AI Era: Agent AI SWAK

After a long wait Cliff said, "Everyone else gets a Greek letter, you guys have a theta, the locators have Epsilon, I picked Psi. If you'd watch Babylon 5 with me, you'd understand."

Alicia broke in "If you ever find a VHS player I'll watch too. Everyone is here, start with the briefing."

Suddenly everybody in the hangar pause as their earpieces rang with, "Standby for the pretask briefing." Cliff looked at the CCTV video feed of the hanger and as soon as everyone had stopped their preparations, he continued. "A distress beacon from tag Lima Charlie 37 Epsilon zero zero two niner was heard at Nineteen thirty hours in front of La Brazillia Steak House in Colorado Springs. Local police received reports of a hit and run involving two pedestrians. When they arrived at the scene a private ambulance was loading up two victims."

The men and women of the Twin Dragons response team put on a professional, bored, "so what?" expression, until Cliff continued. "The alert was heard again at twenty-one thirteen hours, the location was in Simla Colorado. Periodic pinging of tag Epsilon zero zero two niner shows it stable in the same location, an empty five and ten. At last report, tag Epsilon zero zero two niner was in possession of Agent Zhang Wei who was with Agent Zane Zigler."

Zhang was a Twin Dragons legend, on their first day of existence as Twin Dragons, Zhang foiled a terrorist plot and saved Ming's life. The Dragons looked at each other in shock, this was their sister in peril! And Ziggy was the agent they all aspired to be, a legend admired the world around.

"Thank you, Cliff!" shouted Alicia. "Listen up people!" she said as she climbed atop an equipment coffin. "There are two agents missing, Agent Wei and Agent Zigler, I want them back here, in this hangar before midnight, is that clear?"

"Yes chief!"

"We WILL bring person who is responsible for this back here to this hangar to make an example of them, is that clear?"

"Yes chief!" roared the agents.

"NO ONE FUCKS WITH A DRAGON! IS THAT CLEAR?"

"YES CHIEF!"

-.-.--.. -.-.-... -.-----. -.--.-.. --.----.

Cliff glanced at the upper left-hand corner of his Geordi LaForge glasses, a little square showed Nurse Susan reading her magazine. He didn't know what it was about that woman, something was trying to warn him about her, some unknown feeling from deep in his gut, so a camera was trained on her constantly...

Then he looked at the readout on his monitor, the air over Simla was clear, but just to the west of the small town it looked like a parking lot after the big game. The air was filled with helicopters but only two were under Cliff's control. Two dots on the screen were colored, one red and one gold, they were his, the rest were white belonging to the United States Army. Cliff had found that Ft. Carson was having a local exercise and their air crews needed a little experience in short notice assault missions and a friend owed him a favor.

Simla Colorado is a small, dusty, patriotic town that loves their sons and daughters in the US Army and quite often allows the 4th Combat Aviation Brigade to "invade" their town on occasion. This exercise is going to be a bit late in the evening, but at least it's not a school night.

Cliff was in communication with the Army units flying out of Butts Army Air Field, they were planning a victory parade to start and end the show. His monitors, which were blank to Susan, was showing to Cliff several video feeds, one was a video taken from L.A.S. 001, that big Boeing model 234, the picture was looking forward at L.A.S. 003 a speedy little McDonald Douglas MD 520N, the Flying Easter Egg. A raucous little helicopter with the speed to keep up with the Model 234, and it doesn't have a tail rotor which makes it safer in busy, congested helipads, the tail boom had a directional jet that countered the torque from the tail rotor.

One by one the dots proceeded to fly over Simla, 5,000 feet up, the helicopters paraded over Main Street, their spotlights illuminating the helicopter ahead of them and the towns people loved it! On the east end of town was a huge open field and the helicopters landed at night, their spotlight illuminating the airborne troops that dove off the whirly-birds and took positions in the field, then proceeded to shoot blank rounds and fight the "enemy" that was waiting their assault.

While the buildings of Simla were rumbling from the Army helicopters flying overhead, Blackhawks, Apache's, Chinooks, and an MD 520N flew overhead also, 4500 feet lower than the ARMY choppers, side doors opened up as it approached an old five and dime that's been closed for over 20 years. A length of heavy rope dropped from each side of the helicopter and a small figure climbed out on each rope and worked their way down to the end of the rope. The helicopter dipped and as the figures' feet touched the ground they released from their rope and ducked into the shadows while the little helicopter sped off into the night.

"You did fantastic for someone that doesn't like helicopters," said Alicia.

"I'm pissed off, they have my people in there, it's their turn to be afraid."

-.-.--.. -.-.-... -.-----. -.--.-.. --.----.

Cliff saw the heat signatures of six people in the Five and Dime, two standing, hands over head and not moving, obviously strung up, three were apparently guarding the doors, and one was beating the crap out of one of the two strung up figures, Cliff could hear the woman scream with every hit, and he could hear Ziggy begging, "Leave her alone, hit me instead." Cliff knew that the sound of their agony was going to cost him sleep for a very long time.

He sent a text message to Ming and Alicia via their cell phones, he knew their AIs would read the message to them. "That is Zhang and Ziggy, they are alive, just barely. I see two guards out front, and one in back by your position, bad guy centered in the building with Zhang and Ziggy." He didn't send a voice message because that nurse behind him would hear it, and he didn't trust her. There was something "too innocent" about her.

"I haven't heard anything in a while, how is it going?" Susan Bianchi asked.

"Pretty good, we're almost done," he said softly.

"I wish you hadn't said that" said the nurse sadly. She stood up and slid a long knife out of a thigh sheath that she wore under her scrubs. "I was beginning to like you."

"I'm glad I didn't make that mistake," said Cliff. He was wondering what the hell he was going to do, he had a pistol in his lap but he had no idea how to use it. Dunkan gave him ten seconds of familiarization and he forgot every word. Just as he was about to roll off the chair and hide under the desk, his arm automatically swung and brought the Beretta M9 9mm pistol he held in his lap to bear and put two rounds into the heart of the knife wielding nurse.

-> Targets advancing three o'clock

"Who said that?" cried Cliff. He was in a quandary; sounds came from behind the door to his right. Unfriendly sounds.

"Me! I said that!" snarled a voice behind the door and BAM! BAM! two bullet holes appeared in the door, but whoever shot aimed high and missed Cliff and the two bullets smashed into a shelf holding electronic equipment above Cliff's head.

"What the fuck!" shouted Cliff as his arm came up and fired two rounds at the door which crashed open, a large man wearing a set of scrubs collapsed against the door forcing it open. Before he could put together another thought the gun fired once more killing someone who was halfway up out of the spiral staircase. The person trying to climb up slumped and Cliff could hear his body tumbling down the stairs

-> One target remaining, injured. Possible broken leg. Target number three knocked it off the stairs.

"Who the hell are you?"

-> If you need us, think the command AI: followed by an instruction for us

Cliff tried to calm himself, but his hands were busy clearing the pistol and replacing the magazine with one that was fully loaded. Cliff has never touched a pistol in his life, but here he is, clearing and reloading a military issue M9. He set the pistol on the desk and began to shake, with nothing left to lose he thought... 'AI: Identify yourself.'

-> We are nanobot cluster RN377-36-MS98 θ 1015

Suddenly he noticed Ming hissing in his earphone, "Cliff! Where are you?"

'AI: Send a message to all other nanobot clusters, tell them that I'm possessed.'

-> Message Sent.

-.-.--.. -.-.-... -.-----. -.--.-.. --.----.

"Who was that? What does he mean possessed?" shouted Alicia.

"That's the message I got, from cluster RN377-36-MS98θ1015," Ming said, "I don't know who that is."

"Wait!" Alicia tugged Ming's arm. "The 377 release? The only one with that release is Cliff. When is his birthday?"

"October fifteenth, he's a libra too!" she said dreamily.

"Congratulations, you're engaged to an Augmented Individual with an Artificial Intelligence."

"WE'RE engaged to an Augmented Individual with an Artificial Intelligence," corrected Ming. "Cliff honey, we need you back on the air." Alicia and Ming's AIs received another message from nanobot cluster RN377-36-MS98θ1015

>> Host of nanobot cluster RN377-36-MS98 θ 1015 is unresponsive, however, data gathered from multiple inputs show your best option is to let Miss Ingersoll take the guards and Miss Long take the questioner. No other targets located, L.A.S. flight 001 will only be needed for medevac.

"Unresponsive? Is Cliff ok?

>> Standby ... nanobot cluster RN377-36-MS98 θ 1015 reports temperature 96.9⁰, blood pressure 95 over 58, heart rate 55 beats per minute, blood oxygen saturation 98%, blood INR 1.1...

Ming forgot that for as smart as they are, an AI is the dumbest thing on earth. They have no common sense. It's like walking on eggs, you have to step carefully, putting your foot down just right with every request you make. Now that Ming has asked an AI to check Cliff's medical condition, she's going to get everything. When you put a quarter in, you have to let the whole song play.

Ming turned to Alicia, "He's ok, but something is wrong, he's not responding. Our DITCh is down, we'll have to play this one by ear."

Alicia jacked a round in the chamber of her M1911 .45 pistol. "Time to make the chimichangas!"

"Seriously? You quote Deadpool?"

They could hear the sadist who was hitting Zhang shrieking, "Where are my men?" The next thing the sadist knew was the back door flew open, two women dressed in black shot the guard at the door. Before he could hit the ground, they raised their guns and with one shot each dropped the two guards protecting the front entrances.

The sadist moved to put the dying woman in a choke hold and use her as a hostage, but a black screaming cloud of fury crossed the distance in an impossibly quick time, slammed into him and drove him into the plate glass window which rang like a bell as the back of his head smashed into the tempered glass.

Alicia cut the woman down from the rope her wrists were tied to, and she slumped to the floor. The wounds on her ass, breasts, and vagina looked oddly familiar. "It's ok baby, we have a bird inbound, we'll get you in an ER ASAP. She then turned to Ziggy, he was shattered emotionally, "He wouldn't stop, he kept hitting, hurting, biting, I begged him to take me, but he made me watch, I couldn't do anything...

"Ziggy, what happened to your shoulders?" she asked as she cut him free. Both of the shoulders of his suit coat were soaked in blood, front and back.

"He put a gun next to her ear and said, "Don't move, I need target practice." Then he shot me in the shoulder. She never moved a muscle. He did it again, he shot my other shoulder and she never moved... she was so brave... I think she's deaf now..." He knelt over Zhang weeping.

Alicia rose and went over to where Ming held their prisoner in a very painful looking choke hold. She was sitting on the floor with the prisoner sitting in front of her, almost in her lap. "Ming, tag out, this one's mine."

"No, you'll kill him."

"You're going to kill him too."

Ming snarled, "I have a three-thousand-foot mine shaft to drop him down, it's just been waiting for him and his owner Mister Baumgartner, isn't that right Q?"

"Fuck you," snarled Daniel Boothroyd.

Ming tightened her choke hold and his neck made a crunching noise. "Ooops! Those vertebrae are kind of fragile, aren't they?" Ming put her mouth next to his ear. "Look at those two, you beat and broke them, but I can fix them. You? There's no fix for what I'm going to do to you. When we're done with you, children are going to see your face and run screaming to their mothers, they will have nightmares after seeing your face, and there won't be a single nanobot to spare for you."

Alicia crouched in front of Boothroyd and snapped her fingers in front of his nose to get his attention. "I hope you enjoyed pissing standing up," she said softly, "because it's never going to happen again."

Ming's leg twitched causing her heel to slam into his balls. "I just wanted to do nanobot research, I wanted to give hope to the hopeless, to get the injured out of their wheelchairs, and you tried to shut me down... After a few years in a wheelchair staring at your useless, twisted legs you'll see how bad of a decision that was..." She twisted his neck again and more crunching noises could be heard. "Oooo that sounded painful. Was it painful?"

Q was in agony, he realized that his neck was going to hurt for a very long time indeed. "Yes," he gasped before he could stop himself.

"Good, here's a hint." Then she whispered very quietly, "Never piss off a nerd." With a shove of her foot, she launched him off of her lap straight at Alicia who was waiting for him with the baton he used to beat Zhang.

The big Chinook opened the rear cargo door and sat that door on the edge of the Five and Dime's roof and hovered in place, the passengers piled off and placed a few demo charges on the roof and blew a hole in the roof of the building. "Get me two blankets and send the stretcher down!" called Ming on their radio connection. Working quickly the team soon had Zhang hoisted aboard, followed by Zane who immediately went to Zhang's side the moment he was freed from his stretcher. He had to be there if she regained consciousness, he had to apologize. The hoist came up a third time, this time a prisoner was attached to the hoist by his ankles. As soon as the prisoner was out of the hole, the helicopter took off, the shrieking prisoner dangling by his heels.

Alicia and Ming left the three guards where they lay, but in the center of the room they left a bag of fentanyl pills, a stack of 100-dollar bills, and enough evidence to point back to the head of the Agency, Gunter Haag. As the Army helicopters finished their exercise and flew homeward in formation, their formation lights flashing letting everyone know where they were, the cheering people of Simla Colorado waved and cheered and not a single person noticed a small MD 520 rise up out of city park and join the formation.

"In and out in eleven minutes," said Alicia, "not bad," but Ming didn't hear her, the anger has drained out of her and allowed her to feel the terror of riding in a helicopter again.

-.-.--.. -.-.-... -.-----. -.--.-.. --.----.

'AI: query Cliff's AI on status of Cliff Staunton'

>> Searching... "Cliffs AI" not found. Please enter a nanobot cluster.

'AI: query Cliff Staunton AI on status of Cliff Staunton'

>> Searching... "Cliff Staunton AI not found. Please enter a nanobot cluster.

Ming discovered that a sure cure for fear of helicopter flight is getting angry at her AI. Ok, one more time...

'AI: pseudonym for nanobot cluster RN377-36-MS98θ1015 is "Cliff's AI".'

>> Pseudonym "Cliff's AI" for nanobot cluster RN377-36-MS98 θ 1015 is set

'AI: query Cliff's AI on status of Cliff Staunton'

>> Mr. Staunton is conscious but not responsive. Cliff's AI theorizes that the dead bodies may be the reason.

What the hell! On the helicopter intercom Ming called to the pilot, "You need to drop me on the VIP entrance, something is wrong with Cliff, his AI is reporting dead bodies."

"What's he doing with dead bodies?" demanded Alicia, "that's our job!" The little helicopter sped northwest toward Ganley Mountain, and the two women comforted each other. "He's exaggerating," said Alicia, "that's all it can be."

"Yeah, he saw the video of when we took down the guards and... yeah, that's it," said Ming. "That's what freaked him out."

>> Cliff's AI reports that he was not in his chair and could not see the video.

The speedy little helicopter reached the VIP tunnel entrance with five minutes of fuel left. It was a tight fit, there wasn't a lot of clearance between the rotor tips and the rock wall on one side, and trees on the other, but their pilot made it fit and carefully lowered the helicopter to their picnic/campground. Ming and Alicia leapt out with the runners five feet off the ground and dashed into the tunnel as their helicopter rose to clear the trees then dove for a safe landing on the helipad.

As they got into the garage area the elevator opened and two orderlies with wheeled stretchers and a nurse stepped off the elevator. "What's up with this?" asked Ming.

"We don't know, the ER sent us up here, five stretchers and a nurse were requested," explained one of the orderlies. "But no one knows where they need us, we were told to wait here."

"Follow us," said Ming, then she and Alicia dashed to the courtyard where two more stretchers waited for them, then they ducked down the dark hall and into the closet. At the bottom of the spiral staircase lay a man in agony and a dead man lying on top of him. The dead man had a bullet hole perfectly centered between the eyes. Ming raced up the stairs and at the top of the stairs she found another body blocking the radio room door open, behind Cliff's chair was a dead woman, all of the bodies were wearing scrubs, and in the corner, under a shelf sat Cliff, staring at the bodies and shuddering, his unfocused eyes not recognizing Alicia or Ming.

"Baby, we're here, it's over," gasped Alicia as she and Ming cuddled with Cliff under the desk. "It's over honey, it's all over. We're safe now..."

-.-.--.. -.-.-... -.-----. -.--.-.. --.----.

Georgetown Loop Railroad #111 is a husky little oil burning 2-8-0 Consolidation built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Eddystone PA in 1926, it worked the little narrow-gauge International Railway of Central America, where it primarily operated in Guatemala. It ended up returning to the US in 1973 where it sat as a museum piece, a shining example of the narrow gauge locomotives used in Colorado until the mid-1930's until the Georgetown Loop Railroad acquired it in 2008 where it now hauls passengers instead of sugar cane, and on that particular day it was hauling three very excited people.

It was December and the snow was falling gently, the Georgetown Christmas Bazaar had a great opening weekend, tourists poured in from all over the country, and next weekend promised to be as good if not better. The little city was decorated with pine bough, colored lights, ribbons, bunting, there were sleigh rides, hayrides, reindeer, and roast chestnuts, it was almost Alicia and Cliff's favorite weekend of the year, second only to Georgetown's July 4th weekend. But Wednesday was normally a day of rest between the two weekends of the bazaar, a respite for the businessmen and women of Georgetown CO.