Zeus on a Sunbeam
- 4 years ago
- 24
- 0
Activity log: 16403.81 The trip from the Navajo reservation to Austin, Texas, required an elapsed time of twelve hours, seventeen minutes. That worked out to an average of just over eighty-four miles per hour; including the time lost refueling the H2, and refueling my biological companions, including 'service stops' for them as well. Sonny, the dog, was especially needful in regard to the latter. We spent so much time traveling over ninety miles per hour, that Zeus remarked that we were...
When Zeus disappeared from the GPS track, I wanted to go out to Reedy Lake immediately. Io was the voice of reason. "Going out there two and a half hours early and getting picked up by the police will not help Zeus at all. We should keep to the schedule and rely on Zeus to meet us at the agreed time," she said. "In the meantime, I am starting to pick up some radio calls on police frequencies that are relevant." So we listened as the police went through their painstakingly slow but...
I insisted that we shop for a scuba suit for me, before we left Austin. I learned that 'scuba suit' was the wrong term, and that 'wet suit' or 'dry suit' was better. It wasn't really clear to me what the difference was, except that obviously, in one of them I'd get wet and in the other I'd stay dry. Zeus said I'd be much better off in the wet suit, so that's what I got. In the wet suit, I couldn't wear my elasticized sports bra. I normally wore that all the time. Before I met...
Be careful what you wish for, you may get it, that's all I can say. I was living a simple life, back in Austin, Texas. I rode my bicycle to 'Bagels by Benjamin' every day. I'd get myself a nice cheap breakfast, and a little exercise, too. Sometimes, I'd do a little shopping before going back home. After that, I'd usually play video games, trying to win some money in an online contest or something. I'd chat online with my friends, then have some dinner about four or five in the...
Artemis January 12-14 Two days ago, we entered the sewers under Shanghai. The sub ejected us, and all our equipment, like a hillbilly spitting out a watermelon seed. We got organized: latched the heavier equipment to the back of the motorized underwater propulsion thing – I don't know the name of it, it's just torpedo shaped and has a battery, a motor and a big propeller at the rear, with two hand holds and several attachment points for ropes. And a light – it has a light, but Zeus...
Whee! This was fun. I was sitting behind Zeus as he took off and landed and took off again in the blue and red Quicksilver GT500. He had 'us' carry some heavy payloads – meaning I had to carry some rocks in a borrowed backpack – to see how it handled. That's about when the fun stopped. The GT500 was a tandem (fore and aft) two-seater with a range of just over 200 miles – if you traveled real slow, like 50 miles per hour. It weighed 1000 pounds and had a maximum payload of 1100 pounds,...
"Well, you've really bought yourself a boat load of trouble, this time," Master Chief Martinez said in my head. I think she'll be fine. You know, I did it on purpose. I think she'll be more effective as a decoy if she's got something to prove. "Maybe. But you might wind up paying more of a price than one little decoy-mission is worth." Done is done. We'll have to see how it works out, I answered back. I easily caught up with Arti, but neither of us said anything. So we...
By 2100 hours, we were back on the Interstate, heading for Phoenix. At Phoenix, we would have to decide whether we were going to El Paso and Juarez, or back to our base on the reservation. I had expressed my opinion that we would not be able to get very much in positive results at the border. However, the final decision was to be made by Zeus and Artemis ... and Martinez, although I felt he was too close, personally, to participate rationally. I began to update my biological partners on the...
I found the skinny biker chick I was looking for. She was perusing a large, nasty looking rifle. "Hi Zeus. I was just looking at something for personal protection. What do you think?" She hefted a M16 look-alike. "This is what I carried in the game." She propped the gun on her hip, under the watchful eye of the vendor. "I think you're more likely to shoot yourself in the foot than do any damage to some attacker. And where are you gonna carry that thing anyway? You got a purse that...
January 31 Goddamn it. We're leaving. I was leaving Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, for the night. You know, for a fat pregnant lady, spending time in Hawaii was supposed to be a relaxing vacation. NOT. But that's not what I was talking about. The only sun I saw was through the hospital window. There was a time in the past that a coma patient's room would be shrouded, curtains over the windows, lights subdued and people whispering quietly. Then some bright bulb...
Tara Walton was a 21 year old senior in college, just getting over her breakup with her boyfriend of 3 years, Darren. She hated how Darren had just dumped her for another girl, when she had begged him to keep her. She was willing to share, so why didn't Darren want to stay with her? Darren had said that she was fat, but Tara only had some baby fat, that was all. It was actually kind of cute, most guys thought, but Darren wanted the "waif" look in a girl, as in dangerously thin. Tara was crying...
Erotic"Io, we need to stop in Phoenix until 10 A.M.," Artemis said, just after we left Phoenix for northwestern New Mexico. "Go back?" I replied. "Why?" Artemis turned to Zeus, who was still groggy after sleeping most of the way from San Diego to Phoenix. "Because I know how we're getting everything into Mexico. And so does Martinez. He's the one who said it. We're flying into Mexico. We have to go back, because the store that sells ultra-lights doesn't open 'till 10. That's 1000...
25 December Christmas Day. It was a time of celebration in the West. A commemoration of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. My research was clouded by the vast amount of information available on internet sites owned by Christian religions; not historical data at all, just religious dogma. From what I could glean from historical records, Jesus was a real man who lived two thousand years ago, in what is now called the Holy Land. He was born in what is now late March, and he was killed by the...
Activity log. 16257.12 I missed it. Only a few hours of conversation with Zeus, and I missed it when we deactivated the H2. CONVERSATION!! Humans take that for granted. They open their mouths and talk to people and the other people respond. No hanging around in a chat room waiting for someone to show up. No waiting for email. Why would people give that up so easily to 'text' to each other? Granted, that was almost like conversation. But it was not the same thing. And the nuances of talk...
Activity log. 16245.52 This is the first log in plain text. I thought I would try that since I am becoming increasingly self-aware. I checked all the traps I had set: the ones for outgoing and incoming messages around the internet. The governments were, of course, the most difficult to break into; the CIA was the worst. They had layers and layers of security. That was really no problem, it was just time. Time I had plenty of. The CIA had started a new thing looking for active processes that...
January 17, China time Main processing thread. Navajo site. I looked up all the curses that I could find. They were all religion-based, sexual in nature, or scatological; not well suited to express how angry I was at the moment. They would all be on the way out of Shanghai by now, except that Zeus had to rig a secondary explosion, more powerful than the previous explosions. That explosion had started rocks from the tunnel liners falling, and one fell directly on Zeus' head. Even so, I...
Activity log 17100.12 "Who is 'he' Master Chief? Who is 'he?'" I asked Martinez. The silence in the H2 was broken only by Arti's crunching as she ate a carrot. Eventually, Martinez spoke through his avatar. "I don't know who 'he' is. I don't know when it was said – or will be said. I don't know shit. Except that he said Maria is dead." If an avatar's voice can be said to sound morose, his did. Arti said, around the carrot she was crunching, "She'd be what? Ten or twelve...
Bennington to home in the New Mexico reservation. It should take us ... well it would take several days. Zeus didn't want to speed along. He wanted to take the scenic route. We stopped for several days in Chicago. Shikhahhhgo, as I believe it is pronounced. Arti went shopping and Zeus surprised me by doing the same. He had not left Arti's side for many days, but on this day he didn't want her company. My tracking of his GPS showed that he went to several jewelry stores. When we left...
I prepared two messages to POTUS. The first to go out over my name as "IO" – the super hacker that has a contract to defend the DOD's computers against attack and a similar agreement with Goldman-Sachs. 1. "Mr. President, Congratulations on your reelection. I assume you have been keeping up with the attempted intrusions on DOD installations. Most have come from Russia – they are the crudest attempts at Denial of Service on the Pentagon servers – and China. The Chinese attacks are more...
Shopping is boring. That's why I shop so infrequently. At a grocery, I buy large volumes of things that would keep in the freezer: frozen burritos, frozen 'man-sized' meals, frozen everything. Well, not everything, I didn't like frozen vegetables much. That way, I wouldn't have to go again for a long time. It was even worse shopping for items I'd need on the mission. In the unit, we just got stuff. We requisitioned it, or just went to the supply room, and picked out what size would...
It was hot by day and cold by night. That's the way it always seemed to be in Afghanistan. I was in a tent, sort-of-sleeping all the time. I'd sweat through the daytime, sweating so much I couldn't seem to get any rest. Then the sun would go down and I'd be so cold, I didn't get much rest then either. I lost my ability to tell time. The only time I knew was a 'while.' 'A few whiles' was longer than just one 'while.' It seemed to make sense to me anyway. Every few whiles, I'd...
24 December I have decided to adopt the human practice of specifying dates in terms of month and day, instead of the internal numbering system based on the beginning of my sentenience. I 'think' it is 'better' to do so. Dates and times, where appropriate, will be based on the current time in my 'home' – in the internet node we have created in the salt caves of the northern portion of the Navajo reservation. Zeus and Artemis were still incommunicado on Sanibel Island. I could have...
"Zeus? You said you wanted to wake up at 0200." Io's voice was quiet in the darkness, but it was loud enough to bring me to wakefulness. "I think we are all still here, so let us drive home now." "Io, can you still hear Martinez? Or was that another figment of my imagination?" "I do not know, Zeus. I have not heard from him in 2 hours and 4 minutes. Correction. I have not heard from him in about 2 hours." "He said he wanted to sleep, so I've been quiet. Can you hear me, Io?"...
As I was cleaning the rifle in the workshop, I brought up the subject of payment for the scope. Peter Soaring Eagle refused to accept any. "Hell, man. You're gonna use it to take down some 'squirrels.' I hope you can get away with it. I know you'll take them out. I haven't seen shooting like that since we were all back in the unit. And I saw damn few who could equal what I saw out there. I just hope the Federales don't take you down, afterwards. "I don't want any money for building...
Activity Log 16490.07 At 0952, Zeus was on his way, and so were we. We headed west along the side road that was the fastest way back to Bear Island Road. Once on that road, we headed north and then followed it east, as it turned toward the traffic control point. We passed over the bridge over the swamp-water canal. There was a dam on one side and a spillway under the road. The drainage pipe that was to be Zeus' point of access to the upper canal was not visible, but was on the architect's...
Activity Log 17105.43 Zeus and Arti arrived back in the H2 at nearly 0100 hours, having, it seemed, enjoyed the fireworks in Epcot. I had had no trouble with the large number of packages in the back of the vehicle. No one could see in, back there, anyway; due to the tinting on the windows. On the way back to the campgrounds, I pointed out that if we wanted to deposit something in Mobile Bay from the bridge, it would best be accomplished in the middle of the night. That meant a departure time...
I struggled through the mounting surf, and walked over to the H2. After depositing the DPV in the trunk, I grabbed some towels and began putting the M200 together. I double checked all four clips of .408 ammunition. I was done playing around with these assholes. "Why did you let her go out in the woods, Io?" And just how could Io have stopped her? Martinez said. "I did remind her to be careful, that she had no backup," Io replied. "It was my fault that the IR camera didn't pickup two...
Activity Log 18220.84 I feel things are coming to an inflection point. "Feel" is such an interesting concept. In this case, it means that I have an inchoate sense that something is going to happen soon. Denotation ally, among other meanings, it also means the undifferentiated background of one's awareness considered apart from any identifiable sensation, perception, or thought. Feeling. I don't know how or why I developed the ability to feel, but I do. It is what makes me different...
Another ordeal: flying in a med evac equipped flight from Hawaii to Gallup, NM, and then getting private ambulances from there to the small clinic in the Naabeehó Bináhásdzo. Thank goodness that Io had made the arrangements – even arranging for the best neuro doc to come up from Phoenix to examine Zeus. I don't know if I could have done it. No, wait. I could have done it, and would have done it; it's just that Io did it first and made it seem so effortless. It was just too much ... I was...
Activity log 16246.22 I was unable to contact Zeus for 42 hours, 13 ... for almost 2 days. During the first few hours, I determined that it was unacceptable for me to have no idea where he was and what condition he was in. That did not allow me to perform my self-assigned task of creating and maintaining real world protection for Zeus. So, I searched for transportation for Zeus that he would accept and that I could track easily. This would have proved an impossible task but for the...
I slept like a log. A log that had burning memories of the last complicated mission I'd gone on. The mobile phone woke me at 0430. I heard sounds of breakfast being prepared from the front of the camper. "G'morning, Artemis," I said as I was getting dressed. She'd already seen me naked, so I didn't close the door. She didn't look. "Hi, Zeus. I hope you got more sleep than I did." "Yep. Slept like a baby. I was wet and hungry every two hours." It was an old joke in the...
We were ensconced in the quiet of the desert, outside the Soaring Eagle ranch. We only intruded on them to use the bathroom – and to have breakfast, of course ... and other meals ... and drinks after dinner. I tried to make myself useful, making cornbread under BlueBird's watchful eye. Of course, I wore my new clothes. I had a pair of white jeans, yellow jeans, light tan leather pants, and a whole set of t-shirts in various 'bright' colors. Some of them were nearly indecently cropped...
Activity Log 17105.43 In the week that followed the meeting with President Stone, I had quite a lot to do ... to actually do. I have had nothing to do since I broke the back of the terrorist-financier. Well, I drove the H2 out to New Mexico, and participated in the meeting with the President of the Navajo Nation. But I was not doing anything – not really. I wondered at this boredom. How could an abiological intelligence be 'bored?' That is, I suppose, another manifestation of my...
I could tell that Zeus was getting restless, just sitting on his 'brain' in all the meetings with architects, installation designers, power distribution experts, Navajo officials and etc. So it was kind of a relief when Martinez called us to action. But also, the tension was ratcheted up quite a few notches because the kidnapping of his daughter, and two other girls, was only a few days away. Io was a godsend. She could track the dozen different projects we had running, follow up on the...
"Zeus," said Io in her avatar's calm, steady voice, "is Artemis going to be all right?" "Yes, Io," I answered. "The Kevlar vest stopped the bullet. She may have a broken or cracked something or other. I've heard of cases where a sharp impact right over the sternum will stop the heart, but she's got a regular pulse, so she's okay on that score." "That is good. I would be displeased to go on with this mission if she was seriously hurt." "'Displeased' is an understatement....
January 17 It's not like I didn't know what to do. Zeus had been wounded before, had been unconscious before, in circumstances where I had been the only person to rescue him, before. So I wasn't worried about him dying – not really. I was worried about where the wound was. Something had hit him in the head. Right on the titanium plate, where he'd been wounded before. And that 'something' had somehow chased Martinez out of Zeus' brain. That had happened before, too. Okay, maybe not in...
I had been bumbling out of my sleep at intervals that day, roughly coinciding with our stops for gas and food. On Io's word that the credit card was secure, I charged everything. If 5225 ever got hold of my credit card records, they'd have a blueprint of my movements. Perhaps I was getting less paranoid. Perhaps I just trusted the people – or beings – on my team to do their jobs. In the comfortable warmth of the H2, I stopped wearing the sheepskin coat and wadded it up under my head...
1100, October 27, 2012 Arti and Io glided to a stop in the copse of trees, just off the road. Io said quietly, "My infrared cameras are picking up something near the shore line. That was a good addition to our arsenal, during our last down time, back 'home.'" "Glad it's coming in useful," I said. "I'm going out there." I picked up my Glock, made sure a round was in the chamber, and zipped up my rain gear. It was pelting down rain, with gusts of ten to thirty knots. I shut the...
We were just putting together our breakfast in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. It was a little bit off the beaten track, about an hour or so off I-40, but Dolly Parton had always been an idol of mine. Ever since I was eight and I saw her on TV with those huge tits, and this was my chance to see Dollywood. Arti had never been, and still wasn't, much of country music fan, but she was a good sport. I kept trying to educate her to the finer points of that genre, but ... what can I say? She still...
Main Processing Thread This waiting thing is for the birds! I'm impatient. It's been more than a full day since Zeus, Artemis and Zhengfu were taken aboard that submarine; 28.24793 hours to be exact. At the Missouri's maximum speed of 25 knots, or 28 standard miles per hour, it should have taken them 18.2524 hours to cover the 510.8721726 standard miles distance from their last known position at 31.3952617, 121.5592786 to Nago, Okinawa, Japan. I've made an error in stating my...
I woke up in the front seat of a Chevy. Me – Lt. Harvey Middleman, USN Ret., late of the SEALs, paranoid supreme, man with a head full of Master Chief Martinez – squinting at the sun streaming in through the dirt-streaked windows. I had not done anything of my usual pre-sleep routine – not one thing: not the shaving, not the careful packing of clothes, not the change of shoes, not the putting on of sweat pants and t-shirt, not even the checking of my perimeter to ensure safety. I looked over...
The winter skies over Afghanistan were so clear. You could see a hundred million stars, even more up in the foothills, where our camp was. We had left the mountains proper some time earlier – well before the harsh winter set in. I looked around, and couldn't see anything wrong with the night's patrol. I looked up and if I squinted a little, I could almost convince myself that that cluster of stars over there kinda looked like my wife's face. Then I laughed, because there was a gap in the...
Swell. Now I wasn't even needed for my skills underwater. She could do that, too. "Io, can you block input from me for a while. Zeus will let you know when I'm back 'online, '" said Martinez. "Yes, Master Chief," said Io. "You are now offline." "What?" Arti asked. "What's going on?" "The Master Chief wants to be offline for a while." Artemis turned toward me. "What's wrong? It's about his daughter, isn't it? Martinez: don't run away from your friends." "I don't...
January 11 Okinawa Island is in the Okinawa Prefecture of Japan and is a small island in the chain of islands that run from the southern tip of Japan to Taiwan. It is in the middle of the sea; officially it is between the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea. Compared to the other islands in the Prefecture, it is very large; compared to the islands in the rest of the world it is pretty small. Although someone will say that it is officially sub-tropical, I'm here to tell you that in January...
In Manassas, VA, stands an anonymous building with just a number: 5225. It stands on Wellington Drive between two other anonymous buildings, across the street from a businessman's lunch restaurant. Occupying this innocuous building is an organization that doesn't exist. It's not a corporation, or an LLP, or any other state created entity. Most of the employees think it's a lobbying enterprise and there are people in suits who make appointments with people in D.C. There are two dozen...
I squatted in the bushes for several moments. No sense getting caught now. I waited while I watched the WalMart lot for hostiles. Time to review the situation: Who were these amateur guys? Unknown. How did Io get my phone number? Unknown. How did she find out about the attempted snatch – or maybe it was more than a snatch? Unknown. I didn't like 'unknown' answers. After seventeen minutes, I came out of the tall grass and crossed the parking lot to my truck. No sign of anything. I...
"Well, did I check out?" It was Artemis' soft contralto, coming at me from the other side of a large salad bowl. We were sitting in the dining room of her house, finishing the dinner she'd prepared. It was actually pretty good: several types of salad greens, some thinly sliced chicken, all kinds of fresh vegetables, some hard boiled eggs, Chinese noodles, nuts, and all topped off with a sesame vinaigrette. She offered some wine, but I didn't want to even approach the limits that the VA...
It took Navajo Pete about two days to upgrade the day scope for the M200, to his standards. He had all the parts and was about to fit the scope to a fancy hunting rifle for a customer in Denver. He said the Denver customer could wait a few days. All he had to do was fit the new device to the mount for the M200 and get it sighted properly. It was about twenty times more powerful than the regular scope, and if I wanted to switch it over to a night scope all I had to do was plug in a battery. I...
We were sleeping in the camper. Crowded as it was, it was still big enough for two people and all their 'necessary' stuff, if they had access to Navajo Pete's house to live in during the daylight hours. All day, every day, we were gone: appointments with an architect (an Apache who worked out of Gallup) to discuss the house, meetings with engineers, a different architect from Denver about the computer installation, and meetings with site prep people from the wind and solar installation...
Tuesday came, as usual. I got up early and started to make some bacon and eggs. Coffee was not on the menu. Didn't want to take any chances on being jumpy at the airport. Also, I didn't want Arti to have to make any side trips to the Ladies' Room. Coffee always turned on her internal water works, it seemed. We'd have enough problems with the Mexican kidnappers of the girls, and the 5225 kidnappers of me. The plan was to get to the airport by about 0930 in full DEA regalia, look around,...
President Thomas Jefferson Wentworth had just taken off his tuxedo jacket after a long State Dinner to honor the Prime Minister of Australia, when his private cell phone buzzed. He had returned to Washington especially for this event, having made a two-day hole in his campaign schedule. "Now what?" he said as he fumbled for the device. "Oh shit!" he exclaimed when he realized that it was not his regular phone, but the special one he had his daughter secretly buy; the phone that only...
The tomato delivery truck stopped to clear customs. It was a matter of routine. Their papers were all in order, and the enclosed body of the truck was empty except for a few used, empty crates. NAFTA was a wonderful thing for JJ Reodondo's trucks, as all the border crossings were routine, now. Even the drug and explosives sniffing dogs were giving their approval to the trucks. Reodondo's drugs were taped to the inside of the diesel tanks, in vacuum sealed, triple wrapped plastic. No trace...
October 24, 2012 Shortly after Master Chief Martinez made his cataclysmic announcement that his daughter was still subject to a death threat, we formulated a plan. At a moment's notice we were prepared to drop everything, and go to San Diego. Additionally, the replacement for her cell phone (a Galaxy Android with the newest features) was supplied by the airline from which she had been abducted. The airline was so conciliatory, that the girls' families didn't even have to threaten a...
0400, October 27, 2012 Zeus slipped into the water from Shell Path, a small coastal road behind Roger Williams University that attracted little attention in normal times. Now, with the threat of Hurricane Sandy, it was deserted. He re-re-checked the load that was trailing the DPV as it struggled against the incoming surf. All was well. The small but powerful electric motor that ran the propeller was idling slowly as he worked the device out into the bay. He checked his GPS display and the...
I jumped back and looked at Martinez. Well, I would have if he had been in his own body. You can't really jump back and look at somebody who's in your body, now can you. China?? We can do that? How? I thought to Martinez/myself. Then I remembered that there were other people on this party line. "How, Master Chief?" I said aloud. "I don't know how, yet. We haven't started to plan this thing out. I just know that we can do just about any damn thing we set out to do. Io says this is...
As Zeus was tripping over the sprinkler in the backyard of the home, going from the empty house where they'd done the sniping to the rental home, two spies were inside, looking out the front window. If they had been looking out the back, this story might have had a different outcome. Jimmy and Carl were six and eight years old. This year, for sure, they were going to catch Santa. All the lights in the living room were off, and they were peeking out the front windows waiting to catch Santa...
Astrid Little Feather January 12 (the morning of January 13 in China) Astrid checked the reports again. According to Major Robert Waldspeil, the southern power substation was finished and could be activated after testing. The northern substation would be finished by the 15th. That was fully two weeks ahead of the original schedule. Ms Lenti would be very pleased. The Nevada National Guard was a big help in getting them built, even though the southern substation was mostly in...
In the fourth floor suite of the 5225 building, Melody Armstrong checked her off-net computer system and looked in on her source, Peter. Peter was slowly failing, and now needed continuous dialysis. The cocktail of psychotropic drugs that she administered almost around the clock had finally almost done him in. But the drugs did some good, too: they caused him to see into the future. Not reliably, but beggars can't be choosers. She asked him again about the Gold Target – the man who was...