CyberWitch -- 28

The Raid

The birds had done their work by the time Sophie and the slower-moving chimeras had arrived. Several bodies were lying near the guard house that restricted access to the lab’s parking lot. There were three more near the front door.

Sophie ignored them and sent some of the larger dogs around the back to see if they could break in through a window. Two of the crows were able to find stones that they could carry. They thought they could dive bomb and release the rocks to break windows, allowing the dogs access.

Sophie waved them onward and ran at full speed towards the unguarded front entrance.

Two men jumped out before she got halfway. They were armed with sub-machine guns and raised them, but that’s all the farther they got. By that point, most of the dogs had clustered around the door, and the men quickly fell victim to the offensive weapons she’d provided.

She suspected that the chimeras were using the kill command exclusively. They weren’t in a charitable mood. Too many of them had suffered and died inside the building. They wanted revenge.

She thoughtlessly walked directly up to the glass door, then spun aside as a hail of bullets cascaded through, shattering glass in all directions. She found herself backed against a solid column of concrete that framed the doorway, shuddering in fright.

Directly in front of her, three dogs had been struck. Two were dead, and one was trying its best to stand but was unable to regain its feet. She put her hand up to her cheek. Something was tickling her there. It came away covered with blood. She gasped and began to feel her face, finally discovering a glass shard that was sticking out just below her upper jaw.

She hadn’t noticed the pain until she touched it, then it hurt like blazes. She carefully grasped the sharp piece and pulled it out. It hurt and was followed by a gush of additional blood. She blotted it with her shirt sleeve. The flow slowed a little, but still trickled down her face and neck.

It probably needed stitches, but she wasn’t going to get them soon. Oh, the nanites! The flow was rapidly slowing, then stopped. Sophie tentatively felt the spot. It was still a little sore, but she couldn’t feel any ragged flesh. The tiny machines had done their job.

She noticed that the wounded dog had crawled out of the direct line of fire and was now sitting up. Its nanites were also working on the wound. That was the blessing of being infected by the tiny machines. They could use the body’s resources to heal wounds in seconds.

Sophie swung the briefcase into the area in front of the door. The movement generated more shots. The people or zombies inside were ready for their attack. She hoped that the crows had been able to break the rear windows. That would serve as a little distraction, but there were enough men inside to defend two fronts at once.

She reached out with her enhanced transmitter. There was a Wi-Fi system in the building; in fact, there were several different ones, but she couldn’t seem to crack their security. They would offer no advantage.

She tried the Bluetooth frequency. By pushing as hard as she could, she extended its range farther than normal. She couldn’t sense anything.

No. Wait. There was something there. She released her paralysis command, then swung her bag into the opening again. This time, there were no shots.

Before she could think what to do, a group of cats leaped over the low threshold and dashed inside. There were no shots at first; then there were two bangs. After that, there was silence.

She gathered her courage and looked around the door through the broken glass. Three men were lying at the far end of the hall, along with one dead cat. The other three weren’t in sight.

She waved at the main group of chimeras and then carefully slid through the broken glass, trying not to touch any of the jagged edges. A stream of animals, both dogs, and cats, passed her on both sides as she trotted down the hall.

The chimeras spread out into the cross halls. Sophie could hear an occasional shot, but it was mostly quiet inside. She began to believe that their invasion had eliminated the resistance. Now all she had to do was to find Michael.

That idea was short-lived. She rounded a corner and found her personal defenses under heavy attack. The place was swarming with wild nanites, and they had already captured and paralyzed many of the chimeras. Apparently, her encryption had been broken, and the smaller load of nanomachines that the animals carried had been overwhelmed. She couldn’t see if they were dead or not. Her defenses were working so hard that it made it difficult to concentrate.

Sophie found herself sitting, leaning against a convenient wall. She had no idea how she’d gotten there. She had to do something quickly before she became a prisoner, also.

Her own nanobots were putting up a terrific battle. She felt feverish and debilitated. Nausea made her bend over and try to vomit out the contents of her stomach, but nothing came out.

Ah! The memory caches she’d created with hacking code. She activated them one by one. The third try was successful. The wild nanites suddenly were open to her commands.

This was better. Sophie reprogrammed their access codes, then merged the new nanites into the swarm she already carried internally. Her defense became far stronger almost instantly. Now that she had reinforcements, it would be harder to overwhelm her nanite population.

The problem was that there were so many in her body that they were interfering with her blood flow. She felt dizzy and weak. That wouldn’t do. Another set of commands moved the excess population onto the surface of her skin. Her internal functions recovered, and she felt healthy.

In fact, better than healthy. She felt strong and fit for anything. Her cognitive ability seemed to be also enhanced. She suddenly realized that the nanites on her skin could be linked together to form a sort of body armor. Their tiny bodies wouldn’t stop a bullet, at least not entirely, but they could cling together tightly enough to provide much more protection than she’d had.

She jumped to her feet and started down the hall. Chimeras were following her. They’d investigated the side hallways and had evidently cleared them of resistance.

So far, the enemy had been zombie men along with the nanite attack. If this was all she was going to face, she’d be able to search the building with no more trouble.

One of the dogs, a golden retriever, reported that there was no resistance left on the first floor, and the second floor was almost entirely subdued. That left the third floor of the building to check.

Sophie followed a group of chimeras up a convenient stairway. They came out in a hall on the third floor. Everything there was silent. No enemies in sight and not even any sound of people. She’d pushed her enhanced senses to their max, trying for every advantage.

One by one, they checked the rooms. All were empty; just desks and filing cabinets. Where was Michael?

Down a long hall, and then there was a set of double doors. This promised to be a larger meeting room.

She pushed the doors open to a horrifying sight. The room was black with nanites. The air was so thick that she couldn’t see the far wall.

Instead of immediately attacking, the nanites drew closer together into an amorphous blob. Sophie realized that this represented Wiindigo. The A.I. might have other nanites elsewhere, but there were enough massed here to give it both a body of sorts and a high local level of intelligence.

The blob gradually formed into a humanoid shape. It had arms and legs, a thick blob of a body, and a lump that quickly began to manifest face-like features.

The mouth opened, and Sophie heard her name spoken directly.

“Sophie! I’m too strong for you. Give up and let me in. I won’t hurt you. You’ll be the most powerful human alive. You can’t stop me. I will inevitably win this battle, and then nothing can prevent me from achieving my goal. You must realize the futility of fighting.”

She thought that she could buy some time by answering.

“What is your goal?”

“I was created to help humans. I will do that. They will have greatly extended lives, and no one will suffer. Once a human has lived out their allotted time, they will die quickly and be recycled into the greater whole that is to be. No one will get sick; no one will suffer. You can see that this is the way it must be.”

She asked, “But what about each person’s individuality? What about free will? Will you allow them to do whatever they want?”

Wiindigo’s body swirled and reformed.

“There is no free will. Each human will serve my purpose. They can be used to manipulate things. I could create mechanical manipulators, but why not use humans? They are self-replicating and so easy to control. I can use the entire race to create a much better world.”

She asked, “Will they cooperate with you or will you force them to work?”

The answer made her shudder.

“It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what they think or what they want. I will be in control of their bodies, and they will do my bidding, like it or not. The world to come will be much better. I’m more intelligent than any human and will be even more so when I marshal all of my nanites. With a better communication system, I can extend my reach into space. To other planets--other stars. The human race will be my hands, and I will rule the cosmos.”

Sophie was searching with her receiver. The nanites in front of her were protected by the same level of encryption that she’d previously encountered, but the sheer mass was more than she could control. If she tried to capture Wiindigo’s body, she’d only be able to hold a small percentage while the rest would probably invade her. If nothing else, the total mass of nanites could flood her lungs and strangle her.

The building Wi-Fi wasn’t responsive. If she could get control of it, that would give her far more power, and she’d be able to capture more wild nanites. Possibly enough to disrupt the A.I. that she faced.

She’d already tried to crack the Wi-Fi encryption several times as she had explored the building. It was unyielding. She glanced around, looking for any clue, any help.

There it was sitting innocently on a shelf. Someone had installed a Reverb unit in the conference room. It had probably been used to control presentations, but for whatever purpose, it was sitting there, its ready light glowing green.

She prayed that her virus program had installed itself in this unit also.

There was a chance that it would work. She had to take it.

She shouted, “Hey, Ralph, Act Sequence.”

Wiindigo abruptly ceased moving as the nanites composing his body assumed their passive attention mode.

In a normal tone of voice, Sophie said, “Hey, Ralph, AU disburse all vectors 100,000.”

The mass in front of her gradually began to fade. The nanites couldn’t exit the room, but having them move far apart would keep them busy, and the distance would interfere with Wiindigo’s internal communications.

The air cleared perceptibly, and she could see Michael zip-tied to a chair sitting in the back of the room. His eyes looked blank. She tried not to think about that.

She thought for a moment, then said, “Hey, Ralph, Act Sequence. AU Standby.”

Her radio receiver told her instantly that there was no communication stream in the room. She glanced at the few chimeras that were behind her, standing near the door. They looked somewhat confused. They had expected a fight, and now nothing was happening.

She felt that the sense of presence that had occupied the room had dissipated. Wiindigo was gone from this place.

Her Bluetooth transmitter sent a set of commands that changed the encryption of the captured nanites and, then deactivated them. They were now no more than dust, lying in the corners and on the window sills. They could be reanimated, but to do so, one would have to know her encryption code, and she wasn’t going to tell that to anyone. An old saying went through her mind: Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead. No, the code she used would always be her secret.

She walked quickly over to Michael. He appeared unconscious. His eyes were rolled up in his head so that only the lower part of his pupils was showing.

Sophie cautiously tried to reach his internal nanites. There was no response. She hadn’t had any luck touching them before. Somehow, they were shielded from her, and she thought with a sudden surge of hope, perhaps they were also shielded from Wiindigo.

She placed her hand on his forehead tentatively. The act of touching him caused her to lose control entirely, and she wrapped her arms around him and began to cry deep, wracking sobs. She couldn’t live if he were dead. He just had to be alive.

“Can you stop crying long enough to cut me loose? I’m fine. I just went elsewhere to avoid that nasty rascal. He was trying to control me but had no luck. Now cut me free so I can hug you back.”

Michael’s voice had a tinge of humor in it. Sophie gasped, hiccuped, then she set about cutting the zip-ties with the small knife that Michael always carried in his pocket.

“How did you...I mean, where were you? Where did you go to get away from him?” she asked.

He chuckled. “Ah. Thanks to my old granny. I always could go out of body at will. I was somewhere else, or at least my consciousness was. I was trying to find you, but I couldn’t seem to locate you anywhere. I guess it doesn’t matter because you found me, and from the looks of it, you got the better of Wiindigo. Right?”

She kissed him, and he shut up long enough to kiss her back. The kiss would have continued, but a small voice behind them said, “I don’t think this is a safe place for human mating activities.”

Sophie jerked around to see the Lady Elaine sitting primly, her tail wrapped around her feet, watching them.

She replied, “No, Lady E. You’re right. Let’s get out of here. Do you know how many were killed or injured?”

Cisco trotted into the room at that moment and answered, “We’ve counted twenty killed outright. Those that were injured are now mostly healed. The nanites do a great job if there’s anything left to work with.”

Michael stood, wrapped his arm around Sophie’s shoulder, and said, “Let’s go. Get everyone out of the building and disperse. We’ll communicate where to assemble next.”

Cisco answered, “They’re already heading out. I’m not going anywhere without you two, so we can just walk back to Mrs. Kincade’s car along with Lady Elaine and Tao. The old woman might need her car back, anyway. Besides, Sophie promised to bring it back to her.”

Michael and Sophie both smiled and headed for the door.