Terrance Givens, former Navy SEAL, and second in command of Proteus security forces was back in Texas. The base at home was surrounded by the Mexican Army on land and the Navy had a loose blockade stopping their cargo ships. Naturally, he had taken their submarine to avoid all this. He felt a little sad that the vehicle that had been intended for deep sea exploration had only been used for shuttling troops and weapons around.
His mission was a strange one. First, he would pick up a large U Haul and fill it with weapons and combat drones dropped off from the submarine. This part was easy, except that he had to get the truck in Louisiana and get around military checkpoints along the major highways entering Texas. He had plans to travel on a dirt road on a farmer’s private property in the northern part of the state. Management had identified a man willing to let people smuggle trucks around checkpoints for a fee, and he probably didn’t want to know who else used this service. He then had to pick up a forty-year old hardware store manager outside San Antonio who Glitch_HR had flagged as the best choice to lead a rebellion in Texas. Finally, he had to bring the weapons and leader to a group of loosely organized malcontents who had been organizing in rural East Texas and help train them into an effective force.
Terrance had been briefed that this was a group that was currently getting aid and guidance from SPAI. It was odd that both sides were working towards the same goal, but with hopes of a different outcome. SPAI intended for the rebellious groups to get the confidence to attack a Homeland Security detention center and justify a brutal crackdown on the ‘domestic terrorists’. This would ultimately allow the agency to arrest the governor and any other politicians who had been critical of the new policies. Nadia’s plan was to arm them and provide better leadership, so the group would actually have a successful rebellion and win concessions, instead of just an easy target that could be blamed for all the trouble.
The first step had been easy. Terrance had a U Haul filled with advanced weaponry and was heading to the San Antonio suburbs. His teammate on this mission was Marta Lopez, one of the college acquaintances of the company owners, who happened to be one of the more impressive recruits he had ever worked with. When they met, he had been somewhat surprised with the overweight girl who became obsessed with weightlifting and participating in any training exercise available. Marta was still stocky, but it was all muscle now. The shapeless clothes hid what he knew was an attractive, though somewhat over muscled, physique. With how she dressed, someone might get the impression she was still overweight, but the girl could move with explosive speed, and her balance and flexibility were phenomenal. Terrance was hard-pressed when they sparred. He lost as many as he won, relying on his ridiculous strength to sometimes land a blow or hold that could end the fight. Without the improvements to his physique from the Biotech procedures, Marta would probably beat him every time. Terrance thought adding her to the team would help convince would-be soldiers that they needed more training.
Entering the hardware store, Terrance identified their target, Marcus Ortega.
“Excuse me, Marcus. This is going to sound a bit weird, but do you have a moment to talk about the current situation in Texas.” Terrance really had no idea how to just recruit a stranger for the job of rebellion leadership. He had faith in Scott’s program, but he thought they should have sent in an HR expert like Jessica or Scott to handle this sort of job. They had scoped the man for a few minutes before approaching. He seemed to know many customers by name, as well as enough details to strike up a short conversation. The man at least seemed to have social skills, even if his appearance wasn’t inspiring.
Marcus was a balding, slightly overweight man with graying dark hair. He was wearing a blue plaid shirt under a red overall with the store’s logo, and jeans that looked like he had used for several painting projects. Marcus had been checking inventory in an aisle with assorted screws, nails and other metal bits when they found him.
“That’s an odd question,” Marcus replied. He stared at them, giving Terrance his full attention. Most people’s eyes would drift a bit when interrupted by a stranger, thinking about other tasks or projects. This guy gave the impression that what you were saying was the most important thing in the world. Terrance had heard of this kind of focus in leadership training but was impressed to see it in action. It was the opposite of talking to Melinda, who was clearly juggling multiple things. Even the fraction of attention she gave you seemed distracted.
“Well, I admit I’m not sure how to approach this,” Terrance said. “We think Texas is in a lot of trouble right now, and my company thinks you might be able to help.”
“I agree, Texas is in trouble. It seems like someone is trying to encourage us to rebel, so they can justify making an example of us. Homeland has already locked up enough people to ensure the election will go in their favor and the governor will be removed. If they can push some groups into an armed rebellion, they can get rid of all pretenses of restraint.” Marcus replied while stroking the stubble on his chin.
“So, you don’t think a rebellion has any chance to succeed?” Terrance asked, interested in the opinion of the potential leader. Terrance believed a leader should project confidence, inspiring troops that winning was almost a certainty.
“No chance at all. It wouldn’t surprise me if these groups are getting financial support from the same people planning to crush them.” Marcus answered, crushing Terrance’s hopes. “I probably sound like some kind of conspiracy buff, but it’s what I would do if I wanted to replace the governor and flip the political structure of the state. Now, that group which stole the SpaceX rocket has a much better chance of success in Mexico. I won’t be surprised to hear Yucatán declaring independence in the next few weeks.”
Terrance was caught a bit off balance by the change of topic to Sergio’s recent raid. Also, Yucatán independence? “That’s interesting. The US labeled that group terrorists. Don’t you think they are going to get crushed if the US and Mexico are teaming up to wipe them out?”
“First, that word ‘terrorist’ is just dumb in this situation. The word describes an action that makes ordinary people think something horrible could happen to them, with the goal of creating political pressure that will have a favorable effect for the terrorist. How is stealing a rocket a terrorist act? Are people around the country going to be scared that someone will drop from the sky and steal their multi-billion dollar spacecraft? Plus, they didn’t even kill any of the employees. A group that can pull off something like that without killing is impressive.”
“I don’t think they said anything in the news about them not killing people.” Marta added. She had been one of the people on that mission, so she was interested to hear a thoughtful opinion on the subject.
“Yeah, well it’s not about what they said, but they would be screaming about ruthless bloodshed if anyone got so much as a paper cut during the incident.” Marcus explained. “The media has a long, proud history of government propaganda, but I find it lazy and irritating when they use the same words to describe everything. Nazis, Terrorists, Racists. That Yucatán group embarrassed the US with superior technology and a truly unexpected heist.”
“Can you explain why you think stealing a rocket means Yucatán will secede? That seems like a bit of a stretch.” Terrance asked. He found the conversation interesting, even if they couldn’t hire the man.
Terrance had done his homework on Marcus before approaching him. Marcus had been an officer in the Army, possibly in military intelligence, based on the locations he was posted. Glitch_HR didn’t have job history visible going back much before the software was created. That might be a good feature to ask Scott about. Marcus spent some time in the Reserve, but he had retired about ten years ago. According to social media, he played some strategy games online and was middle of the pack in the elite groups for several games, but he never made it to the top.
Marcus paused for a bit, perhaps wondering how their conversation had gone down this path. “I’m going to make a wild guess here that you two are somehow involved with this group in Mexico. I had you both pegged as special forces, and having a woman to be on your team narrows things down to Israel or the mysterious Proteus group. A black dude and Hispanic girl make Proteus the most likely, plus you guys seemed really interested in my opinion about the rocket theft.”
“For the record, we’re planning to give it back and pay for damages. I probably shouldn’t say more about why we had to do something so drastic.” Terrance added, a bit defensive that Marcus seemed to have figured them out.
“Everyone thinks they are the good guys, right?” Marcus said with a wink. “Sorry, but I have to get back to work soon. Can you tell me why you wanted to talk to me? I’m too old to be on a team like yours, and you already seem to have good leadership.”
Stolen story; please report.
“You’d be surprised about the age thing,” Marta laughed. “I bet Terrance is ten years older than you.”
Terrance glared at her, then tried to play it off. “Black doesn’t wrinkle!”
“Yeah, right,” Marta laughed. “Terrance spent six months of hazard pay and testing bonuses to get the Vanity Package.”
“Hey, it was worth it. I look good!” Terrance defended himself.
“You spent $80k just to get rid of the gray in your hair. Did you know they sell dye kits for less than $20?” Marta laughed.
“I was balding and gray. I had to shave my head every couple days, or it would have looked ridiculous with how pretty my face is now.” Terrance privately agreed it might have been stupid to spend so much money on his hair, but there was no way he’d admit that to the other security guys.
“No, seriously, you’re older than me?” Marcus seemed a little stunned. “I mean, you look like a late twenties professional athlete.”
“OK, I’ll just explain that part then,” Terrance groaned. “You’ve probably seen on the news about how we are creating mutant super soldiers and other outrageous claims. They had that video of Carl ripping a 500-pound server rack out of a wall and then running with it. Also, they keep showing the clip of the killer robot and Scott tossing some guy like he was a small child.”
“I thought that was some weird fake. You’re serious? Are you like those guys?” Marcus was glancing between them, his mouth hanging open a bit.
“That’s one of the perks if you work with us. We can get you a few treatments at the Spa, and you’ll be in better shape than the guys you used to be jealous of back in college. They give those packages out free for security guys willing to sign up for testing the new stuff. They were charging several hundred thousand for similar operations if you are some random billionaire walk-in. That Carl guy is at least 55 years old. He doesn’t really remember his age because of some massive brain tumor our boss fixed for him. I’m 52, so I’m probably not really ten years older than you. Marta thinks everyone over 30 is old. This isn’t really what I wanted to talk about, but it helps prove the point that we have great tech, which gives an advantage over the US and other world powers right now. They can still crush us with numbers and the size of their economies, so we stayed under the radar until recently.”
“What changed? Seems like stealing a rocket really kicked the hornet’s nest.” Marcus seemed to have forgotten that he needed to get back to work.
“Right, we’re kind of up against this Skynet wannabe AI called SPAI that put us near the top of its kill list. We’re right behind the state of Texas and Russia on this insane robot’s target list. We rescued one of their programmers and found out that the attack on Washington DC was caused because of a bug in their software. They fixed it at the last minute, so only the first part of the plan was completed.”
“I heard rumors that there was a nuclear weapon that went missing and was almost used in the attack.” Marcus added.
“The nuke was on the way, but the driver ended up having a conscience and turned himself in. The official news didn’t report it because it would have been very implausible for some Texas militia to have cracked the security on a nuclear weapon.” Terrance explained.
“I already thought it was unlikely those Texas militia groups could have coordinated such a sophisticated attack. Those guys can’t even agree on what to chant when they protest gun control in Austin.” Marcus started pacing a bit. “If I had to guess, you are probably trying to form some kind of alliance with Texas to counterattack this SPAI. Why do you think I can help? I don’t have connections with militias. I’m just a store manager!”
“Our management makes odd decisions sometimes, but they are really great at finding skilled people who are undervalued in their current jobs. I’m starting to see why they picked you. We want you to help organize the rebellion in Texas. Before you laugh, I have a U Haul full of advanced weapons and I spent years training special forces. I think you understand what could happen if no one stands up to these guys.” Terrance finally got around to making the pitch. “We can provide some funding, and we have a safe place to evacuate family or friends you might be worried about.”
“This is not how I was expecting my day to go.” Marcus slumped a bit. “Can I think about it for a day?”
“Sure. We’ve been traveling for hours, so we’re going to get hotel rooms. We need to be careful talking on cell phones, even if you have an encryption package. An encoded message puts a target on us even if they can’t decrypt it. How about we meet you for lunch tomorrow, and you can give me your answer. Even if you aren’t interested in the job, I’d be happy to listen to your advice for a bit.” Terrance left it at that.
Later that evening, Marta and Terrance were eating barbecue. They had fish that tasted like beef at home, but it was just not the same as a properly smoked brisket. Terrance wondered if the problem was the meat or because they didn’t have someone who knew how to cook it correctly. How had they managed to rescue a hundred people from Texas, and no one wanted to start up a decent smokehouse? At least the Tex-Mex restaurant was good, but he missed some of the chains you could find here. Hopefully someone would open franchise restaurants in Proteus once they handled the Mexican blockade and the population increased.
Marcus called him while he was finishing his second heaping plate. Terrance needed to eat a lot with the extra muscle mass.
“Hey Terrance, this is Marcus. Let's meet up."
Later, Marcus showed up where they were having drinks.
"I spent all afternoon thinking about how stupid it would be to quit my job and go train up an army to fight the United States military.”
“Since you can’t stop thinking about it, I guess you’re interested.” Terrance replied with a grin.
“See, I’m addicted to strategy games. I play a bunch of them online. I never make the top of the leader boards, but the people who are serious know I’m a dangerous opponent. I have to admit, going up against unknown AIs is scary. Some games you can’t beat them. When the options are limited, and they can evaluate all possibilities, you lose. Also, in games where micromanaging a hundred things at once gives an advantage, a human player can’t win. This situation involves real people, and there are too many variables for a computer to have perfect understanding, so it might be possible for human intuition to compete. It’s a dumb risk, but I can’t help wanting to challenge myself.” Marcus was talking fast and seemed excited.
“What about the risk to family and friends?” Terrance asked. This was usually the biggest challenge.
“I’m divorced, so I don’t care much about my ex. I have a lot of acquaintances, but not close friends. My daughter’s family is the main issue. I talked to her, and she thinks I’m crazy.” Marcus said, his voice a bit sad.
“Tell me more about her family.” Terrance prompted.
“She lives near Austin and was laid off recently from her job at a company that made microchips for computers or phones. Not really sure exactly what she did, but it was some kind of engineering. Her husband did some kind of programming for a game company that went bankrupt a few years ago. Last I heard, he was working in food delivery, and they are struggling.” Marcus lost some of the excitement in his voice. He knew his daughter’s family had been through a lot recently, and he helped when they would let him.
“We can probably find better jobs for them. Do you have any grandkids?” Terrance asked.
“Not yet. They put that on hold when Susan lost her job,” Marcus replied sadly.
“Well, we have tons of jobs at Proteus. At least we did before the US and Mexico attacked all our businesses. That slowed down a few companies, but you’d never guess based on all the construction going on.” Terrance's brow wrinkled. When he was at Proteus and the beach house a few days ago, it seemed like business as usual. The Spa was still full, construction crews were coming and going from the new sections of Proteus, and extra factories were getting added to Section One. Were all the workers just living onsite now?
“I assume you can get around the blockade?” Marcus asked. The whole idea of blockading an underwater city with surface ships seemed dumb.
“We have a large submarine we planned to use for exploration, but recently it is transportation for security teams, and we can import some supplies we can’t produce for ourselves. I think after they dropped me off, they were picked up a large amount of coffee, chocolate, and electronics. There is a funny story with that. The US and Mexico froze all our bank accounts, but one of the billionaires who is at the spa placed the order for us in exchange for some vanity treatments for his family. The politicians don’t want to lose out on his campaign contributions, so he got away with a sternly worded warning.” Terrance explained.
“Figures,” Marcus said. “I should probably pull out as much cash as possible after we talk. Actually, we should create our own banks and currency for Texas, so they can’t pull this stunt on the regular people who don’t have billionaires backing them.”
“We were talking about something similar in Proteus.” Marta pitched in. She had been content to listen until now. “Melinda didn’t want to run a bank, but with the US attacking us, we needed to be able to keep doing business. They are going to issue notes backed by platinum coins.”
“Oh, I hadn’t heard about that.” Terrance replied, surprised.
“Yeah, they have a few hundred pounds of it sitting in a warehouse. I’m on the guard shift sometimes, and one of the guys was talking about his friend working for the new bank.” Marta explained.
“Right, I have a lot to process, and I’ll need you to help connect me with anyone organizing resistance. I can think of so many ways the US can crush us, but we can keep a low profile and cause them some problems. I need to see this tech you brought, but I have a few ideas how we can build up an organization and misdirect an AI.”
Terrance sighed. They had a leader, but they were a long way from anything resembling a rebellion.