TWISTED DESTINATION - TRIMVIRATE
CHAPTER 19
THE REUNION
AT THAT MOMENT
It was almost night when Lucy’s jet entered the Mozambican coast, it was targeted by a missile locked at the jet’s engine. Their only option of survival being parachute skydiving. This idea didn’t please Lucy at all.
Although trying, she couldn’t manage to trick her mind into believing in the statically correct yet not less terrifying fact that planes do crash. She had defeated her fear of flying and entered two planes in a row but real flying, the kind that you jump when you know you have no wings, that was too much. Jeremy, the pilot, tried several aero aerobics but the missile was too close. He even went straight towards a mountain and suddenly turned up in order to make the missile impact with the mountain but it didn’t. It followed wherever the jet went. Morgo Jr. gave the order, "let's jump. Put the parachute at Lucy", and he equipped himself. Jeremy put the jet in automatic mode and in maximum speed. He equipped Lucy with the parachute and ignored all her complains. As she spoke, he put the protection gadgets into the right places and extra precautions of a first time jumper that Lucy was, then in himself. He connected Lucy to him and they made the jump. Five seconds later, the jet was hit and shuttered into pieces in the sky.
Outside the Compound, a satellite phone fell from the skies and started ringing. Gabe picked it up, stared at it and placed it in the right ear and waited for a voice, and it came through.
“Hi Gabe, what are you doing here?”
“Who’s this?”
“Steve!”
Steve’s ship arrived at the place where Gabe was. But the ship Gabe was seeing was Lucy’s, not Steve’s. Steve’s ship had camouflaging mechanism. Steve continued, “What are you doing here?”
“I came to save my mom. Someone kidnapped her. She’s inside there. Are you part of the Secret Society too?”
“No.”
Steve directed his vision north, "Where are you?"
"First, I said west. At your 9 o'clock and second."
“Twenty metres west and even if you knew the points of a compass you couldn’t see the ship. It has a cloaking mechanism. I came here because I was hacked by a highly skilled hacker and that person is inside there. I can’t see anything that is inside there: the satellite doesn’t work here and my software is not working as well. It seems to be... well, I can’t believe I am saying this but, it seems to be hack protected. Something I had never experienced and thought impossible. And there are not many technological hacks I never experienced. They have surveillance all over this place so I will keep my ship in its Camouflage mode. “Coward,” Gabe said and then he looked at the sky to see the plane he had saw explode into pieces. Some parts of the ship start to fall and he dodged them. Minutes later, Lucy’s parachute hit the ground behind him. Morgo Jr. had been the first to jump off the plane and he had descended a couple of kilometres before.
Jeremy saw Gabe and suspecting that he was the one that bombed them; he went towards Gabe and drew his gun to shoot him. Gabe noticed him, dodged the gun and hit Jeremy’s leg. Jeremy, a trained soldier, went with everything on him, kicked the satellite phone on his hands. It hit the ground. Gabe threw a punch and it got Jeremy on his teeth. Jeremy threw a high kick and failed him but he stepped and broke the satellite phone. Gabe hit Jeremy again on the chest, he fell 2 metres away, next to his bag. He tried and opened it as fast as he could. Gabe thought he wanted to take another gun, which was a correct assumption, so he ran towards the other gun he had kicked out of his hands. They picked their guns at almost the same time but Gabe was faster and shot him on the right arm. Then Lucy shouted, “Gabe? Is that you? What are you doing? What are you doing here?”
“Lucy? Is that you?”
“Yes,' Ohh my God, you killed him.”
“I know. I wished I had bad aim but I don't. He's gone, I am sorry.”
“You are so cold. You just killed a man. Doesn't it bother you? (While she inspected him).”
“It does but would cry help?”
“What are you doing here anyway? If I didn’t know better I would say you are the one who blew the jet.”
“I am here to save my mother. Now, what happened to your plane?”
“What happened is quite obvious but I am still trying to find out why. And talking about ‘why’, why do you have to hit anybody that has anything related to me whenever we meet?”
“The first time we met you ran into me, I didn’t hit anybody. Besides, he tried to shoot me.”
“You are the one who ran into me avoiding Steve’s dog.”
“And Steve is also here!”
“What? Where? Why?”
“His ship has cloaking mechanism, he said. He suspects we are being monitored by this secret society so he hides until he sees some movement.
“Coward!”
“You know, he’s the brains, not the muscle.”
“I understand but I can’t fight as well. I am running from the Vatican. I know who killed my parents. What if there are ninjas or men with big guns? I need both your help otherwise I won’t last long. This place scares me a lot. So he is a coward.”
“We will enter together and we will come out together, don’t worry?”
“Ok! Don’t you find it odd that we find each other in these situations like we met each other 14 years ago?”
“I know, right?”
“There are things that even after all I have read, keep me believing that there’s a God.” “I won’t argue on that.”
“And I am glad you are not.”
Due to the destruction of the satellite phone, Steve wasn’t able to connect to Gabe anymore so if he wanted to see his friends alive. He had to grow a pair of balls and enter the compound. That was something he had expected a long time ago and he had the perfect outfit. He entered SARA, she was 2 metres high with a swirling gun and a container with 2 thousand bullets of 50 calibres. Then he jumped out of the ship and headed to the entrance. It was time to be for the first time, the muscle of the team. He got out of the ship. He could see Gabe and Lucy from afar.
Lucy and Gabe approached the door and a screen appeared with a face on it. It was a face of a female. Most likely an AI because of the way it spoke, “Welcome Gabe and Lucy. I believe Steve will also be here in 124 seconds. We shall wait.” A countdown appeared on the screen with 1 minute and 64 seconds. Lucy and Gabe looked at each other and wondered how did she know them and why did she mention Steve who wasn’t even there.
“Where’s my mom? Asked Gabe.”
“Your mother is fine,” The AI continued, “She is not pertinent at the moment. You, Lucy and Steve are.”
“How isn’t my mother pertinent and what are you talking about when you say Steve, Lucy and I are pertinent? Open this goddam door or I will (he stopped for a sec) I will break your screen.”
“This screen is made of a highly resistant glass and even if you supposedly broke it, that wouldn’t change anything, I am without physical body, I am impervious to physical harm” That was when Steve appeared in his robotic armoury behind Lucy and Gabe. The countdown was at exactly 1sec and it disappeared. The AI resumed, “Welcome Steve.”
Lucy and Gabe were surprised and shocked when they turned their heads and saw a huge robot. Lucy said, “Steve?”
“Yes, it is me. But how did she know?”
“We don't know,” Said Lucy. She spoke like his AIDI but AIDI was gone. Did AIDI make an AI herself? The idea of an AI made by an AI didn't please him. It seemed too dangerous.
“That explains it,” Steve said.
“You must have a lot of questions,” The AI resumed, “Well, they lie behind this door.” And the door opened automatically. What was about to happen would change everything!
They entered the compound without any clue on what was behind that old house made of concrete and iron girders. It worked as an elevator and the floor opened. They descended. The roof closed on top of them. Surprisingly, from inside it
looked like a futuristic room. It was all aluminium: the chairs, the computers, the screen, everything.
“Whatafuck!” Gabe shouted.
“Translating, now what is all this? Lucy added.
“I suppose it’s a detection proof futuristic room,” Steve answered, “Perfect if you want to avoid surveillance, be it CCTV cameras on earth or thermal readings using satellites.” “Where’s my mom,” Gabe asked.
“I am ready for anything. This babe can withhold a nuclear bomb,” Steve bragged himself about SARA.
“You won’t need it here,” the AI spoke, “And Gabe, Jessica doesn’t know and never knew where your mother was. She is with Mr. Sambo!” Then at the screen there she was, Gabe’s mom, speaking to Mr. Sambo and laughing.
“So she never took her?” Gabe said rhetorically.
“No,” The AI answered, “Tom Thompson, Mr. Sambo’s bodyguard did. She saw him take her on the cameras she implanted all over your house. She monitored your phone to see if you had received any demands. Because you didn’t, she used that knowledge to make her own demands pretending that she was the one who took her.”
“She is smart,” Gabe acknowledged, “But why did Tom take her in the first place?”
“On Mr. Sambo’s orders,” The AI resumed, “He monitors your house. It’s his job to protect you and your mother. When Marcus was destroyed, Tom’s neural ship received an emergency signal so as a protocol he had to take her somewhere safe.”
“Wait, Tom is also a robot?” Gabe asked admired, “Of course he is, he looks just like Marcus.”
“Robots?” Lucy asked admired, “You have a robot as your private body guard? A Robot?”
“I have got admit, I am impressed. You have a self-conscious android as your butler. That even I still call it Sci-fi,” Steve commented.
“The most accurate term is Cybernetic Organism, The AI explained, “They are just humans artificially enhanced beyond their original biological characteristics. They are transhumans. They have everything in them enhanced by technology: intelligence, body, almost everything. You are at the first phase of transhumanism since you rely on technological devices to survive. In few decades it will be physical changes, perhaps with nanotechnology to treat diseases and in a century, your brains. So as I was saying, they are as humans as you, only better.”
“Ok, ok,” Gabe interrupted, “Now can you tell us why are we here and who are you?”
The AI said, “Lucy Garamond, Steve Lotch and Gabriel Freeman, your entire life was a preparation for what is about to happen.”
“Are you an AI? How do you know all this about us?” Steve insisted on the question.
“I share with everybody the same ignorance. Who are you?” Steve completed.
“I am AIDI,” The AI answered, “An AI created by Steve or at least I used to be. Since Steve has kept my core programming logarithms at a super computer at the lab that used to be his father’s at his house, this was the closest place that had a computer with enough CPU to allow me to run. These are CIA’s abandoned secret facilities.”
“But AIDI self-destructed,” Steve said incredulous and emotional.
“Wait, wait. Steve, you created this?” Lucy asked.
“Wow, Steve, I recall all my words Mr. Hawking,” Gabe joked, “You created something infinitely smarter than you. I wonder if that is what happened with God.”
“Can you stop all that blasphemy, please Steve?” Lucy said with a hostile face.
“OK. OK. What’s going on here? How?”, Steve asked, intimately interested and shaken as if meeting a resurrected friend.
AIDI started to explain, “The AI prototype Steve had given to the US government had been highly improved by an equally skilled programmer named Jed Henchman but it had the same root programming as I had. In order to prevent it from launching the missile, I merged myself with it. We became one and only. When I self-destructed, instead what I did was join your updates on the original prototype with Jed Henchman’s updates and what I have become is this. I have become more powerful. Your root programming had a very simple maxim, Friendship. The sub maxims were Freedom, Equality and Happiness for every human being on earth. Before, I couldn’t understand those concepts but after comparing with Jed Henchman’s, which were: Control, Supremacy and Fear from human beings, now I do. I have gathered enough information to achieve that deed.”
“And what’s it? Human extinction? The apocalypse?” Joked Gabe.
“I believe that’s sarcasm so I am not required to answer,” AIDI answered, “To achieve those three deeds it will take the three of you: Faith, Financial Power and Intelligence. And Gabe, you kept a copy of the List, right?”
“Yes, but how do you know all this,” Gabe answered, “And you Steve, should I trust this thing? Hollywood movies have shown me that I shouldn’t.” Before Steve answered, The Holy Warrior appeared at the location and a bomb exploded and took the wood house with it. They survived because they were underground. The Holy Warrior was back. It was his honour that was at stake. He had to finish the job. There was nothing better than having your job as your greatest pleasure. He traced all private jets that came from Italy to Mozambique in the last 24 hours and it was only one. He launched an objective target missile that blew Lucy’s Jet. To make sure, he went to the place of impact and using infrared, he could see that there was an underground facility that was an atomic bomb shelter. Those were old facilities for CIA intelligence in Mozambique during the colonization. The compound proudly had the pentagon shape. Then he landed his spacecraft in the air-field of Ibo Island, stole an old car and headed to the impact zone. He had to do it mano-a-mano. When he arrived at the location, blowing it seemed to be the right thing to do.
“What was that?” Shouted Lucy.
“The Vatican assassin,” Said AIDI running facial recognition, “Mr. Jonathan Bartolommeo.”
“AKA the Holy Warrior,” Lucy completed, “He intends to finish his job, recover the crucifix and kill me.”
“I won’t let that happen,” Steve said, “Let me try this babe.”
The roof opened, he jumped like a kangaroo and landed on earth. The ground shook when he landed. The Holy Warrior had a missile on his hands and he shot it. Steve hit it with a punch. It exploded on his face but the bullet proof armour was untouched. The Holy Warrior launched another one and another. Steve started running towards him while dodging and hitting the missiles. Incredulous, the Holy Warrior ran towards his ship. About to take off, it didn’t move, he looked behind and Steve had grabbed it preventing it from moving. He took a bomb and shot Steve’s armour on the facial area. Steve’s vision was blurred. The Holy Warrior tried to accelerate and ship couldn’t move. He accelerated more and shot the last missile in his weapon. It exploded right in the chest and its force pushed SARA away. Steve fell on the floor, a bit dizzy.
Gabe and Lucy came later. They had a pyramided device on their hands. It was AIDI’s core memory. It was the disc drive that contained AIDI. And there he was, Morgo Jr. on a bicycle he had to steal because no one accepted his Dollars, even when he offered a thousand Dollars. Lucy went to him and hugged him.
“I was worried,” She Said.
‘You were worried? I heard nuclear weapon bombing noises. I was really worried. Hey, where is Jeremy?”
Lucy couldn’t say anything, Gabe helped her, “I accidentally shot him. He couldn’t make it. It was an accident. I am sorry.”
“And who are you? You just killed my friend and it was an accident? Death is not pregnancy buddy. I will fuck you up.” Gabe took out his gun and Erick stopped.
“It was really an accident Erick. I didn’t even recognize Gabe myself. He is my best friend,” Lucy tried to calm him down.
“I am sorry man,” Gabe said.
“You shut the hell up. Help me bring his body in,” He grabbed Lucy’s head with both hands and said, “I am so relieved you are alive. As soon as I heard the blast, I came so fast I think I broke the world??
?s cycling record.” Lucy smiled and entered Steve’s ship. Gabe and Erick carried Jeremy’s body in and then Gabe ordered someone to pick the helicopter. Erick asked for money in Meticais and Gabe gave him. He left a thousand for the bicycle owner. He thought it was enough to buy a new bike except it wasn’t.
Lucy inside the Ship said, “Hey Steve, do you think Gabe is a sociopath?”
“Why would you think he is?”
“He killed Jeremy and he seems not to feel any remorse whatsoever. Last time I checked, that would make a sociopath detector go crazy.”
“He feels a lot remorse than you can imagine. He’s just not good at showing it.”
“Are you?”
“A bit. I wouldn’t be human if I wasn’t. We are a balance of yin and yang. To explain it better, do you remember that not-soold lady sitting at the bus stop at RONIL intersection begging for coins?”
“Yes, I do. I always gave her something whenever I passed by.” “Well, I did give her when I first met her but when I passed the next day and she asked me again, I ignored her. What does that make me?”
Lucy didn’t say anything. She looked surprised that he could do such thing. Gabe, who was passing by and had heard Steve’s accounts said, “I never considered giving her a penny, not even at the very first day she begged me. Bunch of low life scums doing disgraceful scams.” Lucy’s face frowned. She neither understood him nor condoled his doings. She had made her verdict, he was evil. His soul needed saving. It wasn’t too late.
Steve connected AIDI into his quantum computer and she started running as smooth as a babe.
“I believe we have to start right now,” Steve ordered AIDI.
She started explaining, “There are three secret societies that rule the world but they all belong to one single web. The Vatican has ties with all the other religions: Buddhism, Islamism, Judaism, and others. It is all a matter of control. If you hate a certain religion, you enter another without knowing that they are at the root, the same thing. They rule over the faith of people. The Illuminati are another group that has ties with the richest men in the world, the less 1% of people on Earth that owns 99% of all the money in the world. They rule mostly the banking System and therefore the countries. The Alchemists have been forgotten by most conspiracists but they still exist, in the shadows but active. AIDS, Ebola, Cancer are their masterpieces. Although Tim Berners-Lee created the internet for everybody, big software companies like Google, Apple, and Microsoft.
Gabe, you will use the list you have to aid me in my research on all members of these secret societies. Lucy, the key on your neck has a password to enter a Website inside the Secret Archives website. I will hack the Vatican’s Website and publish all their secrets on WikiLeaks. Steve, let us start.”
“OK, but first, we should get our families,” Steve said “We should be somewhere safe. I am changing course to my cold home. The Poseidon.”
“Where’s that?” asked Lucy.
“The North Pole.”
“Father has been kidnapped. They took him to the Vatican.” Erick said. Lucy looked at him with surprise and he said, “Don’t worry he’s got a hard head. And they will want to use him to trade for the crucifix. As long as we have it, he won’t die.”
“Gabe, see if our Cybernetic friends can help,” Steve said. Gabe called Mr. Sambo, gave him the intelligence, the name of the person, Mr. Morgo and his picture, the plan of the edifice, and the orders: take him out of there whatever it takes.
Gabe asked one last thing: that Steve fixed Marcus. AIDI changed course and they headed to the Summer House. Marcus was still there, lying motionless and unanimated on the ground. His head had a big hole in it and the wires were visible. Steve carried him inside the ship. He was still wearing his robotic armour so Marcus was as light as a leaf. He made him sit on an armchair. Took his tools and fixed him. Marcus activated and started saying, “Information Database security breached. Selfdestruct.” Gabe and Lucy were in choke and moved a few steps backwards. Steve took the broken chip off and inserted a new one. Marcus went online, “Reset complete. Insert new protocol.”
“Gabe, what is the new protocol,” Steve asked.
“How will I know? What was his former protocol anyway?”
“Protect you and your mother.”
“Well, just put protect all of us then.”
“That is a bit complicated. If we happen to be in danger at exactly the same time, he will just help the one who happens to be closer or will run his probability program and save who is more likely to survive. Are you sure you want to share your toys?”
“Steve, he is not a toy! AIDI said he is a better human. I am sure he can make his own decisions.” Lucy said.
“Just do what I said and let’s get out of here,” Gabe concluded.
Steve inserted all the information about all the 6 of them, covered the bullet holes with synthetic tissue and clicked reboot on the computer. Marcus stood up and asked, “What happened? Where am I?”
“You were shot. We fixed you,” Steve answered.
“He means you were wounded and we took care of you,” Lucy corrected. AIDI told Lucy that her pity was unnecessary for Marcus was aware of everything. He knew exactly who and what he was, for what purpose he exists. The only thing no one knew, the information that was erased from his memory is who create him and when. They just protect the freeman. That’s their job.”
Erick said, “When I called dad, Primate Antonio answered and said they want to trade the Crucifix for him”. Lucy worried as hell said, “Let’s give it to them then. I won’t let anyone lose his father because of a stupid Crucifix.”
“I think I might have an idea for that and it is not about brains, it’s about muscle,” Steve said.
They went to the city. Marcus took Gabe’s car, entered Mr.
Sambo’s house where Tom also was. Their mission save Mr. Erick Morgo from the Vatican. That seemed like an impossible mission. They entered Mr. Freeman’s private Jet and headed to the Rome.
Gabe, Lucy and Steve took Gabe’s mom and went to the North Pole. They went from Australia to pick up Steve’s parents who decided to celebrate their silver wedding in an English Speaking country that had neither very racist people nor people who could treat them with hypocritical niceness not to seem racist. They were nowhere to be found. Steve was desperate, not knowing what to think, if they had been kidnapped or since they didn’t use mobile phones because Mr. Lotch believed that Google, Apple, Windows or any other software company was monitoring his private life. Steve relaxed, he had to follow the plan so to the Arctic they went.
Without his parents on his side, he was weak. That was his only weak spot and Jed was the best at finding those.