. . . Thrown Away as continued
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Chapter 43 – continued
She opened her eyes and could see Nat and Raj standing over her bed with huge smiles on their faces. She ventured a very careful smile back.
Raj left the room right away, leaving her to take in Nat like she had never seen him before. She could not take her eyes off of him, nor could he take his eyes off of her. It took a few long moments, and then she decided to try speaking, “Could I get some water, Nat?” she said softly, but with no hesitation.
“Sure,” he replied as he picked up a cup by her bed with a straw and held it for her to take some very careful sips.
Success. Tomoe was feeling better and getting anxious to get back to her work. After a short while, Raj returned to the room with a silvery canvas and got Nat to help him put it under and all around her bed. He brought out a cellphone and powered it up next to her and Nat. He started keying out a message in a notes app.
“We need to move you to a more secure location, asap,” he finished and put the phone in front of her to read. She reached for it carefully.
She touched the screen under his message and a keyboard popped underneath. She carefully, and somewhat slowly touched “K” and waited for his response. No one spoke.
“I have a utility van and a small medical team on the way. Rachel assures me that she can monitor your health remotely. She is impressed with your current condition. We won’t be able to communicate freely until your relocated. There is a major operation underway to try to find you and all about you. We have a counter operation in play, but we need you where no one knows you are. These goons have money and they are spending the US Treasury at will. It is making people weak.”
Nat interjected a quick note, “We are so happy you are doing so well. We will talk later.”
Then a medical transport team arrived, helped them pack up and loaded Tomoe, Nat and Raj into the van with all their stuff. There was no going back for a while. Big payoff corruption was threatening to destroy the planet for any decent and reasonable person.
Chapter 44
Tisha was satisfied with the decisions and reports coming from both Rachel and Justin. She was monitoring their every move, as far as she could. She knew that they would hold back some data and plans as they were trained. Never show your cards until it was necessary. They were excellent poker players.
Eve was in position at her hotel near the Chilean Embassy in Madrid to meet with Gladys in her office. Gladys has the meeting set up to ease her entry and eventual evacuation to the airport in a diplomatic van. Rachel will be handling the security and timing protocols. Gladys had provided a Raj look-alike companion who was staying in a suite with Eve. Tisha was somewhat astonished by a report from Rachel about many of Justin’s countermeasures and unorthodox plans and backup plans. She noted that as a result that mission success had risen from 65% to 98%+. No doubt Justin was working towards certainty.
One thing Justin had included was a plan to make the US effort to end up chasing a wild goose, so to speak. Things were underway as they were all aware that Tomoe was making miraculous progress. Tisha was feeling better about the next 24 hours as a result, but she knew she must be at her best, so she made herself nap while Madrid was sleeping and the commandos were not quite there.
Chapter 45
Obtaining a room at the hotel he considered to be the most operationally relevant was not easy for Joe to do at the last minute. He thought his targets might be staying here, too, but he had not made any sort of contact. He planned on getting some sleep, but he would be in the lobby at an early hour, so he went to sleep the best he could in alert status, fully ready to head out at a moment’s notice, if his paid informants texted him in the night.
Chapter 46
Justin was finding it harder and harder to increase the mission success rate chances. But, he wasn’t willing to stop finding more ways to improve the odds. Besides Eve imitating Nat and Gladys providing a Raj look alike, which no one knew who Raj was among the humans involved, Justin had hired eight people from local sources to dress up and imitate the two. In addition, he knew there would be a local protest regarding tourists and housing affordability, and he had spread the word that Greta Thunberg would be attending as she happened to be in town.
Margaret was due to arrive in the wee hours of the morning, and would stay in the same hotel, about two blocks from the embassy, as Eve and her companion. As Justin was scanning the hotel documents, yes, he is an excellent hacker, he noticed a red flag. There was one passport that didn’t bode well for the operation. It seemed Margaret would be busy.
This could not be a stealthy operation. It was imperative that the commandos were able to identify and follow the fake Nat and Raj. Eve would need to disappear as she was burned from the Studios. Margaret was going to need to distract this fake Joseph Wang and prevent him from making contact with fake Nat and Raj. And, Justin was working on some scenarios that would satisfy all the players to some degree, but protect his main boss in Israel.
The timing seemed best for a mid-morning clash of the opponents. He had two flights to coordinate, one inbound and one outbound. The commandos needed to know about them, but using diplomatic cover he hoped to prevent any serious threat. He had quite the menagerie of interference planned. Margaret would need to improvise, and his hacking would simplify her responsibility. Until the morning, he would focus on sports book to double his assets in a day or two. The bookies and agents would not know it was AI. It was almost too easy.
Chapter 47
Margaret received the dossier of her target – a Mr. Joe Park aka Joseph Wang staying at her and the main security interest’S hotel. He was a handful, and romancing him was not going to be in the cards. He was a hardened NK operative. Justin gave her some statistical probabilities of his actions for the next 12 hours or so, and it looked like he intended to kidnap and question fake Nat and Raj. He, like the commandos might be after Justin’s big boss – the queen bee. She was going to need to trap him, but the lure was live bait, which was extremely dangerous. There was a hint that Joe had been burned, and that was something she might be able to use.
For now she would study the scenarios Justin provided and know the ground better than the enemy. Also, she would have the best comms. Justin owned Madrid. They had nothing nefarious to fear from him. He was a Robin Hood AI personality, and his trojan viruses survived because that actually benefited the hosts. He just used them for good, and strengthened their systems to protect them from the likes of the international cyber criminals.
Chapter 48
The utility van arrived. Three characters got out and switched places with Raj, Nat and Tomoe as they loaded into the van. It was necessary to keep the shell game going until no one knew where anyone was. The new information Tisha had relayed to Raj about the NK operative sniffing around Madrid had Raj on alert. However, he was more concerned about the huge quantities of cash flowing around in search of information about their whereabouts, even if they didn’t know exactly who they were. Raj knew that humans were very susceptible to wealth or at least the smell of it.
They drove toward their destination, a secretive hanger at the Ben Gurion Airport. The surface looked like top secret warehouse processing of weapons, personnel, medical supplies and other assets of war. It wasn’t a long drive, and when they arrived, they were driven into a garage cavity within the hangar, unloaded and shipped ten stories underground. This was a secure location as long as Israel was secure, which was their number one mission.
They set up down below, making sure Tomoe was doing well. In the garage another three people had taken their place and were being loaded into a small passenger jet owned by Israel that was departing in a few minutes for Madrid.
Chapter 49
Eve woke up early, got her companion Juan up and went to breakfast. She was supposed to make her way to the embassy for an appointment with Gladys at 10 am. She did notice two people who seemed a little too alert sitting across the dining room from each other – a Caucasian woman and an Asian man. They made sure not to make eye contact with her, but her peripheral vision picked up some interest. It couldn’t be her as she looked like a young man, Nat in this case.
They made it back to the room to prepare to check out and head to the embassy, which was only about two blocks away. Rachel sent a message to wait until 9:45 am to depart, and she would handle check out. She texted Rachel about the two people that got her attention. Rachel indicated that there would be a large crowd of protesters along the route, and to stick close together and don’t worry if there were any look alike people in the crowd.
Chapter 50
Tisha was relieved that Tomoe was recovering better than expected and moved to a secure location awaiting extraction. The flight with three look alikes was due to arrive at about 11:30 am to pick up Eve in Madrid for a flight to Brasilia, where she would remain until she chose to move on, which could be up to a few years. Rachel maintained a data center there, so she would have everything she needed to continue working.
The news about the Asian man in the hotel restaurant was concerning to Tisha, and she made sure everyone was aware. That Justin had already assigned Margaret as his shadow was no surprise. He seemed to be on top of things. He had also arranged for a high profile speaker at the front of the embassy to create additional confusion for any would be kidnappers. She was also aware of the many robotic delivery vehicles, drones and surveillance cameras that he was controlling until the operation was over.
It looked like Tomoe would be relocated to Cardiff in Wales. She would be finalizing the preparation of the location at the city centre. The building had multiple levels with a high ceiling main floor large enough for a pickleball court, which would be an art studio/gallery for business start-ups and artists of all kinds. Getting the Internet service capacity that Tomoe required was the biggest challenge, but buying the adjacent buildings would make that easier.
Chapter 51
Joe washed up after breakfast and found a quiet place to wait in the lobby. He had not much idea about what his quarry was up to, but if he could separate one from the other, he could make his move to confine and question one of them about his missing colleague. There was something different about the appearance of the smaller Caucasian male, which made Joe think that he might be the best target.
He found a local newspaper and took the position of reading the paper while he kept alert for their arrival in the lobby.
Chapter 52
Rachel could see the pieces coming together. The commando unit had arrived and set up in a nearby hotel, seeming to know where Eve and Juan were staying. Margaret was in place, Gladys was ready to accept Eve with Juan in her office at 10 am, Justin had many, many countermeasures activated and there were no new threats outside a possible NK agent. She had with Justin’s help penetrated almost all of the commando units assets. She was starting to leak credible information about their whereabouts to the Spanish authorities.
Eve and Juan (aka Raj) were just leaving their suite at the hotel. She continued multi-tasking on her many other tasks and projects. It was simple for her. Not doing was difficult and caused a kind of memory inflammation. It was hard to describe, but Tisha was helping her with new feelings that were automated from different processors than she used for operations such as this one. She was more confident and comfortable with Tisha’s oversight, and she noticed that her boss was back as well. Even better she mused.
Chapter 53
Teo was recovering pretty quickly in the penthouse suite near the airport. He had already reviewed his options and decided to leave straightaway to Brasilia where he could continue his research into helping patients with advanced heart disease conditions to live a longer, higher quality life. The large, well funded medical school there had a position waiting for him.
Justin had determined that Teo was safe to travel. There were no signs of him being followed or noticed by any authorities. They probably thought he would just go home and slowly drift into nothingness – at least that was the chatter. Teo was scheduled to leave in about an hour on a flight to Brasilia. He would continue to have a shadow just in case.
Chapter 54
Eve and Juan dressed as Nat and Raj stepped out onto the street in the relatively cool Madrid morning. A large crowd of people were moving in the direction they were headed, towards the Chilean Embassy, and they blended in making sure to stay closely together. They didn’t notice the rather thin Asian man shadowing them followed by a rather diminutive and plainly dressed French woman – Joe and Margaret.
They did notice an unusually large number of mobile robots in the crowd. These robots seemed to keep their distance from Eve and Juan, but were causing traffic jams of protesters here and there. Justin was well aware of all of these players, and he was manipulating the robots and a few self-driving cars into the paths of the commandos.
The commandos had not really identified their targets and were running out of time. It was a short two blocks to the entry into the embassy, and they had no idea that the targets were heading that way. To make matters worse for the commandos, a large number of undercover Spanish federal agents were moving into the crowd hunting for these commandos. Justin and Rachel had made sure that they could identify and confront them. They were making sure that they would not make any headway. Somehow all of the comms of the commandos were silent. Justin could be heard snickering by Rachel and Tisha.
Chapter 55
Joe had closed in on Nat and Raj. He was wondering when he should strike. He had decided that Nat was his best bet as he was the smaller and less threatening of the two.
Just then Nat and Raj turned like they were going into some official building, the Chilean Embassy he noted, and decided the time was now. He grabbed Nat’s wrist, and that’s when he knew he was a she. And, he blacked out.
Chapter 56
Just as Joe grabbed Eve’s wrist, Margaret bashed him in the head with her purse, which was really a weapon she was well trained in using. She caught the slumping NK agent, put his arm around her neck and shoulders and crowded up against Eve and Juan as the guard waved them into the embassy for their appointment with Gladys. No one noticed her walking in with them with the NK agent, as they hurried to Gladys’ office as planned. Margaret was a lot stronger than she looked.
Gladys, looking a little bewildered, waved them into her office and asked, “How come there are four of you? I was expecting two.”
Margaret answered quickly, “I kinda crashed this party as this guy tried to grab Eve,” which let them all know she was aware of who they were. “I work for their boss,” she added quickly.
“He grabbed my wrist, and then he went limp,” added Eve, “I think she bashed him in the head.”
“Well, bring him with me and we’ll try to make him comfortable in the interrogation room,” said Gladys as she motioned for Eve to take a seat and had Juan, her agent, help Margaret take Joe into the interrogation room just as he was coming to. “Cuff him to the table,” she told Juan in Spanish, and they left him there dazed as they went back to her office.
“I did bash him in the head as he was grabbing your wrist,” said Margaret without a hint of defensiveness, “as he was about to pull you away for questioning, I believe.”
“Hmm,” responded Eve still disguised as Nat, “maybe I should interrogate him.” She got up and went into the interrogation room as the others returned.
Chapter 57
Eve looked at him. He was defeated, but looking for opportunities to escape his predicament. She had seen it before as a CBI agent. She would need to be careful.
“What do you want with me?” she asked as she leaned on the wall across the table from him. She wanted him to see escape as futile.
“Well, I wanted to see what happened to her,” he said in very good English.
“Who?”
“The one in Bangalore. The one I hurt too much, accidentally. I knew she planned to stage a bombing herself, but our NK stooges ordered it done that day. I tried to be careful, but I saw her being taken away and later the death certificate. My bosses were satisfied, but I saw signs of life. I think you know about her or your partner.”
Eve pondered this frank statement as she saw him trying to stretch and posture himself for some form of comfort. “Who do you work for?”
“No one. I’m burned. I would be dead if I hadn’t fled. I was next. I know the ways of the NK apparatus. I knew too much, was untrustworthy and expendable.” He lowered his head and looked beaten.
She took a seat at the table, and reached out her hand and gently took his wrist. “Why do you care? Why not just be in the wind?”
“She’s like my little sister. I always looked after her. I have been proud of her success.”
“I worked for her briefly, until your accident,” she said solemnly watching and feeling for his response. He pulse had quickened and his eyes narrowed. She took that as a genuine response as she lifted her hand.
“Is she . . .”
“No,” Eve responded before he could finish, “she is doing pretty well all things considered. I’m relocating to continue to work for her. I have some temporary protection duty. How about you? Would you serve or go dark?”
“I’m in. I know what she stands for. She is for everyone, especially those with the greatest need.”
Chapter 58
Tomoe was looking out the window as they flew above the Alps in the rising sun. Interesting she thought to now have a Japanese name. Nat was sitting across the aisle working on something. She was so happy to have him going along with her to her new place in the UK. She didn’t even like to think about it, fearing someone would find out. Parker was better off dead in the current world of chaos. But, Tomoe had much to accomplish in this strange, dangerous new world where money was currently winning.
Nat had agreed to the relocation and terms of their relationship. She hoped to consummate their agreement after they settled in. He would continue to work for her in a much greater capacity. He had proven himself to her and Raj, and the Near Mossad would be an ally. Israel would have its extremist actors for some time into the future. The Near Mossad, still one hundred percent for the robust safety and success of the Israeli people, would be a short term mitigator as they moved forward with her organization and its goals to help people to live successful, peaceful live where ever they might be.
Chapter 59
Justin was beaming about the success of the operation. Tomoe was well and in her new nest. He would only think about it as its code name: Carreg Capel. Eve and Joe were now on duty protecting Teo in Brasilia. They both were beginning the necessary procedures to change their appearances. Eve didn’t need much, but Joe would be taking on a new Latino persona. Raj was going to remain with Near Mossad in Israel for the time being, maybe until the USA changed its tune to become more decent and reasonable. Margaret was back in Paris with business as usual. Tisha was now in Tokyo for months and months of operations and physical therapy with the expectation of walking with an six months.
In the meantime, she would be assisting Tomoe with the counseling of Rachel and Justin. While they had been total heroes in getting the organization to a new normal, they still needed Tisha’s regular assistance with maintenance and upgrades, while Tomoe continued to develop their capabilities and future goals. Both AI persons were amazing, especially in light of the very limited and often wrong mindedness of their AI counterparts all over the world.
Chapter 60
Nat was enjoying the quiet time as he and Tomoe were adapting to their new location. He could never have imagined that he would be with her as her partner in life moving forward. They seemed to be safe for now, but the world was dangerous. Even though their AI people were doing fantastic things, there would be challenges. Rachel was not contained, nor would she ever be, and she was helping Justin to spread his wings. The found it grounding and enjoyable to have Tomoe as their boss. Who knew how they would feel in the future.
And, he had just found out that Justin had twenty surrogate toddler children being raised in locations throughout the world. When found out by Tomoe he just told her the world needed some happy geniuses in the near future, and his foster families would be assisted by him to give them the best chances of success any child could have. What were the ethical ramifications of an AI person raising designer human children?
End of Volume One