THE AUGMENTED

ESCAPE AND EVASION

"I want him tracked, Mobilize all our forces I want to know what he's doing right now, where his going and what his speed is" Patt said as he walks hurriedly to the Company's Control room with Jenny and Mark at his side. He walked quickly and panic was visible on his face. The Control room was fully packed with busy people, Patt walks to the front of the room and proceeded to the platform in the room and requested to all the operators in the room

"I need this room diverted to our current issue, get me a live image" Marks looks troubled "it's not impossible, we can get a live image but it can't be real time and it might be blurry". but Patt frowns and said "With our current technology advancement can't you all do better?". Everyone on the Control room Stares at Patt as if they want a piece of him Till the point his skin starts to itch.

jenny decides to help him out by changing the topic "Grey is a little troublesome, he seems to have reached supersonic." Patt seems shocked. He Sighs "What do we know?"... Mark was shocked at the data. "He's approaching Mach 5 and increasing his speed at an incredible rate." Patt cuts in "Mach 5, Seriously? Are nanobots considered armed?"...

Jenny shrugs. "Can't be completely sure, The nanobots are not considered just regular nanobots since grey is more like a host for AI Module 00 ". Patt nods "Is there a way to force stall their complete integration?" "There is no way but we can do that especially without direct access to his immune system but......" "But what is it?"asked Patt. Mark looked confused and shook his head in deep thought... "

Mean while in the clouds, Grey's speed has reached Mach 8. All that was visible to everyone was a trail of flames. His suit left as he becomes even less visible till he disappeared among the clouds. He was trying his best to stay awake, he was hardly breathing and the atmospheric pressure was insanely high. He had almost puked several times already."where are we going to" " you asked me to get you out of there but there wasn't a follow up directive". Said AI 00. Then all of a sudden his suit came to a stop in the sky hovering in a place, Grey was terrified" what are you doing, you are gonna get us killed". But there was no reply from the AI, Grey was scared but then he began to calm down and started thinking of what to do. while Patt was almost going crazy in the control room. " I want to know what he's doing right now".

Grey was done with panicking “what can I call you?”. The humming in his head got louder as if the AI was thinking “host is needed to grant permission to create personality for AI model, do host want to continue?”. Grey looked distressed and asked “can we land first before doing any other thing?”. The suit flew a bit further before landing in a remote area. The suit powered down and retreated into his body, he touched himself all over to confirm if he had any injuries and after a few minutes of checking he confirmed that he was okay and by that time. His fear, panic and hesitation has disappeared, he felt better than ever and all that was on his mind now was curiosity.” so what is the first step? What should I do?”. The AI hummed for a few seconds then replied “host is not required to take any physical action except getting in a comfortable position and be ready to take a short nap while augmentation process starts. Host is also required to be prepared for some mental discomfort, as augmentation process will take place in the brain, spinal cord and nerves. If host has any queries, questions or instructions please say so now as the process can’t be terminated once it starts and host will temporarily lose control of mobility and other kinetic functions. Augmentation process will start in five minutes, calibration process has started”. Grey took a few mouthfuls of deep breaths while trying his best to maintain his calm, he knew what was about to happen is the complete integration of him and the Artificial intelligence in his head or to be accurate in his entire body. But then he remembered that he was currently been hunted by Axel so he decided to ask the AI but he was interrupted before he could say anything. “This area is currently isolated and outside of Axel’s radar so it can be considered a blind spot for their satellite too, host is required to give permission to start augmentation process”. Grey sat down in a cool area with a big tree as shade soon he slept off as his heartbeat slowed down, his body temperature dropped and the augmentation process began.

Back at Axel, patt was already in his office sitting in a mini conference room attached to his office and across the big center table in room sat jenny and mark side by side. Patt seemed restless, jenny was unnaturally quiet while mark was busy with his electronic tablet. The trio left the control room after they lost track of grey’s location, they retired to patt’s office while waiting for any updates on grey’s location. After a long period of awkward silence, patt stood up and entered his main office while leaving mark and jenny in the conference room. Mark followed patt with his eyes as he left the room and turned to jenny as soon as the door was shut and asked seriously “he will be fine right? He won’t try to do anything funny right? Jenny looked genuinely confused and replied “he won’t try to do what? , I don’t understand what you are talking about”. Mark stared at jenny awkwardly and almost facepalm himself but he calms down and said “he won’t harm himself like doing something as foolish as committing suicide right? Should we check on him just to be sure that he is fine”. Jenny smirks as she stood up and walked to the other end of the room where the exit is then she turns back and said while smiling encouragingly “go ahead” she throws her fist in the air and added sarcastically “go get him tiger, I will be rooting from you from afar. If you enter that room with that purpose and walk out alive then I promise to be your fan girl from now on”. Then she turns around, opened the door and left. Mark looked at patt’s office door while contemplating if he should really check on patt or not. He knew how important the project was to patt. It was supposed to be his big dream and the greatest achievement that marked the peek of his career just before he retires. He also knows that the project is worth few millions of dollars especially the tank of nanobot power source that was completely drained. He crosschecked the power system earlier that day and found out that contrary to his thoughts of the power source being discharged. He found out that even the nanobots that generates the power were missing too. He was surprised when he found out because the tank that was emptied was said to contain about fifty million nanobots that are capable of reproducing extremely fast. But after looking troubled for a while, his expression eased up and he packed his stuffs and left for the control room. Patt was in his chair holding a file in his hands, the cover of the file read AXEL CONFIDENTIAL Project : AI sublimation. The file contained all the information gathered on Grey including his military missions. Patt opens to the page that occupied relations but all that was there was a picture of a group of children in sportswear and at the background was the orphanage where grey grew up. Patt smiles to himself and picks a cup of wine he had poured for himself earlier and takes a big gulp then smiles contentedly then smacked his lips while grinning evilly “if you won’t come back and obediently become my test subject. My biggest achievement is inside your head, you better bring my stuff back safely and in a complete piece or I might be forced to use means that are scary to subdue you. Everyone has a weakness and yours is so damn glaring”. His office telephone rings, he dropped the file and picks the phone. He listens without saying anything then hangs up , he picked the file once more and detached the photo from the file, held it and says to himself. “word travels fast, so those directors are ready to use this impromptu meeting as an opportunity to drag me down, but I don’t blame them though I would have done a lot more if I was in their position. But the more pressure I am under the more I can’t guarantee not to hurt people you love grey”. Patt walks to the window and said “so you better get here as fast as you can and lick my feet like a dog. I made you grey, I gave you everything you have, I created you, I am your god and I will make you and all those other ignorant fools worship me