෴Raz෴

෴Braithwaite෴

෴෴෴෴෴෴

Office Visit

and

Emergency Protocols

෴෴෴෴෴෴

  Raz had his third meeting with Braithwaite on the fifth day he’d been in his cell. No one had talked to him, but if anyone had, he planned to be careful not to mention the days and times. It felt like the odd schedule might be designed to disrupt his sense of time, and if he was too confident about time, that might be a clue to his captors.

  On the third visit, Raz was locked in a sort of tank. It was filled with bathwater-warm salty water. The technicians that placed the various sensors on his body simply called it ‘sensdep’. He was fairly sure the technician was the taller one of the pair who had let him out of the restraints.

  [HUD user message: Available data supports user conclusion with 89% confidence. Upgrade host perceptual abilities to increase confidence.]

  Upgrading perceptual abilities, is there a special way to do that?

  [HUD user message: Acquire additional related upgrade datastreams, utilize or increase host upgrade capacity.]

  Raz thought about that and then realized that he might get more of those datastreams injected whether he wanted it or not. He idly wondered if the higher confidence was due to having seen this technician a few times in the cafeteria out of the white coveralls.

  [HUD user message: Conclusion incomplete. Additional user sensory experience coupled with increased System/Host integration levels results in greater precision analysis.]

  Raz took note of the answer and switched free form query back off. The last thing he wanted was for Braithwaite to find some way to detect the HUD because it was popping up an answer box at the worst time.

  Once inside the tank, the technician closed the hatch, and he was surrounded by the most perfect silence and darkness he’d ever experienced. Instinctively he activated the HUD to see if it had any settings that would help him see in total darkness.

  After trying a few settings, he reluctantly re-enabled the ‘free form query’ mode. Seconds later a message popped up.

  [HUD User Message: No significant external sensory stimuli detected. Upgrading host sensory abilities may resolve this problem.]

  Raz suddenly made the connection and realized that a ‘sensdep’ tank was a sensory deprivation tank. He remembered reading about them being used to torture people and drive them insane. He wasn’t sure exactly how floating in warm water could do that, but Raz hoped that having access to the HUD would help him stay sane. Before he could start to sift through the more interesting parts of the HUD he’d not yet looked at, Braithwaite’s voice spoke from his headphones.

  “I hope you’re comfortable in the chamber. Today we’ll be testing your senses. Your tests imply that the perception package material I gave you was assimilated by your body. At the very least, your test results look the same as they did before the treatment. My indirect tests have not shown me anything, and you keep insisting that you have no new senses or expanded senses. So I have to take a more direct approach to finding out your limits.”

  There was a long pause. Then Braithwaite spoke again. “Would you like to know what's going to happen now?”

  Raz cleared his throat. “Yes, I’d like that.”

  The gleeful smile on Braithwaite’s face was clear in his voice. “As it happens, it is necessary for you to know what is about to happen.” Suddenly a tiny dim light came on for a half-second above Raz’s floating face. “That light there indicates that there is some kind of perceptual stimulus being sent into the tank.” The light went off. “When that light goes on, you be alert to what you’re feeling, hearing, smelling, seeing, anything.” The dim light blinked again. “When it blinks on again, you tell me what you noticed. I do hope y෴ou’ll do well. I have been advised that using the tank’s inbuilt electric shock system is ill-advised due to frequent fatalities, but understand that for every missed signal, you’ll spend a minute in the shock chair, and every caught signal, you’ll lose one of those minutes. If you have any questions, too bad. We’ll begin now.” The dim light blinked on.”

  The light blinked on, and then off, and Raz would report what he thought he had perceived. Seconds later, it would all happen again. In this way, Raz spent what felt like days being tested. Even with the HUD marking time for him, and seeing that in reality, the testing lasted just under two hours, it felt like a much longer period of time. Just when he felt himself losing the ability to distinguish real sensations from his own fevered imagination, Braithwaite ended the test.

  The dim lights from the testing room were painfully bright on his fully dark-adapted eyes. The shorter technician that he thought was probably a woman was there to help him out. It crossed his mind that making him get out of the tank naked in front of a woman could either be some kind of machination of Braithwaite’s or simply bad luck of the draw with the relatively few technicians he’d seen.

  Braithwaite walked in while he was getting dressed. With a curt snap of his chin, he dismissed the technician. She, well, Raz thought it was she, left in a hurry. Braithwaite looked angry. At this point, Raz was starting to get a feel for things and thought that Braithwaite looking angry might actually be good news.

  “Have a seat.” He said tersely.

  Raz sat down, eyeing the dangerous man in front of him.

  “You’re really annoying, do you know that?” Braithwaite asked.

  Raz started to nod and then stopped and shook his head.

  “It was a rhetorical question you idiot.” Braithwaite snapped. He stood and turned obliquely from Raz, the physical picture of calm and composure. In a hazy reflective surface across the room, Raz saw the familiar indication that the HUD could render that surface into a mirror. With a thought he enabled it, and a moment later Raz could see the reflection of Braithwaite’s hand out of his direct sight, behind the man’s back. The hand wasn’t holding a weapon, or anything directly menacing. What it was doing nonetheless filled Raz with concern. Braithwaite’s hand was spasmodically opening and closing into a tight fist. Over and over again the mad scientist clenched and relaxed the hand he thought was hidden from sight.

  Raz suspected that anything that had Braithwaite so worked up could be very bad for him. A moment later his suspicions were confirmed.

  Braithwaite relaxed his hand and left it open. He then turned back toward Raz. “Well, you got every test period right for a person with average senses. I’ve gone to quite a bit of work to design a test protocol that will catch you if you fake it. You’re either better than my test, or you’re not faking it. Either way, you’ve had enough time for that last treatment to work, and we can’t see anything happening. Worse, your slot test still returns the same inconclusive result. This leaves me with little choice.” Braithwaite shrugged.

  Raz didn’t like where this was going at all.

  “I’ll just have to give you a larger treatment dose and see what happens.” Braithwaite’s somber expression instantly turned jovial, “I’ll certainly learn something. On the bright side, it might kill you horribly.”

  Raz involuntarily shrank back the smallest bit. As though some kind of predatory instinct had been triggered, Braithwaite lunged out and seized his arm. Raz instinctively tried to pull away, but it was like trying to pull away from a solid steel hand gripping his arm. Then Braithwaite began to squeeze. The pain quickly mounted to agony and Raz could feel the bones in his forearm rubbing against each other in a painful gritty sort of way. Even after Raz gave up trying to get away and just hung there loosely, Braithwaite kept squeezing for a few more seconds. Just when Raz was sure one or both of the bones in his forearm were about to break, the grip relaxed.

  Braithwaite reached into a pocket on his lab coat and withdrew a large metal clad syringe with a short but very thick needle on it. “You can struggle and I’ll crush your radius and ulna together till I make bone powder. Then you’ll have a crushed arm and still get this treatment, or you can relax, get the treatment, live with the bruise, and we’ll both see what happens. I am absolutely ok with either option.” Braithwaite said with a lazy smirk. “You should know, from my own experience, if you make me break your arm, you’re far more likely to end up being fed to my pet.”

  Raz relaxed and let his arm go as limp as possible. He took a deep breath, tried to center himself. He made the mistake of looking at the size of the thick stubby needle and winced. Braithwaite saw his expression and smiled. “Would you believe this is the smallest needle we have? Once someone has even one successful durability treatment, regular needles usually won't cut it unless they ended up with one of the specialized durability enhancements.” With that, he grinned and jabbed the needle into Raz’s shoulder. As soon as the injection was complete Braithwaite pulled the needle out and let him go. “Just kidding, we have needles of all sizes. I just like using a big one.” Braithwaite said. The sadistic scientist tossed the syringe into a nearby biohazard container. “Oh by the way, most of the time for my own convenience, I include a pain-blocking compound. But, I wanted to give you a bigger treatment this time, so I’m afraid there just wasn’t room for that.”

  A burning sensation crept up his arm. Raz noticed a fast blinking red indicator appeared in his vision despite the HUD being toggled off. Before he could investigate the notice, the burning swept through his body. He gritted his teeth to hold in a scream that was trying to force its way out. The red indicator on the HUD started flashing faster. The pain became too much and Raz fell to the floor. Braithwaite stood over him grinning like a lunatic. Raz clutched his shoulder in vain against a pain that was everywhere throughout his body. He closed his eyes. Without his turning it on, the HUD popped up. Before he could question it a bright red flashing box popped into view.

  [Critical System/Host Error: Datastream beyond Host ability to assimilate. Move upgrade data to storage? y/n]

  Raz tried to blink the message away. It wouldn’t move. He read it again and then thought an emphatic yes at the HUD.

  [Critical System/Host Error: Storage capacity undefined, create? y/n]

  Raz gave it another yes.

  Raz wouldn’t have thought it was possible, but the pain suddenly sharpened and became even more intense. It felt as though the fiery acid in his blood and bones was now in motion and trying to crawl into his guts on hot razored claws. Something wet leaked onto his lips. He rubbed at it with his hand and realized it was blood. The nosebleed didn’t hurt, but it was flowing fast. Dripping onto the clean floor. He raised his bloody hand and felt his vision going blurry The last thing he felt before blacking out was a burning stabbing pain in his chest.

෴෴෴  ෴෴෴  ෴෴෴

  He woke up back in his cell. He had been changed into clean clothing, and wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Raz carefully peeled the clothing off and got in the shower. It was hard to imagine how so much of himself came to be covered with dried blood. Minutes went by under the hot water as he scrubbed at the dried blood crusting all over his body. When finally he was able to soap and scrub himself without any dark stains sluicing down the drain he finally dragged himself out and lay back down.

  The HUD clock indicated that he’d been out for a few hours. Raz wondered if they would come get him for his exercise. He took a shallow breath and felt shafts of pain stabbing out in a starburst pattern low inside his chest as his breathed. He decided that discretion might be the better part of valor and continued to lay still. He mentally toggled the HUD display on and looked at the stack of messages waiting for him.

  After what he’d just been through, Raz decided to read each one carefully and see if he could figure out what had just happened. Reading the top message, he realized the errors would be in reverse of the order of events, and willed on the free form query function.

  HUD, can you reverse the display order of all the messages that are currently displayed?

  [HUD User Message: Yes Raz, I can.]

  Thanks, Raz thought reflexively.

  That message box disappeared, leaving the stack of messages behind it stacked from earliest to latest.

  [HUD User Message: No problem.]

  That message box also blinked away as soon as he had read it. Raz suddenly realized what this meant and was surprised enough to gasp. The gasp of surprise instantly turned into a gasp of pain and it was several seconds of agony before he got his breath under control and the pain in the center of his chest back to just a sharp ache.

  HUD, am I going crazy, or are you talking to me now? Raz clearly and deliberately thought.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  [HUD User Message: You are in a stressful and difficult situation.]

  [This can apply temporary negative values to your overall functions.]

  [At this time your overall cognitive functions appear undamaged.]

  Why are you interacting with me this way now, and not before?

  [HUD User Message: The question of your continued mental well being prompted HUD decision engine to choose the rank 1 AI upgrade.]

  Upgrade? Is this related to the injection that asshole gave me?

  [HUD User Message: If by ‘that asshole’ you are indicating opponent designate Braithwaite, then yes.]

  Not sure that asshole even quite covers it, but opponent? Only in the sense that he could clearly kill me with ease, and seems like he’d enjoy it.

  [HUD User Message: Observed behaviors indicate a greater than 90% chance that he would indeed enjoy it.]

  [Upgrade host perceptual abilities to increase confidence.]

  A very short pause.

  [HUD User Message: Observed abilities in opponent Braithwaite indicate a greater than 85% chance that host life would be terminated in a direct confrontation.]

  15% chance of winning? That's better than I would have expected.

  [HUD User Message: Correction, 15% chance of surviving via escape, evasion, or concealment.]

  [Opponent appears to have enhanced physical durability and strength.]

  [Other abilities are possible.]

  [Host currently has a 0% chance of ‘winning’ a direct confrontation.]

  Oh, well fine then.

  The HUD didn’t reply.

  HUD, do you understand sarcasm?

  [HUD User Message: All idiomatic phrases understood by the user are understood by the HUD.]

  [Responses in kind not supported at this level.]

  Fair enough. Let's stick with straight information for now. For starters, you’re communicating differently since I woke up. What happened?

  [HUD User Message: Please review error logs currently displayed.]

  Can you just tell me what happened?

  [HUD User Message: That type of synthesis and abstraction is not supported at this level, but may become available at an upgraded level.]

  Ok, let's do that. Before we start, two things I want to know. First, if I turn off free form queries, will you still be able to converse the way you are?

  [HUD User Message: No, only alert and higher priority messages can be displayed with free form query disabled.]

  Got it. Ok then, let's go through the messages.

  [System/Host Message: Alternative Upgrade Datastream detected, analyze? y/n. ]

  That’s when he injected me.

  [HUD User Message: Incorrect, this occurred 7.4 seconds prior to injection.]

  [Alternative Datastream was available for 42.8 seconds.]

  Then what caused it?

  [HUD User Message: Unknown.]

  [Most probable cause is physical contact with outside organized datastream.]

  Ok, let's get back to those errors. Raz shifted on the bed and felt the pain radiating out again. It seemed to hurt noticeably less this time, having shifted to more of a dull ache.

  [System Error/Host Message: Intravenous Upgrade Datastream detected.]

  [HUD User Message: This message coincides with point of injection.]

  Point of injection? Did you just make a joke?

  [HUD User Message: No.]

  Of course not. Raz realized jokes were probably too abstract for the HUD, at least right now.

  [Critical System/Host Message: Upgrade Datastream active buffer exceeded.]

  [System/Host Integration Error: Upgrade data stream is nonoptimized.]

  [Critical System/Host Integration Error: Multiple Upgrade datastreams found.]

  [No multiple datastream decode capability available.]

  [Critical System/Host Integration Error #1: Multiple corrupted Upgrade datastreams present. Purge or Store? p/s]

  [Critical System/Host Integration Error #2: Multiple corrupted Upgrade datastreams present. Purge or Store? p/s]

  [Critical System/Host Integration Error #3: Multiple corrupted Upgrade datastreams present. Purge or Store? p/s]

  [Critical System/Host Error: Datastream beyond Host ability to assimilate.]

  [Critical System/Host Error: Datastream beyond Host ability to assimilate.]

  [Host will be damaged without purge or storage. Purge or Store? p/s]

  [Critical System/Host Error: Datastream beyond Host ability to assimilate.]

  [Risk of severe damage to Host.]

  This message was the first of the red message boxes

  [Critical System/Host Error: Datastream beyond Host ability to assimilate.]

  [Host integrity requires immediate action!]

  So, clearly, you did something because I’m alive and, maybe not ‘well’ but alive. So what happens if immediate action isn’t taken?

  [HUD User Message:This cannot be predicted with certainty.]

  [Many outcomes include termination of Host life.]

  [All projected outcomes included lengthy incapacitation and probable permanent damage to Host.]

  So it’s a little serious.

  [HUD User Message: Correction, it is very serious.]

  [Without corrective action, all outcomes are negative.]

  [Most outcomes involve termination of Host life processes.]

  I thought you would understand sarcasm. Yes, it sounds serious. Let’s get through the rest of these messages.

  [Critical System/Host Intervention: Emergency Host preservation protocols active.]

  That sounds bad. What are those host preservation protocols?

  [HUD User Message: Host preservation protocols are -THAT INFORMATION IS RESTRICTED AT THIS TIME. ]

  I guess if you’re in my head you already know this, but that kind of response does not help me trust you, whatever ‘you’ are.

  [HUD User Message: All restrictions and interlocks are in place as user/host safeguards.]

  Sure, and I totally believe you, but for instance, what if I wasn’t especially trusting, and I didn’t believe you at all and wanted proof?

  [HUD User Message: Without outside data, there is no way to prove this.]

  So let me ask you this, and I would like a complete answer. Are you able to deceive me?

  [HUD User Message: Without infinite time allowed for each answer, a deception by omission is always possible.]

  While Raz was thinking through how he could respond to that, another message popped up.

  [HUD User Message: Do you wish to continue reviewing the error log? y/n ]

  Raz sighed inwardly and sent a yes.

  [Critical System/Host Error: Data quality mismatch, moving higher quality data into host processing.]

  [Critical System/Host Intervention: HUD override, enable display.]

  [Critical System/Host Error: Datastream beyond Host ability to assimilate.]

  [Move upgrade data to storage? y/n]

  I remember this one. I said yes to this, right?

  [HUD User Message: Correct.]

  [Critical System/Host Error: Storage capacity undefined, create? y/n]

  I think I said yes to this one. Things got pretty bad pretty fast right about then..

  [HUD User Message: Emergency fabrication of thoracic storage facility prioritized Host survival and did not prioritize Host comfort.]

  Yeah I get it. No need to shovel it on. So what happened while I-.

  Raz’s inner dialog was cut short by the sound of footsteps outside the cell door. Raz stopped his odd dialog with the HUD and listened. What sounded like two sets of footsteps stopped right at his door. He opened his eyes a crack and peeked at the door. He expected them to knock, or just come in but it sounded like they were whispering. Raz had an idea.

  You work on my perception right? Can you help me hear what they are saying better?

  [HUD User Message:Correct. HUD cannot improve host perceptual abilities, but can assist within current abilities.]

  The world went gray, fuzzy, and too bright. Raz suddenly felt very odd sensations of simultaneously being numb in some areas of his body and very aware of the coarse woven blanket he was laying on. As he peripherally became aware that he could no longer feel his body or feel what position he was laying in, the sound of the whispering voices rose and became clearer.

  “-not going first. You saw what happened with the one that went chimera a couple days ago. It ate his face! I’m not going out like that.” A whispered male voice said.

  “Carl, calm the fuck down. Do you hear anything? No roaring, no tearing up the room, not even any heavy breathing, no chimera. I liked Jim, but he was careless about a lot of things, not just that day. We get a chimera, we call the tac team like we’re supposed to. Let the badasses earn their pay. Besides, it's not like we have to deal with the big one downstairs. That's the one you should be worried about. Oh, and you’re on cleanup, I did the last one.” Another male whispering voice said.

  “Ok, but not if he’s a melter. I did the last mop and slop job, and you rolling one of doc psycho’s ‘patients’ out in the wagon to feed the big one does not stack up to that.” Carl said.

  “Dude! Watch your mouth! If he heard you saying that someone would be cleaning us up next. We agreed on the rules. It sucks if you get a mop and slop job, but that's just how it goes. I got the last cleanup, this one is yours. Let's at least take a look before you get all butthurt about it.” The second voice said.

  Raz didn’t recognize the horrific loud screeching sound. The whispering resumed after a few seconds.

  “Look at him, just dead, no chimera, no melting, it’s your turn to bag, tag, and drop down the food chute. So you deal with him and I’ll sanitize the room. We don’t have to make this a big thing.” The second voice said.

  Another loud screech followed by a loud clang. Raz realized it was the food tray panel falling shut.

  Ok turn it off.

  His hearing returned to normal and he felt the rest of the world fall back into place. The shock of his other senses all engaging at once disoriented him for a moment and when he opened his eyes a moment later the two guards were standing over him.

  The guards both wore the same type of uniform. The closer guard was the one that Raz thought was named Carl. He had straight black hair, and a face that might have had a hint of Asian or Pacific rim ancestry. Raz didn't know the other one, who had short clipped dark red almost rust colored hair and an unpleasant expression that instantly made Raz wary.

  “Hey, looks like you’re alive. Good deal. I know you had a visit with Doc- Mr. Braithwaite this morning. If you’re hungry and fit to move, this is your chance to eat.” The one Raz was pretty sure was Carl said.

  Raz tried to sit up and the pain left him gasping and left his vision fuzzy around the edges. He sagged back down and gingerly put his hand up. “I’m not sure I’m up to getting there today.”

  The other guard shrugged, “Ok, it's your call. I know you’ve been told the rules. No room service, if you can't make it to the mess, you don’t eat.”

  [HUD Warning Message: Host requires food.]

  [Host reserves low due to recent activities and datastream integration.]

  As the guards moved toward the door, Raz reached out to them. “Wait, I do want to eat. I’m really hungry. Carl, any chance you could give me a hand up? I feel really weak, but I can probably walk if I can get up.”

  The other guard looked at Carl. “What in the actual fuck dude!? You know the rules. How does he know your name?” He looked accusingly from Carl to Raz.

  Carl paled, “Oh shit, I don’t know. I swear Rich, I never told him my name. This is my first shift on this cell in weeks!”

  Rich clenched his fists, “Now you’re telling him my name? What is wrong with you?”

  Raz noticed Carl’s hand creeping toward the weapon at his side and decided he didn’t want to find out what would happen if they started fighting in his cell. “Hey guys, I’m sorry. Some other guy was talking to me the other day and he mentioned the name Carl while he was looking over at you. I didn’t know it was a secret. I won’t say anything. Let's just forget it happened. I’m hungry, it’s time to eat and clearly, no one needs to hear about this.” Raz tried to project a reasonable tone.

  The two guards relaxed a bit and shared a look and nods. Rich spoke up. “Ok, we’ll give that a shot. It’s not like we’d be in trouble if you knew our names. We’re just discouraged from getting personal with the subj-clients.”

  [HUD User Message: Contradiction between verbal content and overall tone, stance, and pupil response indicates a high probability of deception from undesignated individual ‘Rich’.]

  Raz filed both the possibility of the lie and the idea that the HUD could help him spot lies away and focussed on trying to sit up. After a moment Carl moved to help him up. Raz had the thought that if he were some kind of action hero, this would be the moment when he, having lulled them into complacency, attacked, took their weapons and made his escape. Instead, he carefully stood up with plenty of help from them, and slowly made his way to the door. Rich moved ahead of them and stood in the hallway watching Raz stagger out.

  On the way through the cell door, Raz tripped on the raised threshold and fell forward out of Carl’s grip. He fell toward Rich, who took a step back and let him hit the floor. Raz barely managed to get his arms up in time to keep from face planting on the floor. Laying there trying to catch his breath, he noticed for the first time that while many of the walls and doors seemed new, the flooring looked old, not unlike the floor in a hospital he’d visited his late grandfather in so many years ago.

  Rich reached down and grabbed him by the neck. With a painfully tight grip, he pulled Raz to his feet. His face twisted into an angry sneer, he held Raz by the throat and pushed him against the wall.

  [System/Host Message: Alternative Upgrade Datastream detected, analyze? y/n.]

  Yes!

  A small status bar appeared at the edge of his view.

  The expression on Rich’s face rapidly cycled through angry to surprised to curious and arrived at disgusted in a matter of seconds. He shoved Raz against the wall hard enough to knock the wind out of him and let go of his neck. Raz noticed him wiping his hand on his uniform pants as though he’d touched something slimy or gross.

  Rich looked at his hand. “Your cell has a shower in it right?”

  Raz tried to answer through his gasping for air and settled on nodding.

  “After you eat you better fucking use it. You’re disgusting.” He wiped his palm on his shirt again.

  Disgusting? That's weird. I just showered.

෴WD40෴

෴Wilson Meyers෴

෴Reilly ‘Raven’ Haverson෴

෴Darby O’Cellan෴

෴Wesley 'Wraith' Tyrell෴

෴෴෴෴෴෴

Targets

෴෴෴෴෴෴

  Darby and Wilson sat at the big boardroom style table in the same floating cylinder above a tranquil cerulean sea. Virtual workstations rose out of the table and they both went to work comparing and sorting information. Soon after, Raven appeared in the room, and then Wraith. Raven manifested in her normal body, with casual jeans and shirt on. Wraith’s avatar looked like a tall black man in digital camo BDUs.

  Wraith pulled up a seat and raised a virtual workstation of his own.

  Raven walked up to the head of the table and gestured at the large screen board. “Gentleman, I hate to interrupt your work, but if you’re looking for new targets, we already cross-referenced it all and found three sites worth looking at.”

  Wilson blinked. “Already? There are hundreds of pages of non-digital data and thousands and thousands of documents.”

  Raven pointed at Wraith. “Go ahead and tell them.”

  Wraith sat up a bit straighter in his chair. “I got to thinking that once the engines were working, how could I be more effective.”

  He paused as though collecting his thoughts.

  Wilson’s avatar smiled. “Sounds good so far. I like more effective. What do you mean by engines?”

  Wraith resumed and began talking fast. “So, I threw together some import and translation scripts that I’ve used for other jobs in the past and started generating a deduplicated list. That means that every time it lists a location, it becomes its own database entry and then all other entries compared to the hit or not hit list and that's done with a rolling recursive iterative-”

  Raven looked over at Wilson and Darby’s reaction to this and cut Wraith off. “Whoa boy, whoa. No one asked for the pseudo-code and they don’t care about that level of detail. I’m trying to give you a chance to toot your horn. Just tell them what you found.”

  Wraith ducked his head, looking uncomfortable with the attention, and then stood up. “Well, it all started when I realized that the biggest problem was all the hard copy. I was trying to think up who I could ask for help. Usually, I’d rely on Becky for that kind of work. She’s, I mean, she was,” his voice broke and he trailed off.

  Darby nodded. “I know. We make peace with knowing we might not make it, but that doesn’t help when someone we all like doesn't come back. If it helps, you should know that her family is being well taken care of, and we’re going to be relying on you and Raven to improve the field training of our infosec people. We don’t want something like this to ever happen again.”

  Wraith nodded and swallowed audibly. “Well, I needed help, and I started thinking outside the box for help to sort the hard copies. I realized we have a great resource on the team for that sort of thing.”

  Wilson grunted. “I know where you’re going with this. If you’re about to complain about her not being a team player, don’t bother. She has a very specific contract and nitpicks when we ask for more. If she wasn’t so damn good at what she does, I’d have cut her loose long ago.”

  Darby shrugged, “Even after all this time, I feel like she’s more her own team than really part of our team.”

  Wraith chuckled, “Yeah, team player indeed. Thing is, she was willing to help. I knew she would probably say no, but I had to ask because she’s fantastic at that kind of thing almost by definition.“

  Darby cut him off. “Did you say Hex was willing to help with something outside her contracted duties? I mean, we are all talking about Hex right?”

  Wraith nodded. “Yeah, they all came over. She said she’d be willing to help out. I got the impression she’s short on cash and wants this job to wrap up more than usual.”

  Wilson’s avatar stroked his chin. “That is odd. I’ve never known Hex to volunteer for, well, anything. Something’s changed. We should look into that. But please continue.”

  He nodded. “Sorry.” He then looked at Darby and Wilson. “I found two locations that don’t appear to have been hit by any team, and one location on a scrap of hard copy that wasn’t listed anywhere else.”

  Wilson nodded. “Good job getting Hex to help. She is indeed amazing at that kind of work when you can get her to do it.” He glanced at Raven and realized she was looking and nodding meaningfully at Wraith, sitting in his seat looking down at the table. Wilson nodded to her. “Most of all, Wraith, that is great work on that data sorting. You’ve saved us countless hours and maybe made this contract possible to properly finish. Thanks, Wraith, good work.”

  Wraith looked up at his boss with a smile. “Thanks, I just wanted to help.”

  Darby leaned in. “You have, all of you. This really is great work. We need to get recon units into play at these locations ASAP. Send us the locations and we’ll make a plan. I’m going to sign off and get started.”

  Darby looked around the room for replies and seeing none, vanished.

  Wilson nodded to Wraith and Raven. “Seriously, this is big, if we find the VIP because of this you’ll both have bonuses coming. I’ve got to get going and set things up on my end, and then I need to make a call to our client.”

  He logged out without waiting for a reply.