Something Spied

  “Where are you going?” asked Ed as the three friends entered the house.

  “The basement,” said Ian.

            Ed looked at Dev, who shrugged, and the two of them followed Ian down the stairs and into the damp basement.

  “You realize they’ll probably want that thing soon, so you might as well store it in the safe,” said Devon.

  “I’m not going to hide it down here,” said Ian as he walked to the far end of the basement and placed his hand against a stone.

            A section of wall at eye level slid away into some unseen cavity and revealed what looked like a glowing ring. It was in fact a holographic projector and after powering up a face appeared. It was a rather generic face with no hair or defining features. Ed thought it looked a lot like a robot from Terminator.

  “Hello, Victor,” said Ian.

  “Welcome back, Commander,” said the AI in a tone that sent a shiver up both Devon and Ed’s spines. The voice was male and human, yet very non-human at the same time.

  “I need you to make a secure copy of the contents on this,” Ian said, holding the flash drive up so that the cameras along the inside of the hidden section could see it. “So write-safe reading, nothing gets on this drive, understood?”

  “Yes,” said the AI.

            Ian inserted the USB drive into a port on the base of the projector and it started copying.

  “You have a VI hidden in our basement?” asked Ed.

  “No, I have an AI hidden in our basement. Slight difference.”

  “I thought you hated the idea of AIs?” asked Devon.

  “Only if they are unshackled.”

  “I am unshackled,” said Victor.

  “You said what now?” asked Ed.

  “I am an unshackled AI.”

  “It was a rhetorical question, Victor,” said Ian. “He doesn’t get out much,” he added to Dev and Ed.

  “I don’t get out at all, as my projector is bolted to this stand on the wall and I have no external platform.”

  “Thank you, Victor,” said Ian while shaking his head. “Human-computer interaction’s been a little limited of late.”

  “I can see that,” said Devon.

  “You think it wise to copy the data on that drive?” asked Ed.

  “Yeah, I do. Know thine enemy, and all that.”

  “Copy completed,” said Victor.

  “Thank you, Victor, you may go back to sleep now,” said Ian and pressed the stone so that the wall would hide the AI once more.

  “How long have you been hiding Victor in there?” asked Devon as they made their way back up to the kitchen.

  “A few months now.”

  “Why?” asked Ed.

  “Why not?”

  “Why not what?” asked Danny coming down from the stairs, dressed in one of Ian’s shirts. Ian was somewhat amazed that he had shirts long enough to cover her decently.

  “Did we wake you?” asked Ian as she embraced him.

  “No,” she lied and reached up to kiss him. The other two averted their eyes, mostly.

  “Well, I bet they’ll come by sometime in the morning, so I’m going to go home and sleep there for a change,” said Dev.

  “Drive safe,” said Ed.

  “Did you find what you were looking for?” asked Danny after saying goodbye to Dev.

  “Yeah,” said Ian, showing her the flash drive.

  “Anything interesting on there?”

  “No idea, way too heavily encrypted.”

  “I would laugh if we had just gotten back someone’s porn collection,” said Ed, and the other two burst out in a fit of laughter.

  “That would be interesting,” said Ian.

  “Am I not enough?” asked Danny jokingly.

  “Oh, you’re more than enough,” said Ian, kissing her again.

  “Really, if the two of you aren’t going to go to your room, I’m going to mine.”

  “You don’t have to tell me twice,” said Danny as she took Ian by the hand and led him upstairs.

  “We’ll try to keep it down,” said Ian, with a wink at Ed, who couldn’t help but smile.

            As they disappeared up the staircase, Ed couldn’t help thinking of Aaliyah. He knew she was safe, at least as long as they played this shadow game, but he missed her.

            Ian heard “Ain’t no Rest for the Wicked” by Cage the Elephant playing as he lay in bed half asleep. The sun was shining on his bare legs though the window to his left and Danny was laying half on top of him. His phone was vibrating and as he opened his eyes, he saw it very near to the edge of his end table.

            Ian caught it before it fell out of reach and checked the caller ID. The number was blocked.

  “Zdrastvootye,” he answered in Russian as he normally did when he did not know who was calling.

  “Mister Erasmus?” a masked voice asked from the other side of the call.

  “You tell me, you phoned this number.”

  “That tone will not do. Remember, you will do as we say,”

  “I was told to do as my handlers say.”

  “And who do you think is calling.”

  “That’s what I’d like to know.”

            Ian slowly got out of bed and put on some pants before leaving his room and walking over to Ed’s door.

  “You have the package?”

  “The flash drive, yes,” Ian answered and knocked on Ed’s door.

  “Good, then this is what you will do.” Ed peered out the door and Ian switched the phone to loud speaker so he could hear as well. “You’ll take the flash drive to a building. The coordinates will be emailed from a secure one-time email address. Do not attempt to trace it. Once inside, you will make your way to a server room, details in the email, and upload the contents of the flash drive to the terminal.

  “Once that has been done, you will receive payment. Further instructions will follow upon completion. You have forty eight hours to complete this assignment, as of now. Oh, and Mister Swardt, Aaliyah says hello,” and the call ended.

  “Son of a bitch,” said Ed.

  “He knows what we are up to.”

  “You think the house is bugged?”

  “No, doubtful, must be some serious surveillance in the area.”

  “Someone spying on us?” asked JR as he exited his room to stand next to Ian.

  “What’s with the shirt?” asked Ed as he noted JR’s thick cotton long-sleeve shirt.

  “What, it was cold last night,” defended JR.

  “It’s not cold now.”

  “Dudes. Focus. Surveillance. Any of you notice anything funny lately?”

  “No,” said JR.

  “Not really,” said Ed.

  “And nothing while we were gone, JR?”

  “No, we’ve got new neighbours but that about…” JR trailed off as both Ed and Ian rushed up to the deck.

            Casually as they could, they looked around the neighbourhood, paying particular attention to the house across from them. It had been empty for a few weeks and Ian had been half contemplating buying it before the mess with Thor.

  “Curtains drawn,” noticed Ed.

  “Yeah, but even the Agency had magnetic black-scopes. No radio or satellite signals.”

  “So no spies?”

  “No, they’re just good. And no doubt they’ve heard us.”

  “Doubtful, they’d need line of sight for that, and you’ve got that jammer running, remember?”

  “Oh yeah,” said Ian. “Well, let’s keep an eye on them. In the meantime, let’s go make breakfast, call Devon and case this building they want us to sneak into.”