02.15 - Mind Wipe

     “What the hell?” The blonde man at the security desk threw his hands in the air. Crackling explosions across the vocal channel echoed the sentiment. Janus was mouthing every obscenity he knew. Jasper shut the channel down with a yell.
     “Quiet!” Once he was sure he had their attention he told his team the facts. “Listen up people. We’ve been coasting on sheer dumb luck here. Every Enforcer unit is up in the streets over our heads mopping up anyone that’s even taken a bribe from someone on The Council. And if we sit here bitching they’ll be done with their business and be waiting on us to pop our heads out of a hole. This is why we’re here, and they’re giving us our chance. Let’s not throw it away. Rika, we need that vault code.”
     I am on it Jasper.
     “All right team, now’s not the time to get sloppy. Keep your eyes open.”

     Rika turned in the Data-Net to find the blur bit coded representation of Ian scanning her intently. His mini-terminal program was hanging in the air where he’d left it, and the security terminal’s input screen was blinking, awaiting further input. “Sloppy.” She frowned at him and shook her head, dispersing the data cloud that her thought had created. He still hadn’t moved so she addressed him directly. “What?”
     “How do you do that?” The question made her pause, and when he saw that she did not understand he seemed frustrated. Electric charges erupted across his body, code breaking apart as he fought to think outside system protocol. “You talk…” he finally tried, “outside the system. How? You did not run a program.”
     Despite her poise, she gave him a surprised look. “I need no program to connect with peripherals. Do you mean to say that you can not?” Before he could reply she was moving. “Then you should not be here. I will handle interactions with the security terminal.”
     Ian stepped back with a frown as she went to the window. Without looking she reached back to his mini-terminal and terminated the program with a single gesture. The abrupt move left him tingling and he gritted his teeth in irritation. She was treating him like a complete novice, and…
     “You are thinking too hard.”
      Her words surprised him. Her fingers were moving across the program window faster than he could follow, and the data cascade was a complete mystery. Yet even though she wasn’t looking at him, she was apparently reading his mind. “What?” Even as he asked he felt foolish.
     But Rika appeared not to mind. Her conversation carried no excess weight of inflection. “You think too hard about code. You think too hard about not code. What is, is simple. It simply is. And you think too loud. In the Net, you must be on, or you must be off. Anything more will alert the system that you are not of the Net, and therefore a threat.”
     Even as Ian was processing that idea, the Athina system window flashed blue. He took a half step back. Rika only studied the data cascade and nodded. “Proceed.”
     An alien voice answered, and Ian found himself cringing at the scratchy metallic timbre that forced itself into his consciousness. He heard the challenge without actually hearing, “***INDIGO ALPHA NINE … SYSTEM AWAITING DIRECTIVE ***” and the vibration across his wire left him with a headache.
     Rika answered the system. “Mechanical Systems Test, Primary Storage Bank Alpha. Rotational Bearings and Vertical Lift Check.”
     “*** PER DIRECTIVE ORDER? ***”
     “System clearance, accounting and facility transfer.”
     “*** AFFIRMATIVE ***”
     A bar graph blossomed in the window, sliders rising and falling to some unknown variables. Ian looked around concerned and again Rika replied to his actions without turning his way. “What is it?”
     “Do you feel that?”
     She looked over her shoulder. “I feel nothing. Check your primary connection.”
     “What?”
     The coded representation of Rika Blackpatch gave a ripple of response to her growing irritation. “Check your body Ian. See to your actual location.”

     Jasper turned at a burst of air from behind and called out, “What was that?”
     Robby replied, “I think it came from the data bank.” He was pointing to the huge pedestal just as it shuddered, dropping a foot with the sounds of something mechanical opening. After a few moments it began turning, and before long it was spinning like a top, too fast to see individual key slots.
     “Is it supposed to do that?”
     “How the hell should I know?”
     “What’s going on in there?”
     As more voices erupted in question across the comm. channel Espy gave a sharp whistle. The channel went silent and she gave a nod of satisfaction. “All right. Everybody shut it. Rika?”
     The hacker answered clearly. Yes Espy?
     “Things are getting a little noisy out here. Are you doing something to the storage bank?”
     We are testing the system Espy. It will not just give us the data we require.
     “That’s great Rika but you’re shaking the whole building out here.” Jasper followed his security tech’s lead in dropping formality, letting his worry come across the vocal line. Eyes cutting back and forth from the spinning storage unit to the dark door, he was praying there was nobody home in the levels above this one.
     Rika adjusted something on her side of things, and the spinning machine slowed, yet the shaking barely lessened. Athina’s security terminal was giving another prompt, but the three waiting outside the Data-Net had no answer to give it.
     The next question on the voice channel came from Ian, who surfaced from his machine just long enough to open his eyes and reassure himself that things were all right. “Is there a number on that key Espy? I think we’re going to need it.”
     Espy pulled the strip of plastic from a pouch and looked it over, giving a shake of her head. “I don’t see any marks on it at all.”
     “Damn. What are we going to do now?”
     We are not going to do anything Ian. There is nothing that you can do now. Ian seemed inclined to argue and dove back into the system, leaving the trio as they were before.

     Rika was where he had left her, fingers dancing across the prompt window of the system. Yet despite the nature and speed of her work he could see that she was running out of options using the maintenance program. As concerned as he was curious, he asked, “Then what are you going to do?”
     She waited until she reached the end of the diagnostic run, turning from the window with a frown. “I will do what I have to do. We need this data.” Turning back to the window she returned to the input cursor.
     “Indigo Alpha Nine requests system retrieval test, Data-file, random entry, random access.”
     “That will only give us an unlocked data file.”
     “I am aware of that outcome. Please log out of this system or keep silent. Observe from this window.” Rika turned from the maintenance window again, but instead of chastising him further, she slowly looked across the contour of the walls as though she were scanning them. Ian realized with some chagrin that she was scanning, and that her masking program was so efficient he couldn’t see half of her activities.
     After a few moments of this Rika left the window for what seemed to Ian to be a mere blank wall. Her figure began to grow brighter, glowing so strongly he was forced to shield his eyes. When the light shifted he looked back in awe; the former solid wall was peeling away, electron bits blowing away at the raconid’s command.
     Behind the shattered barrier lay stacks of canisters, linked together and held in place by a golden web of electric light. Some canisters were solid, hiding their contents behind a security code, while others appeared like glass, empty of data. Those that were full but unlocked were filled with swirling colors, showing both clearance level and file size at a glance.
      Rika ignored the latter categories and concentrated on the locked canisters, for one would hold the file they were seeking. Without a key number there was no real way to tell the system what they’d come for, save to go head to head against the security program. Ian hadn’t a chance, but she could force her way in.
     The only safe way to breach the system was to keep it occupied with the diagnostic process. Even that wouldn’t disguise her actions long. Setting a scanning utility to look for any string containing the names Osama and Renslip, she set a clone of the utility on a second search for the PIN of the unnamed scientist. It was a long shot at worst, and might even directly alert whatever authority watched over Athina.
     The golden web began pulsing, energy flowing along certain strands. The canisters began to shift position in response to the terminal’s random retrieval, and Rika was scanning the locked files as they floated by. Ian had no idea what kind of information she might be gleaning, but as the maintenance window opened one of the unsecured files he understood that they were out of time. Rika understood it too, but showed no worry. Passing a hand over one crimson-coated container, she nodded sharply. “This has to be the one.”
     “How can you be sure? We will not get another chance.”
     “We will not need one Ian. Be ready to log out.”
     As if on cue the system queried. “*** INDIGO ALPHA NINE *** SYSTEM REQUIRES INPUT ***”
     Rika answered, “Diagnostic Test complete. Indigo Alpha Nine requests system return to standby.” And as the system acknowledged her request, starting hibernation procedures, she struck.
     Grasping the golden strands of web about her target, she started pumping her own system energy into the network. The resulting electron flow ripped through the machine’s protocol, resetting trip switches to force the computer to ‘select’ the storage node they wanted. Outside the machine, the pedestal moved again, locking in the proper position for Espy to use her key.
     Rika was holding the web in that position, electric discharge arcing from her fingertips. “Tell them to unlock it!” Her normal flat tone was several octaves higher. Ian jumped in system as she called out again, realizing she was talking to him.

     The first time the storage bank stopped turning, Jasper and Espy looked at each other, before turning toward the security console. “What do we do,” they’d asked, and Robby had shrugged.
     “Well, what’s the terminal doing?”
     The blonde looked. “I don’t know. I think it’s pulling up a file.”
     Espy asked if it was their file, and again Robby shrugged. “I don’t think so… wait a minute! The terminal’s shutting down.”
     “What?” Jasper started to leave his position. At that moment the drive motors on the storage bank kicked on, slowly turning the drum several feet. None of the trio knew what was going on. Ian wasn’t moving; Rika wasn’t calling. Robby was the only one with limited understanding of what the terminal was showing. He yelled to the others. “The terminal’s looking for an access code, but it’s trying to log off.”
     “Can you do anything?”
     “I don’t know.”
     “Try something!”
     “What?”
     “Anything!” Both raconid and lizardine were on edge. Robby tried the keyboard and shook his head.
     “It’s no good. We’re locked out of the terminal. The access log is going crazy, trying to pick numbers. None of them are locking in.”
     A hiss of hydraulics alerted them that the data bank had locked itself into position once again. Two of the security terminal screens had gone blank and then turned themselves on again. The reboot led to those terminals flashing a code red. Only the machine where Robby sat remained locked in a neutral setting, caught between shutdown and access over-ride.
     Again Jasper called out, “What’s going on?”
     Robby was torn between shaking Ian and unplugging him from his terminal. Red light alarms were popping up across the security boards, mirrored by a series of amber bulbs flaring to life on a storage unit in the pedestal behind him.
     As the first klaxon alarm came to life on the floor above, he turned to regard the data bank. Ignoring the calling raconid, he looked from the lit storage unit to the still searching terminal he remained locked out of, and then he noticed Ian’s lips moving. He leaned in close before whirling away.
     “The key! Use the God damned key!”
     Wide green eyes stared blankly at him for only a moment before Espy jumped, running to the terminals to where Robby was pointing out the waiting unit. As soon as she slotted the key tab in the slot the amber lights turned green. The terminal access log numbers rolled over, digits locking in place in quick succession until a download bar appeared on the screen. Still the alarms kept sounding. Robby turned to Espy.
     “I don’t understand; we should be in.”
     “What’s going on?” Jasper’s query was borderline panic.
     “I’m not sure … Wait, there it goes!”
     The download bar had shifted, rapidly filling as their hackers went to pulling data. Watching the terminal intently, neither human or lizardine noticed when the first red light flashed on Ian’s personal terminal, but it was impossible not to notice when he suddenly shifted in his seat, falling out of his chair.
     “Ian!”
     “He might not hear you. We’ve got to unplug him.”
     “Wait! That might be worse…”
     Time seemed to shift. With his back to the door he’d been guarding, Jasper never saw the old watchman step out onto the floor. He couldn’t hear the old human cock his service revolver over the noise of the klaxons.
     Espy was bent over the prostrate Ian, Robby was frantically scanning the security terminals for some sign of what to do, willing the download to go faster. They were open targets, but the old human wasn’t aiming for them.
     Heads turned at the gunshot; Ian’s portable terminal exploded in a shower of sparkling glass and burning plastic. The team threw themselves into motion; Jasper and Espy twisted lifting pistols to pinpoint the threat. But before either could decide to act farther the old man was down, knocked off his feet from a shot from behind them.
     They turned as one to see Robby; smoking pistol still pointed their way. Jasper turned to regard the old human’s feet drumming against the floor. “Shit! We could have questioned him. What did you kill him for?”
     The blonde answered, “They’ll all pay the same. Never again Ringtail!”
     Espy called out, worried. “Robby he wasn’t an Enforcer! Crap, Ian! Rika, report!” Neither hacker answered. Janus was calling for information and she broke over him across the channel. “Medical we’ve got a man down! Somebody in system answer me damn it!”
     “Who is it?” Gabe’s voice came across the vocal from the waiting van.
     Jasper answered, “Comp One is down, Comp one is down.”
     “God! Dumped out?”
     No one could answer. Ian was twitching in the throes of a spasmodic attack, despite the disconnect from his system. The download bar was still climbing and there was still no answer from the hackers.
     “That’s not dump shock. What’s going on in there?”
     “I don’t know. Rika!”

     It had taken everything she had to keep the system from taking their targeted data file out of her hands. But as soon as Espy slotted her key in the storage unit, the canister popped open, the password security code bypassed. The web of energy immediately relaxed, and she no longer had to fight that part of the system to get what she wanted.
     She pulled a program on line to download the data contained in the storage file, capping code leads about both ends of the canister to both copy and simultaneously transmit the contents to her true location. The program did a quick scan and found the contents encrypted, and pinged her with that information, as well as something unexpected.
     Ian noted her surprise, and stiffened, having relaxed when it appeared their attack had worked. “What is it?”
     Rika responded while checking her system clock. “The data file is too large. It will take too long to download; the size is in the terabyte range. The system reboot is going to catch us before we can get all of it.”
     “But I thought you had it locked in place.”
     “I do Ian. But our attack has already alerted the system. The security monitors have already tripped. This system will red alert in point zero zero three two one now.”
     The node went dark, a crimson curtain washing the air clean of the normal electron light. The system’s metallic alien voice began calling “*** RED ALERT ***” every few seconds, adding further to the disorienting effects that had Ian reeling.
     Rika vanished from sight in an instant and he had to search to find her download leads. Her masking program had her hidden too well, and he wondered if she were even there. What should he do? He started calling her name. When she did answer, he nearly jumped out of the system. She turned from the download, her coded facial features appearing from nowhere, Cheshire like, directly before his face.
     “Why are you not masked? The system will tear you apart.”
     He started to answer but became distracted. His system clock was racing overtime to process the signals he was receiving. Rika’s silver eyes and bit code features rippled under inspection. Behind her white pulses of information were flashing from the canister, over her lead lines, gathering in one place before vanishing, firing down the raconid’s back trail faster than he could see.
     And on the wall behind her, an angry black scar, gleaming with veins of electric energy was gathering, growing with each angry screech of the system’s call. “*** RED ALERT *** RED ALERT ***” His mouth fell open and Rika turned. She was but a blur in his eyes; he could not keep up with the events unleashed.
     The pulsing black program launched its attack with a long crackle of silver static. Rika held up something resembling a mirror that flared at the contact, sending the energy back to the black scar even as her shield burst like a soap bubble. Her coded representation flickered, her masking program nearly failing.
     Ian stepped backward, fear scrambling his reactions. If the raconid was having trouble he wouldn’t have a chance. Rika shouted his name in warning and he tried to turn, half in, half out of step. He felt a blast of heat on the left side of his body, and an electric prickle of pins and needles that left him temporarily numb.
     Rika was reaching for him, something foreign in her eyes. Still turning, he found he was face to face with a blackness still discharging its silver lightning. Even as the static faded he felt the back of his neck grow hot.
     The raconid stopped short of touching him. He found his question slow to come. “What was …”
     Her darting eyes told him she was scanning, scanning his programs, scanning him. Already her movements were too fast to read. Her words almost blew by. “Mind Wipe.”
     He tried to recoil. He reached up for a jack that was not there. Rika did recoil; his fingers were blurring, threatening to come apart. His scared reply sounded too slow in his own ears. “No…”
     “You-have-got-to-jack-out-Ian-jack-out-now.”
     Her processor was over powering. The system alert was drowning him in a wave of hostile data. Everything slowed down and sped up at once. The mind wipe virus was in his system; it hadn’t had any distance to travel. It was, he belatedly realized, already within him.
     He tried to find the way out, the way back, where his body labored before the security terminals, his shaking arm and twitching hand only needing to shift up … up to grasp the wire and give one simple tug …
     He couldn’t do it. Behind her the download proceeded, the system defenses seeming to have passed it by. He looked back into her eyes and saw pity. He didn’t know if she’d understand him. “It thinks … it got me …”

     She hesitated to touch him; she wanted no chance that his disintegrating programs would pass the virus to her. Monitoring the download, masking it and herself from the still searching attack program, took a toll on her resources. She wasn’t monitoring the storage facility. She couldn’t; there were no cameras she could reach in there. It would take a voice feed traveling back through the system, back to her body and out from the mics there, to alert the team. Surely they knew. Surely they could see…
     Ian was beyond trouble. She knew it; saw he could not disconnect. His coding was flickering, shot through with sparks. “It thinks…” Despite the situation and the tone of his words, he was smiling. “… it got me …”  She didn’t need to slow her system clock to understand his slurred speech. His was the sacrifice that kept the system from actively searching for her.
     She found something new in herself. She wanted to thank him, somehow. But before she could make the effort, his body jolted. He staggered forward into her; before she could think not to, she had him in her arms.
     Suddenly free of distortion, he looked up, wide-eyed. “I can’t feel…” Shocked, she glanced down across his body and found she couldn’t scan him. It was as if he was no longer there.
     “I can’t feel anything! Rika, what…” He stopped in mid-sentence as the hand he held up dissolved, electronic bits flowing away as though blown off by a wind.
     It was something she’d never witnessed before, and she suddenly shifted, grasping him tightly, futilely. She knew somehow, that his system had shut down, disconnected. And yet that which was the real Ian, his soul, was still in the machine.
     He could not get back. His code was unraveling, arms and legs fading away like so much cascading sand. “Rika? What is happening to me?” His worried tone was infectious, and she could not answer. She did not know. Somehow she tried to hold him tighter, till she was left with his face and upper torso, bits still slipping away.
     He knew. He had to. With the last left to him he told her, “I’m scared.” And then he was gone, swirling like dust through her fingers till even that had faded, leaving her alone in the alert’s crimson light. She whispered to the electronic ether, “I’m scared too.”

     Before Gabe had even reached the stair Ian had stopped shaking. Espy had pulled his wire from the wreck of his portable terminal, feeling for pulse and breath. His line did not retract. Gabe nearly vaulted the security console. “How is he?”
     “Low pulse, shallow breath. He’s not responding.”
     “Let me in there. Damn it! What happened?”
     “He fell off his chair and hit the floor shaking.”
     “Shaking?”
     “He was having seizures Gabe.” Robby’s comment came from over the blonde’s shoulder. He was still watching the downloading program.
     “Oh damn.”
     “Is that bad?” Espy’s low chirp had the medic grimacing.
     “It’s terrible. Come on Ian, snap out of it!”
     A ping from the terminals had them all turning to Robby. “What was that?” The blonde did not have to answer. Rika’s monotone over the comm. channel gave only one answer to their questions.
     The storage module contents have been downloaded. I am withdrawing from the system now.
     “Rika wait! Are you okay? Where’s Ian?” Espy’s panicked cry sounded as though she already knew.
     I am … shaken Espy. I do not know where Ian has gone.
     “What? Bull shit! What’s happened to him?” Gabe had his friend’s shirt open, trying to hook up a medi-systems life monitor. The lead to the stricken man’s temple showed no activity. Silence answered the medic’s query. Espy asked again, though it was obvious the raconid hacker did not want to answer.
     “Rika?”
     The system attacked us and there is a chance that Ian did not survive.
     “Didn’t survive? Oh hell no! Come on, what happened? Ian’s still here. He’s breathing. He’s got to be…”
     Espy laid her hand on Gabe’s shoulder. “He’s not in there Gabe. Your sensors…”
     Jasper kicked the fallen ruin of the portable terminal. “We’ve got to go people. Rika, are you out of system? Are you safe?”
     Yes Jasper. The Mind Wipe virus did not reach me.
     “Good. We’ll need your eyes and ears on lookout. Bluebird, pull the parabolic.” Jasper started for the exit and halted at Gabe’s cry.
     “No! You can’t abandon him in there. You’ve got to find Ian! You’ve got to get him out.” Jasper started to say something, but Rika beat him to the punch. The words were hard to take without a trace of emotion in them, but looking down at his fallen friend, Gabe understood they were not lies.
     Ian is gone Gabe. I held his last thoughts in my hands. He could not return to his system, and he kept Athina from attacking me further. If there were anyway that I could save him I would have done so. But the virus that took him is as deadly to us in here as bullets are to you out there. You cannot bring him back from this.
     “But I can’t just leave him like this!”
     “You don’t have to Gabe. But we have to go now!” Jasper was adamant, pulling at the medic’s shoulder by digging his nails in the fabric of the man’s shirt. “You heard her. He gave his life to keep her safe. We’ve got what we came for. Don’t waste what he bought us.”
     Gabe looked down at his fallen friend and swallowed hard. He snapped out of his shock only when Espy took a hold under Ian’s shoulders. “Come on! Quit standing like lumps and help me carry him. Grab his feet. Drop those cables Robby, we don’t need them.” The lizard girl was already dragging the fallen hacker toward the steps; Gabe and Robby took a leg each, moving with the sudden realization that they were racing against the clock. Despite their loss Espy smiled, bounding backwards following Jasper. “Good. Bluebird, drop the cables on your end and get those van doors open. We’re coming up in a hurry.”
     The blonde questioned the medic as they stumbled upward. “Is there any chance you can save him?”
     “I don’t know Rob. I just don’t know.”
     Espy answered them both. “It doesn’t matter. We don’t leave friends behind.”