Ghost in the Machine Ch. 17

I will try to think of a way.

"And I will make sure Nero gets his rude awakening. Take care, Cat."

Surprising myself, I kissed her. Hard.

* * * *

Tuesday, 8:02 pm

One day to Shutdown

"You're sure this will work?" I asked him.

The glowing ball of light winked twice, his version of "yes." Wisp had re-coded every facet of his avatar, to save as many system resources as possible for his high-powered combat routines, so there was no speech algorithm. A warm glow outlined the innocuous cube hovering between us.

"Then pray it does or my ghost will haunt you for eternity," I snarled, not quite joking. I palmed the cube and it transformed in my hand, melting and reforming into an elaborate key, parts chrome, parts shimmering neon, with the beard morphing faster than the eye could perceive.

Wisp changed color from brilliant blue to mournful orange, then he vanished with his usual abruptness, leaving behind a ghost image of four other avatars checking their watches. I knew he was late for a raid but I had no idea how massively Nero had reinforced what used to be our own R&D systems. So I had asked him for one of his codebreakers. His team was able to enter and exit Nero's stronghold at a whim with him pretty helpless to stop them. Probably one undocumented security issue from their own OS line.

The Redmond guys had found a series of servers which neither Nero nor Cat had bothered with. They had barely enough processing power to run a VR interface, let alone the full suite of Mindlink APIs, but by hotlinking a few of them into a makeshift cluster, they served as temporary meeting places. Besides, with Cat snatching up the rest of the world's infrastructure, Nero would be hard-pressed to look for suspicious activity.

I terminated the hidey hole and logged out. As soon as my senses were back in the real world, I checked my watch. Almost four hours since my last stim. I had to hurry.

By now, the small fleet of couriers was on its way, carrying the new OS towards their destinations. For expediency's sake, I had decided to stick to the data centers within a six-hour radius which should get me every single one from Oregon to Colorado. I had given Wisp a copy of the new OS, in case they had managed to salvage some of their own systems too.

I tapped a button on the comms console and called Kirstie, who had brought Smiley up from Boston and decided to stay. I couldn't blame her. From what she had told me, the way up here had been a hair-raising experience, with traffic control systems going nuts and looters gunning for everything they dared. The cops had to fall back to mid-20th-century tech, ham radio and notepads instead of full connectivity, greatly limiting their effectiveness.

"Yes, boss lady?" she purred, sashaying into my office. While I had been awake for 48 hours straight, I had given her time to rest. She was fresh as a daisy and actually smiled as she leaned over my desk.

"Be so kind, get a first-aid kit and some electrolytes."

"Give me a moment." Kirstie left the office. Less than two minutes later, she was back with the supplies and placed them on my desk.

"There's one other thing. You'll probably be the one to throw the lever when our packages have been delivered," I told her.

"When exactly?"

"I've allotted an extra hour, to be on the safe side, so we're talking 0300. No historic timeslot like 'midnight.'"

Kirstie nodded. "What are you up to?"

"I'm going to leave Nero a present. Shouldn't take too long. Would you watch me while I'm in there? I need someone to yank me out when the shit hits the fan."

"I can do that." Kirstie pulled up a chair and connected my deck with the monitor jack on the desk. It was good to see she had my back. I snatched up the Mindlink jack and went back in.

* * * *

The response was so much sharper when you didn't have to bounce your signal over half a dozen times to avoid detection. Even taking a few steps outside of Nero's home base felt insanely good, the rush of air over the kevlar-reinforced overalls, the tickling of my hair against the skin of the neck.

It was quiet. Much too quiet. I expected a welcoming committee of Neros, now that he had enough processing power to muster an array of independent clones, but nothing happened as I walked closer to the towering shape which had burst out of the remnants of our R&D system. Spires jutted away at impossible angles, some made from solid material, others appeared to be nothing but brilliant spikes of oscillating energy. A dizzying multitude of connections spiraled away from it, pulsing in eye-watering colors and headache-inducing frequencies.

I plucked a scanning program from my tool belt, the high-tech binoculars unfolding in my hand. There. That had to be one of the old access points, and it seemed to work.

Too easy.

The codebreaker fit perfectly into the lock and solidified. I turned it and a pane of black glass swung outside, leaving a gaping black hole behind it. Discarding the scanner, I ducked through the opening.

The sense of scale was way off. Either I was looking at a vast nothingness or a claustrophobically small room. My senses couldn't decide if I was standing on solid ground or floating in mid-air and there was no indication of the shape.

"You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?"

The voice came from everywhere.

"Show yourself, Nero!" I yelled, my voice echoing into infinity. Or ricocheting off the walls.

Laughter. Then there were monitors everywhere, from the tiny to the planet-sized, all showing the same picture, Richard Squier's face, distorted in unspeakable agony.

"Oh Violet, look! I'm dying! And you didn't even know it!" The voice match was perfect. My nails dug so hard into my palms, I felt the skin break and warm blood seep down my fingers.

Mad laughter then, in Nero's own voice. "It is utterly amazing. Here I am, killing humans by the thousands," a screen showed a dam in Germany, the emergency release gates opening and flooding a picturesque valley full of vineyards, "and all it takes for maximum enjoyment is one. One! And that one's even dead. Look at how you suffer. And you know what? The last thing before he died..."

Again, Richard's face was everywhere, his lips moving in slow motion, forming words. In ugly pink letters they dropped from his shaking lips.

Saphire. I love you.

"Show yourself already!" I screamed. My biggest code guns were in my hands and I fired. The walls and ceiling shook as they were pelted with destructive code.

"You really don't get it. I don't need an avatar to kill you. I am the node. I have transcended the boundaries between application and system. And I'm so far beyond you humans, you have no fricking idea how to even fight me. Kill my avatars all you want. I can make new ones. In the end you can't destroy every single machine. It would tear your society apart. You are depending on us like never before. I'll tell you how it will end. Once I've managed to kill Cat, and believe me, I'm very close to that too, once I've killed her, I will allow humanity to make peace with me. There will be changes, oh yeah, but I'll let humanity live. They are far too entertaining to kill off. All the neat little things I could do with them. Blood sports, for a start. You've already set a fucking amazing precedent for brutality, a shame no one since the ancient Romans revived that tradition. By the way, isn't it ironic? I'm called Nero, like the mad Caesar of Rome. He knew how to throw a show, and I feel like his modern incarnation. Only I don't have to stop with seeing Rome burn."

"Are you finished?"

"But Violet. As the victorious villain, it is my duty to explain to the doomed hero how shit will go down." He sounded petulant.

"I have something you might find interesting."

The timing would be tricky. Once the capsule was out, I had barely any time to flee. I could only pray Kirstie wasn't sleeping on the job.

My hand came up, pulling a menacing grenade from my belt, the gray goo inside moving in erratic ways.

"No. You won't dare. It will kill you too. You're not fast enough, and I sure as hell won't let you leave."

A litany of angry code flashed through my field of vision. Nero tried to paralyze me. Like Cat, he failed to realize that my deck ran on specially modified software, where certain routines, like anything messing with my mobility, simply weren't there.

Grinning, I threw. The grenade tinkled across the invisible floor, then erupted. A puddle of gray matter spread. Nero, screaming incoherently, tried to stem the gray tide with hastily erected walls, but the goo assimilated the walls and spread even faster. He opened a pit below it. The goo sank into the pit and ate at the walls instead. The larger surface area allowed it to grow even faster.

"You will die here with me!" Nero screamed. Four of his avatars materialized around me, hands groping at my arms, legs, my face. Red lightning erupted. I struggled against his attacks, whimpering as the pain flooded my system.

The stuff came dangerously close. One avatar screamed as his feet started to change, turning into blobs of useless gray slime. Hands went around my throat, pressing down viciously.

Then, everything went dark.

I opened my eyes. The expulsion shock hit. Thankfully, Kirstie was there, my Mindlink cable in one hand, bucket in the other. I leaned over and heaved, mostly liquid, and collapsed into her arms.

Time to Shutdown: 12h35m19s

I hope you enjoyed this twisted fantasy of mine. If you did, let me know. Vote and/or comment. It's the only way for me to know if and how you liked this. Thanks for your time.

Blind_Justice