52. Gone Fishing
Gone Fishing
It happened so quickly, I barely had enough time to react. I certainly didn’t expect it to cause so much damage. But here we are. Or rather, there I am. With a pole in one hand, and a net in the other, trying my best to fish the drive out of the water. Or net it. Whatever.
“Do you see it?” Widow shouted from across the pier.
“No!” I replied, begrudgingly.
Debris filled the area. Crates of weapons and ammunition floated by. Dead men and their charred bodies went along with it. One of them got caught in the netting, forcing me to abandon it altogether.
“Who told you to blow up the boat!” Belle screeched from the entrance.
“It was a mistake!” I replied. That was a lie; I was tired of being shot at.
I just didn’t expect this to happen, though.
Who would’ve thought an RPG would cause catastrophic damage to a boat.
I surely didn’t. I bet Amir didn’t either.
Wherever he is. The last time I saw him, he was flying off the yacht. “At least I stopped the boat!”
“It’s a yacht,” Spider quipped, standing next to me.
“Boat. Yacht. Same thing,” I replied.
“No. It’s not.”
“Doesn’t matter, just focus on finding the drive. Do you see it?”
“I see a lot of shit in the water,” Spider said.
“I had no choice. Ok?” I replied. I had pulled out the RPG-7 and warhead from the crate, assembled it with care, and laid it beside me when the firing resumed.
This time, Amir had focused his attention on me.
And the rounds were ripping through the crates with ease.
“He was firing at me. And the ammunition sliced through the crates like nothing.”
“Yeah. I saw. Armor piercing rounds. Nasty stuff. Do you think he survived?”
“I don’t know if he did make it, but the second time he stopped to reload, I saw an opening, and took it. I had no choice,” I said.
“I get it,” Spider said. “But your aim is shit; you missed Amir completely and hit the fuel storage.”
“And the crates.”
“Yeah, let’s not forget about those. You hopped out of cover, squeezed the trigger without aiming, and hit them dead center.”
“All those years of playing Call of Duty paid off,” I said, jokingly.
“How the hell are we going to find that small drive in this mess,” Spider said.
“I saw it. I know I did. When the boat began to tread water, I saw several men jump off, and in the chaos, the drive went with them. A series of explosions went off and the blast wave must have sent it flying.”
“Secondary explosions from the ammunition and fuel,” Spider replied.
I scanned the debris laden water just off the pier for the small drive. Its distinct blood red color and gold letters contrasted nicely with the water.
“It might’ve survived the explosion, but not the water. It’s probably well on its way to the bottom —.”
“There! I see it!” I yelled and bolted to the end of the pier. In I went into the cold water without hesitation. Spider chased after me as best he could to provide cover. I swam fast to the drive as it bobbed in and out of the water’s edge, and in no time had it in my hands. “I got it!”
“Yes! Now swim back!” Belle shouted. She had reached Spider by the time I got back to the pier and behind her was the rest of the team. Not far from the entrance several black cars were approaching with great speed. And next to them, motorcycle cops with their sirens blaring at full volume.
“More of Amir’s goons?” I said, unholstering my pistol. It was the only weapon I had left on me. I squeezed the drive and pulled it close to my chest.
“Ours,” Belle replied, snatching the drive from my hand. “The hard part’s done. We can rest now.”
“Huh?” I said. “What about KALI? The crazy AI?”
“Yeah? What about that?” Jerry said, handing me a towel he snatched from a nearby boat.
The cars reached the entrance as I dried my hair and a tactical team exited the vehicles.
They made their way to us quickly and set up defensive positions all along the pier.
Soon after, two older men exited an armored truck and beside them was the attaché that had helped us when we first arrived in the country.
“Special Agent Sarfati! I’ve brought the specialists, as requested,” the attaché said.
“Yes, I can see that. Thank you for bringing them over. I need you and your men to help secure the area while we go over some things with them,” Belle said, and then turned to us.
“Everyone, I’d like to introduce you to the men responsible for the DIANA program at APOLLO Technologies. Doctors David Becker and Karl Schmidt.”
“Quite a monster you guys created,” I said.
“Monster? How so?” Dr. Becker said. He was taller than his coworker. And had long white hair, but no facial hair. Or fashion sense of any kind. Dressed in golf pants with a dress shirt and red tube socks.
“It’s spreading across computer networks in Europe like a virus. And its stated goal is to deal with humanity. Take that how you will, but defense networks in the US, Europe, and as far as Russia are potentially compromised,” Belle said.
“Really? Fascinating!” Dr. Schmidt said. He was an odd one too. Bald and sporting a unique handle bar mustache, he was shorter and more rotund.
“Fascinating? Really?” Widow chimed in.
“Well, No! But, it wasn’t designed for this. I wonder what happened?” Dr. Schmidt said.
“Here’s the drive. Figure out what the hell went wrong and help us come up with a way to fix it. We need to contain her spread before she infects more computers. Or reaches Italy,” Belle said.
“Italy? Her?” Dr. Becker said.
“It gave itself a name. Kali. And it’s on the way to the closest supercomputer in the area. In Italy,” I said.
The two scientists looked at each other and then back at us. “We may have a slight problem on our hands.”
Problem? What type of problem? As if a sentient AI program hellbent on destroying society as it stands wasn’t bad enough.