The Enemy of My Enemy? Pt. 2/Chapter 06
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Back at the warehouse Lori tried to act as casually as possible as she approached the building. She felt naked without her protective armor and ridiculous in the business suit she was wearing. She knew the guys would never let her forget this day. She would find a way to make them pay for teasing her, she thought mischievously.
She placed her latex covered hand on the scanner by the door. Stan had fitted the glove with the handprint of the womyn in charge of a minor maintenance center. Lori placed her phony identification into the lock and punched in a code. The lock clicked and the door smoothly opened while the building greeted her in a friendly female voice. “Good evening Mz. Zaretski. How may I assist you today?” Lori kept her relief to herself.
“I have four assistants that will be joining me soon,” she said firmly while trying to remember the procedures. “Please direct me to your supply-removal authorization notebooks.”
“Second level. Room two-one-two. Room two-two-one,” the A.I. stuttered. The slow and subtle virus embedded in Lori’s fake ID was already beginning to affect the system. It was actually Portia who had designed the virus. Her own artificial intelligence worked in ways that not even Frances Stanley could fully comprehend anymore. Her logarithmic logic and “algorithmic allegory” (as he called it) continually evolved and refined itself. She could easily outwit the inferior A.I.
Humans only acted as guides and input overseers while computers designed software and hardware by running programs through thousands of progressive generations per second. In this way, computers single out the most efficient means to a desired end. The solutions somehow “emerged” when they followed basic rules. This is why it was called “emergent behavior programming.” No one really knew how the latest technology worked, only how to innovate it and apply it.
“Thank you,” Lori said, acting as if she didn’t hear the mistake. She turned back to the door. “Present yourselves for identification!” she barked. Barris and the three youngest scouts in the party appeared at the corner of a nearby building. The likelihood of average aged adult males in the work force was slim so they didn’t want to give cause for suspicion. Kylan also remained behind for fear of being recognized by the A.I.
The two youngest scouts were nervous since they all had to shed their armor and tools, although Kye had told them the armor would not help against the warehouse’s weapons anyway. It was not unusual for men to be timid in the current environment but Barris was calm and reassuring. “Don’t panic,” he said, “Once we’re inside we shouldn’t have anything to worry about. Just stick to the plan and follow Lori’s lead.” He was going to regret his last comment.
As each of them went through the doorway in a certain order, the other pieces of the virus were in place and had bypassed the firewall that would have detected it had it been whole. Just as they were regaining their confidence another voice fell on their startled ears, “Are you Catherine Zaretski? You’re new; aren’t you?” No one was expecting for the warehouse to be occupied.
Lori felt her heart jump but didn’t show it, though the guys froze. “Is there a problem?” Lori tried to sound authoritative.
“No, no. I just didn’t know anyone was coming. Wow! Is that FOUR real men,” the older womyn seemed more surprised than they were.
“They don’t all work for me,” Lori said indifferently, “or maybe I’d give you one.” The guys felt insulted by the comment, but Lori had more experience in dealing with wymyn and they had to remember that this wasn’t their world anymore.
The stout older womyn walked up to Barris and started to stroke his biceps. Being a scout kept him in good shape for his age. “Too bad,” she said, “I could have used an assistant. Do you think you could have this one assigned to me?”
“Can’t you just get an android,” said one of the younger scouts before he realized that he should have kept quiet.
“I did not give you permission to speak!” Lori reprimanded and then she turned to Barris and stared at him directly in the eyes. “Ferguson. Kiss this lady.” It was payback time for his joking about her clothes -- which she actually looked attractive in -- but she really hated wearing heels.
Barris was caught off guard, but he was wiser than the younger scouts and knew that he was cornered. “Yes, ma’am,” he struggled to say the words submissively. He then swallowed his pride and kissed the womyn lightly, but she threw her arms around him and Frenched him. He felt sick. The Girls had really spoiled him.
Lori and the boys tried not to laugh, but she quickly remembered that they had business to do and things were starting to get out of hand. She would have to find a way to get the womyn off of their backs without making her too suspicious. A thought crossed Lori’s mind and made her shudder, but she could see no other choice. It was time for her to swallow her own pride. Just as the older womyn released the manipulated Barris, Lori said, “He’s not mine to assign, but maybe I can get him transferred to your district.” Lori walked up beside the other female and put a hand on her shoulder, “But I don’t see why that would be necessary,” she said flirtatiously.
Apparently this made the older womyn extremely uncomfortable because she suddenly became very professional in her manner and she seemed to want to hurry them along. It was just as Lori had hoped. “Did you need some help finding something,” she gulped as she tried to busily pull away… but now she was in no personal rush to tell anyone else about her visitors.
“I didn’t know that anyone worked here or I might have come to stock up sooner,” Lori continued to play on the womyn’s embarrassment, “but a checkout notebook would be nice.” She started to bite her bottom lip.
“I don’t work here,” the smaller lady said flatly, “This A.I. has been acting a little screwy, so I’m checking it out. It even fired off a seeker missile the other day at a police unit.” She quickly changed the subject, “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be right back with the notebook.” She practically ran up a nearby flight of stairs.
“Whoa,” the youngest scout whispered.
“Yeah. Nice save ‘Catherine’,” Barris muttered spitefully.
Lori looked at him angrily and nodded toward a camera that was still watching them. But they had nothing to worry about. Portia’s virus had the system busy running self-diagnostics and pondering its own existence. After they left there would be no record of their visit or of what they removed. There would be no trace that the A.I. had ever been infected. It would simply reboot with the previous day’s entry and give the wymyn one more reason to suspect the machine at error. The older female would also be anxious to forget about her encounter. “That’s weird,” the womyn said as she returned with an electronic note-pad, “I can’t get an outside line and the A.I. just told me that it was ‘confused,’ but it didn’t say about what.”
“We can come back some other time,” Lori bluffed. “I can give you my number,” she added with a wink.
“That won’t be necessary,” the older lady said evasively. “Just log whatever you’re taking. I’m heading back up to talk with the A.I.” She turned her attention back to Barris to try and avoid talking to Lori, “…Unless you need some help carrying some stuff to your vehicle. Where is it anyway?”
“Down the street, Ma’am,” Barris said with his eyes downcast, “The road we came through was blocked with rubble.”
“Must have been from that friggin’ malfunction the other day,” she said in frustration.
Lori sighed, “Can’t blame a girl for trying. There’s no harm in trying,” she hinted suggestively one last time.
“I’m sorry,” the womyn said as she began to back away, “I’m really busy right now,” and she once again disappeared up the staircase. That was the last they saw of her.
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