Cross My Mind

THE KILL ORDER

*****(Department of software engineering CALTECH)*****

Dr. Reece Mallory has just picked up her custom Nokia 3310 phone to hear Lockwood’s voice warning her to stop what she is doing before anyone gets hurt. She smiled at Ababio and walked to the back of the computer laboratory.

“It is nice to know that you still have my personal line Jeff, to what do I owe the pleasure of your call” She responded with a playful voice, Signaling to Ababio now using her hands to lock the entrance to the lab.

“You know exactly what I am talking about, we know you and your AI friend have been sneaking around our server and harvesting data; you don’t know what you are dealing with here. This is no longer a you against me situation since this project belongs to the government and you know that much. Please Reece, if you have any bit of love for me, you should not do what you are about to do right now otherwise I will not be able to control what happens from here onwards” Lockwood responded.

Reece quickly walks back to the computer and plugged a cable into a custom port on the phone, putting the phone on hands free mode and start to type on her computer screen while she continues talking on the phone; with a sudden change in tone and pattern of speech, Reece said.

“I have all of the records for the cruel experiments you have conducted in your secret island, I could not tell where it is located but that wont matter now, you played with the lives of people as if they are toys, you deluded them into believing that they are playing a game using their Neuraface when in fact they are actually not, hundreds of them died all because of you own greed, for nothing. But all is going to be exposed now that I have your data records, you will be confessing to your crimes in court”. The phone call ended.

Reece finally said to her computer screen

“Have you done both?”

And to Ababio's surprise, he realized that while on the phone, the cable jack Reece connected to the phone was letting MEDULLA have access to the Device Lockwood was using to make the call, so that she can establish a spy software that allows her to listen to His further conversations with the Senator she believes is putting him on his current path of human rights violation, murder and illegal human experimentation, Baker John.

After putting doe the phone, Reece punched a few keys on her keyboard and a connection was established.

“It can’t be helped, she must be silenced because this is a matter of national security” a voice both Reece and Ababio recognized easily to be Senator john said.

“No, knowing Reece, she may have already prepared a plan against when she dies or get caught. She must be working together with that damn Artificial intelligence that listens to no one, if it wasn’t so damn expensive and necessary for most of Neuratechnologies running including using the Neuraface, I would have burned the entire Texas building down with it right to the ground. Firstly, we need to hear out what she wants us to do first, she must have something she wants us to do, otherwise we would have been all over the news by now. We will try to do it if we can, then Akihiro would dedicate his team to cracking her codes and retrieving all the information she stole before we can eliminate her”. Jefferson Lockwood said.

“your logic certainly is true, call her and ask what she demands in exchange for the data, but once this begins to look out of your control, I will pass it up to be dealt with appropriate by the right people” Baker Responded.

Reece and Ababio were keenly listening to the conversation in disbelief when Reece’s phone begins to ring again, She looked at Ababio with a face that says I don’t know what to do.

“Pick it, tell them your demands as planned for now, that will keep us one step ahead of them, no matter what, they must not know we listened to their conversation” Ababio quickly said.

Reece picked the phone and answered it.

“Reece, tell me your demands and I’ll see that they are done in exchange for the data you stole from us” Lockwood said.

“I have one demand Lockwood. I know that old sly fox Akihiro will not let the last two surviving volunteers go like that, I also know that you wouldn’t risk letting them back into their lives just like that so easily since they will definitely report Neuratechnologies for what it did to them and the rest of the other volunteers no matter how much money you pay them. So here is what I want. I want you to not kill them, and to give them sufficient enough money and let them back into their lives otherwise I will release all your data to the public and report you at the Hague.” Reece said.

“I can’t let him do that Reece, these players have in their heads possibly the most advanced technology on the entire planet, if word goes out, other countries may target them and harvest the weapon we are spending money to make” Baker objected.

“I didn’t ask for your opinion Baker, if you keep your mouth shut, no other country would know about this. You must also be sure to cut off your connection with their Neuraface. deal or no deal? Choice is yours Jeff”. She said.

“I agree to what you propose, but we will make sure that they do not posses any memory of the experiment past the first simulation game, Akihiro has some cutting edge compounds that can induce chemical memory erasure with pinpoint precision” replied Lockwood.

“that sounds even more cruel bit We have a deal then, once you fulfill your end of the agreement I’ll bring you all the data I have by myself” Reece said, cutting the call.

*******(Back on the unknown island, inside Jefferson Lockwood’s mansion)********

Akihiro, Senator Baker and the two Admirals listened as Lockwood finished making his deal with Dr. Reece Mallory, his ex fiancé.

“Why would you let her know about the Chemical agent, this could add to the number of things she would have us charged for later” Akihiro furiously said.

“I had to convince her that we are going to cooperate with her demands so that she would not freak out and seek help, she has some serious connection with the White House as well, we wouldn’t want to spike her off like that”. Lockwood responded. He turned around and looked at Senator Baker John seated on the sofa already sipping wine and as their eyes met, Baker stood up and walked up to him.

“What should we do now, this was your idea in the first place and I don’t see how any of that ends well for any of us, thanks to your weak security systems and pathetic bargain technique” Baker lashed out at Lockwood. And poured him a glassful of wine.

“What is the next big plan ? We let our only results for a billion dollar experiment out for other countries to grab or even worse, believe that the nerdy b***h will keep her promise?” he added.

Lockwood collected the wineglass from Baker and took a sip,

“That woman you just called a nerdy b***h is my ex fiancé, making me the only person here who knows her best so we will do exactly as she said, we will wipe out their memories of the experiment from the virtual survival game to now, we will put two million dollars in each of their accounts and let them back into their lives just as I agreed to her. The one part we will do our way is that you’ll make that call right now, have it look like an accident, or more preferably have her entire building at the department burn while you’re at it” he said.

Baker cracked a wry smirk on his face, gulping all of the wine left in the glass down before pulling out his phone. He unlocked it and placed a call. A few second later, he starts to talk.

“ This is Senator Baker John, code name Boomerang, authenticate voice and retinal recognition” he said and proceeded to repeat the word “Boomerang” five times before positioning the camera of the phone right next to his eyes and with three beeping sounds, he placed the phone right to his ear again.

“Good evening Mr. Anon, this is Code name Boomerang requesting conference” he said and a few seconds layer, he continued.

“We have a little hiccup with project Zeus, a stowaway was discovered on the server running the test subjects, I have sent you the file of the stowaway. We need urgent clean-up at the specified location as soon as possible” he added and put the phone back in his pocket.

He looked at Akihiro and Lockwood who are now starring at him with shock at how he just passed an order for the extra judicial secret execution of a renowned person in a well respected institution and a prominent member of the scientific community.

“We should keep her believing we are going to keep her promises for now, I’ll go out and have the two subjects moved to my laboratory.” Akihiro said and left the room, heading back to the control room.

******(Somewhere in the outskirts California, on a mountain range)*******

Agent Stone has been chasing a deer he has shot several days ago, missing it’s vital spot on purpose so he can have it run away, then hours later, track it down in the mountains. He has been tracking the injured deer for more than eight hours today, each time he catches up with it, he would shoot his gun again, causing the deer to sprint away at high speed and hours later, track it down all over again in an attempt to sharpen his own tracking skills.

The night has fallen and the mountains are crawling with mountain cats, pumas and Cougars, he has stealthy avoided more than four of them while tracking his prey in the dark. On the roof of a tree perfectly blending in with the leaves, Agent Stone feels his pager vibrating in his breast pocket.

He pulled it out with one hand while aiming with his other hand on the trigger of a sniper rifle. He moved his eye from the scope of the rifle and saw a new order has been issued to him.

“Dr. Reece Mallory, preferred cause: accident by fire”.

Agent stone put the pager back in his breast pocket and realigned his eye on the scope of his rifle, pointing the target right at the head of the deer and firing a supressed shot that instantly killed the deer.

“Time to move to the next target” he muttered to himself and packaged his riffle back in its case, leaving the forest without even looking twice at the dead body of the deer.