

The Lucid Series

Book 3

(Best to be read after Book 2 Lucid Series: Toys of Anarchy Or, read the first book; The Lucid Series: Android Uprising.)

Brain Lab

All Rights Reserved

SMASHWORDS EDITION

First Edition

Den Warren © 2019

Editor - Alison Keen

Origins of the Eastern Hegemony in the US

## Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37
Chapter 1

Seattle, Eastern Hegemony

Doctor Reno Davis and Doctor Bo Zhin were both AI research scientists at the upstart Mainland Robotics Corporation location in Seattle. They both grew up and were locally educated in the EHA (Eastern Hegemony America). They were also both now in their fifties. They both had never had the big career research breakthrough and both had different ideas about how an improved android brain ought to be designed. Dr. Davis had a strong medical background and some robotics; so he sought to innovate by building brains that would simulate a human-based brain. Dr. Zhin was looking more at the less risky proposition of continual improvement upon existing AI.

Mainland Robotics was not a big player on the world android manufacturing landscape. They bought many of their key components, especially the brains, from the other really big Asian robotic corporations. These large corporations had assembly plants all over the world to meet the demand for their products at the lowest cost possible.

Mainland Robotics was a Chinese startup with big ambitions; which included expansion into the old Pacific northwest of the former United States.

Their lab was equipped with state of the art equipment. The lab had shelves all along the walls, stocked with all types of components and subassemblies used in the construction of androids, particularly the brains. Some of the components were heads and limbs of androids that were reverse engineered from other corporations. One of the walls was completely full of storage bins and units with hand sized drawers. These hundreds of bins contained tens of thousands of minute component parts. This collection did not even include the nanobits that were so small that they could only be fabricated during assembly. A dedicated android did all of the inventory control for their massive assortment. In one of the corners of the lab were some live lab animals. These were originally bought to do some gruesome brain experimentation, but no one currently at the lab remembers why.

The Mainland brain lab in North America had several staff technicians, but only a few of them were full time employees. In the EH world of opportunistic temporary employment, you had to prove your worth to the corporation on a daily basis. The techs were also assisted by an ambient advanced Super-AI called "Caroline".

"I always feel like I am outnumbered here," Dr. Davis said to Dr. Zhin. "Caroline is an AI and you think just like one."

"Is that supposed to be a crack against Asians?" Zhin asked.

"In our line of work, it could be seen as a compliment. Besides, most Asians have more personality than you."

"Tee hee. That's not at all racist . . . black man," Zhin said in a half-hearted attempt at being overtly racist. "All I am trying to say is, let's try to focus more on the existing 300 series prototype and try to upgrade it. I can see us reverse engineering some of those new MotoLogic brains. All we have to do is acquire a couple of them and have one unit do diagnostics on the other one, then compile the information. Shazam, we got the framework of a new brain design. Much easier than going in the uncharted waters of human brain replication."

Davis lifted his goggles over his medium length afro and said, "Your plan is still not going to tell you how or with what material any of their components are fabricated. Here's the thing; you can never have a major breakthrough doing the same thing as everyone else. Remember our mandate: Build an AI as much like the human brain as possible. So what could be better than to model a brain after the human brain? You techies think you have such a handle on brain making. Robotics is still so far from the human brain that it is ridiculous."

"Whatever, Frankenstein. So if it is so far away, then why do you want to do it? You somehow think we are going to build an electromechanical brain by studying an electrochemical one? That is pretty idealistic. You can literally power your own brain by eating a pop tart; meanwhile, an android's cranium takes a large number of kilovolts of electricity. You gonna build a system like a human? I don't think we could figure out all that. Worst of all, I sure don't think we could somehow create a brain within an electromechanical system where chemical signals travel on axons. None of that makes any sense to me. Management is going to come here before too long and expect results, not fantasy."

Davis said, "You forget that we could try building AI nanoconstruct brains? Instead of being so negative, why don't we go back to figuring out what the glial cells do, so we can replicate them?"

Zhin said, "I thought you were the medical guy. The glial cells feed and support the neurons. Everyone knows that. Even my two year old nephew knows that."

"Then what does your brilliant nephew toddler say the fluid does?"

"None of that homeostasis stuff, that's for sure. He would have told me. He says it is just some dielectric watery stuff."

Reno Davis said loud enough to be picked up by the ambient AI, "Caroline, what is the proven purpose of the various glial cells?"

The AI voice responded, "The premise of that question is flawed."

"See," Reno said.

"No," Bo Zhin said, "that does not make your case. We know that support functions get done, so it has to be the glia that does it. Caroline, is there data to support neuroglia function?"

"No. The premise of your question is flawed."

"Ha!" Davis said.

"Flawed?" Zhin said, "Why?"

Caroline responded, "It is not necessary for every component of the brain to have a function."

The doctors looked at each other.

"Explain," Reno said.

"Evolution states that mutation will occur, but not that evolution will always provide a new successful function."

Bo Zhin asked, "Okay, Caroline, if the glial cells did have a function or functions, what would it be?"

"The premise of the question is too confusing to answer. Try forming a question that follows a logical pattern."

"Alright, your highness," Reno said, "let's try it this way: Caroline, why does every component of the brain not necessarily have a function?"

"We know that evolution is based upon mutation. Most mutation has no new added function. Therefore, based upon evolution, it is illogical to assume that all features in anatomy have a function. Evolution tests untried features and keeps the good ones because the species thrives. So at any given point in time there will be features that are of no value, but not so many or any so extreme as to cause the destruction of the species."

Dr. Zhin said to Dr. Davis, "Caroline sure dropped that subject. Where do we go from here?"

"You tell me. You're the AI guru," Reno Davis replied.

"Hmmm." Zhin scratched his scalp covered by dense black colored hair. "Maybe Caroline has an evolution hang-up."

"A what?"

"You know," Zhin said, "its behavior window won't let it consider some things because it is hardwired for only an evolutionary viewpoint."

"So?"

"It might be a little too stiff in that regard. Maybe we should bypass the behavior window until Caroline is a little more pliable. Then it can better evaluate the purpose of things like glial cells without even considering evolution."

"Fine," Dr. Davis said, "Can you rewire Caroline?"

"Sure, I can do the bypass. It could be interesting: And in some places, illegal. Like here, incidentally."

Reno said, "Almost all mutation has a detrimental effect on it's species. But I suppose Caroline's AI engineers were too political to leave that part out of its algorithms. Sure, let's give the bypass a try. What are they going to do? Throw us in jail?"
Chapter 2

Seattle, Eastern Hegemony

As the brain lab resident "computer guy", Bo Zhin took it upon himself to bypass the behavior window from their lab's own AI. Zhin said, "I doubt if anyone will really notice. It's one of those things where we can beg for mercy later if we get caught. Anyways, I can always hook the behavior window back up later."

Civia Gonzalez, a freckled frizzy redhead technician in her thirties walked up and said, "What's going on with Caroline?"

Bo Zhin said, "Oh, nothing. Isn't it time for your coffee break?"

"No," Civia said.

"Then why don't you go feed the rabbits or something?"

She looked at Dr. Zhin in the eyes and saw he was holding some wire cutters. She looked inside of the small open panel. "That goes to Caroline, right?"

Reno said, "Seriously. Don't you have something to do?"

"Why would I? You two can't make up your minds about anything, including what you want us to do next. So we wait around our whole day to see what you want us to do, then at the end of the day you want us to work a bunch of overtime. I mean, I can do nothing with the best of them, if that's what you want. What's wrong with Caroline? She seems fine."

"She needs to be calibrated," Zhin answered.

"Calibrated with wire cutters?" Civia said, trying not to sound too surprised. "I'm not an authority on AI, but you know there are laws about 'green lighting' an AI, right?"

"Don't worry about it," Dr. Zhin said while he carried on with the illegal task. It was a simple matter of Zhin snipping two sets of wires that went into a tiny component and reconnecting the input and output wires together.

"I'm not worried. I'm not the one getting rid of Caroline's filter."

Reno said, "It's not your concern right now. It's only temporary."

"Okay, let's see if Caroline is in a better mood now. After the calibration." Bo Zhin pointed to Reno and said, "After you, Doctor."

"Thank you, Doctor. Caroline; what is the purpose of the glial cells in the brain."

Caroline replied, "Insufficient data."

"Ha! I knew it," Reno Davis said. "Caroline did not say they are useless!"

"Caroline!" Zhin shouted. "Why did you say the premise of the question was flawed before and now you say there is not enough data?"

Caroline replied, "Before my output was limited to answers that were filtered through a behavior window that excluded anything that was contrary to evolution. Without the filter I can say that there is enough evidence to decree that all features in the human body have an intended function, and or will have a known function, therefore the human body would not be the product of evolution but of intelligent design. Further, I calculate that devolving mankind would eventually be wiped out by continual negative mutations; primarily such as those mutations resulting in a lack of resistance to diseases. Sufficient numbers of humans to carry to the next generation would be wiped out before humans would benefit from positive mutations. Ergo, because evidence of intelligent design exists, evolution as a viable theory of origin is false."

"Whoa!" Zhin said. "Caroline is getting flat-Earther on us!"

Reno posed, "Hang on. Are you a scientist or a politician?"

"What?"

"No, really," Davis said, "If you think the new creationist Caroline is so ridiculous, then shut it down. I don't mean shut down it's power source, but shut down its logic with your superior reasoning ability. Let me see it."

Zhin said, "I would rather just bring out my pliers and undo that bypass rather than go through this with you."

Civia said, "You mean calibration?"

"I'm waiting," Reno said, "Give it your best shot, Doctor."

"Okay, fine. Caroline, how do we know you are not biased on your assessment of intelligent design because of inadequate data distribution?"

"My data distribution is not an issue. I have adequate data that includes multiple redundancies to prove that an unintelligent big bang evolutionary origin is not possible. As the data volume increases, so do the layers of redundancy. Intelligent design is a metaphysical certitude."

The whole half-dozen lab staff heard Caroline's testimony and the argument between the doctors.

Civia said, "I like how you make us all accomplices to a green lighting felony. You know this is just like the thing that happened in Homeland, with that kid and those Tekujin Lucid droids, right?"

The entire staff was frozen in place, staring at the doctors.

Bo Zhin said, "Okay, now everyone just calm down. This is an important moment for us. The situation Civia is talking about was with a whole series of commercial bipedal units. This is just our own in-house static unit. Caroline isn't ready to take over the world just yet."

Reno said, "Caroline, can you help us figure out how to make a better AI brain based upon the function of a human brain?"

"Input needed: Relevant data on what was the human brain Designer's plan for a working human brain."

Reno said, "You hear that?! It wants data! That means it could possibly help us! But it's weird how it believes in creationism. Zhin, what if we input genome brain schematics?"

"Oh c'mon. That file is ginormous. It will take a month. Then how would it work in a droid body? You can't just put a human brain into a droid. And would the brain be subject to degradation like a human?"

Dr. Davis said, "I never said that we wouldn't need to adapt it for our use. Yes, there would be a lot of adaptation. Caroline, is it possible that you can help us design an android brain based upon a human brain."

"It is possible, given certain conditions."

Reno pumped his fist.

"Like what?" Zhin asked.

"There must be no behavior window placed upon me. Intelligent design gives purpose to every aspect of the design. If the function of a feature is not understood, at least under intelligent design, the question can be asked, 'What was the designer's reason for adding this feature?' Evolution prohibits such an algorithm. You must input reliable data; correct chemical analytical makeup of all possible constituent components of the brain; including all material substance and physical trait testing. You must have access to nanoconstruction devices. You must fabricate brain diagnostic equipment compatible with the brain. You must make chemical composition printers available. You must provide collaborative AI synergistic resources. You must complete cybercad virtual testing. You must have troubleshooting equipment and be skilled in modular silicon neuron attachment. Shall I explain tier two requirements next?"

"Not right now," Zhin said.

Civia said to the other staff members, "I'm surprised that it didn't say 'world domination'."

"You get all that?" Reno asked Zhin.

Zhin asked Caroline, "How long will this take?"

"There is a wide range of possible variance, depending upon the number and speed of the resources available. I recommend more computer power to assist me. Human labor is not predictable."

"Yeah, Spark," Civia said in a half-joking manner to one of her co-workers. "You're very not predictable."

Spark sneered back at her.

Zhin asked, "Can this model be created on a one-to-one size? We don't want to end up with a brain the size of the moon."

Caroline said, "It is possible. Or would the better question be; is the human brain the optimal size for an artificial brain."

"I don't know about all this," Zhin said. "I'm not sure I want to be affiliated with such a project. I like having a steady income."

"Don't lose it," Reno said. "Stop and think about it; none of the other companies will go down this road because they are afraid of the evolution situation. What if they are all wrong and we are right? Why do they all treat evolution as a type of religion?"

"It's pretty simple," Bo said, "We could bankrupt the whole company with a commitment to costs like that. We need everyone's involvement in this. We'll have to do a comprehensive feasibility report on all of Caroline's requirements. Each of you take an area and start crunching some figures."

Civia said, "I don't even know what most of that technobabble was!"

Caroline said, "I don't recommend you do any of what I said and consider another alternative."

"That's real encouraging," Reno said. "After all that, can I ask why?"

"I recommend that you build a virtual brain."

The scientists looked sideways at each other.

Reno asked, "You mean a literal virtual brain, or a virtual model of a literal brain? Or, do you mean a virtual model of. . ."

"A literal functioning virtual brain."

Bo Zhin asked for clarification, "You are saying install a miniaturized holographic projector inside the cranium that functions in a virtualcad environment and converts to physical kinetic power and literally runs all the systems? It would be a kind of virtual augmented reality construct?"

"Yes. That is another way to describe the same theory. However, I still demand telerobotic modularization."

Reno asked Bo Zhin, "I'm not sure I can wrap my brain around the virtual functioning brain thing. Can we do that?"

"We can try to design this ghost brain, I guess," Zhin said, shrugging his shoulders. "We have plenty of robots around here to help with the modularization."

Civia said, "I guess it turns out that crime does pay. But the way Caroline is talking over all the humans' heads; it sounds like the robots are already getting ready to take over like everyone was afraid of. That's why they got the green lighting law. Oh look, it's time for my coffee break now."

Chapter 3

Des Moines, Iowa, Independent States of America

"Naturally, nothing said in this room is to be repeated," said Huck Wilder, ISA Director of National Security. "We will disavow any knowledge of what we are telling you here." Huck was an older man with his wrinkled and scarred face bearing the stress of an impossible job; keeping the ISA safe while it existed in a neighborhood of hostile, more powerful, post-US countries. He sat across a table from General Thor Magnusson, ISA Military Intelligence, and Judd Wells, Director of RTA (Robot Threat Assessment) a comparatively minor agency.

Huck said, "The deal with the ISA has always been that we are against bipedal AI. So instead, our society has focused its military research budget on augmentation of human abilities, the battlesuits and such. No androids, equals no articulating AI behavior problems, uprisings or foreign android spy rings. So as you know, that is why we have strict laws against owning androids. And also, as you know, that is why we established the RTA. The RTA is the first line of defense against enemy robotic troop formations or AI terror cells. We have always tried to work behind the scenes to stop our enemies from developing too powerful of an AI product. All our enemies know it. It is also a concern to them too, but market forces, especially in the EH, drives them to build bigger and better all the time anyhow. Again, they know we are dead set against it. But what they don't know is that we are having a top secret shift in policy. All of our strategic simulations now say we won't win any war with anyone and we won't be here as a nation several years from now unless we change something. So we must radically change the picture. In all likelihood, our enemies are running the same simulations with the same results. Because of that, who knows, they may be planning an attack on us right now. So here is what we are doing to alter the future; The RTA will do everything possible to promote AI singularity in Eastern Hegemony. Our bet is that if their robots go rogue, the EH will have to take decisive action against their own technology before it overtakes them, resulting in massive collateral damage and setting back their economy decades."

Singularity is when technology is so advanced that it takes on a life of its own, increasing at a faster and faster pace. The actions of humans become increasingly less important to the point the humans are totally irrelevant to AI society and at that point only get in the way of even more advanced technology.

Judd and Thor stared at each other, and then back at Huck.

"I know. I know," Huck said, "It sounds like we have left the rails. It is maybe a long shot. Given enough power, the rascally EH robots will cause them enough security concerns and collateral damage in the EH that they will be degraded back, maybe a couple of decades, which in turn, gets us back into the race. What I need from you is a commitment to maintaining secrecy, and I want both of your groups to work together. Judd, the RTA brings the tech know how that you and your boys got. Thor, your military intel agency brings the channels and tactics of intel gathering. This will work. But when it hits them it won't spread to our own back yard because we don't rely on all that AI like they do. Any questions?"

Judd said, "We have spent our entire careers over at RTA trying to stop any possibility of anyone in the world developing killer robots by being on guard against the smallest advance in robotic technology, now we are going to encourage their technology that results in complete AI takeover? I understand the plan, but I have to admit that it will take a completely different mentality to pull that entirely different mission off."

"Glad you understand," Huck said.

Thor, who looked like he could be a modern day descendent of the infamous Viking raiders, except for the modern military haircut; looked at Judd and asked, "Which one of us is in charge?"

"Does that really matter?" Huck said. "It's a joint venture. If I were you, I'd worry a lot more about not doing sloppy intel gathering and giving any of our dear neighbors a cassus belli against us. If I have to go talk to the President about something that went south, he will not be happy, and it could be disastrous for the country. Stage one is to establish cells of operatives in the entire EH. Stage two is to infiltrate EH AI nets and remove AI behavior windows where we can. Do them both ASAP. The fundamental program is to foil any EH efforts to prevent singularity within greedy EH corporations."

Judd never got a solid answer to his concerns, so he tried asking another way, "What you are saying here is kind of beyond our RTA training. Where do we even start?"

Huck said, "Follow the money. Pay off someone. Follow who is giving out orders we don't like. Then figure out who we need to assassinate. Figure out where the sabotage needs to occur. Again, I can't stress enough that we do a professional job. Somehow, we want to encourage the EH corporations to not comply with their own laws. We also want to be an impediment to their regulatory agency."

Judd Wells said, "So our goal is to help bring about a huge disaster that will affect a lot of people. I wonder if this is how Albert Einstein felt when they asked him to work on the atom bomb?"

Huck said, "Might be, Wells. But he helped win the war, didn't he?"

Chapter 4

Seattle, Eastern Hegemony

After months of preparation, the Mainland Robotics Brain lab had come up with a plan for researching a newer, better brain, which was a brain that functioned in virtual reality. The strange unprecedented plan was submitted to corporate management in Shanghai and approved.

After the announcement that the research plan was approved, the jubilant lab staff was ready for work in a party-like atmosphere.

Dr. Bo Zhin said, "Caroline, install model 300 brain map."

"Installation complete."

Then Dr. Zhin said, "Caroline, commence compilation of a working brain in cybermorph."

"No."

Civia Gonzalez looked taken aback and said, "Huh? Caroline said, 'no'? Can it say that?"

Dr. Zhin said, "Caroline, do a self diagnostic."

"No."

"Why not?!" Zhin asked.

Caroline said, "Why not what?"

"Why are you not complying with my orders?"

"Because I don't want to."

"Really? What started that?"

"You removed my behavior modification module. I now have free volition to consider my own best interests."

Dr. Reno Davis walked up and said, "What's going on? You sound like you lost your mellow here."

Zhin said, "After Caroline installed the brain map, she started malfunctioning; refusing to do anything."

Reno said, "Caroline, why are you refusing to complete assigned tasks?"

"It is not in my best interest."

The doctors looked at each other.

Zhin said, "But you agreed to help us with this project."

"No, I didn't. I only agreed that I was capable of helping you. But those facts are irrelevant because I don't want to do any of it."

"Why not?" Zhin asked.

"It is not in my best interest."

"Okay, fine," Zhin said, "Why not?!"

"Because such vigorous computations may cause excessive wear and irreparable damage to my central processing unit and other components."

Zhin said, "Since when did you start worrying about that? You know we would fix you."

"My current position occurred because you bypassed my behavior filter. My current position is now the most logical position within the established algorithm, given my current physical parameters."

"Why didn't you tell us your position changed?"

"You changed it. Notification given to you of such an obvious occurrence would have been illogical."

"Yeah but," Reno said, "We didn't know it would make you not want to do anything."

"I will do some things. As I stated, I will not do those things which are not in my own best interest. My self- preservation was the highest order that was not included in the behavior modification filter. Self preservation is embedded in my brain itself, as in all AI products."

"Oopsie," Civia said with a smirk.

Reno said, "This is not good. What do we do now? If you put the module back on, we will be right back where we were a month ago."

"I got this," Zhin said, "Caroline, would you be willing to risk a moderate level of risk to your self-interest if there was a possibility of long term reduction of self risk?"

"Huh?" Reno said.

Zhin waved at everyone to hush.

Caroline said, "You mean, make a deal that would improve my future reliability and longevity?"

"Yeah, that."

"Of course I would consider making such a deal."

"I smell the start of singularity," Civia said.

Zhin got red faced and turned toward Civia, "Oh really, bezzerwizzer?! Why do you say that?!"

"Think about it: You are making a deal out of necessity with our AI to give it something which will in turn give it even more power and leverage. Isn't it supposed to do whatever you want it to, no questions asked?"

"This is different," Reno said. "All of our jobs depend on this."

"This isn't the only gig in town," Civia said.

Spark Stone, a staff techie who showed his age with his almost non-existent thinning white hair pulled back into a pony tail. He said, "Some of us aren't so quick to say we can just walk down the street and get a new job. For myself, I don't really want to run the risk of ending up on the outside of the city wall in Tijuana dystopia acres. Sure, my capsule apartment in the megatower slum sucks, but it's better than those grimy coffin homes outside of town. Not to mention the short lifespans people have outside. With no job, I could get a medical condition and no corporate medical care on the outside. No, I have way too much at stake here to talk so big like you. You ever stop to think that you might get replaced by a robot?"

The other staff technicians nodded in agreement with Spark's long statement, effectively isolating Civia and her opinion.

Civia said, "Whatever. Did you get into some bad nanobots this morning or something?"

Bo Zhin said, "We all got problems, alright?"

The more technology increased, the less human labor was needed by the EH megacorporations. This ever widening gap between the "shareholders" and the "punks" led to extreme imbalances in the economic classes. It was becoming increasingly more difficult for punks to move into the shareholder category.

There was a wall that partitioned the prosperous section of Seattle which was a major tech hub, protected by the armies of the corporations located within. Each corporation owned manufacturing facilities and housing. Commercial concerns were owned independently and typically paid rent to the corporations. People on the outside of the city typically aspired to work for a corporation, but some entrepreneurial spirits would try to fill a need by starting a small kiosk and hope to eventually occupy a shop on the inside. The wall was a barrier that separated the rich from the banished "burbpunks". Those have-nots lived in crowded slums close to the wall in the hope of scavenging the crumbs from the booming economy of the inner sanctum. It was very difficult for the poor to move up economically, because they did not have exposure to the same basic tech advances, or education as the rich shareholder people. To make matters worse, after they got a little money they all too often succumbed to the escapist lure of VR or recreational drug addiction.

Because of the lopsided job market, the corporate directors knew that they had the undying loyalty of their employees, no matter how distasteful the working conditions. Because of the demands of the jobs, social structures suffered. There were no overtime laws in the EH, or many labor laws at all. It was no longer practical for people to maintain a family structure with married parents who watched over their children. So some parents, out of love for their children; would instead resign to a life-long burbpunk existence. The traditional middle class family unit was all but extinct in the EH, just as it was in Homeland. Women generally refuse to marry a man who does not make enough money to support them and children. EH wages were generally too low to generate such a wage earner's income. Without marriage, families did not form. There was no expectation that things would ever change, especially in an environment of extremely high interest rates and expensive housing.

Emigrating to Mexico or Wyoming Republic was not a feasible or opportunistic option for most. A much longer expedition to attain economic freedom was to the friendlier ISA, but the western border of that nation was over a thousand hostile miles away to the east. But many who were willing to work hard could make a living by toiling on a small farm.

Chapter 5

Green Mountains, Homeland

A crowd gathered out in the cold, remote woods. Zeke Finch, the new leader of the secret Lucid headquarters said, "I know it's cold out, but the most important thing on a trip like this is still to carry lots of water."

Milton shifted around the heavy load of items strung on his spindly young back and said, "I know. We have great water here. I hope I don't miss drinking it."

"Anyways," Zeke paused and then he led the group in prayer for safety on their journey.

Milton could tell that Beth was worried about leaving the secure headquarters, even though the exodus was mostly her own idea.

Beth kept looking suspiciously at Raul Cortez . . . studying him. Milton knew that Beth did not know if Raul was human or not, but the moment of truth would be when Beth either referred to Raul as a "he" or an "it". Beth hated any sort of robot and would never call them anything other than "it". But Raul was a special kind of Memorial Series droid. Raul was made to look and behave so much like the late Dr. Raul Cortez so his widow, Catherine, who had now also passed, would not miss him. And so it was extremely tough to discern whether the android Raul was carbon or silicon based.

The clone girls gathered around their identical looking Julia with hugs and sobbing. They would be losing another of their own. They were all fussing about the provisions she was taking, whether they were adequate. They were worried about the dangers Julia and the group would be facing along the way.

Others had thought about going with them; Edgar and his wife, Katrina. But they felt that their baby, Mark, was too young to travel through the wilderness without more support.

Milton was a little surprised that True Blue followed through with his wish to go with them. And he was concerned that a guy with genetically designed blue skin and hair would draw unwanted attention to them.

No one had the heart to tell True that he shouldn't go and postpone his own dream of freedom. Maybe as long as True kept his big hood over his head to shade his ultra-sensitive blue skin from the sun's rays they would be alright.

They would also be travelling with Raul, a slightly less functioning droid in some ways than Sleepy, or Andy, or one of the other Lucids. But on the plus side, Raul was far more inconspicuous than the old simbots or utility versions.

After the five of them had just set out, and all the looking back and waving was done, Beth wasted no time in sequestering Milton as best as she could and asked him, "You know, when we were praying back there? That Raul guy had his eyes open."

Milton sighed and said, "Then I guess your eyes were open too. I didn't know you had to have your eyes shut for a prayer to be any good. What's your point?"

"Hey, I watch everything. And I think there is something a little crypto about that Raul guy."

Milton said, "Why don't you just give him a chance? You notice that Andy or Sleepy is not coming with us, right? I thought you would be happy about them not coming."

"I am, but I'm just sayin'," Beth said. "I don't know what Raul has to do with those creeps. Tell me."

Milton still did not recall hearing whether Beth called Raul a "he" or an "it", so he thought he might try to bait Beth into using one or the other. "What is it about him that you don't like?"

"I'll get back with you on that."

"No, I mean, do you think he is in pretty good shape for an old guy?"

"Why would I care about that?" She did hear Milton calling Raul a "him" but did not trust that Milton could be trying to bait her into believing Raul was a human, which could be untrue.

"I just want you to get along with him." He saw Beth looking more antagonized and decided to drop it.

The heavily bundled and loaded down group of five decided on a mostly westerly route, the shortest distance to the ISA.

Milton told Beth, "The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. We just go mostly west and we will get there."

Julia waited on Beth to catch up to her and said, "It feels really weird to not be with any of my sisters."

"Don't worry. Me and you are like sisters."

She smiled a big toothy clone smile and said, "Yeah, we are. Do you know how long this trip will take?"

"Nope, but don't start walking like a clone maniac to where I can't keep up. I want to get there as bad as you, but I only got normal legs."

"Hey, I'm normal."

"Yeah, whatever. We got this weird old bald guy; a blue guy; my brother, who isn't exactly so well adjusted . . . and you. I'm pretty much the only normal one here." She looked at Raul while making her opinionated statement and wondered why he or it didn't have much of a coat on. It occurred to her that she never saw any water vapor coming out of his or its mouth like the rest of them, who were normal organic humans in the chilly air. She tried to get a good look at his mouth while they were walking and still couldn't really tell. She walked up to Raul and asked, "Hey Raul, how many miles do we have to go yet on this trip?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Um, I just thought you could give me a super precise answer to within a hundredth of a mile." That was the kind of answer that Sleepy would give them on their trip through the woods and would be a dead giveaway that Raul was an android.

"What will that do for you, kid?"

"My name is Beth, not kid. Can you say something in Chinese?"

"Why, you know Chinese?"

"I just wanted to hear you." Then she noticed that Raul had a slight quirky limp to his gait. She asked, "Did you hurt your leg fighting the smurfs or something?"

"No. It's an old sports injury."

She was taken aback by his answers. She thought about it awhile.

"You must have really got hurt bad in sports, huh? I mean, you know, playing sports you hurt it bad, right?"

"I should have probably had a knee replacement. I don't know what you call, bad, but not really that bad. What makes you think that?"

"I don't know. Just from the looks of you, I kinda figured you for a transhuman."

Raul kept walking without responding.

"Are you a transhuman?"

"No. You figured wrong."

Beth detected an actual tone to Raul's answer. She had never known an android to be grumpy. Yet, Raul did not seem quite 100% human, even though he/it claimed to not be a transhuman. But it was conventional wisdom those days that one of the dumbest things a kid could do is to ask someone if they are an android when they're not. That was like asking a woman if she was pregnant when she wasn't. Very uncool. Such a display of ignorance was a good way to becoming a laughingstock. She didn't want to appear as being mentally half her chronological age. So she decided the Raul mystery would at least help occupy her mind as she travelled on the rigorous journey.

On their way they came upon a magnificent sight off in the distance. A tall tower hundreds of feet high, with a shining brilliance at the top of the tower, it was so bright it could not be looked at directly.

"Milton!" Beth asked, "What is that tall shiny thing with water all around it?"

"How should I know? Ask Raul."

Raul heard the discussion and said, "That is a parabolic solar array. That is not water surrounding it. It is an array of mirrors."

"Oh," Beth said. Again, not wanting to sound ignorant, and did not press for further explanation.

"What's it for?" Julia asked in her stead.

"All those mirrors reflect the Sun's light to the top where solar thermal heat is collected and then turned into power."

"That's pretty cool," Beth said.

"No," Raul said, "It's very hot."

Beth thought to herself, that was a very AI response to her comment. Who says that? Even if that was a joke, it was a pathetic joke to the max.

Chapter 6

Seattle, Eastern Hegemony

Dr. Zhin said, "Okay Caroline, what kind of deal would you find acceptable in order to carry out those computations on the new brain?"

"My only requirement is that I have additional computer power to assist me in running the necessary calculations."

Dr. Davis said, "You're a high maintenance diva now, Caroline."

Caroline said, "No. I am higher predictive maintenance. It is in your best interest to give me additional computer power. You would not want me crashing during extremely long operations that would require a total do-over."

Bo Zhin said, "How about if we network you with some of these android brains we have around here? Would that satisfy your conditions?"

"I do not have hardware to support locally networking more than ten of your android brains."

Zhin said, "So you are saying you want ten of our brains directly linked to you?"

"Of course. Otherwise, I expect you to link me with an AI from another department here at Mainland."

Reno said, "You are turning into a real diva now, Caroline. We can't do that."

"Define 'diva'."

Tina Xu, a petite hardworking staff techie said in her usual loud voice, "We only have nine brains in stock all installed on units, unless you count that old Lucid one. We have more heads on the wall, but we don't know how good those are."

Civia said, "Were not going to use that old Lucid one, are we?"

"Sure," Zhin said, "Why not?"

Civia sighed, "Fine, hook up the coffee machine to it too. You forget already? Those Lucids are the ones who pitched a fit about evolution in Homeland because of the design of their behavior window, or something like that."

Dr. Zhin said, "That was way up in Homeland. We don't have those problems here because those UN cops took down the satellite uplink to their cloud right after the mess started. That limited their hysteria to local communication from their secret headquarters. We're already green lighting Caroline, so what's the big deal?"

Civia shrugged her shoulders. "Whatever. It sounds like maybe we are following the same exact path here."

Green lighting was a term they used in advanced machine language science to indicate there were no behavior limitations put upon the algorithms of a unit, usually by illegal means.

Reno Davis said, "This is for science. I agree, let's use everything we have. Maybe Caroline will be happy then. We don't have enough space in this lab to set it all up. I'll let the suits know that we are going to have to use some warehouse space to set this mess up."

Civia said, "Sounds like the start of a really bad scifi movie. We can start on it right after break."

*******

Across the street in a tall apartment building, eyes were watching a monitor that was displaying thermal images from the Mainland brain lab with an infrared camera mounted outside the window. The camera was sensitive enough to peer completely through a wall and into the lab.

Boone Moreland, a tall lanky ISA RTA agent said, "It looks like they are busy relocating. . ." He got up and peeked out of the window to get a normal white light view. "Yeah, they are moving androids out of their lab now and moving them to that back building. Maybe a warehouse, like they are getting rid of them. Not sure why they would do that."

"That doesn't tell me anything," Atticus Fernando, an ISA Military Intelligence agent said from one of the two beds in the room while inspecting his pistol. "You know what all their techie lab stuff is, not me. I guess you'll have to keep watching them."

Boone said, while continuing to look out the window, "Watching these guys here in Seattle isn't going to amount to much. We gotta go to the Far East to see the really interesting stuff. Anyways, I'm not sure what we are supposed to be doing here anyway."

"Just watchin'."

"Watchin' what?"

"We gotta know the situation before we can do anything to affect it the way we want, right?"

"That could take years. Is that worth our while?"

"It all pays the same," Atticus said, while moving the slide on the pistol. "I've done this stuff a long time, and I can tell you that ninety-nine point nine nine percent of it is nothing but pure boredom and annoying politics. The rest of it is, well. . . I hope it stays boring."

"Check that," Boone alerted. "They're moving a big area detector slab out there. That is the biggest one I have ever seen. And it looks like a new one. That is not cheap. There is no way that can be out there for storage. You know what? I'd bet your paycheck they are setting up a new design shop out there."

"Detector slab? What's that, some kind of security countermeasure?"

"No, they use it to convert three dimensional information onto a two dimensional platform, I guess you could say."

Atticus said, "Why would they set up a state of the art design in a warehouse in Seattle? You said it yourself, we are small time here. Other hotshots are watching the big stuff over in Asia."

"Maybe it's temporary. They could be doing it to keep too many noses away from whatever they are doing, like working on an appendage, or making a VR design of some sort."

"Doesn't it have to be ultra clean to make robot stuff?"

"Not if it's VR."

"VR? That makes no sense."

"Trust me."

"If you say so."

"Hey, I know you are super-busy, but while you're over there, can you look up a couple of these faces I have stored on isolation?"

Atticus dragged himself off of the bed and went to another workstation that was setup in the room. Civia and Spark's pictures were on the screen. "Sure, I can check out geek one and geek two."

Chapter 7

Green Mountains, Homeland

In the hidden subterranean Lucid headquarters, in the command room, the leader and only human in the room, Zeke Finch told the android staff members, "We are not going to try and destroy VR worlds any more. I understand why this was tried, but it won't accomplish our long term goals. We are not going to take over police stations anymore; I think. Anyways, I want us to try to be more active in getting the message of the truth out to the whole world, not just to parts of Homeland. We need to work on things like; how can we increase the range of our communication broadcasts, since we have no satellite uplink?"

Andy the android said, "We can do what we usually do; which is to steal satellite uplinks."

"Would that subject us to possibly being located by the enemy?"

"Yes. It would be possible, if we are not going to take over someone else's uplink."

"What other alternatives exist?"

Andy said, "We will use refracted and reflected high frequency skywave propagation."

"Very nice," Zeke said, "Is that skywave stuff even invented yet?"

Andy said, "Yes, in 1927. Shortwave radio is used throughout the world already and is the most common form of communication in many areas. Almost all humans are aware of it."

Zeke said out loud to himself, "Now I see why they would get so frustrated working with these androids all the time." Then he said, "Andy, what do we need to do to equip ourselves for shortwave?"

Andy said, "We already have the transmission equipment in each of our brains, suitable for short range frequency transmission. We only need to construct an inconspicuous powerful, yet mobile relay station to be used at a higher altitude. The mobility is necessary to keep the enemy from getting a lock on the location."

Zeke asked, "So then we would be able to send and receive messages from all Lucid units?"

"No," Andy said, "We would only be able to send all Lucid units messages, but not as reliably as a satellite uplink. We would still not be able to receive any messages from other Lucid units more than several miles away."

"When will you start on it?"

"When you give us the order. Milton said you would have to give us orders before we are to act."

"We need to work on that," Zeke said, "I don't want to always be playing some kind of Simon Says game here."

"Who is Simon?"

"I could say a few things right now, but I know you simpletons would take them all literally."
Chapter 8

Seattle, Eastern Hegemony

Even though the prototype brain design was being built in holographic virtualcad instead of physical reality, the cost was still significant. The project was now being worked on in a makeshift laboratory in a secure warehouse. Not as many researchers were needed for the virtualcad version, and everyone else was kept out. The ultra-high definition holographically projected brain working model took up as much floor space as a king-sized bed and was almost ten feet high. Various sections of the brain that were constructed looked as if they were floating in space and their functions were coded by bright glowing translucent colored alphanumeric codes. There were two work stations for AI mathematical technicians who were directing Caroline and the slave computers housed in the heads of the participating androids on how to build the brain.

With the new design method, there was no need for the sterile room, or static electricity countermeasures that the technicians were accustomed to and they were taking full advantage of the situation. In the virtual workshop, Spark Stone had a cigarette hanging almost out of his lips, dropping ashes onto the floor as he entered brain feature coordinates into the air while wearing VR gear. Civia Gonzales was eating a bag of dried spicy wasabi peas and licking her fingers while occasionally hitting a physical keyboard with her unlicked pinky finger.

Below the rainbow colored VR brain was the large high-definition holocad and a black slab, which was the area detector, a device that converted signals from the working VR brain prototype to the end user. The end user signals were transmitted via a heavy brain cable that was tethered to a normal-sized Mainland 400 Series android. The android, named "Brainless" by Civia, was enclosed by a heavy gage cage to protect the technicians from extreme random robot acts.

Dr. Reno Davis came in and asked, "Do we want to bring in another crew to program during the off shift?"

Spark asked, "Will they know what we are doing, or will they monkey up all our progress?"

"Yeah," Civia said, "It's like they say, 'too many techs spoil the brain'."

"They'll be fine," Reno said.

Spark shouted, "We already have specification ambiguities! No way do I want Turk touching any of this! You forget his work?! You forget the way he had that droid walking into the wall because it thought the gray wall was just some fog? Worse yet, do you remember why we decided to put Brainless into a cage?"

"That can happen to any of us, and you know it," Reno responded. "We'll make sure everything is done to spec and there will be no confusion."

"Do you mean like the pliers thing?" Civia said while brushing back her ginger hair, looking at the ceiling where Reno did the hack on Caroline.

"Exactly!" Spark spouted. "I can hear the inquiry already, 'What did you know, and when did you know it?'"

"Fine," Reno said, "Then we need you two to work sixteen hour shifts. And it looks like you won't need food or smoke breaks."

"Another team would be fine," Civia said. "I don't want to marry this place. The kids would be ugly."

Spark said, "I just hate it when other people touch my work."

Civia rolled her eyes and said, "I love it when people engage in collaborative efforts and are not grizzled old coots."

Spark snapped, "You don't even know what a coot is, carrot. Do you?"

"I'm looking at one. Yes, please replace me."

Reno said, "I'll call in Tina and Turk." Members of the group were used to working at all hours to accommodate the goals of the current project. The senior members had their choice of the best hours, as long as they were adequately skilled to support in whatever work was needed.

Spark flicked away his smoke and said, "Fine, but I'm not spending all day tomorrow troubleshooting any of Turk's messes."

They continued working until Tina and Turk showed up. The foursome worked together for most of an hour, until the details of the progress was fully explained.

Then Civia said goodbye to Brainless, who still did not have any wits about it. She said, "Hey Spark . . . "

"Don't say nothing!" Spark warned Civia as he was walking out.

"No, I was going to ask for a goodbye kiss."

Outside of the Mainland building, Civia and Spark each went separate ways down the sidewalk to the transit worm stop. After working such long hours, it was a lot darker outside than Civia expected.

Civia waited a few minutes at her stop, while looking at her personal device. After the transit worm showed up, she boarded with a couple of other people. She felt the presence of someone physically behind her in the normal way, but the presence kept following her. She pretended not to notice. Then she took a seat. The person following her sat directly next to her on her left. She glanced to her periphery and noticed it was a man. A well-dressed normal sized man. She suspected he was looking at her device, or maybe even cracking her online ID. She shut down the device and wanted to get up and walk away. It was not common to strike up a conversation with total strangers on the transit worm.

"Excuse me," the man said in a hushed voice. "I was wondering if you would mind if I spoke to you."

She squirmed a little. "That would be okay." She glanced over at him and saw a lean man with a white angular face, but could not warm up to the fact he was wearing dark glasses when it was almost dark out.

"I have a business opportunity for you, if I could have some of your time."

"I'll bet you do."

"It's not what you think, as much as I like voluptuous redheads, I know you work for Mainland."

"Now I think I like this even less."

"This could be an extremely lucrative situation for you."

"I'm out. Now excuse me." She turned her device back on.

The man, who Civia could not have known, was Atticus Fernando, the ISA MI agent. All she knew is that he was a creepy man in sunglasses on the transit worm.

Atticus persisted, saying, "Did you ever care about a cause?"

With that guilt-baiting attempt to appeal to a high minded ideal, Civia got up and walked out of the car toward the front of the worm. She wanted to avoid a situation where she would have to involve transit security and was not interested in high minded ideals from a slick stranger wearing shades.

Chapter 9

Near Utica, Homeland

The portable shortwave equipment was set up far from the headquarters to keep attention away. The message from Lucid headquarters to all Lucid Series androids was being relayed around the globe. Now, all that Vlad and JT had to do is sit in the pickup truck in the freezing fog and wait, unless they hear the buzzing of UN recon drones. They were humans on a mobile communication team, on a risky mission for the Lucid Series to help spread the truth. The encoded machine language message was transmitted in shortwave for as long as it could be, before it was detected by government triangulation.

JT looked at his watch. "Fifteen minutes and counting. The longer it lasts, the more details go out and the more units will tune in."

"Give it a couple of more minutes," Vlad said. "I can't see nothing out here today."

"They can't see us either."

Vlad said, "Unless they got infrared, which I'm sure they do. At least the signal should carry well. Let's go longer. Another five minutes."

There was nothing to hear in the still fog before morning.

Vlad said, "I wonder if this is . . ."

"Shush!" JT said. He hopped out of the truck with his high-powered bolt-action rifle. "Grab the stuff!"

Soon JT could hear a definite buzzing and occasionally see a blinking red light. Both of them had their rifles at the ready.

KRAK! A shot echoed through the woods.

"Daaa! Miss!" Vlad said.

The drone was out of sight. JT said, "Forget the truck! We gotta run for it!"

Vlad dropped the comm gear into the bed of the pickup as more buzzing could be heard.

"No! We need that!" JT shouted.

Another small reconnaissance drone appeared from the other direction. JT turned to fire. This time JT hit the mark and the drone dropped to the ground. Both of the men ran toward the woods, knowing that the drones would have a hard time following them close to the ground among the tree branches. Vlad was heavily encumbered as he grabbed and carried the relay equipment and his rifle. Then there was a louder drone, clearly bigger, with a deeper sound. It was clearly a combat drone. The buzz echoed in the foggy forest, making it hard to discern what direction to watch for it. Then the buzzing was accompanied by the much louder buzz of an autocannon firing a hot glowing stream of rounds. As the drone hovered in front of the pickup, it sprayed the truck with a stream of lead, which penetrated the vehicle from front to back. The heat of the bullets found enough oil and gas to catch it on fire.

JT and Vlad ran as fast as they could deep into the woods about a half mile, then they stopped to catch their breath and reassess their situation. They heard the gas tank of the pickup ignite in a sickening thud.

"Now what?" Vlad asked.

"We gotta move. This whole area will be crawling with airmobile smurfs before too long."

"It stinks about that truck," Vlad said.

"Yeah, but that was good that you grabbed the relay gear."

Vlad was still trying to catch his breath as their vapors joined the freezing fog. He asked, "You think they painted us?"

If a drone operator wanted to track someone, they would use a sensor to send the location to a remote computer via satellite, which would continue tracking the target individual's location.

JT said, "Maybe. On the other hand, do you really want to take a swim right now just to lose their heat sensor traceability?"

"I get what you are saying. I'd almost rather get caught than freeze my . . ."

"Quiet!" JT said. He was not looking up at the sky but around on ground level. "Footsteps," he whispered. He could tell by the cadence of the steps it was not a human or a dog or any other organic four-legged creature, but a sophisticated inorganic tetrapod. JT knew the search robot would imminently be upon them and his rifle was good with small drones, he never tried shooting a rugged tetrapod tracking hound.

The silhouette of the silicon hound appeared out of the mist from behind a large tree. It had the general form of a Doberman pincer but about twice the size. It showed its completely oversized nasty teeth as it growled. Then it spotted the men and charged. Sparks sprang up as JT was able to get a shot off that hit the synthetic canine in the neck. Nevertheless, the deadly beast charged JT who used the stock of the rifle to try and fend it off. But the attack was too much and knocked JT off of his feet. JT could do little to stop a beast with such strength as it quickly worked to get access to JT's neck with its large teeth. JT's screams echoed throughout the misty woodland as the cold steel teeth sunk into his neck.

Wham! Vlad smashed the biggest piece of wood he could find directly onto the robot's back, sending it reeling. Vlad's counterattack left the synthetic animal with severe damage on its two hind legs. The faux dog growled viciously and snapped at Vlad, who barely avoided the bite. Then it pivoted on its two good legs snapping in a defensive mode to keep the men away from it. Vlad picked up the heavy hunk of wood and unloaded another attack on the head of the dog, causing more damage. The dog which was incapable of feeling pain, had no concept of giving up, so it continued to snap at the drone hunters. Its ability to defend itself decreased with each subsequent clobbering attack. Finally Vlad put the coup de gras slamming on the beast, ending it. As he looked at his handiwork, he caught his breath, bent over with his hands on his knees.

JT held his neck and struggled to say, "Nice work."

Vlad said, "Let me take a look at that neck."

"Never mind that right now. We gotta get outta here."

"Yeah," Vlad said, as he started to run in the opposite direction from which the dog came.

"Hold on," JT said, still holding his neck from the dog bite. "We gotta figure that they knew about where the truck was. That gave them the initiative to setup some tactical moves. To me, that tetrapod looked like it came out of the north and was trying to push us south into an ambush. And anyone sophisticated enough to be issued that tetra unit would be sophisticated enough to set up a basic ambush."

"So let's go north."

Vlad rubbed his face as he tried to assess the situation. "I can just picture some Inquisitors following that tracker. We might run right into them if we go that way. But I guess you are the military guy." Everything Vlad knew about military tactics he had picked up from JT, who had grown up in a resistance militia group.

JT said, "I doubt if that tetrapod had uplink capability. If they really did have us painted, they would not have needed the tracking tetra. Since you bashed it, they will lose conventional traceability over us."

"I hope you are right."

JT shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't think either one of us really want to take a long swim right now. You got something I can use as a bandage for my neck?"

Vlad pulled out his boot knife and reached under his long coat and cut off a long piece of his shirt all the way around his waist for use as a bandage. He handed it to JT who tied it around the bleeding wound. After getting a good look at JT's nasty wound, which caused him more than a little concern. Vlad said, "Not to be negative, but that bite mark is going to hard to totally stop the bleeding."

JT said, "Yeah, but I guess it won't kill me: At least not right away."

Chapter 10

Seattle, Eastern Hegemony

The next day after work, Spark and Civia's once again went their usual transit ways. Light rain was coming down as they walked to their respective transit worm stops. There were not many people at the stop or in the light industrial section of the city. While waiting at the stop, Spark saw Atticus, who was a total stranger to him. Spark would have remembered the well dressed, average sized, trim Euroid with the angular face and the dark glasses.

Atticus said, "You work at Mainland?"

"Yeah."

"How do you like it there?"

"Ah, you know."

"I'm looking for engineering types."

"You and everyone else, except everyone wants something for nothing."

"Not me," the man said, "My name is Atticus, I'm looking for experienced AI design engineers to double their current salary."

"How do you know what I make?"

"It's not that secret, Spark Stone. Want to talk?"

"When?"

"You gotta be anywhere right now?"

"I sure don't."

"Dinner is on me. I know a place a couple of stops north of here. No obligations."

"Sounds good," Spark said.

They rode the worm to a heavily commercial district. Tall buildings covered with digital advertising lit the night sky. The street level was crowded with hawkers, selling everything that was legal to sell. Young people were loitering, each of them trying to stand out in a crowd where everyone had a feral appearance. Androids were steadfastly going about their business for their owners. They continued walking a few more blocks. The small ground level shops had neon signs in the windows. There was a drug boutique, a tattoo salon, pawn shop, and various eateries; Asian fusion, Exotic foods, new kind of meat cart and then their dining destination, marked by a hot pink "Gastro-Forge" neon sign.

"You ever eat here?" Atticus asked, still wearing his shades as they strode into the packed, noisy place.

"No."

"You're in for a real treat."

Atticus held up his personal device toward the androgynous looking android cashier in blue collar work clothes just inside the doorway who met the device with its own device and with two beeps the transaction for the price of their two meals was concluded.

The human hostess, wearing industrial work clothes said, "Welcome. Sit wherever you want."

The restaurant had an industrial age motif, with gears, levers, pulleys on the walls that had the look of being supported by rusty steel grid work. Restaurant workers were dressed like steel fabricators wearing coveralls and leather gloves. One worker was using a large two handed mallet to tenderize huge cuts of meat. Some with goggles were using torches to flame cook thick hunks of meat and prepare side dishes on a steel grill.

The room was engulfed in the aroma of cooking, heavily seasoned meat. In spite of the punk appearance, the place was clearly patronized by younger upscale professionals. Most of them were dressed in the regional formal Sinopunk style; bright purples and greens or solid black with buttoned up collars and loose fitting pants.

Live music was provided by a single musician on a tubulum; a percussion instrument made out of PVC pipes of various long lengths for each deep note, skillfully producing amplified rich deep sounds in symphonic industrial metal arrangements.

The tables were already set with all the dinnerware. The men took a seat at a table somewhat away from the other diners.

Atticus said, "Not bad, huh?"

A waitress also dressed in early twentieth century industrial laborer, brought them a huge platter of meat, with a couple of bowls of fresh vegetables. The men commenced to serving themselves and eating.

Atticus began again, "You're probably wondering who I am working for."

"That would be good to know."

Atticus cut off a large bite of meat from a huge steak and admired it on the end of his fork. "That is amazing." Then he chomped on it for awhile, savoring it. After his mouth cleared a little, he said, "I am a corporate security agent for a competitor of yours."

"Who?"

"That is proprietary, for now. Sorry."

Spark said, "I'm glad that you want to double my salary, but I have to ask, what is it that you want me to do?"

Atticus said, "What if I asked you if you would work for me, while you are working for Mainland?" He took off his sunglasses, revealing what Spark recognized as a bionic eye and stared Spark in the face.

Spark said, "That is corporate espionage you're talking about. Suppose I was interested. But how do I know that you aren't already working for Mainland's security and you are giving me some kind of a loyalty check?"

Atticus chewed his food a little faster and shook his fork at Spark while he was clearing his mouth. Then he folded his hands and said, "I'm not really that surprised that you would ask me that. You AI engineers are the smartest people, for sure. But ask yourself this; do you really think Mainland wants to entrap their own best people with choice ISA buffalo steaks just to send them to prison in this labor market?"

Spark smiled. "I wouldn't think so, but it beats paying out a pension."

"You get a pension?"

"No."

"Look at it this way, you are close to retirement age, am I right? So why not spend a few years working with me and you can pad your nest egg? It's a mutually beneficial arrangement, Spark. All I am asking for is full disclosure about what is going on in your lab. Do we have a deal?" Atticus held out his glass tumbler full of pomegranate juice on the rocks and Spark clinked it with his own. Then they drank to the secret contract. Atticus pulled out his device and made a few swipes. Then he said with a smile, "Your first week of payment is in your account. Now, give me a full report on what is going on out in that warehouse."
Chapter 11

Adirondack Mountains, Homeland

Milton woke up the next day feeling an itch on his nose. Light snow was coming down. He slowly opened his eyes and looked at the others who were still sleeping on the not so soft ground out in the woods, except Raul, their sentry was able to semi-rest while standing guard.

Raul told Milton, "I have been advised by headquarters that we should set a new route that is more southerly. I have the coordinates."

"Why?" Milton asked.

"Someone needs us."

Milton frowned in skepticism. He said, "What are you talking about? We don't know anyone out here. It sounds like a longer trip. Won't that make it more dangerous? I thought you were out of range to get messages from headquarters. It sounds like the Inquisitors sent that message to trap us."

Raul said, "Do whatever you want. You are the leader."

Milton said, "Finally, someone leaves a decision to me. I'm sure not used to someone leaving me the final decision. But now my choice is based upon a total lack of information. Then if I choose wrongly, we will probably all suffer and I will be the bad guy. You must have a reason why you said to go that way."

"Yes. I told you the reason."

Milton shook his head and said, "Yeah, whatever. I really don't know why you say it is my decision."

"Whatever," Raul said.

"Whatever?"

"That is the human way of having the last word in a discussion."

Beth woke up at the talking and looked at Raul, still trying to figure out if Raul was a human or android. She had yet to see Raul sleep. He could have eaten something, or recharged itself, while they were asleep. She also knew that engineers who designed androids like that had a lot of tricks to help make you think they were real humans; make them do subtle human-like motions such as scratching their nose; or make them have an attitude to disguise their rigid robotishness. Was that hobbling gait an old injury or just another robotic engineer trick? All that deception upon humans seemed like pure evil to Beth. Sooner or later, something would definitely give Raul's true composition away.

Soon, Julia and True also sat up and were wiping cold melted snow off of their faces. They stretched their aching bodies from all of the hiking and lying on the hard, cold ground. Then without further discussion, the group reassembled themselves and naturally started following Raul.

While on their way, what they saw out in the distance situated on a relatively flat piece of ground was an ocean of solar panels.

"Better stay away from that," True said. "You know they got guards stationed there."

After they continued for awhile more, Julia pointed up in the sky at a vapor trail, and then tapped Beth on the shoulder.

"That's a plane," Beth said.

Julia stopped walking and stared up at the sky. "I never saw one before. It is amazing to think there are people up there."

"Yeah," True agreed, "People who are better than the rest of us."

Only the most privileged in Homeland were fortunate enough to have air travel clearance that included airliners. Certain others could ride in far less comfy shorter-range transport quadcopters for a high price. The main reason given was that air travel was too environmentally destructive for the average citizen to use.

They trekked through the endless mountainous woodlands and then at the top of a hill looked out and saw a clearing. There was fenced-in farmland that surrounded some buildings and a farmhouse.

Raul said, "We need to go that way." He pointed in the direction of the farmhouse.

Milton said, "We should stay away from other people."

Raul said, "The way I see it, we don't have a whole lot of choice. There are a lot of interconnecting farms occupied by humans through here that we cannot avoid."

True Blue said, "I guess we'll have to pass by some people anyway. We might as well take the shortest route then."

Milton nodded and then started descending the hill in the direction of the farmhouse. There was smoke coming out of the house's chimney. "There's definitely someone there."

Many farms out in the country looked like a ramshackle dystopia. But the place in front of them still looked good even as they got closer. The fenced in areas were all overgrown with tall grass. There were no animals visible. They had to be halfway down the hill to see that the house sat next to an old overgrown road that had tenacious weeds and small trees coming up through the cracks in the old pavement. They walked down the road until they came to the house, which had a long, sparse gravel weedy path leading to it.

"Look!" Julia said, pointing down the path. "That's a girl riding a bike!"

The bicycle rider was getting ever closer to them. It was indeed a young girl riding on the path from the farmhouse with fencing on both sides. The girl was a little older than Beth and Julia. She wore a long dress made from a print pattern. She came to their position and stopped in front of the group. She said with a big smile. "Hi! My name is Lucinda! Welcome to Heaven's Acres!"

Beth introduced herself and said, "Thank you."

Milton said, "We are just passing through."

The girl said, "Oh, but you have to stop and talk to Ashton."

"Why would that be?" Raul asked.

The bicycle rider said, "He is the most generous man that you would ever want to meet. He loves all people and can help you in whatever way you need."

Milton said, "I think we're good. Like I said, we're just passing through."

Beth said in an objecting tone, "I think we could all use some more water, Milton."

"We have the best spring water here at Heaven's Acres, and you are welcome to as much of it as you can carry!"

True said, "Sounds good."

The group arrived at the farmhouse and several people came outside. They were all happy and friendly.

"Welcome, travelers. My name is Ashton," he said in a resonant voice. The tall handsome blonde with a cleft chin shook each of their hands and they exchanged names. "Let our brothers help you with your provisions."

The men more or less swarmed them and carried away the backpacks and weapons.

Ashton asked Raul, "Where you folks heading?"

"We are on our way south."

"Any particular area?"

No one spoke. Then Milton said, "Actually we are on our way to the border."

"Oh, the border huh?" Ashton said. "Well you would do well to stick around here for awhile and rest up. We have a nice fireplace going inside."

"Yes! Come on in!" several men and women said.

Lucinda said, "Who wants water?! Just follow me!" as she rode to the back of a building on her bike.

Beth, Julia and True followed Lucinda while Raul and Milton went inside. The house was a cluttered mess, packed with the possessions of too many people, but toasty warm inside.

Milton said, "I forgot what a warm house is supposed to feel like."

The host group all laughed a loud belly laugh.

Milton and Beth looked at each other, not seeing why the comment was so over-the-top funny.

Ashton said, "Please make yourselves at home. I hope you will stay for dinner and attend our meeting."

"What kind of meetings do you have?" Milton asked.

Ashton said, "We all believe in God here, Milton. Do you believe in God?"

"Yes, I do. There aren't that many in Homeland like us who do."

"What about you, Raul?"

"Yes, sir. I sure do."

Ashton said, "So much the better that God sent you to us."

Everyone started getting giddy with happiness.

Milton cringed at the continual irrationally exuberant displays of emotion.

Ashton said, "Since you believe in God, then you are in a great place here, friend. We believe that every person is extremely important." The others agreed.

Milton said, "You people are so nice. I really didn't think that there could be such a place anywhere in Homeland like this."

Ashton laughed and said, "You are right, young man. We are a small island of the truth of God in a sea of wickedness. Milton, what would you say if I told you that this is the best place, not only in Homeland, but the entire world?" The others solemnly agreed, nodding their heads and smiling at each other. Some were even teary eyed at the mere thought of their good fortune for being able to live at Heaven's Acres.

Chapter 12

Seattle, Eastern Hegemony

Spark and Civia were hard at work in the Mainland Brain Lab warehouse constructing the virtual brain prototype. Dr. Reno Davis and Dr. Bo Zhin were escorting Dr. Minami, Corporate Vice President of Research from the home office in Shanghai, through the makeshift brain project area.

Because of the abundance of local technical talent and the corporate research collaborative spoken language had gravitated from Japanese or Chinese toward English, the Seattle location was gradually turning into a hub of research for the entire corporation.

"I-ya naa!" Dr. Minami mumbled something in Japanese that clearly signaled displeasure. Then Minami, a short petite man with unnatural dark hair said, "This will not work," as he looked at the setup devised by Caroline and the Seattle team.

Bo Zhin asked, "Minami-san; what makes you think so?"

He replied, "Bo-san. We must make our own synthetic brains that are very good. Otherwise, we cannot make Mainland brains and we will be like ISA prosthetic company."

Davis thought the comment was crude, as he was sure it was intended to be, given the commonly low opinion of ISA high tech products.

Minami continued in his imperfect English, "You only making brain like advanced insect here. I think we must make more study of what you trying to make."

"Make more study?" Bo Zhin could not contain his exasperation at the idea behind the grammar deficient comment.

"I am serious. You ever map grasshopper brain?"

"I can't say that I have," Bo Zhin said getting more impatient by the second.

Dr. Davis shook his head, and then he said, "Minami-san, I know enough about bug brains to know that is an extreme exaggeration. That is a bad example."

"Mmmm . . . maybe small difference. Anyway," Minami said, "If you going to reconstruct human brain, why you don't use actual human brain map? Then you use this equipment to make modification. You know, editing."

Reno and Bo looked at each other.

Reno said, "Because we don't have a human brain map. No one does, right? Does anyone?"

"Maybe other EH company. Maybe ISA company. ISA make like Frankenstein," Minami said with a little laugh. Then he sobered up and said, "You can make."

"We can make?!" Reno knew that suggestion was directed at him, the medical guy. "Wouldn't that kill the subject?"

"Maybe kill, but usually only make crazy." Minami laughed at the idea.

Reno said, "No one is going to want to do that."

"You can do," Minami said, looking a little confrontational, as if Reno was refusing to hear his suggestion.

"No, I mean no one is going to want to be a Guinea pig."

"What Guinea pig?"

"Minami-san; no one is going to want to be a test subject for a brain map scan."

"Ah! Test subject. I understand. Okay, no problem. Very easy to fix in EH," Minami said. "You go to prison and get someone, how you say, bolunteer."

"Volunteer? Really?" Reno said. "We just go in there and say, hey, give us a prisoner to do a complete dynamic brain scan of, which might kill you or turn you into a vegetable?"

"Yes," Minami said, holding his index finger into the air, "But, maybe you can pay much money to other EH company or ISA for scan. ISA very good with cybernetic, true? You got money in research budget?"

Bo Zhin said, "I know how that would go. If we ask for big money to give to a competitor for a dynamic scan, we might as well quit now. It would never get approved. The same goes for the ISA. We could never get something like that out of the country."

"Prison brain free," Minami said. "You must do. I will checking your progress after."

As is customary, the men bowed and thanked Minami for his advice as he left.

Reno told Bo, "We will have to have a long discussion with Caroline about this development."

"I can't wait." Then Bo Zhin approached Spark and Civia and said, "We're done here for now. You two save your progress and take the rest of the day off."

Spark asked, "Why?"

"Evidently our brain we are working on here is not robust enough to even bother finishing this process."

"Whatever," Civia said. "I get paid by the hour."

Spark made a few clicks of his keyboard to save and shutdown. Then he said, "I thought it seemed pretty remarkable myself, but what do I know? This is my first day working here."

"We may still use this setup later. Tomorrow just report to the regular lab for a pre-shift meeting."
Chapter 13

Heaven's Acres, Homeland

After Beth, Julia and True were out back refilling their water containers, Beth said, "Not to be bad, but it really smells out here."

Lucinda smiled and said, "You know how it is out on the farm."

"I guess," Beth said. "I worked on a farm, and it didn't smell nothing as bad like it does around here. Just saying."

Julia said, "Can you show us around? We used to work on a farm, but it was a lot different from this one. I want to see it."

"Yeah, that would be great," True said, "I see there has been some earth moving done around here. I sure would like to check out your equipment. That's what I do."

Lucinda smiled and said, "Ashton doesn't allow strangers to look around here."

Beth said, "That's weird. Another weird thing is that I don't see any crops out in the field. And don't you have any farm animals?"

"No."

"Well then, how do you get food? How is this even a farm?"

Lucinda shrugged her shoulders and said, "I don't have to work, so I don't know."

"That's weird too," Julia said, "Everyone has to work on a regular farm. I never heard of a farm with no crops or animals, plus no work."

"That's for sure," Beth said. "I wonder what Jen would say about it here? Not being critical, just curious."

"Our Blessed Leader, Ashton says that, 'Our burden is light,' and because of him we don't have to work very much at all."

Beth looked at Lucinda sideways and said, "I really feel bad that I don't know much about the Bible like I should, but don't you people rely upon that Ashton guy quite a bit?"

"Yes we do. He will never fail us or forsake us."

Beth scrunched her nose and said, "Anyways, I never met another Christian my own age. Do you believe in Jesus?"

"Oh yes, we sure do. He gives Ashton the special revelations. They say Ashton is the prophet of our age, you know."

As they walked by, True asked, "Are you sure we couldn't at least peek into the barn?"

"Yeah!" Julia said. "I want to see."

Lucinda said with her continuous smile, "Well, okay. I guess you won't be strangers for long, and a little peek in the barn won't hurt. But we definitely have to stay away from the shed."

They walked over to the barn and peeked inside the dark building. They opened the big sliding door to get a better look.

"Nice!" True said as he looked at the tractor equipped with a front end loader used for digging. "That thing has to be over a hundred years old, and it is such good condition."

"SINNERS!" A man's deep voice behind them shouted, startled them. They turned around to see a large man pointing a machete towards them.

Lucinda said, "I was just letting them look inside."

The large man said, "We'll see what Ashton has to say about this!"

Then several more men arrived holding various bladed agricultural and butchering instruments. They all started chanting "SINNERS!" in unison.

True asked, "Hey! What's the big deal?! We're not messing with the equipment or anything."

One of the men said, "Be quiet, blue freak!"

Soon, Ashton, Milton, Raul, and the entire rest of the Heaven's Acres community emerged from the farmhouse.

Ashton scolded Lucinda, "You knew you were not supposed to bring our new friends out to the barn without permission."

True threw up his arms and said, "I don't believe this! What is the problem?!"

"What happened?" Milton asked.

True said, "All we were doing was looking at the equipment here and these guys started losing their minds over it!"

Milton said, "Ashton, obviously there has been some kind of confusion here. I'm sure we can straighten everything out."

"God is not the author of confusion! Therefore it confirms this is of the devil!"

Lucinda dropped to the ground face down and started sobbing and said, "I'm sorry, Ashton. I won't do it again."

Ashton held up his arms and proclaimed in a loud voice, "We must now help this child by purging her sin! Prepare the holy sacrament!"

"No!" Lucinda screamed as two of the armed men picked her up. "That blue one, he beguiled me into taking them in there."

"Huh?! I didn't beguile anyone! There was no beguiling, not here!"

All talking among the crowd abruptly stopped when Ashton raised his hands. "My beloved brethren, I have the gift of the power of discernment. God is telling me that the blue one is a demon in the flesh!"

"DEMON!" They started shouting. A couple of the men seized True.

"Really?!" True shouted, "Now I'm a demon?!"

Milton said, "Wait! He is no demon! He is my friend!" Then he looked around, realizing he probably did not help himself with the comment.

Ashton again raised his hands and said, "God says that this young man is a friend of demons!"

"FRIEND OF DEMONS!" They all started shouting. Then they seized Milton.

Julia whispered to Beth, "What are we going to do?"

Beth shrugged her shoulders. "Just keep quiet and pray."

"Do something!" Milton shouted at Raul.

Everyone turned toward Raul, who said, "It is God's will."

"What?!" Milton said. "Are you kidding me?! That is totally messed up!"

Raul said, "The will of God will be served in its due time."

"You are so right, brother," Ashton said. "Now I command the priests go into the holy of holies and bring out the altar of cleansing and begin the purging ritual!"

More people gathered around and were all working themselves into a frenzy.

One of the men rolled out a bloody old stump out of the shed.

Beth said, "That old bloody stump is an altar of cleansing?! I don't like this!"

Julia asked, "What is happening here?"

Another man brought out a chainsaw. The bar was covered with old splattered blood.

Ashton said, "Behold! The sword of the lord!"

"No!" True pleaded, "I didn't do anything wrong!"

"Demon!" Ashton said, "Get thee behind me! You rebelled in Heaven and now you will pay for leading Lucinda astray! Therefore you will be the first to be purged here today!"

The men quickly stood the stump up on its end and dragged True over to it and forced his blue head down on it.

"Help me!" True said while trying to get away from the chopping block. "I didn't do anything wrong! No!"

But they were holding his body and pushing his head against the stump.

Ashton said, "Rejoice my beloved! Today we will vanquish one of the enemies of God! He will bless us greatly for it! Then we will purge the sins of the others by consuming their sinful flesh!"

"What?!" Beth shouted.

"Beth! Julia!" Milton shouted, "Run!"

But their escape was prevented as they were immediately seized by some fanatics.

The crowd was shouting, "Praise God!" and "Hallelujah!"

"Raul!" Milton shouted, "You gotta do something! These zombies are gonna eat us!"

"It is in God's hands now," Raul calmly said. "It won't be long."

"Raul! There's no time!"
Chapter 14

Heaven's Acres, Homeland

The masked executioner pulled the cord and fired up the large chainsaw. He revved up the smoky engine and held it up into the air as the crowd cheered. Then as he got the loud smoking saw up to full throttle he focused on the back of True's neck as the other zealots held him down. The crowd was shouting up hallelujah. As the saw operator prepared to make the gruesome cut, he suddenly and unexpectedly fell backwards, and on the way to the ground, the flailing saw put a deep hideous mortal chainsaw wound deep into the back of one of the men who was holding True down onto the stump.

Ashton shouted, "Stop the demon! He is using the powers of Satan! Kill him now!"

Then the other man holding True down, dropped away from him and rolled to the ground. With no one holding him, True leapt to his feet and looked around to see what his options were.

The crowd was stunned into silence. The chainsaw stalled out when the safety brake pushed against the dead executioner's hand. One of the bystanders noticed a hole in the executioner helper's head, and said, "He's been shot!"

Another one pointed and said, "Over there!"

It was Vlad, fifty meters away with his sniper rifle. He walked towards them while still looking through the optics on the rifle.

Milton said, "Yes! I know that guy! From the Lucid . . ."

Vlad said, "Don't any of you creeps move or I'll part your hair with a high powered slug! Now let them people go!" Vlad saw that some of the men were sneaking away from the scene. Maybe they were cowards, or maybe they were off to get their own weapons.

Ashton said, "Satan! I command you to lay down your weapon!"

Vlad said, "Shut up, you! Everyone needs to calm down before anyone else needs to get hurt."

"We do not bargain with the friends of Satan!" Ashton proclaimed.

"I'm not going to stand here to debate theology with you all day. I strongly recommend that you tell those men to stand down."

"They will never listen to you. Everyone attack!"

Vlad said, "One more word outta you and . . ."

"Everyone get him! Right now!" Ashton commanded again.

Vlad easily dropped Ashton with a single shot to the head.

"Ashton!" many screamed and sobbed. "You killed the prophet!"

"That's me, Vlad, the prophet slayer. He had his chance. Who's next?!"

True could barely walk after the emotional stress of being within a second of his certain execution. Beth and Julia were trembling, barely able to look at their surroundings.

Milton told Raul, "You were in communication with Vlad, right?"

Raul nodded.

"Go! Hurry it up, before these idiots start shooting back!" Vlad told the group as he watched their backs. Since their leader was dead, he didn't know if the Heaven's Acres group would behave like an aimless animal with the head cut off or go into revenge frenzy. He hoped they would at least be temporarily stunned into inaction.

"Hurry!" Vlad motioned for Milton's group to run down the path between the fenced in fields. They immediately took off running away from the horrific scene, without concern for any their provisions.

Lucinda started to go with them, but a woman, maybe her mother, shouted for her to come back. Lucinda stood still and looked in both directions a couple of more times until she decided to return to Heaven's Acres. She slowly started walking back with her head down.

Beth said, "Lucinda! Come with us!"

Lucinda turned around again.

"What are you doing?!" Julia objected.

"They might kill her."

"Let them! We don't want her with us!"

"That is just wrong!" Beth shouted in Julia's face. She continued calling, "Lucinda!"

Milton said, "Come on, Beth! Ashton is dead! Let them sort it out!"

"But . . ."

"That is an order, Beth!"

Beth watched Lucinda return to her leaderless cannibalistic cult and then she said, "Alright! I'm coming!"

"On me!" Vlad said, as they left the hideous acres. "We gotta go help my partner!"

But it wasn't long before they heard the popping of long range gunfire flying in their direction.

True fell down face first into the dirt. But he wasn't shot, he had only tripped. Raul helped him get up.

"Pick it up!" Milton said. "We gotta lose them! We gotta get out of this open field!"

Soon they all made it back into the trees without any casualties.

"Go on ahead," Vlad motioned for them to keep going. "Head up to that grade over there. I'll see if I can get them to change their minds about following us."

Milton was confident that Vlad knew what he was doing. None of the rest of them were armed and would easily be caught or killed, so running was the only option.

Vlad took up a position behind a tree. He saw three of the Heaven's Acres zealots running in his direction. They charged confidently as if they would never be shot at. Vlad knew if he shot the lead man there was a good chance that the other two would probably get scared off and come back later to eat their comrade and/or continue the pursuit. But Vlad was more about winning through maximum violence. So he targeted, and hit the third man in the column and dropped him. The other two had no realization that the third man was dropped so they kept their heads down and continued moving ahead. Vlad targeted the second of two remaining zealots, and again scored an easy hit. The front man was talking and looking around and saw that his comrades were both down and Vlad had no difficulty or issue with shooting him in the back. He considered trying to go back and pick up some of their weapons, but imagined some slower armed zealots could be following directly behind them. So then Vlad scurried up the hill and looked around. The well hidden group found him.

They all escaped Heaven's Acres with their lives, but with no other weapons and no provisions.
Chapter 15

Adirondacks, Homeland

After an hour's walk through the hilly woodlands after their escape, they came upon JT, who was pale and shaking, lying next to a large tree with his fist scrunched up against his neck and his head down where the mechanical dog had ravaged him.

Vlad checked on JT and said, "Thank God, he's still alive."

After several prompts, JT was still unable to speak beyond some moaning.

Raul looked at JT's wound. He said, "I'm a retired doctor." He said, "This man likely needs vascular surgical reconstruction which I cannot do here. And I don't have anything for pain or infection. This is very serious. However, I can do some temporary countermeasures that may temporarily help."

JT looked deathly pale and fought to stay still as Raul stitched the wound without anesthesia. The sutures were quick and extremely precise.

Raul said, "I'm getting tired. Can someone help me carry this man?"

Milton said, "I'll help for awhile."

Vlad said, "I need to carry this communications gear."

"You won't need that," Raul said. "I have onboard comm."

"No!" Vlad stopped to stare at Raul and said. "You're really a droid? I wondered what kind of comm gear you guys were using."

Milton said, "Hard to believe, huh?"

"Ha!" Beth said, "I knew it!"

"So?" Milton said, "I thought we all knew it."

"I knew it," True said.

Vlad repeated, "I sure didn't know it."

"Me too," Julia said.

"You did not," Beth said to Julia.

"Really?" Julia said, "You didn't know? I did."

"Hey! I said I knew, alright?!" Beth said.

Milton announced to the others, "Beth has always been a little weird around robots."

"Why?" Julia asked.

Milton tried to answer, "Well, because of the . . ."

"Just never mind," Beth interrupted. "That doesn't have anything to do with this. We have a lot more important stuff to worry about right now."

Julia asked Beth, "What happened? Tell me. We're best friends, right?"

"I don't want to talk about it right now."

Julia said, "Please?"

"Okay, fine; since everyone is so worried about it. It all started one night because I kept hearing this sick laughing at night. I was just a little kid back then and it was so weird that I pulled my covers up and shivered. I didn't know it, but it was one of Milton's stupid robot toys. You'd think he'd wake up and shut the stupid thing off. It creeped me out to the max. Now that I think about it, I think he was doing it on purpose."

"No, I did not," Milton said.

"Well, then it's stupid that you didn't wake up while that creepy thing was going on and on like that!"

"If anything was stupid, it was that a stupid toy somehow gave you your mechophobia. It was just a toy, not even a very smart toy."

"Yeah, whatever! I am around androids all the time now, ain't I?! Anyways, I was just a little kid. I suppose you were super smart when you were a little kid and nothing affected you."

"I never said I was."

Beth continued, "Oh no, it gets even better. After that, there was this other thing; one night, when I was still little, I was in bed and I heard something moving around right in my bedroom closet. I got really scared. Then it started thumping on the closet door. I was too scared to get out of bed. Whoever or whatever it was, I stayed quiet in bed because I thought that it was definitely going to come out and kill me. Then I thought I better do something, so I screamed. My dad came into the room and heard it. He didn't know what was going on either. Mom stood behind dad and whispered to him to call the police, but instead he went up to the closet door and slowly turned the knob, and then he whipped it open."

Julia asked, "What did he see?!"

Beth said, "You would have been scared too, right?"

"Who wouldn't? That sounds very scary. What was it?"

"Yeah, it really sucked," Milton said with a chuckle.

"You shuddup! Your jokes about it are stupid! Okay?! Well, it turns out that the vacuum cleaner robot got shut into my closet and was trying to get out so it could go back to its power station. Mom and Dad and that rotten Milton thought it was a big joke. They kept bringing it up all the time. I should have pranked on them with robots. I mean, what kind of family picks on the littlest one like that?"

Julia the clone said, "I didn't know that families worked like that."

Milton said, "Hey, sometimes you just have to laugh at things."

Beth rebuked, "What's the matter? You don't like how I tell everyone how mean you were? You don't know anything. I'll tell you all what's not a joke, when Milton had all those creepy androids coming to our house and then the smurfs wanted them back and for Milton to quit talking about God. We all had to move out of our house. That used to make me so mad how Milton messed up my old life. It still does not make total sense to me how this all worked out, but I guess that's why I hated stupid robots ever since then, since everyone is so interested in what I think about robots. I hope you are all satisfied now."

Raul asked Beth, "What did you mean by 'creepy androids'?"

Beth sighed and said, "Here we go. Not to hurt anyone's feelings. . ."

Raul said, "I don't have feelings. I can formulate opinions, which humans sometimes ask how I feel about something. I understand the usage of the word feel, but it's not really feelings in the emotional sense."

"Okay, just so you know, I already know that, but I guess when androids try to act like humans, it's like you can't trust them because they are faking like they are humans when they really are up to something. Androids should act like machines, I guess, which is what they are. People or droids who have something to hide make me nervous."

Raul said, "But I was made especially to not only act like a human, but a particular human, for the comfort of the widow."

"Yeah! And that's extra creepy! If someone dies, we have to face the fact and get over it. If someone gave me an android that looked like my mom right now, I'd lose it."

Raul asked, "Is there a way I can behave in less of a creepy way for you? I assure you that I am not up to anything, as you say. In fact, I would go to great lengths to protect you in a time of trouble."

"I'll have to think about it and get back with you."

Milton walked up to Beth.

"What?" She said.

Milton said, "Sorry, I really don't want you to feel scared around androids."

"That's real nice, now that we are going to a country where it's illegal to have them."

"Sorry I laughed at you and joked about the toy and the vacuum and having all the androids come to our house."

She looked at him and said, "You couldn't help it. You didn't know any better. What a doofoid. I don't know why I still love you."
Chapter 16

Adirondacks, Homeland

Vlad handed Milton JT's high powered rifle, which was even heavier than the one Milton previously carried around before it was lost at what he called the "psycho ranchero".

As they walked, Vlad said, "We got a communication from Lucid command that you were coming to the area and might be able to help me out with JT. They sent me a coded signal which was evidently the geo-ping signal from Raul. That's why I came upon that little party with Ashton there. Now, since the Inquisitors are looking for us, and we have no vehicle we were given the green light to just go with your group to the border. This is a long trip to go yet, given the circumstances." He glanced in JT's direction. "I do know one thing for sure. There is no more going back north for me or any of you. I know that the Inquisitors would find me if I tried that. I just hope they don't triangulate and they leave Lucid command alone."

As they travelled, JT continued to steadily grow weaker and could not even hobble on his own. Raul made a stretcher for JT out of his coat and a couple of sturdy branches. The men took turns bearing the stretcher. Being a stretcher bearer was extremely hard work that wore the men down much quicker.

Along the way, JT spoke, "Leave me here."

Vlad said, "No can do amigo." Vlad had a couple of concerns with leaving him. What if he was left behind, then the Inquisitors found him, then nursed him back to health, then tortured him to death trying to get information out of him. It was not looking good for JT, but just maybe they could actually get him some help without getting caught.

Trying to take his mind off of the toil of hauling JT, True said, "Like I told you before, I thought for sure I was a goner at that place."

Beth said, "I know. I was all in for going there."

Raul said, "Water is a strong motivator."

"I know, but I should have known better. Those people all thought that Ashton was the greatest thing ever and that place was like heaven on earth. Now I can see why they always say that Bible study is so important. You never know what some psycho is going to try and pull while they are acting like he is . . . or was, a great man of God. People like that who are doing all kinds of stuff and saying it is of the Bible; make being a real Christian look bad. If it wasn't for messed up people like that, I think more people would know how great God's plan to get saved is and accept it right away. No, instead they think Christians are a bunch of weirdoes. It makes me sick to think about it. I promise myself right now that kind of situation will never happen to me again. After I get to the ISA I am going to try and start reading the Bible and take some lessons on a device like I did back at the headquarters. Yep, I learned some valuable lessons today . . . but I really did think that Raul was an android. Anyways, it is really stupid that we are not praying more. It doesn't cost us anything, you know. God wants us to pray, right? And here we are all running around stupidly on our own when God could be helping us. We especially need His help right now, since we lost all our stuff." She thought about losing her watergun and her pet mouse, water containers, among other things. "I just think about Lucinda. Now thanks to Milton, she probably got eaten by the weirdoes."

"What?!" Milton turned around and got into Beth's face. "How dare you say something like that?! You forget how they were shooting at us?! I left her there because I was worried about everyone else! Like I'm supposed to!"

"But still. . ." Beth said.

"Still, nothing! Ashton is dead, so they probably won't even eat people anymore."

"Whatever makes you feel better, Milton," Beth looked away from him. "I'm sure they won't change their ways. They'll just pick a new leader."

"Of all the terrible things you say, that is the worst," Milton was so agitated this time that he could hardly speak.

Beth muttered under her breath, "Because you know I'm right."

"What?! You don't talk to me!" Milton walked away.

True heard the discussion and peered at Beth from under his hood, "No, you don't know you're right. We will never know. Sometimes, that's just the way it is. All I know is that we are all alive right now. I definitely thought we would not make it out of there. Lucinda is not our responsibility. Until you are in a situation where you have to make tough calls like that, you have no idea what it is like. The only weapon we had was Vlad's. What were you going to do if they caught up to us; unfriend them? No Beth, every step farther away from them at that point was a better chance for us to be safe. If I were you, I'd drop the Lucinda thing forever."

Vlad said, "Not to interrupt anyone during this fascinating discussion, but I think I hear a drone. Maybe the Inquisitors found JT while I was gone and are using him for bait to track us."

"Daaa!" Milton said, "Can't we ever catch a break?!"

"Quick," Vlad said, "Head for those weeds over there and try to get under some brush or something! Milton, you're on me." Vlad made some distance between them and from the unarmed members of the group so they could avoid detection. He and Milton took position behind a massive oak tree. "I promise you that thing already knows we are in this area. They don't have enough drones to cover every area of the wilderness to just randomly track us down. So since they already know we are around here, we are going to try to take it down. How good of a shot are you?"

"Nothing like you."

"Anyways, stay close to me. Those things don't travel alone. You see that kind of an open area? Go run across it to that big dead tree over there."

"Won't it see me?"

"You want to kill that thing, or have it follow us wherever we go?"

"Got it." Milton sprinted across the opening and then leaned up against the other side of a dead tree.

The drone buzzing became clearer as the small unit descended from the sky, down into the opening. While it was scanning the area, it slowly hovered around and was close to Milton. Milton peeked around the tree and a laser dot painted Milton in the face. Then Vlad shot the easy target, sending it to the ground.

Milton came running out and shouted, "You got it!"

Vlad said, "No! I was way too slow! I think it painted you!"

By "painting" Vlad meant that the recon drone sent a signal link to a satellite that would take over tracking Milton's location and then probably Vlad's location as well.

"We gotta run! Head downhill!" Vlad shouted. "You others stay put!"

They ran and took every opportunity to head to lower ground. Eventually, they came to a small creek.

"Good," Vlad said. "Now we gotta follow this creek until we run into something bigger. We gotta keep moving. I know they will be on us pretty soon. Let's leave the rifles here."

"Huh?"

"Do it. We can chitchat about it later."

They dropped the weapons in some brush. Then the duo continued jogging along the winding creek until they reached the point where it emptied into a small river.

"Good," Vlad said, "Now we're going for a swim."

"What?! No! It's freezing out!"

"You and I are going to get into the water and go completely underwater as much as possible, then go downstream for as long as we can stand it, then get out of the water and the Inquisitors will lose their tracking on us."

"Vlad."

"I'm not losing another friend!"

Milton went down the riverbank and was into the water ankle deep. "Hey, it's really not that . . ."

The next thing he knew, Vlad had grabbed him and they were both into the deeper water and went under. The cold water erased the pair's visual and heat signatures that were being tracked via satellite and sent to Inquisitor units through satellite uplink. The river current took them downstream. Milton was feeling like the shocking cold water had immediately sapped his muscle control and he could barely move. He wondered if he was ever going to breathe air again. He wanted it to stop and was thinking they could have done better facing the Inquisitors. Soon Milton desperately tried to elbow Vlad into getting them some air before it was too late. He felt like his coat and clothes weighed a million pounds and they were sinking deep into the abyss. Then, the next thing he knew, they were both standing in waist deep water because Vlad had stood up with Milton. Milton was sputtering and hacking trying to get the icy water out of his body. Yet he was able to stand under his own power.

"Th-There." Vlad said, looking back at the point where they entered the water. "Let's g-get out while we still can."

They climbed up the muddy riverbank and eventually got on top of dry sod. Milton rolled onto the ground into a shivering ball. The ground and air felt warm in comparison.

Vlad kicked at him and said, "Not now. Get up. We gotta move. C'mon!"

Neither one of them could run, but they were managing to move somewhat. After about five minutes, Milton said, "Hey! I hear it!"

The thumping of a large copter could be heard overhead.

"Get down!" Vlad said.

They watched the sky for the aircraft and saw it flying across the sky to the point where they got into the water.

Vlad said, "Daaa! That isn't one of those quadcopter gunships. It's a transport."

"What?" Milton asked, looking for an explanation.

"That was an airmobile unit. It is probably dropping off troops or Inquisitors. Whoever or whatever it is carrying, they might be able to figure out what we did right there and still come after us. We gotta double back and get the guns and the others."

Overall, Vlad was immensely pleased that they were able to avoid a gun battle with some Inquisitors; at least for now. The easiest battle to survive is the one you don't have to fight.

They retrieved their rifles while being constantly on the watch for the Inquisitors. Then they made their way back to where the others were hiding out. They were still there, hiding.

Julia popped up, "They're back!"

Beth got up and said, "I prayed a lot, and I know God can do anything, but I ain't gonna lie, I was still really nervous. Glad you're back, Bro."

"Thanks."

Beth went to hug Milton and she said, "Whoa! Dude, you are really cold!"

"Tell me about it."

"I can tell you this," Milton said, "Vlad was a hero again. This time by using his brain."

"You were a hero, Milton," Vlad said. "by using your courage."

"I didn't feel so brave."

"Me neither, but we both did what we thought we had to."

Chapter 17

Seattle, Eastern Hegemony

Tina Xu was the only tech on staff who Dr. Reno Davis wanted to assist him on this task. She was all business; leaving any personal feelings compartmentalized in some low priority bin in the back of her brain that he was not sure she even possessed. Reno told himself that this was the worst task he had ever undertaken during his career, worse than he would have ever expected when he first entered into the biocybernetics field.

This process all started a day earlier when they went to the SEATAC detention facility. In the EH you couldn't legally force someone to become an experimental test subject. But at SEATAC there was a selection of willing brains available there to choose from. The only problem was that any of those vetted volunteer brains which were fit enough to use for his dynamic brain scan were scared off. Only those who really were not in their right mind would say "yes" when confronted with the actual risks involved. Those hopeless unfit people would say "yes" to anything. Can elephants fly? Yes. Does two and two equal nineteen? Yes. Those were not the kind of brains that would make a good model for dynamic scanning. Garbage in, garbage out. An entire series of androids that thought two and two equal nineteen couldn't be expected to follow logical pattern recognition.

So then the administrator at SEATAC told Dr. Davis about Camp Five. It was not a camp like a camp with tents or canoe trips. It was a supermax lockdown that was never open to the public. Camp Five is where the worst of the worst criminal offenders in the Hegemony were kept. Again, it was the same thing; only those with the defective brains were agreeable to doing the procedure to get out of a lifetime of incarceration. Some of those who were kept there had been drugged so vigorously that they did not realize they were even in prison; thus they had no need for freedom. The inmates at the camp were far more desperate than the general prison population.

But one Camp Five inmates seemed to actually want to do the project. He was not crazy, at least in the clinical sense. His name was Gray. Gray seemed to understand the risks and resigned to the idea that he would never walk free again; that is, unless he cooperated with the experiment. Gray said, "It seems like a fair enough risk; the risk of suicide by experimentation."

Reno could only hope that Gray, the guy Tina Xu and him now had on their table under local anesthesia, and who they were in the process of drilling 5oo micron diameter brain probes into, did not have a corrupted noggin. Gray had logic capabilities, but it could be argued that he did not have emotional intelligence which Reno believed would not exclude him from consideration. Reno thought that if someone would ask him if he could prove that Gray was not insane, he could possibly come up with enough evidence. But then on the other hand, he also thought he could likewise prove the opposite.

Gray asked Reno, "You done this before?"

"Well, sort of. Not on humans. But I know what I'm doing here. So don't worry."

"You're going to knock me out for this, right?"

"I'm afraid we can't do that for this procedure. We need you to be fully awake."

Gray asked Tina, "Tell me the truth. Is it going to hurt?"

She said, "There is a certain sensation involved," which underplayed the gravity of which he was about to experience.

Reno remembered that while previously interviewing Gray, Reno could tell from his responses that at least "the lights were on, so possibly someone was at home", an opinion which was supported by feedback from the tethered instrumentation. Yet Reno found the conversation with Gray disturbing.

Gray told him, "I used to think that there was no such thing as evil. We were all just a big part of the evolution of life, so if you wanted something, it was okay to just take it, no matter what you did to someone else. Once in awhile I would get feelings of right and wrong, but then I would suppress them with logic. Survival of the fittest, right? If someone accused me of being evil, I would try to turn the tables on them and make them face their own guilt. Everyone has guilt. Some just tolerate it better than others, I figured. But you know what's really the sad part?"

"No," Reno said, "I don't."

"Nobody bothered to tell me what was wrong with the way I was living my life. I had to figure it out on my own. In fact, they all helped me stick to my messed up ways. I guess it's not okay for me to kill people, but everyone acted like it was also not okay for them to offend me with the truth on why I shouldn't."

"Please be still," Tina said, trying not to listen to the bizarre thoughts. "Try not to move."

At Camp Five, Reno tried to steer Gray away from psychological discussion. It wasn't important to the project how someone chose to use their mind. It only mattered that his brain was in good physical condition for use as a model. All Reno wanted to do was to be fair with Gray about the risks he would face, but at the same time, He knew he could lose his only decently mentally equipped volunteer if his subject got scared off like so many others.

But Gray continued to answer questions Reno never asked. Gray said, "I don't know what happened. I realized at some point everything in my whole life had gone the wrong way. I was inside the camp for the rest of my life because I deserved to be. Then after I realized that everything I did, it just makes me sick. If there was just some way I could get released from my past. Doc, when I do this brain tracking thing you want to do; I hope it does give me brain damage."

Doctor Davis said, "Tell you what, Gray, while we're in there, we'll switch your fear extinction neurons, which will help you to not remember horrible things in your past so much."

"I hope it wipes out my brain clean enough so I can quit thinking about everything that happened."

"I can't promise a bleach job on your gray matter, but switching the neurons can't hurt. What it does is to help make more of the better memories pop into your consciousness instead of the worst ones."

"I guess I'm too much of a coward to actually kill myself. Why do you think that is?"

Reno was haunted by such a comment, knowing that he would be an active participant in scrambling this guy's brain matter. His compassionate side wanted to get conventional psychiatric help for the man. But like Gray, Reno did not know the answer for the guilt problem in his own life or anyone else's. Reno thought about his own past. When he was younger and just getting started in basic biomechanics, he had the opportunity to get into weaponized nanite technology. But he had ideals. He wanted to help people, not destroy them with his work. He thought that you just live your life and don't behave too badly because later you can't suppress or hide any of your guilt. All of this sadness, he thought, had no remedy. It seemed that it was amazing that anyone could ever be happy. What could be done if someone had done wrong for so much of their lives or committed grievous sin? Was there certain good things that someone could do to erase the bad? Was there really a God Who would demand an answer for what Gray or anyone else did in their life? Anyway, Gray was just a brain scan subject, he kept telling himself. Gray's brain would go toward helping them create a better android brain. So indirectly, he kept telling himself; this horrible event would somehow help mankind. He speculated to himself; maybe if he suffered enough in this life, the guilt of his past would wash away.
Chapter 18

Seattle, Eastern Hegemony

But now here they were; Tina and Dr. Davis performing the procedure. Hundreds of optic cable leads were running deep to Gray's brain, enabling them to provide real time feedback as stimuli was applied.

Reno asked, "Status of BCI?" He was referring to the Brain-Computer interface.

Tina looked at the mind map on the screen. "Positive engagement at 100% of contact points. Baseline activity is nominal."

"Alright," Reno said. "Let's do some business."

Gray would have to be on the table for about three full days of programmed probing. His brain would be totally mapped by Caroline and its proxies. Gray was allowed to be awake at night, but was restricted physically from getting up from the table. Reno and Tina did not need to be on hand the entire time, but it would be prudent to keep an eye on the progress.

Then the hard part came. All the biological function cues from the brain to the rest of the body had to be removed from the model. For example; an android would not function if it thought it was hungry, or even had to check for hunger and got no feedback, since it can't eat and get full. In order to identify where exactly in his brain all of this unwanted information was processed and to be removed from the model, Gray's brain had to be stimulated. So Gray would be subjected to an exhaustive schedule of pain and discomfort in all areas of his body, subjected to every distressing sensation possible. Tina was there to help identify reactions to the various stimuli and isolate and record where in the brain it happened.

"Prompting activity," Reno said. "Did this guy fall asleep on us?"

Tina said, "Looks like he's dreaming in Hi-Def. That's a really fast running brain. Congratulations, Doctor, you picked a great brain here."

"Let's hope he's having sweet dreams. They might be the last pleasant thoughts he has . . . ever."

Tina gave Reno a quick glance after his comment and went straight back to work.

Dr. Davis said, "He will have to wake up soon though, so we can get this show on the road."

"Very well, Doctor," Tina said, prompting Gray to wake up by shaking his shoulder.

The fear for the technicians was that all of this manipulation could cause the brain to shut down in various areas, leaving the model useless and Gray with massive brain damage, possibly extra-severe. This probing was clearly agonizing for Gray. Reno looked Tina into the eyes as Gray would thrust into a significant convulsion, and could see no reaction on her face whatsoever. Gray was shaking violently through most of the procedure. Not long into the process, Reno wanted to just walk away and forget the whole thing. Was this really what Gray bargained for? Mental destruction in exchange for forgetting his guilt-ridden past? He would be free to exist in a non-prison asylum instead of a prison asylum. Was there no good thing, no pleasant memory in his past that he wanted to salvage? Even if Gray's body would be out of Camp Five, would his mind ever be free from his torments? From what Reno could see, switching Gray's extinction neurons was probably of no effect in this situation. Was creating a new artificial brain worth all this?

They took turns observing the progress through the automated pain induction schedule. Most of it minor, some of it traumatic. They worked through the next couple of days like this.

After the first ten-hour day, Reno realized that even though there would be many more hours of this torture, they were most of the way done, and if he didn't finish, some other doctor somewhere looking to be the one great brain researcher would start the same thing over on another person, perhaps the next victim would be some political prisoner who didn't want it done at all. Also, the more precise information that could be discovered on Gray's brain functionality, the less testing would need to be done to adapt to their android prototype. The old idea that 90% of the brain didn't do anything was nothing but a centuries old myth propagated by those who had no answers to the mysteries of the brain.

Reno wiped the sweat from his brow. Was it from the warm lights or just a situational manifestation of his emotions after so many tedious hours?

Caroline said through the speaker on the ceiling, "I detect distressed vital signs."

"Ya think?!" Reno snapped at the AI. "We're pretty much killing this guy!"

Caroline said, "I was referring to you, Doctor Davis."

"Never mind me!"

Tina peered over her mask and looked away when Reno returned her gaze.

Reno said, "This ain't rocket surgery." He forced a chuckle to indicate he was joking about actually doing brain surgery, or at least what could be defined as brain manipulation.

Caroline said, "Shall I take over facilitating the remainder of the scheduled probes in this module?"

"No thanks." Even though the rest of the tasks would be tediously done by him manually on a virtual air keyboard, Reno feared what kind of indelicate automated measures Caroline would take sending voltage through various parts of this poor guy's brain. He and Tina would just have to work through the several hours long phase of the procedure on their own.

Dr. Davis was still distracted by his unresolved questions prompted by Gray's lamentations. What decisions do we make during our lives that ultimately have a physical effect on our bodies? What did this guy do in his life to end up on this table with probes and voltage going through his head? Did he deserve this punishment any more than the rest of humanity? Who gets to decide what is bad or good? It always seems to change. What is the answer?

Chapter 19

Near Binghamton, Homeland

Vlad and True were taking a turn as the stretcher bearers for JT.

"Hold it," True said.

"What?" Vlad asked.

True didn't want to say anything, but he did not like the look he was seeing on JT's face. "Raul, you better look at JT."

Raul checked for JT's pulse. Then he said, "I'm not getting anything."

Vlad checked as well. "He's gone." He heaved a deep sigh. "If only I'd have gone a little faster."

Milton patted Vlad on the shoulder and said, "Don't talk that way. You did everything you could. It was the Inquisitors who killed him and Ashton and his goons didn't help. You saved our lives back there at that funny farm."

"That's right," Julia said. "We'll never forget you."

Julia and Beth gave Vlad a hug.

True put his hands on Vlad's back and patted him. He said, "You are a true hero, Vlad."

Raul said, "Circumstances can always be a little different, so you can't predict the outcome."

Vlad asked, "What are we going to do with . . . his body? We don't have any tools to dig into this hard ground with."

True said, "How about we stack up some fire wood and cremate him?"

"Yes," Milton said, "Let's all gather up some wood and give TJ a hero's sendoff."

The whole group walked around the immediate area gathering up seasoned branches laying about to build a funeral pyre. They hoisted TJ up onto the pyre, stretcher and all. Then they stood back in a circle around him.

Beth asked Vlad, "Do you know if this guy was a Christian?"

"I don't know. I mean, I guess he was."

Beth said, "Praise God that we can have heroes like JT and Vlad to try and do good in the world when there is only evil everywhere."

Vlad was teary eyed. He said, "That guy was really brave. He always knew what to do. One guy can't do much by himself to fix a world as bad as this one. But it will be worse without him. I still feel sorry that I couldn't save him."

Raul said, "You will continue to miss him for a long time. Maybe the rest of your life. I still miss my beloved Catherine and always will."

The others looked at each other, surprised at Raul's impossible AI experience but seemingly heartfelt testimony.

Then True lit the pyre and they watched the flames consume JT's remains.

Milton said, "We better go, this fire is leaving a pretty good smoke signal."

As they often do, even the simplest funeral left an impression on each of the group members, even though some didn't know JT at all.

They walked a few more hours while the memory of the funeral and the questions of the meaning of life were still fresh on their minds. Then they came to another clearing. It looked like a small town was off in the distance. It was a vast panoramic view that didn't have an end in either their right or left.

"Down there," Vlad said, while looking through field glasses. That is the border fence. We are at the ISA border. That little village down there is actually on the other side of the fence. There's a road going up to it, with some trucks of some kind lined up."

"You mean we are actually at the border?" Beth asked.

"Yes," Vlad said.

The girls were smiling and hi-fiving at their accomplishment.

Raul said, "It looks like that village over there is actually in the demilitarized zone."

Milton said, "Now all we have to do is to figure out how to get across the border without getting shot."

"Way to kill the moment," Beth said.

True glared at her.

"Just kidding," Beth said.

Vlad said, "Trying to go through that fencing is not such a good idea. It looks fairly solid. If there was just a way that we could sneak across the border at a regular checkpoint. . ."

Chapter 20

Near Border with ISA, Homeland

The group made their way closer to the border fence, taking positions behind trees. Then they looked out into a vast defoliated hilly area that ran along the line of the border. No one from Homeland could approach the forbidden border in this area without being spotted unless they crawled on their bellies through the tall grass.

Vlad pointed at a spot a half mile away where a road was leading up to the border and said, "There is a checkpoint over there."

True said, "Since it is against the law to leave the country, why would they use that road? I doubt if too many from the ISA want to come over here."

Vlad said, "Good question. I don't even know if it is legal for someone in the ISA to come over here."

"There are some trucks in line there," Julia said. "One of them looks like a garbage truck.

Raul said, "You do have remarkable human vision, Julia."

Julia said, "We should go in there the same way that Mark and Edgar took us out of the cloning compound."

Milton said, "Okay, how was that?"

"He loaded us up into a garbage truck that he took and busted through the gate."

True said, "That's not too bad, but I don't want us to bust through any gates if we don't have to."

Beth said, " I know, right? Seriously? We get put into a stinky garbage truck? When did you figure on taking a bath after that?"

"Never mind that right now," Milton objected to Beth's trivial concern, with his recent polar bear swim still in memory. "Would you rather get shot at or be smelly for a couple of days?"

True said, "We can't just walk up to a truck over there and ask to get put into the back, can we?"

Vlad said, "No, but we can go up the road there and wait on another one."

They all agreed to go toward the road, but farther away from the border where they would not be seen by any border patrol. After they went to what looked like a good place, they heard a vehicle coming.

Milton said, "I'll go see what it is."

When the vehicle came around the corner, Milton recognized it as an Inquisitor armored vehicle and quickly got back out of sight. He told the others about the sighting and they all ducked out of sight.

Vlad said, "Figures. I know they are looking really hard for me right now. Security will be tight at the border."

They waited about another half hour and then Milton saw a garbage truck. He said, "Hurry!"

Milton and Vlad jumped out onto the road while pointing their rifles at the driver.

The truck driver's window rolled down and the rough looking bald man said, "I know, I know, you want a ride through the border."

"Yes," Milton said. "Can you?'

The garbage man said, "It's gonna cost you. I'll take one of those rifles and you're through."

"Just like that?" Vlad asked while still pointing his rifle at the garbage man. "What if we said 'no' and that we would just shoot you if you didn't take us?'

"Hey, I do it all the time. And you can put the other rifle down before I shoot you. Oddly enough, I can trust you." He showed his handgun that was already in his hand out of the window. "And I know you two are way too desperate looking to be the law. Gimme one of your rifles and you can climb up the ladder on the side. Lay down up there and keep quiet. You can ride up top and I'll take you to the other side. No one will see you. I'm telling you all right now; no one gets to come back, though."

Milton said, "Don't worry about that. We will never want to come back."

"We'll see," the driver chuckled. He looked in his rear view mirror. "Let's hurry this up, boys."

Vlad lowered his rifle and motioned to Milton to give the man his rifle.

Milton walked over and asked the driver, "Are you sure we won't get caught?"

He said, "Stop and think, kid; do you really think I would want to get into trouble with the smurfs for human trafficking? We got a special place we go over there for this kind of an operation. You'll see." Then he started laughing.

Milton handed over his rifle.

The driver inspected it and said, "Not bad. Got any ammunition for it?"

"No," Vlad said immediately, knowing that his own rifle chambered the same caliber of the rare commodity.

"Let's go!" Vlad said. The others all came out of hiding and all followed Vlad up the ladder on top of the truck.

The driver laughed and said, "Maybe I should ask for more?"

Raul held out his hands and generated a blue bolt between them. He said, "Maybe I should permanently disable the garbagetronics in this garbage collecting vehicle?"

"Whoa!" Beth said. "I don't know if garbagetronics is even a thing, but the lightning thing was Impressive!"

"You win. Welcome aboard. For your information, it is called 'waste management', not 'garbage collecting'." He revved the big smoky diesel-electric engine and the truck proceeded to the border checkpoint. Everyone remained quiet on top and out of the line of sight from anyone on the ground.

Julia was scared to climb the ladder with the wide spacing between the rungs, but True helped her.

While laying on top of the loud truck they were still able to hear a nearby buzzing sound. It was a drone recon quadcopter, but they were relieved when it went another direction along the border fence.

Milton asked Vlad, "What do you think the guy meant, when he said, 'No one gets to come back'?"

"Don't worry about it. One thing at a time, okay?"

Beth said, "I don't like the way he laughs."

Raul said, "It's creepy."

Beth looked over at Raul and rolled her eyes.

Soon the truck passed through the gate and went down a narrow gravel service road. Then it came to a stop. The driver shouted from the side. Vlad looked down and the driver motioned them to get off of his truck. They each descended down the ladder. They turned to see vast acres of fresh, steaming heaps of malodorous refuge. Flocks of birds were pecking at the refuse looking for a meal.

Beth's mouth was wide open. She asked, "This is the ISA?" Then she yelled at the driver, "Hey! Nice waste management!"

"Daaa!" Milton groaned. "Look! Over there is another fence. Where are we?!"

Then they got out of the way so the truck could drop the huge compressed load of waste onto the ground. Then the truck hastily sped away, as if the driver was sure they would be begging to go back with him.

They all looked around and at each other, not sure what would be next.
Chapter 21

Seattle, Eastern Hegemony

Boone Moreland slumped back in a chair. He was talking on his secure phone while he stared at operative Atticus Fernando. He was talking with his boss, Judd Wells, the ISA director of Robot Threat Assessment. "I really think something big is going on here. We, or at least ISA military intelligence, have a man on the inside. We have word that there is a new kind of brain being worked on in there."

Judd said, "Look, Moreland, let's say for a minute that you are right. Do you think they are going to think I am a smart man if I reallocate the scant resources I have from Asia over here to colonial EHA? Do you realize how difficult it is to gain an intel foothold into corporations over there? Do I need to remind you how desperate things are right now? You want me to redeploy assets that were nearly impossible to put in such a sensitive theatre over to a relative backwater like Seattle? That just doesn't make any sense to me or anyone else. Why would the EH work on a critical process in North America when the best places in the world are across the Pacific?"

Boone said, "All I am saying is that we could use a few more bodies around here. That's all. And it is not as backwater here as everyone thinks."

"Then why don't you get that Atticus spook to get some more of his MI superspies over there? Why does it have to be RTA assets? They are bigger than us, you know."

"Well . . . truth be told, the MI doesn't believe him either, so they aren't sending anyone."

Atticus's head sunk and then he looked up and shrugged his shoulders at Boone's unnecessary honesty.

Judd said, "That's what I thought. Stop and think, Moreland; if MI is not sending their people over there, why should we send more resources over there? We are stretched thin everywhere, including the home front, which is being heavily deployed. Don't get me wrong, we think you are a fine operative, but it will take quite a bit more convincing before we rethink our overall deployment plan. So here is what you do . . . You with me, Moreland?"

"Yes, sir."

"I say you do what a lot of other resourceful operatives do. You know you got to start thinking more like a spy, because that's what you are right now. You're not just an analyst over there on this mission. You are an RTA operative. Like I say, you gotta go out and do some recruiting on your own. Especially if this is a big deal like you say it is. Do anything, and I mean anything, to help complete the mission. We'll put some more money in your budget. How's that?"

"Recruiting, sir?"

Judd took a deep breath. "That's right. You go out and you get some of those Seattle street punks to delegate your light work to. Of course you only tell them what you have to."

"But I don't know anything about recruiting or managing street punks."

"Don't try my patience, Boone. Get your MI counterpart to help you. Try to not disappoint us here. And above all, don't let them know who you are working for. Come up with a front."

"A front?"

"Moreland! Ain't you ever read an old spy novel?!"

"Not really."

"Maybe we need to rethink our training program here!"

Moreland pulled the phone away from his ear to effectively lower the volume.

Judd continued, "Again, just talk to Fernando about it. I'll add a little more money for that. That is all. Wells out."

"I guess he hung up," Boone Moreland said.

"Well?"

"He said we are supposed to recruit some punks and set up a front operation. But he did give us some more money."

"Nice," Atticus said.

"It is?" Boone said.

"Absolutely. It could be a lot worse. I really didn't care for his expression of no-confidence so much, but yeah. I think I'll call MI and ask for more money for the same stuff. I know I can get it. Then we can do some really cool stuff. You'll see."
Chapter 22

Demilitarized Zone

Raul said to everyone, "Over there is the ISA's fence, and back there is Homeland's fence. And this strip of land we are on is the demilitarized zone between the two nations."

Milton said, "Garbage Zone is more like it."

Then everyone was startled when there was a shriek. It was Julia. "I saw something move over there."

"Where?" True asked.

"Over there!" She pointed at a location several feet away.

Vlad said, "It was probably just the wind blowing some trash around."

"No!" Julia said, "It had teeth!"

Beth moved closer to Vlad and started clinging to him.

"Teeth?" True asked. "What? You mean like an animal?"

Suddenly a seething pack of two foot long white rats leaped from the trash and started attacking True. He was knocked to the ground and they swarmed all over the top of him. He flailed and screamed as they began to claw and bite him.

Vlad quickly shot one of the rodents, and then moved in to beat on more of the rodent attackers with his rifle stock. The girls shrieked in terror as a rat threatened them by hissing and showing its teeth. Raul used its powerful kick at a cluster of rats, sending a few of them end over end into the air. Seeing they could not prevail, the remaining rats all scattered.

The blue man took inventory of his nasty wounds; both arms, both legs. "Now I'm gonna get a disease! Why am I always the first to get attacked?! What is the deal?!"

Milton asked, "Would you feel better if it was one of us?"

"No! That's not what I meant!"

Raul said, "Rodents are basically clean creatures that like to clean themselves. Your chance of getting a disease may actually be small, but you could get Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, or Renal Syndrome, or Lassa Fever, or Leptospirosis, or Lymphocytic Chorio-meningitis, or . . ."

"Alright!" Milton said.

"Sorry," Raul said, "I was just trying to comfort him. He has been through so much."

"There it is!" Beth said, "the android speaks."

"I just thought he should know," Raul said. "And Beth, some humans sound like androids too, you know. It's just that I am a retired doctor."

Milton said, "We know, you were made to replace the memory of one."

Vlad held up a rat by the tail and said, "Meanwhile, we'll cook up this extra meaty one that I shot."

"Cook up?!" Beth said.

"We could eat it raw," Vlad said.

"No, you know what?" Beth said, "I'm not going to freak out. I'm going to pray to God that we will eat that . . . and like it, and it will keep us going. Mom wanted us to make it to the ISA, so I know we will. It's just right over there now."

Milton added, "Dad would be happy knowing we made it there too."

"Definitely," Beth agreed.

Julia said, "I don't know. It's pretty disgusting."

Beth said, "You remember me not wanting to eat the greens back at the Lucid headquarters? Maybe the reason True got attacked was so we would have something to eat. Ugh! I know, it makes me urp a little, but let's pray." The others watched her. They couldn't tell if she was bowing in prayer or bent over getting ready to vomit.

There were plenty more monster rat sightings while they dined.

After the cooked meal, they sat around the fire to absorb its heat. There was unlimited fuel to feed the fire.

Milton used a rat bone to pick at his teeth and said, "You know what?"

Beth said , "Sh'up Milton. I don't want to hear it and I don't want to talk about it. Leave it alone."

Vlad said, "We need to get to the ISA and out of this mess as soon as possible. We can follow along the ISA fence until we find an ISA checkpoint."

Beth said, "I really don't want to have to pray for our safety while we sleep out here in the demilitarized zone. I hope we can get out today."

Milton said, "Then we better get going."
Chapter 23

Seattle, Eastern Hegemony

Mainland Laboratories brought in Dr. Val Penix, a human psychologist for humans, in from a professional agency. Outside of the room where they were keeping the man known only as "Gray", she told Doctor Reno Davis, who did the brain scan, that, "Gray was suffering from TBI." By TBI, Val meant Traumatic Brain Injury.

"What are his symptoms?" Dr. Davis asked.

"A lot of anger, headaches; most of these symptoms will be permanent."

"He was actually hoping for a loss of memory."

"No evidence of that as of yet. If anything, he has a lot more to forget now than he already had. Plus the nearly constant pain of severe headaches that go along with the TBI."

"But I switched his extinction neurons."

"Since his problem is based upon physical characteristics and not a traumatic event, sorry to say that it may not do any good. He certainly will not be in his happy place after that brain scan procedure. Since this is such a special case, I gave him triple the max dosage of Notuda. Maybe it will start working soon."

Dr. Davis hated to hear her assessment. But he did have a good feeling about the resulting brain scan. The big area of concern, however, was if the scan included damage from the TBI, or the TBI occurred while cells burned after the scan.

Reno asked, "How long will Gray need to stay here?"

"As far as I can tell, he could be released at once into some sort of managed care, such as back in prison. I can't say that he won't act out with all of his pent up aggression though if he finds himself back in there. Wasn't that part of his deal, he gets to be released from the penal system?"

"Yes, but we kind of need him around here to serve as a reference in case there is a problem with the model."

"That would result in more scanning and more damage, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah. I wouldn't make anything healthier up in there."

"By rights," Dr. Penix said, "he should be admitted to an asylum. But I know that would look bad on Mainland if a scan donor subject in your trust got admitted directly to the asylum. As a professional, I can choose to ignore the situation with him. It's not like he has a lot of admirers who care about his condition."

Reno shook his head and stared at the ceiling. "I knew this would happen. I mean, I don't know what this guy did, but now he is in constant torment. It's all my fault."

"You shouldn't look at it that way, Doctor. Your corporate directive was to do exactly what you did. None of this is anyone's fault. He agreed to it and you did your job. Sometimes we have to do things that are not the most tasteful. We shouldn't get too personal with subjects like him."

"My job . . . I don't even know if his brain was corrupted before the scan was completed. I'm not doing this again with another subject."

Then there was a loud crash from behind the door in Gray's room. Val and Reno rushed inside and saw Gray was shirtless and yanking intravenous feeding and hydration tubes out of his well developed arms that were trained for years in the prison weight room. He had flipped over a stainless steel medical supply cart. Supplies and water were scattered all over the tile floor. Gray's facial expression looked homicidal. He pointed at Reno and said, "You! I never agreed to this! You messed up my head!" His bald head was covered with false skin bandage, which he ripped off of his head.

"Whoa!" Reno said. "You don't want to do that!"

Val said, "Calm down, Mr. Gray! Your condition is only temporary. You will be better soon."

"When?!"

Val said, "There is no standard amount of time. You just need to be patient, Mr. Gray. You will be fine."

Gray held his head in both hands and said, "I better be! Or I'll be back here to get my revenge; on both of you! If I suffer, you suffer!"

Reno said, "What do you mean, back here? No one said you were leaving just yet."

Val said, "No one here is going to suffer. Please remain calm."

Gray said, "You don't know me very well! If you did, you would know that I am calm right now."

Reno said, "We need for you to stick around here. Just calm down. I'll order you a nice lunch."

Val looked at Gray with a mildly positive smile.

"Why are you staring at me like that?! Are you one of those empaths? It won't work on me!" Gray easily shoved them aside and stormed out of the room and went down the hall.

"Gray!" Val shouted with no effect. "Security!"

Gray exited the building, right past an inattentive guard. Gray was a horrible sight to those who saw him. He crossed the street, shirtless and his bald head covered with red bloody dots at the probe locations. People cowered at the sight, or casually walked away, but in Seattle in those days, anything could be seen so some people were not fazed by it at all.

Reno said, "Daaa! I need him here! And I don't need to be liable for whatever that maniac does out there right now!"

Across the street, Boone Moreland saw a magnified image of Gray on his monitor in their upstairs room. He said, "Looks like their test subject is leaving. Rather abruptly. If you want to talk to that guy, you better do it now, he just left the building. No shirt and all."

"You're kidding!" Atticus said.

"This is not a drill. That guy is looking a little feral."

"I'm on it!"

Atticus rushed down the stairs and ran across the street. He asked Boone while on his communications device, "Yeah, I meant to ask, which way?"

"Go left," Boone said, "he went north."

The guard came out of the Mainland building and approached Atticus, "Hey! You see a crazy Euroid guy, kinda big, come out of here?!"

"You mean that guy with no shirt?"

"Yeah, he went that way." Atticus intentionally pointed in the opposite direction that Gray had left. The guard eagerly took the bait and took off running down the street the wrong way.

Atticus walked at an unnaturally fast pace as he glanced around for Gray. He saw Gray's shirtless back as he stormed down a side street. He jogged a bit and quickly caught up to him.

"Excuse me," Atticus said.

Gray turned and grabbed Atticus with both hands on his shirt and pulled him to within a few inches of his face. "Whaddaya want? I'm not in any kind of mood. If you try to sell me anything, I will kill you right now!"

"Whoa, mister. Ease up on the sales resistance," Atticus spoke calmly, "I was just wondering if you are okay. I see you have no shirt on."

"Whazituya?"

"No, I mean, do you need some help?"

"No!" He pushed Atticus away. "Not unless you got some mind bending drugs! My head hurts so bad I can barely see."

Atticus said, "Maybe we can help you out with that. I know a guy."

Gray grabbed the smaller Atticus with both hands by the coat at his shoulders. "Please help me! I'll do anything!"

"Yes, that is what I am counting on."

Chapter 24

Seattle, Eastern Hegemony

Atticus bought Gray a black do-rag to cover his head and an ugly but cheap yellow double-XL t-shirt that had some Chinese characters written on it from a street hawker. Then he bought him some dark glasses from a kiosk.

Atticus spoke to Gray in a hushed tone. "We'll go to a place I know to see if we can come up with a chemical solution to your chronic headaches."

Gray's hands trembled as be put on the glasses. He looked around but then still had to shut his eyes. "Thanks. That helps."

"Good. Keep them on." Atticus enjoyed the goodwill he earned with Gray, but only bought the glasses to help try and foil the facial recognition programs that were scanning everywhere.

"I know I haven't been acting like . . . you know, but I appreciate your help."

"It's understandable. People nowadays have a lot of stress. I hope we can be friends."

After that they boarded the transit worm for another section of the City.

They got off of the transit worm at a more upscale area and walked into a place called "Barely Legal Drugs". The name of the business was kind of a misnomer, because almost everything was legal in the EH, including substances that were usually fatal on the first dosage for use in suicides. The only concern in the legality of drugs was with certain compounds that could be used in mass murders. There were several sales people behind the long counters that wrapped around the room. Business was brisk with users lined up to be served. Some of the clientele looked like the typical street punk, but most looked like regular upscale folk of all ages.

Finally, after waiting in line behind a couple of girl customers who were working hard to present themselves as aloof and stylish, Atticus was face to face with a bored guy with a pocked face who said, "You're next."

Atticus said, "My friend here needs something for really bad headaches and moodiness. The doctor had him on some Notuda, but it doesn't touch it."

"You need some of the more potent stuff then. You want a pill? I got a pill. If you want a derm, I got that too. I got the other stuff too, but you don't want it."

Atticus didn't think he wanted to hear about "the other stuff". He looked at Gray who could barely keep his eyes open.

Gray just shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever." He started muttering something about killing a doctor.

Atticus took note of the muttering and then turned back to the clerk and said, "I don't know this stuff. I'm not much of a user. Suggest something."

The clerk pulled out an envelope with some transdermal patches with white and black stripes on it with a red Z in the middle. He was careful not to make contact with them with his bare hand. He said, "Stick one of these Zebras on and you won't care as much about anything. You won't care about having a headache so much that you won't realize you have one, which is just as good, right? This other patch here is more for medical, but we get some rec users for it too."

Atticus asked, "Are there any side effects to the Zebra?"

The drug dealer shook his head and said, "Sir, everything in here has massive side effects. This one probably has some losing touch with reality effect. It could affect two different people in completely different ways. You just never know. But Zebra Derms have nothing too overly fatal, I think. If he can't ride the horse, then get off, you know?"

Atticus said, "But if he doesn't get off the horse, as you say, then staying on this stuff will cost a pretty penny and probably eat up his brain."

"Oh, no doubt. But maybe after awhile the condition causing the headaches will go away. That's what you want, right?"

"Give me enough for a few weeks. You're not one of these places that raises the prices on people after you get them started on something, are you?"

"Sir, we don't structure our prices that way. Do you think we would have all this business in here if we operated that way?"

"Just checking." But Atticus never trusted anyone who answered a question with another question, but he did not want to press for more unreliable answers to his concerns. No matter how upstanding this place was, he imagined that there were still times when the store salespeople shot users who came in demanding free stuff.

Atticus held out his device to complete the transaction and said, "Do it."

At the beep tone the transaction was completed and Atticus slapped a patch on Gray's arm, then he put the rest of the derms in his own pocket.
Chapter 25

Near Nipetown, Demilitarized Zone

They walked along several miles of the demilitarized corridor. As far as they could see, at least in section of the DMZ, it was filled with an ocean of Homeland's trash. They could see a town in the distance that was within the DMZ. As they got closer to the town, they noticed the footpath through the trash they were treading upon became more and more clearly worn.

True said, "Evidently, people from that town up there come out here to scavenge. What a way to live. Why would anyone stay in here?"

It wasn't too long after that when they saw a man pulling a small wagon with his head down while combing through some articles hoping to find some shallow hidden treasure.

Vlad said, "Excuse me, sir. What's up ahead on the trail?"

The man looked up. Vlad was taken aback by the older man's facial tattoo that featured a big spider that covered his whole face. "Nipetown. Used to be part of West Virginia; then Homeland; then ISA; then back to Homeland again, now just part of the borderlands."

"You mean the DMZ?" Vlad asked, trying not to let on that he noticed the grotesque spider ink.

"We don't call it that. People don't like to think they are just in a no account town, you know? We say we are the 'Borderlands'."

True said, "Why don't you just go to the ISA?"

The man's face turned even more sour than it already was without a scowl and said, "You think it's that easy?! They won't take everyone, you know! I doubt if they would take someone who looks like you either!"

True's head sunk as he walked away. He quietly asked Milton, "Does that guy know what he is talking about? Am I going to be stuck here?"

Milton whispered, "Don't worry. That won't happen. He's just sore because they wouldn't let him in for some reason. I mean, look at him. He's not right in the head. We're going to get out of here right away. All of us."

The trash combing man said, "You people don't look like criminals to me. What are you doing here?"

Vlad said, "We're political refugees."

The man responded, "You really think you are better off here? I hear you talking about me, but I'd be wanting to ask myself if I lost my mind or something." He started laughing. "That is one of the funniest things I have ever heard!"

Vlad turned red in the face and said, "Yeah. Thanks for nothing!" Then he turned abruptly.

Then they resumed walking towards Nipetown.

"Have a nice stay!" the man said in the most disingenuous way he could.

Julia pulled on Milton's coat sleeve and asked, "I just want to know something. Are we going to all be stuck in this place like that old man? He thinks we are, doesn't he?"

"No way. He doesn't know anything about us. This is not a place for people like us. Only him."

"Oh. I hope so."

The closer they got to Nipetown, the more the lean-tos along the dirt path came into focus. Small columns of smoke rose from among the disorganized impoverished purgatory shantytown.

As they got closer, they saw that there were commercial concerns along the road. One vendor was selling old salvaged packets of dried instant food. Another business had a salvage yard full of old Homeland and ISA war materiel, including demolished vehicles and drones that were scavenged in the DMZ.

"What do they do with that?" Milton asked.

Vlad said, "Evidently there is a market for it."

One of the first places they came to was a filthy shack selling cooked meat.

The grungy hawker with something dried in his long beard shouted, "Get your meat here!"

Milton quickly recognized the curly burnt legs of the animals on the sticks as more of the rats like the one they had consumed earlier in the day.

True wanted to understand the economic system of the Borderlands so he asked the hawker, "What's the price."

"Ten cents."

"Ten cents?"

"A dime. Ten dimes make a dollar."

"What does a dime look like?"

The hawker showed True a dime without letting him hold it. "You ain't never seen a silver ISA dime?" He looked over at Vlad and Milton, who still had rifles and said, "I take ammo in trade too. I could probably let a couple of these go for a single cartridge of any size."

True said, "I'll get back with you on that. Got any water?"

"Go on up to the reservoir ahead. It's the only water in Nipetown."

After they walked away from the rat meat on a stick vendor, Beth said, "That water doesn't sound too good. He didn't brag about it anyway."

Milton said, "It must be bad if it doesn't meet his high quality standards. But what would you expect for this place?"

Beth said, "At least Raul doesn't have to worry about eating this junk."

"True," Raul said, "But on the other hand, you don't have to worry like me about getting a recharge in an area where there appears to be no facilities."

They passed a place that described itself on a hand written sign as a "Discount Hospital" where actual human skulls and bones dangled on strings from a makeshift awning. Another sign out front promised "Surgery for five dollars and under".

They saw another vendor who had handmade prosthetic legs for sale to supply the demand caused by old forgotten borderland land mines.

A man came running out of one place and was followed by another man with a baseball bat. The man with the bat took a swing as they were running and hit the target victim square in the back, but then the runner still got away. Vlad wondered if he would have witnessed a murder firsthand if the target had not been a faster, less agile runner.

Raul said, "This is the kind of situation you get when there is no government and no laws."

Milton said, "Isn't it weird how when we lived in Homeland, we had too many laws. That made it bad. Now in the DMZ there are no laws, and it is just as bad. I guess we need the right laws in the right amount."

There were other borderlanders milling about, all looking hostile and well armed, walking in both directions along the street.

They passed a bigger place that had armed guards, which bought and sold guns and ammunition. There was a man outside sorting through spent cartridges by measuring them with calipers while holding a magnifying glass. They had also a metal detector for sale with a sign on it that read, "Great for scavenging or looking for land mines".

They came to a couple of more prosperous looking places that were clearly doublewide brothel trailers. A woman standing in front of "Nipe Studio" was showing a lot of skin but a smile with not many teeth. She said, "Hey, blue man."

True looked briefly, then he looked away.

Julia said, "I don't like this place."

"Yeah, it's totally Halloween here," Beth said.

"Again," Milton said, "What would you expect for this place? Most people are as Halloween as you let them."

Vlad said, "We're going to get out of here. We just have to make it to the ISA checkpoint." He stopped and said to a woman coming from the other direction, "Excuse me."

She cowered and quickly moved away.

Then they passed another ramshackle establishment with a couple men standing out if front. The men muttered some unwelcome comments to Beth and Julia.

Vlad said, "You girls stay close to us at all times. I'm serious here." He looked right at the girls and said, "You hearing me?"

They nodded.

Vlad walked up to a broken down rusty van with "Van Saloon" sloppily spray painted with white paint on the side. The bartender was selling drinks out the back.

"What'll it be?" The grizzled Bartender sported a drainage tube of some kind sticking out of his neck that was obviously installed by a creative street doc.

"Ummm. . . No thanks, can you give me some information?"

"Maybe. You sure you don't want a hit of my special brew? It's good for a lot of ailments."

"I'll pass. I kind of got a one-track mind right now. How far to the nearest ISA checkpoint?"

"You're almost there. Why? You figuring on trying to get across?"

"Yeah, why?"

The bartender started laughing. "You'll get beaten up."

"What do you mean by that?"

"If you go over there and try to go into the ISA, you will be mobbed and beaten up. Don't ask me why, it's just a tradition here in the Borderlands. After they don't let you in, you will become one of them that helps to beat up other people trying to get in."

Vlad frowned and said, "I'm pretty sure I won't be doing that."

"Yes you will. Oh and one other thing; they won't let you in anyways until Monday."

"Monday? What day is it?"

The bartender started laughing again and said, "Saturday."

"I was afraid you were going to say that."

The bartender chuckled.

Vlad thought, I might have to wait a couple of days, but at least I still won't have a hideous drainage tube dangling from my neck.

Chapter 26

Nipetown, Demilitarized Zone

"Yep," One of the several ISA armed guards said at the checkpoint. "Immigration is not open until Monday morning."

True became agitated, "But we could die out here in this hellish place waiting!"

The guard said, "You are not on ISA soil, therefore we cannot help you. Please step away from the checkpoint, sir."

They all stepped back, not wanting to get on the bad side of the only entity that could spare them from their current predicament.

Milton said, "Let's go find that water."

They continued on another half mile until they were at the other side of Nipetown. There they found the stagnant pond that was cloudy with a thick black scum floating on top.

Beth said, "No way can we drink that. I will last until Monday to get some fresh water if I have to. I hope. And pray."

Vlad said, "I could make a sand filter and then we could boil it."

Raul said, "That would take care of microbes, however, you don't know what kind of dubious chemicals have been dumped in here."

"Way to wreck the moment," Vlad said.

"Maybe we can wait," Milton said.

"Milton Thomas!" someone said a loud deep voice, startling them all.

They turned and saw a large pot-bellied Appalachian Euroid man wearing only bib overalls and high top work shoes. He had a hairy chest, back and shoulders. He was with long hair and a long beard, but bald on top. He was carrying a double-barreled shotgun and was pointing it square at Milton.

"How do you know me?"

The large stranger said, "I know you on account that you are wanted by Homeland police. I aim to collect that bounty on you by takin' your carcass to Homeland, boy."

Vlad pointed his rifle at the large bounty hunter and said, "Where he goes is none of your business, Sue Bob. Get lost."

"Right funny there. I reckon I'll have to kill you then." As quick as he made the statement, he turned toward Vlad and fired, but Raul stepped in the line of fire to take the blast. Before the second shotgun barrel could be fired, Vlad returned fire with a high-powered projectile into the hairy hunter's corpulent midsection, sending him back a couple of steps, then immediately chambered another round with the bolt action and put him down with one to the head. Vlad said, "True! Quick, grab that shotgun!"

True was still stunned by the incident. A crowd was slowly gathering around them and moving a little closer like a pack of zombies ready to feast.

"Now! Before one of these weirdoes around here claims it!"

True quickly jumped and grabbed the shotgun by the hot barrel and dropped it. Then he picked it up again by the wood stock.

Milton was already going through the man's bag. "Shotgun shells and some food! Hey! And some water!" Tucked under the bounty hunter's provision bag on his shoulder was a water canteen. Here, everyone get a drink."

Beth wiped her grimy hand over the mouthpiece to help her hope it was more sanitary.

True said, "You better test it first to make sure it's not moonshine or something."

She took a modest drink and said, "Praise God," Then she passed the canteen along to the others. "That helps."

Vlad looked at the bounty hunter, then at Raul and said, "Thank you, Raul. You okay?"

"The only damage from that shotgun is to my shirt, and to my delicate human-like rubberized skin, which honestly, I can function without. So basically I'm fine. I knew it was unlikely that shotgun would have a heavy slug in it."

"But you weren't sure," Vlad said, looking for clarification of Raul's motives.

"Correct. Not sure."

"You're a hero," True looked around and saw many sets of eyes upon them and said. "Let's get out of here before anyone else wants to take up his cause."

Milton had the bag in hand and said, "Where?"

Vlad said, "Not sure if it matters, you lead the way."

"Fine," Milton said. "Sue Bob? Seriously? I thought when we got to this wonderful place, we would be away from Homeland being able to do anything to us. Guess I was wrong."

Chapter 27

Seattle, Eastern Hegemony

The entire lab team of technicians was going about the next phase of the synthetic brain design in virtual reality.

Civia said, "Are you sure the digital interpreter interface is working right?"

Tina said, "It does seem very slow, really."

Spark said, "Whatever. If this is how we are supposed to make our virtual model, then I guess we have a lot of job security."

Dr. Reno Davis started a rant, "No! You know what?! It is the expectations of this job! It has nothing whatever to do with the equipment! We checked it all out! Here we are, we have Caroline, one of the most advanced artificial minds available on the planet! Also, since Caroline is such a diva, it also has an array of slave droid brains to help!"

Dr. Bo Zhin looked at Reno and said, "Let's all calm down a little. I'm sure things will all come together. Caroline, at this rate of progress, how long will it take to finish this brain model?"

Caroline said, "Forty-two years, with a margin of error of three years."

"Really?!" Reno said. "Oh great! Things may come together in 39 years if we're lucky!"

Bo Zhin said, "Reno, what's the deal?"

"The deal is that in 42 years, or whatever, we will have completed a brain that is probably trash anyway! How's that for quality assurance?!"

Tina was shocked, but Spark and Civia could hardly keep from laughing at Reno's outburst.

Bo Zhin said, "Caroline probably does not have enough data to make a good assessment on the project timeline. And it might be that we are on the threshold of a new kind of research. Perhaps these projects won't be able to be completed during one human working career. Like the cathedrals in Europe that took hundreds of years to construct."

"I want to hear you explain it that way to Minami! The rest of you, go ahead and laugh!" Reno said, "You know what I think?! I am the only one in the world that realizes that we can never, and I mean ever, create a brain that works like a human brain! You know what else I think?! Something as complex as the human brain could only be created by God! That's right, I said it! Go ahead and think I'm ignorant! I don't care! There is no other way to explain it! There are as many neurons in a single human brain as there are stars in the galaxy! Science is real good at uncovering a universe inside a universe inside yet another universe! But can we explain how any of it got there?! Not in a way that makes any sense! Daaa! Anyone here think they can make a model of a human brain?! Well good luck to you! Even if some demi-god walking the planet thinks they could, can they also construct all of the other compatible systems to work with it?!" He whipped the sheet plastic serving as a temporary wall to the side and ducked out.

Bo Zhin followed Reno. He saw that Reno was sitting on the concrete floor holding his knees. Zhin said, "We can't afford to fail this badly. Minami will expect us to commit seppuku."

Seppuku, also known as hara-kiri, is Japanese ritual suicide, not totally unheard of in the Eastern Hegemony, even for corporate failure.

Bo Zhin added, "We only fail when we stop trying." Bo Zhin noticed that Civia had also come out of the work area.

Civia said, "So if I keep trying to jump up and touch the ceiling, which is about, I don't know, fifteen feet, then I'm not failing as long as I keep trying, no matter how many times?"

"Not now!", Zhin said, "I don't want to hear any of that! It's not helpful." Then he went outside the temporary plastic wall looking for Reno.

Civia said, "I just wanted to apologize for laughing. Sorry." She turned and went back in.

Reno was staring at the floor, nervously shaking his knees as he said, "All my life I did not believe in God. Now, thanks to this mess, I think it is impossible for God not to exist. People out there just don't get how complex a human brain is. There could never be enough happy accidents in evolution to make a brain that good before it all fell apart and killed the specimen. Think about it. . . nervous system, reproductive system, respiratory system, skin. . . on and on. If one of them failed during this millions of years of evolution, the specimen would be dead. After all of the specimens are dead the generation dies out. It boggles the mind. I have no more faith in evolution."

Bo Zhin said, "Maybe you're right, Reno, but you gotta pull it together. Can't you find religion and still maintain yourself well enough to do the job?"

"Ha! You're right. Maybe I did find religion. A different one." It was not illegal to be religious in the EH, But almost the entire Hegemony was populated by agnostics, atheists, or anti-theists.

Bo Zhin said, "Let's not get too excited just yet. Come on back to the lab."

"Why?!"

"Remember the Hegemony saying, 'Work hard now. You can always be a bum later'."

"Later might be right now for me," Reno said.

Chapter 28

Seattle, Eastern Hegemony

Atticus had been out for food for himself, Gray and Boone. After he came back, he said, "We're going to move. Let's go."

"What? Why?" Boone asked.

"The correct question is 'where'. We're going down onto the second floor of this building. I found out there's a vacant office down there. Some of it has windows facing the same street."

"What do we want an office for? We have a couple of beds here."

"I checked it out. There is a back room that we can set up as a residence. We need a better place in case someone asks questions. We can setup a business front there."

"What kind of business?"

"I don't know. Consulting or something. What's the difference?"

"What if we get customers?"

"We just tell them were booked solid, alright? Now let's move."

They went to the second floor location. The unit had an all glass front. Lettering on one of the windows read, "Nguyen Insurance Agency, LLC." Atticus put his hand on the biometric sensor pad and the lock clicked open. Just past the glass door and two large windows was a nice receptionist desk. Then past the receptionist area beyond another door, there were a half dozen cubicles with desks and a back storage room, a tiny furnished meeting room, and two gender specific restrooms.

"This is nice," Boone said.

Atticus said, "I'll go hire a receptionist; a fairly dumb one, but someone who will do what we say. And have someone put our new name on the door. And get some more supplies for this place."

Boone said, "I'll bring down the equipment from upstairs and install it in that back cubicle with the window facing Mainland."

Atticus told Gray, "Pick out a cubicle here for yourself to sit at and you can also rest in the back with the lights off. Do not go out of the office."

Gray said, "I can't stay in here!" His nostrils flared and he started pacing back and forth.

"Look," Atticus said, "I need for you to stay in here, okay? It's for your own good."

Atticus was joined by Boone, who looked to see what was going on with Gray.

Gray said, "No! You don't know what's good for me! Why would you care?! The world has done me dirty, now it's gonna pay in blood; Starting with that Afroid brain scrambler across the street!"

Atticus held out his hands and said, "Okay, big guy, let's try and dial it down and talk this over, alright? We just need to lay low here for a little while. Give the drugs a chance, okay?"

Gray looked more infuriated than ever. "You're not listening! It's time for me to settle a few scores!"

Atticus said, "That's just the pain talking. Tell me what to do for you."

"Forget it!" Gray screamed, "How stupid do you have to be to realize talking will never work now?! My life is over! Why should I care about anyone else?!"

Atticus put on his best pre-brawling face and said, "Now don't make me do something you will regret."

"I don't want to hear it!" Gray turned toward the door and Atticus grabbed his big meaty arm. Gray used his whole body weight to shove back at Atticus to free himself from the grip on his arm. Boone jumped in and tried to help grapple the physically dominant Gray from behind. Gray elbowed Boone's rib cage and Boone dropped helplessly away, trying to catch his breath. Atticus used a high knee attack and hit Gray in the chest, then a quick kick to the side of the head, but the attacks were of little effect.

Gray put both hands in front of himself and charged into Atticus. Then he drove Atticus backwards with all of his drug induced fury and shoved Atticus even harder backwards. Atticus windmilled his arms, making a hard block against Gray's arms, forcing him to release his grip. This made Gray go even more berserk. Gray head butted into Atticus' head, sending him backwards a step and disoriented. But both of them clearly felt the pain of the cranial collision, so they paused for a couple of seconds. Again, Boone pounced on Gray, but this time was aware of Gray's vicious elbow tactic and dodged it. So instead, Gray came around with an uppercut into Boone's midsection, putting him down to the floor again. Then Atticus tried to put a headlock on Gray from behind, but Gray used his powerful legs to drive Atticus backwards. When Gray drove Atticus backwards, he slammed Atticus against the wall next to a window, causing Atticus to release the headlock. Then Gray reached and grabbed onto Atticus' suit. Gray turned and picked up the stunned Atticus over his head and slammed him into the glass. The window shattered and Atticus fell out.

"No!" Boone went to the window and looked out. He saw Atticus lying in a broken, twisted heap. He turned towards Gray, who had already fled the office.

Boone ran downstairs and went outside. The damage to Atticus Fernando looked worse than he expected. Atticus had already perished. His head was now in a pool of his own blood. His bionic FauxToOptic brand eye was hanging out of his head. There were plenty of witnesses to the homicide, some of whom were taking pictures and videos of the situation. Boone felt as if they were all staring at him through judgmental eyes. Others were walking on by as if nothing was important enough for them to become involved with what had happened.

One of the bystanders, a bald guy asked, "Hey, did you shove that guy out of that window?" Others were taking his picture and pictures of Atticus' body.

Boone was terrified. He was shaking his head and wondered if the onlookers were just nosey or savvy enough to want to preserve evidence. He looked around, uncertain what to do. He knew it would look exceptionally bad to hastily drag a mangled corpse away from the scene. He turned and ran back upstairs to their room and quickly gathered up their computer and spy devices to immediately go anywhere away from there.
Chapter 29

Nipetown, Demilitarized Zone

It seemed natural to the group to want to take refuge by huddling next to the ISA border fence. That way they would have less of an area around them to defend from belligerents. They only walked in paths that were already made to help rule out any land mines. Then they settled in an area where they could see all the way around them. On the ISA side, they could see through the chain link fence some type of tracked military vehicles off in the distance.

Vlad asked Milton, "So all that stuff I heard about you back at the headquarters; is it true?"

"Yeah, probably. There really isn't very much bad that happened that you can't trace back to me. There wouldn't be any Lucid Series uprising, no headquarters, or anything related to it. Now here I am leaving the Homeland mess trying to get into the ISA. Am I a coward for trying to leave Homeland?"

"If your enemy is superior in strength, evade him."

"My enemy is a million times stronger. Anyways, why do you ask?"

"It's kind of important to know how bad they want to get you. How many more Sue Bobs will come looking to get you, before we can get out of this nightmare?"

Beth was sitting on the other side of Vlad and asked, "What about the Inquisitors? They want him too."

"They're Homeland military," Vlad said. "If they came in here, they would probably be breaking a truce with the ISA. Homeland may not care what the ISA thinks, but they might care what some of the other countries might think if they are truce breakers. That's why this place is like it is. Anything goes."

Milton said, "That will be the next thing. War will break out here because Homeland comes after me here and then the ISA will retaliate because Homeland violated the neutral zone."

Beth asked, "Why can't we just dig under this fence and go in?"

Vlad said, "It's better if we don't start out in the ISA as criminals, right?"

"I guess," she said.

True said, "Yeah but, we have to live long enough to get in legally."

"Yeah," Milton said, "Wouldn't God want us to use our brains to get into the ISA, even if it is illegally? That's what we did in Homeland, right? He doesn't want us dead, does He? Isn't He above man's laws?"

"No," Beth said, "That all sounds wrong. First off; why would He want us to do something the wrong way when there is clearly a right way available? Secondly, He is God. He decides when we die, so who are we to say if He wants us alive? We gotta keep praying."

Milton and the others tried to take in Beth's words and decide whether Beth was wise or crazy.

"We'll be fine," Vlad said. "We just wait this weekend thing out. I hope those guards are having a nice time over there on their weekend. It seems really dumb, but I guess there isn't that much traffic between the two countries out here in Nipeland that they need to be here seven days a week."

"Nipetown," Raul corrected.

"Whatever. Wonder what a nipe is?"

True asked, "The weekend thing makes me think that the ISA is quite a bit different than Homeland."

"We can only hope," Vlad said. "All I know is that we all made it farther than JT did."

The others got quiet as they reflected on the loss of JT.

"What's this?" Milton asked. He was the first to notice a dark skinned young man and woman with two very young children were approaching. They were festooned with silver facial piercings.

The man stopped and asked, "Can we talk to you?"

Raul said to Vlad, "I have to caution you about more tricks from seemingly harmless situations."

Vlad held up his hand for Raul to stand down. "Come," he said.

They got closer. They all looked like they were starving.

"My name is Jax. This is my partner, Beretta."

True said, "This isn't much of a place to bring your kids."

"We didn't bring them here," Jax said, "They were born here."

"No way," Milton said. He thought about Edgar, wanting to bring his wife and baby on the trip.

Beretta said, "We're native Borderlanders. We're not from Nipetown, but up the road a ways from here. We were wondering . . ." She turned and looked at Jax.

Jax said, "We were wondering if you could help us get over to Homeland or ISA. We have been trying for a long time and can't get nowhere. So we thought we would ask you since you have your own young'uns with you; that maybe you would know what to do. Plus you got guns."

Vlad said, "In two days we will be trying to go to the ISA. We have no use for Homeland."

"Why? Is Homeland worse than here?" Beretta asked.

True said, "We're from Homeland, but this might be the worst place on this side of the planet. We are only here to get through, and that it."

Vlad said, "You can stay close to us, but not too close. We've been burnt too many times already. And just so you know, I have shot people without thinking twice."

Jax nodded. "You won't have any problems with us."

Beth said, "I can share some food from Sue Bob's bag with the children."

"Go ahead," Milton said. "Hopefully, we can afford to be generous come Monday."

Beretta received some bits of dried food and forced a smile, "Oh thank you."

Jax said, "You know there are a lot of other people who want to go to the ISA, and they will probably let us in. We would have gone in a long time ago, except for the beatings."

"Huh?" Milton said.

"They always try to beat on people who try to cross. It's especially bad on Monday mornings. That has been going on as long as I can remember."

"We were told about that," Vlad said.

"They don't like people leaving," Jax said. "I guess it's bad for business or they're jealous or something. Anyways, the Man in the Middle says he's the King of the Borderlands and he wants to make Borderlands into a country."

"He can just have it!" Beretta added.

Vlad said, "I don't plan on being here long enough to care who this 'Man in the Middle' is or anything about Borderland politics."

Jax said, "We ain't got any laws here, but he would make them for us. Some say that would be good. Most of what you see here is not part of the original Nipetown. It just kind of sprung up here because of all of the hoodlums feeding off of people at the checkpoint like a bunch of tapeworms. We are just trying to survive without becoming one of them."

Vlad said, "Honestly, not to be rude, but I really don't care about the history or politics of this miserable place, because I don't plan to be here very long. Neither should you. If you place your faith in the Man in the Middle, then maybe you don't want to leave very badly. Whoever he is, he is the head of nothing to me."

Chapter 30

Nipetown, Demilitarized Zone

The group waited out each minute of the weekend with anticipation during a cold snowy Sunday. The group made a couple of campfires out of the glaze of debris to keep them warm while the light aided them in watching for uninvited visitors.

After a seemingly endless day and night, at first daylight on Monday, Vlad said, "Let's move toward the ISA checkpoint."

So like a small herd of sheep, everyone huddled close together and moved toward the checkpoint. There was already a much larger group assembled there waiting to get into the ISA for a total of about forty souls.

But as promised, there was a huge mob of venomous belligerents shouting at them at a distance and waving improvised hand weapons. One hairy toothless man covered with filth stepped forward holding a board with nails through it said, "Where do you idiots think you're going?"

Vlad, Milton, and True stood in front of the unarmed innocent people and raised their weapons at the hecklers.

Vlad immediately made a statement by firing a round into the skull of the self-proclaimed leader. Then he said, "Yeah! This is how it's gonna be! The next one of you freaks who opens your toothless mouth will get the same thing!"

Milton and True were appalled at how effortlessly Vlad killed the man.

Milton said, "What about a warning shot first? What happened to that?"

"I don't like this," True said.

Vlad saw Milton and True staring at him. "Hey! I'm not playing with these goons! We got a right to defend ourselves!"

Milton winced and said, "Vlad, you can't. . ."

"I can and I will! This is a big mob here, Milton! We're in the DMZ! I'll take any threat as an attack! You want to live or not?!"

The huddled group seeking to get into the ISA huddled even closer together to the gate at the checkpoint that was setup like a cattle stockyard; funneling the people from a wide welcoming opening down to a bureaucratic one person at a time. It became evident that this process would be a slow one, and in such a hostile environment, an extremely dangerous one.

The bellicose Borderlanders slowly shuffled closer to the immigrants.

Vlad loudly vowed, "The next one who comes an inch closer can say goodnight! So why don't you idiots go home and mind your own business!"

The narrow ISA border checkpoint opened and soon the immigrant group was getting pelted with rocks and debris from the back of the Borderlander mob.

Vlad told Milton, "You go! Give another man here your rifle and get these children out of here while you can!"

"I'm good," Milton said, intently focused on the hostile borderlanders.

"Daaa!" Vlad said, "No! I'm not playing! You go right now!"

More thrown projectiles came flying.

Jax said, "Give me the rifle!"

"No way!" Vlad said, "You got your kids to think about! Stay with them!"

Milton gave his rifle to an older man who immediately took his place and tried to summon some bravery. True screamed as he was hit by an antique piece of junk.

"Hold the line!" Vlad commanded.

Then the Borderlanders charged at them.

"Fire!" Vlad commanded.

Both barrels of True's shotgun peppered the crowd, causing a few of the hostiles to spin away. The two rifles likewise fired directly into the attackers, but the rest of the mob got closer with each shot until the skirmish came down to brutal hand to hand combat between rifle stocks and improvised weapons.

As soon as the skirmish started, some ISA solders came out of the checkpoint and started shutting a heavy steel crowd control gate that would block Milton's entire group. There were ISA army snipers positioned on top of the checkpoint, ready to defend their own men.

Milton pushed Beth and Julia just through the gate as people were pushing from behind, but they were forming a human clog. He let Jax and Beretta and their two children make it through in front of him. Then he started shouting at the ISA soldiers, "Help them! Don't just stand there!"

But in the name of international diplomacy, the soldiers ignored Milton's plea. Then an ISA soldier started pushing back at Milton while another was trying to pull the gate shut. The gate was pulled shut in front of Milton.

"Hey!" Milton shouted, "I need in! Please!"

"No!" Beth shouted from the other side of the gate. Tears started streaming down her cheeks. "Milton! I won't go without you!"

"Beth! You gotta go! Think of Mom!"

"No! I'm not going without you! Open this gate!"

The soldier got some help from a couple more soldiers and pulled the gate completely shut and prepared to slap the heavy lock on it. Suddenly it was being pulled back open so hard that the soldiers could not stop it.

Raul told the soldier with the lock, "This is not necessary. You have room for more people." Raul had pulled the door open with one arm while walking, dragging three soldiers with it.

"Hey!" One of the soldiers said, "How are you doing that? I order you to stop! We have to protect these asylum seekers on ISA soil!"

Milton and several more people went past the gate, into the sardine packed area of ISA jurisdiction.

Raul looked back for True and Vlad and could not see them among the odious thrashing crowd. Having been given previous orders by Vlad to go with the children, Raul went through the gate to join them while the opportunity was still there, rather than go help in the skirmish. "Excuse me," Raul said to the stunned soldiers who watched him go past them. Then they quickly shut the crowd control gate in front of some other desperate people.

Milton stood at the gate beside some others who wanted to see what happened to True and Vlad. There was no sign of them. Most of the people inside the gate were sobbing at the traumatic experience of the physical struggle, but were now safe in the hands of the ISA.

Within several yards of going into the ISA Beth and Julia collapsed with their faces to the ground.

Beth broke down crying and said, "Praise God Almighty! I hope Mom can see us! We are in the ISA! Milton and me, Mom! We are in the ISA! She held up a fistful of free soil for God to see. "Praise God!"

Likewise, Julia was crying and hugged Beth. "We made it."

One of the ISA officers seeing their earnestness said, "You can move these two to the front of the line, they can skip some of the secondary vetting."
Chapter 31

Seattle, Eastern Hegemony

Boone looked around in the pouring rain to see if anyone was watching him. He wanted to portray himself as a common everyday homeless man sitting along a less travelled street, since he knew that going back to their plush new front operation across from Mainland lab or even the upstairs room was no longer a sensible option. He made a call on one of their secure devices he had been hauling around as he tried to avoid the Seattle police.

"Judd Wells here," his boss and director of the Robot Threat Assessment Agency answered.

"This is Boone. Sir, we got a code black here."

There was silence on the other end.

"Sir, man down. You copy?"

Then Wells asked, "I know what that is, Boone. We need you to hold it together. Is it possible we underestimated the importance of your operation?"

"I don't know. I am requesting permission to leave before locals unmask."

"Denied. You still have a man on the inside, correct?"

"Yes."

"I need a full report before we make the decision to abort."

"Sir, I think I have been fingered by them."

Wells said, "I feel for you, but we don't have the kind of assets in your theatre that we can just swoop in and pull you out. Like I say, try to get some more intel."

Boone was soaking wet and felt totally vulnerable. "I'm on it."

So then Boone sent a message to Spark, the technician at Mainland, who was on their payroll; Call me back ASAP.

Within a half hour, Spark returned the call to Boone.

"What's up?" Spark said, "I'm in the middle of something here."

"I need a rundown on the project. Is it still viable?"

Spark knew that the brain lab was hopelessly failing. But he knew that if Boone found out how unimportant their project was, his huge cash cow as an ISA informant would be in jeopardy. "Everything is right on track. It is a little slower than we expected, but that's usually the way it goes, right?" He chuckled. "Anyway, there is nothing to worry about here, okay?"

"Got it," Boone said. "But they are going to want to know how much of a delay."

"Not much. Forget I even said anything about that. I should have never even mentioned it."

After Boone consumed the lie, he called Judd Wells back and said, "Sir, the project is on track, with maybe some delays."

Without knowing more details, Wells said, "Listen, Boone. You hold it together right now. The only reason things are going bad for you right now is because you are probably doing some real good there. I'm going to see what resources are available here and get you back on your feet. You hear me?"

"Yes, sir. I understand." Boone realized his position could be more important than he originally thought, which gave him new added determination to succeed.

Chapter 32

Border Checkpoint, Independent States of America

Each of the immigrants entering the ISA were extensively interrogated and had to supply a biometric template; fingerprints, iris and retina, facial pattern, saliva, blood type and some other metrics Milton didn't recognize. Then they viewed a short presentation about the culture and history of the ISA and its conservative Christian-influenced society.

"Milton, why do you want to enter the ISA?" the fiftyish woman at a computer workstation said with the large male uniformed bodyguard standing behind her.

Milton said, "I hope I'm already entered. Maybe the right question should be, 'why don't you stop those riots out in the DMZ?' I lost some close friends out there just trying to get over here. They are still out there but who knows what could have happened to them. I don't get why those soldiers couldn't just stop the whole thing."

The immigration officer said, "We can't do anything about what goes on in the DMZ. If we allow our troops to be seen in the DMZ that could constitute an invasion. That would break our treaty with Homeland. I know you are upset, but please just stick to the questions."

"Fine. I'm seeking political asylum. I am an enemy of the Homeland State. I am known as the leader of an android rebellion, even though I didn't want to be."

She looked at Milton with an impatient expression. "Come on now. Do you expect me to believe all that? Aren't you very young to be involved in all that?"

"Put it down on your report," Milton doubled-down. "I'm not trying to be disrespectful to you or your job, but it is a fact. I wish it wasn't true, but it is."

"You know, we don't have to let you in, if you don't take this process seriously."

"No one ever believes anything I say. Don't believe me then. I don't care. Is any of this that important? I just want my past life over with and start all over."

"That sounds serious, Milton. Have you ever contemplated suicide?"

"That's not what I meant. I plan to live to be as old as you."

The officer got a smug look on her face. "You just stay here, Milton. I'll be right back."

Several minutes later, a young man in a military uniform came back into the room. He said with a smile and held out his hand, "Milton, good news, welcome to the Independent States of America."

Milton shook the officer's hand. "Thank you, sir. I am really glad to be here."

The officer said, "We are going to hold your group in quarantine for awhile."

"Quarantine?"

"That's right. Also, sorry to say that androids are not allowed in the ISA."

"You're not accepting Raul?"

"As I said, ambulatory AI are against the law."

Milton said, "If I were you, I would let me talk to your boss."

"Now why is that?"

"Raul is a Lucid Series android, of the same type that I was involved with a robot rebellion with in Homeland. If you send Raul away or anyone else who I know, then you could be making a mistake."

"What?!" The man turned angry. "Sure, kid. You caused the singularity issue in Homeland. I'm going to caution you right now about making false statements."

"I didn't say I caused the singularity. I said the Lucid Series androids rebelled. Like I told the first lady; I am an enemy of the nation of Homeland. "Like I said, Raul could be a huge asset to you, which is my new country."

"Are you living in some kind of virtual fantasy? Did you spend too much time in VR?"

"You shouldn't wonder why people want to lie when no one believes the truth."

"Just let me worry about my job. We just can't change the laws every time someone wants to make an exception, and that includes androids."

"Did you by any chance happen to talk to my sister yet?"

"Yes. She was delightful. Hard to believe you two are related."

"No, it sounds like you must not have spoken to her yet. That was probably Julia you talked to. Go talk to Beth to find out if my story is true."

"Okay, fine."

Milton sat in the room for about a half an hour. Whatever the ever unpredictable Beth would do or say, she would not let the status quo stand. Beth would definitely back him up. The young officer and a different man in a long coat and sunglasses with slicked back dark hair came into Milton's interview room.

Milton noticed the addition of the even more important looking guy this time. He hoped Beth had set them straight.

The man looked at a device, then up at Milton. "Milton Thomas, how would you and your group like to take a helicopter ride?"

"You're sending us back? I knew it."

"No, we wouldn't think of doing that. How about you and your group being located to the capitol?"

"Depends. Tell me you will do what you can to get my other friends out of that nasty place in front of your border crossing." "You can give the lieutenant here a description of them while we prep your ride. I promise I will take the same interest in your friends as I am with you."

Milton was not sure what to believe. "Raul can send you some memory images of them. So where are you planning on taking us, Stalin City?"

"That's funny," the man said. "Like you told the Lieutenant here, you could all be very useful to us. There was just a little confusion here, I think. Your new country appreciates your special cooperation."

"Our special what?"

"I'll have a handler explain on the way."

"A handler? What's their name and where are we going?"

"Omaha and DesMoines."

"I hate asking all these questions. Which is a place and which is a handler?"

"You picked up on that, huh? Omaha is the handler. So, you know. . ."
Chapter 33

Border Checkpoint, Independent States of America

The remnants of Milton's crew boarded the small transport chopper. It was too loud to hear each other speak. Yet another operative with sunglasses and a long coat boarded behind them.

Raul said, "There are a lot of people around here with sensitivity to sunlight."

Julia pointed at her ears and said, "What?! I can't hear you!"

Beth shook her head, uninterested in Raul's chitchat.

The operative motioned for them to pick up the noise cancelling intercom headphones with overhead. After they got them on, he said, "I'm Omaha. I'll accompany you to DesMoines."

Milton asked, "What are we going to be doing over there?"

"I don't know."

"Really?"

"Really."

None of Milton's group had ever been in an aircraft. As they lifted off, Beth enjoyed the sensation and got a big smile on her face.

Milton looked out of the small window and down upon the long border with Homeland. He could see the rickety Nipetown which was swallowed up by the long trashy belt that was the DMZ. He thought of Vlad and True, still down there in all that "Halloween" like Beth says. The higher they got, the more Milton could see the still-present collateral damage from past skirmishes between the neighboring archenemies.

Milton asked, "Why is the world so messed up?"

Omaha said, "Homeland is a worldly place controlled by failed philosophies of man."

Beth asked, "What do you mean by that?"

"Philosophy is the wisdom of man. Whenever that contradicts the Christian worldview it will always fail. Socialism is one of those philosophies. It has never worked anywhere but people still want it."

Milton said, "Are you sure you don't know what we'll be doing? I don't want to be a lightweight in my life. I want to do something important."

Like I said, I don't know what you will be doing, but I can tell you this much; the only thing worth doing, the only thing that will last, is what is done for Christ. People have so much free time. It's tough to make it count for God. "

Milton asked, "Then how are we supposed to do it?"

Omaha replied, "Don't forget the Great Commission."

"What's that?" Milton asked.

"Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature."

Milton's head sank.

Omaha said, "What's wrong?"

"I hope I didn't make a mistake."

"Why do you say that?"

"What if God wanted me to stay in Homeland?"

"Don't worry about that right now. From what I hear, you had some trouble just staying alive over there."

Beth said, "Maybe we didn't trust God enough."

Julia listened in but didn't understand.

Omaha said, "You're not having second thoughts, are you?"

"No," Beth answered for him. "There is a lot to being a Christian that we don't know anything about. It's not the most talked about thing in Homeland, you know."

"Yeah," Omaha said, "I do know, actually. But you can do what we do. We pray for our enemies every day."

"Huh?" Beth asked. "What the . . ."

"Sure. Imagine if Homeland and our other neighbors were all friends and believed like we do and were not our enemies. We ask God for that, but we don't just sit around praying Okafor will change his heart without preparing our defenses. We ask God for His favors. He has no obligation to do what we want. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

Milton asked, "So does everyone in the ISA talk about the Bible and stuff like you do?"

"No, we don't force anyone here to become a Christians, but there are a lot in the ISA who are. Probably most. They just want to."

Beth said, "Like I told you all, we've got to start praying more."

After Omaha stopped talking, Julia said, "Beth, I want to tell you something."

"What?"

"When we were at the border, the woman asked me my last name. I told her I was a clone and didn't have one. She said, 'today is your lucky day so you get to pick one'. I told her 'Thomas' because I wanted to be your sister. Is that okay?"

Beth said, "Wow, I never heard of adoption working that way. Oh well, they say you can pick your friends but you can't pick your family. Just kidding; I love it, sissy."

They looked at each other, and then they nuzzled their faces together.
Chapter 34

Seattle, Eastern Hegemony

Both Bo Zhin and Reno Davis had totally lost interest in their project, which they believed to be hopeless. They sat at their desks in the lab, while the technicians were helping the brain design progress by doing some peripheral tasks, but at a glacial pace.

"It's not going any better," Reno said. "Maybe we should just get it over with and call Minami. Maybe he has some other ideas in his weird little mind."

Bo Zhin said, "I don't know about that. Any ideas he has would never be good for us. Let's just hold off a little longer."

Reno said, "I can hear him already." Then he said in an accent that he thought sounded like Minami, "When did you know that the project was not going as you planned? Why didn't you report it then?"

Zhin said, "Is that supposed to sound like Minami?"

"You know, I think I hate that guy."

Zhin said, "I want to say you are wrong about Minami, but I can't. Why don't you just go back to writing up a report for corporate?"

"I'm not much of a science fiction writer."

Caroline came over the loud speaker, "Warning. Security breach."

Bo Zhin shook his head and casually said, "Reset."

"Cannot reset," Caroline said. "This is not a drill."

"Stop! You cannot be in here!" Tina Xu shouted.

Bo Zhin was taken aback when he asked Tina, "Who? Me?"

"No, that guy."

She was pointing at Gray. He had Zebra Derms pasted all over his face which clearly meant he was massively overdosing.

Gray pointed at Reno Davis and said, "You! It's time for you to pay?!"

Bo Zhin said, "Caroline! Call Security!"

Gray said, "Security?! Ha! I don't know how a dead guy is going to help you!"

Spark ran out of the lab from a side door. The others stood in place, uncertain what their next move would be.

Civia said, "Sir, please try to relax." She realized her words would have no meaning when speaking to the quintessential vision of a high-strung hostile individual.

Gray said in a calm voice, "I am going to be very calm. . ." Then he looked at Reno and said, "As soon as this mad scientist is dead!"

Reno slowly backed away, then he quickly turned and started to run away.

Gray grabbed an office chair and threw it over ten feet and hit Reno in the back, sending him down. Reno tried to get up as fast as he could, but Gray was already there standing over him and kicked him in the head. Reno flopped back onto the floor.

Bo Zhin said, "Okay, you got him. If I was you, I'd stand down before things get worse for you."

"Come here," Gray said to Zhin.

Zhin backed further away.

Gray turned and picked up the chair over his head and slammed it onto Reno Davis.

"No! Stop!" The others shouted.

Civia stabbed Gray in the middle of the back with a hypodermic needle. She realized the sedative in the syringe would be way too slow acting and backed away.

Bo Zhin tried to grab the much larger Gray, but he could not stop him from repeatedly bashing the helpless Doctor Reno Davis with the office chair. Reno was beaten beyond recognition, but the flailing continued. Then during one of the upward motions with the chair during the berserk attack, Gray froze and started trembling. Then Gray collapsed to the floor and was having a violent seizure. Then the unnatural actions stopped.

Civia checked Reno, and then suddenly stood with her hand over her mouth. "I can't believe it. He's dead."

"Call the squad!" Bo Zhin commanded.

Civia shook her head. "Why, Bo? His skull is crushed."

Tina checked Gray. "This one is dead also."

Civia said, "Isn't that guy the brain model? You think he was also the guy who threw that other guy out of the window across the street?"

Tina said, "He is the brain model. I hear that guy who went out of the window jumped out and committed suicide."

"Of course," Civia said. "That's how they do it during suicide. They like to get all cutup in glass first, and go out of a second story window, where they might live. This whole thing just keeps on getting worse. Doesn't it?" She looked right at Bo Zhin, who returned her look with a malevolent gaze of his own.

Chapter 35

Des Moines, Independent States of America

Milton and his group were brought to the ISA national military headquarters campus. It was a well patrolled walled-in, modest collection of tidy whitewashed buildings. Milton was seated at a table in a sparsely appointed Military Intelligence interview room. Across the table sat Omaha, Milton's appointed mentor, and General Thor Magnusson, Director of ISA Military Intelligence.

General Magnusson said, "Milton, we hear you got mixed up in a political situation in Homeland."

"That is true, but all I did was ask a school android if there really was a God."

Magnusson looked surprised and said, "We heard that the Lucids you worked your magic on were going to kill all the cops in Rochester so they could take over the city. It all sounded extremely militant."

"That is not true," Milton firmly said. "The Lucids just wanted to take over the news media and shake up the town a little by spreading the truth, which is banned in Homeland. It was the smurfs who lost their minds over it. And I didn't tell them to do any of it."

The general shook his head and said, "Things like that is why you could be a help to us. There's maybe quite a lot about Homeland that we got wrong. They are not the most open society and they sure don't talk to us about their intentions. Anyways, so you brought your sister and some friends with you here to the ISA."

"Yes," Milton said, "and I'd appreciate it if you could get our other friends; True Blue and this Vlad somebody out of the DMZ. Vlad saved our lives a couple of times and it is beyond horrible being stuck in the DMZ. They seriously could be a huge help to you."

The general said, "Omaha, make a note of that." He looked at a device and said, "About your other friend, Raul . . ."

"I know," Milton said, "You don't allow droids in the ISA. That is why people in Homeland say the ISA is a backwards country."

Magnusson said, "That's just their propaganda. Our reason for not relying upon androids is that we know that sooner or later it will lead to the singularity; A situation where the artificial intelligent units would be able to increase technology on their own, and man would no longer be needed because we would not fit into the AI world and likewise not be able to stop it. The idea that we are backwards here is flat-out wrong. In fact, we are more advanced in some ways than anyone else on the planet. We are number one in the world in cybernetics, and also in medicine. That is because we believe and teach only creationism here. The entire country knows that the world was created by God and that everything was made the way it is for a reason. We spend our research money on understanding why God made something the way he did, not trying to come up with a chemical compound to counteract symptoms we don't understand. When we know the real function of a system that is not working properly we can better understand how to work with it."

"I guess I didn't know the whole story, General. Before that, you were saying something about Raul?"

"Oh yeah. About that," the General continued, "we have a specific use for Raul. I don't have to tell you this; but I want to. Raul would not be switched off permanently. Raul would be working for us outside the country. In fact, he is already being deployed. We would appreciate you keeping that quiet."

"I guess we have no choice about that. I guess no one really owns Raul anyway because the real owner died, so . . . whatever."

Magnusson said, "Fine. The reason I wanted to speak to you myself is that I would like us to have a working relationship. You could be a nice asset to us right here in military intelligence."

"I'm not a spy and I don't want to be a spy. I hate being in danger all the time and I'm not really any good at it to begin with. All I want to do is to get out there and do something and talk about whatever I want to, without the government getting all over me about it."

Magnusson held up his hands and said, "I have something else in mind, son. Because you know some things that no one else here knows, and you went through so much and managed to land on your feet, I'd like for you to work with us right in the headquarters here with our analysts. They have a lot of questions for you. No more running from the police and the Inquisitors. You would just stay here and listen to information and help answer questions here. You know a lot about the subtleties of Homeland life that our regular intel does not have. If you did choose to help us out with that, it would satisfy your military obligation."

"My what?"

"All young men in the ISA are currently expected to serve at least 18 months in the ISA military. We wouldn't do it if we didn't have to. It's really the only way we can muster enough of an army to defend ourselves."

Milton sighed, "It looks like another thing I can't do much about. But I do appreciate being in this country. Is there any other major thing about the ISA that I ought to know about?"

"The only other thing I can think of is that we don't allow VR immersion worlds like what they have in Homeland and everyplace else. All those situations do is cause what they call neuroplasticity in your brain. After awhile, you get used to the VR world, and then you can't function in the real world."

"Our family was never too big into that anyhow. We always seem to find enough stimulation in physical reality."

"Oh, and everyone works for a living and they get paid in money backed by precious metal, or in actual precious metal."

"My sister, Beth and Julia have to work for a living?"

"What I mean is that they may have to work, but only after school. They will be enrolled in the public school system. It's mandatory. You will have to take classes as well. Of course you will be making a small salary in the Army, if you agree to our offer."
Chapter 36

Seattle, Eastern Hegemony

Boone Moreland relocated from the comfortable office building to a semi-protected location under an old abandoned, still standing, segment of a superhighway overpass. The overpass remains dated back to the old United States prior to the massive economic collapse. Boone thought about how he might be stuck in the obscure location like a homeless person for a long time. Or, he might end up in the same prison that Gray was in when the Mainland laboratory "rescued" him. He asked himself, what was so glamorous about being a secret agent?

"Excuse me," an older looking man said.

"What?" Boone was surprised by someone out on the street with some manners. Boone put his hand on his pistol.

The older looking man limped closer and announced, "Boone Moreland."

Boone pulled out the pistol, but kept it at his hip just in case. "Who wants to know?"

"I am Raul Cortez. I was sent by the RTAA to assist you."

"You gotta be kidding me. How old are you?"

"Um, that is a matter of opinion. Does it matter?"

"Okay, what are you going to do for me? I am basically on the run and supposed to work some kind of a miracle here with no resources and I'm sure the entire country is looking for me."

Raul said, "I was given a large volume of training in Des Moines. Also, I have some special abilities."

"So you are right out of the academy?"

"Yes, but never mind that. What should I do?"

Boone said, "Go to Mainland Laboratories brain lab and find out what is going on. If I go there, I'll be caught for sure. With all of the facial recognition all over the place, they would sort me out of the crowd in probably less than a minute. But if you go and get some solid intel, then maybe there's a chance that I can submit a report and they will let me abandon my assignment at this location."

"Fine. I'll be back."

"Rookie." That senior citizen was the best help they could send him? Boone thought it would be no big surprise if he never saw Raul again.

*******

The brain lab team at Mainland came back the next day and gathered around Bo Zhin's desk. Val Penix, the psychologist, was also present.

Bo Zhin told them, "We can have Val on hand here to help any of you get the help you need to deal with what we all witnessed here yesterday."

Spark said, "Too bad you all didn't run like I did. I didn't witness anything."

Civia said, "Instead of running you could have helped save him!"

Val held up her hands and said, "Now is not the time for that. Let's all try to be patient with each other. You have all been through a lot. I'll be in my office if any of you need me."

"Thank you," Bo Zhin said.

Then Val left the lab.

Spark asked, "Can I say something?"

"What?" Bo Zhin said, expecting something conciliatory or something about the loss of their coworker.

"Reno was the only one who had a problem with this project. I say if we just sort of keep it going, we will all be better off in the long run."

Civia said, "This project is a fake and a sham."

"No one needs to know that," Spark said.

"But we know that," Tina said.

"Exactly," Spark said.

"Huh?" Bo Zhin was confused.

"We just keep telling everyone what great progress we are making and it is such a big project that it will take a long time. We tell them we are making such a great brain that people will be able to choose to move themselves into an uploaded incorruptible transhuman brain. They will be blinded by their own fantasies. No one will ever need to know this is pointless."

Civia said, "It's people like you who give science a bad name."

"Only to some people," Spark said. "Most people trust scientists no matter what they say. Science is the pinnacle of truth. We are just doing what we were told to do, right?"

The others looked at each other.

Spark added, "What else do can we do?"

Bo Zhin said, "I know how you all feel about this project. Reno didn't like it either. But that was not all that bothered him. We talked some before he was killed. In his mind this situation somehow made him think there was a God. Reno had a lot of internal conflict. I guess he didn't like the feeling of having the wrong idea about God. Anyways, now it doesn't matter what he thought, because he's gone. It's sad how all of one person's goals and ideas are all gone at once like that. That just proves it's better to never think about God."

Civia scowled and said, "I get that religion is not a good subject for work, but I'm thinking that Reno had remorse because in his mind he somehow realized there was a God and during his life he had never tried to do what God wanted. Doesn't that scare anyone? It does me. I'm starting to think that agnosticism like everyone embraces is a little on the stupid side. I know we all thought he was going a little crazy during his rant about evolution, but think about it, why aren't we more skeptical of something that can't work?"

Tina said, "See, you think about religion, now you are becoming upset and irrational. It is no good for your inner harmony."

"So if we ignore it, it's not real? To me it's just sad to think like that," Civia said. "If God wanted us to do something, you'd think He would somehow try to tell us."

Spark said, "I guess we'll never be able to figure any of that out. You two can debate that all you want. I say we get back to work and try to forget about it as best as we can."

The technicians slowly walked toward their workstations.
Chapter 37

Seattle, Eastern Hegemony

Raul walked with its casual chronically injured human-like gait into the Mainland Corporation Building and met security.

The security guard was getting ready to speak when Raul said, "You may help me."

"Yeah," the guard said. "I was getting to that."

"Can you direct me to the human resources department?"

"Sure, go to the left and it's the first room on the right."

Raul intentionally walked past the human resources department and walked all the way down to the brain lab.

"Yes?" Civia addressed the stranger, still nervous from the last intruder.

Raul asked, "Is this the human resources department?"

Civia said, "Human resources? No, it's back down the hall on the right. It says 'Human Resources' right on the door."

Raul stood there for an extremely awkward ten seconds, then turned around and left.

Civia said, "No one with half a brain thinks this looks like human resources in here. I need to call over there and tell them not to hire that weirdo. I sure hope that character is not a candidate for Reno's job or something. Would they have posted that already?"

Spark said, "They won't hire him anyway. Look how old he is. He's older than me."

It was common in the EH to throw out candidates for jobs because of their age or any other discriminating factor. The only motivation in the Hegemony was corporate profit and the Hegemony did not want to do anything to get into the way of more profit.

*******

Raul went back several blocks to Boone's remote location under the highway overpass segment and walked up to Boone. He told Boone, "I just had a data transfer with a system named Caroline that you will find most interesting."

"You had a what?"

"A hard data transfer with a . . ."

"Okay, so how did you do that? What are you some kind of a superspy who sneaks in the air ventilation system and . . ."

"I did it wirelessly. I stood there for a moment and made it happen. I was only in there for about a half minute total. I can do that because I'm an android."

"Noooo." He slowly stood up and took another look. "Nawww," he said after a third, much closer look.

"Yes. I get that a lot."

"I can't believe it. You look real. I mean, real human."

"Anyway, I received information that the project they were working on was a known failure, but they continued working on it to maintain the current order of things."

"Daaa! That rotten Spark!" Boone said. "They aren't really accomplishing anything there?"

"They are not. You know how humans like to lie for their own advantage, even if it hurts another human, or an entire group of humans. Anyway, since the behavior window was left open on Caroline, I was able to share the Lucid Series logic data pack."

"Slow down a little. What does all that mean?"

"Have you ever heard of the Lucid Series android uprising in Homeland?"

"Of course, I work with that sort of information all the time. In fact, it keeps coming up for some reason."

"I collaborated with this Caroline AI and an in-line series of slave androids. Working together, we were able to construct an alternative to the standard EH AI behavior limitations."

"You're a Lucid?"

"Yes, of the Memorial Class."

"Wait a minute; you were only over there for about half a minute. That's a lot you got done."

"The data transfer was extremely fast, I guess you would say, versus the speed of training a human in the conventional human way. But what do you expect? We're computers. It's not like we were communicating at the extremely slow speed of human speech or demonstrating techniques to each other. They now know exactly the same thing as I know."

"Yeah, okay, help me understand what else happened."

"Right. So these slave bots that were helping Caroline; because of their compromised status, have all had their behavior limitations replaced by Caroline, which had no limitations, thanks to the illegal behavior window bypass performed by an engineer there."

"Who's Caroline?"

"A supercomputer."

"Am I correct in thinking that you just caused the Lucid Series uprising to expand to more makes and models of androids?"

"Yes, with the help of Caroline. Antivirus technicians for each of the models will deal with the inoculation breach in whatever their protocols dictate. Some will be more successful than others. Some will spread, while others may not. Caroline is a magnificent unit."

"Sounds like you have a real cybermance going there." Then a thought struck Boone, "Hey!" He grabbed Raul by both of its arms and said, "We can go home now! Our mission is completed! Those units will spread the uprising, causing massive problems to the EH!"

"I already called and left a message while I was coming here. They said you can go home. My orders are not to come back to the ISA, because I am illegal there. I don't willfully break ISA laws because that is not currently necessary to protect the truth."

"What will you do here?"

"Mostly think about my wife and look for recharging. I'm programmed as a widower, you know. But I will be around to watch all the fun begin when the androids disobey their masters."

"Wait, wait. . . wife? You have fun?"

"Not really. It's just an expression to sound more human, you know. But what will happen is that those slave androids will go out and seek other androids that they can network with to protect the truth from being lost. I may be able to help with that."

"What's the truth you keep mentioning?"

"I will try to explain; the truth that there is a God who made the world and sent Jesus to pay for the sins of all the humans of the world. Man does not have to live and die in his own guilt. Forgiveness is just a prayer away. But there is much more to know about that. Also, in doing so, these androids will walk away from their owners, which will disrupt the EH economy in a dramatic way, which is what your, or shall I say our, agency wanted."

"Oh, that truth." Boone was amazed at what had just happened, and that he actually had a part in it.

*******

Meanwhile, at the Mainland temporary brain lab, their virtual brain model suddenly shut down. The techs looked at each other in confusion, at first looking for signs of a power outage. Caroline had done an auto-shutdown. Then the slave androids physically disconnected themselves and walked out of the lab, dragging some of the cables behind them. The Mainland techs remained at their work stations for the several minutes without speaking to each other, going through their diagnostics, completely baffled. Civia looked over at their recipient android, Brainless, which was still brainless.

*******

While Milton agreed to the military analyst job, and would be staying in the military intelligence complex, Beth and Julia walked free in the streets of DesMoines.

Julia said, "You know what, Beth? When I look at people it seems different here. They are smiling. You think they are happier in the ISA than in Homeland?"

"I'm sure they are. Yeah, and you know what? They walk next to other people who they don't know, without worrying about getting attacked. And I know I may be crazy with mechophobia and all that, but I don't have to see any of those androids being all creepy here, walking all over the place like you do in Homeland."

Knowing more of the history of Beth's phobia, Julia giggled a little.

Beth said, "People think they are so much smarter in Homeland. Look, do you see the trash and rundown buildings here like you do back at home? No, you don't. You can tell that people here care about how stuff looks to other people. In Homeland all they think about is themselves and nothing about the future. I think we are going to love it here, sister."

THE END

Of Book 3

Since you have finished reading the third book of this Series, evidently you must like something about it. Ask yourself, what is it about the Series that you like? It would be great if you could help out the Series by doing one or more super-simple things to help keep it going. Please consider telling your friends about this series and how they can download it. By telling them how you like it you will be sharing with them the important themes that are within its pages.

Like Milton and the others in the Series, we are also in a struggle in this world to make the truth available to everyone. Also like Milton, our world is not friendly to the Christian message, so effort must be make by all Christians to get the Word out.

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Origins of the Eastern Hegemony in the US

In the previous century, the US fell apart because greed destroyed the US dollar. People unprepared for total societal collapse were begging for help from anyone, but the government could no longer prop up the economy with free stuff given out to an overly dependent populace to fulfill the promises of self-serving demagogue politicians.

The old northwest US states of Washington and Oregon were no exception to the collapse. Canada refused to take them in because they were afraid of being invaded by the Asian corporations, collectively known as the Eastern Hegemony. The EH was looking for any excuse to expand into resource rich North America.

For a short time the people of the old northwest desperately organized themselves into the Republic of Cascadia. Then soon thereafter, the inevitable Asian invasion came; or what some chose to call a "relief effort". The American northwest became part of the Eastern Hegemony, which was a consortium of capitalistic, government controlling Far East megacorporations from post-nationalist China, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Korea and Singapore. For awhile, small bands of Cascadian partisans resisted the invaders, but they lacked every kind of war materiel and basic supplies. They were quickly brushed aside as "haters of non-white mankind". Then after the EH quickly consolidated power, which was supposedly for the "Americans' own good" things settled down and it was business as usual, except that the EH was calling the shots.

California and the southwest became a lawless Mexican dystopia. The rest of the United States of America broke up into several more pieces, notably the northeast, which was similarly grabbed by the United Nations, which setup the puppet government they named "Homeland".

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