Rooted

“Dana, wake up we’re here.” Sanjiv says in as soft of a voice as he can muster. It’s been a long time since he’s needed to be soft, or wake someone up that wasn’t soon to face interrogation. It reminds him how long it’s been since he lived like a normal guy. He can’t say he misses it for he doesn’t properly recall what it was like.

Thankfully his efforts, of repeating the line over several times, have the desired effect as Dana rouses slowly from slumber. The first thing she does is to stretch in hopes of working past the kinks that are in her back and shoulders. It half works and sees her shift from her side to being sat in the car seat in what would be considered the typical way. When her eyes flutter open she finds the sun is still relatively high in the sky. The director had not expected that but blinking the last of the haze out of her gaze is pleased to be back where she belongs, a metropolis.

Sanjiv’s window opens, same grating glass on metal sound fills the air for a second, and following it, “Hey, let us in will you.”

“What? This isn’t some tourist trap. This is…” The security guard begins to say before being cut off mid flow.

“I know what this place is. I used to work here.” Sanjiv is irritable but his lack of social interaction is evident most of all.

“Used to means nothing bud; now get out of here.” The security guard behind the armoured glass window of the booth says without making any effort to care who this weary looking aging man in a beaten up old wreck of a muscle car is. After all, the mandate is clear as to who is allowed in and who isn’t. If you have a badge, you get in. If you don’t then, well this is the sort of welcome you can expect and if you push your luck then weapons are what will be shoved in your face next.

Before Sanjiv can say anymore, Dana, who is now awake just enough, leans across the centre console to get a glimpse of the security guard. Immediately the man behind the glass bolts upright. He hadn’t planned to look the man’s way again but he’s pleased he did because in the car is the director.

“Director, apologies, I didn’t know.” The security guard is fumbling about to the button that will release the security protections and permit this battered vehicle entry.

“Just get us in, OK?” Dana feels wrong being this blunt for the agent is only doing his job.

Is this what being around Sanjiv does to me? It shouldn’t because it’s not like he’s the same as he was. This interaction is proof of that. The Sanjiv she’d known would never have tried to antagonise like he just did. He would have reasoned but not been spoiling for a fight. He’s been driving for hours; it could be because he’s tired, her subconscious tries to reason. She doesn’t buy it but when the guard releases the security measures and waves them through the director concludes it matters little.

“Inform Russ Marwen I need to see him, immediately.” Dana calls. Her trademark directorial tone of voice is back in place. It’s as though nothing has happened and she isn’t exhausted or distraught over the loss of two of her people because of that ambush.

The security guard stutters some reply she doesn’t catch because Sanjiv rolls his muscle car away and toward the main front entrance of the agencies building.

“You could have been a little more cordial.”

“Ditto goes for you.”

“I’ve been driving for eight, nine hours. You try it.”

Sanjiv has a point, yet neither says anything to the other as the muscle car sidles up to and stops level with the entrance. He cuts the engine, it sounds in its deactivation as though it’ll never start again. Dana passes no judgement as she throws open her car door, feeling the sting of her unused muscles and the bruises that cover much of her body. Ignoring the bites of pain she clambers awkwardly out of the car only to be greeted by Russ Marwen. She didn’t expect he’d be here this quick, though a quick analysis of his face indicates that something is on his mind and that he too has been afforded little rest. The bags under his eyes are far worse than Dana’s, though she would certainly trade for it is doubtful he has suffered through anything like what she has.

“Mr Marwen, I see you got my message, good.” Dana needs to keep up appearances especially in the presence of those who occupy rungs far below her own.

“Yes Director, but I have news.”

Dana doesn’t need to ask. The look in his eyes, the one she’d first caught when she set eyes on him, told her that this couldn’t be discussed aloud and in a public setting such as this one. That meant it was either very good or very bad news. Her conclusion is that it will be the latter but what could it be? She doesn’t know. The agency certainly hasn’t been attacked. If it had then there would be columns of black smoke, emergency services, people rushing about like headless chickens, all that sort of thing. That goes double for if the simulation were under some sort of threat so that means only one thing, Warren. Her face turns grave. Russ catches it but his attention is diverted by the aging man who gets out of the relics driver’s seat. He’s someone Russ has never seen before, at least as far as he can remember anyway. However, there is no arguing that this guy is of a similar age, he would hazard a guess, as the director. Of the two, though the director looks remarkably worn and without her car anywhere in sight that makes Russ worried, she remains the better preserved, if that is the correct terminology.

“Shall we walk?” The Director offers, her words wrenching Russ from his considerations.

Dana is not unaware of the curiosity Russ has shown toward the presence of Sanjiv. He might be a foolish man who did a dumb thing because of arrogance but he certainly isn’t blind. Pity Sanjiv doesn’t make things easier for himself by wiping that snarl off his face. Not that she is about to criticise him for what seems to have become adopted as a resting expression for the man who had once been a close friend.

Russ nods unsure as to what response would be most appropriate and with that Dana and Russ lead the way. Sanjiv falls in step close behind until someone cries out that he cannot leave his car there.

Sanjiv spins round to offer a glare in response. It has little affect on the agent other than to give a glimpse of his boss who upon him seeing results in the agent raising his hands to offer apology. Dana never turned or uttered a word. Sanjiv did it all and without ever meaning too. It surprises him that the mere sight of the diminutive middle-aged woman is enough to illicit such a reply, still he follows her and this Russ Marwen through the lobby of the building.

He takes a look around only to find that little has changed. It doesn’t surprise or disappoint him. He expected nothing less and yet what is so special about this Russ guy. Is he an affair? If he is then Dana’s tastes have changed and her personality shifted quite considerably because the woman he’d known would never have fraternised with the help. Hell, it never would have even entered the woman’s head, when he’d known her due to her ambition, to engage in a relationship while serving as director.

Sanjiv keeps quiet and says nothing however. He knows full well doing so in public, regardless of these being minions and not members of the general public, might draw her ire. He isn’t exactly in the mood for a fight, verbally or otherwise. Dana, as she had become while serving as director, would not be above ejecting him regardless of Warren having been located. Instead, she would wait until he is back, in whatever form that might entail, and then offer reintroduction. Sanjiv has waited a long time to see his friend again and isn’t about to jeopardise being there when he’s returned to the real world. Can that actually be done? I don’t know but time will tell. Still, who is this guy? You know as much as I do, stop asking questions.

“Sanjiv, your energy levels are particularly low. You require sustenance and rest.” The Dr Tabar AI clone chimes in his ear.

“I know.” Is his reply at barely more than a whisper. The last time they had spoken was during the drive while Dana had been sleeping. At least he thinks she’d been sleeping. For someone who’s had five to six hours of sleep she certainly doesn’t look rested. It could be snoozing in a car seat that is the cause but he’s done it plenty of times and looked better than she did when he woke her.

“I see we are back at…”

“Yeah, we are.” Is the interjecting reply Sanjiv offers before adding, “You’re still in this system, tell me what’s going on.”

A short silence is ended when the AI clone of the simulation founders’ brain admits, “Nothing. Everything is running as it should be. There are no emergencies or…”

“Can you pick up Warren?” Again Sanjiv interjects. He doesn’t care about the overall state of the virtual world. He could tell, from the lack of panic in the faces passing him by, that there is nothing untoward going on with the larger system network.

“I cannot.” Is the succinct answer which greets his ears faster than he feels it should have. That concerns him. Surely, regardless of what Dana had said, the AI should be capable of picking up their lost friend. This is all a lie! Keep quiet for now, we don’t know that. By the time you do it’ll be too late! She wants you captured! Locked up! She’s a part of all this! Sanjiv has to resist the urge to chuckle aloud at that particular accusation. Dana, the director, might be many things but she is not a co-conspirator. The look on her face when she was explaining everything to Sanjiv proved that to him. And while she might have gotten better at acting her capacity to do so only goes in one direction, commanding. It’s part of the reason she is such a good director for the agency, but an actress she certainly isn’t. That expression and the intonation in her voice when she’d been speaking about Warren and his re-emergence; that had been genuine. Sanjiv would put money on it, all the money in the world. That is how confident he is in his ability to read the woman who had once been one of his closest and best friends.

“Keep this link open. I may need you for consultation.” Is the last statement he makes under his breath prior to reaching a doorway.

Before they do Russ looks back over his shoulder as if he has caught Sanjiv speaking. He did but not the content, only the sound of a hushed voice not wanting to be heard. For his glance Sanjiv issues a fresh sneer. It does the trick and sends Russ’ head spinning back to face front and what is ahead. In fact it happens just as they reach the door.

Russ scans his access card to grant both Sanjiv and Dana access into the small office space beyond. Dana would be able to do it herself if she had her access fob. She lost it in the ambush but if either Sanjiv or Russ showed notice of her surreptitiously looking for it they did not reveal it.

“Nice cupboard you’ve got here. Didn’t think the rest of this big building needed filling, hey?”

“Who the hell are you anyway?” Russ asks forgetting that the Director is stood between him and the aging man who stepped out of that wreck of a car’s drivers’ seat.

“Sanjiv, quit it. This is not the time.” Dana commands only for Sanjiv to beam widely as if to say he was only playing and yet showing no remorse for his actions.

“Sorry to interrupt but…” Lika trails off. She looks exhausted. If the bags under the director’s eyes are significant then those under Lika’s are monumental. To the point that it looks as though she hasn’t slept in weeks. That’s impossible because Dana has been gone days but with how sunken Lika’s face looks it does make her pause to question if she has somehow lost track of time. She hasn’t and with Dana recalling that Russ said he needed to tell her something she queries, “What’s going on? You two look terrible. I know I wanted you both to work but I didn’t say try and kill yourselves doing it. That means something must have happened, spill.”

Russ looks to Lika who shrugs leaving him to inform, “There’s a problem…”

“We got that much hotshot. Now get to the point.”

“Sanjiv, I will not warn you again.” Dana sounds angrier than she feels. Her tone and statement are for effect, mostly. The last thing she wants to do is eject her former friend, but she will if needs be because Warren is her focus. He is what is most important to her. What happened to you? Previously you never would have put anyone above serving as director. This is different, this is Warren. You’ve changed. I know! I changed to become who I needed to be to keep the simulation out of governments and corporate hands. Imagine what it would have been like had I not.

The war in Dana’s head falls away. That change affords her the ability to turn away from her hard stare at the only other person in this room who is from the same generation as her and back toward Russ and Lika.

Russ, she notes, looks a great deal more smug than he rightly should, as if Dana has sided with him. She considers chastising him but truthfully doesn’t have the energy. Lika catches the look and deciding to be a boon instead of a hindrance resumes the conversation.

“The consolidate fragment that Warren is on is degrading.” Her words come out more blurted than she intended but has the desired effect as Sanjiv is cut short on interjecting some snide comment that had he uttered would have seen him ejected from the room, if for no other reason than to see if he can learn from his mistake.

Dana looks to Russ who does little more than nod, then returns her gaze to Lika. Unlike her male superior/colleague Lika doesn’t shrink under the scrutiny of the directors staring eyes.

“What do you mean its degrading? You both assured me it was stable for the time being.”

“It was, until it wasn’t.” Is the response Russ offers with a half shrug that is in no way helpful.

“What does that mean?” The director asks making sure to keep her tone level. Exhaustion is threatening to send her into an eruption. She can’t afford that. Lika and Russ are only doing there…

“It means neither of these two geniuses has a clue. Come on Dana you must have better people than this, you’re the director for Christ’s sake.”

Dana turns, her face thunder, Sanjiv gulps and he hopes the diminutive woman has not caught it, but she has. Yet, she does not say a word. She doesn’t need to. The look in her eyes, burning and angry, says more than enough.

Sanjiv raises his hands in surrendering apology. Right after Dana turns back and following a couple deep inhales and exhales raises an eyebrow as if to say she is waiting for a reply, which she is. She asked a question and is in-charge here, so someone needs to answer. The deep breathes were purely to stop her from erupting and have, for the moment, done what she needed them too.

“I wish I could tell you why and how, but some hours ago the fragment started to disintegrate, fall apart. I don’t mean as in a return to being the fragments they were previously but as in a complete loss of substance. Anything that’s left on those pieces is being lost in an instant as they fall away.” Lika explains as best she feels she can. To be honest her head is a mess.

A mass of coding floats across her vision without her being focused on a screen. Its proof she’s been far too enveloped in fixing whatever the cause is to have a proper grasp as to when it is. Sure, she could take a look at a clock but she can’t be certain that it’ll be enough. Is it the same day? Or is it the next? She hasn’t a clue to be quite blunt. Not that knowing the day or time is exactly a pressing matter right now. No, the pressing matter is the destruction of the fragment Warren Thewlis has been found alive on/in. Lika Rodgers isn’t exactly sure which it should be termed as. You need air! A break! I’ll take a break when… She never finishes the thought for Dana’s voice brings her back to the present, leaving her thoughts to become lost in a fog that shifts around in the young woman’s head depending on what she is and is not focused on.

“And what about Warren; what is his status?” Try as she might Dana cannot prevent concern creeping, ever so slightly, into her tone as the words pass her lips, cracked and dry as they are.

“He’s alive, for now.” Russ’ assurances are not as compelling or satisfying as he thinks they are.

“Great bedside manner you have there, Russ. I can see why you got hired. Now how about we hurry this along a little because I lost my best friend once, I don’t intend to do it again.”

“Who are you?” Lika asks taking the words right out of Russ’ mouth before he has chance to ask an identical query.

“Sanjiv Khatr; if you insist introductions need to be done when time is clearly of the essence. Now, with that done, cause I do not care about who you are, can we get on with saving Warren?”

“Sanjiv, stop and let them…”

“I’m not letting them do anything of the sort director Marcello. You might be part of this semi-corporate protocol ridden bullshit but I no longer am. I get to the point. I get things done. So, one of you two tell me why you haven’t just yanked my best friend off that fragment?”

 “They haven’t done it because they can’t, Sanjiv. Will you just stop and listen. You were never like this when Warren was alive.”

“He still is alive and no thanks to you!”

“Fuck you, Sanjiv! I wasn’t the one who ran off.”

“No, you were the one who pushed me out! That wanted me to give up on my best friend, your former lover!”

Lika and Russ exchange awkward glances. They have both termed it better to do that than risk their respective gazes meeting with either of the middle aged pair who are ripping, verbally, lumps out of one another. If one were not their superior they might feel it necessary to stop this, but she is and so they don’t.

Sanjiv might be right but he isn’t perfect either. If he were the directors’ barb about having walked away would not have stung and resulted in the outburst that followed. Honestly, they are both at fault. Sadly, the pair of them are both far too stubborn to admit it, which doesn’t change the reality that Dana wants to say so many things back at him, and yet she decides its better of it.

“Show us what’s happening.” Are the next words out of the directors’ mouth some time later.

They result in a nod of approval from Lika while Russ steps aside to let his boss past. The middle aged woman forcing what is meant to be a smile but could not be called anything of the like as thanks. Still, Russ understands the gesture and nods a second prior to flicking his gaze across the room to Sanjiv. Russ remembers the name and that he was once an agent, long before Russ’ time.

To look at him you would never guess it. Russ heard quite a bit about him and the rumours as to why he no longer worked here. Yet, none of those rumours ever spoke of his reason for vanishing being the director herself. Most spoke of some grab for cash in the form of selling agency secrets to the highest bidder, or other equally shady but less often expressed antics.

Russ wonders if any of them were started by the director herself. It wouldn’t surprise him if they were. He has long held the belief she uses what she can to deflect where possible from the truth. Whether for her benefit or that of the agency he’s never been able to grasp and yet this suggests the former, but maybe he’s being unfair. Still, doesn’t change that she is a fear inducing figure, as diminutive as she is, so for anyone to antagonise her in the way Sanjiv Khatri has it indeed suggests they must have been close. Either that or the middle aged man is a fool. He doesn’t strike Russ as foolish; arrogant, socially inept, brash, rude, even violent perhaps, but not stupid.

Lika points out where the director needs to look. Dana could seek out the section herself but isn’t inclined to look a gift horse in the mouth.

A few seconds of consideration tell her all she needs to know, not that it is any less surprising to see it with her own eyes.

“Is Warren…?”

“Yeah, he seems to be mounting a defence and trying to get outside attention simultaneously.” Russ admits while Sanjiv barges past to get a look at the code.

The younger man wonders if the middle aged man will have a clue what he’ll be looking at. The director sure, that makes perfect sense. Hell, it’s likely a prerequisite for reaching the lofty heights of leading the agency, but a former agent, that seems doubtful.

If only Russ knew Sanjiv had been a Datastar in a previous life. Then again no one knows that except Dana, and Warren. It’s a secret they have both kept about themselves and one another. Sanjiv’s reasons for doing so, he expects, are quite different from hers. He imagines the director has done it to maintain an upper hand in all things.

All this equipment around them reminds the older man why he never had any intention of returning. To him it’s wasteful, pointless. He can achieve more in an afternoon with his old muscle car than this entire building can likely manage in a week. Here there are too many procedures, protocols, hoops to jump through and levels to consult for his liking, which is not a problem that afflicts a loner out in the field.

“Is this defence alarm what alerted you?” The middle aged woman does not know how else to term what she is seeing. Likely Russ and Lika have a better definition she thinks, but it’ll suffice for her for the moment.

“It is not director. We were alerted by a code trigger Lika wrote for monitoring purposes. It came a good couple hours before Warren showed any signs of undertaking what are his current efforts.” Russ informs in a professional, even tone of voice. He doesn’t sound right but Dana isn’t about to knock him for his efforts.

“It’s right here.” Lika says lifting her arm to point out where in the code it is located, much like she had done with the director, albeit a little slower for she had already been pointing it out during the middle aged woman’s approach.

“I know. I can see it.” Comes the blunt response from Sanjiv. Russ catches and cannot help but raise an eyebrow at what he’s heard.

Quickly, his eyes meet with Lika’s whose expression alters to show surprise, if only for a flickering moment. Nevertheless the expression lasted long enough for Russ to catch sight of it and then have his attention diverted back to the director when she sidesteps into the lower section of his vision as if to say that he needs to keep focused.

“This is bad, Dana. I know you know. Even if I couldn’t read code well I could see it in your face. We need to pull him out. Send me in.”

“We can’t.” Lika assures incredulous, for the recklessness of the guy stood beside her is unparalleled. It leaves her to wonder how he and the director know one another. Sure, things have been alluded to and yet there has been nothing concrete spoken. If they were not both stood here she’d run a quick search. That might not give her everything, after all this all relates to the director, but it would likely give her something. Would it? You don’t know that. Well, I feel it would.

“Why? This is the simulation. People insert all the time. If it’s a body you’re worried about I’ll drop Warren into the main network.”

“You will not! That could destabilise the whole network.” Russ is outraged and beat, narrowly, Lika to the punch.

“Relax pretty boy, I’ve been doing this a long time. I know the network. I have my ways. It’ll be fine.”

“Director, you can’t be onboard with this, please.” Lika sounds desperate as if she will be the only one capable of reasoning with this Sanjiv guy.

Dana’s shoulders drop as if to say she accepts defeat and relents to the idea. Yet, the next moment she spins around with a determined expression upon her face and states, “You’ll do no such thing. I don’t want that AI anywhere near the simulation. I know she has access but what you’re proposing is a far cry Sanjiv. She doesn’t govern the system. That was her choice and…”

“And what?” Sanjiv says cutting off Dana Marcello. “Warren’s life isn’t more important to you than the ‘security’ of your precious construct. What happened to you?” A sigh, heavy and long, fires from his nostrils which flare angrily. The sigh is followed by a slow shake from side to side of his head and then, “I shouldn’t have listened to you. More lies. That is all you ever have to speak, isn’t it Dana? Do you actually remember what it’s like to tell the truth? Or are you so lost in your deception, in the job, that it is all you know now?”

“I want Warren back as much as you.” The director replies without answering Sanjiv’s accusations.

“Do you? Because you never believed he was still alive, not like I did.”

“No, you hoped he was still alive and went on a one man crusade against anyone you thought might be shady. I’ve seen some of the reports. The victims left in your wake. More than a few were good people, living normal lives. They were not part of some secret society. That is your paranoia. Your obsession over what happened that day being part of someone else’s grand master plan. But it wasn’t, it was Bartholomew. You were there. We both were. But neither of us could do anything. Warren gave his life, or so we thought, to save everything, everyone. I didn’t want him to and if I could have I would have swapped, but that wasn’t an option. We were locked out and he was locked in. He did what he felt he needed to do and if he hadn’t the simulation wouldn’t be here today. So don’t try and make out that I didn’t care. I lost him, Sanjiv; I lost the only man I ever loved.” The final few words of Dana’s rant are barked. It is not done for affect. It happens because she cannot contain her pain any longer.

At last Sanjiv sees the woman he knew. She isn’t crying. She’s too strong for that. But her tone and look in her face, that is the Dana Marcello he knew. It’s someone he hasn’t seen in a very long time. He didn’t think she still existed but he needed to see if she was still in there, and she is.

“Then how about we cut the shit and work this out then. Seeing as we can’t go in and you won’t let my AI, as you call it, connect. What are our options? Is this natural? Or part of an attack? Lay it out. I, we, need to know.” The middle aged man’s tone has lost its bitter edge.

Dana should have seen this coming. Wily old bastard played her. She didn’t think he was that foolhardy and yet she played, due to a combination of her attachment and exhaustion, right into his clutches. She should be mortified but truthfully she’s impressed. The Sanjiv she’d known would never have been capable of executing on such a plan.

It strikes her that she might have changed less than him. It’s why the director feels it prudent to make note that perhaps he isn’t as altruistic as he appears. This might not be about freeing Warren at all. There’s no way, she tells herself and yet decides to file the prospect away all the same. A watchful eye may need to remain, just in case. Stop being the director!

“OK, someone fill me in on what the fuck is going on here.” The look on Russ’ face tells Lika that he feels much the same as she has just blurted out. That’s a positive, just not the sort the younger woman with unnaturally coloured hair was hoping for.

“Doctor, would you care to reveal yourself?” It might have been offered in the form of a query by Sanjiv but the AI takes it as an order, hence why it does indeed reveals its presence to the younger pair in the room.

“Wait, this is the AI?” Russ blurts, finger pointing.

“Indeed Russ Marwen I am the AI previously mentioned here. My name is…”

“We don’t have time for introductions.”

“Dana’s right Doctor. Now what can you tell us about the damage being done to this?” Sanjiv supplies the Dr Tabar AI with the lines of code showing the destruction that is being wrought upon the consolidated mass.

A period of silence follows. During it Lika offers a silent query to Russ who tries to answer with equal silence, mouthing something that the younger woman cannot quite make out. Lika hates being the person in the room who is most out of touch with what is going on.

An alert fires on Lika’s screen. The woman swears and dives into analysis to discern what has happened now.

“Report?”

“Director, the destruction it’s…”

“… It’s speeding up.” Sanjiv says to finish Lika’s statement which she found herself stumbling over unable to grasp the words as she works on a stemming action.

“Impressive.” Sanjiv feels himself forced to admit as he watches Lika work diligently.

“You would have made a decent Datastar.” Is the utterance which is made right after and without an ounce of thought given.

Sanjiv himself doesn’t notice the slip, his reveal, not that if he did he would find it particularly earth shattering. The same cannot be said of the director who takes a deep breath to steady herself but otherwise offers no response.

“Th-thanks?” Lika doesn’t know what else to say, not that her exclamation was ever meant to come out in the form of a question. Still, she returns to her coding in hopes of slowing the progress of the destruction.

It has not escaped her notice that Warren Thewlis is strengthening his resolve against the crumbling as it continues.

“Results of my analysis are in; this is definitely malicious code…”

“Can you trace it?” Sanjiv queries with absolute confidence that if there is anyone in the world that is capable of a feat such as this then it’ll be the AI. Part of him wishes it had remained the governess of the virtual network and not accompanied him. Yet without it would he have been as successful in his endeavours as he has been?

Following a short pause the answer from the AI is, “I believe I can.”

“Do it.” Dana demands without a moment’s consideration as to how she and the AI are not on the best of terms.

After all, it should have remained a larger part of the virtual world and yet refused too. The director could and cannot help but continue to take that personally. Regardless, she and agency have more than been capable of safe guarding the simulation without the AI clones aid. Still, she wishes she could have had more of its connections to the network severed. Instead, the director had been forced to trust the word of the AI who claimed it had separated itself, with a minor display that would have been easy to fake, that it had. If Dana didn’t trust it in any way she would have kept tabs on it. That is something she never did and yet that doesn’t mean, in her eyes, she remains thrilled with its access rights, whatever they may or may not be.

“Processing; this may take some time. Stand by.”

“Running a trace is well and good, plus I’d love to know how sometime because we couldn’t get a grain, but that doesn’t fix the issue of the disintegration. It’s showing no signs of slowing…”

“…and I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to slow it down.” Lika advises interjecting over Russ, who sure that his colleague is done adds, “…let alone how long Warren Thewlis will be able to hold out. He’s dumping an enormous amount of coding into the surrounding fragment mass. It was never meant to sustain pressure like this.”

“It’s code, there is no pressure.” Sanjiv assures.

“Trust me there is pressure, a whole mountain of it. Think of this fragment as a capped pipe and your friend as an ever growing mass of water.”

“Are you saying Warren is going to swell the fragments?” Dana questions fearfully, wishing the AI would hurry up and give them a location.

Once it does, she, alongside a strike team, can be anywhere within the city limits in minutes. What happens if the AI announces the origin point is beyond the city? Shut up, I don’t want to hear and think about that right now!

“No, I’m saying what happens when he can’t hold it anymore? It won’t be a swelling. Ever seen what vents or volcanoes like Krakatoa do when there is too much pressure build up, well that is what he’ll do if we don’t stop this, soon.”

“That isn’t how code works?”

“No, it wasn’t how code worked, and you’re right it shouldn’t be, but your friend Warren, he’s different. He isn’t a human in a machine, in a network. He’s a human who became a system on a fragment of a network and now he’s far more than that. I don’t quite know how to categorise him, if I’m honest.”

“Neither of us do.” Lika admits with incredible concentration marking her face.

“What do you need?” Is all the director, Dana Marcello, can think to say.

“We don’t know.” Is the reply the director is met with, it comes alongside an honest shrug of Russ’ shoulders. Dana thinks it might be the first time she has ever seen or heard him be honest without any sort of front involved. At any other time she’d call it personal growth. But right here, now, it’s the last thing she needs to hear.

“I think… Fuck!”

“What is it…? Oh shit, on it.” Russ spins round to focus on his monitors. “Lika, give me a backdoor key entry point. I’ll see if I can…”

“I tried that already. It didn’t work.”

“Did you try rooting through the…”

“There is no rooting. We’re dealing with a fragment, remember? If I root it it’ll…”

“Yeah, yeah, I know but what other option do we have?”

“What the hell are you two talking about?” Comes Sanjiv’s demanding query barely a breath later, catching both Lika and Russ by surprise their concentration was so absolute.

Dana realises what they intend and so gives her command, “Refrain, hold. I will not allow you to connect the fragment to the simulation.”

“Dana! This is Warren!”

“I know; which is why I don’t think we can afford to do it.”

“What are you not telling me?”

“If they root the fragment there is a good chance…”

“…Of seventy three percent.” The Dr Tabar AI chimes in suddenly and at the most inopportune of moments.

“Get back to your tracing!” The director barks before turning her attention back to Sanjiv to answer him as she had been before the AI’s interruption. “…that it’ll tear him to shreds.”

“Why will it? What is no one telling me?”

“Upon integration, or in this case re-integration, with the network a standardising script is executed. It sweeps across everything. It can’t be stopped. But what other choice do we have? If we don’t do it your friend will die. His odds are about one in four which happens to be much better than zero, director.”

“I don’t care Russ, you are not doing it. Find. Another. Way.”

“Trace finalised.”

“Outcome!” Is the single word blurted demand Sanjiv makes, sick of feeling helpless, useless.

For what’s been done here he is going to kill, violently, whoever is behind this and enjoy it.

“Fifteen- forty three- eighty two High Shot Avenue. Residential…”

“Fuck the details. I’m going. Dana?”

“Russ, patch link.” The director demands snapping her fingers as the words slide from her lips.

A second after the demand, and without looking, Russ tosses his boss an earpiece from the nearby docking station. Dana slips the device effortlessly into her ear and places a call. Relief washes over the middle aged woman for the trace pinged within the city limits. She was not at all convinced it would be. Doubt had gnawed, quite worryingly, at her, leaving a gaping void in its place. Your doubts don’t matter now, Dana tells herself as she orders that a strike team meet her on the roof ready for immediate deployment. No questions are issued in response to her demand. Rather, they are accepted without hesitation.

Dana and Sanjiv disappear from the room leaving Russ and Lika to continue working furiously.

“We’re going to have to disobey…” Russ begins only for Lika to shoot him a damning look. It’s followed shortly after by, “You heard the director. I’m not disobeying a direct order and neither are you. We can do this. We just have to…”

“Just have to what?” It is Russ’ turn to interrupt now. “We are out of options and time. It doesn’t matter that the director has a position on whoever did this. It’s too late. Strike teams are fast but data is faster. We can’t wind back the hands of time. It just…”

Wait, what? What did you just say?”

“Are you not even listening to me now? What the…”

“No, no I was listening but repeat what you just said.”

“Why?”

“Just fucking do it Russ, this isn’t the time!”

The outburst from Lika catches the man off-guard, leaving him stammering. That soon changes when she turns and glares angrily at him.

“I said; strike teams are fast but data is faster, so what?”

“Not that, the bit after.” Lika looks and sounds exhausted not because of her lack of sleep, though that is a factor, but by her colleagues failure to understand what he’s said. She needs him to. If he doesn’t they can’t work from the same page and doing so will be imperative. She just has to hope he’s more intelligent than he made it seem he was prior to the discovery of Warren Thewlis.

“We can’t wind back the hands of time?” The confusion in Russ’ voice is evident, disturbingly so. Lika worries he isn’t going to get it. Do I have time to explain? This is no time to explain! What choice do I have if…?

“The hands of time, oh shit!” Russ’ face beams for a light bulb has gone off in his head. Lika sees the realisation slip across his face which draws a smile, wide, across her own. Eureka!

“We need to confirm with the director.” Are the next words out of the man’s mouth.

“There isn’t time.” Is the assurance Lika delivers while she busily works away on preparations for what they will have to do.

Russ does to work busily but he ignores her claim there isn’t the time. It strikes him as the opportune moment to say; then we make time, but he resists the urge to do so.

“Mr Marwen, what is it we are about to board the…”

“I know director and sorry for my interjection…” We don’t have the time for this. Get to the point. He hopes his boss, the agencies highest entity will not crush his nuts in a cracker for what he’s about to propose. “…we have a way we think will stop the disintegration.”

“Then do it pretty boy.” Sanjiv shouts over the line, though how the middle aged man has heard this conversation Russ cannot discern. It doesn’t matter! True, it doesn’t. Not right now, anyway.

“Explain.” Dana sounds neither hopeful nor defeated. Rather, she sounds confident, strong…

Russ shakes himself lose of his thinking aware that time is ticking and that he’s wasting the precious seconds he requires to explain, “The virus is working off a clock, so if we turn back the hands…”

“Brilliant. Do it. Report once it’s done. I, we, need to know the outcome.”

“Yes ma’am and good hunting, director.”

With that the call is ended.

“Starting to become a regular kiss ass I see.”

“Screw you.”

“Most honest you’ve ever been. Not like the lazy jackass I remember having been forced to deal with previously. This is a good look on you, you should keep it.”

“Maybe I will if this works.”

“It’ll work.” Lika ever the optimist would say that without an ounce of hesitation. In that moment it dawns on Russ that perhaps she should be the next director.