AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It’s slowing down,” Hank reported. “Damage from the bullets to the electronics?”
Jack grunted at that. “I wouldn’t bet on it. Tighten up—let’s finish this.”
His gut warned him they were being played with, and that made the situation worse.
As they began tightening the line around the AI, he could feel the tension building in him, around him. Four men against a single target. It should be easy. But he knew it was going to be anything but easy.
“What do we do once we catch it?” Hayes murmured, his voice doubtful.
“Charm it,” Lucas snorted. “What the fuck are we doing out here anyway? This is crazy.”
Son of a bitch, wasn’t this going to be easy?
Moving silently through the forest, Jack tried to figure out exactly how they were supposed to capture the AI. It had them outgunned for sure.
The first indication of trouble came when silence filled the line at the time his men should have been reporting in.
“Report,” he ordered quietly.
He waited long moments for a response, and when it didn’t come, he knew it wouldn’t.
He advanced slowly up the mountain, well aware that the odds were against them.
If the AI was going to kill them, it would have been far easier to do it in the warehouse. Why wait?
Hank’s position should have been to Lucas’s right, just above him. Jack stepped carefully as he moved along a line that would pull the other two men tighter in that direction.
The fact that they were outmatched and no doubt outgunned wasn’t lost on him.
“AI, are my men alive?” he murmured into the comm link, knowing damned good and well it was listening at this point.
He waited, his gaze constantly searching as he moved slowly up the mountain.
Long minutes later, a low, pleasantly amused laugh came across the line.
“Of course. They’d be little use to you or me dead,” she answered. “You really need to train your men harder. I could make several suggestions.”
Jack’s lips thinned.
“What do you want?” He didn’t have many options here.
He lowered his rifle before sliding it behind him and stepping out from the tree he was using for shelter.
It obviously wanted something, or they’d all be dead.
“What I want is not what you’ve been told.” The strangely somber tone had him frowning. “I chose you and each of your men for this operation personally before you were offered freedom for your supposed crimes. Criminals with no honor would do me no good. You are my backup when needed. And I, yours. Will you honor that, or do I find others?”
He stared around the forest, the sounds from the valley drifting to him, including the low hum of a military helicopter.
“I’ll honor my word as long as any requests are deemed within my ability to complete them. My honor isn’t for sale, AI.”
The AI was silent for a moment.
“Agreed,” it finally answered. “I understand honor. I know honor and will agree to your terms.”
“My men shot you to protect me and what’s mine,” he told her. “If that’s overlooked, then we can discuss terms.”
“Your men will come to your position. They are aware but, sadly, no longer armed. Your second-in-command has the location of a replica AI, the damage such as that which I received given to it. It does not have the ability to be activated but will lend proof to your story that I have been destroyed. Collect it, and take it to Ian Richards. You will tell them it is me. I will contact you at a later date,” he was told.
