“Why would he do that!” Elias turned his head to look at the young man.

  “He must have felt them knowing about me was the right thing to do. Time will tell if that was the right choice. Either way I’m where I need to be. There is a ninety-eight percent chance that the AI will attack this facility within the next seven days.”

  Elias shook his head a little, then tried to sit up again, this time being more successful. “What’s so special about this place.”

  “The AI has failed to penetrate its network. It wants complete access to all human databases and comm systems. It will not allow there to be an incomplete picture.”

  “It wants all the cards in its favor…”

  “Exactly… There’s someone coming.”

  They both looked at the far door and as predicted it opened. Mike appeared on the other side of the doorway, and walked inside with general Corolla, Denise and Meyer. The general walked up to the glass wall. Elias went to stand but his legs wavered so he sat back on the bed, and saluted from where he sat.

  “At ease major,” said Corolla, his voice coming from a hidden speaker somewhere in the cell.

  Elias slightly relaxed. His eyes shifted between the general and those standing aside him.

  “I understand you got some of those AI nanites in your head. And they claim to be agent Richter’s son?”

  Elias looked at Mike who nodded, and then to the corner that was empty to everyone apart from him. Travis also nodded. He looked back to the general. “Err, yes sir.”

  “Looks like our nanite detectors aren’t worth shit then. But this might be the break we needed. Although as you can understand we’ve had to take precautions.”

  “I understand, sir.”

  “Your country needs you major Chambers. Are you up to the task?”

  Elias stiffened his back. “Yes, sir.”

  “Good man.” Corolla looked around the cell on the other side of the glass. “Do you see him in there right now?”

  “Umm… yes sir.”

  “Is he saying anything to you now?”

  “No sir.”

  Corolla let out a breath. “Okay then. The tech guys probably have a hundred tests they want to run on you to try and understand what’s inside that skull of yours. You okay with that?”

  Elias glanced at Travis who nodded. “Yes sir.”

  “Good. We will talk again later.” The general walked out of the room.

  Elias looked at Mike. “Guess you’re not under arrest anymore.”

  “I’m more useful out of a cell. I tried convincing them the same about you, but…”

  “It’s fine. They’re doing the right thing. You know anything about these tests?”

  Mike looked at Denise and Meyer. The old man moved slightly closer to the clear wall.

  “If I talk can he hear me?” said Meyer.

  “Yup.”

  “Ask him—”

  “Just pretend I’m him, and I’ll voice his answers.”

  “Ah I see. Okay. Why did you want to come here?”

  “To help.”

  “Help us do what?”

  “Stop the AI from destroying this complex. It is vitally important that it remains intact. The AI has not been able to penetrate its defenses. So it wants it gone, or better still to control it for itself to use against the rest of your forces.”

  “How will you help?” said Denise.

  Elias watched Travis walk to the center of the cell. “You’re in the way,” he said to virtual young man, who then moved to the side a little. Denise and Meyer looked at each other before looking back to the cell.

  “I presume you are constructing EMP weapons?” continued Elias speaking Travis’s words. “I can help you improve them. Also strengthen your defenses. Both cyber and real-world.”

  “Why?” said Denise. Elias looked confused by the question. “I mean, why are you helping? You are a part of the AI.”

  Elias raised his eyebrows. “That’s kind of a sore—” He looked at an empty spot on the floor and nodded. “Yes, yes I’ll tell them, hold on.” He looked at the two scientists. “He always managed to stay separate from the greater AI, and when the nuke blew the thing to bits, he took his chance and jumped into some of the nanites, and then ended up a long way from home… which is where he jumped into me… He says he’s Travis Wilson… Mike’s son, and I believe him.”

  Mike smiled.

  The two scientists looked at each other again, this time for longer before returning their attention to Elias. Meyer went to talk but Mike beat him to it.

  “How you feeling?” he said to the man in the cell.

  “You talking to me or your son?”

  Mike smiled again. “Both of you.”

  “I’m tired. Whatever was in that gas did a number on me…” He paused for a few seconds, nodding to himself, then looked back to Mike. “He say’s he’s stronger, now he has more nanites.”

  Denise looked concerned. “More nanites? From where?”

  “That was the point of us going to Albuquerque, although he never gave me the full details until after I was waist high in AI zombies with my fingers in one of their eyes.”

  Mike stifled a laugh. Denise glanced at him. “It was as messed up as it sounds,” said Mike, before looking back to Elias, his expression turning more serious. “What’s the ETA on the AI’s arrival?”

  “He says greater than seventy percent change it will be within the next few days.”

  “A few days?” said Meyer. “We need longer. When the people on the spectrum—”

  Elias looked at the old man. “You have people here with ASD?”

  Mike knew Elias was echoing his son’s words.

  “Ya… on a lower level. They are the ones that have—”

  “I… must see them. Immediately.”

  “I… do not know if that is—”

  Elias uneasily stood and walked to within a few feet of the wall between him and the old scientist. “He says they could be the key to defeating the AI.”

  *****

  Mike, Denise, Constance and Kevin stood in the confined space of the elevator. Mike looked at Constance. She held her notebook tight to her chest and looked straight at the elevator door in front of them. Kevin also gripped his drawing pads, but bobbed his head while looking at the floor. “It’s going to be alright,” said Mike to her. “What’s inside Elias is not evil… it’s… I mean, he’s my son…”

  Constance’s face tightened while she nodded, then noticed Kevin was pulling her sleeve. She leaned into him and Mike heard some words pass from the young man to the young woman. She nodded and stood back up.

  “Is he… okay?”

  She nodded and the door slid open. They were on the lowest level of the complex, an area of lifeless corridors made up of mostly unused spaces and forgotten storage rooms. A single guard stood at the bottom of the long narrow hallway, standing next to a solid looking door. The path to Elias’s cell.

  Denise and Mike stepped out and he held the door open. “Trust me, nothing bad will happen…”

  Constance swallowed and with Kevin holding onto her arm, they both left the safety of the metal box and walked along the corridor, Mike and Denise taking the lead. Denise flashed her security pass at the soldier, who then swiped his own across a card reader and a clank was followed by the soldier opening the door, to a small corridor. They moved along it, the door closing behind them, and stopped at the entrance to the room next to Elias’s cell.

  Denise looked at the two young people. “I’m going to open this door, and we will go into a room which will have a clear wall, but it’s very safe. The AI cannot get to you through the wall. Okay?”

  They both nodded. Denise typed a code into a keypad then pulled on the handle, and pushed the door open.

  Elias was sat on his bed already looking at the doorway. Constance and Kevin stayed close together, and shuffled inside, moving along the back wall, while Mike and Denise walked inside and the door was closed.

  Mike went to speak when Constance threw her arm out, her hand pointing at an empty space on the other side of the glass wall. “What is your name!” Her reaction took everyone by surprise, even Elias.

  “You can see him?” At least two other people said at the same time.

  Constance opened her notebook, pulling the pen from the side and started writing a name.

  Mike, his eyes wide, leaned in slightly to see the words ‘Travis Wilson’ being written. He then looked in shock at Denise who was equally confused by what was happening. “You see my son?” he said.

  “Yes…”

  Denise looked to where Constance and Kevin were looking. “Remarkable… but how?”

  “Yeah, how?” said Elias now standing.

  Constance’s attention was fixed on the empty space and she nodded slightly, then suddenly her eyes widened and she shook her head. “No! You lie!” She looked at Mike and Denise. “I want to leave… and Kevin he wants to leave too!”

  Mike looked between the cell and the young woman. “Lie? What does Travis lie about Constance?”

  She continued shaking her head, almost as if it were now from fear.

  Denise moved closer to her, blocking her line of sight to the cell. “Constance, look at me.” She did. “You have nothing to be afraid of… what did he say?”

  “He…” Kevin pulled on her sleeve but she ignored it. “He… says some of the AI is inside us, that is why we can see him… but, that can’t be true, can it?”

  Denise looked at Mike, who then looked at Elias. “Is that what Travis is saying? They have some—”

  “You… all do…”

  Denise’s head flicked around to the former ranger. “What?”

  Elias walked forward. “Yeah, he say’s you all have trace amounts. Nowhere near enough for them to form into anything though. Same with Constance and Kevin, but something about their brains and what happened when the AI tried to absorb them means some of their nanites are active, meaning… they can see him.”

  Denise was horrified at the prospect of having any part of the monster inside her but Mike couldn’t help but be excited by the possibility of seeing his son.

  “But… we scanned ourselves,” said Denise.

  Constance’s eyes grew wide. “It’s true? The bad machine man is inside us?”

  “Sorry kid, some of it is yeah,” said Elias. “But not enough to make you bad as well.” He looked at Denise. “Travis says they can help you detect the nanites.”

  “Who are they?” said Denise then realized whom he was referring too. “Those with ASD?”

  He nodded.

  Constance looked back at the cell, a few feet off to Elias’s right. She went to walk forward, but Kevin held her back. She turned to him. “It think it’s okay Kevin Riley.” They both walked forward slowly, until they stood looking at what appeared to be nothing on the other side. She started to nod. “Yes…. okay…. I… we can do that…. okay…”

  Mike looked at Elias. “Talk to me Elias, what’s Travis saying.”

  “Looks like you better get these kids some uniforms.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Alexis stood at a junction. A gust of wind bit into her and she pulled her jacket tighter, but it provided little in protection from the elements and she shivered regardless. She had been walking for an hour in the almost complete black of night, and hadn’t seen any sign of life, real or synthetic.

  A dark block like shape sat directly in the center of the road.

  A car?

  She walked forward quickly, and realized the two front doors were open, almost walking into the driver’s side.

  “Hello?” she croaked into the gloom inside the vehicle, but there was no reply.

  She quickly jumped into the driver’s seat, and felt around for a key in the ignition but there wasn’t any. She checked the floor, glove box and behind the sun visors. Not finding anything she finally climbed in the back, her fingers immediately touching down upon the soft surface of a blanket, which she eagerly wrapped around her.

  A beam of light swept across the cabin, and she squinted at the sparkle which was approaching.

  Finally a person.

  She pulled on the rear door latch and kicked it open, then got out, holding the blanket around her. “Hello!” she shouted. No sooner had the words left her mouth that fear flowed through her. What if what was approaching was an AI controlled person? Would it view her as the enemy still?

  She relaxed a little on seeing a face of an old man in a jacket and in front of him a dog pulling at a leash. She held her hand up against the glare of the light to better see him, as the dog wagged its tail. “Do you live nearby? Its important I get to a phone… and any food or drink would be—”

  The man stood still, seemingly looking directly at her but remained silent. She couldn’t see him because of the light, but what worried her more was the dog did the same, now sat and not moving or making any noise.

  “Hello?” she repeated.

  “Stay on this road agent Adams for another hour and you will find what you require.”

  She pulled back in fright and hit up against the car. Sliding around the back of it, her attention still on the man and dog, she started running.

  *****

  Mike stood in the room on the lowest floor of the complex, which had been designated a ‘detection area’ with Constance and Kevin as well as a few other people with ASD seated behind a long table. Soldiers stood at the periphery. Denise stood with him. She seemed more fidgety than usual.

  “You need to try and keep calm…” he said to her.

  She looked at him with a frown, then looked back at the facilities staff filing in one by one, standing in front of those at the long desk to be judged if the AI had control of them or not. So far everyone was in the clear.

  “Just look at it as a virus, or something that’s in our systems, but is manageable. You’re the scientist you should be dealing with this better than the rest of us,” he continued.

  “You don’t get it.”

  “Don’t get what?”

  “Yes, it’s correct to say the amount of nanites in us, now, are not enough to activate fully, but continued exposure over time…”

  “Ah… I see.”

  She turned her head towards him, anger visible in her face. “You see? What exactly do you see Mike?” she continued before he could reply. “We should be okay down here in the mountain, the nanites would have not have penetrated this far down, but up there—” Her eyes looked up. “— For those on the surface, it means—”

  “Eventually the AI will control everyone… I get it.”

  “Oh you get it. Great.”

  He sighed and his mind turned to Alexis. Out there. Somewhere. That’s what he cared about, not whether there were a few thousand tiny AI machines running around his body. “So what do we do about it? Can we flush them out of us?”

  “Maybe… I don’t know.”

  They both watched Cary step forward in front of Constance and the others. He stiffened his back.

  “You’re fine. Next!” she shouted.

  He blew out his cheeks with a breath then noticing Mike and Denise, walked over to them. “This the last of them. These are from the top floors. It’s good to know we don’t have any AI spies amongst us, eh?”

  “Yeah,” said Mike. Denise remained silent. “Any chance of letting Elias out of his cell?”

  “You’re fine! Next,” shouted Constance.

  “I don’t think so. Not any time yet anyway. The scientists tell me they have no idea how the AI works within a human’s brain. Early days and all that.”

  “You’re fine! Next.”

  “I’ve fought alongside him for the past few days. If what’s inside him wanted to kill me, or anyone—”

  “Wait… come back…” said Constance.

  “— Else, it had plenty of chances to—”

  A boom rang out around the chamber, stunning everyone with a high pitch ringing. Mike knew the sound and was the first to react, even faster than the soldiers and lunged forward at the young woman in uniform that had fired her weapon at Constance, missing her. Just as his fingers grabbed her arm with her weapon she spun around and landed a heavy blow into his shoulder sending him spiraling through the air as if he was two hundred pounds lighter. He barreled into one of the soldiers as those in the queue were diving for cover. Just as he looked up the clatter of automatic gunfire rang out and blood sprayed from her shoulder, but not before she returned fire in multiple blasts with her handgun, striking three soldiers, one after the other. Cary was kneeling and fired a volley of shots hitting the woman in her thigh and back, dropping her to the ground but she was still alive and raised her gun, not at him, but at Constance who sat frozen and shaking. A siren was now wailing around them and almost masked the final booms of gunfire.

  Mike stood above her, an M4 carbine rifle in his hand, pointed at what was left of the woman’s head.

  “She… she…”

  Denise ran to Constance and instinctively threw her arm around the young woman who continued to shake.

  “She… I saw a man standing near her. He made her do the bad things.”

  “It’s okay Constance, she… he’s gone now.”

  Everyone got to their feet, when a commotion came from the corridor outside. Mike expected a group of soldiers to appear, but instead it was a lone officer. He ran into the room, shock on his face at what lay on the floor. “What happened here?” he said.

  “She was one of them,” said Cary.

  “Okay…” The soldier looked at Mike. “You’re needed in the briefing room. There’s a message for you from Alexis Adams.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Corolla looked at the young soldier seated at the computer console, and nodded. After a flurry of keystrokes Alexis’s voice played from a recording, and Mike listened intently.

  “Hello? This is federal agent Alexis Adams. I’m in Tucson Arizona at a truck stop… somewhere I’m not sure where in the city. Central. I’m trying to reach any federal authorities. I have an important message from the AI… it says it agrees with the Halstead Initiative… I know it’s crazy, but it—”