Project Northwoods (27 page)

Ariana rolled her eyes as she smiled tightly and gave a ‘ha’ of exaggerated annoyance. “I knew it. You still have a crush on her after all these years.”

Timothy seemed far more interested in something intangible. “It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. She was probably too busy.”

A knock on the door went unnoticed by the lovers. Arthur expected them to at least look in that direction. “Do you even remember you almost died that night?” asked Ariana, confirming Arthur’s suspicion that neither of them were paying attention to reality. He threw his hands up at the squabble and went to the door.

“Man, in person she’s got this amazing accent. You should have been there, Ari.”

“You’re not even listening to a word I’m saying, are you?” she asked.

“No!” Tim said defensively. He quickly realized he had no idea what he denied. “Wait… what?” he asked as Arthur finished unlatching the door.

“I just don’t understand your obsession,” Ariana said, exasperated. She put her hand up to her ear and stood up with her back turned to Tim. “And now, for Villain World News, the vapid whore from channel thirty-seven…” She whipped around with a deadpan expression. She belted out “Hello,” in a grossly exaggerated valley girl accent before stopping when she realized that Arthur had brought two people in with him. Her face went slack when she realized that one of them, who had folded her arms and smirked, was embarrassingly familiar.

“You know, she doesn’t sound like that in person.” Tim stared at Ariana for a moment, expecting a response. When none came, he furrowed his brow quizzically. “What?” Tim followed her gaze.

“Talia, this is Ariana,” Arthur said, staring at the floor while gesturing to the reddening roommate. Tim leapt up at the sight of Talia, trying to smooth his shirt before realizing what it said. He took the opportunity to haphazardly struggle out of the garment, throwing it into the kitchen before trying to act as nonchalant as one can be while bare-chested.

Ariana smiled widely and walked around the couch, extending her hand. “Hi!” she offered in a too-friendly-hostess kind of way. “I’m Ariana Brown.” She bobbed her head back and forth sheepishly as Talia took her hand. “Tim’s girlfriend.”

“Hi. I’m the vapid whore from channel thirty seven,” Talia said in a blander rendition of Ariana’s nice-girl routine.

Ariana took her hand back, her smile growing even wider in embarrassment. “You heard that, huh?”

“Every word,” Talia said, clearly enjoying Ariana squirming. What Ariana assumed to be Talia’s actual accent had returned.

“Talia, welcome to my humble abode.” The room shifted to look at Tim. He was energetic and positively buoyant, a combination which served to make him particularly intolerable. “Can I get you something? Soda? Beer?”

Ariana did a quick double-take at Tim’s sudden interest in their guests. “What happened to your shirt?” she asked.

“It’s nine-thirty in the morning, Tim,” Arthur said.

“Art, be a dear and get her a beer,” Tim ordered.

“Tim, sit down,” Ariana said with a cold stare.

He collapsed onto the couch. “Yes, ma’am.”

“I’m James, for anyone that’s wondering.” Talia’s companion cracked a small smile. “But you can call me Flea.” The others looked at him. “Like the bug.” They continued to look. “I can jump really far.”

“Thank you. That will be all, James,” Talia ordered.

“What brings you to this side of town, Talia?” Arthur asked.

Talia made her way toward the television. “Have you seen the news?”

“TV’s been off all day,” Ariana said.

“I was at work. Working. So I couldn’t see anything. Because work,” Tim offered.

“I’m sure the lady doesn’t care,” Ariana muttered.

With a flick, the television began to warm up. Talia reached for the remote and changed the channel when the picture finally appeared. “VWN has been forced off the air.” Sure enough, a ‘NO SIGNAL’ sign squatted angrily in the middle of the screen. “No test pattern or anything.”

“But… why?” Ariana asked.

“I got to the station earlier this morning. The Enforcers blockaded it and were dragging everyone out in cuffs.” James was leaning against the dining room table as he spoke, trying to look relaxed and failing at it.

“I imagine that we’re the only two not in custody at the moment,” Talia continued. “But that’s just because James and I haven’t returned home since skipping out on work.”

“You don’t think they know…” Arthur started, then trailed off. He nodded toward Tim.

James perked up a bit. “Know what?”

Talia shook her head. “I don’t think so. I think that what happened at the Guild that night remains solely in the heads of a few people. Most of whom aren’t speaking on account of being dead.”

“You were at the Guild when Ranger was killed?” James asked. He stepped forward, totally aghast. “Why didn’t you say anything? What happened?”

“You’re my assistant, James, not my nanny,” Talia noted sharply. James looked a little sheepish and backed down.

Ariana turned back to Talia. “So why are you here?”

“The station isn’t too far from the Tibetan Mob headquarters,” Talia said. “I saw one of their goons and remembered Timothy was their…” She cast an incredulous glance toward Tim. “What was it again?”

Tim coughed, trying to buy time. “I don’t know…”

“Local manager, I believe,” Arthur offered. Ariana choked back laughter, politely covering her mouth and turning away from her boyfriend’s dirty look.

Talia’s eyes lit up with dark humor. “Oh, that’s right.”

“Yes, thank you,
secretary
,” Tim hissed as he took a swing at Arthur. He was too far away to hit, but Arthur flinched backward to give himself more room between him and the ungainly swipe.

Talia wrenched the conversation back. “Everyone was in the process of leaving. We went in through the roof access…”

“I helped,” Flea offered.

“And found our wayward manager’s home address.” She cocked an eyebrow. “Or rather, the goon we were looking for.”

Tim snorted playfully. “Whatever. We’re a bunch of pacifists. We would have let you in the front door.”

Arthur shook his head in annoyance. “Do you still have the USB drive?” he asked. Talia nodded and produced the fractured device. “May I look at it now?” He offered his hand. After a moment of contemplation, she set it in his hand. He retreated to his bedroom.

“So, Talia…” Tim began the moment silence reigned.

“Shut up, Tim,” Ariana said.

“Alright,” Tim agreed, content to resume staring at his crush.

Arthur returned with a computer in his hands, the USB drive sticking out of it. “You did not tell me there was a party,” a sing-song voice said softly.

“It’s not a fun kind of party, Mollie,” Arthur explained.

James tried to maneuver into a position to look at the screen. “Who is that on the other end?”

Arthur looked up, then turned the screen around. “James, Talia, meet Mollie Von Neumann.”

No one said a word. “Is my screen on?” Mollie asked.

“Yes, Mollie,” Ariana answered.

“What is it?” Talia asked.

“She’s… erm…” Arthur couldn’t quite think of the words for it.

“He built himself a friend,” Tim helped.

“Thank you, Tim. There was no better way to put it,” Arthur said, a bit annoyed. “I built her as a way to get SVAC certification. She’s an intelligent, learning… um… virus.” Mollie didn’t like the term ‘Artificial Intelligence’ as she insisted it made her feel less human, a concept that Arthur never pointed out was actually fact.

“Slick,” James said with a fair degree of awe. He leaned in closer to the screen “Is she sedentary?”

Arthur smiled at both James’s interest and the use of the word ‘she’. “No, she moves like the Creeper Virus from the 1970s.”

“Smart, makes it harder to find when she gets onto a network.” James straightened but didn’t take his eyes off of Mollie’s blue iris. “What kind of coding?”

“Metamorphic,” came the answer, almost like it was expected.

“I should have known. That way she can learn and hide from predators much faster,” James said, leaning in to the computer now. He waved. “Hi,” he said, smiling.

“Hello,” Mollie responded, eliciting an airy laugh of excitement from James.

“Boys! Conspiracy afoot! Focus!” Ariana yelled.

“Thank you,” Talia said, devoid of legitimate appreciation.

“Mollie, how long will it take to repair the files?” Arthur asked.

The iris swirled. “Most of the data is long gone. But I can get something out of it.” A tiny diode on the USB drive flashed for a moment, then dimmed. “You can remove the drive, it has been copied.” Arthur obeyed and handed it back to Talia. “A text file has the least amount of corruption. It is printable.”

“Hey, if that’s all we can get for now…” Arthur disappeared back into his bedroom.

“Did you try to contact the Italian Mob?” Ariana asked Talia. The reporter turned to her. “I mean… if the guy who died was employed there…”

Talia forced an insincere smile. “Yes, it was one of the first things I tried.” She stared Ariana right in the eyes. “Al Capone does not take interviews.”

“Alright, sorry I asked,” Ariana muttered as she threw her hands in the air defensively. She moved to the dining room table and sat down. With dismissive hand wave toward the others, she began flipping through the paper again.

Arthur returned with two sheets of printed material. “We’ve got a list of names.” He handed one of the papers to James. “And a whole lot of ASCII.”

“The elder Capone is on here…” James looked at Arthur. “Do you recognize any of the others?”

“None on here ring a bell,” Arthur muttered as he scanned down the page. “It would make sense if they’re villains… Italian Mob goons or otherwise.”

“So we have a couple of names.” Tim puff out his cheeks before exhaling loudly. “Which means… what, exactly?”

“That we wait for Mollie to give us a better lead,” Arthur said. “I guess it’s better than…”

“Help wanted!” interrupted Ariana. She stood as she read off the newspaper. “Are you a talented, hardworking, fun-loving individual? Handy with a gun and a snazzy dresser?” With a devilish smile, she looked up from the paper and at Arthur. “Then apply for the Italian Mob today!” She shot a look at Talia, her smile fading into a self-congratulatory sneer. Ariana’s eyes went back to the paper. “Immediate interviews for those with a good degree of hard…” she trailed off over the final word. “… Hardworky…itude?” She cocked an eyebrow before lowering the paper and looking at the others.

“Alright!” Tim clapped his hands together excitedly. “And we have something with her name on it!”

“Not bad, eh?” Ariana said to no one in particular as she folded the paper. She pulled out her cell phone. “I’ll just give them a call and set up an appointment.” She dialed as she walked toward the privacy of her room.

“And if nothing else, we can get Art a job!” Tim said as he leapt over the couch and stood next to Talia. He poked her arm gently. “Art doesn’t have a job,” he explained.

“Thank you, Tim. That was implied.” Arthur returned to examining the sheet.
Are these people targets?

Ariana shut her phone triumphantly with a snap as she returned. “Well, I got us an interview.” With a wink at Tim, she added, “Told them I was with a temp agency and I had five
super
excited individuals who were real can-do candidates.” She looked at Talia and smirked. “Maybe I should be a reporter.”

Talia smiled in annoyance. “We have nothing except a broken flash drive and two sheets of paper with names on them. I wouldn’t advise a career change yet.” She rolled her neck, a popping noise interjecting halfway through. “But it’s the best we have.”

“Until Mollie hooks us up,” Arthur said, bringing his computer back in with one hand and hefting an empty backpack with the other. “How long do you think it’ll take, Mol?”

“Long enough,” came the response.

Arthur nodded and knelt on the floor. He folded the computer and slipped it inside the backpack before connecting the microphone and headphone jacks inside to their respective ports. He stood and hefted the pack onto his back before slipping the combination earpiece and microphone into place. “This way, she’ll let me know if she’s got something.”

“And, hey, even if she doesn’t find anything, it’s not the end of the world.” Tim kicked the couch lightly. “This baby unfolds into a bed,” he said with a smile as he leaned against it. His eyes flitted from Talia to Ariana’s icy glare. He slapped the couch and stood upright. “Actually, I might be sleeping on that for a while.”

“Tim. Shirt. Now,” Ariana snapped as she pushed her way to the door. She clapped her hands and motioned to the hallway. “C’mon people. No time to lose.”

PANOPTIC

JULIA STARED OUT THE WINDOW
of the jeep as it made its way through rough road, sickly branches slapping at the glass as it moved. The day was bright, clear, and hot, her partner responding to the general atmosphere by pumping the air conditioning at full blast. Despite the a/c, she was still sweating from her decision to wear the black variant of her costume. It still felt a little odd to add color back into her wardrobe considering the memorial service for her father had been yesterday.