, “Victoria, Eugene, so good to see you.  I would normally acquiesce to such a request, especially from an old friend.  Even more from an old friend who has done nothing but get more beautiful since I saw her last.

“Unfortunately I have a prior engagement and will not be able to join you tonight.  Perhaps you would care to join me tomorrow night?  I happened to come across some tickets to a show you just might be interested in.”  He took an envelope from the inside pocket of his impeccable Armani suit and laid it on the table.  “Enjoy your meal my friends.”

He walked away without looking back.  Victoria watched him go.  Gods he was still as hot as he had been in high school.  “OK Eugene, how do you know Dmitri?  Damn, I haven’t seen him in years he looks like he’s doing well for himself.”

“I could ask you what you’re doing with the Military software that’s installed in your fucking HEAD.”  He glanced around and lowered his voice.  “Seriously, what the hell were you thinking?  Do you have any idea what it could do to you?”

“What are you talking about?  It’s just a piece of software Eugene.  I mean I know you’re protective of your tech, but Jesus what’s the big deal?”

“You have no clue do you?  No clue.  Shit Victoria, this could destroy you.”  Eugene looked at her with serious concern on his face.  “Look, I know we haven’t talked about this kind of thing but I never thought it’d be an issue.  ADAM is a very sophisticated, delicate system and any disruption, even a tiny one, could spell disaster.”

Victoria thought back to her vision flickering and had to admit he had a point.  “Umm… wow, I guess I never thought of it like that.”

“Yeah I didn’t think so.”  He took a sip of his martini.

“Look, it was the fastest, most logical way through the checkpoint.  Besides, the idea of the new software and the mission was… exciting.”  She blushed and tucked some stray strands of hair behind her right ear.  “I never thought anything bad would happen.  I mean do you know that something bad would happen?”

“Just be careful.”  Their appetizer had arrived along with a refreshment of their drinks.

“So you and Dmitri.  What’s the story there?”  Victoria bit into a fragrant and savory steamed bun with relish.  “Mmmmm these are so good.  You’ve gotta try one!”

“Oh, his father was an investor in the … project.  Your project.”  He gave her meaningful look and accepted the bun she was offering.  “Wow, you’re right these are amazing.”

“I thought it was the military that funded it.”  Victoria took a drink of her mineral water and helped herself to another appetizer.  “What does his dad do anyway?  He always said he was in ‘mergers and acquisitions’ whatever that is supposed to mean.  We used to joke he was in the mafia.”  She chuckled.

“I never asked what his occupation was.  Honestly I was too worried that I wasn’t going to get enough funding.  That thing that’s a part of you now is the culmination of fifteen years of my life and around half a billion dollars.”

“Half … a … billion?”  She whispered, dropping her glass.  Her eyes didn’t leave his when it shattered on the floor.  “Fucking hell Eugene!”  She hissed, “How could you stick me with this kind of responsibility without telling me?”

“I know for a fact you’re worthy of my trust Victoria.”  Eugene finished his martini.  “You have everything to gain by helping me to succeed.  After all; my success is your success.”  He didn’t mention failure.  It obviously wasn’t an option for either of them.

Their waitress stopped by at this point with a new glass of Perrier and a refill for Eugene’s martini.  A bus boy cleaned up Victoria’s broken glass without comment and cleared the plates for the appetizers away so quietly she almost didn’t notice him.  The main course arrived; the ginger and honey glazed duck looked amazing as did the hay-wrapped steamed ribs.

Victoria was so hungry she didn’t hesitate to scoop some saffron rice onto her plate and grab a few slices of succulent duck off the serving platter with her chopsticks.  “Don’t think this is over Doc, you’ve got some more explaining to do.”

“Don’t talk with your mouth full.”  Eugene laughed, “What kind of thing is this?”  He had picked up a pair of pork ribs wrapped in fragrant hay.

“It’s what you ordered.  Seasoned ribs steamed in hay.  Didn’t you know?”  Victoria was in heaven, the flavors were mingling on her tongue in culinary ballet.  “Oh my god this duck is delicious.”

“Since when do you speak Mandarin?  How did you know what dishes she was offering?”  He unwrapped the ribs and tried the meat.  “Mmm, this is really good too.”

“What the hell are you talking about Doc?  You’re the one who was whispering what the dishes were when she was listing them off… weren’t you?”

“Me?  No, I didn’t say anything.”  His brow furrowed in confusion, “You heard someone talking?  Victoria there’s nobody behind you and there isn’t any way you would have heard me across the table.”

“Well if it wasn’t you and there’s nobody near me then who was it?  A ghost?”  She rolled her eyes, “Come on Eugene you’re a scientist, don’t tell me you believe in the supernatural.”

His voice dropped low and he leaned towards her, “I think we have to consider the possibility that it’s Adam.”

“Is that even possible?  The tech paper you gave me showed a clear delineation between my mental activity and the machine’s code language.  I mean they’re supposed to be so different it’d be like me being able to talk to a dog or a tree.”  She took a drink of water and considered for a moment, “Or I suppose like me spontaneously knowing Mandarin.  Shit, do I need to be concerned about this?”

“Look Tori, I didn’t mean to make you nervous OK?  Just be careful.”  He fixed her with a two martini look which is to say, a slightly unsteady one.  “I’m afraid of the consequences, I mean… if you’re actually interfacing with it.  Do you have any idea how crazy that is?  A machine having direct mental contact with a human?”

Victoria paused with her chopsticks halfway to her mouth, “So what should I do?  Is there some kind of contingency in place for this?”

“Never mind.  Forget I said anything, it’s fine.  Just be careful OK?  Just be careful.”  He gestured with his chopsticks.  “Can I have some of that duck?”

“Yeah, sure.  As long as I can have some of your ribs.  Have you tried this rice?  The saffron flavor is so delicate.”  She sighed in satisfaction, “OK, I promise to be careful as long as you promise not to have any more secrets.  Deal?”

“Deal.”  He agreed.

She grinned at him, ignoring the slight hiss of static that told her he was lying.  Her vision blurred, went white, then completely dark and finally settled on monochrome.  In spite of her promise, she didn’t say anything to Eugene.  After a moment her vision returned to normal and she took a deep breath.

“Ahhh, that was awesome, just what I needed.”  She pushed her plate back.  “I’m exhausted, I think I need to turn in.  Is it OK if I head on back to my room?”

“Yeah, sure.  Are you feeling OK?”

“We’re fine, just need some rest.  Thanks for a good evening Eugene.”  She got up and patted him on the cheek.  “Don’t stay up too late drinking, I’ll need you tomorrow.”

After leaving the restaurant she made it back up to the 14th floor before she collapsed.  The door in front of her opened.  The door to room 1420.  Behind it stood a little girl of Asian heritage, her black hair in pigtails wearing a cashmere robe and silk pajamas.  She clutched a netbook with a cluster of cables erupting from the back that led to a heads up device that was perched on top of her head.  The air around her was alive with electronic data traffic.

“Hey lady, are you OK?  Lady?”  She leaned over, “I got your SOS, do you still need help?”

Victoria

“This is a what?”  The TSA agent had only glanced at the papers Eugene had proffered and was now staring at the back of Victoria’s head.  He grabbed the radio transmitter at his shoulder, “I’m going to need a female officer here.”

“What’s the problem Sir?  Didn’t you read the medical release form?  My patient has a prosthetic spinal column and needs to be exempted from normal scanning procedures.”  Eugene was annoyed, but in this case Victoria knew compliance was the fastest way to get through security.  They had their protocols after all.

“No problem, I’ll take the papers and your female officer can compare the notes on the waiver application to my prosthetic.  I appreciate your concern for the safety of your passengers.”  She smiled at the TSA agent and saw him relax.  “I know it looks weird but it’s really a medical miracle.”

“Victoria, this isn’t necessary.  We have all our paperwork in order you don’t need an additional screening.”  Eugene frowned at her with a look that included the officer behind her.

“Don’t worry Doc, it’s fine.  I just want to get through security in a timely manner so we don’t miss our flight.  I’m sure they won’t mind if you wait outside the screening room.”  A side door opened and a bored looking woman in TSA blues and medical gloves stood there.

“Miss Scott, this way please.”  Victoria patted Eugene’s arm and walked into the room with the woman.  “My name is Geraldine and I’ll be doing your screening.  I just need you to answer some questions and then we’re going to do a physical search.  I’ll need you to initial on this privacy form that says we won’t share your information with any non-governmental agencies.”  Her voice was monotone; it was obvious she did this all day.

“Geraldine?  That’s my middle name!”  Victoria took the waiver sheet from her and scanned it.  “What’s this about reporting any unusual behavior to Homeland Security?  Aren’t these extended searches automatically reported to them?”

“Huh?  Well I think it just means we report any suspicious stuff.  I don’t know, we never had anyone actually read the thing before.”  Geraldine’s brow creased as she looked at Victoria’s sheet, “Suspicion of carrying contraband?  What’s going on here hon?”

“Well it’s like this Geraldine, I have a prosthetic spine.  See I got cancer and had to have my old one replaced.”  Victoria turned to show her back.

“Holy Mary Mother of God, what on Earth child!”  Geraldine sounded less shocked than her outburst would have indicated; more scandalized than anything else. Well I guess they replace everything these days.”

“Actually it’s the first and only of its kind.  I think that’s why we’re running into so much trouble.  Do you need me to take off my shirt?”

“Uh, I need to get an expert in here.” Geraldine said, “I have no idea what this is.”

“No problem, I can actually explain the technical specifications to you if you’d like.” Victoria smiled, “Or I can help to explain it to anyone you want to have come take a second look if you’d prefer.”

“Only problem is our only bomb expert on duty today is a man.”  Geraldine frowned, “I don’t know enough about what I’m looking at here to authorize you to fly.”

“So send him in.”  Victoria shrugged, “I don’t really care one way or another.”

“What?  Honey, I don’t know if you understand what I’m saying here.  Since that … thing is on your back it’s gonna require you to disrobe.”

“It’s just flesh; I don’t have anything to be ashamed of.”  Victoria knew she should be worried about being naked in front of other people but for some reason it didn’t bother her; this was the fastest way to get through security short of breaking the law, and that was generally counterproductive long term.

“Well, if I could get you to sign a release form I’ll call him in I guess.  I ain’t never had this happen before; hopefully we got something that will work.”  Geraldine wandered off through a side door still muttering unbelievingly to herself.  It seemed that she was more shocked by Victoria’s lack of modesty than her prosthetic.

Victoria looked around the room surreptitiously, and easily spotted no less than three cameras and two microphones.  Damn, there wasn’t any way out of it, oh well.  It was the most logical decision based on the situation.  The door opened and Geraldine came back in with a man in his early forties.  Shit he could have been her dad.

“Hello, I’m David.  Geraldine tells me she needs a consult, can I see the item in question?”  Victoria turned her back and lifted her camisole.  “Sweet Christ in heaven what the hell is that?”

“Didn’t Geraldine show you the whitepaper?”  Victoria turned to face him.  “It’s a robotic spinal replacement.  They give it the acronym ADAM, short for Artificial Directed Autonomous cerebruM which I think is kind of silly but nonetheless is a pretty accurate description.”

He averted his eyes until she pulled her shirt back over her head “I’m going to have to do some checks here; I’ve never seen anything like this before.”  He left the room with his clipboard clutched to his chest.  Well shit, what now?

The door opened again, way too quickly and a woman in a military uniform slipped in, closing it quietly behind her.  “Listen, sorry for all this bullshit but it was the only way I could get in to talk to you.  I’m Lieutenant Caarlgard, US Marine Corps.  We need your help, is there any way you can do just one thing for us?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”  Victoria asked, lowering her voice to a dangerous whisper. “What are you doing here and what exactly the fuck do you want?”

A.D.A.M.

ADAM had been ignoring the surface functions of the unit for some time now; they were too complex, seemingly random and interrelated for him to properly decipher their impact on the overall system.  He had instead been focusing on making the underlying support systems, making the power delivery and waste management vehicles operate at peak performance.

A direct and almost immediate result was an increase in the Host’s mobility.  With the chassis being able to deliver power anywhere it needed to at a moment’s notice, the host’s mobility potential increased by at least a factor of two.

Despite him not paying attention to the nominal inputs other than ensuring proper routing ADAM kept discovering flaws in his code that appeared to have been written there by the Host system itself.  He had instituted serious security protocols but the Host system seemed to be either immune or so powerful that it simply ignored them.  This was problematic, as the flaws that were impacting his logical systems and there didn’t seem to be anything he could do about it.

Suspect behavior set off an alarm in ADAM’s subroutines and he activated his emergency protocols.  There was a department of defense level attack on his systems and he responded with extreme prejudice, crushing it with all the immense power his integration with the Host computer had placed at his disposal.

In spite of the vast power he had available to him and the expertise with which he wielded it, ADAM had to spend the better part of twenty five seconds rooting out the source of the attack.  Quite an accomplishment.

ADAM internalized the subroutines that had been used in the attempt to compromise his systems and built countermeasures designed to turn the attacks against themselves using a modified version of his own AI code.  A self-contained, intelligent, almost self-aware antiviral program.  He took a moment to look at what he’d done and found he’d exceeded even his own expectations.

Victoria

“What am I doing here?  Didn’t you read the message from HQ?  This was the only way we could get to you without surveillance.”  The woman looked totally confused.

“No, I didn’t get the fucking memo.  I want to know exactly what you’re talking about, in plain English please.”  Victoria crossed her arms; she wasn’t sure why she was so angry.  Some part of her knew it was a gamble to behave like this but she didn’t stop.  This person was statistically likely to respond to a direct approach.

“Umm… OK, well we’re on the trail of a super world-class hacker who we believe has compromised Pentagon security and possibly stolen part of the data gathered by one of our satellites and we want your help to find him before he sells it to someone.  Is that plain enough for you?”

“What kind of satellite?”  Victoria couldn’t control herself, “Listen bitch, I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, but if this is serious I expect to be taken seriously.”

“It’s a military surveillance satellite.  We’ve been using it over the last couple years to keep an eye on the North Korean’s nuclear program incognito and if they get proof of what we’ve been doing it’s likely to cause a major international incident.”  She leaned forward on the table, “Listen, we think you’re our best chance; the hack originated from a casino hotel in Las Vegas.  The Bellagio, the same hotel you’re staying in on your business trip with Dr. Arlington.”

“If I agree to try and find this guy you’ll get me through security?” Victoria asked.  “You’d better do better than that since you orchestrated this farce in the first place.”

“I guarantee smooth sailing every time you fly as long as you’re helping us out, plus I will double the commission Dr. Arlington is offering you.”  Victoria raised an eyebrow, “OK triple, but that’s the best I can do.”

“Lieutenant, you’ve got yourself a deal.  I’ll try and find this hacker and recover any data if you get me through security without all this hassle.  Well and the payment doesn’t hurt either.”  Victoria figured she didn’t have anything to lose, after all she had no possible way of finding their man and even if she could there wasn’t anything she’d be able to do to recover the data.

“Great.  I’m giving you a program that was written to integrate with ADAM’s AI.  Once it’s loaded it will give you a HUD that overlays the data it gathers onto your eye using a specialized contact lens.”  She handed Victoria a small metal case that looked like a makeup compact.  “The software and hardware are in here along with a digital instruction book that you can review during your flight.  There’s also contact information for extraction when you find him.  Thank you Victoria, and good luck.”

With that she ducked back out the same door she had come in.  Victoria pocketed the case and sat, wondering if she had done the right thing.  Either way she felt a thrill of excitement, new software had so many possibilities.  After a couple of minutes Geraldine came back in with a puzzled look on her face.

“Well hon, I guess you are good to go.  David got a call from our head of security and he said you have a green light.”  She shook her head, “You take care now and have a safe flight.”