Colonel Rogers continued his explanation. “We’re headed to an airfield so we can rendezvous with the teams.”
“Teams?” Ash asked. “How many are there?”
Captain Riegel responded. “Two. The first is led by Nomad and is comprised of specialists throughout the military and some branches of the government. All of them have combat training, and most have combat experience. They’ll have advantages in both communication and efficiency over your team.”
“I don’t understand,” Ash said. “Are we in some type of competition? Don’t we want the same thing?”
“Of course,” Colonel Rogers responded. “But the nature of these two groups seems almost purposefully created for conflict. I allowed it to proceed because of my faith in Captain Riegel and her program.”
Captain Riegel continued. “The issue is that each member of Nomad’s team has a civilian counterpart, and with the combination of lifestyle differences and overlapping expertise, conflict is guaranteed. Nomad’s team are all highly trained and familiar with stressful situations and abrasive people. It’s likely most problems will arise from your team, Shamrock, as civilians are neither trained to deal with stress, especially life-and-death stress, and disagreements are the most common between people who think they’re both experts.”
“Why even have two teams?” Ash asked. “Honestly, it seems dumb to put civilians in a situation like the Pit.”
Captain Riegel smiled sadly. “You aren’t the only one with that opinion. Without the support of Colonel Rogers, my proposal would’ve gone nowhere, despite its origins. The reality is nobody knows what’s inside that Pit, except that it’s already proved to be outside the scope of most people’s imagination.”
Ash nodded. “The news provides almost no facts.”
“One fact we know with certainty is that technology doesn’t work consistently near the Pit, and inside, it doesn’t work at all. I believe the military’s dependence on technology reduces their effectiveness. Some, like Nomad and Longshot, have trained for such situations, but the others haven’t, and based on some classified, let’s call them scouting missions, the results from our military teams have been nothing short of catastrophic. All that to say, what we’ve done hasn’t worked, so we’re adding a new component to this attempt.”
Ash’s Throat and Third Eye chakras had tingled during Captain Riegel’s explanation, so he asked her about it. “You said something about ‘despite its origins.’ What did you mean by that?”
Captain Riegel glanced at the Colonel, and he nodded. “Assume everything that we tell you is classified, but this is especially so. I’m part of a larger team that is tasked with detecting threats. Specifically, creating machine learning models and utilizing big data to discover anomalies.”
“So, you’ve been watching me?”
“Shamrock, we watch everyone. You’re only special because the machine learning algorithm identified you. You and all the members of your team triggered the same algorithm. It was a personal project that the Colonel approved. My model analyzed those anomalies to determine if they could be of use to the country, and over time, it built an interesting list of candidates.”
Ash nodded at the briefcase that Captain Riegel still clutched to her chest, although not as tightly. “And that’s what’s in the briefcase?”
“Just the ones for this activity, but I’ll admit, they’re the best for what we need.”
“She means they’re her favorites,” the Colonel said with a laugh.
The Captain frowned but was obviously too good of a soldier to talk back. After a moment, she sighed, the sound detectable over the headset despite the thumping of the helicopter blades. “I guess that’s not entirely inaccurate,” she admitted. “I’ve become perhaps a little too interested in many of my anomalies.”
“I can understand why I stuck out,” Ash responded, “but how did you find the others? In fact, how many are there?”
Captain Riegel glanced at the Colonel again, and he nodded once more. The Captain locked eyes with Ash. “This information is past classified, and I’m only telling you because you’re the team leader. This is not to be shared with anyone, is that understood, Shamrock?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Ash replied.
Captain Riegel glanced down at her briefcase briefly before looking back at Ash. “I didn’t lie earlier when I told you it was a large learning model, but I didn’t tell you the whole truth, which is that the algorithm that picked all of you is an advanced AI. By advanced, I mean very. It’s unclear, in fact, if she’s sapient.”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Wait, are you saying your computer is alive?”
“Like I said,” Captain Riegel replied, “that is unclear. She considered this issue from a unique angle. She correlated the Pit with a reverse tower, or a dungeon, and approached the problem as if creating a party for adventure.”
“Are you saying that your computer is playing Dungeons and Dragons with us?”
Captain Riegel smiled. “It’s not a bad analogy.”
Ash shook his head, trying to wrap his mind around this information. “I’m no expert, but how in God’s name are we going to survive what you have effectively just described as a dungeon? I can understand the military—they have training for this, but us normal people will get slaughtered.”
“First, I want to reiterate that every military team, regardless of composition, has failed catastrophically, and by that, I mean they all died.”
“Wow, you are really selling this,” Ash replied.
Captain Riegel laughed. “Point taken. Listen, all the models failed until you were added into the mix. What makes all this work is you, Shamrock.”
Ash didn’t respond. He had plenty of secrets, so he waited until he understood exactly which one the Captain meant.
“She’d already identified you when—”
Ash held up a hand. “Sorry to interrupt, ma’am, but you keep calling her ‘she.’ Does the computer program that may or may not be alive have a name?”
Once again, Captain Riegel looked to the Colonel for permission. This time the Colonel paused and studied Ash for five seconds, before turning to the Captain and giving a slow nod.
Captain Riegel raised her eyebrows and looked from the Colonel to Ash. “This name is so classified, there’s not even a designation for it. Never use it except with the Colonel or myself. Doing so will most certainly place you in prison and possibly get you killed. Her name is Persephone, but I usually just call her Sephy.”
“I understand,” Ash responded. “Thank you for trusting me.”
Colonel Riegel nodded. “As I was saying, she’d already identified you for your martial arts skills, which she classified as unmatched. Despite this, Sephy hesitated because she’d detected another anomaly she didn’t understand. She focused intently on you, consuming vast amounts of resources. In fact, we considered that she might have broken.”
Ash had a feeling he knew where this was headed. They had already labeled it, after all.
“Until you, Sephy had not constructed a civilian team which survived more than ten minutes in her models. And survival is at the heart of it. You have survived in one of the most dangerous areas of the world against arguably the best-funded private militia in existence, and amassed significant resources from the narcos you killed. So the assumption was, with the rampant corruption, that you had bribed enough people to provide the warnings necessary to prepare and survive. After all, what other explanation could there be?”
Captain Riegel let the question hang, but Ash didn’t bite. They obviously had figured out part of the answer, but he had no intention of helping them figure out anything more. Not until he understood things better.
“Sephy studied you with unconventional surveillance: people’s phones, smart TVs, security cameras, vehicle backup cameras, you get the point,” Captain Riegel explained. “Only then did the anomaly she’d detected reveal itself, and it changed everything.”
The Colonel spoke up. “We hope someday you’ll explain it to us in detail, as you’re far too valuable to force information from. But you already knew that because you’d never have gotten on this helicopter with us if we wished you harm. In fact, it’s highly likely you and your grandpa would’ve already fled had our intentions been anything but friendly.”
Captain Riegel’s eyes shined. “Sephy initially believed that you could see the future, but so many of your other actions belied that hypothesis. Like, you have never won any lotteries – not that you need the money, so that could be explained – but you also don’t know people’s names or valuable information like the weather or trees in your grove that need attention. So Sephy formed a new theory, but that isn’t important. For us and our task, the ‘how’ doesn’t matter.”
The Colonel leaned forward and continued. “In fact, we don’t believe you even know the extent of whatever it is that you do. Our surveillance of you has captured multiple instances of you altering your normal path, seemingly unaware of the danger you avoided: alligators, flash floods, car accidents, fatal shootings between farmers, narco ambushes—the list goes on and on. The fact is you’re a walking rabbit’s foot.”
“Shamrock is easier to say, though,” Captain Riegel added.
Ash already knew that they’d homed in on his ability to detect danger. If they’d identified the other benefits of his chakras, especially the awakened Root chakra, they didn’t mention them.
Captain Riegel, after Ash didn’t respond, continued. “Once Sephy understood this unerring ability to avoid danger, it changed all the calculations, and suddenly ‘Shamrock’ became a reality.”
Ash didn’t deny anything, as it was the truth, and they had overwhelming evidence to support it. “Why not just put me with the military team then? Why bother exposing civilians to danger?”
The Colonel narrowed his eyes at Ash. “That is a very astute question, Shamrock. Sephy’s calculations show that while placing you in a military team would increase their survivability by thirty-three percent, the percentage climbs to almost seventy with the addition of the civilians.”
“Seventy percent isn’t so bad, I guess,” Ash said.
“Just to be clear, that’s only for the first six hours. The percentages drop after that.”
“Drop how much?” Ash asked.
Captain Riegel looked uncomfortable. “Let’s just call it significant.”
“And people volunteered for this?”
“They did, for different reasons. And I must admit, it was easier than I anticipated to convince you. Can I ask why?”
Ash shrugged, thinking about his family’s fervent belief in their responsibility to an ancient god. “You could call it an obligation. Paying it forward for someone who did the same for my family in the past.”
“Fair enough.”
A minute passed in silence as everyone contemplated their own thoughts, and then Ash asked a question he’d wondered about since the beginning.
“What’s in that Pit, and is it true about the dragons and elves?”