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Kodiak gave Reck’d a sidelong glance, then said, “You’ve gotten yourself hitched to a comet, huh?”
Wraith nodded with a chuckle. “That’s for sure. I’m not sure that guy ever sleeps.”
“I sleep with one eye open, Wraith,” Reck’d said as he came up to them.
“You would probably still not see me coming,” Wraith said with chilling confidence.
“Probably not.” He turned to Kodiak. “We’re looking forward to helping you with this NSH business.” He turned around and swept the room. “I was thinking it might be a good idea to get us all together and have a drink or two to get acquainted.”
Kodiak nodded. “That sounds like a great idea. I don’t think Iceman, Preach, or GQ will join us. They’re not in the mood for socializing.
“Understandable, and we take no offense.” He motioned to Panda who was talking to Anna. “I’m sure you guys know a good bar around here.”
Kodiak grinned. “A few.”
After a few words of encouragement to Iceman, Preach, and GQ, Kodiak, the rest of the team, and the three new operators left the ready room. He went to the wall box where he kept his phone during the briefing. Pulling it out, he checked the messages. There was a text from an unknown number. He frowned when he opened it. It looked like a bunch of gibberish, a lot of dashes and dots.
He stood there for a moment trying to understand it and decided it was probably a prank or something to eat up his time. He blocked the number and tucked his phone in his back pocket. They decided to meet up at a bar specifically frequented by SEALs. Duffy’s was located in downtown Virginia Beach not far from the base.
As he got out of his car, his phone chimed with another text. This time it was a different number, but with the same exact gibberish. He huffed and Wraith came up behind him.
“You going to stand out here all day, looking at your phone? I’ll only give you a pass if it’s a hot babe.”
“I wish,” Kodiak said, not even wanting to think about his love life…or lack of one. “Just gibberish. A prank.”
Wraith peered over his shoulder. He nudged Kodiak. “Man, I don’t think that’s gibberish.”
“No?”
“It looks like Morse Code to me. Dots and dashes.”
“What?”
He looked back down at the phone and studied the seemingly incomprehensible long line of text.
“Let me see. Take these letters down.” He took the phone and studied it.
Kodiak opened his car door and grabbed an envelope and a pen.
“G-o-t-o-s-y-d-n-e-y-n-s-h-d-a-n-g-e-r-a-i-l-e-e-d-a-m-a-g-e-d-r-e-p-a-i-r-i-n-g. That’s it.”
Kodiak started to read it. “Go to Sydney. NSH danger. Ailee…Oh, my God. It’s Celeste’s AI. She survived.”
“What?”
“I’ll explain in a minute.”
“Finish the message.”
“Ailee damaged. Repairing.” So, Ailee didn’t have full functionality and that’s why she was using Morse Code. “We’ve got to go back to base and tell Anna about this.” Dammit, she was supposed to be kept secret. He would have to make sure Anna understood.
An hour later, he was still arguing with Anna.
“We have no idea what is going on in Sydney, Kodiak. We can’t deploy all our resources until we know it’s a credible threat.”
“She knows what she’s talking about, Anna. I would stake my life on it.”
“I understand, but no one in upper management knows about this…Ailee. What are we supposed to tell them? Some sentient entity…adamagedentity…trapped in the NSA computers is talking to us?”
