AI Era: Agent AI SWAK

"The big guy was Dunkan, he was my best man."

They chatted a while until Frank left, then Zane asked, "Did you find out who launched the rockets?"

"Oh hell yeah, Alicia found their remains. The dumb shits had set up their launcher outside of a bear's den and that bear had a yearling cub in there with her. They ate gooood. She chewed up four guys, but she didn't eat their feet... she must have hated their boots. We traced them and their equipment back to the Agency, Senator Nourse will start a senate investigation on the use of illegal weapons by the Agency this summer and we're going to provide security for the senator."

"Damn!" said Zane. "You must have pissed somebody off.

"We certainly did. They used YOU as bait to distract us and they tried again," said Shan.

"Wait, what?"

"It's a nasty little circle. Baumgartner wants Ming and/or Alicia because they have the world's most advanced nanobots in their bodies. Both are paralyzed without them..."

"No shit?"

"Seriously. Boothroyd broke Alicia's spine in Canada about three years ago, Ming found her and fixed her here in Archuleta Mesa, right here in this room. Baumgartner found out about the nanobots, and he wants to try to clone the nanobots and sell them on the black market. Then he found out that Ming wants to get the nanobots FDA approved and flood the market with them making them free for veterans and dirt cheap for anyone else. Baumgartner found out about our plan and decided to kill Ming. If he can get his hands on the technology and kill Ming he can dominate the market and make a fortune."

"What a dick!" gasped Zane.

"Zhang's helicopter rescue? Baumgartner thought Ming and Alicia were both on the helicopter and he tried to get some suicidal nutbag to crash it where he could recover their bodies, but he hired an anti-religion fanatic who was busy looking for a synagogue or a church or a Buddhist temple, something like that to crash it into instead of following orders. That gave Zhang time to ruin his plans for that."

"That was the beginning of all this, wasn't it," said Zane.

"Yep, Baumgartner took over the Agency and put his lackey Gunter Haag in charge and gave Gunter orders to harass Long Air Services by flooding the FAA with false reports and bad data using the FAA and the Agency to drive us into bankruptcy so he could get those nanobots. We belive that the guys who shot you and the senator were Agency hired goons. The Agency also got at least six deep cover agents inside the mountain trying to get nanobot technology, but the closest they got was the health office and the ER."

"ER?" asked Zane.

"Yeah, since we're an isolated organization and have over X number of employees. We need to have medical care available nearby in case of an accident, so we have an ER. They really only get work during ski season when they assist up at the Loveland ski slopes. Anyhow after the helicopter caper failed, they launched a flock of rockets at me, shot at you, flooded Long Air with issues and tried to kill Ming and Alicia while Zhang was with them, but they blew up the wrong villa."

"What about us, Zhang and me, why did they attack us?" Zane asked.

"Agent Anousheh Insari also has those nanobots now, we spent half of our honeymoon dealing with her nanobots, they're kind of scary when they kick in and start talking to you. If you become a DITCh, she's going to be yours also. Anyhow, Boothroyd found out and decided to get her at Archuleta Mesa, but you stopped him and captured his men in the secure storage hall."

"Is that what that is?" asked Zane. "I saw that on the blueprints and thought it would make a good place to trap his men."

"That's where the equipment to create the nanobots is supposed to be stored, we decided that the building wasn't secure enough and put everything in Ganley Mountain instead. On top of the team that you caught, Boothroyd lost four of his best mercenaries when he tried to kill the senator in his home at the same time. He lost his entire crew in one night and he's pissed at you. He's pissed at me, but he's really pissed at you."

Shan continued after a drink of water. "Baumgartner gets even more pissed, he's got a lot of money on the line, so he orders Boothroyd, "You get Ming, or I get you." Boothroyd takes whoever he can get his hands on and runs you two over and drags you out to Simla. He finds the locater chip on Zhang's necklace and sets it off several times which causes Ming and Alicia to come after you. In the meantime, Baumgartner finds out that I have the nanobots in me now and sends four of his deep cover people after me while I'm playing DITCh for Ming and Alicia. Ming and Alicia rescue you, capture Boothroyd, leave evidence linking Baumgartner's pet weasel Gunter Haas to the fentanyl trade, I shoot the bad guys, Alicia sticks Boothroyd in a mine shaft and Bob's your uncle! I end up marrying the two hottest chicks in Colorado... On a train... In a frockcoat."

Zane looked at Shan for a long time then finally said, "You're so full of shit."

"What! You don't believe me?"

"You had me, you had me convinced, you really did! I swallowed the hook, the line, the sinker, rod, reel, tackle box, oars, outboard motor, lunch box, beer cooler, and half the water in the pond, and then you said you shot four deep cover spies. You're getting good Rocky."

Shan shrugged, "I tried to cheer you up, hope it worked. There's a suit hanging up in my bathroom, put it on and go say hi to Zhang."

Chucking, Ziggy went into the bathroom and found a garment bag containing a suit, socks and a pair of shoes. "You think it will fit?" Ziggy called out as he put on the shirt.

"We sent your ruined suit to my tailor, and he made his version of it."

Zane looked at the tag in the jacket:

DEGE & SKINNER

10 Savile Rowe

London, W1S 3PF

+44 (0) 20 7287 2941

"What do you think?" called Shan. "Does it fit?"

"It's a bit large," said Zane.

"You haven't been eating."

"Yeah, you're right," said Zane as he stepped out of the bathroom straightening up his jacket. "This is incredible." He leaned over the bed and gave Shan a hug, "Thanks for cheering me up."

Zane stepped out of the room and into Zhang's room still chuckling, in there he found Ming and Alicia leaning against the wall while a nurse checked out Zhang. "She'll be waking up any moment now," said the nurse. "We'll give you a couple of minutes with her then we'll have to kick you out while we do a full workup on her."

"What were you laughing about when you came in the room," Alicia asked.

"Cliff... I mean Shan," laughed Zane. "He told me a long-ass story about all kinds of shit, but he blew it when he tried to convince that he killed four spies that were undercover in some ER somewhere in the mountain."

"Sublevel six," said Ming.

"Take the elevator at the employee entrance down to S6, it's straight across from the cafeteria."

"Bullshit," said Ziggy, his jaw hung slack. "There's no ER down there."

"You're right, it's an urgent care, but they do have a doctor on staff, one of our nanobot programmers is an MD."

"You have an apartment down on Sublevel 5!" cried Alicia, "how could you not see it?"

"I guess I don't eat in the cafeteria."

"The chicken nuggets are to die for," said Ming as Alycia nodded in agreement, then they both paused and said, "the Carrot Cake!"

Zane tried to recover, "Anyhow he told me that he married the both of you..." his voice drifted off as they both held up their left hands and displayed matching gold wedding rings highlighted with red gold dragons, and matching gold and red gold highlighted engagement rings.

"Ok, he said he shot and killed four deep cover spies in the mountain."

"Now that's bullshit!" said Alicia.

"Yeah," said Ming, "my Shan... our Shan never did that."

Alicia nodded, "Never did that at all. He shot and killed three, the third one fell fifteen feet and landed on the fourth breaking his leg."

"Then he went and hid under the desk," said Ming, "poor thing freaked out."

Alicia nodded, "poor thing."

"Ok," said Zane, "You two are starting to freak me out. Cliff? I mean Shan? OUR Shan shot three..."

Just then Zhang coughed and groaned. Zane grabbed the plastic ice water bottle and put the straw in her mouth. "Just a sip!" warned the nurse as Dr. Romirez was paged.

"It's ok darling, there's bandages on your eyes," he gently caught her flailing hands. She heard his voice and felt his touch and relaxed. Slowly Zane took the bandages off her eyes and Zhang tried to look around. She was trying to focus her eyes, everything was cloudy, so the nurse stepped forward with some eyedrops that she gave to Ziggy. "Here babe, here's some eyedrops," he whispered. His anxiety over Zhang blaming it all on him came roaring back and he began to panic inside as she tried to touch him.

Zhang leaned her head back and opened her eyes wide as Zane gave her a drop or two in each eye. She blinked and shortly she was able to see clearly and recognized Zane sitting next to her. "Hi baby," she said softly, her hand gently touched the back of his neck, and she pulled him close for a gentle kiss. Their lips parted reluctantly, and their noses touched gently. "I think we missed our football game," she whispered.