AI Era: Agent AI

The door that Ming and Alicia dove through was not a watertight seal so water sprayed from the edges as the deluge continued soaking all three of them. There was another door behind them that led into the tunnel that Alicia used to get there, but that was now locked to prevent a tunnel flood in case the door to the hanger failed to lock. Alicia shoved Baumgartner closer to the door to get sprayed while she and Ming ducked behind him, letting Baumgartner absorb most of the spray as he cursed and swore. After a few moments the deluge died down and a loud klaxon sounded announcing that the deluge had ended and with a click the doors were unlocked.

"In," ordered Alicia with a shove in Baumgartner's back with her pistol.

"Take it easy, I'm an old man," he whined.

"Do you want to get any older?" asked Ming. Alicia grinned with pride; her girl was growing some balls! Baumgartner wisely chose to open the door and step out into the hanger to find it completely empty

"Oh shit! I left my M1 in that door pocket," groaned Alicia.

"I'll get you a new one," said Ming as she touched Alicia's hand, the one holding the knife.

"That's so sweet of you," squealed Alicia.

"Yeah, sweet," groaned Hans as his captors kissed.

Alicia banged him in the back of the head with the barrel of her pistol and said, "don't force me to ask her for more ammo too."

They looked out the open hangar door at the wreckage that used to be a beautiful new executive helicopter, Hans groaned when he saw his three-million-dollar toy crushed and wrapped around a tree. "That looks like it was a Bell 407," said Ming.

"Bell 407GXP," said Hans sadly.

"Really?" said Ming cheerfully. "I'll give you $500K for it... for parts."

Just then a pair of electric UTV's entered the hanger carrying eight Long Air Systems security people and raced up to Alicia and Ming. They slid and jerked on the frozen water that covered the hanger floor before they came to a stop. All eight men piled out led by Cliff Staunton and they dashed up to Alicia and Ming. They fell into a line and snapped a salute which Alicia couldn't return because she still had Hans in a choke hold. She groaned, "Guys, please."

"Well, we figured since we have a special guest..." grinned a very tall, very large black man, who then broke up laughing.

Alicia shoved Baumgartner toward the laughing black guy. "Here, for your special prize you win the asshole of the month. Zip tie him up good and put him in the "VIP Lounge." If he gets loose, I will do to you what he did to Miss Long and I."

The laughing stopped, "this is him?"

Ming could only nod, but Alicia snarled, "I will fuck you up. Copy?"

"Yes ma'am!" Mac shouted.

Alicia put her arm around the black guy's neck and made him lean over. She kissed his cheek and smiled, "Thanks for coming so quickly Mac."

"You know ma'am, that's not something any guy wants to hear," said a member of the squad causing riotous laughter.

"Sounds like you guys have heard it a few times," grinned Alicia to a chorus of good-natured groans. "Ok, Jester, you're with Mac, take MISTER Baumgartner to the VIP quarters, I know a few guys in The Agency that want to talk with him. Make him comfortable then come right back, Mac, you stay and keep an eye on our guest. The rest of you, I want a sweep of every inch of land between here and Quayle Creek, there should be at least eight bodies out there and quite a few weapons. Mostly AR-15 pop guns. There was at least one person in the helicopter when the fire occurred so check that out good. Cliff, you're with us."

"Fire occurred?" asked Baumgartner.

"Yeah," said Jim Macdonald, the laughing black guy that Alicia called Mac. "That's what set off the fire suppression system."

"What if I told you there was no fire?" Baumgartner winced as Mac cranked the zip tie down tight on his wrists then bodily set him in the rear seat of the UTV and zip tied his ankle to a seat support.

"You callin' a Navy Seal a liar?" asked the fellow that Alicia called Jester, his real name was Dunkan O'Reilly and he was every bit as big as Mac. "I might take offense to an assertion so preposterous." He cranked a zip tie down on Baumgartner's other ankle tight enough to cut off circulation. "It would truly hurt my feelings."

"I don't take kindly to disparagin' of my boss," growled Mac as he climbed into the driver's seat.

"You Americans let your supervisor kiss you?" sneered Baumgartner, his east European accent made his comment much more egregious sounding.

Mac turned around and held a fist the size of a ham in front of Hans' nose. "Yeah. What about it?" The demonstration of Long Air Services management style must have worked, Mac and Jester's ride to the VIP quarters was without remark from their passenger.

"Davis!" called Alicia as she led Ming to the remaining UTV. "You're in charge here."

"Yes ma'am!" called one of the fellows who was now scouting the area for debris and bodies.

"Cliff, you're driving."

"Yes ma'am.

Ming and Alicia rode in the back and Ming slumped against Alicia, weeping softly as Alicia stroked her hair and kissed her head, the poor little scientist was shattered. As Ming trembled Alicia said, "Cliff, we have to come up with a nickname for you."

"Cliff is my nickname."

Alicia paused for a moment then asked, "What is your real name?"

"Mountain." Before Alicia could ask the question he had heard thousands of times before he quickly continued, "My parents were hippies, they lived in a commune and all that. I have a sister named Flower."

She realized that's why he signs his name M. Charles Staunton. "How about Rocky?"

"I'm tired of that one." The tunnel they were driving through was wide and well lit, the beams shoring up the roof looked new. By the time they reached the lower-level garage Ming's shuddering had calmed. They took the freight elevator to the upper level which let them out into the area that Alicia first saw when she entered Ming's mine. They led/half carried Ming to her room, removed her soaked clothing, and tucked her into her sumptuous bed then Alicia led Cliff out into the hallway.

"Listen Ganley," Alicia started.

"Ganley?" asked Cliff.

"It's the name of the mountain we're in... listen, I just want to tell you..." Alicia looked in on Ming who was sleeping off the terror of the day. "Look, she's been through a lot, and most of that is due to men."

Cliff nodded, "I understand," and he started to turn to leave but Alicia grabbed his hand.

"Wait. She still likes guys, she likes you... a lot. It's just that... we have a thing, she and I, because we've been through the same thing. She just needs time, ok? Maybe someday soon the three of us will spend some time in the hot tub and relax and I can help her through her fears while you help her with... other things, ok?"

"That would be nice," smiled Cliff.

Alicia gave Cliff a foxy smile. "You're into that eh?"

"I'm into Ming, I just want to see her happy."

"You're sweet." She patted his arm. "I'm going to take a nap then help with the clean-up."

"I have a team headed up from Denver to assist," said Cliff as he stepped into his room across the hall from Ming.

Alicia stepped back into Ming's room, pealed off her wet clothes and climbed in bed with Ming and snuggled close. It's time for a nap now because later she's got a ton of paperwork to do.

*~~~~*~~~~⁰~~~~*~~~~*

Alicia sat down behind her desk, it was over a month since Baumgartner tried to capture Ming. The cleanup has been completed and Baumgartner disappeared into the DC bureaucracy. They had recovered seven bodies but the helicopter pilot and Boothroyd were missing. Since they were never able to settle on a total of how many men attacked Ming's Mine and Baumgartner refused to answer, the official number of unrecovered bodies is two. If they had been washed downstream in Quayle Creek, that flows into Clear Creek and they would have turned up in Silver Plume, Georgetown, Idaho Springs or Golden.

Last night was the Long Air Services Security Team victory party. It started as an anniversary party for the team but got pushed back several weeks due to Baumgartner's attack. The party was in the hanger and there was a catered dinner that was served in the huge conference room just off the hanger. Employees brought wives/husbands/dates and they were shocked to see how big the hanger is and how lavish the conference room was. From the outside it looks like the front of a hanger was placed in front of the mountain. What they did was repurpose a huge hole that was blown in the mountain by the mining company who had rights at the time and they filled it with an aircraft hangar big enough for a B-52. The main rule at the party was to not tell the non-employees what else was in the mountain, much of Ming's nanobot designing goes on here as does data storage. The scientists of the nanobot lab were also invited to the party and they shocked their big, rough and tumble security brothers and sisters by letting their hair down and partying just as severely as the former seals, rangers, and cops.

Alicia surprised them all by dancing with every one of her security troops that were in the Mine that day, and she danced with Ming several times that night, including some slow, romantic songs. Ming was a little embarrassed, but she would never say no to her Abbie. One thing they found out was that their nanobots love alcohol. Since the nanobots are fueled by sugar in the hosts' bloodstream, the alcohol was like dumping ether into a carburetor.

They were still in nanobot overdrive the next day when Senator Amos Nourse called. He had to wait ten minutes for Alicia to sit down in front of her laptop and join in the call. "Where were you, Agent Ingersoll?" he demanded.

"Sledding!" she said cheerily as she took off her parka and tossed it aside. "The ramp to the upper garage is a riot! We use these inflatable..." The look that the senator was giving her told her that he was not interested in sledding. The cold weather outside made the scars she received over the years to stand out, but she didn't care, she was having fun.

"Where is Miss Long?" demanded the Senator.

"I believe she is with Mister Staunton," said Alicia. "She wasn't on the itinerary, so I didn't think to interrupt her day off."

"Could you please page her? We need her to join this call, there's been a change to our plan."

"What plan? My plan is a nice relaxing holiday season, maybe a little skiing up at Loveland..." At

'AI: send a message to Ming's AI. Message as follows: Ming, please join me in my office, Senator Nourse wants you on this call. Message ends.'

> Message sent...

For the next five minutes or so the senator and his niece exchanged pleasantries until Ming entered the room. Ming sat down, she was as bouncy as Alicia was earlier but talking with the senator took the bounce out of Alicia's spirit. "What is up?" she asked. She wanted to get back to sledding before the sun came out from behind the mountain and started to melt the snow off of the trail.

"We have credible evidence that Boothroyd survived the incident and is at large in western Europe. We would like you to..."

"I don't think so..." groused Alicia.

"Nonsense! We'll take it," said Ming with a huge grin.