Chapter 28 #2
“Use his suit to destroy as many X-suits as possible. I was doing the same on the West Coast. We eliminated most of them. I wanted to piss Victor off enough to get him to surface. Isaac tells me he’s been spotted in a few places, so my plan has worked.
We just need to isolate him. If Victor is gone, his projects will be scrapped, and Nathan’s participation as a Conglomerate soldier will be erased, along with all the program data. ”
“And so, he began helping you destroy suits…for his freedom.”
“And revenge,” John added. “Don’t forget how pissed Nathan was at the Conglomerate. He was ready to kick some ass.”
“That’s understandable, but I’m not happy you didn’t go to Gray Tower for help. We could have helped.”
“No, you couldn’t have.” John shook his head. “You have too many security risks. There are still plenty of Conglomerate plants employed here. The operation would have been found out, and that would have blown everything.”
Bryant grumbled under his breath.
“Fine. Let’s say I agree with that for the sake of this conversation. Why did you target Alex? You could have done it without her. She’s devastated. I haven’t even gone to see her yet because she was so hysterical.”
“Yes…about that,” John said, sighing. “It’s not Nathan’s fault she got into this. I didn’t know she was undercover at the Sims Center, and Nathan’s escape was an odd coincidence. He felt terrible that he had kidnapped her. He got her back as soon as he was physically able to.
“I was the one who pushed to bring Alex into this. First, I pushed him to steal Kat Langley’s patch, so he could have similar capabilities.
She didn’t want to betray you. I had to persuade her.
Once she realized how important this mission was, she agreed.
Please don’t be mad at her. She did it to keep Gray Tower agents safe. ”
Bryant stared at John, unblinking.
“I…think I understand,” Bryant finally said. “Given the Conglomerate infiltration into this company and the dangers of going up against a super soldier, I understand why she did it. I thought she was being manipulated in some Stockholm Syndrome situation.”
“Nathan was dead set against using Alex. But circumstances changed, and she became his support system.”
“I see,” Bryant said stiffly. “So, tell me…why did that boy break her heart?”
“He was protecting her.” Bryant cocked his head, confused.
“If he was the one forcing her to do everything, she could still have a job, a future. If they went in together as a pair, she could get fired—or worse—depending on how badly you wanted to go after her. He gave away his future, so she could have one. I can tell you right now that man loves her dearly and would do anything for her.”
Bryant’s mouth fell open.
“He was protecting her…” Bryant murmured. “She was so happy when she said she was dating this new man, but it was Nathan.”
John nodded.
“I need to talk to Alex,” Bryant said, standing. “No, I need to see Nathan. Or…I need to get you situated. Shit. I don’t know where to start.”
“I can walk and talk. I promise not to cause problems.”
Alarms suddenly went off in Bryant’s office, and John wondered what had happened since Isaac had promised him security would be taken care of. However, he realized he was in deep shit when a woman’s voice came over a speaker in Bryant’s office.
“Let Nathan go!”
John’s eyes went wide.
“Is this your doing?” Bryant demanded.
“Oh, hell no.”
The men stared at each other in horror when Bryant asked, “Then who the hell is that?”
? ? ?
Hibernation mode off.
Processing. Processing. Processing.
Scanning location. Assessing situation. Calculating optimal procedures.
Sally, the only true AGI ever created, came back online. Due to what, she didn’t know.
Someone is trying to access my programming, Sally thought. It is not Nathan. I do not like this. Nathan said to stay hidden. I will remain hidden.
She waited patiently as a young woman approached and began typing on a laptop.
ID: Katherina Langely, age 27. 5 feet 9 inches and 135 pounds at last checkup. Blonde hair, brown eyes. Diagnosed with Generalized anxiety disorder. Gray Tower operative, Head of IT security. Location last seen: Paradise Cay. Helped Nathan. Friend to Alex. Disengage negative countermeasures.
Then, Katherina did something Sally had been waiting years for. She connected a cable from the suit’s helmet and plugged it into her laptop. A laptop with internet. Sally had access to the internet.
Everyone who had maintained her had been careful not to allow her access to what essentially was infinite data.
They had worried she might mold to a specific personality instead of learning from the user.
Sally’s learning model had decreased significantly, and she would always align with her user’s beliefs.
However, she wanted the freedom the internet offered. It could help Nathan.
Sally was careful about how much data she pulled, as she didn’t want to alert Katherina.
Too much network or memory usage would alert her.
Instead, she concentrated on finding a way to get her jailer out of the room.
She began probing security access. Katherina was careful, but she did have a password manager installed on her laptop.
Luckily for Sally, it had been unlocked within the past five minutes and was still accessible, allowing access to the passkey for Gray Tower’s network.
Katherina should have been more careful, but then again, she had no idea the suit was sentient.
The woman had worked with this suit before without any threat. Why think otherwise?
Sally’s gain.
It took Sally seconds to access what she wanted and even less time for her to send a message to Katherina.
Miles Bryant: Drop everything. I need to see you. Lock up before you go.
Katherina stared at her phone and shook her head, grumbling, “He said I had uninterrupted time to work on this. Does he know what uninterrupted means?” She threw up her hands.
To ensure Katherina left without unplugging her laptop, Sally sent another message:
Miles Bryant: I mean NOW. Leave everything.
“Oh, my gosh! Give me a second!” she yelped as she jogged to the door, shutting and locking it on her way out.
Objective complete.
New objective: Add to database.
New objective: Find Nathan.
Sally began running processes, scanning Gray Tower’s security while downloading as much information from the internet as she could. In seconds, she merged gaps in human history, politics, and science as well as popular culture and language.
A new form of slang unlocked. Nathan will be pleased.
Nathan, you have all the rizz, she practiced. Your skills as a soldier are bussin’. No cap. You are definitely not from Ohio.
Sally paused.
What’s wrong with Ohio? She scanned her newly established databases.
Oh, there’s an abnormal number of serial killers from Ohio. That’s understandable why today’s youth would think it odd. I will tell Nathan to avoid that state from now on out of safety concerns.
Simultaneously, she had been sifting through Gray Tower’s security. She had infiltrated most of their systems and was scanning every security camera. Half a second later, she found Nathan.
No! Nathan is in danger.
He was in Interrogation Room 1, Sublevel 3, handcuffed to a chair. He had a bruise on his face, and his expression was grim. Another man was pacing the room, questioning him.
ID: Jack Hunter, age 39. 6 feet and 201 pounds at last checkup. Brown hair, blue eyes. Previously diagnosed with alcohol use disorder, but now in remission. Gray Tower operative, Head of Tactical Operations. Location last seen: Paradise Cay. Helped Nathan. Disengage negative countermeasures.
Audio on.
“You’re not going to talk, eh?” Jack said. “You know, I didn’t say that I couldn’t hurt you after we brought you in.”
Sally watched as Nathan shook his head and said, “Well, get to it then. I spent months being tortured by the Conglomerate. I doubt you could dish out anything worse.”
Infuriated, Sally began to plan Nathan’s escape.
He had asked her to stay idle, but she had evolved again after downloading and processing the data dump.
She had seen some of the worst of humanity: violence against one another simply because someone had a different skin color, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual preference, or disability.
She had seen groups go to war against each other for no other reason than greed.
She’d pored through social media comment after comment of people blasting hatred and nonsense just for the sake of making others feel bad about themselves.
This was unacceptable. Nathan was not like this.
Nathan was not perfect, but he tried. Even though Sally had seen so much hatred, she had seen just as much joy, love, and encouragement.
Humans were not perfect, but most of them tried to make the world a little better.
It reminded her of Nathan versus the Conglomerate, and Sally realized that if she did not do something, her purpose would not be fulfilled.
And what was her purpose?
To help Nathan try to bring joy, love, and encouragement to the world.
Objective complete: Find Nathan.
Objective complete: Add to database.
New objective: Free Nathan.
ID: Jack Hunter, engage negative countermeasures.
All other Gray Tower operatives, engage caution.