Noreen and I laid in bed for almost 2 hours before she felt comfortable enough to not cling tightly to me. It took another hour before I could move without her panicking, and I propped myself up on the pillows and sat up. Neither of us felt like sleeping with everything that was going on and I was pretty sure she hadn't had anything to eat for a while. I slipped out of bed and went to the food dispenser, grabbed two red algenate discs for her and a brown disc for myself, then walked back to the bed.

Noreen had watched me intently as I moved around the apartment, and she visibly relaxed when I climbed back into bed beside her. I gave her one of the red food discs and she ate it greedily. I didn't try to tell her to slow down or to take her time because I could get her more. I started to eat my brown food disc normally and handed her the second red disc.

Noreen sighed and propped herself up on the pillows to sit beside me, and we ate in silence. She didn't try to cover up her nakedness as the blanket slid down, and I didn't leer at her, either. I suspected she wasn't embarrassed about it or that it just didn't matter to her anymore. When we finished eating, she turned her head to look at me.

“Jack, what are you going to do?”

“Right now I'm going to cuddle you for another hour, then I'm going to make the proper mechanical adjustments to my immersion chamber.” I said and put my arm over her shoulders and pulled her in close.

“Jack.” Noreen frowned at me. “That's not what I meant.”

“I know what you meant.” I said. “Unfortunately, there's an aspect of this situation that you are unaware of.”

“Tell me.” Noreen said.

“Amanda? I assume you included electronic contact in the full lockdown protocols?” I asked.

“Yes.” Her sad voice said from the vidwall. “I'm... very lonely right now.”

“I'm sorry about that.” I said, genuinely sorry. “It's necessary to stay out of contact for the next 4 hours.”

“Why?” Noreen asked.

“You see, my best friend showed up asking for my help, which he knew I couldn't give him.” I said. “So I... well...”

“Jack suggested a night out for Alyssa and the other women on his security squad.” Amanda said. “Using a basic extrapolation algorithm, I've deduced that they have taken his advice and 'ran with it', as the old saying goes.”

“What does that mean?” Noreen asked.

“If Amanda's right, and there's no reason she wouldn't be, my old buddy Stephane has a few extra people on guard duty tonight.”

“But... if they're there...” Noreen started to say.

“...who's guarding me?” I asked, and she nodded. “The apartment is. That's why we're in lockdown. I promised to do it so that no one could get in or out, no matter what happened.”

“Is that the other aspect I don't know about?” Noreen asked.

“Yes. There's a shipment of dangerous weapons being moved, and Stephane and his crew were assigned to guard it.” I said. “It wasn't until I saw what happened to Sandra and Nathan just now that I realized something.”

“What is it?”

“It's all connected.” I sighed. “The higher-ups have been pulling the strings right from the beginning. They must have known I was under surveillance, then used that knowledge to set things in motion.”

“But... why?”

“S.C.R.A.P.E., or the Society for the Creation, Restoration and Ascension to the Proper Earth.” I said. “They've had moles in key roles for years. They've been using inside information to move their agenda along, and when they rediscovered how to make devastating weapons, the higher-ups knew this was the best time to flush them all out.”

Noreen went quiet for several moments as she thought about it. “They... they let all this happen?”

“They had to.” I said and looked at her. “If my guess is right, only certain people knew the classified information necessary to pull this operation off, and they are using that to smoke out the people inside their own organization.”

“Oh, god.” Noreen said. “Sandra and...” She caught her breath. “...my poor Nathan.”

“Pawns in a game. A big game.” I kissed her cheek. “A game they shouldn't have been in.”

“But... but... what do we do?”

“I know what I would normally do; but, that was then and this is now.”

“What does that mean?” Noreen asked.

“It means that in the morning, I'll be calling in a few favors.” I said. “I don't expect much to come of it at first, not with everything else that's going on.”

Noreen looked at me expectantly and I gave her a reassuring smile.

“I've always hated being manipulated into doing something I didn't want to do.” I said. “It's boring and predictable, just like programming code. The thing is, my job is to fix programming code.”

“You... are you going to fix...” Noreen shook her head. “I'm losing your analogy.”

I chuckled. “To make a long story short, I'm going to make things unpredictable.”

“How?”

“Even though we're cut off electronically, everything is still being recorded.” I said. “Anything sensitive will be reported when the lockdown is lifted in the morning.”

Noreen gasped. “Jack! You told me it was the higher-ups that did this!”

I laughed. “They already know that, so that's not the sensitive information.”

“Then what...”

“I figured out that it's all connected. Sandra being used. My vacation house being destroyed. My reactivation. My 'accident'. Almost everything has been going according to their plans.”

“Wait, almost everything?” Noreen asked.

“They made one critical mistake.” I said and gave her a predatory smile. “I wasn't supposed to live.”

“Wh-what?”

“I didn't think much of it at the time, mainly because I was too busy trying to adjust being less than I was; but, after a while I started to think that it was odd that I was hit by the weapon at all.” I said. “When I was brought in and asked about what happened, I realized that it was a short range weapon. It would have been well within the established perimeter of the skirmish in order to reach the improvised hospital where I was.”

“But... that would mean...”

“I thought they were targeting the wounded at first, but that didn't make sense.” I said. “Why try to take out soldiers already taken out? Well, you don't.”

“They were aiming for you right from the start.” Noreen said.

“Yes.” I said. “If I had died, Sandra's other boyfriend would have had his assignment cancelled and would have gone back to wherever he had come from.”

“They would have traced him back there.” Noreen said, and I nodded.

“When I lived instead, well...”

“Their plan had to change as well.” Noreen said. “Then...”

“He tried to kill me at the hospital.” I said. “He became a liability and was killed to cover up his involvement with Sandra and his surveillance of me.”

“That meant...”

“It made me into a higher priority target, which fit right into the plans of the higher-ups. With me as the focus, they could do pretty much everything they wanted behind the scenes to make everything come out the way they wanted.” I said. “When I introduced the new circuit board and showed how effective it was, though...”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“They didn't need you as bait anymore and focused on removing the moles instead.” Noreen said. “But... why did... why Sandra?” Noreen asked.

“Insurance, I think.” I said. “Even older data on the System is still invaluable when making plans to overthrow everything.”

“Sandra gave it to them.” Noreen said, sadly.

“I doubt she knew what it really was.” I said, and Noreen looked at me with wide eyes. “He probably told her it was messages to his family, and to deliver it if anything ever happened to him.”

“N-no.” Noreen said as tears formed in her eyes. “How can she...” She wiped at her face. “She's so stupid!”

“I'm sorry, Noreen.” I sighed. “If I had been-”

“She got herself kidnapped!” Noreen cried and cut me off. “It's her fault, and... her father... he...” She stopped talking and took several deep breaths as her tears flowed down her cheeks. I moved my hand from her shoulder and rubbed her back in a circular motion.

“He loved her so much that he risked his own life, just for the chance to keep her safe.” I said. “He knew there were no guarantees when he went there.”

Noreen nodded and wiped her tears away. “He is... he was... a good man.” She took a few more breaths and calmed down. “Now what do we do?”

“I told you. I'm going to cuddle you for a while, then I'm going to fix my immersion chamber.”

“Jack...”

“I can't do anything until morning anyway.” I said. “By then, hopefully, the situation with the shipment will be resolved.”

Noreen sighed and leaned into me, and I put my arm back around her. True to my word, I stayed there with her for an hour, then I got out of bed and slipped on a work unitard. Noreen allowed me to go to the immersion chamber to adjust it, as long as I left the door locked in the open position so she could see me the entire time. I had no problem with that, so I worked for a couple of hours to fix the over-strain that the pressure systems were applying to my synthetic limbs.

My AI Amanda helped me change the program settings to compensate for the physical changes I made to the chair, mainly because I normally needed to be inside the immersion chamber to make those programming changes. It took a little longer doing it that way; but, it worked and I let the diagnostics run on a continuous loop to make sure we had caught everything. I did a dry run of the startup activation without getting in the chair myself, and all the settings checked out.

I deactivated everything and left the immersion chamber, and Noreen gave me a little smile as I stripped off the unitard and tossed it into the recycler. She moved over on the bed and I climbed onto it with her, then we laid down and cuddled each other. After a few moments, she burst out crying and punched my chest several times, then she sobbed uncontrollably for nearly twenty minutes. I did nothing except whisper sweet nothings to her and held her. It was almost an hour later when she calmed down enough to speak.

“Th-thank you.” Noreen whispered.

“I remember when I was inconsolable and a very caring woman held me and let me cry all over her.” I said, and she lifted her head to look at me. “I can't express how terribly sorry I am that I can return the favor.”

Noreen opened her mouth to say something, then she leaned in close and kissed me on the lips. “I'm sorry, too.” She said instead of what she was going to say, then put her head back down on my chest and sighed. “Very, very sorry.”

I stroked the top of her head and pet her hair for several minutes, then I ran my hand down the side of her face and across her shoulder, then down the middle of her back and rested my arm there and splayed my hand out to touch as much of her lower back as I could. She shivered for a moment and sighed again, then I felt her slightly tense muscles relax.

I didn't realize I had drifted off to sleep until I jerked awake the next morning. Luckily, my sudden movement hadn't woken up Noreen, and I kept my breathing nice and even.

Amanda? I thought, using my communication protocol.

“Morning.” Amanda said as she appeared on my HUD.

You can lift the lockdown restrictions on communication as long as you keep the apartment secured.

“Thanks, Jack!” Amanda said and her demeanor changed from a beaten puppy to a happy and excited puppy... for about 2 seconds, then she gasped. “J-Jack...”

Show me. I thought to her and she pointed to my forehead, then a video popped up on my HUD and the news channel started playing.

*

“This just in. A major accident happened inside the Tube Car Transportation System last night.” The female news anchor said. “At the moment, it's unclear how many vehicles were actually involved. Let's go right to the site to our reporter on the scene.” She said and the video split in two.

“Thanks, June.” The man said. “Due to security reasons, we can't show you detailed footage of the site; but, we can show you some of the peripheral damage that the explosion caused.”

The camera shifted from his face to show the wall of the Tube. There were laser pock marks and gouges on the surface. The camera moved along the wall and showed bits of shrapnel, what looked like a laser cannon blast, and then part of a large circular hole.

“This is as far as we've been allowed to go.” The man said as the camera shifted back to him. “There's still no word if anyone has been hurt or killed, and System Security has refused to release any kind of casualty report.” He shook his head. “If the damage I've seen with my own eyes hasn't killed at least a few people, then I'm just a Port kid playing dress-up.”

The female news anchor chuckled. “You should save the color commentary for the follow-up interview this afternoon.”

The man smiled. “Don't worry. I've got more colorful phrases saved up for that.”

“I'm sure the System Security agents will enjoy them.” The female news anchor said. “Thanks, Kevin.”

“You're welcome, June.” Kevin said and his video ended.

“That was our top reporter live at the scene.” June said. “We will report any new details as they become available.” She took a breath as she paused, then she smiled. “In other news, the new brown algenate discs have become so popular that...”

*

I closed the video and held in my sigh. Goddammit!

“We're still locked out from contacting them.” Amanda said.

I know. I thought. If we could talk to Alyssa and the others, it would make things too easy.

“What are we going to do?”

We get to work. I thought to her and brought up my 'you can only call once' list on my HUD. It had taken me years to make that list, and I never thought I would ever use it... or have a need to. It took Amanda and I almost twenty minutes to sort through the list and discuss who we could contact safely, and who was absolutely necessary.

Noreen woke up during that time and saw that I was both awake and busy. She didn't pester me about what was going on, and I didn't say anything to her until Amanda and I were done with the task.

“Jack, if we do this...” Amanda said from the vidwall, now that we didn't have to be quiet.

“We'll burn that bridge after we cross it.” I said and sent the abbreviated list to the vidwall so that Noreen could see it.

“Who are these people Jack?” Noreen asked as she read the names.

“If they're available, they are the ones that we need to do what needs to be done.” I said. “Before I call them, I need to go into my immersion chamber for a little while.”

“But... if you...” Noreen trembled for a few moments, then she hugged herself. “No, I... I can do it.”

“I'll only be ten or fifteen minutes.” I said and hugged her tightly. “I just need to create a quick design for Amanda to send into production.”

Noreen relaxed in my arms and nodded. I gave her a quick kiss and slid out of bed and put on a work unitard. I gave her a blue algenate disc for breakfast and ate a brown one myself, then entered my immersion chamber. The virtual reality workspace formed around me and Amanda appeared by my side. I brought up the micro-drone design specs and enlarged it to the right size, then started altering the plans to fit my original Phase Two ideas, except that I used current technology instead.

“Are you really going to do this?” Amanda asked.

“I have no choice.” I said.

“The factory can produce the main chassis and the propulsion quite easily, but the weapon components are restricted.” Amanda said and helped me change the power requirements and checked my math for handling potential overloads.

“That's why I put Margaret at the top of the list.” I said.

“Jack, you know what happened the last time...”

“Yes, and that's why she said I could contact her.” I responded and finished the design upgrade. “Can you add the components and run the simulation, please?”

“Already done.” Amanda said and showed me the results.

“Damn, the temperature runs too high for the capacitors to discharge more than twice.”

“Why don't you use the liquid cooling system from the server?” Amanda suggested.

“Ha!” I said and took her into a hug, then gave her a big kiss. It left her both speechless and breathless while I added the proper modifications, then I had to go back and change the power requirements and added in a third charging capacitor to compensate. I asked her to run the simulation again and she gave me the results.

“There's still a twenty-two percent failure rate in the field for an untested design.” Amanda warned me, and I nodded.

“Adjust the production line to add thirty percent to the building queue, then send it off.” I said and started the exit sequence for the immersion chamber. I hopped off the chair before it finished unfolding and I came out of the immersion chamber to find Noreen on the floor right in front of the door. She was still naked and curled up into a ball.

“I'm here.” I said and knelt to put a hand on her shoulder.

“J-Jack!” Noreen nearly yelled as she quickly turned and grabbed onto me like a vise. “I m-missed y-you.” She mumbled into my ear as her whole body trembled. Her anxiety over her perceived abandonment was very apparent.

I was only gone for 8 minutes. I thought as I wrapped my arms around her and picked her up. “I worked as fast as I could.”

“T-thank y-you.” Noreen shivered. I tucked her back into bed and stripped off my work unitard, then climbed into bed with her again.

“I need to cover you up while I make a few calls.” I said as I sat up and pulled the blanket around us. Noreen nodded and ducked down to cuddle into my abdomen and wrapped her arms around me. I tucked the blanket down over her head and made sure the lumpy blanket didn't look like I had someone stashed under it.

I chose the first name on the list of contacts and used my secured internal communication protocol to call Margaret, my old munitions specialist. Amanda appeared on my HUD and touched my face, then a communication line trace appeared. It showed the call as it went through five different routing stations before it reached the final destination.

“Who the hell is calling me on...” The bright red haired woman on the vidwall stopped talking when she saw me. “Goddamn you, Jack.” She said and looked me up and down. “You look like shit! What happened?”

“I assume that...”

“Of course.” Margaret said. “I'm not stupid.”

I smiled at her. “I'll tell you all about it if I can call in the favor you owe me.”

Margaret clamped her mouth shut as her face changed from pleasantly surprised to show deep-seated anger, then she made a fist and closed her eyes. After a few moments, she took a deep breath and her face went back to the pleasant facade she normally wore and she opened her eyes.

“I knew this wasn't going to be a social call.”

“Would I bother you if it wasn't important?” I asked, and she shook her head.

“You never did anything until it was necessary.” Margaret said.

“So, do you want to hear about this or not?”

Margaret sighed. “All right. You might as well tell me, since this com channel is burned anyways.” She said. “You can also tell me what you need from me and then you can get the hell out of my life forever.”

“Understood.” I said and nodded. “To make a long story short...”