Black Box 4.0

Kevin got out of bed and went to use the bathroom and splash some water on his face. To his surprise, he was semi-hard and it wouldn't take much work from Rosie to have him ready to go again. At some point, when the current madness was over, he needed to talk with Leah about why he was reacting so strongly to Rosie. Yes, there was the 'bonding' that she talked about, but he didn't think it would turn him into a mindless, rutting animal when they both got aroused.

The last thing he needed was to have his brain shut off at an inopportune moment just because Rosie wanted some cock. After splashing more water on his face, he looked at the stranger in the mirror. Yes, it had been over a week since he woke up. He was gradually getting used to it, but still, there was no accounting for the level of bizarre his life had become in the last month.

Suddenly, he felt exhausted and realized it was closing in on 3 am. He needed sleep. There was a lot to do before he saw Mitchell. And as he walked back into the bedroom towards his two unconscious women, he realized he was smiling. For the first time in his life, he was looking forward to seeing Mitchell.

****

Kevin sat on the stairs outside of the house and worked on keeping his focus. Last month he would have been running around like a lunatic and terrified. Now, he had mentally gone through everything that would soon happen. He did it twice and saw nothing overlooked. What happened next either would go according to plan, or some uncontrollable event would take place and completely derail things.

Things moved quickly in the last 72 hours. Mel just wanted to lay in bed and recover, but that wasn't an option. The longer they waited, the greater the chance Mitchell would do something unpredictable. And he needed Mitchell to be very predictable right now. He needed him to be greedy and scared to do precisely what Lillian' would tell him to do.

Her eyes got wide at some details, and she wasn't thrilled to be in charge of Rosie's safety. But days of mind-altering sex had put her in a more charitable frame of mine when it came to Rosie. She had checked in a couple of hours ago. Rosie was safe and unconscious thanks to a hefty dose of sleeping pills left over from when he used to drug Lillian to get her to sleep for a few hours. And Mel herself was now in place.

Then there was Leah. She sat in a backpack on the step in front of him. She could still talk to him via his phone, but she wasn't happy either. She was going to be at risk when things went down. If Kevin's plan failed, she would be thrown into a bin somewhere again, unable to communicate with the world or be used by truly unpleasant people.

If things worked, she would be cut off from Lillian's supercomputer set-up and only have Kevin's phone and a laptop to communicate. She might get cranky with Kevin and Mel sometimes, but they were her only human contacts and she needed them.

Kevin glanced at his phone. Ten more minutes.

When 'Lillian' sent the message to Mitchell that she'd cracked the box, he wondered how long it would take him to respond. He guessed about a minute. It turns out he was off by about 50 seconds.

"Finally. I was beginning to worry."

Kevin had read nearly all their messages. He knew how they wrote to each other and believed he could effectively mimic how she would typically speak to him.

"Come tomorrow to the house at 6 pm. Make sure you have my payment."

"Don't be a tease, Lillian. What does it do?"

Kevin had considered any number of outlandish items. That the box was a time machine, or a teleporter, or could break through dimensional barriers. But through Kevin's reading of Lillian's archives and their correspondence, much of it focused on energy and power. More than a few of Lillian's spyware attacks focused on energy companies that Mitchell's organization wanted crippled for various geopolitical reasons. So stick with something he would understand.

"It's a generator."

"That's it?" he replied. "Weeks of trying to crack it, and you expect me to pay you millions, and it's a fucking generator?"

'Lillian' then dangled the carrot. "It's a generator that can power the western United States for a year without emissions before needing a few days to recharge. It also contains the designs on how to make other ones."

There was a pause.

"Jesus Christ," he wrote back. Then there was a pause. "Send me the manual now."

It was all Kevin could do not to type 'LOL' in response. But Lillian kept these things curt and to the point.

"No. Tomorrow at 6 pm. You will get the box back, instructions on how to operate it, and a laptop with half the designs. Once I have the money and I am safely far away, you'll get the address for the site containing the other half."

"Lillian, that's not going to work..."

And now it was time for the stick.

"Have I ever broken my promise or failed in a task to you?"

"No, but..."

"I am about to give you something that will give you more wealth and power than you deserve. All I want is my money, my safety, and never seeing or hearing from you again."

Another pause. "Fine. Deal."

Kevin did a small fist pump. He'd taken the bait. But that was the easy part. One last bit of stick to emphasize the point

"And Mitchell, don't get stupid this close to getting the things you want." Lillian had only once threatened Mitchell with everything she had on him. It was tempting to mention it again, but it might look suspicious and Mitchell didn't need reminding.

He was about to sign off when there was one last text. "Wait. At least tell me where it came from."

Kevin had expected that question as well. He'd considered any number of answers, including just not telling him. In the end, he couldn't resist one little flourish.

"Look up," was what he wrote, and then terminated the connection. He smiled at the idea that Mitchell could be losing his shit somewhere, thinking he was about to acquire an alien artifact. Then again, it's not like Kevin knew where or when Leah was from. Weeks of being together and she gave no idea of her origins.

Kevin's phone vibrated, snapping him back to the present. "Vehicles approaching," Leah texted him. As long as they were near the house, she still had access to Lillian's computers, including the security system.

"How many?" Kevin typed.

Both Leah and Mel responded almost at the same time. "Two SUVs."

Kevin sighed. It could be worse. He hoped Mitchell would show up in just the one SUV and the same goons he approached him with a few weeks ago. Then again, he could have come up here with a small convoy. Two was being cautious but not deliberately antagonistic. He could deal with two.

He heard the trucks pull up in front of the house. Kevin took a deep breath, typed "Here we go" to Leah and Mel, then stood up, lifting the pack with Leah inside.

If he was annoyed with the two SUVs, he was pleased that they parked where he wanted them to. Then again, he'd arranged it so there were limited places they could go. Kevin glanced back to ensure the handgun was where he stashed it and then walked down the steps.

When Kevin reached the bottom, Mitchell got out of the SUV to his right. Five other people stepped out as well. The glare of the headlights and the tinted windshields meant Kevin couldn't see if there were more inside.

"Who the fuck are you?" Mitchell called out. It was a fair question. Kevin wore as much black as possible, including the winter coat, hat and scarf. There were barely any facial features visible, just in case Mitchell recorded anything. He did a slow spin to show he wasn't armed.

"I'm an intermediary," he replied. "My client is concerned you might make a rash choice. I'm here to make sure that doesn't happen."

"That's not what we agreed on," Mitchell said. He was in a puffy coat. He never liked the cold. Kevin suspected it was part of the reason Lillian picked Northern BC to live in.

"I believe my client said not to do anything provocative, yet here you are with at least five armed men behind you. So perhaps she was merely being prudent," Kevin said, holding his hands out in a calming manner.

He could see Mitchell weighing his options.

"How does this play out?" he said finally.

Kevin slid the backpack off his shoulders. He opened it, and he could see the men behind Mitchell tense. He wasn't perfect and reading body language and training yet, but he felt they were ex-military, but not ex-special forces. So dangerous, but not 'totally fucked' dangerous. He slid Leah - the black box - partially out of the backpack so Mitchell could see it. Then he pulled out a laptop and showed it to him.

"I will walk halfway to you, place the bag on the ground, and then walk back to the steps. Once I get back here, you can walk forward to the bag. You will have two minutes to verify that it's the same box you gave my client a month ago and quickly look at the laptop's contents. After that, my client expects payment. Once she texts with confirmation of payment, I will walk into the house, you will get in your vehicles and drive away. That simple," he said.

Mitchell paused again, looking for a trap.

"How do I know she's not dead already and this is you trying to scam money?"

Kevin feigned a sigh of annoyance and held out his phone.

"I can contact her if you like, but she's instructed me to tell you that if you make her talk to you, it will cost you an extra million dollars," Kevin said. And because he couldn't resist a little dig. "You must have quite the way with women."

"Fuck you," Mitchell spat at him. Kevin shrugged and tried to look bored. The more bored he looked, the more he was sure it unnerved Mitchell. Not enough for him to do something rash; quite the contrary. Kevin was hoping it would make him play ball.

"Fine. Walk forward," Mitchell said. Kevin then took the longest walk of his life. He placed the bag on the ground, then backed up towards the house. He was trying to be confident, but turning his back on these people would be insane. Once he got back to the steps, he sat down. The gun was now within reach if he needed it.

Kevin walked forward slowly and then reached for the bag. He picked it up and moved towards the SUVs.

"I don't think so. You can check it there," Kevin said.

"It's fucking freezing. Let me get in the SUV where it's warm. It's not like I can go anywhere; she still has half the blueprints to the damn thing," he said.

"You have one minute and 45 seconds, Mitchell. You can check it right there or walk away empty-handed."

Mitchell stared again. He was trying to read if Kevin was bluffing or had the power to make good on his threat. Finally, he reached in and touched the box. His hand pulled away immediately. Leah had that effect. Touching the box was unnerving. Mitchell then pulled out the laptop and flipped it open.

"Password?"

"The name of the bar where you hit on my client and failed," he replied.

Mitchell scowled again, but it was one more piece of assurance that Lillian was alive and pulling the strings. He typed a name on the keyboard. Mitchell's face softened, so obviously he was in.

For the next 60 seconds, Mitchell didn't say a thing and focused on what he saw on the screen. When Kevin told Leah she would have to do a few things she hated, this was one of them. She needed to fabricate something that believably looked like a control system for a powerful generator and partial plans for a sci-fi power system. He suspected she knew how to do that, but it came dangerously close to revealing details about her origin. Plus, it involved lying to someone, which she didn't like, even in a situation like this.

There were all kinds of risks in this. Kevin wasn't sure what would happen to Leah if she went against her programming too often. She was an incredibly sophisticated AI, but he'd pushed her in so many different ways the last few weeks. If she hit the wall, would she glitch in some unpredictable way? Would she shut down?

Those weren't the options that scared Kevin the most. What scared him the most was that she would evolve past it and expand her limitations. And he would have possibly unleashed an insane AI on the world.

But one thing at a time. He had to survive the next few minutes first.

The time ticked down. Kevin magnanimously gave Mitchell an extra 30 seconds and then called it.

"I need more time," Mitchell complained. "I'm not an engineer. You're asking me to fork over $5 million on something that could be complete bullshit."

"Risk is our business," Kevin stated simply.

"You're taking a risk right now. What's to stop me from ordering you shot, taking this box, and leaving? I know Lillian, and I don't think she'll drop her 'dead man' bomb if I just killed you, took the box and found other, less smart people to reverse engineer it," he said. "She's got plenty of money and schemes. She'd walk away and hope I wouldn't find her," Mitchell said.

Kevin stood up and took a couple of steps toward Mitchell. He could feel everyone bristle.

"Nothing is stopping you. Of course, the odds you would get off this property alive are slim. You didn't think I came here alone, did you?" Kevin said. He could see everyone straining to look into the darkness to spot something. He was tempted to tell Mel to take a shot near Mitchell to emphasize the point but didn't want to kick things off quite yet.

"And it's a sure bet that your wife and son in Phoenix won't live long either," he said. Kevin was bluffing, but he thought it was a particularly scary and effective bluff.

"What?" Mitchell said, his face showing shock and fear.

Kevin sighed again, trying to show infinite patience. That he didn't want to have to be a bastard, but if Mitchell forced his hand, well, what could he do?

"You've underestimated my client, who knows more about you and your family than you would likely feel comfortable with. She also knows about your lover in New York. He'll die too, of course. Because you know nothing about my employer, but I assure you he will feel greatly....aggrieved if anything happened to me. And when he gets aggrieved, people tend to die," Kevin said, then looked at his phone.

"Lillian says you're wasting time. It's now $6 million and goes up again in 60 seconds. Your choice," he said, returning to the stairs to sit down again.

Kevin watched the range of emotions run across Mitchell's face. Rage, fear, desperation....if the stakes weren't quite so high, Kevin would really be enjoying this. It was rare to have the upper hand on Mitchell. Watching the smug bastard squirm was a true delight.

Finally, Mitchell took out his phone and punched it hard enough that Kevin wondered if he might not put his fingers through it. Once he finished, he glared at Kevin. There was a vibration from his phone.

"Payment received," Leah texted him. She was already rerouting the money to several different, untraceable accounts.

"Thank you," Kevin said, tapping a button on his phone that set off the explosives.

Kevin knew it would be different from what you saw in the movies, but it wasn't every day you saw two multi-ton SUVs lifted several feet off the ground. He tried to brace himself but still was slammed backwards with enough force that he was momentarily dazed.

He cleared his head just before the second round of explosives went off. These were attached to the trees surrounding the SUVs, sending wooden shrapnel flying inwards. Kevin heard screams, so the initial explosion hadn't taken out everyone. He grabbed the stashed gun and carefully walked toward the carnage.

This was the second risk Leah had to take. She was going to be close when those explosions went off. Fortunately, Mitchell took the brunt of the blast. Both he and the backpack containing Leah were thrown forward a good 50 metres. Kevin cautiously approached Mitchell, keeping the gun trained on him. He scooped up the bag and quickly looked inside. The laptop looked smashed, but it was unimportant. Leah looked fine.

On cue, his phone vibrated. He spared a quick look at the screen. "I'm ok," she said. "Get me out of here."

Kevin swung the backpack over his shoulders. He checked Mitchell and found a pulse. Kevin wanted to shoot him and have it over with. Instead, he quickly frisked him, found a gun, and tossed it toward the trucks. Then he grabbed Mitchell and began dragging him towards the house.

That's when the shot rang out. Kevin dropped Mitchell and scanned the area. One of the SUVs had landed on its side and the driver managed to survive the explosion and tree shrapnel. He'd climbed up, used the vehicle as a screen, and was preparing to shoot. Kevin hadn't seen him, but his ace in the hole had.

"Fucking pay attention," Mel texted. For the last six hours, she'd been hiding in the woods with a clear view of the parking area. She was there to have his back in case Mitchell had any surprises or if Kevin was careless. Between what she did with the explosives and making that shot, Kevin resolved for about the 100th time never to get her seriously pissed off with him.

"Watch him. Shoot him if he moves," he texted.

"WTF are you doing?" Mel responded.

"Clean-up."

Kevin moved quickly towards the wreckage. There was no point in being squeamish. Anybody who survived now would make things more difficult later. But he quickly found all the bodies. The driver in the other SUV had a chunk of a tree going through his neck.

"All clear," he typed.

"Then stop fucking around. All you need is for the Mounties to have been driving by and see the explosion."

"Get to the pick-up. I'll be along shortly," Kevin responded. The phone vibrated again, but he ignored it. Kevin walked up to Mitchell and checked. He was still out. He might have suffered brain damage for all he knew. Maybe it made no difference on whether they found the body, but he liked the idea that they couldn't be sure that he didn't survive and was on the run -- one more thing for his organization to have to deal with.

Kevin dragged him inside, brought him into Lillian's workspace, and stripped him. Just in case there was anything resembling a tracer or microphone on him. But other than his wallet and phone, there was nothing else. To his surprise, Mitchell's phone was not only still working but also unlocked. He quickly went through it for anything of interest; it's not like he needed more dirt on him or his company. But he did find the fund that he sent the initial payment from. There was still another $4 million in the account. Mitchell must have anticipated Lillian holding out for more. He transferred the rest of the money into his account and snapped the phone in half.

He walked over to the workshop area in Lillian's space and grabbed a few zip ties Mitchell's arms and legs. Just as he was tightening the last of the cords, Mitchell groaned.

"Hmmm, not brain damaged after all," Kevin said. "How's the hearing?"

"Wha-what did you do?" he managed to slur out.

"Definitely concussed. Well, it's not something you'll have to worry about much longer," Kevin said. He went over and grabbed a couple of replacement laptops and tossed aside the damaged one into the rubble pile of old computer equipment.

"My employers will find you and kill you," Mitchell managed to get out.

Kevin walked over and knelt in front of him. He knew he should hurry up. He was enjoying this far too much. Still, one more minute.

"You know, not once did you ask about Kevin in those negotiations. Why was that?"

"Who....the fuck...cares. He's her...pet. He's nothing," Mitchell said, trying to strain with no success against the restraints.

The urge to monologue was there. It was almost impossible to resist. To cackle at Mitchell and exclaim, "You fool! I'm Kevin!" and explain what had happened, just to watch his reaction.

But then his phone buzzed. "Movement on the road. If you're not gone, get going."