Doomsday Hunter 2, page 15
part #2 of Doomsday Hunter Series
I stepped out into the hallway of floor fifty-eight with Tracey wrapped up in a chokehold. Immediately, our figures were basked in the glowing, soft blue lights that sat above us, interspersed with the natural lighting from the giant bay window Gerald had shown us earlier.
This staircase had taken us right out in front of said window, and I was now staring face-to-face with the drone. The only thing between us and the deadly flying robot was a layer of two-inch glass, material that I was sure would be torn to shreds if he decided to open fire.
My palms were sweaty with fear, and my legs felt like rubber underneath my body.
Tracey must have been just as nervous, because her entire body was trembling against me.
At least, in her case, it helped make the act feel more real.
“Don’t shoot!” the Deltacorp employee cried out as we moved slowly across the hallway.
I paused for a moment, grimaced, and prepared to be torn to shreds.
However, nothing happened.
Our ploy was working.
I made sure Tracey’s body was completely in front of mine. If that drone got even the slightest opening, it would surely take it, and with the accuracy Dr. Merrick boasted, one shot was all it would need.
Natalie pressed herself completely up against my back as she tried to match my steps with pinpoint precision. As we moved, Tracey continued to overdramatically play the damsel in distress, while Natalie and I had our hearts in our throats.
“Which one has Dr. Merrick’s AI?” I tried to keep my lips from moving as much as possible.
Suddenly, Tracey slammed her heel down onto my toes. A dull pain shot through my foot, but I just grunted and held her tighter.
“What was that for?” Natalie hissed. “If you try to run without us, Merrick will kill you.”
Tracey just let out another over-the-top cry for help and kicked my left shin.
I growled at the dull throbbing in my loot, but then I was struck with an epiphany.
Tracey was silently giving me directions.
“She’s telling us to keep going,” I whispered to Natalie. “She’s trying to lead us to Merrick.”
We continued to drag Tracey down the hallway until finally, she pretended to struggle harder than ever before. She twisted her body around as she tried to “break” my grip, and then she slammed both her feet down onto my toes and let out a scream of frustration.
“I think this is it,” Natalie muttered.
“You think?” I retorted through gritted teeth.
Natalie slid her hand into Tracey’s pocket as she continued to flail, and a moment later the Scavenger produced a simple piece of metal with a long black strip on its back. It didn’t have any sort or words, images, or indicators that it was a key.
Deltacorp must have liked to keep things simple.
Natalie slipped the card into the door, but all we got in return was a sharp beep.
“It didn’t work!” the Scavenger gasped. “I thought you said this was the door?”
“Other way,” Tracey grunted under her breath.
“It’s a card…” Natalie retorted. “There’s only one slit you can put it in.”
“Flip it around and try again,” I ordered the Scavenger.
There was a brief moment of silence behind me, followed by a high-pitched beep and then a doorknob turning.
“We’re in!” Natalie proclaimed.
With Tracey still in my clutches, I stepped backward until we were inside the room and then shut the door.
The second we were out of the drone’s sights, I released the woman.
“Holy shit,” Tracey gasped as she put her hands over her heart and tried to catch her breath. “I honestly didn’t know if that was going to work.”
“Don’t relax yet,” I reminded her. “We’re still going to have to find a way out of the building, and I don’t think the drone is going anywhere.”
“Can’t we just hold her hostage again?” Natalie pointed at the brunette in the room.
“Not anymore,” Tracey sighed with a shake of her head. “These rooms are always under heavy surveillance. Those cameras up there are picking up our entire conversation right now, so I think the jig is up.”
“Well, crap,” I grumbled as I looked up and saw the black orbs on the ceiling. “Why hasn’t the drone lit us up, then?”
Tracey said nothing, but just pointed in the direction of the rest of the room.
Natalie and I turned around and let out a gasp at what we saw.
The server room must have been at least one-hundred feet wide and nearly double as deep. Five-foot tall computers the color of Deltacorp blue were lined up in several rows all throughout the space, almost like a cybernetic grocery store. Then, at the very back of the room, there was a giant computer monitor.
And on the screen was none other than the face of Dr. Merrick.
“Sorry about those cameras.” The doctor’s face winked. “Let me see what I can do… There!”
The tiny red dots on the camera orbs went dark.
“That was really stupid of you,” Natalie scoffed. “Now, we can do whatever the fuck we want to you and get away scot-free.”
“On the contrary, my dear…” Merrick grinned. “I can do whatever I want to you.”
“He’s bluffing,” Tracey warned as she watched the Scavenger grow tense. “This is the room that houses his main server. If the drone opens fire or he tries to throw any more robots at us, he’d risk destroying himself.”
“You always were the smart one, Tracey.” The AI clicked its tongue. “A shame I’ll have to kill you.”
“I don’t think you’re really in a position to be making threats,” I noted as I walked toward the row of servers. “In a few minutes here, you’re going to cease to exist.”
Merrick’s cybernetic head jolted back as he let out a maniacal laugh.
“You really think that’s true, Hunter Bragg?” he cackled. “What do you think the military was doing here earlier? Dotting their ‘I’s and crossing their ‘T’s?”
“What are you talking about?” Tracey demanded. “The military contract won’t be finalized for a few more days.”
“Oh, my dear Tracey…” The face on the screen frowned. “So brilliant, yet so naive. This is the military we’re talking about. They don’t really give a damn about the nitty gritty logistical details when it comes to their weapons tech.”
“What are you saying?” I growled as I felt my heart stop.
The CGI face on the screen lit up with a shit-eating grin. “The military already has a copy of my AI, Hunter. Even if you somehow shut me down here, my plans for humanity are already in motion.”
No… That couldn’t be. We were still a few days out from Doomsday, according to Dr. Nash’s algorithm.
“I think you’re lying,” I shot back, but Merrick seemed unamused.
“I’m a hyper intelligent computer program, Mr. Bragg,” he said nonchalantly. “What use would I have for lying?”
“To save your own skin,” I snorted. “Er… existence. Binary? Code?”
“You want to know that I’m not bluffing?” the evil AI mused. “Go ahead. Destroy me. I won’t even resist.”
“Gladly,” Natalie growled as she stepped forward and raised her pistol.
I quickly eased her hand back down. “We need it in one piece. As much as I’d like to bust up that face of his, I don’t want to destroy the potentially only copy of the AI.”
“Ahhhhhhh.” Merrick whistled. “So that’s why you’re here. You’re not just saving the world, you’re stealing Deltacorp’s intellectual property in the process. Probably for whatever contraption lets you jump across dimensions?”
I’d had enough of this guy. I wanted to get him downloaded into my microchip, and I wanted to do it yesterday. So, I walked up to one of the servers, laid my hand against it, and then addressed the voice in my head.
“Karla?” I asked. “We’re in the server room and could really use your help right about now.”
I was starting to think you guys got lost, Karla joked. According to my father’s research and his algorithms, the way you gain access to these sorts of technologies is… very odd.
“I don’t like the sound of that,” I muttered.
If you find the mainframe computer that houses Merrick’s AI, you’ll find a somewhat long black cable, Miss Nash explained, almost like a fiber optic cable. There will be a small needle at the end--
“Okayyyy,” I interrupted, “I reeeaalllly don’t like where this is going.”
Don’t worry, Hunter, Karla chuckled. The needle is actually smaller than a grain of rice. It sticks out of an electrode pad, and the tiny needle just adheres the electrode to your skin. You’ll have to place the electrode over the site of your chip, though, to gain access. Once it’s in place, and Tracey enters the commands, the data transfer should pass through the electrode, through your skin, and into your chip.
“Sooooooo, I just stick a pasty onto my temple,” I snickered. “That doesn’t sound too bad.”
Precisely, and the Deltacorp employee can help you get it situated in the right place, Karla noted. She will know how to hook you up safely, and then I will guide her through the process of downloading the AI into your microchip. The whole process should be painless.
“Awesome,” I sighed in relief. “You know I don’t do well with needles, Karla, so you just made my day.”
I know, she giggled.
I turned to Tracey and Natalie and then delivered the news.
“Tracey, I’m going to need your help,” I explained. “There’s a microchip in my head that’s going to act as the ‘USB’ to hold Merrick’s AI. Can you help hook me in?”
Tracey’s eyes went wide as she mulled it over. Then she nodded her head and grimaced.
“I can try,” she admitted. “Where exactly is it located?”
“Karla?” I questioned the voice in my head. “Where is the chip? Like, where in my brain?”
The left frontal lobe, Miss Nash noted.
“Left frontal lobe.” I pointed to my head.
Tracey looked at me with a raised eyebrow and a look of concern plastered on her face.
“Who are you talking to?” she questioned as she looked around.
Oh, right. In all this confusion, I hadn’t explained about Karla. I opened my mouth to speak, but Natalie was quicker on the draw.
“His Dimension One girlfriend,” the Scavenger teased.
“Don’t let Karla hear you say that.” I cringed. “She’ll make us run a dozen more obstacle courses as punishment.”
“Fine.” Natalie rolled her eyes before she turned back to Tracey. “It’s the woman who recruited him, the one he swears up and down he doesn’t have any feelings for, but that we both know he’ll eventually end up with.”
“Karla is the daughter of the scientist who discovered Wayfarers,” I explained. “She can communicate with me through the microchip in my head, and right now she’s saying you can help me.”
“Awwww, how sweet,” Dr. Merrick mocked. “Make sure you fry his brain, Tracey.”
“Piss off,” the brunette woman snapped as she walked forward and gave the AI the finger. “Years of loyalty to you and Deltacorp, and you just ordered me killed at the drop of a hat? I’m kinda upset we don’t get to destroy you.”
“Be my guest.” Merrick smiled.
“I’m not a fucking idiot,” Tracey retorted. “The second security recognizes you’re damaged or destroyed, they’ll light us up like it’s the Fourth of July. Gotta ‘protect’ the assets.”
The face on the screen just rolled its eyes. “This is futile, you know. The copy is already on its way to the base, and I’m predicting it’ll be uploaded before the ink on the contract is even dry. All this will do is delay the inevitable.”
“And it’ll shut you up,” Tracey growled as she walked up the server box underneath the screen. “That alone makes the whole endeavor worth it. Hunter, are you ready?”
The programmer pushed a button on the server and then caught the end of the cable that spat out.
I hesitated at first, but I took a deep breath and prepared for the next step. Then I joined Tracey over by the computer.
“Try not to fuck up, my dear,” Merrick cackled. “Time is wasting.”
“You’re probably going to want to sit down for this, Hunter.” Tracey nodded to the laminate floor. “And Natalie? I think you should be over here to hold him steady. Just in case something happens, and he makes a sudden jerk.”
“Uhhhh, how dangerous is this?” I questioned with an awkward chuckle.
“I’ve done it a few times, so it should be fine,” Tracey noted. “I just always like to take precautions.”
“How many times is ‘a few?’” I continued. “Because that could be anywhere between two or a million.”
“Just hold still,” the Deltacorp employee instructed. “The faster I can begin, the quicker we can get this over with.”
So, I sat down on the floor, and Natalie instantly walked over and placed her arms on my shoulders.
I wasn’t going anywhere.
Beads of cold sweat began to form on my forehead as I watched the electrode-needle approach, and Tracey placed her hand softly against my forehead while she searched for the perfect spot.
“Wow, that’s pretty handy,” she mused. “There’s still scar tissue left from where that woman inserted your chip. It’s like a pirate leaving an ‘x’ on a treasure map.”
“Only in this case, if you dig in the wrong place you’re going to find brain damage,” I joked.
“Relax, Hunter,” Tracey chuckled. “The less tense you are, the easier this will be.”
“No, please, Hunter,” Dr. Merrick mocked, “squirm all you want. An invalid Wayfarer would be quite the sight to see.”
“Just ignore him,” Natalie sighed to Tracey.
“Ignore who?” the programmer shot back with a coy smile as she lifted the electrode-needle and hovered over my temple. “Alright… Here we go. Three… Two… ”
There was a quick pinching sensation on my left temple, but it hurt less than a flu shot, and then I felt the synthetic rubber of the cable pressing against my head.
“Why did you go on two?” I gasped. “I wasn’t ready!”
“Because if I went on ‘three,’ he would have tried to throw off my concentration,” she explained as she pointed to the large screen.
“You know me too well, Tracey.” Dr. Merrick frowned.
“Alright, Karla,” I announced, “I’m hooked up. What do we do now?”
Relay everything I say to Tracey, Karla began. She will need to use the server to access the chip’s inner programming. Then, once she’s on there, there is a sequence of binary code that will need to be imputed to initiate the downloading sequence.
I repeated what Karla had just said to me to Tracey, and the woman instantly stood up and walked over to a nearby stand-up desk with a keyboard and screen.
Her concentration was laser-focused as her fingers flew across the keyboard and typed in the code that would allow her access to my microchip. Then, down in the bottom right corner of the giant screen, a small window appeared. It was nothing but a small command prompt filled with binary symbols, but suddenly more began to type itself out.
“That voice in your head seems to be talking to me directly,” Tracey noted. “She’s speaking in ones and zeros, but that’s a language I’m quite familiar with.”
“That’s Karla?” I gasped.
I guess it made sense. Tracey had the code of the microchip pulled up on the screen, and it was through said microchip that Karla normally communicated with me.
They were just cutting out the middleman.
“She’s very sarcastic, isn’t she?” Tracey mused as she typed a few more strokes on the keyboard.
Yep. Definitely Karla.
While all of this was unfolding, Dr. Merrick’s face simply stared down at us nonchalantly, like he wasn’t concerned he was going to be out of commission. Or, if he was, he was at least doing a hell of a job hiding it.
“Do you feel okay?” Natalie chuckled as she patted my shoulder. “I’ve gotta say, you’re doing pretty well for a guy who’s got a cable plugged into his brain.”
“Honestly, I don’t even feel it.” I shrugged. “It just tickles a little bit.”
Finally, Tracey looked up at Dr. Merrick. “There, you son of a bitch. When I hit ‘enter,’ your whole system goes bye-bye. Any last words?”
“You’re much pettier when you’re angry,” the AI mused as a sly smile twitched up the corners of his mouth. “But I suppose if I had to choose, my final words would be ‘see you soon.’”
“Fuck off,” Tracey growled as she slammed her index finger down onto the enter button.
There was a sudden jolt inside my head as the doctor’s AI was compressed and transported into my microchip, and at the same time, the face on the screen before us began to distort and grow fuzzy. Then it vanished completely, and all was silent.
Dr. Merrick’s AI was in my head.
Tracey dashed over to our position, placed her soft hand against my head, and then counted down from three. On “three,” she yanked the electrode off my skin and let it drop down to the ground.
“Is that it?” I groaned as I rubbed a small bit of blood off my left temple. “He’s gone.”
“He’s gone.” Tracey nodded. “Though I am a bit concerned… He was far too calm for a sentient AI about to be captured by their enemies.”
“You don’t think he was telling the truth, do you?” Natalie asked, and the blonde furrowed her brow. “About there being a back-up?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” I sighed as I stood back up to my feet. “Karla? What’s the current survival rate for humanity here in Dimension Fifty-Seven?”
There was silence for a second before Karla’s voice rang out in my head.
That can’t be right, she grumbled. My father’s algorithm is claiming there’s still only a ten percent chance of humanity’s survival in that dimension. It was supposed to jump up to ninety once you removed Dr. Merrick from the equation, and ninety-nine point eight when you impregnated the Wayfarer.
“Son of a bitch…” I grumbled.
