CHAPTER FOUR
“We weren’t lying to you, Katelyn,” said Saint. “Our families own and operate G.R.I.P. and other businesses.”
“Voodoo Guardians,” she whispered. “Shit. Your family owns VG. I should have known when I saw you that you were connected to them. There was something different about all of you. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. It was this weird vibe like I knew, but I didn’t know you. You guys put out some sort of magic.”
“You’ll have to tell us later what that vibe or magic was so we can be sure and hide it.” She laughed, shaking her head.
“I don’t think you can hide that,” she said, waving her hands up and down.
“What are you working on?” asked Mav. She stared at him for a few minutes, not happy with his demanding tone. But the only way to fix this was to get some help.
“You guys already have some mediocre forms of artificial intelligence that you use in voice reconstruction and some in imaging.” They nodded for her to go on. “In the last five years, AI has gone from a crazy, futuristic thought to being used in everyday life when people aren’t even aware of it. It’s become so good that even an AI image of your face could now open your phone, laptop, or banking information.”
“No fucking way,” said Pax.
“Fair enough,” said Katelyn. “It will be that good when I’m done with it, and G.R.I.P. will be the only company with access to it. Those men that tried to take me were with the agency.”
“Fuck me raw,” groaned Brax.
“You’re not my type,” she said with a serious expression. Maverick gave a smirk to his friend, shaking his head.
“Wow, that’s hurtful,” said Brax. “I help to save you, and you toss me aside like a used sock.” She shook her head.
“Are you guys ever serious about anything?”
“We were serious about helping you,” said Mav. “What does the agency want with you?”
“They want the technology, and the only way to get it is to get me. I didn’t write anything down. I don’t put anything on hard drives, slip drives, the cloud, nothing. It’s all up here,” she said, tapping her head.
“You have all the schematics, plans, and engineering for a revolutionary AI device in your head?” asked Mav.
“Yep. I’m a beautiful mind,” she laughed. “It sucks. Believe me, I’ve tried to rid myself of this beautiful mind on more than one occasion. It’s no fun.”
“I can imagine it does suck, but it’s also pretty cool. If you know G.R.I.P., you know that we have a lot of beautiful minds working with us. You should feel right at home.”
She shook her head and slid down the wall onto the floor. She stared at something and then up at the men.
“Wh-what is that?”
Saint knelt and lowered his head to the floor.
“Fuuucck. We got a bomb. Go!”
Mav grabbed Katelyn beneath her arms, tossing her over his shoulder, and took off running as the others followed behind. Just as they reached the street, the explosion made a terrible sucking noise as if trying to pull the entire city inside. Then, a whoosh, fire, and debris lighting up the sky.
“Shit,” said Katelyn, holding onto Mav’s neck. She looked at him, and he stared into her big green eyes. “Uh, umm, you can put me down now.”
Her body slid down along his length. It felt like ten minutes before her feet actually touched the ground, Mav still holding onto her waist.
“What now?” she asked.
“Now, we get you to Belle Fleur and G.R.I.P. There, you’ll be protected and safe,” said Brax.
“I could use some clothes,” she said, staring at the burning building, “otherwise, I’m going to be running around in someone’s t-shirt.”
The men all coughed behind their hands, shaking their heads. She said it like it would be a hardship. It was obvious to all of them the hardship would be for Mav, and it would involve him being hard all the time. He hadn’t taken his eyes off the woman.
“We’ll get you there and get you some clothes,” Mav finally said.
“What about the SEALs? They’re not going to just let you wander off with some strange woman. They’ll want an explanation and mentioning the agency won’t earn you any favors from your commanders.”
“We’re so close to being out it may not matter to them,” said Saint. “I’ll give Dad a call and see if he can pull some strings for us. He can tell them it’s a family emergency, a death, something. If that doesn’t work, Mama Irene can make it happen.” The men all laughed, walking toward Mav’s apartment.
“Who is Mama Irene? Is she your grandmother?”
“She’s sort of everyone’s grandmother,” said Mav. “She and Matthew gave birth to the original Robicheaux Rangers. Nine men, six women, dozens of grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren. They claim everyone on the property as their children, and they have a capacity for love, generosity, and kindness, unlike anyone you will ever meet.”
“She sounds wonderful,” smiled Katelyn. “I guess that would be Montana’s mother-in-law and Ryan’s grandmother. Is that right? I never met my parents or grandparents.”
“That’s right. I’m sorry you didn’t know your parents or grandparents. You were an orphan?” asked Pax.
“I guess. I just never even knew their names, where they came from, what they did, nothing. I lived in a home for girls in Maine my whole life. When I was sixteen, I went to college to study electrical engineering, specializing in sound engineering. I wanted to create cool music,” she laughed. “It really never dawned on me that I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket. I didn’t know good music from bad music. But the engineering side of everything made sense to me.”
“Is that when you started looking into AI?” asked Saint.
“No. I mean, sort of. I would find ways to mimic people’s voices.” They all stared at her as they entered Mav’s apartment, taking a seat around the room. “It sounds lame, but please don’t make fun of me. I used to record my own voice and play with different alterations of the sounds to try and figure out what my parents’ voices might have sounded like. You know, like, what would my voice sound like if it were male. Or if I aged my voice by ten years, is that what my mother would have sounded like.”
Their faces showed no sign of amusement. Only compassion.
“I’m sorry you had to do that,” said Mav. “I can’t imagine not knowing the sound of my parents’ voices. For that matter, my grandparents. My grandfather was a SEAL like my dad. They both have these deep, bass voices that make your chest shake.”
“Like you,” she whispered. He stared at her and gave a quick nod.
“Our father is the same,” said Pax. “Our grandfather was born in Russia but lived all over the world so he has these really cool inflections to his voice.”
“See,” she said. “Your faces light up when you talk about what they sound like. I don’t have that. I wouldn’t know if it was them or not if they called out my name on the street. If they even knew my name. Anyway, that’s how I got started in AI. During my master’s program, I recorded the voice of our professor for two weeks. When I presented my thesis, I presented the entire thing in his voice.”
“Holy shit,” muttered Saint.
“Yeah. Not surprising, they were not happy about it, but they were impressed. I was lucky that part of the thesis committee knew someone at G.R.I.P. They called them and said I should work for them before someone else got hold of me.”
“Why work remotely?” asked Brax.
“Well, I hate flying, so the idea of moving or living somewhere that I would have to fly to was a bit daunting for me. I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head. “Right now, I’m questioning my entire life and all the dumb decisions I’ve made. I thought staying here was what I should do. I moved here after college to be close to the beach. Stupid, right?”
“Not at all,” said Saint. “Maybe the water or the beach has some hidden secret or memory for you. It could be important to your makeup, to your DNA.”
“I never thought of that,” she smiled. “Maybe my parents were from this area. Thank you for saying that.”
“We have to call Montana, Ryan, Doug, or someone. They’re going to want to know what’s going on here, and we can’t wait,” said Mav.
“It’s 0400 there,” said Brax. “I’m going to bet that Doug won’t be happy about being woken. Ryan should be up participating in PT with the others. Should we wait until morning at a decent hour? It should be fine to wait another hour or two.”
“I don’t think we can wait. Those guys were determined to take her tonight for some reason, and when they failed, that will only make their superiors unhappy. The agency will send more men, and we’ll be caught in the middle. We need to get our release now and get the fuck out of here, and there’s only one way to do that.”