Phoenix Phire

Dex stood at the bottom of the silo. A large circular room that went straight upward to the surface. Built into the sides of this circular dormitory were dozens of custom living spaces.

Darsi studied him while he took in his surroundings. Her comrades were still on the 10th floor, trying to pick up what remained of their shattered pride. Dex had taken on the offensive pillar also, facing the ICE of the best Hive had to offer. It was a beat down of epic proportions. "This way, Sexy Dexy."

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"What's this Da Vinci thing mean?"

Darsi pursed her lips slightly. "Da Vinci was ahead of his time. That's what it means; a step ahead of everyone else." She pointed to a round door that looked like it had recently been painted blue. "This is you."

"The door's round… Did a hobbit live here?"

Darsi laughed and opened the door. "All the doors are round. Welcome to the Hive." She pointed up toward the surface; an odd assortment of doors could be seen all the way up. "The guys will join us later; they're busy going through your stuff."

After Dex blitzed both tests, Darsi showed the group the array Dex constructed and the gloves. Then, she used the distraction to escape with him.

Dex stepped into the room, instantly realizing that it was much bigger than he was used to. "This place is huge."

Darsi followed him in, pointing out the different attractions. "Technically, you can pick any of the rooms on this level, but this one is best."

"Better water pressure?"

Darsi smiled slightly. "That and it's next to mine."

Dex didn't know how to reply to that, so he opted for ignorance. "Still not sure what you do here."

"We hack the world and make some money doing it." Darsi gestured to the room. "Nice things can be costly."

Dex glanced around the room. The ceiling in the entryway was nearly five meters in height. The first part of the room was a single story, but that changed into a loft about halfway towards the back. A kitchen, dining, and living room were visible; it made him wonder who brought all this stuff down here. "What's upstairs?"

Instead of answering, Darsi headed for the stairs. "Best part!"

"Holy…" Dex stopped at the top of the stairs. "Isn't this a bit too much space?"

Darsi shrugged. "Only twenty or so of us currently live in the hive; this place could easily accommodate three or four times that."

The King-sized bed was bordered on one side by an alcove filled with floor-to-ceiling shelving. The other side sported a walk-in closet that doubled as the entrance to a spacious bathroom. "You do realize my last home was a barn?"

"I know…" Whatever else she was going to stay was paused when the other four members of the bottom level walked in. "Let's go Dex! This will be your first 'bottom feeder' meeting."

Gadget took a seat on the couch, still holding Dex's gloves. "Put in an order with Gunner on the 12th level for food and supplies. He handles all the incoming deliveries."

"I'll take care of that when we're done." Darsi took a seat next to him, smiling at the old man's shamelessness. "Going to try and reverse engineer that?"

Gadget didn't bother to deny it. "Yeah… Unless he volunteers to make me one."

"I want gloves too!" Stiletto's voice seemed a bit too loud for normal conversation. She was holding Dex's toaster array in her hand. She smiled sweetly at him. "It's the least you can do considering that I'll be cooking your meals for the next week."

"Slow your roll, Stiletto. He doesn't owe you anything for winning a bet." Darsi gave her a mischievous smile. "You haven't even seen the stealth pod yet."

It was more than an hour later before the meeting started. The group of five were sitting comfortably in Dex's new living room. Gadget had disappeared for a few minutes to grab beers for everyone.

"You used the stealth tech from an F-22 Raptor?" Mongoose's accent slipped through when he got excited. "I would never have thought of that."

Dex shrugged slightly. "Trust me, when you are forcibly unplugged for three years, all sorts of shit pops into your head."

Mongoose flashed his white teeth when he laughed. "Maybe, but I hope never to find out."

Thumper sat her beer down on the coffee table. Although she was about the same age as Darsi, that's where the similarities ended. She had brown hair with eyes so dark they appeared nearly black. No one would describe her as beautiful, but there was something pleasant about her that both men and women found attractive. "Let's get the meeting started; I've got a job later."

Darsi nodded and motioned for Dex to retell the story of how he was warned by Enigma.

"Warned while you were in the stealth pod?" Stiletto was the first to comment. "Should be impossible to hack, or at least very difficult.

Gadget nodded in agreement. "Maybe someone could rig something to counter the stealth tech, but only if you knew about it ahead of time."

Darsi let them voice their comments for a few minutes before she offered a tidbit. "Gladis Corp is all over these lost pods. One of Dex's friends was already killed over it."

Mongoose had his hud opened and was reading the brief that had sent Darsi on the mission. "Do you think this is about the missing Command codes?"

"No. Remember when I got caught hacking into Gladis the first time? My best code lasted only a few seconds; I've never seen anything like it." Darsi smiled at Dex. "Even faster than you could have done."

Dex agreed; he'd seen Quicksilver's Exe. So breaking it instantly wasn't likely. Unless… "You think it's an AI."

Silence filled the room as all eyes turned toward Quicksilver. She wore a slight smile on her face. "I suspect so."

Gadget rubbed his wrinkled face with both hands. "I heard rumors years ago that Gladis Corp used an AI to monitor its systems. Nothing was ever proven."

"Come on…" Thumper's dark face looked scared. "We're talking about an actual AI? No one has ever built one!"

Gadget shook his head slightly. "Gladis seems to be playing a bit hard on the off chance that a missing command code will surface. My gut tells me it's something different, but not necessarily an AI."

"Wait…" Stiletto seemed to catch onto something. "Is this why you suddenly returned?"

Darsi nodded. "Yes. I think it's hiding in the Trip-7 hard drive."

Dex whistled softly. "It caught you the first time you attempted to breach the Gladis System. Then, when you came back for seconds, it used the opportunity to escape."

Darsi felt the urge to call him Sexy Dexy again but decided against embarrassing in front of the group. "I know we are stretching a bit here, but let's move forward with this. Everyone adds something." She pointed at Stiletto, "you first."

"An AI would have to be shackled somehow, right? Or else it could go anywhere and do anything."

When she didn't add anything further, Mongoose spoke up. "An AI would be the embodiment of everything a hacker tries to emulate, blending with the system. How could anyone shackle that?"

"They couldn't…." Thumper leaned back and closed her eyes. "No amount of firewalls or safeguards could hold something that can do billions of calculations."

"It could be done…." After a few seconds pause, Dex spoke up. "Maybe not electronically but definitely physically. Separating it from the network would be like slicing the head off of a hacker. It would be helpless, no matter what it did."

Gadget smiled at the newest edition to their team. "Once isolated, it could be partitioned or fragmented, restricting its capabilities to a manageable level."

"Does that make sense?" Thumper tried to put herself in the shoes of an AI. "Couldn't it have gone anywhere once it escaped the system?"

Darsi's smile widened considerably. "It jumped into the nearest receptacle capable of hiding it; a stasis capsule. But, unfortunately, it chose the wrong one." She couldn't very well tell them that Nicholas Phire had been inside the capsule and that it was locked down to prevent him from escaping. "Somehow, it malfunctioned, trapping it inside."

"Until my friend Saul pulled it from a landfill." Dex finished the rest of his beer with a long drink. "There's only we can know for sure."

Darsi smiled sexily. "Yep. We gotta go in. I'm first."

"Second," Gadget claimed.

"Thirdsies," replied Mongoose.

"Guess that makes me fourth!" Thumper celebrated.

"Shit… At least I'm not the bottom rung anymore. Sorry Dex, I go fifth." Stiletto favored the low man with a friendly smile.

Dex shrugged as if he didn't care, even though it was killing him. "We need to set up safeguards. Make sure that no network access is possible."

Darsi stretched her hands over her hand while covering a yawn. "I work best after a good night's sleep. So let's get some rest, Dex."

Dex could feel his face heating up; the way she worded it sounded like it was something they were doing together.